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

The news of what went on within the section was nonetheless bad for Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney general for DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, who is reportedly President Barack Obama’s choice for labor secretary. In his current capacity, Perez has overseen the Voting Section, and details from the IG’s report could be used against him during confirmation hearings, if he is nominated.   read more

That email, written by EPA lawyer Geoffrey Wilcox, suggested various ways to derail FOIA requests. "One of the first steps is to alert the requestor that they need to narrow their request because it is overbroad,” wrote Wilcox, “and secondarily that it will probably cost more than the amount of $ they agreed to pay."   read more

Information that the government would use to vet passengers would include data that individuals have volunteered through trusted traveler programs. But some of the information would come from the Department of Homeland Security, which has agreed to edit out some of the information it has, such as meal preferences.   read more

Another Democrat, Representative Gary Ackerman of New York, who retired this year after 20 years in the House, led the list of biggest givers by handing out $147,633.34 as going-away presents. A Democrat may have headed the list, but the next nine next biggest givers were all Republicans.   read more

In May 2010, the lawyer, Anthony Trujillo, discovered the Wells Fargo typo in its original letter to Delassus, which listed the parcel number of a neighbor. The bank acknowledged the mistake in September 2010, but had already tacked on a reinstatement fee and other costs. Delassus was hospitalized in May 2011, suffering from the rare liver disease Budd-Chiari Syndrome, and was notified on the day he got out that the bank had sold his home of 16 years.   read more

The United States poured more than $50 billion into reconstructing Iraq after blowing a lot of it up during the war. But the mess that the U.S. created transcended buildings and infrastructure that were demolished—it also made a mess of accounting for how the money was spent, and as a result wound up losing at least $8 billion.   read more

Pharmaceutical and technology companies were most likely to take advantage of U.S. laws that help them avoid taxes on earnings overseas by creating foreign subsidiaries and then shifting patents and marketing rights to these subsidiaries. Prime examples were Pfizer, Merck and Johnson & Johnson, and Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and Apple.   read more

In 2009, the number of ex-soldiers waiting more than a year for their VA care totaled 11,000. By December 2012, the list had ballooned to 245,000 veterans, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting. Those filing for the first time who live in major urban centers can wait more than 600 days before they receive help. In New York City, the delay can be 642 days, and in Los Angeles 619.   read more

In the statement filed in a Maryland federal court, the Justice Department said all individuals—not just credentialed photojournalists—have a First Amendment right to record law enforcement officers performing their duties. The department added that Americans are protected under the Fourth and 14th Amendment from having their recordings seized without a warrant or due process.   read more

34% of U.S. households possessed guns, according to a new national survey. But only 4.4% of Americans (13.7 million) went hunting, based on data collected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Much more often, Americans buy guns for self-defense, although two-thirds of gun-related deaths were suicides.   read more

Manchin was recently dubbed the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, according to National Journal. OpenSecrets.org went even further in assessing Manchin’s political standing, claiming the first-term senator is the only member of Congress who enjoys higher ratings from Republicans than from those in his own party.   read more

Until now, the government has relied on the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), a joint resolution passed by Congress three days after 9/11, which served as the legal basis for hunting down Osama bin Laden and other leaders of al-Qaeda. But the AUMF limited military action against terrorists to anyone connected to the 9/11 attacks.   read more

Gen. Franklin—who is not a judge and did not attend Wilkerson’s trial—has the power to overturn the verdict because he is Wilkerson’s commander. Under the military’s bizarre system of law, Franklin is not required to explain his decision, which is final—it cannot be reviewed or overturned, not even by the secretary of defense or the president.   read more

The court, which decides appeals arising from nine Western states, ruled that border agents must have at least a “reasonable suspicion” of criminal wrongdoing in order to seize electronic devices and perform forensic examinations of them—the first court to apply any restriction to the so-called “border exception” to the Fourth Amendment.   read more

The 14 near misses at 16 reactors detailed by the report that took place in 2012 include an electrical failure that compromised the cooling system and required a manual reactor shutdown at the River Bend Station near St. Francisville, Louisiana (10 mile radius pop.: 41,244); a cooling water leak at the Palisades plant near South Haven, Michigan (pop.: 34,103); and equipment failures at the Byron plant near Rockford, Illinois (pop.: 36,110).   read more

Many people might find it weird that Venezuelans embalmed Hugo Chávez and put him on public display. However Americans have not been immune from preserving the bodies of the deceased. Here are eight examples: two criminals, a hobo, a baseball player, two horses, an elephant and a gorilla.   read more