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

Four Iraqis claim the contractor helped torture them while providing interrogation services at Abu Ghraib. All of them were ultimately released without being charged with a crime. They allege that CACI subjected them to a variety of torture techniques, including “electric shocks; repeated brutal beatings; sleep deprivation; sensory deprivation; forced nudity; stress positions; sexual assault; mock executions; humiliation; hooding; isolated detention; and prolonged hanging from the limbs.”   read more

Currently, just five banks control 90% of all derivatives contracts: JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had planned to require firms wanting a price for a derivatives contract to contact at least five banks. But after lobbying from financial institutions, the CFTC lowered the requirement to two banks.   read more

What seems to happen is that immigrants, as they settle into their new American lives, adopt the unhealthy habits of those already here—smoking, drinking, eating fast food, and not exercising.   read more

Many other cases remain unsolved, including the December 10, 1964, death of Frank Morris in Ferriday, Louisiana. Morris, who was black, died when a group of men set his shop on fire. The Concordia Sentinel revealed that a suspect in the case was still alive—someone who had been implicated in the murder by his own family. But the FBI never charged the man, saying they were unable to compile the credible evidence necessary to charge him. The suspect, Arthur Leonard Spencer, died last week.   read more

Residents of Center Point, Alabama, who received citations as a result of a new traffic-camera system were told they could appeal their tickets in court. But there was a catch: it turned out there was no court to hear such cases. That’s the contention of two women, Rhonda Lashon Stubbs and Celeita Snow, who are suing the city and Redflex Traffic Systems, which was hired to install the cameras to catch speeders and other moving violations.   read more

In a major power grab of dubious constitutionality, the U.S. military last week claimed for itself the power to act unilaterally—without the authorization of the President—in case of “civil disturbances,” threatening a 200-year-old system that strictly forbids the military from becoming involved in civilian law enforcement. Seemingly innocuous in its brevity and simplicity, the new rule's chief danger lies in its vagueness.   read more

The bill would amend federal labor law that mandates the payment of time-and-a-half for those working more than 40 hours in a week. Instead of only offering money for overtime, employers could allow compensatory time off. Opponents of the measure say there is nothing in it to prevent companies from discriminating against those who prefer payment by cutting back on their overtime hours.   read more

The company that actually owns the petcoke that is befouling the Detroit waterfront is Koch Carbon, a subsidiary of Koch Industries (annual revenues: $115 billion), the company Charles and David Koch inherited from their father. Koch Carbon sells petcoke to countries like China, India, Mexico and others that burn it to generate electricity and hasten global warming. It is useful to recall that the Koch brothers have spent literally millions of dollars bankrolling the denial of climate change.   read more

Making peer-to-peer communication software “wiretap ready,” however, would seriously jeopardize Internet security for everyone, because any modifications would be targeted by hackers and Internet fraudsters, who could use the technology for a variety of nefarious purposes, including against the government itself.   read more

Pritzker was chair of a bank that failed because of subprime loans, Hyatt is a staunchly anti-labor hotel chain, and many believe that the murky overseas investments of the secretive Pritzker family fortune represent a form of offshore tax evasion—a practice criticized by Obama during the 2012 campaign.   read more

The study authors examined 11,944 abstracts published in peer reviewed science journals from 1991 to 2011 that included the words “Global Climate Change” or “Global Warming.” Categorizing each abstract according to its apparent position on global warming, they found that 66.4% expressed no position, 32.4% expressed acceptance, 0.7% rejection, and 0.3% uncertainty as to the cause of warming.   read more

The three activists managed to cut through not one, not two, not three, but four fences and reach the uranium enrichment facility on foot before one of the plant’s security guards. The government pays $1.2 billion for security at Oak Ridge every year. Rice, Boertje-Obed and Walli were not armed. They carried Bibles, peace banners, flowers and spray paint, which was used to put up peace messages.   read more

The worst overcharging hospital was Bayonne Medical Center in New Jersey, which charged the highest amounts for almost one-quarter of the treatments. Bayonne Medical typically charged $99,689 for treating a case of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 5.5 times more than other hospitals and 17.5 times more than Medicare paid in reimbursement.   read more

Inexplicably, Nazaire’s appeal to the Georgia court failed to cite Judge Wright’s extensive use of Star Trek references in characterizing Prenda’s behavior. Wright began his written ruling by quoting Spock from “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” And then his legal opinion took flight. “Resistance is futile.”   read more

Although Froman lost touch with Obama after Harvard, he advised Obama on policy during Obama's 2004 Senate campaign and introduced him to Robert Rubin, eventually serving on the 12-member advisory board of the Obama campaign’s transition team. Froman also functioned as a prodigious fundraiser for Obama, especially among younger Wall Street Democrats, bundling at least $200,000 in contributions.   read more

Monsanto sees the international market as the source of enormous potential profit, if only foreign governments would let Monsanto make inroads into their agricultural economies. And, in a major example of corporate welfare, the State Department has marshaled its resources to lobby for Monsanto.   read more