Trump ordered that the term Homo sapiens be changed to Hetero sapiens. In history books and on websites, the airplane from which the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima will no longer be identified as the Enola Gay, but rather the Enola Straight. Trump also ordered billionaire Mark Cuban, who supported Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, to change his name to Mark American. If he does not do so, he will be charged with terrorism.   read more

Besides threatening court action, they are seeking legislation at the state and federal level to snuff out the nascent movement, and revving up advertising campaigns to argue their case. However, as David Brodwin of U.S. News and World Report put it, “it's hard to see why bailing out homeowners with a program of this sort is any less an affront to the principles of capitalism than bailing out banks that made bad investments in mortgage backed derivatives.”   read more

Republican legislators in Missouri—and in fourteen other states—want to have their cake and eat it too when it comes to the Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare, by refusing to set up state health insurance exchanges for their residents, but then regulating the federal exchanges to make them harder for consumers to use. More than 850,000 Missouri residents are uninsured. Many could qualify for coverage through the exchange, if they are able to understand the system and claim their rights.   read more

Several Exxon employees testified during the 2009 trial that MTBE “might render water undrinkable,” and that they informed Exxon managers that it has “low taste and odor thresholds.” A jury found Exxon liable for product liability, failure to warn the public about the dangers of MTBE, trespass, public nuisance and negligence.   read more

The next chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will be an advocate for energy efficiency and renewable sources who angered coal mining interests and electric companies during his tenure as chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission from 2007 to 2011.   read more

Ryan served on the White House staff of First Lady Hillary Clinton as special assistant to the First Lady’s chief of staff from 1994 to 1997 and as deputy director of scheduling from 1997 to 2000. In 2007 and 2008, Ryan was deputy campaign manager for the presidential primary campaign of Joe Biden, who was then serving as U.S. Senator from Delaware. After Biden was nominated to run for vice president, she worked for the general election campaign as well.   read more

The prosecution of former analyst Stephen Kim under the Espionage Act is based on charges that he orally disclosed classified defense information to someone in the media, but does not allege that he stole or gave away documents, acted with intent to harm the U.S., received money, or acted in secret. Kim is accused of giving Fox News reporter James Rosen secret information—that North Korea was planning to test a nuclear bomb.   read more

There had been speculation that Blythe Masters, one of JPMorgan’s top executives and global head of commodities, would be sanctioned for her role in the affair. But that didn’t happen, despite what the investigators originally termed her “false and misleading statements under oath.” Although Masters is considered a pioneer in the use of complex financial instruments called credit derivatives, she reportedly told investigators that she didn’t really understand how the scheme even worked.   read more

Agency veteran Kevin Shea was appointed administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) in the U.S. Department of Agriculture on June 18, 2013. From 1992 to 2000 Shea was director of budget and accounting, and from 2000 to 2004 he was deputy administrator for policy and program development. Shea served as associate administrator from September 2004 to May 2012. He has been acting administrator since then.   read more

When the mistake was discovered, Chong was severely dehydrated, he had lost 15 pounds, his liver and kidneys were giving out, his sodium levels were off the charts, his muscles had atrophied and he was hallucinating. He had broken his glasses and tried using shards to carve a goodbye message to his mother on his body. He only got as far as an “S” for “sorry.” He was finally found covered in feces and taken to Sharp Hospital, where he ended up in intensive care.   read more

Of the 59 members of Congress (not including this year’s five inductees) who appeared on the list from 2004 through 2012, 37% of them eventually lost reelection, failed in a campaign for higher office, resigned in scandal, or retired.   read more

The capabilities of XKeyscore for domestic spying include the following: • Analysts can use XKS to intercept an individual’s internet activity in “real-time.” • Analysts can use XKS to read an individual’s emails, whether open or unopened. • Analysts can use XKS to monitor social media, including the content of Facebook chats or private messages, and can re-create an individual’s online activities, including search terms entered and websites viewed.   read more

The issue arose during a 2011 antitrust trial between two drug companies (SmithKline Beecham and Abbott Labs) fighting over the anti-HIV medication Norvir when a lawyer for Abbott used a peremptory strike to eliminate an apparently gay man (who said of his “partner” that “he’s retired,” and “he doesn’t have to work”) from the jury pool.   read more

A person who is arrested for a felony may have this fact in their FBI file—but if the charges were dismissed or reduced, this latter information may not be on hand with the FBI. That means a background check would reveal a job candidate was arrested for a felony, but it would not reveal to the potential employer that the person was never convicted or even went to trial. One-third of felony arrests in the U.S. are ultimately dismissed and charges are frequently reduced.   read more

Banks are using bounced checks and overdrafts to blacklist more than a million low-income individuals. The rejections can last as long as seven years, when the black marks disappear from databases used exclusively by banks. These private databases were first established 20 years ago to help banks combat fraud. Now, however, institutions like Bank of America, Citibank and Wells Fargo use them to avoid providing accounts to risky customers.   read more

Two former Republican leaders in Florida subsequently admitted that their party’s efforts to limit voter fraud were really about preventing Democrats from getting to the polls on Election Day. Indeed, about 60% of voters discouraged by the long precinct lines in Florida would have voted Democratic, according to Ohio State University professor Theodore Allen.   read more

In a 2-1 ruling by a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel of judges, the court said police can bypass getting a search warrant and compel cell phone companies to turn over location data for a customer because the information is “clearly a business record” and therefore not protected by the Fourth Amendment, which guards against illegal searches. Presumably, anyone who purchases a cell phone automatically gives up a certain about of privacy.   read more