Rumors are spreading that the U.S. Supreme Court will vote 5-4 to rule that a U.S. president cannot be prosecuted for anything he does while he is president. Some Democrats are suggesting that Joe Biden bring a gun to his first debate with Donald Trump. If he shoots Trump, he would be immune, but if Trump shoots Biden he would be prosecuted because he is not a sitting president.   read more

The nuclear crisis in Japan is now considered more severe than the Three Mile Island accident that took place four decades ago in the United States, according to an international regulatory body.   Nuclear accidents are rated on a scale of one t...   read more

Maintaining support for the war in Afghanistan, both in the United States and in the war-torn country, is getting tougher all the time.   Afghans have increasingly questioned the reliability of American and NATO forces when attacks on civilian...   read more

Profit margins are expected to climb nearly 9% this year among companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, marking an 18-year high.   The third consecutive year of the bull market will see profits increase 8.9% in 2011, which would be the hi...   read more

If Republicans and other critics of public employee retirement plans think such pensions are too generous and costly to taxpayers, they really should consider what members of Congress are enjoying.   An analysis by McClatchy Newspapers found t...   read more

Nearly half a trillion dollars. That’s how much a nuclear accident, similar to what’s occurring in Japan, could cost the United States if it happens here, with most of the expense being borne by taxpayers.   A 2009 study by two university prof...   read more

Fearing the collapse of its own autocratic regime, the Sunni royal family of Saudi Arabia on Monday intervened in the domestic upheaval of neighboring Bahrain where the Shia majority has grown tired of the Sunni monarchy.   Saudi military forc...   read more

The U.S. Department of Energy is being sued by the Sierra Club for supporting a new coal-fired power plant and strip mine in Mississippi with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in incentives.   The 582-megawatt project, a pet project of ...   read more

Businesses owing $3.8 million in back taxes to the IRS received $356 million in contract work from the tax agency in 2009.   The inspector general for the IRS discovered this fact as part of a recent audit that also revealed companies owing ta...   read more

Alleged conspiracies and secret military missions aren’t the only things kept secret by the government. When an American files a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to learn more from an agency, officials are just as likely to deny releasi...   read more

Sounding more like operators of retail businesses than scallywags of the high seas, pirates from Somalia have decided their inventory of hostages has grown too large, and are going to offer reduced ransom demands so they can increase turnover of...   read more

Through the IRS and the Department of Justice, the Obama administration is signaling a much tougher position towards medical marijuana dispensaries.   In Northern California, the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana has been told by IRS offici...   read more

After going nearly 20 years without having one of its own shot to death in the line of duty, the U.S. Marshals Service has had two killed so far this year.   Both marshals who died in 2010 were assisting local law enforcement apprehend non-fed...   read more

Madison, Wisconsin, last weekend outdid the Tea Party, but couldn’t top pro-immigration forces.   Decrying Republican attacks on organized labor, a crowd estimated by police to number 85,000 to 100,000 people showed up at Wisconsin’s state cap...   read more

Researchers are continuing to search for the definitive cause of last week’s massive fish die off in King Harbor, located in Redondo Beach, south of Los Angeles.   At least a million sardines died from lack of oxygen, scientists have determine...   read more

Investors fueling personal injury lawsuits against businesses by loaning money to plaintiffs are pushing for legal protections in several states.   These lawsuit lenders, which include banks and hedge funds, argue that their efforts should not...   read more

What if the American people could vote on which parts of the national budget should be cut and which should see increased spending? Would the results be different from what Congress and the president are doing? Apparently so, according to an unu...   read more