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

Running on a platform described as “anarcho-surrealism,” Iceland’s Best Party (Besti Flokkurinn) is no longer just a big joke. The six-month-old party led by one of the nation’s best-known comedians, Jón Gnarr, won a stunning victory in the capita...   read more

Russia and China, still considered major military powers, have nothing on the United States when it comes to comparing these nations’ defense expenditures to that of the entire world. Russian and Chinese appropriations for warfare each represent a...   read more

A California union made up largely of grocery store and retail clerks has reached out to employees of local marijuana clubs, looking to the day when legal recreational use of cannabis could mean thousands of new workers to organize.   About 100 ...   read more

The year 1947 was momentous for a lot of reasons: India gained its independence, the CIA was first established, and the transistor was invented. But 1947 was not so great for those Americans born that year, not when it comes to collecting their So...   read more

Conducting what’s been described as “relentless legal campaigns,” the Catholic Church of Canada has countersued numerous victims of abuse by priests. One example cited by the Toronto Star focused on former altar boy John Caruso, whose abuser, Reve...   read more

Nawa province in Afghanistan is being used to demonstrate the carrot is mightier than the stick. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is in the process of spending $30 million over nine months in this impoverished territory to und...   read more

The United States Coast Guard (USCG), gained a new leader on May 25, 2010, when Commandant of the Coast Guard Thad Allen finished his four-year tour in the post. President Obama chose Coast Guard Vice Admiral Robert A. Papp to be next Commandant. ...   read more

Harry K. Thomas, Jr., President Barack Obama’s choice for U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service who presented his credentials April 27, 2010.   Born June 3, 1956, in New York City’s Harlem neighborh...   read more

As with some of his other environmental appointments, President Barack Obama went with a career federal employee to lead the National Park Service. Jonathan B. Jarvis, a trained biologist, has spent the past 30 years working for the agency in a va...   read more

Despite lobbying from the Portuguese-American community to choose someone else, President Barack Obama went with a key campaign fundraiser and organizer for the post of U.S. ambassador to Portugal. Allan J. Katz, a lawyer and lobbyist who helped r...   read more

A career Foreign Service officer who previously served in Mongolia, Jonathan S. Addleton was born into a life of foreign travel, thanks to his religious parents. Addleton assumed his position as U.S. ambassador to Mongolia November 9, 2009.   Ad...   read more

BP, operator of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, is pushing for a single judge in Houston—who has friendly ties with the oil industry—to handle the nearly 100 lawsuits so far filed against the company.   BP’s choice is U.S. District Judge Lyn...   read more

Bureaucratic semantics are threatening the future of the right whale in the Atlantic, according to a lawsuit filed by several environmental organizations against the federal government. The case centers on a 2008 decision by the National Marine Fi...   read more

Despite previous veto threats from the White House, the House of Representatives adopted an amendment to a defense authorization bill that would give the Government Accountability Office the power to audit intelligence agencies. The proposal, auth...   read more

American attorney Peter Erlinder has been arrested in Rwanda for helping defend his client, presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire, against charges that she violated the country’s Genocide Ideology Law.   Ingabire, a Hutu who returned after 16...   read more

There might be some advantages for the United States to use a value added tax (VAT), similar to a sales tax, to reduce other types of taxes, such as those levied on payrolls or corporate profits. Currently, the United States is the only country in...   read more