“Our sport was born on frozen ponds and relies on winter weather,” said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. “Everyone who loves our game will benefit by taking an active role in preserving the environment and the roots of the game.” The announcement was “the most important environmental initiative ever made by a sports league,” said Green Sports Alliance president Allen Hershkowitz.   read more

“Rather than being innocuous and gentler alternatives to typical horror or drama films, children’s animated films are, in fact, hotbeds of murder and mayhem,” and “rife with death and destruction," said the head researchers." On-screen deaths can be particularly traumatic for children as they directly expose them to loss of life. Death, often gruesome and sensationalized, is featured prominently in North American films,” noted the study.   read more

The attorneys general for Nebraska and Oklahoma want Colorado’s marijuana legalization program stopped in order to stem the flow of pot into counties that border the state. A challenge to Colorado’s law on this basis could set an interesting precedent. If the suit is successful, could states with tougher gun laws sue neighboring states with relaxed firearm regulation because they allow guns to flow into their state?   read more

In 1950, a special commission convened by California Governor Earl Warren completed publication of four groundbreaking reports on the growing threat of organized crime in the state. When researchers recently sought access to the material, they were told the documents were sealed and unavailable until 2028 because of confidentiality concerns.   read more

Morrissey was allowed to enter into a work-release program, which permits him to continue his duties as a public official. He is allowed to drive his own car between the jail house and his legislative office. And if he doesn’t show up at the jail? “We understand that the legislature can run late into the night; but we will know where he is,” Henrico County Sheriff Michael Wade told the Dispatch. A monitoring device has been secured to Morrissey’s ankle.   read more

The skills needed to operate this deadly weapon are familiar to many young sailors. The controller “looks a lot like a game controller, Xbox, PS4 or whatever.” Klunder added, “Any of you that can do Xbox or PS4, you’ll be good with this.” One advantage of this system to the Navy is cost. Firing a missile costs about $2 million, while the laser can do some of the same jobs for about 59 cents—the cost of electricity.   read more

As if there weren’t already enough insults out there to frustrate a left-handed person (scissors, computer mouses, the whole handwriting thing, etc), it turns out being left-hand dominant costs you earnings too. A new study (pdf) shows people who are right-handed make more money than lefties. The difference averages out to about 10% to 12%.   read more

The Coniglios had fallen behind on their mortgage, prompting the bank to unleash their robocaller—the computer system that routinely (if not maniacally) will call customers multiple times a day about bank debts. In the Coniglios’ case, the calls were relentless … upwards of five a day over a period of four years. The total reached 700. Even after the couple won rulings in court ordering B of A to stop the calls, they just kept coming.   read more

Dr. Marcus Erikson, who led the study, told the Huffington Post one way to visualize that amount of plastic is to imagine a line of 2-liter plastic bottles running between the earth and the moon … twice. He also said the numbers he and his colleagues produced are on the conservative side. That’s because countries produce 300 million tons of plastic every year, of which 0.1% is discarded in the ocean, according to an estimate from the National Academy of Sciences.   read more

The man known as the “20th hijacker” of the 9/11 terrorist attacks wants to join other conspirators and detainees at Guantánamo Bay. Moussaoui has spent the past nine years at the federal super-maximum prison in Florence, Colorado. There, he claims he has been subjected to assaults, threats of murder, and harassment by guards and even other inmates, including Ramzi Yousef, who organized the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.   read more

After reviewing 31,000 bank “incidents” from 2007 to 2011, CIR determined “guards with guns” were “the strongest factor in whether the situation turned violent, and this held true even when controlling for other factors.” Most of the violence was focused on the guards themselves as those carrying firearms had an injury rate of 64 for every 1,000 incidents, “compared with less than 1 injury per 1,000 incidents when they were unarmed.”   read more

Winning isn’t always pretty, as 10 governors who won their races last month can attest. Five Democrats, four Republicans and one independent were victorious in their gubernatorial campaigns without the support of a majority of voters in their states. This group in 2014 represented only the third time in the last 100 years that 10 or more governors came out on top with a plurality of the vote.   read more

At Robert Morris University, gamers now are on the same level as football players: both receive scholarships from the school’s athletic department. The numbers demonstrate just how big e-sports has become: The largest collegiate gaming league has 10,000 students. Diehard gamers can also win scholarship money through gaming competitions. Those funds are provided by game companies, which see it as a valuable public relations maneuver that serves to deepen their relationship with the players.   read more

The chamber’s new dress code informs women appearing on the House floor to be “sensitive to skirt lengths and necklines.” Furthermore, they must only wear “business formal” attire, defined as “a suit or dress slacks, skirt, jacket, and dress blouse or suit-like dress and appropriate shoes (flip flops, tennis shoes, and open-toe sandals are not considered appropriate).” And forget about leggings because they “are not considered dress pants.”   read more

Senator Mark Begich (D-Alaska) is trying to give a goodbye gift to the American people. The senator, who was voted out of office in November, has introduced a bill that would direct the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to add calls from Super PACs and other dark money groups to the list of those to whom the “Do-Not-Call Registry” would apply. Also subject to Begich’s ban would be robocalls and push-polls, which instead of measuring public sentiment are actually attempts to influence voters.   read more

“In many respects, Applicant’s life in the U.S. parallels my own. He and I were brought to this great nation as young children by our hardworking immigrant parents," wrote Chief Justice Labarga. "[But while my parents were] defectors from a tyrannical communist regime [and] thus...received with open arms...[Applicant] is perceived to be a defector from poverty, is viewed negatively because his family sought an opportunity for economic prosperity."   read more