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

Each year, more than 73,000 diabetics in the U.S. have to have limbs or appendages amputated. Some of these surgeries could be prevented if Heberprot-P, a drug developed and produced in Cuba, is approved by the FDA. Heberprot-P has been around for nine years in Cuba, where it has helped numerous people avoid amputations resulting from diabetic foot ulcers. American researchers hope the U.S. will allow the drug to undergo clinical trials once trade normalization takes effect.   read more

High-deductible plans are becoming increasingly common. According to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2006 10% of workers were enrolled in a plan with a deductible of $1,000 or more. By 2014, that number had increased to 41% of workers. Smaller firms had an even larger percentage of workers covered by high-deductible policies. In companies employing fewer than 200 people, the numbers went from 16% in 2006 to 61% last year.   read more

Children can get a free lunch through the National School Lunch Program if their family is at or below 130% of the federal poverty rate. They get reduced-price lunches, costing no more than 40 cents, if their family income is between 130% and 185% of the poverty rate. In 2013, 51% of children qualified for free or reduced-price lunches. That’s up from 38% in 2000. Mississippi leads the nation with 71% of its children eligible for the school lunch program.   read more

2014 was the warmest year recorded since 1880, when weather records began to be kept. The average temperature was 0.69 degrees C (1.24° F) warmer than the average 20th century temperature. Had you been hoping for a white Christmas? Chances are, you didn’t have one. No state capital had snow cover on December 25 for only the second time since 1946.   read more

A study by the nonprofit advocacy group Public Citizen says the U.S. lost nearly 5 million manufacturing jobs following the adoption of 16 free trade agreements. U.S. food exports have stagnated while U.S. food imports have more than doubled in the wake of the agreements. They have been especially difficult on family farms. About 170,000 small family farms have gone under since NAFTA and the 1995 WTO (World Trade Organization) agreement took effect, down 21%.   read more

A month after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said it did not have an objection, in principle, to Indian tribes growing marijuana on their trust-held land, Mendocino, California’s Pinoleville Pomo Nation announced it was building a $10-million greenhouse facility on its 99-acre rancheria in Ukiah. . FoxBarry Cos. LLC announced that it was putting up $30 million as part of the United Cannabis deal to develop the growing facilities.   read more

The Justice Department program called “Equitable Sharing” was part of the War on Drugs and allowed police departments to confiscate personal property deemed to be connected with a drug crime, share a fraction of it with the federal government and keep the balance for use within the department. Because the program did not require police to prove any connection between the property owners and any criminal act, it was, from the beginning, open to law enforcement abuse.   read more

Those living at or below the federal poverty level had a victimization rate of 39.8 per 1,000, while those with high incomes had a rate of only 16.9. The pattern was consistent between whites and blacks, with poor members of both races suffering more than their better-off counterparts. The one anomaly was among Hispanic populations. For them, the victimization rate was about the same regardless of income.   read more

On June 10, 2006, three prisoners were found hanging in their cells. The base commander, Rear Admiral Harry Harris, said not only were the deaths suicides, but were orchestrated to make the United States look bad. “I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us,” he said. Now Staff Sgt. Joseph Hickman, who was on duty the night of the deaths, has called the official version of events “impossible.”   read more

In accepting the job at the SEC, to which she was sworn in in April 2013, White pledged to wait a minimum of two years before handling any matters affecting a former employer or client. But, according to the waiver, the agency seemed to believe that it could not do without White’s expertise on Simpson Thacher, which represents “a large number of entities regulated by the [SEC] and appear before [it] regularly.”   read more

Christians laud Serra for his tireless, impassioned efforts to convert Indians to the faith. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1988. Others see the forced, if not brutal, denial of their native faith in a different light. The missions have been likened by critics to religious forced labor camps rather than churches.   read more

A new scientific study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says large-scale deaths of fish, birds and invertebrates increased over a 72-year period from 1940 to 2012. Researchers came to this conclusion after reviewing the records of 727 “mass mortality events.” The “good news” is that the number of die-offs for mammals remained about the same, while those involving amphibians and reptiles actually went down during the period under study.   read more

Valerie Deant, a sergeant in Florida’s National Guard, went to the Medley Police Firearms Training Center for her annual weapons certification when she noticed a familiar face on one of the targets riddled with bullets: her brother, Woody. Woody Deant served four years in prison last decade for taking part in a fatal drag race, but has since has gotten his life together. He was 18 when the booking photo was taken 15 years ago.   read more

Newly-elected Republican Governor Doug Ducey signed legislation Thursday that moved from committee to his desk in one day and was the first bill he signed as governor. It will apply to students graduating in 2017. The test will be the one administered by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to prospective citizens. Students will have to get 60 out of 100 questions correct to receive a passing grade.   read more

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that the United States wanted to increase bilateral trade with India to $500 billion a year, a five-fold jump from $97 billion in 2013. He was in India for a two-day visit to set the stage for U.S. President Barack Obama's visit later in the month. This is the first time that a U.S. president has been invited to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations on January 26.   read more

In 2007, Tavares was made head of the Asia and Oceania Department of Bilateral Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His first ambassadorial posting came in 2011 when he was sent to represent Angola in Ottawa, Canada. On August 24, 2014, Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos appointed Agostinho Tavares da Silva Neto to be his ambassador to the United States.   read more