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 gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq over the next two years will cause operational expenses at the American embassy in Baghdad to rise by hundreds of millions of dollars during that time. With fewer soldiers around to help provide secu...   read more

Only Sesame Street and Mister Rogers have had longer runs on PBS than Reading Rainbow, which ended its more than two-and-a-half-decade broadcast history on Friday. The show, hosted by Lavar Burton and winner of two dozen Emmy awards, became a vict...   read more

As of Tuesday it will be illegal for businesses hocking goods or services to use prerecorded commercial telemarketing calls—or robocalls—according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). An FTC ruling going into effect on Sept. 1 outlaws telemarket...   read more

In an effort to encourage banks that were former subprime lenders to restructure failing mortgages, in February the Obama administration approved the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) that will dole out billions of dollars of taxpayer mo...   read more

The question of whether detainees held by the United States are “persons” under American law may yet again come before the Supreme Court, which already told a federal circuit court in Washington, DC, earlier this year to review its ruling that for...   read more

Judge Jed Rakoff still isn’t satisfied. The federal judge who refused to accept the settlement between Bank of America and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over attempts to hide the payment of billion-dollar bonuses from bank sharehold...   read more

Is the flip side of “too big to fail” for the nation’s largest banks “too protected to change”? The decision by the federal government to prop up the likes of Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and others did more than just shield the fina...   read more

Renditions will continue to be used by the U.S. government under President Barack Obama, but with the goal of making them kindler and gentler, according to administration officials. Rather than bringing terrorism suspects to the United States, whi...   read more

Described by one media researcher as “a socially acceptable form of casual piracy,” unauthorized downloading of movies and television programs is booming, which is unnerving for those American production companies, studios and networks that have n...   read more

American agriculture is steadily becoming an industry dominated by larger farms, according to a new study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Statistics compiled for the report show production of many types of crops and livestock doubled or eve...   read more

Large, vocal protests have forced the president of Mali to not approve a new law granting equal rights to women. President Amadou Toumani Touré, who originally supported the plan, decided this week to send the measure back to Parliament to quell t...   read more

Fast-paced can apply to many things in American society, but Internet connections is not one of them. A study by the Communications Workers of America found that the United States currently ranks 28th in the world when it comes to high-speed Web s...   read more

More than $700 million in federal stimulus funds dedicated to upgrading checkpoints along the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada is being unevenly distributed thanks to political influences in Washington. An investigation by the Associated Press ...   read more

For those desiring an in depth examination of all things stupid, there’s Course 180 offered by Occidental College. The small liberal arts institution in Southern California (which has the distinction of being the college Barack Obama attended for ...   read more

School districts throughout California took on an additional $1 billion in debt this decade as a result of bond refinancing schemes encouraged by banks—and now deemed unconstitutional by Attorney General Jerry Brown. About 200 cash-strapped distri...   read more

If pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Wyeth are allowed to merge, the result will be higher drugs prices, lower quality, and the loss of thousands of jobs, according to a lawsuit seeking to halt the $68 billion merger. The challenge has been filed b...   read more