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

Of the 43 people executed by the government in 2012, 33 of them died in Texas, Arizona, Mississippi and Oklahoma, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. As it usually does, Texas led the nation with 15 executions. The other three states each had six. Nine states total conducted executions this year, the lowest number of states to do so in 20 years.   read more

The publication of the report in The Journal of the American Medical Association occurs six months after cancer was added to the list of sicknesses covered by the $4.3 billion World Trade Center Health Program, designed to treat and compensate 9/11 survivors who suffer health problems caused by the event. The lack of evidence linking cancer to toxic debris from the twin towers’ collapse undermines the government’s decision to include cancer on the list and prompts questions about its coverage.   read more

In the United States, 78.3% of the population are Christians, 16.4% are unaffiliated, 1.8% are Jewish and 1.2% are Buddhist. Followers of most of the major religions tend to live in nations in which they are the majority: Hindus 97%, Christians 87% and Muslims 73%. Buddhists and Jews, on the other hand, are more likely to be in the minority, with 72% and 59% respectively.   read more

McDonald’s USA Chief Operating Officer Jim Johannesen wrote in a memo that franchises operating on December 25, 2011, made about $5, 500 on average. Low-wage employees at McDonald’s don’t receive holiday pay, however. Working on December 25 is strictly voluntary, the corporation insists. That means those serving up Big Macs will earn the usual hourly wage, which according to the Food Chain Workers Alliance averages about $9.65 an hour.   read more

Haley chose Tim Scott, a Republican elected to the House of Representatives only two years ago. In taking over for DeMint, he will become the first black senator from the South since 1881. A Tea Party member, Scott will be sworn into office on January 3. Scott will be the only African-American in the current Senate and only the seventh to serve ever.   read more

Clients of ID Analytics, a subsidiary of Arizona-based LifeLock (since March) that specializes in credit analysis, include the top five credit card issuers, top four wireless carriers, auto lenders and other big companies. ID Analytics looked at 1 billion applications for bank cards, store credit cards and wireless service over a nearly four-year period.   read more

Until recently, Bank of America was in a prime position to sway “independent” reviewers who decided whether the bank had wronged homeowners during foreclosure proceedings. The reviewers are charged with examining the cases of 4.4 million homeowners. Victims are eligible to receive up to $125,000 in cash compensation and in some cases get their homes back.   read more

Agent Brian Terry was murdered in December 2010 by cartel members in Arizona using firearms purchased illegally from Lone Wolf Trading Co., a gun shop participating in the operation at the request of U.S. government agents. Terry’s relatives are going after Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley and six ATF agents involved in the operation. Attorney General Eric Holder was not named as a defendant.   read more

Citizens who don’t comply may be charged with obstructing a governmental operation, according to Stovall. For “people who buck us…we are prepared to throw your hind-end in jail,” he promised. Legal advice apparently was not sought before making the decision. When asked if his plan was different from imposing martial law, Stovall said he wasn’t sure if there was a difference.   read more

When Adam Lanza, 20, gunned down 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, the firearm he used was an AR-15 assault rifle. The AR-15 was also employed by James E. Holmes, 24, the man accused of killing 12 people in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, July 20. Jacob Roberts, 22, who shot and killed two people before taking his own life in a Happy Valley, Oregon, shopping mall on December 11, also used an AR-15.   read more

The Investigative Assistance for Violent Crimes Act was first introduced last year by supporters who contend federal law does not allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or other U.S. agencies to quickly provide help whenever a mass killing is taking place. But the proposed legislation is currently bottled up in the Senate, after a senator used the upper chamber’s rules to place a “hold” on it. The same rules allow the senator to keep his or her identity from being revealed.   read more

The Obama administration claims the plaintiffs, who are relatives of the deceased, have no legal ground to sue the government for the attacks. Federal lawyers also have threatened to invoke the State Secrets Privilege, which allows the government to seek dismissal of a suit if it could expose national security secrets.   read more

A more extreme example of the unending nature of sunset clauses is the one relating to the creation of the U.S. Parole Commission, a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Justice that decides parole cases involving certain federal and District of Columbia (DC) prisoners. It was supposed to cease to exist in 1992, but its life has been extended five times since then, most recently in 2011. It is now due to dissolve in November 2013.   read more

According to the application, Crossroads planned to spend half its efforts on “public education,” 30% on “activity to influence legislation and policymaking” and 20% on “research,” including sponsoring “in-depth policy research on significant issues.” In fact, Crossroads spent more than $70 million from anonymous supporters on the 2012 election.   read more

“Changes over the past 65 years in the top marginal tax rate and the top capital gains tax rate do not appear correlated with economic growth. The reduction in the top statutory tax rates appears to be uncorrelated with saving, investment, and productivity growth. The top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie.…However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be correlated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution."   read more

Created in 1962 as part of the Executive Office of the President, the USTR functions as the president’s lead negotiator on all international trade issues. The agency has seen its score decline by more than half—from 74.2 to 32.7—since 2009, when former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk took the helm from Susan Schwab.   read more