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

Pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck is on the hook to pay $473 million to the IRS for taxes owed by its newest acquisition, Schering-Plough.   Following an audit in 2004, IRS officials determined that Schering-Plough, manufacturer of such drugs ...   read more

Namik Tan has served as Turkey’s ambassador to the United States since February 2010.   Born in 1956 in Mardin, Tan graduated from the University of Ankara with a law degree.   He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1982 and worked in ...   read more

Attorney Narcís Casal de Fonsdeviela has served as ambassador of the tiny European nation of Andorra to the United States since November 2, 2009. He had already been serving as Andorra’s representative to the United Nations since September of th...   read more

“We take comfort in knowing that the tide of war is receding,” President Barack Obama told the nation. “Fewer of our sons and daughters are serving in harm's way.” That may be true in terms of how many American troops are fighting in Afghanistan...   read more

The ACLU and the Tea Party have found at least one thing in common: believing that Redding, California’s local ordinance limiting free speech has to go.   In separate legal briefs, the two disparate groups challenged Redding’s new law restrict...   read more

After witnessing the implosion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) didn’t bother to take action on numerous complaints against the taxpayer-owned mortgage finance giants over a two-year period.   According ...   read more

Tim DeChristopher, convicted of fraudulently bidding on oil and gas leases to protest the exploitation of natural resources on public lands, will find out next month just how long he might have to serve in prison.   U.S. District Judge Dee Ben...   read more

In a decision based more on public relations than hard science, the city of Portland, Oregon, decided to dump millions of gallons of drinking water after someone urinated in a local reservoir.   Local water chief David Shaff announced about 7....   read more

In a move that will no doubt inspire Americans in other states, all 120 members of the California legislature will be denied their paychecks after the state’s controller decided lawmakers did not pass a balanced budget on time, as required under...   read more

JPMorgan Chase has become the second major Wall Street bank to settle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over claims that it defrauded investors by selling mortgage-based securities designed to fail.   The bank will pay $153.6 m...   read more

An earmark by any other name is still an earmark, as long as certain conditions apply. An earmark is a budget expenditure that goes directly to a specific project without having been requested by the agency or department that would normally over...   read more

When the criminal justice system in Illinois convicted the wrong person, innocent people collectively lost hundreds of years of freedom—while the real culprits went on to commit nearly a hundred new crimes, including murders and rapes.   A joi...   read more

After nearly a decade of fighting a two-front war, the United States is faced with caring for more than 212,000 veterans suffering from some form of traumatic brain injury (TBI).   The vast majority of these cases originated in the U.S. Army, ...   read more

America’s crime rate has been falling for the past 20 years, with a significant drop in violent offenses occurring in the 1990s and an overall dip taking place since 2008. But experts disagree over the cause of this welcome phenomenon. Here are ...   read more

States are not obligated to provide free legal counsel in civil courts when it comes to child support cases, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week, setting off cries from civil rights groups that said the decision could move the country closer ...   read more

A federal judge has approved the largest settlement ever against the U.S. government, clearing the way for more than a billion dollars to be distributed among thousands of American Indians.   The agreement ends one of the longest and most comp...   read more