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 drop saved $11.9 billion in healthcare costs, according to the March of Dimes. The uninsured rate for women fell from 20.1% to 19.8% and it’s likely to drop further with the enactment of the Affordable Care Act. Smoking among women fell from 20.8% to 20.5%. Another cause of preterm births is the practice by some of medically unnecessary inductions or Caesarian sections, which have also fallen slightly from 8.1% to 8.0%.   read more

Seed companies Monsanto and Dow spent $8 million to try to defeat a proposal that would ban cultivation of genetically modified organisms in Maui County, Hawaii, in this month’s general election. The initiative passed anyway and now the seed companies are suing to prevent its enforcement. Monsanto and Dow unit Mycogen Seeds use acreage on the islands of Maui and Molokai, both part of Maui County, to research and develop new strains of genetically modified corn.   read more

She left federal service in 2003 to become a consultant for International Trade and Sustainability Services. She did some work for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and later came on board as a full-time employee of the organization as managing director for international policy. In 2011, Haverkamp was made director of EDF’s International Climate Program, remaining in that role until 2014, when she left to do consulting work and lecture in the law at George Washington University.   read more

On September 8, 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Michele Thoren Bond, a career Foreign Service officer, to head the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs. Bond has been leading that office since April 2014 on an acting basis. In 2010, Bond was named ambassador to Lesotho. She returned to the United States in December 2012 to take up the post of principal deputy assistant secretary of state for consular services, where she served until being named acting director.   read more

Lockheed Martin for years has been running one of the government’s most important nuclear research facilities, Sandia National Laboratories. Five years ago, its lucrative contract with the Department of Energy (DOE) was coming to an end, so Lockheed started to lobby officials to win an extension. That lobbying included using some of the money paid by DOE for Lockheed to run Sandia. Under federal law, this is a big no-no. But Lockheed did it anyway.   read more

The indictment says Donald Blankenship turned a blind eye to hundreds of safety violations “in order to produce more coal, avoid the costs of following safety laws, and make more money.” It charges he ordered miners “not to construct certain ventilation controls that would produce more reliable airflow because constructing them diverted time from coal production.” Federal investigators concluded that the explosion that killed the 29 men was preventable.   read more

For the past five years, the Corporation for National and Community Service has been putting out a report on reports produced by federal agencies. Seeing this effort and others like it as a waste of taxpayer money, House members unanimously adopted HR 4194, which calls for eliminating the report on reports as well as the Dog and Cat Fur Protection report and 46 other reports. The cost savings from the move is estimated to be about $1 million a year.   read more

Schneider grew up around politics. His father, John, was a North Dakota state legislator and speaker of the house who was subsequently appointed to be the state’s U.S. attorney by President Bill Clinton. Schneider left the North Dakota legislature in November 2009 to become state director of USDA Rural Development in North Dakota, a post he held for five years.   read more

O’Brien left Iowa in 2006 to become the assistant director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture. He left to work on the Obama for President campaign in 2008 as rural vote director for Obama for Ohio. After the election, O’Brien was brought into the Obama administration, first as chief of staff for Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, then as senior advisor to a fellow Iowan, Secretary Tom Vilsack. In 2011, O’Brien was named deputy under secretary for rural development.   read more

Consumer, environmental and worker safety regulators in Washington are supposed to ensure the concerns of small businesses are included in rulemaking. But increasingly federal agencies are instead giving too much weight to the voices of large corporate interests that have “hijacked” small business representation. The EPA, OSHA and CFPB have allowed trade associations and corporations they represent to “capture” small business review panels that are there to help the little guy.   read more

State Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley accused Brownback of not telling the voting public the truth about his tax policies as he campaigned for a second term. “He knew all along that his policies were going to bankrupt the state,” Hensley told reporters. “There are some very, very difficult choices ahead for the Legislature. They’re going to have to cut school funding. They’re going to have to raid the highway fund. They very likely will have to cut social services.”   read more

André Shepherd had come to the conclusion that the U.S. war in Iraq was wrong, and that his support for Apache attack helicopters contributed to war crimes because they dropped bombs "indiscriminately—and increasingly catching civilians in the crossfire.” So Shepherd left his post and appealed to the German government for asylum. That request moved closer to becoming a reality after a European Court adviser cited European law as covering asylum requests for someone like Shepherd.   read more

Element Electronics has marketed itself as an American-owned company that sells the only American-assembled television in the country. That pitch has won it relationships with Walmart, Target, Sam’s Club and other businesses. But Element has reportedly outright lied about its TVs being made in this country. For starters, the sets are made in China. They’re then shipped to Element’s facility in South Carolina, then shipped off to stores.   read more

“The hard truth remains that people wake up in the morning and turn on their televisions — and political groups know this,” said Kantar Media's Elizabeth Wilner. “Good Morning America” proved the most popular with campaigns, which bought time for nearly 30,000 Senate ads there during the 2014 election cycle. “Today” and “CBS This Morning” came in second and third, respectively. “Wheel of Fortune” fans were subjected to 20,000 election ads, and “Jeopardy!” viewers 18,000.   read more

At least three nations have deployed missiles that can destroy enemy positions without any guidance from human operators. “An autonomous weapons arms race is already taking place,”said physicist Steve Omohundro. Norway has the Joint Strike Missile, which can lock in on targets without human control. The Pentagon is testing Lockheed's Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, but officials won’t say if it can attack on its own. Many fear autonomous weapons will make warfare more likely or destructive.   read more

As President Barack Obama works to establish policies to limit climate-changing emissions through federal regulatory actions and an international accord with China, Republicans are determined to use their new congressional power to stymie those efforts. While the EPA moves to strengthen limits on smog-causing ozone and reduce coal ash waste by power plants, Republicans may throw a wrench in Obama’s environmental plans by trying to cut off EPA funding.   read more