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

Saudi Arabia’s attacks on Yemeni rebels were made possible by F-15 fighter jets purchased from Boeing, while the UAE air force has hit ISIS in Syria using F-16s made by Lockheed Martin. The UAE also wants General Atomics’ Predator drones “to run spying missions in their neighborhood.” More weapons deals are expected as the Saudis and Emirates, plus Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Egypt seek to “buy thousands of American-made missiles, bombs and other weapons."   read more

Detaining tens of thousands of immigrants each day in the U.S. has been good for two private prison operators: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group. The two companies are responsible for imprisoning the majority of the 34,000 immigrants who must be locked up daily, per a federal quota established by Congress five years ago. CCA and GEO operate eight of the 10 largest immigrant detention centers and 72% of the privately contracted federal immigrant detention beds.   read more

“If F-35 aircraft are employed at night for combat, pilots will have no night vision capability available due to the restriction on using the current night vision camera,” Michael Gilmore, director of operational test and evaluation at the Defense Department, said in written testimony. In contrast, the 1970s-era A-10 Thunderbolt, known as the Warthog, can remain over a battlefield for up to 90 minutes and augment its four air-to-ground missiles with fire from a cannon in its nose.   read more

A report released by CAP and The Wilderness Society says that a fifth of the greenhouse gases emitted in the United States come from fossil fuel extraction on public lands. Jewell also said that the oil and gas industry, which has been less than forthcoming on the dangers of fracking, particularly about what kinds of chemicals are being injected into the ground, should reassure Americans that fracking is safe.   read more

President Barack Obama claims that “Before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured—the highest standard we can set." But a report written by the Open Society Justice Initiative, after it examined nine drone strikes in Yemen, shows the opposite. In those attacks, 26 civilians, including five children, were killed and 13 more wounded.   read more

Auditors found that nearly all examiners are graded “above average” on performance evaluations, entitling them to bonuses averaging more than $6,000 per year. The report also outlined “patent mortgaging,” a practice in which examiners submit incomplete work to gain credit. This is supposed to be treated as misconduct, but often isn’t, the inspector general found. Another practice, “end-loading,” is when examiners wait until the end of a quarter to submit reports.   read more

One of the plaintiffs, Abel Edwards, was fined $500 by Judge Joshua C. Bell for burning leaves in his front yard. That fine by itself appears to be steep for such an offense, but after Red Hills’ fees were added on, it totaled more than $1,000. The probation company demanded $250 up front and had Edwards was kept in jail several days until a friend came up with the money.   read more

When Hurricane Ivan moved through the Gulf in September 2004, it caused a landslide that buried wells owned by Taylor Energy Co. Ever since then, those wells have been steadily sending a ribbon of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. While Taylor has claimed the leak has released as little as 4 gallons of crude a day into the Gulf, and the Coast Guard has spotted sheens averaging 84 gallons a day, some estimates of the total leak are far larger, running as high as 900 gallons a day.   read more

The Media Confidentiality Act, signed into law April 9, expands the state’s shield law by closing a loophole that allowed state and local governments to contact Internet service providers and social media sites to obtain reporters’ emails, notes and other confidential information. The new law was supported by nearly all of the state’s lawmakers, passing the Montana House by a vote of 90-7 and the Senate by 47-1.   read more

Part of the reason for African-Americans’ lower breastfeeding rate has to do with the inability of many in that group to work in situations where it’s easy to breastfeed. “These are common barriers to breastfeeding because you can’t access jobs where you might have a maternity leave, or can negotiate a private space to pump, or feel you are able to nurse at work,” said Monique Sims-Harper, director of A More Excellent Way Health Improvement Organization.   read more

The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office charged Domanik Green, an eighth-grader at Paul R. Smith Middle School in the town of Holiday, with an offense against a computer system and unauthorized access, a felony, after Green accessed the system on March 31 with a password he’d seen the teacher type in. Green then substituted the teacher’s screen background with a picture of two men kissing.   read more

A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that use of e-cigarettes among middle school and high school students tripled from 2013 to 2014. “This is a really bad thing,” CDC Director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, told The New York Times, noting that research had found that nicotine harms the developing brain. “This is another generation being hooked by the tobacco industry. It makes me angry.”   read more

Police are able “to stop and search people immediately based on nothing more than a gut reaction to the way someone looks or acts," said Salon. “Grand Rapids police are riding roughshod over the Bill of Rights by using these letters as a blank check to arrest anyone they don’t believe ‘belongs’ in a neighborhood. Any one of us who pulls into a gas station in Grand Rapids to check a map or make a phone call could be arrested under the GRPD’s illegal policy," said the ACLU.   read more

The many provisions of HB 2258 include a long list of ways welfare recipients cannot spend their assistance money. These include such questionable provisions as telling benefit recipients in land-locked Kansas that they can’t take cruises. They’re also forbidden from spending TANF money at movie theaters, swimming pools and massage parlors. That there’s no evidence that any significant number of benefit recipients spend money this way doesn’t appear to matter to Kansas politicians.   read more

The report found that nine of the 10 largest immigrant detention facilities are operated by for-profit prison corporations, which operate 62% of immigrant detention beds. Some lawmakers have been adamant about keeping the quota in place, and even objected when DHS released some immigrants from the centers. Two years ago, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) informed ICE that it was “in clear violation of statute” for not maintaining all 34,000 bed spaces following the release of 2,000 individuals.   read more

Two North Carolina judges who resigned rather than perform same-sex marriages want their old jobs back—and still want to be allowed to decline performing weddings they say are at odds with their religious beliefs. Breedlove and Holland filed a suit April 6, asking to be restored to their jobs, for back pay and credit toward retirement. But they also want an unspecified “accommodation” that will keep them from having to marry same-sex couples.   read more