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

St. Louis has not controlled its police force because of an 1861 law that created a state board to oversee the city’s law enforcement, even though the police department is funded primarily by city taxes. But this arrangement will end at the conclusion of the current fiscal year after voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition A on Tuesday. The measure will turn police authority over to city’s Department of Public Safety.   read more

More than half of the 11 propositions on the California ballot yesterday appeared courtesy of wealthy individuals who had a vision and the cash to shape the focus, by and large, of the state’s political discourse over the past six months. Only two of the six appeared to have won their contests, and they were arguably the most progressive of the bunch. Three of the other five measures, put on the ballot by the state or a member of the public lacking mega-bucks status, appeared to have won.   read more

On Wednesday morning, Husted’s office announced that 199,403 provisional ballots and up to 116,678 absentee ballots won't be counted for another 10 days and that Lorain County had not yet reported its number. In 2008, 80% of provisional ballots were ultimately approved for inclusion in official vote totals.   read more

One-sixth of all retired representatives and senators (79 of 463, or 17%) currently earn at least $100,000 from their pensions, according to the Federal Times. Among the six-figure Congressional pensioners are former Senator Bob Dole (R-Kansas), former Senator Trent Lott (R-Mississippi), ex-Representative Dick Gephardt (D-Missouri) and ex-Representative Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia).   read more

Last Friday, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform released via YouTube a one-minute video slamming the Obama administration for overspending federal dollars on state dinners. Committee spokesman Seamus Kraft said the video was “fully consistent with House rules and did not incur any additional taxpayer expenditures for its production.” He did not explain why he chose to use the word “additional.”   read more

The company has been around for only a month, and operates out of a private home. The only person associated with it is its registered agent, William S. Rose Jr., a lawyer with a disconnected phone number, according to The Center for Public Integrity. Rose issued a press release on Monday explaining that Specialty is involved in “real estate ventures and investments.”   read more

Last year, the maker of the iPhone paid only 1.9% in taxes on profits generated outside the United States. In terms of actual dollars, Apple paid $713 million in taxes on $36.87 billion in foreign profits. Its tax bill was considerably higher in the U.S., where the corporate tax rate is 35%. However, the company’s effective tax rate in 2011 was less than 10%. Critics noted that while Apple did not break any laws or even use tax loopholes .   read more

The IG reported that company supervisors had distributed copies of test questions and answers to guards before the exam. WSI-OR’s actions were described as “inexplicable and inexcusable” in the IG’s report. This is not the first time the contractor was caught cheating. Eight years ago it was revealed that Y-12 guards knew when mock assaults were going to take place to test their readiness and response. As a result, the guards responded in impressive fashion to the fake attacks.   read more

Out of 1,041 requests since 2008, the president has pardoned only 22 people, for a rate of 1 in 50. In comparison, Ronald Reagan pardoned 1 of every 3 applicants, George H.W. Bush 1 in 16, Bill Clinton 1 in 8 and George W. Bush 1 in 33. The chance of having a sentence commuted by Obama is 1 in 5,000. Under George W. Bush, it was about 1 in 1,000. Under Reagan and Clinton, it was 1 in 100.   read more

The revelation came about as a result of a lawsuit claiming that fracking and the storage of resulting wastewater in southwestern Pennsylvania had contaminated water supplies near the Range Resources drilling site and sickened seven people. Those being sued are 17 companies, including Range Resources, which is a leading developer of natural gas in Pennsylvania.   read more

Glybera, which corrects errors in a person’s genetic code, will be available next year, now that the European Medicines Agency has approved its sale. The treatment will cost about 1.2 million euros ($1.6 million) per patient. The company’s goal is to gain the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval for the drug by 2014.   read more

The clock is running on Barclays for the bank to show U.S. regulators that it shouldn’t be fined a record $470 million for manipulation of California’s electricity markets. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) accused Barclays of making trades in the energy market that it purposely lost money on in order to make huge profits on investments in a related derivatives swaps market.   read more

After a gas pipeline in San Bruno, California, exploded in flames, killing eight people and leveling a neighborhood, a federal investigation laid the blame at the feet of pipeline owner Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) but included lax state oversight as a contributing factor.   read more

On the eve of votes in Richmond and El Monte, California, on taxation of sugar-sweetened sodas, a new study says if the tax were applied statewide, the danger of diabetes and heart disease would plummet and be most acutely felt among the ethnic groups at highest risk.   read more

The Southeast Asian nation of Malaysia has sent a career diplomat to serve as its next ambassador to the United States, replacing a political appointee, Datuk Seri Dr. Jamaluddin Jarjis, who served in Washington for two-and-a-half years.   read more

A report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) concluding that tax cuts for the wealthy have not yielded economic growth but have contributed to growing economic inequality was quashed by Republican senators unhappy with its conclusions.   read more