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

House Republicans and President Barack Obama have demonstrated how much they value the importance of government transparency. As part of their budget compromise averting a federal shutdown, the two sides agreed to slash funding for government in...   read more

America’s patent system has always been based on the first-to-invent principle, meaning whoever creates something new gets the right to sell it and profit from their work. Now, Congress is seriously considering replacing this historical system w...   read more

More than 80,000 workers operate Japan’s 18 nuclear power plants, but nearly 90% of them are not employees. Those manning the complex, potentially dangerous facilities are contractors who receive varying levels of pay and benefits, depending on ...   read more

The $38 billion budget compromise that averted a government shutdown contained numerous political victories for Republicans, as well as some chicanery to help inflate the GOP achievement.   For instance, lawmakers can claim they cut $5 billion f...   read more

Instead of collecting their federal pensions in their forties or fifties, congressional lawmakers would have to wait until they reach the Social Security retirement age, under legislation introduced in the Senate.   “It’s time for members of C...   read more

Leaders of the Seminole Indians have demanded a personal apology from President Barack Obama after military lawyers involved in tribunals for Guantánamo detainees compared the actions of the Florida tribe’s ancestors to al-Qaeda.   In 1818, Gene...   read more

Maikel Nabil Sanad, a blogger who publicly criticized the military regime governing Egypt, has been sentenced to three years in prison, raising concerns about the future of democracy in the Middle Eastern country.   Nabil became the first blog...   read more

Wanting no part of the state’s new open-primary law, leaders of the Idaho Republican Party successfully sued to keep their nominee-selection process closed to all non-GOP voters. Now, even though it was Republican legislators who changed the sys...   read more

Described as “exceptional” by one international research organization, U.S. military expenditures in 2010 continued to eclipse those of all other nations, even growing powerhouse China.   Last year, China spent an estimated $119 billion on its...   read more

Life is very, very good for executives atop America’s leading corporations.   An examination by The New York Times of CEO salaries at 200 major companies revealed the median compensation in 2010 was $9.6 million. This amount was 12% higher tha...   read more

Scientists in Australia have created what they say is the world’s first index listing those species most in danger of becoming extinct.   The Species Ability to Forestall Extinction (SAFE) index was established in the hopes it will save some a...   read more

Affter 10 unsuccessful tries, U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) is hoping this year will be the one to pass legislation that expands protection for whistleblowers. But one senator is secretly standing in his way.   The “secret hold” is a pr...   read more

“A king is a mouth that does not lie.” -Swazi saying   The next pro-democracy uprising in Africa may take place in Swaziland, the small landlocked nation surrounded by South Africa. There, King Mswati III has ruled for decades, amassing wealt...   read more

Having given up years ago on mining its own rare earth minerals, leaving it vulnerable to Chinese imports, the United States now finds itself in a potentially precarious position of not having the necessary materials for important military weapo...   read more

National Public Radio (NPR), accused of having a liberal bias and threatened with losing its federal funding, has received less money from Washington than Liberty University, the evangelical school founded by the late Reverend Jerry Falwell.   ...   read more

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wants oil and mining companies doing business overseas to reveal payments (read: bribes) they’re making to foreign governments. Not surprisingly, the industry is fighting the new federal requirement, ...   read more