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

Somalia has finalized its ratification of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The U.S. is now the world’s only country that has not done ratified this human rights treaty, which promotes and respects the human rights of children. Barack Obama backs the treaty but has not sent it to the U.S. Senate because conservatives oppose it.   read more

At the recent state dinner held in honor of Chinese President Xi Jinping many diners paid $1 million to be on the guest list. The dinner was packed with big-money donors to political campaigns and organizations. The total contributions made since 2007 by that evening’s dinner guests amounted to nearly $19 million.   read more

The percentage of those working or looking for work is at 62.4%, the lowest since October 1977. The index peaked in 1997 at 67.2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Participation is even lower among those in their prime earning years, from 25 to 34. That number is now at 80.6%, down from 84% in early 2008.   read more

Eric Seth Rubin was nominated Sept. 15, 2015, to be U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria. He joined the Foreign Service in 1985 and showed expertise on Eastern Europe. In 2008 he became deputy chief of the Moscow mission. In 2011, he came back to the U.S. to serve at the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, where he was at the time of his nomination.   read more

Victims of domestic violence are often reluctant to call police for help, and a new survey indicates why: most are afraid police won’t believe them or that calling them will make things worse. The survey, involving more than 600 respondents and published by the National Domestic Violence Hotline, found more than half agreed with a statement that reaching out to law enforcement “would make things worse.”   read more

Rise for Youth, which consists of civil rights, religious and fiscal-reform activists, wants Virginia schools to stop using the justice system to handle minor misbehavior, and hopes to reduce the number of kids being sent to youth prisons in the state, which is the nation's leader in juvenile arrests and incarceration.   read more

Families of 9/11 victims trying to sue Saudi Arabia for its involvement in the 2001 terror attacks have lost their case again in federal court. For the second time, a federal judge rejected the plaintiffs’ longstanding claim that the Saudi government and a Saudi charity, the Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia & Herzegovina, should be able to face civil charges that they supported the terrorists who carried out the attacks.   read more

PG&E said the water drained when workers doing routine maintenance removed some brush and materials from a clogged outlet valve. California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) requires that a minimum amount of water be released from the dam to keep fish alive in Hamilton Branch. There are also logging interests downstream. There wasn’t a lot of water in the reservoir before it went dry (maybe 170 acre feet), but folks were fishing in it the week before.   read more

Feinberg worked on Obama’s 2008 campaign and transition team. After the election, Emanuel brought her into the White House as his senior advisor. She left government service in 2010 to be Bloomberg’s Director of Communications and Business Strategy. The following year, Feinberg decamped for Facebook as its director of corporate and strategic communications. She returned to the Obama administration in 2013 as chief of staff to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.   read more

Even patients who are receiving hospice care and are near death are reported to have received the maximum amount of therapy. Between 2010 and 2013, about 110,000 patients died within five days of receiving ultrahigh therapy. If after such therapy “a large number of people are ending up in a hospice, that’s not a good outcome,” said professor Brant Fries, and “if you have lots of people who are dying, it doesn’t make any sense why you’re giving them rehab.”   read more

Since 2006, nearly 500 women have been charged with endangering their unborn children. Women who may have taken a sleeping pill a few days before giving birth have been swept up by the law, as have those who have falsely tested positive for drugs. “If hospitals are not informing their patients about what their drug-testing policies are, particularly when those results are used to involve law enforcement in their patients’ lives, that is an unconstitutional act,” said advocate Sara Ainsworth.   read more

Argentina wants Stiuso handed over, and Fernandez’s government has warned the Obama administration that its lack of cooperation in the matter could jeopardize the two countries’ relationship. “We ask ourselves sometimes: ‘Is the United States ready to allow the bilateral relations between it and Argentina to worsen for a man they all say has no importance, no strategic value for the United States?’” said Anibal Fernández, Argentina’s cabinet chief of staff.   read more

The newly formed German-based Intelexit has launched a PR campaign to lure employees of the NSA and the British GCHQ “in from the cold” and to stop spying. Intelexit has put up billboards outside offices run by both agencies to let their employees know they’re here to help. Intelexit has also handed out fliers outside the NSA’s Fort Meade, Maryland, headquarters. The information will tell employees where they can get support and counseling if they choose to leave the agency.   read more

The EPA has updated the Steam Electric Power guidelines, which have not changed since 1982, to include restrictions that prevent 1.4 billion pounds of toxic metals and other pollutants from reaching waterways annually. Federal regulators are targeting 64,400 pounds of lead, which has been linked to developmental and reproductive problems, and 79,200 pounds of arsenic, a known carcinogen. EPA estimates that compliance costs for the rule will total around $480 million per plant.   read more

Four national polls have shown that the majority of Americans favor the continued federal funding of Planned Parenthood, despite attacks from conservative lawmakers in the wake of the release of phony videos about the organization’s practices. Republicans in Congress have demanded the cutoff of all funding for Planned Parenthood, and even threatened to shut down the government if they don’t get their way. Such a move would run counter to the views of most Americans.   read more

Of 400 oncologists surveyed, nearly 50% said they had been informed how to identify patients who might be prospective donors. Some doctors were even promised a cut of the action: payments if a patient made a donation. Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center, said the practice of asking doctors to help raise money raises ethical issues. “Patients may be emotionally vulnerable; doctors have very close ties to their patients, which can strain asking on both sides."   read more