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

You can’t really trust Democrats or Republicans when it comes to campaign finance reform, argues Jeff Patch, communications director for the Center for Competitive Politics.   Both liberals and conservatives, while in control of Congress, have d...   read more

Considered the lesser of two evils by some environmentalists, the spraying of chemical dispersant into the Gulf of Mexico to break up the giant oil slick comes with its own risks and uncertainties for the environment.   So far, BP and the federa...   read more

The maker of children’s Tylenol and other pediatric medicines has gotten into trouble with federal regulators for operating a plant where materials were contaminated with bacteria and that lacked sufficient quality controls. McNeil Consumer Health...   read more

Rather than inform the public about potentially dangerous substances buried in the ground outside a leading scientific laboratory, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in New Mexico deliberately took actions to avoid compliance with Freedom ...   read more

What ordinarily takes eight hours was done in only one when the world’s first robot-performed heart surgery took place last week in the United Kingdom. Kenneth Crocker, 70, had a catheter inserted into his body at Leicester’s Glenfield Hospital by...   read more

Two years after Congress passed legislation intended to spread subsidies among a wider array of farmers, new information shows large corporate farms are continuing to hog the majority of agricultural welfare.   Data compiled by the Environmental...   read more

Human rights activists are questioning the point of military tribunals for suspected terrorists if the likely result is that detainees, even if they are acquitted, will remain behind bars, potentially forever.   Amnesty International has reporte...   read more

Some of the top city officials in Arizona have come out in opposition to the state’s tough new immigration law and plan to fight the legislation in court.   The city councils of Tucson and Flagstaff have voted (5-1 and 5-0) to sue the state ove...   read more

Fishermen who agreed to help stem the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico were asked by the owner of the offshore platform, BP, to sign an agreement waiving their rights to sue the corporation. The company hired local fishermen to lay out oil booms...   read more

Described by one leading psychiatry expert as “a national tragedy,” the United States since the 1990s has greatly expanded the use of antidepressants and other powerful medications on children.   Data published in the Journal of the American Aca...   read more

More than 70 federal watchdog positions, including inspectors general for cabinet-level departments, remain vacant or without permanent appointees. In some cases the posts have gone without an appointment for more than two years.   For example, ...   read more

Oil-producing nations Norway and Brazil both require the use of a remote-control shut-off switch for offshore oil platforms—something the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as other drilling operations off the United States’ coasts, ...   read more

Still struggling to reduce civilian casualties in Afghanistan, NATO commanders are considering ways to award coalition forces for not killing Afghans. While not disclosing whether the plan would entail a new kind of medal, high-ranking officials s...   read more

Electronic surveillance by law enforcement and prosecutors increased significantly last year, mostly to combat drug-related crimes. In a report issued by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, it was revealed that wiretap authorizations jum...   read more

Despite the objections of intelligence agencies, the U.S. government has publicly revealed for the first time just how many nuclear weapons it has. President Barack Obama agreed to the unprecedented disclosure in the hopes it will spur established...   read more

Are fourth-graders too young to fail? Prevented from flunking her students, Sheila Goudeau of Louisiana is suing local school officials in East Baton Rouge for interfering with her duties as a teacher. Goudeau, a 20-year veteran instructor who tea...   read more