Trump announced that from now on the NFL will be known as the NTL: The National Trump League. The Super Bowl will be renamed the Trump Bowl, and professional players must be called Trumpball Players. Anyone, on any level, who refuses to comply with Trump’s orders will be arrested and charged with being a threat to national security.   read more

A bill headed for President Barack Obama this week includes a provision that would ban U.S. imports of fish caught by slaves in Southeast Asia, gold mined by children in Africa and garments sewn by abused women in Bangladesh, closing a loophole in an 85-year-old tariff law that has failed to keep products of forced and child labor out of America.   read more

The U.S. Air Force said on Thursday it had replaced its acting acquisition chief, Richard Lombardi, after he disclosed that he had failed to report his wife’s Northrop Grumman retirement account on his annual financial disclosure form. Air Force Secretary Deborah James removed Lombardi from his acquisition duties on Feb. 4 and reassigned him to another position after learning of his voluntary disclosure, Karns said. She referred the matter to the Pentagon’s inspector general.   read more

The Center for Human Rights & Constitutional Law asked the State Department in September 2015 for records on the “type and amount” of financial aid it provides to Mexico’s immigration agency, the Instituto Nacional de Migración. Center for Human Rights president/attorney Peter Schey said that anecdotal evidence indicates that about 97% of asylum-seekers detained at the Mexico-Guatemala border are deported.   read more

Texas has become the first state to call for a ban on allowing bite mark evidence, which legal experts say is likely to reverberate in courtrooms across the U.S. The Texas Forensic Science Commission formally recommended Friday that judges stop accepting bite mark analysis until the technique is supported by better research. There’s currently no scientific proof that teeth can be definitively matched to human skin.   read more

A conservative Super PAC that parodied a Paul Anka song to mock U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, faces a federal complaint from the ballad’s composer. Club for Growth Action spent $700,000 in September 2014 to air its 30-second commercial, set to the tune of the 1975 song “Times of Your Life.”   read more

Protecting the privacy of citizens is a pillar of Ted Cruz's Republican presidential candidacy, but his campaign is siphoning personal data from supporters. The Cruz mobile app gathers detailed information from its users' phones — tracking their movements and information on friends. It's all fed into a database holding details about nearly every adult in the U.S. Cruz's campaign says the system has the potential to power him to the nomination.   read more

Many teachers provide misinformation about climate change, the survey found. The evidence that human activity is a major cause of recent climate change is overwhelming, but 30% of the 1,500 teachers surveyed said they emphasize that recent global warming “is likely due to natural causes,” while 12% said they did not emphasize human causes. Half of that 12% said they did not discuss any causes at all. Close to a third of the teachers also reported conveying messages that are contradictory.   read more

With fallout from the water emergency expected to send house prices lower, the vacancy rate may continue to rise. "The water crisis didn't cause the root problem in Flint that's contributing to these high vacancy rates, but it's going to exacerbate the issue going forward," said RealtyTrac VP Daren Blomquist. Flint's real estate problems lie in the loss of higher-paying manufacturing jobs in recent decades and a roughly 20 percent decline in its population since 2000.   read more

Requirement for a search warrant applies only to federal agencies and not, as some privacy advocates had hoped, to state and local law enforcement whose use of the equipment has stirred particular concern and scrutiny from local judges. "New Yorkers have very real concerns about the NYPD's adoption of intrusive surveillance technology," said NYCLU's Mariko Hirose. "The NYPD should at minimum obtain warrants before using Stingrays to protect the privacy of innocent people."   read more

The memorial, HM 417, passed the Florida House and Senate by an overwhelming voice vote. It is part of a national movement led by U.S. Term Limits to fight careerism in Washington. Article V gives state legislators a way to make term limits on Congress a reality without needing congressional approval. For the convention to be called, 34 states must pass similar legislation. If the convention proposes an amendment, 38 states must ratify it for it to be added to the U.S. Constitution.   read more

If you are an American taxpayer, it means the burden of making up lost revenue falls more heavily on you. It also creates an uneven playing field for other companies that end up feeling like fools for staying put. For now, rules limiting this type of behavior seem to be a pipe dream. Instead, the corporate runaways are winning — winning no good-American awards, but taking easy money out of the pockets of the U.S. taxpayer.   read more

Computers that control cars of the future can be considered drivers just like humans, the federal government's highway safety agency has decided. The redefinition of "driver" by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is an important break for Google, which is developing self-driving cars that get around without steering wheels, pedals — or even the need for a person to be inside. For Google's design, human control would be limited to a start and stop button.   read more

The surprising move is a blow to the administration and a victory for the coalition of 27 mostly Republican-led states and industry opponents that call the regulations "an unprecedented power grab." A 5-4 majority issued the temporary freeze. The Obama administration's plan aims to stave off the worst predicted impacts of climate change by reducing carbon dioxide emissions at existing power plants by about one-third by 2030.   read more

The price tag on the cleanup exceeded $540 million last year. It will cost an estimated $64 million and take at least four more years for the EPA to finish its work, according to documents released Monday. Even after that's done, hazardous asbestos will remain beneath the soil and in the walls of many houses, where it was used for insulation. Health workers have estimated that as many as 400 people have died and almost 3,000 have been sickened from exposure in Libby and the surrounding area.   read more

Lawmakers and police are pushing bills to enable unscrambling of data to obtain critical evidence in human trafficking, terrorism and child pornography cases. The bills seek to loosen the powerful encryption tools cell phone firms have installed to protect a phone user's privacy from hacking. Supporters argue police need access to data that can help them solve criminal cases, while technology and privacy groups are concerned the legislation would put a user's personal information at risk.   read more

Crossroads GPS has drawn heavy scrutiny — and critics have said it is taking advantage of what amounts to a loophole in campaign finance rules. The group calls itself a "social welfare" nonprofit that focuses on issues. By law it cannot spend a majority of its funds on political races. However, tax documents leave little question that Crossroads ramps up significantly in election years, with almost $70 million in contributions in 2014, with Senate and congressional seats at stake.   read more