President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed outrage to aides because there have been no violent mass street demonstrations against his statements and policies. He believes he needs violent demonstrations against him in order to declare a national state of emergency that would allow him to do anything he wants.   read more

The Federal Election Commission (FEC), an independent agency established by Congress in the wake of campaign finance abuses by the re-election campaign of President Richard Nixon, elected a new Chair to a one-year term on December 15, 2011. The FE...   read more

Iraqis tortured by American defense contractors at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison are still seeking justice in U.S. courts, which will hear their claims in early 2012.   Human rights attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights are assist...   read more

Having already cleared one checkpoint and flown across the country with her sweet treat, Rebecca Hains of Peabody, Massachusetts, lost her cupcake to a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) official in Las Vegas who insisted the frosting co...   read more

On December 12, the State Department announced that the Office of the Under Secretary for Economic, Energy, and Agricultural Affairs would be renamed the Office of Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and Agricultural Affairs. The new offi...   read more

On November 28, 2011, Mary E. Bohman took over as Administrator of the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS), an agency that carries out economic research that helps public and private decision-makers stay informed of economic and policy issues inv...   read more

For some in Washington, going home for the holidays will mean not returning to the nation’s capital in January.   Alan Bersin is one such person. The head of Customs and Border Protection will leave his post at the end of this month because Sena...   read more

Once commonly performed by hospitals, autopsies are rarely conducted these days, depriving doctors and the medical profession of vital information. Fifty years ago, about half of patients who died in hospitals received autopsies. Now that number h...   read more

The Wal-Mart in Dunwoody, Georgia, is being sued by the mother of a shoplifter who was killed by employees two years ago. On December 19, 2009, 38-year-old Marty Jerome Bridges put about $300 worth of sporting goods inside his clothing and was hea...   read more

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (FSA), which provides services to farm operations such as loans, commodity price supports, conservation payments, and disaster assistance, is led by a third generation Montana farmer. Bruce Ne...   read more

While she was on a ten-day vacation in China, the staff of a St. Louis-based judge handled hundreds of cases for her, including denying bail and issuing arrest warrants.   Associate Circuit Judge Barbara T. Peebles is now in trouble with her jud...   read more

Tired of being beaten up in the press and the focus of public protests, some of America’s richest individuals are banding together to shape the national discourse on the top 1%, or, as comedian John Hodgman refers to them, “moneyed Americans.”   ...   read more

Bank of America, owner of Countrywide Financial Corporation, has agreed to pay $335 million to settle discrimination complaints filed against its subsidiary.   Crafted by the U.S. Department of Justice, the settlement resolves allegations that C...   read more

Due to the bad economic times that have plagued the country for the past several years, the U.S. is experiencing its slowest rate of population growth since World War II.   The population went up by about 2.8 million to 311.6 million from April ...   read more

U.S. auto maker executives and their political allies have clamored for industry workers to accept wage cuts so American cars can become more competitive with foreign models.   But numbers out of Germany demonstrate that higher wages for auto wo...   read more

Naoto Matsumura has gained national media attention in Japan for being the only person still living within the contaminated area near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, which covers 12 miles in any direction. Residing about seven and a ha...   read more

U.S. and Chinese airlines are determined to fight off Europe’s attempts to force their joining in the fight against global warming.   On January 1, the European Union plans to begin charging airline companies for their greenhouse gas emissions. ...   read more