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

Researchers in the United Kingdom examined more than 48,000 species and concluded that 55% of common plant species and 35% of common animal species could lose half of their living space by 2080 if carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions continue at their current pace. The study’s investigators, based at Britain’s University of East Anglia, believe the species most at risk are amphibians, plants and reptiles.   read more

The Army’s move to implement the change prompted KBR to sue in court, where its lawyers argued that the remaining duties will cost $500 million and take 13 years to complete.   read more

A senior official told the newspaper that DHS is concerned about a repeat of what happened in Saudi Arabia last summer, when an Iranian-based cyber assault affected 30,000 computers at Saudi Aramco, one of the world’s largest oil producers. That attack was similar to the American-Israeli operation that unleashed the Stuxnet worm on computers used in Iran’s nuclear enrichment plants, which was intended to slow Tehran’s goal of developing nuclear weapons.   read more

President Ronald Reagan stood by Rios Montt, calling him “a man of great personal integrity and commitment,” even as human rights groups published accounts of atrocities and abuses under the dictator. Such accounts were bolstered by the disclosure of a 1983 secret CIA cable that implicated Montt’s government in “hit squad executions.”   read more

The commissioners couldn’t even review their own regulations developed following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission (pdf), which lifted spending restrictions on corporations and unions. While the commissioners debated among themselves, spending by independent groups tripled to $1 billion in 2012, up from $300 million in 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.   read more

Steven Aftergood wrote. “It cannot possibly perform comprehensive oversight of the broad range of privacy or civil liberties concerns that arise in the national security domain. Expectations to the contrary are bound to be disappointed. At best, the Board may serve as a boutique oversight shop that tackles a couple of discrete policy issues each year.”   read more

Judge Paul Papak said there was “a preponderance” of trial evidence that showed the defendants “knew of [the]…contamination” at the site, “affirmatively misrepresented the extent of the risk posed by sodium dichromate at Qarmat Ali” to the plaintiffs and that the company “failed to disclose the extent of that risk” to them.   read more

Sopko has been busy since taking office last summer, tripling the number of audits and investigations. To date, his office has come up with 73 recommendations to government agencies that would save at least $450 million if enacted, he says. “I am not a cheerleader. I’m a watchdog—it is my job to point out what isn’t working, so it can be fixed."   read more

Despite a federal appeals court ruling that government snooping on emails requires a search warrant, the FBI and other federal law enforcers regularly ignore this constitutional mandate, according to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act. At the same time that it acts as if it has the authority to violate the privacy of citizens’ emails, the FBI is seeking Congressional authorization for its unlawful activities.   read more

The President did not, however, cancel an April 13, 2006, memo regarding the 2006 revision of the Army Field Manual and its controversial Appendix M on interrogation. That memo justifies the use of isolation, sleep deprivation, and forms of sensory deprivation that have been denounced as torture or abuse by a number of human rights and legal groups—and which sparked the ongoing hunger strike at Guantánamo.   read more

It has already begun in Birmingham, where several hedge funds—including Monarch Alternative Capital, which was a major player in the Hostess bankruptcy and Stone Lion Capital, which was involved in the bankruptcy of Eastman Kodak—have bought more than $600 million of Jefferson County debt. Under pressure after filing the most expensive municipal bankruptcy ever in the US in November 2011, Jefferson County has since cut expenses and laid off more than 700 county workers.   read more

Korman also ridiculed government arguments that allowing full OTC access while the case moves forward in the courts would cause “uncertainty” and “confusion” for women, writing that “this silly argument ignores the fact it is the government’s appeal from the order that sustained the judgment of the commissioner of the FDA that is the cause of any uncertainty. He characterized the contention that women will be confused “largely an insult to the intelligence of women.”   read more

The coal mine methane issue marks at least the fourth category of greenhouse gas emitter the EPA has decided not to regulate, following its rejection of a separate petition last June to reduce emissions from aircraft, ships and off-highway trucks.   read more

At least eight men involved in the New York scheme were indicted by a federal prosecutor, including their suspected ringleader, who was killed in the Dominican Republic last month. Local authorities say the man, Alberto Yusi Lajud-Peña, was gunned down by others involved in the robberies over how to divvy up the stolen money. The “cashers” were allowed to keep 20% of the haul. Authorities have not yet revealed who they think are the masterminds of the international ATM scheme.   read more

From 1996 to 2011, there were 939 accidents at these plants—an average of more than one a week. The accidents, not all of which involved anhydrous ammonia releases, resulted in 19 deaths, 1,651 injuries, and almost $350 million in property damage.   read more

First, Rust Consulting, which has 50 contracts with the federal government, sent out checks to homeowners that bounced. Now, the firm has come under fire for cutting checks with the wrong amounts. At least 100,000 checks were issued for amounts less than what homeowners were owed, potentially cheating them out of millions of dollars.   read more