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

In a sign of the times, nine members of two human rights organizations in Guatemala have received serious death threats by text message, according to Amnesty International. Between April 30and May 5, the members of the Association for the Study an...   read more

Although housing prices have declined throughout the country, many of those expected to benefit from the federal stimulus still can’t afford to buy a home, according to the Center for Housing Policy, the research wing of the National Housing Confe...   read more

The sex boycott in Kenya is over, but the litigation has just begun. Two weeks ago several prominent women called for a week-long sex strike to get Kenya’s male leaders to resolve their political differences and avoid bloodshed between supporters....   read more

“Fed up with high fees, low returns and poor service at your bank? It may be time to shop for a credit union,” argues Kathy Kristoff, a longtime business writer. Credit unions are a “misunderstood” option in the banking world, but should be explor...   read more

The U.S. Supreme Court has increasingly become a favorite of big business, writes Rob Larson, an assistant professor of economics at Ivy Tech Community College in Bloomington, Indiana. A conservative five-justice bloc, led by Chief Justice John Ro...   read more

Much to the dismay of environmentalists, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) will not be employed by the Interior Department to protect the polar bear, whose habitat is rapidly disappearing as a result of global warming. The announcement by Interior ...   read more

The Obama administration plans to spend more money than ever on secret military projects, commonly referred to as the Defense Department’s “black budget.” Just over $50 billion will be allocated, which representing a 3% increase over last year’s t...   read more

High-tech unmanned drones aren’t just a growing part of the U.S. military arsenal. Drug lords in South America also are trying to utilize modern technology to automate their smuggling of drugs from Colombia to the United States, and even Europe. S...   read more

In Germany, the government is still allowed by law to regulate its citizens’ names. This right was recently challenged by a couple from Munich. A dentist, Frieda Rosemarie Thalheim, wanted to add to her name the last name of her husband, Hans Pete...   read more

The federal government currently sits on more than 65,000 properties, valued at $84 billion, which are of little use, so President Barack Obama thinks it is time to give agencies some incentive to unload their real estate. The current 2010 budget ...   read more

The 500 Sikhs in the British police force are tired of not getting into the action and want to be able to carry firearms and handle tough assignments, such as public demonstrations. But until now they have been prevented from doing so because poli...   read more

Larry EchoHawk, President Obama’s choice to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs, was born August 2, 1948, in Cody, Wyoming. A member of the Pawnee Native American tribe of Oklahoma, he is a leading supporter of Native American rights, a Democrat, an...   read more

So much for giving Guantánamo detainees their day in federal court. In spite of President Barack Obama’s pledge to do things differently from the Bush administration when it comes to suspected terrorists, the Pentagon’s legal system has quietly mo...   read more

The U.S. Forest Service is closing thousands of caves and former mines in national forests in thirty-three states in an effort to suspend the spread of white-nose syndrome, a fatal fungus that has already killed an estimated 500,000 bats. Bats, al...   read more

AmeriCorps became the center of media attention when the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act passed, tripling AmeriCorps’ size and allotting $5.7 billion in federal funding for the community service programs it provides. Few news sources noticed o...   read more

While most giants of the banking industry continue to slog their way through the sub-prime mortgage disaster, one bank is quietly succeeding with a clientele of poor people. The institution is Grameen Bank, which has set up a branch in New York Ci...   read more