Imagine that China’s dictator, Xi Jinping, sends one million Chinese troops to invade the United States. Fighting breaks out all over the U.S. as U.S. troops and civilians battle against the Chinese invaders. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, are killed. Meanwhile, China has taken over Florida and declared it an overseas province of China, with Chinese nationals taking over control of the Florida government.   read more

Prop. 36 made a major change in the original 1994 three-strikes law. It allows reduction of previously mandatory 25-to-life prison sentences for third-strikers who commit non-serious, non-violent felonies, and applied the change retroactively to those already in prison. Approximately 3,000 of the state’s 9,000 third-strikers, out of a total prison population of around 135,000, qualify for re-sentencing.   read more

For corn growers, the vast majority of their yields don’t even go to feeding Americans. About 40% of the corn crop gets turned into ethanol, and another 40% is used as animal feed, leaving only 20% for people to eat. But with so many farmers exporting their crops this year, nonprofits have experienced a significant drop in food stocks.   read more

Described as a parallel universe consisting of hedge funds, money market funds, finance companies and securities lenders, “shadow banking” continues to grow in the United States and beyond. What distinguishes shadow banking from regular investment banking is that it is unregulated. This shady aspect of the financial industry now controls $23 trillion in U.S. assets, giving the United States the distinction of having the largest shadow banking system in the world.   read more

The state legislature currently is considering two bills that would create a tax credit for unborn fetuses that are 12 weeks or older. If the proposal becomes law, it would make Michigan the first state in the country to grant such status to the unborn. The proposal runs contrary to legislation adopted last year that eliminated a child tax credit deduction that affected 2.35 million children in Michigan.   read more

Alred, 17, pled guilty to manslaughter after he drove his vehicle into a tree, killing a 16-year-old passenger, John Luke Dum. Alred had been drinking, but was not legally drunk. The judge gave Alred a choice: he could avoid prison as long as he was willing to attend church for ten years, as well as complete high school, train as a welder, and give up alcohol, drugs and tobacco for one year. Alred says he was happy to take church over prison.   read more

Building on an effort that began in 2006, the King County Sheriff’s Office started a cold-case squad in 2009 with a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice that funded two full-time detectives and a crime analyst. The grant was renewed for 2012, but not for 2013, forcing King County to supplement the unit’s budget so it could keep its doors open until the end of December. Many cold cases remain, but police admit that without funding they will have no time to investigate them properly.   read more

Last year, 15,890 Americans became victims of violent crime each day. The rate of violent victimization increased 17% in urban areas from 2010 to 2011. According to Justice Department statistics, aggravated and simple assault accounted for the entire rise in total violence. There was also an 11% jump in property crimes during the same period.   read more

Morsi, who has been in office less than five months, proclaimed that the Supreme Constitutional Court could no longer challenge his rulings, and ordered retrials of several top former officials, including ex-president Hosni Mubarak, who ruled as Egypt’s dictator for more than three decades. The decree shocked many Egyptians, especially those who had hoped the fall of Mubarak would lead to democratic rule.   read more

On October 2, the NML Capital hedge fund, a subsidiary of Elliott Capital, convinced the government of Ghana to detain an Argentine tall ship, the ARA Libertad, as partial payment for the funds owed by the government of Argentina. The ship is used for training by the Argentine navy. The United Nations' maritime court agreed to hold a hearing on this matter on November 29.   read more

Although reform has been slow in coming, scandalous behavior has continued apace. A new $18 million radio communications system has been plagued with problems since its launch in July 2011. And last week, the Oakland City Council approved a settlement that awards $4.6 million to 39 men who were publicly strip-searched by police from 2002 to 2009.   read more

Feighery was a deputy special master for the Justice Department’s September 11, 2001, Victim Compensation Fund, where he was responsible for assessing claims made by victims of the 9/11 attacks. From July 2004 until his 2011 appointment to the FCSC, Feighery served as an attorney adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the State Department, where he represented U.S. interests in international arbitration and foreign investment disputes.   read more

Blankfein, who owns $210 million worth of Goldman Sachs stock, defended his suggestions by claiming that “Social Security wasn’t devised to be a system that supported you for a 30-year retirement after a 25-year career.” This remark prompted a big “huh” among many who saw Blankfein’s interview. A 25-year career? If most Americans only worked 25 years, that would mean they were retiring in their forties.   read more

Cities across the United States have been shortening the length of yellow lights at intersections in order to generate more traffic tickets and, thus, more revenues. The motorists association argues that if anything, yellows lights should be lengthened because doing so reduces the risk of auto collisions. One study cited by the NMA found that adding just one second to a yellow light can lower intersection accidents by 40%.   read more

African-American children aged 8 and younger were exposed to much more background TV than children of other races—338 minutes (6.5 hours) a day, compared to 217.5 minutes for white children and 148 minutes for Asian-Americans. Many researchers suggest that for the first two years of life infants thrive on interactive stimulation, and that TV viewing hurts an infant’s development because it is a passive activity rather than an interactive one.   read more

During his fifth trip to Cuba, Gross was arrested in December 2009. Finally tried in March 2011, he was convicted of participating in “a subversive project of the U.S. government that aimed to destroy the Revolution through the use of communications systems out of the control of [Cuban] authorities,” and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Gross contends that neither USAID nor Development Alternatives fully explained to him the dangers of the work before he left for Cuba.   read more

Mathew Martoma, who worked at CR Intrinsic, a unit of SAC Capital Advisors, was accused of making more than $276 million through the use of secret information from a a neurology professor at the University of Michigan, Dr. Sidney Gilman, who was involved in discouraging clinical trials for an Alzheimer’s drug being developed by Elan and Wyeth pharmaceutical companies.   read more