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

Since Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, the Dow Jones industrial average has gained 67.9%. Jeff Sommer of The New York Times characterized the increase as “an extremely strong performance—the fifth best for an equivalent period among all American presidents since 1900.” The Dow recently concluded 81 straight days without a 1%+ decline. The streak was the longest since the 94-day one that occurred during the Bush administration, from July through November 2006.   read more

Two of the biggest manufacturers of handguns, Sturm, Ruger & Co. and Smith & Wesson, are enjoying substantial jumps in sales. Purchases of Ruger-made weapons have gone up 86% since Obama became president, while Smith & Wesson’s sales have climbed nearly 44%. Overall, gun sales are up 18% nationwide.   read more

The OSCE’s pre-election report noted that “Some 4.1 million citizens that are residents of US territories are not eligible to vote, while some 600,000 citizens of the District of Columbia are only eligible to vote in the presidential election. A further 5.9 million citizens are estimated to be disenfranchised due to a criminal conviction.”   read more

The programs, though, are becoming victims of their own success. So many people are accessing the online tools that slowdowns occur, causing bottlenecks in the system. Advocates want the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which funds some initiatives, to expand funding from $10 million a year to somewhere between $50 million and $100 million. The BBG says it may not be able to make such an increase, not when Congress has demanded it trim its overall budget by $50 million.   read more

Russ George was anointed the world’s first geo-vigilante in The New Yorker this week for dumping 100 tons of iron sulfate off the coast of British Columbia in July, triggering a 10,000-square-kilometer plankton bloom that the California businessman hoped would pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and take it to the Pacific Ocean’s depths.   read more

Critics argue that the state’s $5 million advertising campaign implies that photo ID will be required, which could discourage some voters who lack such ID to mistakenly believe that they should not even try to vote. They point to a bus ad featuring a large photo ID with “SHOW IT” in big block lettering; the ad also says photo ID is not mandatory, but in much smaller type. Further, it took the state more than two weeks to remove billboard ads stating the IDs were mandatory.   read more

Suggesting that climate “volatility can be an opportunity,” Cargill CEO Greg Page explained last year that “The big part of our business is the physical handling of tens of millions of tons of food. If we believe the world is headed toward a varied weather pattern, those services become more important.”   read more

The single biggest source of funding for the Democrats’ gathering in Charlotte, North Carolina, was an $8 million loan from Bank of America that was secured by Duke Energy. The Republicans leaned heavily on wealthy individuals to finance their convention in Tampa, Florida. Topping the list was Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who contributed $5 million. Another key contributor was Bill Edwards, who gave $4.6 million through two of his companies.   read more

1. Tax crimes—6 years 2. Securities and commodities fraud—6 years 3. Damage to religious property—7 years 4. Nuclear materials offenses—8 years 5. Kidnapping of a member of Congress, the Supreme Court or the president’s cabinet—8 years 6. Damaging certain computers—8 years 7. Murder of foreign officials or official guests—8 years 8. Torture by a law enforcement officer—8 years   read more

While serving as director of the budget development staff, Bergeron was in contact with hedge fund analyst and short-seller Steve Eisman, who complained to Bergeron that the rumored weakening of regulations pertaining to for-profit colleges was driving up stocks in companies that owned such colleges. In 2011, Bergeron was accused of lying about the Department of Education’s awareness of the activities of Eisman and other short-sellers.   read more

The statements undercut government assertions that the Internet publication of the documents on July 25, 2010, harmed the U.S. On July 27, Obama said : “The fact is these documents don't reveal any issues that haven’t already informed our public debate on Afghanistan; indeed, they point to the same challenges that led me to conduct an extensive review of our policy last fall.”   read more

Between 1972 and 1991, Burge and the officers under his commands forced confessions from literally hundreds of black males, some of them juveniles, by slamming telephone books on top of suspect’s heads, using a cattle prod or a violet wand to shock their faces, anuses and genitals, engaging in mock executions, putting plastic bags over their heads, cigarette burnings and severe beatings.   read more

Barrera learned English when she started the first grade, at a time when speaking Spanish was forbidden at school. She later recalled that the Spanish ban “probably served to stop a lot of other learning that I could have done, because it brought with it…questions about what was okay to use at home with family and what was not. And never seeing yourself and finding yourselves in the books at school was also probably something that stayed with me for a long time.”   read more

An enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Joyce Silverthorne was director of the Tribal Education Department for the Tribes from 1999 to 2007, and served two years as Montana Education Superintendent Denise Juneau’s P-20 Education (i.e., preschool to college) policy advisor starting in December 2008. She also served as a gubernatorial appointee to the Montana Board of Public Education for 10 years.   read more

From 1991 to 2011, the annual number of murders in DC dropped significantly, from 482 to 108. But about 43% of all homicide cases from 2000 to last year remain unsolved (1,006 out of 2,294). And less than a third of cases have led to a conviction for murder or manslaughter, according to an investigation by The Washington Post. In 15% of cases, the case is closed without an arrest.   read more

Among the 46 pages of regulations are ones that dictate the size of examination rooms and hallways in clinic buildings, require the installation of hands-free faucets on sinks with at least 10 inches between the faucet and the bottom of the sink, require that computer servers be placed in a separate room and that water coolers be installed in lobbies. The clinics have two years to make the changes.   read more