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

It is still not known how many people were killed, how many buildings were destroyed and whether the town’s water supply has been contaminated by the more than 26,000 gallons of light crude oil that spilled into the Claudiere River, which feeds into the St. Lawrence River.   read more

The National Security Agency (NSA) controversy as revealed by Edward Snowden has raised the question of whether the nation’s top intelligence official should face felony charges for lying before Congress. Senator Ron Wyden (R-Oregon) asked Clapper: “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” Clapper’s response: “No, sir.”   read more

Following the deadliest accident in the history of the global garment industry, more than 70 retailers and clothing brands have pledged to improve safety conditions in Bangladesh’s textile factories. But two leading U.S. companies—Walmart and Gap—have refused to sign the agreement that was prompted by the April 24 tragedy that killed 1,127 garment workers inside Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza, which collapsed.   read more

The president’s nomination of James “Wally” Brewster to be the next ambassador to the Dominican Republic, however, has been greeted with an ugly example of homophobic hostility—with the nation’s highest ranking Catholic official as the ringleader. During a press conference last week, Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, who is currently archbishop of Santo Domingo, referred to Brewster as a “maricón”—a derogatory terms that is usually translated in the U.S. as “faggot.”   read more

Although national leaders of the GOP have been attempting to “rebrand” their party by emphasizing economic opportunity and downplaying social issues like marriage equality and abortion, Republican state legislators must have missed the memo. Since the beginning of the year, Republicans have spearheaded the passage of at least 40 new state laws intended to restrict access to abortion, including mandatory ultrasounds for pregnant women and expensive new regulations for clinics.   read more

In order to reach his ruling, Bates had to ignore the actual legislative history of the provision, including Congressional hearings and pro-disclosure statements on the floor of Congress by its sponsors. The oil companies were represented by Eugene Scalia, son of Justice Antonin Scalia.   read more

“Defendant Officer David Cawthorn outlined the defendants’ plan in his official report: ‘It was determined to…attempt to contact Mitchell. If Mitchell answered the door he would be asked to leave. If he refused to leave he would be arrested for Obstructing a Police Officer. If Mitchell refused to answer the door, force entry would be made and Mitchell would be arrested.’”   read more

The complaint charges that, as part of the force-feeding procedure, the government is forcibly dosing detainees with a drug that can cause serious neurological disorders, including tardive dyskinesia, which are involuntary movements similar to those in Parkinson’s disease. The drug, metoclopramide, popularly known as Reglan, is supposed to speed up digestion and reduce nausea caused by force-feeding. According to the FDA, Reglan can also cause depression, suicidal thoughts and suicide.   read more

The three-year pilot program is believed to be the first in the nation to put full-time yoga instructors in each of a district’s schools and has an opt-out option for parents who don’t want their children to participate in the 30-minute, twice-weekly classes.   read more

The Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program was implemented following the 2001 Anthrax attacks that killed five people, including two postal workers. It involves computers used by the USPS that photograph the exterior of all paper mail processed in the U.S. Last year, the Postal Service handled about 160 billion pieces of mail.   read more

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) obtained a report produced by CPB in 2010 that shows the agency has considered equipping its Predators with “non-lethal weapons designed to immobilize” targets of interest. Given the date of the report, it is possible that the weaponization has already taken place. It is unclear at this time what kind of weaponization CPB has in mind for the drones.   read more

Although the intended course of the ballistic missile was known, the interceptor missile missed its target and both had to be destroyed by remote control. The military has conducted sixteen tests of this ground-based midcourse defense system, which has passed only eight times and suffered three straight failures since its last success in December 2008.   read more

Taco Bell, Walgreens and Walmart are among the dozens of well-known companies that now use the prepaid cards for their workers. In some cases, employees no longer have the option of being paid by check or direct deposit. But using the cards usually means paying a fee, such as 50 cents for a balance inquiry, $1.75 for each cash withdrawal, or $2.25 for using an out-of-network A.T.M, or $2.95 for a paper statement, or $7 for not using the cards over a period of time.   read more

The Obama administration seems to be in a rush to deport a Russian immigrant who may have witnessed the FBI shooting of her Chechen roommate who was interviewed in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings. Tatiana Gruzdeva, 19, from Russia, was arrested on May 16 for overstaying her visa. She had been living with Ibragim Todashev, whom the FBI questioned about his connection with Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev. During the questioning, an FBI agent shot and killed Todashev.   read more

Americans are confronted with hospital costs for delivering a child that can range from $30,000 to $50,000, according to a new report commissioned by three health care groups. In European countries, like France, the Netherlands and Switzerland, the cost tops out at $4,000 (assuming the mother does not require a Cesarean section). In others, like Ireland, there is no cost at public hospitals. No other country comes close to spending so much on its next generation of citizens.   read more

David Sirota argued that the editorial demonstrated the “Post’s higher-ups are apparently so ideologically committed to subservience and to the national security state that they felt the need to take the extraordinary step of publicly reprimanding their own source and their own newsroom for the alleged crime of committing journalism.”   read more