Trump ordered that the term Homo sapiens be changed to Hetero sapiens. In history books and on websites, the airplane from which the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima will no longer be identified as the Enola Gay, but rather the Enola Straight. Trump also ordered billionaire Mark Cuban, who supported Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, to change his name to Mark American. If he does not do so, he will be charged with terrorism.   read more

Fearful corporations will spend heavily this election in the wake of a key U.S. Supreme Court ruling, House Democrats are offering to exempt the National Rifle Association (NRA) from a broad campaign-finance bill. The controversial move, which may...   read more

Acting as though it has martial-law authority, BP has hired private security to guard beaches contaminated by the oil spill—and in the process prevented journalists from interviewing clean-up crews.   For two days in a row, news anchor Scott Wal...   read more

Lawmakers in Congress are big believers in doing unto others as they would not do unto themselves, when it comes to financial conflicts of interest. While representatives and senators are happy to pass laws forbidding federal officials from having...   read more

There are only two countries that have not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits the use of child soldiers: the United States and Somalia. Perhaps then it is no surprise to learn that American taxpayer dollars are goi...   read more

Over one recent six-month period, the members of the U.S. House of Representatives spent more than $670 million on staff salaries, travel, supplies and contracting out for services—an average of $3.7 million a day for expenditures. Using data coll...   read more

While there is no shortage of depressing news these days leading to questions about the United States’ long-term presence in Afghanistan, there’s one word that perhaps guarantees an American presence in the country for years to come: minerals.   ...   read more

It likely is just a matter of time before unmanned aircraft, including the type being used in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, are flying over America’s friendly skies. State and federal officials, especially the Department of Homeland Security, ar...   read more

Watching the World Cup can be bad for your help, if you live in Somalia. On June 12, Islamic fundamentalists of the Hezbal Islam rebel group killed two Somalis who were watching the soccer match between Argentina and Nigeria in a home near Mogadis...   read more

It survived Hurricane Camille in 1969. It survived Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It survived more than a century’s worth of economic recessions and depressions. But P&J Oyster Company couldn’t withstand the oil spill of 2010.   First opened for bus...   read more

Until now, federal regulators relied on a U.S.-based inspection operation to certify organic goods imported from China. But after discovering that the inspector—Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA) of Nebraska—was using Chinese government e...   read more

President Barack Obama turned to an agency veteran, Leocadia I. Zak to lead the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA). USTDA is an independent agency responsible for helping promote development in other countries while also advancing economic ...   read more

Sentencing reform for non-violent offenders could lead to billion-dollar reductions in state and local corrections budgets, argues the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in a new report.   The authors of “The High Budgetary Costs of ...   read more

Japan’s effort to overturn the moratorium on commercial whaling may have hit a snag following an investigation by the Sunday Times of London that found Japanese officials are bribing officials on the International Whaling Commission (IWC).   Pos...   read more

One of President Obama’s most controversial nominations has been that of Joseph Pizarchik to be the Director of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM), a bureau within the US Department of the Interior (DOI) charged with th...   read more

If confirmed as chair of the National Indian Gaming Commission, Tracie Stevens would become the first woman to lead the oversight body for the $27 billion Indian gaming industry.   A member of the Tulalip Tribes in Washington State, Stevens was ...   read more

Days after the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sunk, the first official estimate of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico was 200 barrels a day. It then changed to 1,000 barrels, and then 5,000. Now, scientists are talking about 20,000 barrels a ...   read more