Imagine that China’s dictator, Xi Jinping, sends one million Chinese troops to invade the United States. Fighting breaks out all over the U.S. as U.S. troops and civilians battle against the Chinese invaders. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, are killed. Meanwhile, China has taken over Florida and declared it an overseas province of China, with Chinese nationals taking over control of the Florida government.   read more

Children of the wealthiest Americans were more than eight times more likely in 2013 to receive a bachelor’s degree than the poorest, according to the Pell Institute. Those in the upper strata saw 77% graduate from college, while only 9% accomplished the same feat at the bottom rung. The gap in college education has widened considerably since 1970, when 40% of students from high-income families earned a bachelor’s degree, compared to 6% of students from low-income families.   read more

Like many conservatives, Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, says there are too many regulations burdening American businesses and some of them have got to go. That includes eliminating the state and local laws, recommended by the Food and Drug Administration, mandating that food workers hit the sink before going back to the kitchen. Tillis’ plan would include a requirement that restaurants post signs telling customers that the staff don’t have to wash up.   read more

The 2016 plan includes $8.85 billion for replacing aging warheads with new ones, which represents an 8% bump over the current spending. But that's just the tip of what Obama has called for to retool the nuclear stockpile of weapons and delivery vehicles. The president has proposed spending $355 billion by 2024 on this endeavor. But one watchdog group wrote: "It’s time for...real downsizing and consolidation to occur, and for the security of the nuclear weapons complex to come first.”   read more

Animal testing could someday be replaced by advanced microchips currently under development. A German research group has created a “synthetic organism on a miniature chip” that can simulate a human body for the purposes of testing new medicines. If successful, it would eliminate the need to test new therapies on animals, which are currently used at the early stages of drug testing. Such a development “would be nothing short of a revolution to the pharmaceutical industry,” said SingularityHub.   read more

The change came about after outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered his agency to review its alcohol polices in an effort to reduce the number of rapes within the military. “They include a department-wide review of institutional alcohol policies...including the risk that alcohol is used as a weapon against victims in a predatory way,” Hagel said last May. The new policy was reflected in the Pentagon’s latest sexual assault prevention guide that describes alcohol as a weapon.   read more

“Our findings suggest that urban areas are experiencing a kind of double whammy — a combination of general climatic warming combined with the heat island effect...preventing cities from cooling down as fast as rural areas,” said study coauthor Dennis Lettenmaier. “Everything’s warming up, but the effect is amplified in urban areas.” The trend has been accelerated at night because all that concrete is holding in heat. Almost two-thirds of urban areas are experiencing hotter nights.   read more

There is only one state in the nation where socialism reigns in the electricity industry and private ownership of utilities is nowhere to be found. And it’s not California, New York or any other “blue” state. No, the distinction of having nothing but nonprofit utilities resides in the very red state of Nebraska, where conservatism runs throughout the government. The state has 121 publicly-owned utilities, 10 cooperatives and 30 public power districts that serve 1.8 million residents.   read more

Judge Rakoff has frequently criticized federal prosecutors for not being tougher on Wall Street defendants in the wake of last decade’s financial crisis. This time, however, the 71-year-old judge was miffed that the Justice Department (DOJ) said the commission was not permitted to recommend that case evidence be shared with criminal defendants. Accusing the DOJ of valuing “strategic advantage [for prosecutors] over a search for the truth,” Rakoff resigned to draw attention to the DOJ decision.   read more

Under the current system, it is possible for a Democratic presidential candidate to pick up one of Nebraska’s five electoral votes. Barack Obama accomplished this rare feat in 2008, which marked the first time that had happened for a Democrat since 1964 with Lyndon Johnson. GOP leaders now want to change state law and turn Nebraska into a winner-take-all state, as is the case with 48 other states. Republicans don’t want to see a Democrat snatching away any of those votes again—even one.   read more

States that attract elderly Americans for vacations or winter stays sometimes have higher testing rates for certain procedures. Florida, long a popular getaway for seniors, is one such state. The Times found three years ago that Florida doctors ordered more than twice the number of nuclear stress tests, echocardiograms and vascular ultrasounds per Medicare beneficiary than in Massachusetts. Florida is an “epicenter of Medicare abuse,” wrote the Times.   read more

Looking at the death records of 32,000 adults, researchers found those who identified as conservatives were 6% more likely to die during the study period, which covered 15 years. The results were surprising because earlier studies have shown that Republicans claimed to be healthier and happier, which often is accepted as a key indicator of longer life. Party affiliation was examined in the new study, too, and there it showed independents lived longer than both Republicans or Democrats.   read more

Volpicelli, now an adult, sued the IRS over $13,000 that the agency took from him at age 10 to cover a tax liability owed by his late father. They took the funds wrongly believing they belonged to the father. Volpicelli claimed he didn’t file his lawsuit until after he had turned 18, because he didn’t learn of the wrongful levy until then. The IRS contended that the lawsuit should be thrown out because the federal statute of limitations is nine months for challenging IRS’ tax levies.   read more

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) collects a lot of crime data from cities, counties and states, but does not ask law enforcement who they are killing and why. While governments get ready to possibly gather that information, the website Killed by Police is attempting to fill the gap by crowdsourcing the question through Facebook.   read more

Eighty percent of those in this country could live for a month or less on the money available to them from checking and savings accounts and cash at home, according to research by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Even when counting the money that’s hard to access, such as that in 401(k) retirement accounts or getting more credit, the average household could replace only four months’ worth of income.   read more

If manufacturing is what’s boosting the recovery, the economy is hanging by the thin thread of computers and electronic components. That segment of the economy was responsible for 110% of all manufacturing growth between 2000 and 2009, according to a study (pdf) from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation. That means that the rest of the manufacturing sector was actually performing worse in 2009 than it had been at the start of the decade.   read more

The blackout on information will include such minor details as the number of Afghans who are serving in the army or police force, their salaries and data on infrastructure projects. The restrictions directly affect the American watchdog in Afghanistan, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), John Sopko, who has regularly reported on spending blunders, shoddy construction of infrastructure and other mistakes made by the U.S.   read more