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

A group protesting a proposed purchase of environmentally sensitive Everglades land from U.S. Sugar Corporation was found to be actors from a nearby theater group. The “protesters” were asked via Facebook to show up last Thursday at South Florida Water Management District headquarters in West Palm Beach. The actors were offered $75 (but “NO BREAKFAST”), according to the posting.   read more

In July 2012 Delawie returned to Washington as deputy assistant secretary for European security, technology and implementation verification in the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, where he still serves as he awaits Senate confirmation to the Kosovo post. There he’s responsible for the Offices of Euro-Atlantic Security Affairs; Verification, Planning, and Outreach; and the Nuclear Risk Reduction Center.   read more

The 4-second recording contains information related to negotiations between the U.S. government and South Vietnam connected to the war. The NSA claims the brief recording, if released, “would reveal information that would impair U.S. cryptologic systems or activities.” Historians say the snippet probably refers to former President Johnson's threat to expose an illegal effort by the Nixon presidential campaign to sabotage the Paris peace negotiations on ending the war in Vietnam.   read more

The worms have been shown to sniff out stomach, colorectal, colon, esophageal, pancreas, bile duct, prostate, breast and lung cancers and correctly diagnose it 96% of the time, which researchers say is better than a blood test. “In existing tests, people must have different examinations according to the type of cancer they have,” study author Takaaki Hirotsu said. “Our odor-based test detected all nine types of cancer we tested.”   read more

Correctional officer Robert Johnson was the target of an unsuccessful murder-for-hire by a prison inmate. Johnson and his wife, who witnessed the shooting, sued nine telecommunications providers, including AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, claiming they should be held partly responsible for allowing the calls that arranged for the shooting. But the court said that would mean the cell phone providers would have had to stop the calls and, in doing so, violate federal law.   read more

The Oregon House and Senate are considering similar bills that would prohibit giving antibiotics to healthy animals and force factory farms to report how they’re using the drugs. Such operations around the country give low doses of antibiotics to animals who are not sick. Rather they are used to promote growth and to combat diseases they might contract from being held in tight quarters filled with excrement.   read more

Brandon joined ATF in 1989 in the Detroit field division and continued to spend much of his career in Detroit. Brandon was brought before a House committee hearing in February 2014 to testify about botched storefront sting operations performed by ATF. He admitted that putting a gun-buying shop to serve as bait for drug and gun traffickers across the street from a middle school in Portland, Oregon, was “a mistake.”   read more

The agency’s environmental impact statement warned drilling could have serious negative effects on the region, with a 75% risk of a large oil spill in an area where it would be virtually impossible to clean up. And yet, Interior officials decided to allow the drilling to go ahead. “Our Arctic ocean is flat out the worst place on Earth to drill for oil,” said Niel Lawrence. “The world’s last pristine sea, it is both too fragile to survive a spill and too harsh and remote for effective cleanup.”   read more

Questions of legality surface since nonprofits like Right to Rise are supposed to operate independent of a candidate’s campaign. It will be able to collect unlimited contributions from individuals and corporations without disclosing their identities. “This is going to be an avenue for dark money," said Public Citizen's Craig Holman. And what kind of impact it will have on fundraising during the 2016 race? "Others are going to copy it in short order,” predicted FEC attorney Ken Gross.   read more

Angie’s List, a popular website that crowd-sources ratings for services, has halted its expansion in Indianapolis. The impact: $40 million and 1,000 jobs. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the largest labor unions in the country, has decided not to hold its women’s conference planned for October in Indianapolis. The impact: $500,000. The NCAA, which oversees major college sports, said it might reconsider hosting events in Indiana in response to the law.   read more

The SEC ruled that KBR’s actions had the potential to intimidate workers from reporting allegations of fraud. This was done “by requiring its employees and former employees to sign confidentiality agreements imposing pre-notification requirements before contacting the SEC,” said SEC's Andrew Ceresney. Former KBR employee Harry Barko had sued the contractor, accusing it and Halliburton of inflating the cost of a military supply contract for U.S. bases in Iraq.   read more

The local city council voted unanimously to approve an ordinance that protects atheists in the areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations. They now join the city’s long list of protected classes that include sex, race, religion, color, age, disability, gender identity, and political beliefs. “This is important because I believe it is only fair that if we protect religion, in all its varieties, we should also protect non-religion from discrimination,” said sponsor Anita Weier.   read more

The requirement was included in Senate Bill 1318, approved this week by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey. “It has no data behind it, absolutely no science to show that this is an effective method," said Dr. Ilana Addis.“If ever there is an example of Legislative overreach, this would be it," said Dr. Eric Reuss. "There is absolutely no evidence-based data that the [medication abortion] process can be reversed. If passed, our state government will force physicians to impart hearsay to their patients.”   read more

“Better-informed patients are more likely to take better care of themselves, comply with prescription drug regimens and even detect early-warning signals of illness,” said Steve Lohr. Some hospitals are starting to see the wisdom of letting patients access their records online. Not all hospitals have embraced data sharing. “The problem is that you have institutions whose business models do not favor sharing information, either with other hospitals or patients,” said professor Ben Shneiderman.   read more

Governor Andrew Cuomo had promised the new ethics measures would clean up the state legislature. But the state’s top law enforcement official said, “It is hard to see how these changes in the law will have any meaningful effect on public corruption.” Among other things, the changes don’t address a loophole in state law that permits businesses to give large campaign donations as smaller gifts in an effort to disguise who’s giving the money.   read more

At least three major financial institutions—Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs—have separately said wind and solar power projects won’t be deterred by cheap oil. Financial experts say petroleum and renewable energy are more exclusive of one another than many people realize. Oil is vital for automobiles and home heating, but provides only 1% of the electrical generation in the U.S. Solar, wind and hydropower, however, contribute to 12% of the electricity on the grid.   read more