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

At least twenty federal contractors have been caught violating labor, environmental and other federal regulations without losing any business with Uncle Sam.   An audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) uncovered 15 companies—which...   read more

Online comments posted on blogs and websites defending China’s policies may be the work of the “Fifty Cent Party” (wu mao dang), a term used to describe those paid by the Chinese government to influence public opinion about the Asian giant. Fift...   read more

Environmental groups like the Sierra Club might want to take a second look at the use of fences and barriers along the border between the U.S. and Mexico, writes journalist Leo Banks. The Sierra Club has been opposed to border fences, but the use ...   read more

The national anthem of the Philippines should be sung one way and one way only, according to some lawmakers. The country’s national legislature is considering a bill that would criminalize the “improper” singing of the national anthem, “Lupang H...   read more

With limits on campaign contributions by corporations and unions lifted by a key court ruling earlier this year, the 2010 midterm elections are featuring a spending spree by big-money interests who are largely disguising their activities.   Th...   read more

There’s never been a better time in recent history than now for oceanographers looking for work. The mammoth oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has produced at least a couple hundred jobs for ocean scientists, including 100 alone paid for by BP, wh...   read more

Big business is currently sitting atop more than $1 trillion in cash, thanks to near zero interest rates provided by the Federal Reserve that has made it easy for corporations to borrow huge sums. But instead of investing this money into new bus...   read more

In what might be called reverse embedding, the U.S Army has been placing soldiers who conduct psychological warfare at local television news stations and newspapers, in order to pick up media skills for their work.   Through internships and fe...   read more

Despite the fact Americans logged more miles on the nation’s highways, traffic fatalities in 2009 reached the lowest level in six decades. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported 33,808 vehicle deaths occurred last year, the ...   read more

The real winners of the Bush-era tax cuts were not American businesses, but those overseas. An assessment by the Financial Times of President George W. Bush’s tax breaks passed in 2001 and 2003 found that they did little to boost U.S. business i...   read more

Blackwater, the notorious private security firm that already tried to rebrand itself as Xe, has won a portion of a $10 billion contract with the State Department. But most people wouldn’t know this because it’s using a third name to avoid drawin...   read more

Efforts to build a National Women’s History Museum in Washington, DC, are on hold for now, as Republican U.S. Senators Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Jim DeMint of South Carolina have used parliamentary tactics to delay passage of legislation creati...   read more

Anti-texting laws don’t work, says the Highway Loss Data Institute, a research group funded by the automobile insurance industry. After reviewing accident reports from four states that outlawed sending text messages while driving, the institute ...   read more

A longtime job training executive, Edna Primrose has served as the national director of the Job Corps program since March 2010.   Primrose attended college at Towson University in Maryland, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in busin...   read more

The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian group, is daring the IRS to enforce a federal law banning religious leaders of tax-exempt churches from espousing political messages to their congregations. Their taunting this year involved al...   read more

No, Senate Democrats are not jumping ship on their president. This week, when Democrats agreed with Republicans to keep the Senate officially in session and prevent President Barack Obama from making recess appointments, they did so in order to ...   read more