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

Within the White House, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has caused more than 120 new rules to become bottlenecked, the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards complained in a new report. Some rules, such as those proposed by the Department of Energy, have sat for two years awaiting approval—despite a White House mandate adopted during the Bill Clinton years that requires OIRA to act within 90 days of receiving them.   read more

The nations with the most technically recoverable shale gas resources are said to be China, Argentina, Algeria, the United States, Canada and Mexico. The nations with the most technically recoverable shale oil resources are Russia, the United States, China, Argentina and Libya.   read more

In one instance, a senior manager pushed for three of his college-age children to be hired for department internships last year. The unnamed official, who worked in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, contacted 12 colleagues, including a high-ranking human capital official, to encourage the hiring of his three kids. But the family lobbying paid off—all three of the children got jobs in DOE.   read more

Under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court on Thursday responded to Howell’s ruling by issuing a new regulation that orders visitors to “maintain suitable order and decorum within the Supreme Court building and grounds.” It also bans “picketing, speech making, marching, holding vigils or religious services and all other like forms of conduct."   read more

In 2009, the FBI reported to Congress that it had used Section 215 only 21 times to access business records. That total had soared by last year to 212 requests—a 1,000% increase. Experts say this indicates a broadening interpretation of the provision on the part of government, so that it is being applied not only to targeted individuals but to Americans who have no apparent ties to terrorist activity.   read more

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this month that wages in the U.S. declined 4.3% during the first quarter of this year. The drop was the steepest on record, going back to 1947. But the first three months of 2013 were fantastic for banks, which posted a record $40.3-billion profit, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.   read more

Following the political uproar over rising numbers of rapes and examples of commanders throwing out punishment rulings for sexual assaults, legislation was introduced that would prevent generals and admirals from being able to interfere and overrule in such cases and, instead, leave it solely to military prosecutors to handle.   read more

Created in 2004 at the suggestion of the 9/11 Commission, the PCLOB didn’t hold its first meeting until 2006, and its first report was so heavily edited by officials in the George W. Bush administration that it resulted in one board member, Democrat Lanny Davis, quitting. The board lacks staffing and full-time members (a product of Medine’s delay as chairman), and doesn’t even have a website yet.   read more

In Germany, the issue of government snooping is especially sensitive, given the decades of domestic spying by the East German Stasi during the Cold War. Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague informed Parliament that British intelligence services have not colluded with the U.S. to circumvent the country’s laws. Some observers suspect that the leaders of foreign allies have known all along what the U.S. government was up to and are just posturing publically for domestic consumption.   read more

Lawmakers who say they were never told about the program are dismissive. “It's playing with words. What does ‘brief’ mean?” Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia) said to NPR. “I would [typically] go up there to the White House and get briefed, and come back knowing nothing.”   read more

The memo reportedly addressed eight troubling episodes involving officials, including the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, suspected of routinely patronizing underage prostitutes in a public park. The incident was investigated in 2011 and Gutman was recalled to Washington, D.C. He was instructed to meet with Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy, but was then allowed to return to his post.   read more

Justice officials may have decided to discontinue the legal fight because of its potential to draw too much attention to a hotly debated topic. Organizations that have supported the drug’s unrestricted availability are continuing to pressure the government to expand the ruling to include generic versions of Plan B. The controversial pill prevents conception if it is taken within three days of having sexual intercourse.   read more

Zions received a cut of the fee received by Modern Payments for each person whose account was accessed. Between 2007 and 2009, Zions allowed about $39 million to be withdrawn from hundreds of thousands of its accounts, much of which was transferred to other bank accounts in India, Canada and the Caribbean. This enabled Zions to charge $20 million worth of insufficient funds fees to its customers who had been scammed.   read more

Apparently, the legal or national security implications of publishing the remaining slides may have dissuaded the newspapers’ editors from going all in on the major story. “If you saw all the slides you wouldn’t publish them,” the Post’s Barton Gellman posted on Twitter, adding in a second tweet: “I know a few absolutists, but most people would want to defer judgment if they didn’t know the full contents.”   read more

Presumably, the information gathered includes phone calls, emails, text messages, social network posts, credit card purchases and bank transactions, among other items of interest. Whether the Bush and Obama administrations have shared this information with “friendly” dictators is not known…yet.   read more

Ellsberg was initially charged with theft, conspiracy and violating the Espionage Act of 1917, all charges against him were eventually dropped, and he was widely regarded as a hero. Forty years later, the Obama administration and its allies have gone to great lengths to portray Manning as a traitor, and they appear to be gearing up to do the same with Snowden.   read more