President Donald Trump invited the Dodgers to the White House. Many of their fans feared that the team, by accepting, would humiliate themselves and betray the team’s large Latino, Asian and African-American fan base. Dodgers controlling owner Mark Walter, along with co-owner Magic Johnson, have proposed a solution. Trump has promised that if he can keep the championship trophy, the Commissioner’s Trophy, he will end all seizures and deportations of immigrants.   read more

Drugs and alcohol subtracted about 4 months from white life expectancy, according to the report. Increasing suicides had the second largest negative impact. Alzheimer's disease was third, reducing longevity by about 3 weeks. Experts point to whites' easier time getting access to the powerful painkillers, and that they may more quickly turn to suicide because often they don't have the kind of family and social support often seen in black and Hispanic communities.   read more

In 2006 Maior was tapped to head the Romanian Intelligence Service. In 2015, in that capacity, he supported proposals to retain data and personal information on Romanian citizens. He resigned after the country’s high court rejected those proposals. Shortly thereafter, Maior was given the job in Washington. One of the goals Maior is pursuing is to have Romania accepted as a participant in the U.S. visa waiver program, which would make it easier for Romanians to come to the United States.   read more

"Only time will tell whether our society will prove capable of preserving age-old privacy protections in this increasingly networked era. But one thing is sure: this Court's decision today will do nothing to advance that effort," wrote dissenting Judge Wynn. Lynch said the decision "has an impact for anyone that carries a cellphone [or who uses] any Internet-based device...shared with a third party. All of that information could be available to law enforcement without a warrant at this point."   read more

The State Dept's Kirby said someone had censored the video intentionally. He described such action as unacceptable. "Deliberately removing a portion of the video was not and is not in keeping with the State Dept's commitment to transparency and public accountability," he said. A video editor received a call from a State Dept public affairs official who made "a specific request ... to excise that portion of the briefing. We do not know who made the request to edit the video or why it was made."   read more

The survey found that nearly 4 in 10 respondents mistakenly expect to turn to Medicare, which doesn't pay for long-term care. Jeanie Powell, 58, said she was confident she could afford long-term care until a year ago when she learned her insurance policy would cover only $1,000 per month. "It won't even put a dent in the cost," she said. She bought her policy in the 1990s, before she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Her health continues to deteriorate.   read more

Members of the House committee blasted the disparities and Rep. Chu called for an examination of the "alarming" differences and youngsters' abilities to access to lawyers in different places. "If justice is being served, it should be served evenly across the country," said Rep. Gutierrez. "Our asylum system is failing under the weight of its caseload combined with the fact that Congress robbed it of resources for decades." U.S. Immigration Services had no explanation for the disparities.   read more

Forbes says its estimate of Elizabeth Holmes' wealth is based entirely on her 50 percent stake in troubled blood-testing startup Theranos. The company acknowledged in April that it's under investigation by several regulators and agencies following a series of reports by The Wall Street Journal in which former employees said the company's tests were unreliable. The tests use only a few drops of blood. Theranos said the articles were inaccurate when they were published.   read more

The five have grown invincible to just about any competition. Their powers are a source of pride and fear for Americans. These companies dominate the news and entertainment industries, they rule ad and retail sales, and they’re pushing into health care, energy and autos. In the rest of the world, they are often seen as a reason for fear, not comfort. In part that’s because of a worry about U.S. hegemony: The bigger these companies get, the more room for possible spying by the U.S. government.   read more

The patients affected say they’ve been doubly injured — first by poor service or care and then by the disclosure of information they considered private. The shock of exposure can be effective, prompting patients to back off. “I posted a negative review” on Yelp, a client of a dentist wrote. “After that, she posted a response with details that included my personal dental information. … I removed my review to protect my medical privacy.”   read more

Trump has called for closing mosques and banning Muslims. “People coming to his rallies are cheering what he says,” Baig said. “We are beyond a state of shock.” Emir Alrashid of the Lighthouse Mosque sees parallels with a once-targeted group. “We’re going through the same struggles the Japanese did about their loyalty to the country after Pearl Harbor,” he said. “Just because you share an ethnic group or religion, you shouldn’t have to pass a loyalty oath to be considered a loyal American.”   read more

Free the Nipple wastes no time in stating its position: "Plaintiffs challenge a sexist ordinance that is based on antiquated social mores; justification for the ordinance is rooted in outdated nineteenth century puritanical values and discrimination, nothing more." The group says the ordinance also criminalizes revealing clothing. It calls it "one of the most restrictive public nudity ordinances in the nation." Female toplessness has been legalized in parts of 30 states, including Colorado.   read more

"What do you do if you get one? Throw it in the trash. Personally, I prefer to burn mine," said Rep. Holt. Holt is a longtime critic of traffic camera tickets and has previously called for banning them. In this year's legislative session, he sponsored a bill that requires citations to include the following statement: "Nonpayment of this (citation) cannot adversely affect your credit score or report, driver's license, and/or automobile insurance rates."   read more

The risk score proved remarkably unreliable: Only 20% of the people predicted to commit violent crimes actually went on to do so. When a full range of crimes were taken into account, the algorithm was somewhat more accurate than a coin flip. The formula was particularly likely to falsely flag black defendants as future criminals, wrongly labeling them this way at almost twice the rate as white defendants. And white defendants were mislabeled as low risk more often than black defendants.   read more

Smith apologized for letting students and teachers at two schools continue using the drinking sources after tests showed unsafe levels of lead. When tests came back positive for lead, officials took steps to repair or replace plumbing, but they didn't warn people not to drink the water. "Portland Public Schools regrets not having notified families and staff as soon as the tests indicated that there were elevated levels of lead," Smith wrote in an email to all families.   read more

The death rate in the United States rose last year for the first time in a decade, preliminary federal data show, a rare increase that was driven in part by more people dying from drug overdoses, suicide and Alzheimer’s disease. “We are not accustomed to seeing death rates increase on a national scale,” said Andrew Fenelon, a researcher at the CDC who did not work on the paper. “We’ve seen increases in mortality for some groups, but it is quite rare to see it for the whole population.”   read more

More serious to Connell was the issue of the government unilaterally redacting al Baluchi's medical records, which he said has deprived the defense of key information about his treatment in government facilities. In a case so closely tied to allegations and evidence of torture used against the detainees during time they spend in CIA custody, this information could be invaluable to building a defense. In at least five cases, an entire page was totally covered in black ink to hide its contents.   read more