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

After 30 years of synching traffic lights, at a cost of $400 million, the Los Angeles Transportation Department claims that the average speed on its streets has increased 16%, while delays at major intersections are down 12%. So now, instead of crawling along at 15 mph, a driver can crawl along at 17.3 mph. Less idling in traffic should also cause a reduction in carbon emissions.   read more

One of the clearest indicators of just how important SOCOM is today can be found in budget plans. At a time when the Pentagon has been told to make do with less, SOCOM will continue to grow in the coming years. SOCOM is expected to expand by 7.5%, from 66,100 civilian and military personnel in 2011 to 71,100 by 2015.   read more

here are some of the board members of Goldman Sachs and what else they do: • M. Michele Burns—CEO of the Marsh & McLennan-sponsored Retirement Policy Center; also serves on the board of directors of Wal-Mart and Cisco • William George—professor at Harvard Business School; also serves on the board of directors of Exxon Mobil • Stephen Friedman—chairman of the Stone Point Capital private equity firm   read more

Long-term health problems occurring on the job cost the American economy approximately $250 billion annually, including medical expenses and lost productivity. About $27 billion of these medical costs are born by federal health programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid.   read more

In South Dakota, the uproar involves a 40-acre plot of land where the Battle of Wounded Knee took place on December 29, 1890. U.S. soldiers massacred about 300 Sioux, most of them women and children, in what turned out to be the last major conflict of the American Indian wars. But today, Native Americans want the site preserved so people don’t forget the injustice. The land’s owner, James A. Czywczynski of Rapid City, wants to sell it for $3.9 million.   read more

A grand jury in Fulton County decided there was more than enough evidence to charge the teachers and Hall, whose bond was set at $7.5 million, an unusually high amount for a crime. Hall was charged with racketeering, theft, influencing witnesses, conspiracy and making false statements. Some of those indicted were part of a group nicknamed “the chosen,” who met secretly during state testing to erase wrong answers provided by students and replace them with correct ones.   read more

At present, CALEA allows the government to force Internet providers and phone companies to have surveillance equipment on their networks, but the law does not cover email, cloud services, or online chat providers like Skype. Although the FBI can use a “Title III Order” under the Wiretap Act to ask such providers to conduct surveillance, the FBI wants to be able to force them to do it—without a warrant signed by a judge.   read more

Bank of America (2012 revenue: $83.33 billion) had by far the worst customer service record. BoA's record is far out of proportion to the share of mortgage servicing it handles: while the bank services only about 15% of U.S. home loans, it earned 30% of the 50,457 complaints logged. Two-thirds of the complaints were against BoA's handling of loan modifications, debt collection and foreclosures, and 20% arose from poor customer service generally.   read more

The study also debunked the common notion that low-income students do not typically succeed at top schools. When they do attend such schools, they actually tend to thrive there, with 89% of them graduating or on pace to do so, compared with only 50% of top low-income students at non-selective colleges. Among high-achieving, low-income students, 6% were black, 8% Latino, 15% Asian-American, and 69% white, the study found.   read more

While there is no doubt that the guns will be welcomed by some in Tucson, resistance is likely as well, including from residents of the supposedly “high crime” areas of the city. Cindy Ayala, who is president of the neighborhood association in the working class neighborhood of Pueblo Gardens, rejects the spending priorities behind the gun giveaway. “We could take that $400 per shotgun and give it to these people so they could go buy groceries, pay rent, pay their utility bills,”   read more

The (FDA) drafted new food safety rules that mandated companies conduct product and environmental testing to prevent pathogens from getting into food supplies. But when those rules were submitted to OMB for review, administration officials from OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs stripped the provision requiring facilities to conduct microbiological testing.   read more

U.S. District Chief Judge Royce Lamberth rejected the administration’s argument, and said he was “troubled by the government’s apparent lack of urgency in issuing public versions of classified materials filed in Guantánamo proceedings.” Lamberth added: “The government’s arguments are unavailing and largely boil down to this: ‘Declassification is complicated and time consuming and we already have a lot of work—please don’t pile on.’”   read more

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the fastest growing segment of federal spending from 2015 to 2021 won’t be Medicare or Social Security, but interest payments on the debt. Ballooning interest payments could be so bad that they would wipe out the $1.2 trillion in savings from the sequestration budget cuts over the next decade.   read more

Of the 646 DFI’s, robberies caused 117 of them, making it the largest category. The next largest category was domestic violence incidents that turned deadly, which occurred 84 times. Third were “personal conflict” situations in which a disagreement between friends got out of hand. These totaled 76. Way down the list were DFIs that were provoked by religious bias, which occurred 36 times (7%).   read more

His leadership of the Energy Initiative has drawn criticism from environmentalists and others because large fossil fuel companies gave up to $25 million each to the Initiative, which has released reports supportive of fracking, nuclear energy and other non-renewable technologies. Moniz has served on the boards of directors of or as an advisor to enriched uranium company USEC (2002-2004), BP (2005–2011), and General Electric (2006-present).   read more

ICE agents reportedly told Edwards that they believed they were supposed to go along with “Fast and Furious” because the Office of the Assistant Attorney General asked an ICE investigative unit in Arizona to stop its investigations into weapons smuggling that could have disrupted ATF’s operation.   read more