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

On June 9, a missile attack destroyed an SUV in the northern province of al Jawf, killing at least six people. The target of the drone strike was Saleh Hassan Huraydan, who was considered an al-Qaeda chief. But among those killed was Huraydan’s young brother, Abdulaziz, who was 10 years old.   read more

Organized crime has not gone away, and neither has Medicare fraud. But the Obama administration has decided to cut back on enforcement efforts in these two important crime-fighting areas. Since organized crime members are the biggest perpetrators of Medicare fraud, these budget cutbacks have provided a double dose of good news for crime syndicates.   read more

While the Obama administration decides whether to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project, Americans have no way to find out exactly where more than a thousand miles of pipe would be laid. That’s because neither the U.S. government nor the Canadian company pushing the pipeline will reveal the proposed route.   read more

Leading the way was Larry Ellison, founder and CEO of Oracle, the software company, who received $96.2 million in total pay. Of this amount, $90.7 million came in the form of stock options. Ellison’s income went up 24% compared to the previous year. Among his other acquisitions, in 2012 Ellison bought 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lanai. Meanwhile, Oracle shareholders’ returns were negative 22%.   read more

Gordon Van Vleet, a spokesman for the Army Network Enterprise Technology Command, told the newspaper that it was routine for the Department of Defense to take preventative “network hygiene” measures to mitigate unauthorized disclosures of classified information. Soldiers can access the U.S. site for The Guardian, but have been blocked from seeing NSA articles on the British newspaper’s site   read more

The new EPA rule comes despite independent studies that show glyphosate can be harmful to human health as an endocrine disruptor, according to The Cornucopia Institute. The institute said a June 2013 study concluded glyphosate “exerted proliferative effects in human hormone-dependent breast cancer.”   read more

The new law cuts the maximum unemployment benefit by about one-third, from $535 a week to $350, and slashes the maximum weeks of benefits from 26 to a sliding scale between 12 and 20 weeks. Because the new law violates a federal requirement that states maintain current benefit amounts in order to qualify for extended federal benefits, the new law will stop benefits for about 70,000 workers who have exhausted their state benefits but cannot find a job.   read more

According to last week’s Wiretap Report from the U.S. Administrative Office of the Courts:"In four of these wiretaps, officials were unable to decipher the plain text of the messages. This is the first time that jurisdictions have reported that encryption prevented officials from obtaining the plain text of the communications since the AO began collecting encryption data in 2001."   read more

The power of these mega-donors is highlighted by the fact that not only did their money go to every winning congressional candidate last year, but 84% of those elected took more money from the mega-donors than they did from all of their small donors (those who gave $200 or less) combined.   read more

Judge Gerald Bruce Lee dismissed their claims, ruling that CACI cannot be sued for its role in torturing them because corporations are immune from civil claims for wrongs committed outside the U.S. Baher Azmy, CCR’s legal director, said that the “ruling effectively created lawless spaces where even U.S.-based entities can commit torture and war crimes with impunity.”   read more

Latif wrote to his attorney that he was “happy to express from this darkness and draw a true picture of the condition in which I exist. I am moving towards a dark cave and a dark life in the shadow of a dark prison. This is a prison that does not know humanity, and does not know anything except the language of power, oppression and humiliation for whoever enters it. It does not differentiate between a criminal and the innocent.”   read more

EMSI estimates that temps have accounted for 15% of job growth despite making up only 2% of the total U.S. workforce. Grabell writes that the “overwhelming majority” of the temp job growth has been in “blue-collar work in factories and warehouses.” In 1993, 60% of temp jobs were white-collar and 30% blue-collar. By 2012 the ratio had shifted to 47% blue-collar and 40% white-collar.   read more

The report says renewables are now the fastest-growing types of power generation and will comprise almost 25% of global energy by 2018. Only two years ago, renewables made up about 20% of the planet’s power sources. The amount of non-hydro energy generated by wind, solar, bioenergy and geothermal is expected to double, from 4% in 2011 to 8% by 2018.   read more

Castillo never went to war. He sustained a foot injury while training to play football at the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School (USMAPS) and didn’t even apply for veterans’ disability payments until 27 years later. In fact, after the injury he went on to play quarterback and linebacker at the University of San Diego. His injury during his one year at USMAPS qualified him as a veteran and made his company eligible for contracts set aside for disabled veterans.   read more

Archuleta served as a senior advisor on policy and initiatives from October 2005 to May 2009, working closely with Mayor John Hickenlooper. After the election of Barack Obama in 2008, Archuleta served as chief of staff to Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis from 2009 to 2011. She was then appointed national political director for Obama for America, i.e., the President’s re-election campaign, a position she held from 2011 to 2012.   read more

The next ambassador to Australia will be a longtime federal administrator and Barack Obama supporter, who will also be the first openly gay envoy to the land down under. If confirmed by the Senate, Morrell John Berry, who goes by his middle name, would succeed Jeffrey Bleich, who served in Canberra starting in November 2009. Berry has been director of the Office of Personnel Management since April 2009.   read more