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

Fort Lauderdale has cited its first violators—two ministers and a 90-year-old man—of a new ordinance that prohibits giving food to the homeless. Abbott, who has been helping the homeless in Fort Lauderdale for more than 20 years, was shocked by law enforcement’s response to the feeding. “One of the police officers said, ‘Drop that plate right now,’ as if I were carrying a weapon.”   read more

Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said agents approach community leaders at mosques with questions, and then pressure them to become informants. The FBI’s approach depends on the situation, according to CAIR lawyer Jennifer Wicks. “These visits aren’t based on people being suspected of doing anything wrong."   read more

Dr. Margaret Chan, director of the World Health Organization, said the drive for profits by drug makers prevented an Ebola vaccination solution from being available by now. “A profit-driven industry does not invest in products for markets that cannot pay,” she said. “WHO has been trying to make this issue visible for ages. Now people can see for themselves.” Chan has called the Ebola crisis “the most severe acute public health emergency seen in modern times.”   read more

An initiative launched by Mayor Ed Murray has spurred discussions among local leaders and started a process for developing privacy guidelines by next year. Officials hope their city will lead the way for other municipalities to establish rules detailing how data can be collected and stored, while keeping in mind the concerns of citizens for how their privacy might by affected by such work.   read more

Under the leadership of CEO Mary Barra, General Motors has repaired about half of the 2.36 million automobiles recalled for faulty ignition switches. Owners have had to wait months to get into dealerships for repairs, leaving them vulnerable to accidents. Last month, a New York woman, Brittany Alfarone, was killed in a single-car accident involving a 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt. She had tried to get her car’s ignition fixed, but was turned away by two dealerships.   read more

The judges said the public has some right to know how police using the surveillance technology. Police officials insist they are bound by a confidentiality agreement with the FBI, which provided the equipment, to not say anything about it. Judge Boner said: “I can’t think of a justification” to keep the records secret. The judges’ “comments are significant because national privacy groups have tried unsuccessfully for years to learn how police use the device," said the Observer.   read more

Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. have reached a settlement with the U.S. government to pay a total of $300 million for misleading consumers about the fuel efficiency of their cars. The deal is said to represent the largest penalty ever for violating the Clean Air Act. The carmakers got into trouble when their engineers “chose favorable results rather than average results from a large number of tests,” said the EPA.   read more

Nearly 300 cities and counties have informed the Department of Homeland Security that they won’t cooperate with immigration requests to hold someone for deportation consideration. In addition, officials in three states—California, Colorado and Connecticut—have adopted the same policy of noncompliance. More than half of the nation’s 22 million immigrants live in the 300 jurisdictions defying DHS. These include the cities of New York, Los Angeles and Miami.   read more

Judge Frucci backed the argument of attorney James Broccoletti, who said the pass code was protected under the Fifth Amendment. Frucci agreed, ruling that the pass code is abstract knowledge and is protected. He did say that Baust’s fingerprint, like his DNA, is subject to use by law enforcement. Police were unsure whether a fingerprint would unlock the phone, however. Rulings such as this could cause those who want to move from password to biometric file protection to rethink their stand.   read more

Adoption of Proposition 47 could have national ramifications, given the history of California being a bellwether state for others to follow on political issues. If the state approves the initiative, California would become the first state to de-felonize all drug use. “We hope we’re setting a precedent for the nation,” said supporter Lynne Lyman. “We are hoping it will signal that we don’t need to be so tough on crime all the time.”   read more

A no-fly zone put up by the FAA was intended in part to keep television cameras from recording street violence and the police response in the wake of Brown’s killing. Law enforcement had insisted at the time that the no-fly zone was created for safety purposes only. Civil libertarians expressed serious concerns over the revelations, calling it an "extraordinarily troubling and a blatant violation of the press’s First Amendment rights.”   read more

To help make cars and driving safer for larger Americans, manufacturers are now making obese-sized crash test dummies. “We’re still testing with a dummy that was created in the ’80s that weighs 170 pounds. It’s not representative of the population, and obviously it’s a much different load on the system,” said Chris O’Connor. “Obese people are 78% more likely to die in a crash. The reason is the way we get fat. We get fat in our middle range. And we get out of position in a typical seat.”   read more

The next case of school overreaction happened at Strong Elementary School in Maine. One of its teachers attended a conference in Dallas, which was the site of a U.S. Ebola case. Of course, the conference was about 10 miles from the hospital where the Ebola victim was treated and the teacher had no contact with anyone who’d been near the victim. That didn’t matter to the staff at Strong, who sent home the teacher for 21 days.   read more

The provision that would allow a judge in one district to authorize searches of computers in another would allow the bureau to go “judge shopping” for one who might be most likely to grant a warrant. Some civil rights activists are concerned that such a significant rule change is being decided by such an obscure panel with little public notice.   read more

It’s a measure of how House of Representatives districts have been drawn to ensure safe seats that only 25 races in this week’s election account for 80% of the outside spending in House races. Most House districts that aren’t competitive see little spending. In fact, 193 of them have less than $10,000 in outside spending.   read more

Forty-three years after President Richard Nixon declared that marijuana was a Schedule I drug, cannabis has gotten its day in court thanks to a U.S. District judge trying defendants in a cultivation case. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Schedule I drugs have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse” and “are the most dangerous drugs.” Other Schedule I drugs are heroin, LSD, ecstasy, methaqualone, and peyote.   read more