Trump announced that from now on the NFL will be known as the NTL: The National Trump League. The Super Bowl will be renamed the Trump Bowl, and professional players must be called Trumpball Players. Anyone, on any level, who refuses to comply with Trump’s orders will be arrested and charged with being a threat to national security.   read more

It would be the first ambassadorial posting for Mustard and one of the few for diplomats from the USDA. In his testimony, he noted that U.S. relations with Turkmenistan have been “constrained by significant human-rights concerns because the government seeks to exert control over the lives of its citizens,” but he also pointed out that this hasn’t stopped Boeing and GE from experiencing “great success in the Turkmen market.”   read more

Until Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) ordered the state highway patrol to take charge of security in Ferguson, the police officers patrolling the city’s streets were carrying 5.56-mm rifles similar to the M4 carbine employed by the U.S. Army. They also had sidearms, body armor, multiple ammunition clips, and they rode around in armored vehicles reminiscent of the kind used to shuttle soldiers through Iraq.   read more

The one discordant note is that hiring has not risen at the same rate as job openings. Openings are up 17.6% in the past year, while hires have increased only 9.3%. Some economists say it’s because companies might not be offering high enough wages. Others say the disparity is because of a mismatch between the jobs that are available and the skills of job seekers. For example, a former factory worker wouldn’t necessarily be qualified to fill a nursing position.   read more

an official with the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), which provides protection for American diplomats and works to maintain the integrity of U.S. travel documents, decided to test new facial recognition software created to detect passport fraud. The DSS official happened to use an FBI wanted poster containing Stammer’s image for his experiment and found that it matched the photo of an American in Nepal going by the name of Kevin Hodges.   read more

Following rules promoted by President Barack Obama in 2010 that barred lobbyists from being advisers on the boards, a group of lobbyists who had been dismissed from boards sued the government claiming the restrictions violated their rights. They won their case in federal court, forcing the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to issue new guidelines that allow lobbyists to serve on the boards if they are representing clients.   read more

According to the report, “She advanced a theory integral to RedX product development, promoted a multi-step process the RedX product suite used to implement the theory, highlighted the results of field trials that used RedX products to demonstrate the efficacy of the theory and process, and featured a RedX sales slogan.” Dugan left her post in 2012 during the investigation and became an executive at Google.   read more

The passage of the amendment, which would have guaranteed that equal rights could not be denied on account of gender, was passed by 35 states by the 1982 deadline, leaving it three short of ratification. To get the effort going again, two measures have been introduced in Congress. One would erase the 1982 deadline but keep intact the ratification by 35 states, so backers would have to get only three more states to sign on.   read more

A Patent Office employee put a “mouse-mover” program on his computer so it would appear he was working. It was noticed by a manager, who reported it up the chain of command, but no action was taken. Many employees did little work until the end of each quarter, when they’d rush to complete their required tasks before their deadline. Meanwhile, the agency has fallen behind on processing patent applications, creating a backlog of more than 600,000 requests.   read more

Between 2009 and 2010, officials made eight bond offerings. But at no time did they inform bond investors that Kansas’ public-employee pension was the second-most underfunded in the United States. At one point, the gap between the fund’s liabilities and assets reached $8.3 billion.   read more

The billboard read: “Welcome to America, home to 5% of the world’s people [and] 25% of the world’s prisoners. . . . Let’s build a better America together,” But Philadelphia airport officials rejected the ad, claiming their policy allowed only advertisements with commercial appeal. However, the airport had already displayed ads by other non-profits, including the World Wildlife Federation and the National Parent-Teacher Association.   read more

FWS scientists in Montana first suggested protecting the animals, saying the loss of spring snow from global warming could adversely impact the species that lives in underground dens. Climate change had been used as a justification for the listing of polar bears as a threatened species in 2008.   read more

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll revealed 51% of respondents said the children coming to the U.S. from Central America should be permitted to remain in the country, at least temporarily. Only 32% said the children should be immediately deported, indicating Obama is bending to the will of the minority by ordering immigration courts to fast track the children’s hearings.   read more

Women’s business-ownership more than doubled following the passage of the Women’s Business Ownership Act in 1988, going from 4.1 million small businesses to 8.6 million by last year. Women now own 30% of all businesses. But “Only 4 percent of the total dollar value of all small business loans goes to women entrepreneurs,” the report states.   read more

The crisis in the Ukraine continues as American and European leaders lob more sanctions against Russia for its actions in the war-torn country. But in the oil world, it’s business as usual. Oil king ExxonMobil last week began drilling a new oil well off Russia’s Arctic frontier, in cooperation with OAO Rosneft, the country’s state-run oil company.   read more

The weed Palmer amaranth started showing up in cotton fields in the South, and before farmers knew it, it was everywhere. It can grow higher than six feet tall and spread a million seeds from each plant. Roundup was useless against it, leaving farmers the choice of pulling the weed by hand or using more powerful herbicides that could kill crops as well. Now, it’s showing up in the Midwest.   read more

The DEA forked over $854,460 over a 20-year period to a secretary-turned-snitch. The DEA was involved in a joint drug enforcement task force with Amtrak Police during the payoffs—and it could have easily gotten the information through this channel without paying a dime, the IG reported, leading to speculation that DEA officials didn’t trust their legitimate Amtrak partners.   read more