President Donald Trump gleefully announced that, under his direction, U.S. military troops had swooped down on the Governor’s Mansion in Sacramento and kidnapped California Governor Gavin Newsom. “We’re charging Newscum with fraud.” When a reporter asked for specifics about the fraud charges, Trump pointed to Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi, clearly taken by surprise, said, “We’re looking into it and will let you know the details as soon as we’ve created them.”   read more

I saw 50 of the 63 films entered in the Best Foreign Language Film category and I am happy to report that this was an exceptionally good year. If there was no single masterpiece that stood out, there were a couple dozen good films that I would rec...   read more

I have to recuse myself from giving objective opinions of this year’s animated shorts nominees because one of them, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, is so close to my heart that I’m not a proper judge of the others. First, here’s...   read more

The impoverished Southern African nation of Lesotho, where 40% of the population of about 2 million lives on less than $1.25 per day, has sent a new ambassador to the United States who lived in the U.S. in the 1970s. Eliachim Molapi Sebatane was n...   read more

Driven in large part by market speculators, the price of gasoline has increased significantly recently—at a time when demand at the pump is down.   In fact, demand for oil and gasoline is down so much that the U.S. has become a net exporter of t...   read more

For the first time since the natural gas drilling procedure became controversial, a state judge has ruled local communities have the right to ban the use of fracking (hydraulic fracturing) within their jurisdictions, even if the state has authoriz...   read more

An examination by Bloomberg showed that a hypothetical investment of $1,000 in Standard & Poor’s stocks in 1961, the year John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as president, and kept in stocks only when Democrats occupied the White House, would be worth...   read more

J.R. Simplot Company is coming under scrutiny from state and federal environmental officials after  two-headed fish were found in waters near the operator’s mine in Idaho.   The deformed trout were discovered in a creek polluted with selenium ru...   read more

A few select drivers in Nevada will soon be allowed to sit back and let their cars do all the driving.   With the encouragement of Google, the state has become the first to approve the use of robot-driven cars on its roadways beginning March 1. ...   read more

Super-sized political action committees have now become the dominant force in this year’s campaign fundraising, pulling in more cash than the efforts of candidates running for president.   In January, four super PACs supporting Republicans seeki...   read more

A Saudi businessman suspected of being involved in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is now living in London, where he works for the Saudi Arabian oil company Aramco.   Abdulaziz al-Hijji and his wife, Anoud, were living in the gated com...   read more

ExxonMobil is suing to recover a document it accidentally gave to attorneys of plaintiffs who are battling the oil company in court over environmental-related injuries. ExxonMobil wants the information returned because it supposedly contains evide...   read more

Is President Barack Obama really bad for the gun business? One pro-gun group doesn’t think so.   Online ammunition supplier Ammo.net recently posted on its website that Obama is “the greatest gun salesman in America.”   “Ironically, the percei...   read more

The lawyer for a former U.S. Marine facing execution in Iran for allegedly spying has asked American officials to consider a prisoner swap in order to save his client’s life.   Amir Mirzaei Hekmati was sentenced in January to be hanged after bei...   read more

Women are less likely than men to survive a heart attack, according to recent statistics. A study found that 42% of women who have heart attacks die within one year compared with 24% of men.   Researchers attribute the discrepancy in heart attac...   read more

An $11.5 million study 20 years in the making on the effects of diesel exhaust fumes on miners has been delayed from publication by mining companies and members of Congress.   The investigation by the National Cancer Institute and the National I...   read more

While making a living on $7.25 an hour is not easy, it’s even tougher when the federal minimum wage for waiters and waitresses is only $2.13—a rate that hasn’t changed since 1991.   The justification for the lower rate is that these restaurant w...   read more