Zelenskyy explained, “I told him that if he gave us the weapons we need and stopped supporting Putin, we would let him build Trump-branded hotels and other Trump-branded buildings in Ukraine’s ten largest cities, as well as Trump golf courses in the countryside. He was quite excited.”   read more

Russia has reinforced its belligerent stance by announcing that it will commission 70 new strategic nuclear warheads in the next three years as part of a $133.4 billion defense procurement.  Experts argue that the new procurement represents Russia...   read more

Numerous retired CIA operatives have confirmed (on the condition of anonymity) that they used some creative alternative methods to win over Afghanistan’s tribal leaders. Agents have found Viagra to be a effective tool in remote areas, particularly...   read more

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization Doctors Without Borders has released its annual list of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Heading the list was Somalia. According to the group, “Already struggling to survive with little or no access...   read more

Karen Gordon Mills, Barack Obama’s choice to head the Small Business Administration, is an established venture capitalist and future heir to one of America’s favorite candy companies.   Born in 1953, Mills is the daughter of Melvin, 89, and Elle...   read more

In selecting Shaun Donovan to take over the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), one of the federal government’s most consistently embattled agencies, Barack Obama has tabbed something of a housing “whiz kid.” Donovan, 42, is no stra...   read more

Mike Connell, 45, a media consultant for the Bush family and Karl Rove’s IT guru, died on December 19 when his small plane crashed just short of the Akron-Canton Airport in Ohio. Connell was recently subpoenaed to testify in a lawsuit regarding vo...   read more

At least 11 African-American men were shot by white men in the riotous days following Hurricane Katrina. Donnell Herrington, Marcel Alexander and Chris Collins have been the only three to come forward with their story. While on their way to an eva...   read more

Darrel Dochow, West Region Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, was removed from his post on December 22 after a review found he had permitted IndyMac Bank to count money it received in May on March’s balance sheet. This allowed IndyMac t...   read more

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt has issued a new rule that “protects the right of medical providers to care for their patients in accord with their conscience.” The new rule allows any health-related individual or institution, ...   read more

Conservationists are asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stop exploiting a photo of a rare Mexican Gray wolf stepping out of a pen and into freedom because the female wolf depicted in the award-winning photograph by George Andrejko actual...   read more

While a government lawyer tasked with investigating financial crimes, Gary Aguirre learned a hard lesson: under Chairman Christopher Cox, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is only interested in regulating minor players. Aguirre: “In the...   read more

CIT Group, a New York-based lender specializing in making loans and providing insurance to middle market businesses, ran short on cash this year. If that happened to the average America family, they would be in big trouble. But CIT? Not to worry. ...   read more

Former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack is Barack Obama’s choice to lead the Department of Agriculture. Vilsack was born with the name Kenneth on December 13, 1950, in a home for unwed pregnant women in Western Pennsylvania, and was placed in a Catholic ...   read more

Thomas Schweich, a Republican who served in the Bush administration as ambassador for counter-narcotics in Afghanistan and deputy assistant secretary of state for international law enforcement affairs, warns about the gradual takeover by military ...   read more

Reporting on the Bush administration’s use of torture to extract confessions from terrorism suspects, Vanity Fair’s David Rose reminds us that in addition to the moral considerations, torture is not effective. For example: “The unreliability of in...   read more

A report issued by the Department of Interior’s Inspector General harshly criticizes Julie MacDonald, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks. According to the report, MacDonald “frequently contested the scientific findi...   read more