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

Selfie fatalities exceed shark attack deaths by 33% this year. Tragedies include people falling off cliffs or being hit by trains while trying to incorporate danger into their images. A Cessna pilot, distracted while taking selfies, lost control of his plane, killing himself and his passenger. People have been shot to death when guns they held to their heads for selfies accidentally discharged. A musician died in a traffic accident while snapping selfies as he rode his motorcycle.   read more

The inquiries relate to the use of a Polish intelligence base from 2002 to 2003 to question terrorism suspects, using so-called enhanced interrogation techniques—or torture. One request was for an unedited copy of the U.S. Senate report on CIA torture. Former Polish president Kwaśniewski, publicly admitted his country was asked to provide a “quiet location” for questioning suspects following the September 11 attacks. But he claimed no authorization was given for the harsh treatment of detainees.   read more

The Norwegian operators of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault were asked for some seeds back by officials with the ICARDA, which was based in the Syrian city of Aleppo until the war broke out. Now operating in Beirut, ICARDA had submitted 325 boxes of seeds to the vault. It informed Svalbard that 130 boxes containing 116,000 samples are needed. The seeds include samples of wheat, barley and grasses. Researchers requested the seeds after the gene bank near Aleppo was damaged in the war.   read more

Twenty-five walruses, including 12 babies, were found dead last week on a remote shore in Alaska. Officials suspect poachers may be to blame. The carcasses were spotted near Cape Lisburne, about 50 miles north of Point Hope in the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. The animals showed signs of being shot, and many had their heads removed. Poachers prize walrus tusks for their ivory, leading to suspicions that the animals were killed intentionally.   read more

“‘Happy Birthday’ is finally free after 80 years,” said attorney Randall Newman. “Finally, the charade is over. It’s unbelievable.” Royalties from the song were often collected from stage productions, TV shows, movies and greeting cards. “But even those who wanted to sing the song publicly as part of a business...technically had to pay to use the song," wrote the L.A. Times. Warner/Chappell has collected as much as $2 million a year from royalties it charged for use of the song.   read more

Gilligan was the inspiration for the film “Arsenic and Old Lace” after she was convicted of poisoning a resident of a nursing home she ran in Windsor. She was originally charged with five murders, including that of her second husband, and may have been responsible for dozens of others. She was confined to a psychiatric hospital from 1924 until she died in 1962. The court stopped the release of 200 pages of psychiatric records related to Gilligan. Author Robillard had requested their release.   read more

The suit claims the court system has thrown defendants, mostly poor, in jail with no date of hearing or release. Those arrested for unpaid fees are subject to a $20,000 bond. “Despite longstanding Supreme Court precedent that the government cannot imprison people just because they are poor, New Orleans officials routinely use jail...to collect court debts from thousands of the City’s poorest people,” the suit says. “The result is an illegal...modern debtors’ prison."   read more

Those who are eligible will work 20 hours a week and receive half their pay and half their retirement annuity. But at least 20% of their work time has to be devoted to mentoring other employees so someone is in a position to take over once they fully retire. “The idea is to keep talented employees with valuable institutional knowledge on the job a little longer so they can train other workers, while they also enjoy a partial retirement,” Kellie Lunney wrote at Government Executive.   read more

Judge Soble found Gerawan had given preferential treatment to workers, allowing them to pass out literature during the workday but preventing the union from distributing its own materials. UFW claimed Lopez “received a $20,000 donation from the Fresno-based California Fresh Fruit Association to assist with ‘travel expenses.’ Sobel cited Gerawan’s complicity: ‘There is powerful circumstantial evidence to suggest that the company knew about this donation beforehand."   read more

The number of banged-up players was quite high even before the Week 2 games. There were 234 players hurt before teams played their second games of the season. This total included 40 knee injuries, 12 concussions and two neck injuries. Then, Week 2 was played and another 16 players went down. All were taken out of their games. A report released last week found that 87 of 91 deceased NFL players studied were found to have suffered from a brain disease linked to repetitive brain trauma.   read more

The IRS says it struggled to keep up with the call volume in light of the budget cuts imposed by the Republican-controlled Congress this decade. The agency has endured five consecutive years of budget reductions that have stripped $1.2 billion from its operations. The cuts have forced the IRS to eliminate more than 18,000 full-time and seasonal positions while it has had to deal with a growing number of taxpayers filing returns and new responsibilities created by the Affordable Care Act.   read more

The raping of boys bothered many soldiers. Those that took action to stop it have been punished by the military. Dan Quinn, a former Special Forces captain, was relieved of his command after he beat up an American-backed militia commander who kept a boy chained to his bed as a sex slave. “The reason we were here is because we heard the terrible things the Taliban were doing to people,” Quinn said “But we were putting people into power who would do things that were worse than the Taliban did...”   read more

VW used a computer algorithm to fool emissions testing equipment on hundreds of thousands of cars since 2009. EPA's Cynthia Giles said the cars emit as much as 40 times the level of pollutants allowed under law, posing a public health threat. “The software was designed to conceal the cars’ emission of nitrogen oxide, a pollutant that contributes to the creation of ozone and smog, which are linked to a range of health problems, including asthma attacks...and premature death,” said the Times.   read more

After acquiring Daraprim, Shkreli jacked up the drug’s price overnight from a per-tablet price of $13.50 to $750. The move could result in some patients paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for the drug. Turing’s 5,000% price increase could potentially bring the company tens or hundreds of millions of dollars per year in sales. Some hospitals may now have difficulty keeping the drug in stock due to its cost, resulting in treatment delays for patients.   read more

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 that the city can allow gun owners to be fingerprinted and photographed, complete a firearms safety training course and pay specified fees. The ruling also requires rifles and shotguns be registered along with handguns. The court approved fingerprinting, along with the $35 fee charged by the city, because the judges said it can keep people from obtaining firearms by using a counterfeit driver’s license.   read more

The groups argue the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, established in 1929, should replace its Summary Reporting System (SRS) with the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) within the next five years. A gradual transition from SRS to NIBRS has already been in progress, but the coalition is urging the agency to set its sights on a complete changeover within that time frame. Currently, more than 6,500 law enforcement agencies, representing 34 states, regularly report to NIBRS.   read more