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

The Marshall Islands , a chain of 24 atolls and coral islands in the South Pacific containing only 66 square miles of land, sent a new ambassador to the United States who was educated in the U.S. and has worked at the embassy since 2007. On Septem...   read more

The criticism over UC Davis’ police dousing non-violent protesters with pepper spray has extended to the man who invented the crowd-control device.   Kamran Loghman helped develop pepper spray into a weapons-grade material while working with the...   read more

A federal court in California has admonished the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for misleading it about the existence of records pertaining to spying on Muslims in the U.S.   The judicial criticism rose out of the case Islamic Shura Counc...   read more

Religious groups have increasingly spent money over the past four decades on lobbying in Washington, DC, according to The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.   In 1970, fewer than 40 secular groups lobbied Congress and the Executive Branch. Now...   read more

To hear some commentators, you would think that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, was the most dangerous man in the world. In reality, he has almost no power whatsoever. He does not control Iran’s nuclear program. He does not control Ira...   read more

Donald Berwick, the Obama administration’s top official in charge of Medicare and Medicaid, is resigning his post.   He didn’t have much choice.   Nominated by President Barack Obama in April 2010, Berwick never received Senate confirmation as...   read more

Apparently the spirit of old the Wild West still exists in the present-day southwestern United States.   The U.S. Department of Justice keeps track of arrest-related deaths (ARDs). Of the five states with the highest per-capita rate of ARDs, fou...   read more

Pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck continues to pay a steep price for its former money-making drug Vioxx, a painkiller that once earned the company more than $2 billion a year.   The latest settlement for Merck originated with the U.S. Department...   read more

Eugenia Jennings of Illinois has become the first person to receive a commutation of sentence from President Barack Obama. Jennings was convicted in 2001 of selling 13.9 grams of crack cocaine to a police informant and was sentenced to 22 years in...   read more

In the midst of an ongoing economic crisis many economists blame on reckless behavior by banks and other Wall Street financial players, President Barack Obama on July 2, 2011, named an experienced state-level bank regulator to serve as the new C...   read more

The southwest African nation of Angola has sent its fourth ambassador to the United States since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1993. Alberto do Carmo Bento Ribeiro, an engineer and experienced diplomat recently called the U...   read more

Protesters in Egypt are once again being subjected to tear gas made in the U.S.A.   Demonstrators rallying against the military dictatorship told the British media that spent tear-gas cartridges used by police bear the name and address of Combin...   read more

It’s not difficult for mentally ill individuals to get past federal gun-control barriers designed to stop these very same people from buying handguns.   The 13-year-old, FBI-run National Instant Criminal Background Check System is supposed to ...   read more

In addition to handling the Obama administration’s diplomatic responsibilities, the State Department is also working on debunking conspiracy theories. On its suspended website (America.gov), the agency provides a section called: “Conspiracy Theori...   read more

Spurred on by a powerful politician, lawmakers in Uttar Pradesh, India, want to divide the world’s most populous state into four smaller states.   With 200 million people, Uttar Pradesh is larger than all but five countries in the world. By comp...   read more

Withdrawing from Iraq has meant new missions for U.S. combat units and military hardware.   American commanders are negotiating with Kuwait to allow about 3,500 troops to redeploy to the Gulf emirate. The country already hosts 20,000 U.S. servic...   read more