President Donald Trump gleefully announced that, under his direction, U.S. military troops had swooped down on the Governor’s Mansion in Sacramento and kidnapped California Governor Gavin Newsom. “We’re charging Newscum with fraud.” When a reporter asked for specifics about the fraud charges, Trump pointed to Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi, clearly taken by surprise, said, “We’re looking into it and will let you know the details as soon as we’ve created them.”   read more

San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis is attempting to prosecute 15 individuals on charges of conspiracy for belonging to a gang from the Lincoln Park neighborhood of San Diego, even though none of them participated in the actual murder. The men are facing life in prison if they’re found guilty by association.   read more

The NSA collects all emails, phones and social media messages from Tuvalu, Nauru, Kiribati, Samoa, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Tonga and the French territories of New Caledonia and French Polynesia. The NSA has been able to gather these communications through its spying relationship with New Zealand and its version of the NSA called the Government Communications Security Bureau.   read more

Since the Department of Justice announced the sentencing-review initiative more than a year ago, the administration has received more than 35,000 requests from inmates across the country—about 16% of the federal prison population. With so many petitions to review, the agency has failed to issue any clemency decisions based on requests filed since the announcement.   read more

The night before the crash, Holly, Valens and Richardson had performed at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. The aircraft had been in flight for only four minutes when it crashed into a farm field five miles north of the municipal airport.   read more

The state government of Maharashtra has banned the slaughter of cows and the sale and consumption of beef. Anyone found breaking the law could face a fine and up to five years in prison. President Pranab Mukherjee approved the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill that has taken 19 years to become law.   read more

The vault, which was opened in 2008, is designed to be a storage site of last resort for millions of species of plants. Seed banks from around the world store seeds there, until now mostly for food crops, in the event that a cataclysmic event destroys a crop elsewhere. The Svalbard seeds then could be used to restart the plant species. There are 840,000 varieties of food crops in the vault.   read more

Why is it that lower-level officers are sent to prison for shedding light on CIA torture and missteps while the former director is getting off with a slap on the wrist? “I don’t think General Petraeus should have been prosecuted under the Espionage Act, just as I don’t think I should have been...” said John Kiriakou. “Yet only one of us was. Both Petraeus and I disclosed undercover identities...that were never published. I spent two years in prison; he gets two years’ probation.”   read more

Holland joined USGS in issuing an official statement stating that fracking may be responsible for the increasing risk of earthquakes in Oklahoma. Within a week, Holland was called in to a meeting at the Oklahoma Commission with Continental oil executive Jack Stark, where displeasure was expressed about Holland’s statement. Holland later insisted he wasn’t pressured to alter his scientific findings.   read more

One theory is that his advisers don’t want Bush to collect too much money too soon and risk being perceived as being in the pocket of the uber wealthy. Another theory says Bush may be playing mind games with his GOP rivals. “I don’t want to say it’s a bluff, but he may be trying to kind of bolster up his support, and make it appear as though he’s going to be far and away the frontrunner and the leader,” said professor Lara Brown.   read more

Fort really needed to use the restroom. He told Republican committee chairman Josh McKoon that he was stepping out for a bathroom break and asked him to put committee work on hold until he got back. McKoon agreed. But as soon as Fort left, the Republicans hurriedly brought the bill back up for a vote. A staffer quickly alerted absent Democratic senators of what was happening, and they raced to the committee room to prevent the vote but were too late. The committee had already passed the bill.   read more

JPMorgan Chase has earned the distinction of being the largest bank among those deemed too-big-to-fail for the sake of the U.S. financial and economic systems, according to a new government report. The federal Office of Financial Research ranked 12 U.S. financial institutions based on their “total exposures.” Rounding out the first half dozen banks were Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.   read more

“I’m thrilled that President Obama owned up to his promise to veto the Keystone XL pipeline bill today. But in the same breath I’m spittin’ mad,” said Julia Crawford, whose land was taken by TransCanada. “Nearly three years ago, with the exact same data in front of him he decided to ‘cut through the red tape and fast track’ the southern leg of this project. Where was his ‘climate test’ then? President Obama owes all of us in Texas and Oklahoma an explanation. Better yet, an apology,”   read more

Some police departments have invested in Taser’s cameras after their chiefs forged “financial ties” with Taser, “raising conflict-of-interest questions.” “Taser [covers expenses] for police chiefs who speak at promotional conferences and is hiring recently retired chiefs as consultants, sometimes months after their cities signed contracts" with Taser, said AP. The police chief in Fort Worth even told Taser that he deserved “a raise” for lobbying his department to sign a contract with Taser.   read more

Gun enthusiasts are outraged by a federal proposal to ban a type of armor-piercing bullets capable of penetrating ballistic vests worn by law enforcement officers now that the rounds can be used in handguns. Varieties of 5.56 mm rounds with metal cores that are commonly used in AR-15 assault rifles would be prohibited under new rules crafted by the ATF. Ammunition makers would be barred from producing, selling, importing or distributing the rounds.   read more

ICE agents conducted raids across Southern California this week in an effort to shut down businesses in which foreign residents pay to stay in the U.S. to have children who will then automatically be U.S. citizens.These “birthing centers” have charged nearly $40,000 per expecting mom to help guide them through U.S. rules and procedures, such as advice on where to stay before delivering their baby. As many as 40,000 children are born in the U.S. each year as a result of such arrangements.   read more

Researchers examined data collected in other studies that factored in penis measurements from more than 15,000 men. They found no correlation between penis size and foot size, palm size or any other urban legend that purports to make such a connection. They did caution that studies might be skewed because men with larger penises might be more inclined to participate in a study that measured their vital organ.   read more