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 report listed changes that included: • Expand online voter registration and early balloting • Increase the number of schools used as polling places • Locate polling places close to voters’ homes • Simplify voting for members of the military and other Americans living overseas via the Internet • Update electronic voting equipment • Share voter registration records across state lines to protect against fraud   read more

When it comes to eating meals or playing with young offspring (5 and under), black fathers rated as high or higher than whites and Hispanics. In fact, in cases where the father does not live with his children, blacks were noticeably more present than whites and Hispanics. They also scored higher in other areas, like diapering and dressing their kids and reading to them daily.   read more

The online blackout lasted only about an hour. But the timing of the event coincided with a story published that same day at 4 pm (China time) by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). That story reported on dozens of political leaders and wealthy individuals who have maintained tax havens outside China, a possible indication of corruption.   read more

The FDA doesn’t apply the same standard of evidence to all drugs going through clinical trial, and instead approve medications based on criteria that vary widely from case to case. The researchers also found that the agency often approves new versions of existing heart devices without requiring a clinical trial. Federal regulators also have ignored early problems in drug trials that later resulted in significant delays in the approval of new medications, according to the studies.   read more

It was found that 38% of white men, 44% of Hispanic men and 49% of black men wind up in jail at least once by age 23. By age 18, the numbers were lower, but still startling: 30% for black men, 26% for Hispanic men and 22% for white men. The researchers also compiled statistics for women. By age 23, 20% of blacks, 18% of whites and 16% of Hispanics were arrested at least once.   read more

In Obsidian Finance Group v. Cox (pdf), the appellate justices overturned a lower court decision that found blogger Crystal Cox liable for her blog posts criticizing Obsidian Finance Group, a bankruptcy trustee. The panel wrote: “The protections of the First Amendment do not turn on whether the defendant was a trained journalist, formally affiliated with traditional news entities”   read more

Data shows 1.15 million gallons of crude oil spilled from rail cars in 2013. That’s more than was dumped during the previous 37 years combined (800,000 gallons). A train originating in North Dakota dumped nearly 750,000 gallons of crude oil near Aliceville, Alabama, in November. North Dakota oil was onboard the train that derailed and exploded in the Canadian town of Lac-Megantic, Québec, on July 6, killing 47 people.   read more

Clinton has not said that she’s running for president in 2016. But the Ready for Hillary super PAC raised more than $4 million from 33,000 donors last year. This big a haul this early—for a candidate not even in the race yet—portends a juggernaut fundraising operation backing Clinton that mirrors the George W. Bush strategy in 2000 of tying up major donors early and intimidating potential primary opponents with a well-filled coffer.   read more

Another incident saw Border Patrol agents order a driver and passenger from their vehicle, and place them in wire cages while their car was searched—and all because a service dog detected something in another car. A third case involved a mother of twin six-year-old children being threatened and assaulted by agents for lawfully attempting to record a search of her vehicle following a false canine alert.   read more

In Harris v. Quinn, a group of homecare providers from Illinois resisting unionization are challenging existing law that allows public employee unions to force all workers at an agency to pay dues regardless of their union membership. The plaintiffs want the court to overrule a 1977 decision (Abood v. Detroit Board of Education) which established the shared financial responsibility for all public workers in a collective bargaining unit.   read more

The president claimed that prior to the attacks, Mihdhar made a phone call from San Diego to a known al-Qaeda safe-house in Yemen. But back then, the president insisted, the NSA couldn’t identify the origin of the call. Had the agency been able to do just that, it could have helped stop the attacks. But both the NSA and the Central Intelligence Agency knew Mihdhar was part of al-Qaeda, that he was in San Diego.   read more

China’s trans-Pacific emissions also cause up to 25% of the sulfate pollution on the West Coast on certain days, according to the study. Chinese manufacturing for the export of goods to the United States was responsible for between roughly 5-7% of harmful emissions in its own country.   read more

Janko’s story began in Afghanistan, where the Taliban accused him of being an American spy, threw him in jail and tortured him for three months. After 18 months of imprisonment, he was freed following the U.S. invasion in 2001. But his freedom was short-lived as the U.S. then suspected him of being an insurgent, resulting in his arrest and shipment to Guantánamo. His detainment lasted until 2009, during which he says he was tortured by American officials.   read more

The park, first established in 1912, was the site of Florida’s largest and bloodiest Civil War battle that killed 3,000 Union and 1,000 Confederate soldiers. It occurred on February 20, 1864, and raged on for four hours. With no marker respecting the sacrifice of so many northern men, the Florida chapter of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War asked the state parks department last year for permission to place an obelisk to honor Union soldiers.   read more

The administration wanted the Pentagon to take over drone missions so that the CIA could refocus on intelligence gathering. President Barack Obama also felt that the change would lend more transparency to such missions by pulling them from the highly secretive intelligence agency. But lawmakers objected to the switch, fearing the Defense Department would have trouble duplicating the CIA success in killing terrorists while minimizing civilian casualties.   read more

Canadian scientists have determined the U.S. is responsible for 22% of the globe’s recent warming attributed to humankind. This share is far more than the next biggest polluter, China, which has accounted for 9% of temperature changes. Other nations that helped put too many greenhouse gases in the atmosphere were Russia (8%), Brazil and India (7%), and Germany and the United Kingdom (5%).   read more