Rumors are spreading that the U.S. Supreme Court will vote 5-4 to rule that a U.S. president cannot be prosecuted for anything he does while he is president. Some Democrats are suggesting that Joe Biden bring a gun to his first debate with Donald Trump. If he shoots Trump, he would be immune, but if Trump shoots Biden he would be prosecuted because he is not a sitting president.   read more

Civility in politics has been declining for years. But Donald Trump's presidential run took name-calling and mockery — things that voters long said they detested in their candidates — and normalized them into a winning political strategy. Many question whether it is possible to reverse the campaign's damage to political discourse and its ripples out to the way Americans speak to and about each other. "What worries me the most is we're becoming almost numb," Mullen said.   read more

A number of Facebook users reported that their profile page on the social network was topped with a message that referred to them by name — as if they were gone — while linking to a feature that "memorializes" the page of someone who has died. The message said Facebook hoped the users' loved ones would find comfort in seeing posts that others shared about them. Even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's page had the death notice for a short time on Friday.   read more

In 1998, Etoundi Essomba returned to Israel, this time as ambassador. He spent 17 years there, raising his four children with his wife, Esther. During his tenure, Cameroon became an ally of Israel, often voting against anti-Israeli measures at the UN. For its part, Israel trains some of Cameroon’s military and supplies it with weaponry. Etoundi Essomba had been dean of Israel’s diplomatic corps for several years when he left for Washington.   read more

Forty Senate Democrats said the provision amounts to government-sponsored discrimination by permitting religiously affiliated federal contractors to refuse to interview a job candidate whose faith differs from theirs and to fire employees who marry their same-sex partners. The provision would allow contractors "to harm hardworking Americans who deserve to be protected from workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, religious identity..." they said.   read more

"This decision could leave Americans blind about his whereabouts and well-being in the event of a national crisis," said Jeff Mason, White House correspondent for Reuters and the group's president. "Not allowing a pool of journalists to travel with and cover the next president of the United States is unacceptable." Every president and president-elect in recent memory has traveled with a pool of journalists when leaving the White House grounds.   read more

Facebook has long denied that it's a media company, or that it acts remotely like one. Its cheery slogan — to make the world more "open and connected" — seemingly invites a broad range of viewpoints and the free flow of information, rather than censorship. But it could also make clamping down on fake news difficult. At a time when everyone seems entitled, not just to their own opinions, but to their own facts, one person's misleading headline might be another person's heartfelt truth.   read more

Republican state Rep. Dick Marple was sitting outside a polling place with his campaign signs on Election Day when an officer recognized him. Marple was charged with driving without a valid license in December 2014. Authorities had issued a bench warrant for his arrest after he failed to show up for a court hearing in October. Police say Marple drove himself to the police station and was arrested. He also was re-elected to a fifth term.   read more

She returned to Guatemala in 2003 and made an unsuccessful bid for the vice-presidency of the country. In 2004, she helped found the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala which worked to stop clandestine security groups in the country. In 2009, she became coordinator of the National Legal Group, which advises the Foreign Ministry regarding the claim by Guatemala in its border dispute against Belize before the International Court of Justice.   read more

Much action during the campaign was with the tens of millions of Americans who experience media and political campaigns through Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other social media platforms. Everything else was on the outside, fighting its way in. The mainstream media was more allergic to this idea. Still, it reluctantly adjusted to challenge the legitimacy of Trump. This coverage crystallized for many in establishing Trump as not just a bad choice but also a threat.   read more

Prosecutors argued they had no obligation to inform those convicted of their possible innocence. It then took four years to even attempt to notify the thousands of defendants that their convictions might have been won unfairly. Formal notices lacked essential information and 6,000 of them were returned as undeliverable. One prosecutor suggested that many of the defendants might be too poor or caught up with mental illness and addiction to care about contesting convictions on their records.   read more

The Interior Dept said the rule would encourage renewable energy on the nation's vast swaths of public lands while generating millions of dollars in revenue. "We are facilitating responsible renewable energy development in the right places, creating jobs and cutting carbon pollution for the benefit of all Americans," said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. It comes two months before Donald Trump takes office, and a new Republican administration could reconsider the rule or even scrap it.   read more

As election results rolled in, its Facebook contacts grew to 15,000 plus 3,000 emails and endless tweets. "It would frankly be better off if we were our own nation," said group VP Evans, calling Trump's election further evidence that America is a sinking ship. "Our ship can sail on its own." To the north, in Portland, Oregon, two residents filed a separate petition for a 2018 ballot initiative for Oregon to secede.   read more

Sharma's heroes haven't been sports stars or movie stars. They've been the U.S. combat veterans who won World War II. Since childhood, he's been fascinated by the sacrifices men his age made during WWII, risking their lives for freedom, then returning home to raise families and take everyday jobs as they transitioned back to civilian life. He read every book and watched every documentary he could find. But it wasn't until high school that he became committed to meeting them.   read more

Despite losing Tuesday’s presidential election, Hillary Clinton appears to be on pace to win the popular vote, an ironic twist in an election in which her opponent repeatedly said the system was rigged against him. Just two days before Election Day, Republican businessman Donald Trump tweeted: “The Electoral College is a disaster for a democracy.” As it turns out, without the Electoral College, Trump probably wouldn’t be the president-elect.   read more

Though the public remains divided on taxes, often seen as a nanny-state intrusion, more and more Americans are turning away from the beverages. Sales are down, and many people say they are actively avoiding the products. Anti-soft drink advertising is likely to appear in major American cities. The declining public image of the beverages will create new challenges for the industry, even if it does not keep losing soda tax fights.   read more

Advocates say the president-elect is "unpredictable," and they are unsure where he stands on marijuana issues, though Trump has said in the past that he supports state laws legalizing medical marijuana. Still, analysts and advocates alike say, the industry may be too big and valuable for a Trump administration to stop, especially after California voters legalized its recreational use. Seven states have now legalized pot, and a recent poll showed close to 60% of Americans support the idea.   read more