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

President Obama has said since he entered office that transparency was a priority for his administration. But his own bureaucratic “right hand” has failed to live up to the expectations set for other agencies. The White House Office of Budget and Management (OMB) is in charge of ensuring government agencies make their operations open to the public. OMB has been criticized, though, for not updating its own guidance on transparency. Its last update was in 2010.   read more

DaVita, the leading provider of dialysis services in the United States, agreed to pay two of the largest settlements: $450 million to resolve allegations that it knowingly generated unnecessary waste in administering the drugs Zemplar and Venofer to dialysis patients and billed the government for costs that could have been avoided; and $350 million for paying kickbacks to physicians to induce patient referrals to its clinics.   read more

Defendants are shown videos resembling game shows where court concepts such as a bailiff and juries are discussed. There are mock trials where patients can see how a trial works and quizzes on the process. When they’re deemed able to understand the process, defendants are returned to jail. There, they often lose access to the medication that made them lucid enough to appear in court. That can cause them to begin the process over for subsequent court appearances.   read more

McKesson, which made $6.2 billion providing healthcare services and information technology, paid the most in penalties: $2.05 billion for 24 instances of misconduct. Its biggest single penalty was in 2005, when it paid $960 million to members of a class action suit in connection with accounting improprieties in a company acquired by McKesson. It paid $150 million earlier this year because of reporting problems for controlled substances. The company has been led since 2001 by CEO John Hammergren.   read more

Blau conducted a year-long investigation into the financing of the settlements. He found 50 pro-Israeli settlement nonprofits aided by U.S. donors had funneled more than $220 million to Jewish communities in the West Bank from 2009 to 2013. The organizations spent the money, much of which was tax-deductible, on everything from air conditioners to supporting the families of convicted Jewish terrorists.   read more

“America’s next president could be eased into office not just by TV ads or speeches, but by Google’s secret decisions, and no one—except for me and perhaps a few other obscure researchers—would know how this was accomplished,” Epstein wrote. “Research I have been directing in recent years suggests that Google, Inc., has amassed far more power to control elections—indeed, to control a wide variety of opinions and beliefs—than any company in history has ever had."   read more

Until eight years ago, Missouri had one of the country’s toughest gun control laws. But in 2007, the state legislature repealed that law and has since adopted others making gun ownership less restricted. Federal data released last month showed that from 1999 to 2006, Missouri’s gun homicide rate was 13.8% higher than the national rate. After the background checks were repealed, from 2008 to 2014, it was 47% higher.   read more

Parent Kimberly Herndon said the assignment amounted to “indoctrination” and that it violated the students’ right of religious freedom. Not all members of the community were as quick to condemn LaPorte. A Facebook page supporting the teacher had more than 2,000 members. “As a community, it is up to us to defend a teacher who is not in the wrong and deserves our support as she supported a great number of us through our high school years,” Grace Zimmerman, a former student of LaPorte’s, posted.   read more

The Observer has stopped running pot ads in its issues it mails. “The ban could have a chilling effect on newspapers that deliver by mail,” wrote Willamette Week. “The outdated federal approach to marijuana as described in the response from the Postal Service undermines and threatens news publications that choose to accept advertising from legal marijuana businesses in Oregon and other states where voters also have freely decided to legalize marijuana," said three Oregon politicians.   read more

“It’s outrageous that lawmakers are interfering with the most modest measures to increase disclosure of political spending,” said Public Citizen's Lisa Gilbert. “The American people want – and deserve – to know who is trying to buy our elections.” The budget deal also includes another Republican-supported rider designed to prevent the SEC from moving forward with a regulation requiring disclosure of political donations by public corporations.   read more

One message was sent out on Thunderclap, a social media tool that allows sharing on a wide scale. That message, which reached 1.8 million people at once, read: “Clean water is important to me. I support EPA’s efforts to protect it for my health, my family and my community.” The GAO ruled the message illegal, according to the Times, because during its subsequent sharing across the Internet, some may not have known it was originally sent by the EPA, thereby qualifying it as covert propaganda.   read more

Agrabah is a fictional city in the Disney movie, "Aladdin." The question’s insertion into the survey was inspired by the “extreme rhetoric” of Republican presidential candidates in the debates and on the campaign trail. “Anything that sounds Arab might make these [respondents] think of people who might associate with terrorism,” Mayhew told MTV News. “It also relates to the fear people are feeling and it speaks to the fear that the right is playing to with their campaigns.”   read more

The one thing that historically has held back women in the armed forces is that not all jobs were open to women, especially spots in combat units which are seen as a prerequisite for promotion. But Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s announcement that all jobs are open equally to men and women changed that and women should soon see a clearer path to advancement. The Coast Guard offers a two-year sabbatical to encourage mothers to stay in the service.   read more

Humboldt Superior Court will receive a $110,000 loan from the California Judicial Council to help pay for 24 homicide cases. Eighteen of them are currently headed to trial. The county usually averages 11 murders a year. Many of the pending trials are for homicides that occurred in 2014, when Humboldt experienced 16 murders. That was the highest number in the county in at least 30 years.   read more

Jane, a retired science teacher, said the solar technology might interfere with nearby plants’ ability to carry out photosynthesis. “She added that no one could tell her solar panels didn’t cause cancer,” the Huffington Post reported. Lane said Woodland had already approved three major solar farms within the past year, and that the decision to reject the fourth had more to do with space and location because it “would have completely boxed the town in with solar farms.”   read more

A review of more than 50 contracts found "the vast majority have provisions that block accountability and protect officers from being investigated, indicted, and ultimately convicted,” ThinkProgress reported. They include the expungement of internal records and the use of a “do not call” list of officers who cannot testify, which can “impede the effective investigation of reported misconduct and shield officers who are in fact guilty of misconduct from meaningful discipline,” said the study.   read more