President Donald Trump invited the Dodgers to the White House. Many of their fans feared that the team, by accepting, would humiliate themselves and betray the team’s large Latino, Asian and African-American fan base. Dodgers controlling owner Mark Walter, along with co-owner Magic Johnson, have proposed a solution. Trump has promised that if he can keep the championship trophy, the Commissioner’s Trophy, he will end all seizures and deportations of immigrants.   read more

He got a taste of Washington life when he interned for Sen. Ted Kennedy. He later worked for Rep. Wayne Dowdy, a fellow Millsaps graduate. In 1988, Dowdy tried to make the jump to the Senate with Pittman running his campaign, but they lost to Republican Trent Lott. Pittman did a tour in Iraq, serving as deputy director in the Governance Office of the Coalition Provisional Authority for an eight-month period. He came home in 2007 for what turned out to be a long stay in Washington.   read more

In 2007 Peterson served as cultural officer in Abuja, Nigeria. In 2009,she was made deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Yaounde, Cameroon, serving at times as chargé d’affaires. She was brought home in 2012 to serve as director of the Office of Multilateral and Global Affairs in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Much of her work there focused on the treatment of LGBT people in other countries. She held that post until her nomination as ambassador.   read more

NHTSA and automakers have come under harsh criticism on auto safety issues from Congress and others in the wake of General Motors' delayed recall of 2.6 million vehicles for ignition switch defects linked to 124 deaths. Since then, the NHTSA has made a series of reforms and pledged to make more improvements. The agency has pressured automakers to recall more vehicles more quickly - and imposed record-setting fines. As a result, last year's recall campaigns numbered the most in U.S. history.   read more

Murray had thought of studying art, but a little sibling rivalry changed that. Her brother John, a physics student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told Cherry that she wouldn’t be able to handle the physics curriculum at MIT. She decided to prove him wrong. She earned her bachelor’s degree there in 1973 and went on to earn a Ph.D. in physics, also at MIT, in 1978.   read more

In 2005, Darling went to work for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, initially as an environmental and land-use counsel, as well as its privacy administrator. He was promoted in 2009 to be deputy chief of staff and assistant general counsel for the authority. Darling went to Washington in 2012 as chief counsel for the FMCSA. He was made acting administrator two years later upon the departure of Administrator Anne Farro.   read more

From 2003 to 2004 he served as the elected Chairman of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force against drug trafficking and money laundering.   read more

Darius-Clarke is from Castries, Saint Lucia’s capital. She was educated at St. Joseph’s Convent and later earned a B.A. at the University of the West Indies, an M.A. at the University of Manchester and another M.A. at Durham University. Darius-Clarke is a management consultant and for more than 20 years has been an educator, most recently on the faculty of Monroe College’s Saint Lucia campus. Darius-Clarke’s husband, Leo Clarke, is general secretary of the ruling Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP).   read more

The accident occurred to a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile assigned to the 90th Missile Wing in northern Colorado, the Air Force reported. The missile was damaged while the airmen were troubleshooting a problem with a diagnostic test. An investigation found that the maintenance team chief did not follow the technical guidance, said the Air Force. The team chief and two of his airmen were decertified but returned to duty after being retrained and certified.   read more

Since the beginning of the campaign, 120 allegations of civilian casualties had been received, 87 of which were deemed not credible. This latest news brings the total number of civilians likely killed to 16. In one case an air strike targeting 16 bridges likely killed a civilian driving a truck with a trailer, said Central Command. In another case, a secondary explosion from a vehicle near the intended target probably killed a civilian. Four others were wounded in strikes in Syria and Iraq.   read more

Bergdahl's legal team has been monitoring statements by the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination as possibly affecting their client's right to a fair trial. Fidell said the defense has compiled an eight-page log of "some of the various appalling comments that Mr. Trump has made in an effort to – it's like a lynch mob actually – to incite ill will and vilification of Sgt. Bergdahl. [Trump] may wind up facing a defamation case down the road,"   read more

Cigna had "widespread and systemic failures" that prevented patients from accessing medical services. and it didn't handle complaints and grievances properly from patients who had been denied coverage, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. Officials also found Cigna didn't handle its requests for prior authorization and exceptions as it should have. These deficiencies posed "a serious threat to the health and safety of Medicare beneficiaries" and followed years of noncompliance.   read more

Many managers and staff dealing with emissions problems in the department knew of or were involved in developing the "defeat devices." A culture of collective secrecy prevailed, where the installation of the defeat software that would cause the carmaker's biggest ever corporate crisis was openly discussed as long ago as 2006. VW has said it is not aware of any involvement by top management in the affair, which toppled its chief executive last year and is likely to cost billions of dollars.   read more

U.S. security officials intercepted a record 2,653 firearms - 83 percent of them loaded - from carry-on bags at airport security checkpoints in 2015, a 20 percent increase from the previous year, TSA said on Thursday. The firearms were intercepted at 236 airports, 12 more than in 2014, TSA said. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport seized the most guns in 2015 with 153, followed by international airports in Atlanta with 144, Houston with 100, Denver with 90 and Phoenix with 73, TSA reported.   read more

Susan Hedman, the second official to resign over the crisis, had played down an EPA memo that said tests had shown high levels of lead in the city's water, telling Flint and Michigan administrators it was only a draft report. "Our strength can become a weakness if we interpret our responsibility as ending with simple technical compliance," said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. The White House said President Obama will ensure officials will be held accountable if any wrongdoing is found.   read more

To help the incumbent's chances at Sunday's poll, Prime Minister Abe's government has dangled prospects of a bigger budget for Okinawa, backing for a Disney resort and aid for impoverished children. Defeat would galvanize resistance to moving the airbase to the less populated Henoko area as agreed with the U.S. two decades ago. The opposition candidate, like Okinawa's governor and many island voters, resents hosting the majority of U.S. troops in Japan and wants the base off Okinawa altogether.   read more

One cause Jackson took up was a fight against cholera. He coordinated the installation of 100 latrines in Cameroon to provide decent sanitation. He also worked to promote trade between that country and the U.S. Jackson testified to Congress on multiple occasions about the Boko Haram kidnapping of girls in Nigeria. He said in an interview that he’d wanted to join the Foreign Service since he read “The Ugly American” as an eighth-grader.   read more