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

The repeal of Missouri’s law requiring a background check for all handgun purchases contributed to a 16% increase in murders in that state, according to a recent study. That study found there were 55 to 63 more murders each year from 2008 to 2012 than the projected rates for those years had the law not been repealed. “This study provides compelling confirmation that weaknesses in firearm laws lead to deaths from gun violence,” said Daniel Webster, the study's lead author.   read more

The use of food stamps at military commissaries continues to rise, with nearly $104 million in food stamps redeemed in those stores in the fiscal year that ended September 30. Those using food stamps are usually families of those in the junior enlisted ranks with children. In 2011, about 5,000 military families were on food stamps.   read more

On February 14, an alarm sounded at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico--an indication that radiation was escaping into the lower levels of the facility. Personnel were prohibited from entering. “It could be a mess,” said scientist Edwin Lyman. “If there is airborne contamination and it involves plutonium, they are going to need to decontaminate surfaces. If it is in the ventilation system, it could have spread to other areas.”   read more

In another consequence of Washington gridlock, half of federal employees are considering leaving their government jobs for those in the private sector, a new study shows. The online survey showed that the top three reasons for federal employees to consider leaving are the government pay freeze, the political environment, and better salary opportunities in the private sector. These attitudes are likely to have an impact on government’s ability to do its job.   read more

Improved surveillance is making it more difficult to balance privacy rights with the desires of law enforcement agencies. “If you turn your country into a totalitarian surveillance state, there’s always some wrongdoing you can prevent,” said ACLU's Jay Stanley. “The balance struck in our Constitution tilts toward liberty, and I think we should keep that value.”   read more

Lottery winners could be a jackpot for more conservative political parties, a new study has shown. Among lottery winners, about 18% were shown to have switched to a more conservative outlook during a given year, but only 13% of non-winners moved to the right. According to the study, “We show that an increase in a person’s overall household income in year is associated with a rise in their belief in the justice of the current wealth distribution in society.”   read more

Three anti-nuclear protesters will spend years in prison for breaching security at a key weapons facility. Sister Megan Rice, 84, and two others managed to enter the top-security grounds that houses 400 metric tons of highly enriched uranium used in nuclear warheads. The judge asked prosecutors before handing down the sentences what harm the activists caused. An assistant U.S. attorney responded that the defendants “had destroyed the ‘mystique’ of the ‘Fort Knox of uranium.’”   read more

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that her country would consider establishing new data networks in Europe that could shield individuals’ private communications from NSA prying. Merkel said her proposal would create European systems that would keep emails and other communications from passing through U.S. networks that the NSA taps into for intelligence purposes.   read more

The administration of Ohio Gov. John Kasich has been accused of covering up its role in a controversial plan to promote fracking in state parks and marginalize organizations opposed to the drilling. Government documents show several state agencies were involved in a PR strategy to help gas companies seeking rights to drill on public lands. A communications plan called for a coordinated effort between the state and industry to push for fracking and attack environmentalists opposed to it.   read more

The disparity between rich and poor Americans is most prominently on display in the nation’s urban powerhouses like New York, San Francisco, and other cities thriving economically. In contrast, income inequality is not as big a problem in cities with more modest economic outcomes, like Columbus, Ohio, and Wichita, Kansas. Essentially, cities said to be “vibrant” because of their total amount of income don’t do a very good job of sharing their wealth.   read more

The General Services Administration says it’s willing to pay $90,000 for solutions to bringing down Washington’s annual travel cost of $9 billion. Anyone with ideas can go to a new GSA website, Travel Data Challenge, which is operated by the agency’s Office of Governmentwide Policy. The person(s) with the best idea will receive $35,000, while the runner up will get $30,000 and the honorable mention $25,000.   read more

“It's using these small devices...to get up in the air and get a perspective on a news event," said Matt Waite. "You can think of floods, forest fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, anything with a large spatial extent.” “They’re starting to see them being used around the world at large protests in Thailand, at the super-typhoon, even in sporting events in Australia. [But] there are a large number of...questions that need to be answered before you will see this being done in a widespread fashion.”   read more

Officials in Lithuania have decided to investigate whether the Baltic nation participated in the CIA secret rendition program of harboring terrorism suspects at “black site” prisons. The decision marks a turnaround for Lithuania, which previously refused to probe its government’s involvement in the counterterrorism scheme. Lithuanian prosecutors are trying to learn if detainee Mustafa al-Hawsawi was imprisoned at a secret CIA location between 2004 and 2006.   read more

Imperial farmers are growing vast amounts of the hay for export to China and other countries. In doing so, the state is indirectly exporting billions of gallons of water overseas, due to alfalfa’s water-hungry biology. “It’s a huge amount. It’s enough for a year’s supply for a million families — it’s a lot of water, particularly when you’re looking at the dreadful drought throughout the South-west,” said University of Arizona's Robert Glennon.   read more

Donna Busche was the head of nuclear safety for cleaning up the former nuclear weapons site at Hanford, Washington. Her termination came after she repeatedly warned company executives that the radioactive-waste solution being used was flawed and posed safety problems. “The Energy Department’s overall safety culture is broken and all they are doing now is sitting idly by,” she said.   read more

Police argued Miranda was subject to the anti-terror law because he was “likely to be involved in espionage activity” and was “knowingly carrying material, the release of which would endanger people’s lives” and was promoting a “political or ideological cause.” “The clause in this act is not meant to be used as a catch-all that can be used in this way,” countered Parliament's Tom Watson. “It’s almost impossible...to conclude that [he] was a terrorist suspect.”   read more