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

The Department of Homeland Security, in 2003, issued an emergency alert to its air marshals of a possible hijacking on a commercial flight--“a more ambitious, broader-scale version of the 9/11 plot.” But within 48 hours, one of those marshals, Robert MacLean, received a text message from TSA cancelling overnight missions, in order to save money on hotel lodging. Outraged, MacLean reported it to TSA’s IG but it led nowhere. So he leaked the story to MSNBC and , in return, got fired by TSA.   read more

“Four people lost their lives and their families lost loved ones because DuPont did not have proper safety procedures in place,” said David Michaels. Despite the tough words, OSHA proposed a fine of only $99,000 for the violations. Considering DuPont generated $34.7 billion in revenue last year, the fine won’t amount to so much as a blip in the company’s annual report. In response to the OSHA citation, DuPont's Aaron Woods insisted that “safety is a core value and constant priority at DuPont.”   read more

A report from Service Employees International Union shows that 19.3% of all franchises purchased with SBA loans from 2006 to 2010 have failed. That failure rate has increased over time; loans originating from 1991 to 1995 failed 12.7% of the time. Two franchises with the highest failure rates are Golf Etc., at 49.6%, and All Tune and Lube at 41.6%. Purchasers of those two franchises were almost even money to go down the tubes, costing the taxpayers thousands of dollars.   read more

A report from the Society of Actuaries shows that the most popular “preference-sensitive” procedure undergone by new Obamacare subscribers is knee replacement surgery. A preference-sensitive procedure is one without which a patient can continue for some time, although their quality of life can be improved with the operation.   read more

Evuna Andeme is not an ordinary citizen; his father, Alejandro Evuna Asangono Owono, is minister of state and his sister, Mari-Cruz Evuna Andeme, is ambassador to the United Kingdom, is the president of the country. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo’s government is known as one of the most repressive in the world.   read more

The PTC system could have saved the lives of the seven who have died so far as a result of the Philadelphia accident. Amtrak has gotten no help from Congress in making its lines safer. The morning after the crash, the Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee actually voted along party lines to cut funding to the passenger rail line by about 20%. And a bill proposed in March by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) would delay the PTC implementation deadline to 2020.   read more

The House Appropriations Committee has denied funding to the Congressional Research Service (CRS) to make its reports available to the taxpayers who pay for those reports. CRS’s talents lie in dissecting policy issues without regard to the ideological biases of those making its budget. Former CRS analyst Kevin Kosar wrote earlier this year that their reports are often not respected by Congress. "Lawmakers ignored our work or trashed us if our findings ran contrary to their beliefs,” he said.   read more

While Chinese companies are enjoying the benefits of buying up parts of U.S. companies, they’re also taking advantage of their country’s “firewall,” behind which corporate parents hide when their U.S. subsidiaries misbehave. Even serving Chinese companies with legal papers is challenging, with U.S. subsidiaries denying they have a connection to their Chinese parent companies. Some companies even claim immunity from U.S. law.   read more

A pregnant Missouri woman seeking an abortion is fighting the mandatory three-day waiting period imposed by that state’s Republican-dominated legislature. Her argument uses one of the right wing’s favorite claims—the violation of her sincerely held religious beliefs. “The potential is for this case to be a lot broader than Missouri,” said Doe’s attorney. “Many states have 24-hour waiting periods and five states have 72-hour waiting periods. I can envision similar suits being brought elsewhere.”   read more

In 2010, there were 3,036 deaths in the U.S. involving heroin overdoses, a rate of 1.0 per 100,000 population. By 2013, the number had jumped to 8,257, a rate of 2.7 per 100,000. The demographics of the overdose victims have changed almost as dramatically. In 2000, African-Americans aged 45-64 had the highest rate of overdose deaths. By 2013, it was whites aged 18-44 who predominated. Men were far more likely to overdose than women.   read more

To agents in the FBI's Houston office, the targeted demonstrators were environmental extremists. The spying began in early 2013. For as many as eight months, the FBI monitored members of the protest group Tar Sands Brigade. Brigade organizer Ron Seifert said dozens of campaigners were arrested in Texas for protest-related activity but none was accused of violent crime or property destruction. The FBI has said the investigation was an “administrative error.”   read more

The Navy has decided the special fund created just to launch new subs now can be used to build new aircraft carriers, too. The Navy is already spending more money every year through its regular budget of $130 billion than either China or Russia does on their entire armed forces, according to POGO’s Jacob Marx. But the Navy wants to pay for its 12 new SSBN(X) ballistic missile subs outside regular funding channels.   read more

“Because the entire file has been kept secret, it’s not possible to know why Roberts, who is the chief judge of the D.C. circuit, has let Zubaydah’s case languish,” ProPublica reported. “But this much is clear: Keeping Zubaydah from telling his story is exactly what the CIA wanted from the moment it began to torture him." According to a CIA cable, the tortured and waterboarded Zubaydah is supposed to “remain in isolation and incommunicado for the remainder of his life.”   read more

Two whistleblowers who worked for DaVita renal clinics in Georgia accused DaVita of dumping renal care supplements down drains so it could overcharge Medicare and Medicaid. The judge said the company at least led the plaintiffs astray by not correcting the false testimony and at worst “purposely manipulated the evidence and witnesses to hide the truth from the (plaintiffs) and the court.” The whistleblowers will share in a quarter to a third of the $495 million settlement.   read more

Petraeus, who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan before running the CIA, fell from grace when he was caught giving diplomatic and military secrets to his biographer and then-lover, Paula Broadwell. A coalition of media groups has now asked the judge in the case to release his written reasons for the punishment. Petreaus’ attorney has agreed to turn over a media-requested sentencing memo, but wants one sentence blacked out. It’s unknown what the sentence says.   read more

The Obama administration has approved another request from Shell to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean. Environmentalists object, saying an oil spill in the oft-frozen waters could result in an ecological tragedy that could exceed the 2010 disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. “Not only does it put the Arctic’s pristine landscapes at a huge risk for oil spills...but it’s utterly incompatible with President Obama’s rhetoric to address the climate crisis,” said the Center for Biological Diversity.   read more