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

Home to the city of Houston, Harris County has carried out more death penalty cases than any other county in the country. Since 1976, the year capital punishment was reinstated in the U.S., 122 people convicted in Harris County have been executed. Part of the reason was that its former District Attorney, Johnny Holmes, prosecuted many cases as capital murder. In the 21 years he was in office up to 2000, his office got more than 200 death sentences.   read more

In the cases of nude model photos, some of the plaintiffs say the models “may have specifically consented to being photographed by the photographers, but not specifically to being distributed by said booksellers,” according to Sarah Jeong. “This law puts us at risk for prosecution,” said Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore. “There are books on my shelves right now that might be illegal to sell under this law.”   read more

Either the Department of Veterans Affairs has again demonstrated some shady record keeping or it has a zombie problem on its hands. According to VA records, former Marine Jordan Buisman rescheduled his medical appointment four days after he died. He died of seizure disorder, the condition for which he sought treatment 24 days before the appointment. “I’m extremely troubled to hear reports that [VA] records may have been doctored. This is an unacceptable tragedy,” said Senator Al Franken.   read more

Since Barack Obama—winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize—has become president, the U.S. military has bombed Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Iraq and now Syria, all predominately Muslim countries.   read more

It is estimated that about 300,000 American children in the 2012-2013 school year were homeless while attending school, according to a new report.   read more

The United States has finally agreed with most nations of the world that landmines need to go. But the new policy has a loophole in it the size of the Korean peninsula.   read more

The Department of Homeland Security is a wreck internally, making its job of thwarting terrorism and other threats that more difficult because of low employee morale and high turnover.   read more

Viviana Janer worked at Marriott Vacations Worldwide for 11 years as an internal auditor. But that came to an abrupt end this month after she won the Democratic primary for the Osceola County Commission’s District 2 seat. Her superiors told Janer she had a choice: keep her job, or quit the race. She chose to stay in the race.   read more

The director of national intelligence, James Clapper, said recently that Khorasan represented a more direct threat than IS. Clapper for the first time named the group’s leader, Muhsin al-Fadhli, a Kuwaiti who, as a young man, worked closely with Osama bin Laden during the plotting of the 9/11 attacks.   read more

Gonzalez, a former military sniper, had 800 rounds of ammunition in his car at the time of his attempt to find President Barack Obama. Gonzalez said he wanted to tell the president that the “atmosphere was collapsing” so he could warn the nation. His vehicle also contained a machete and two hatchets. Gonzalez left all these weapons behind when he climbed the White House fence, and was carrying only a small pocket knife when the U.S. Secret Service apprehended him.   read more

In the lawsuit that was originally filed 10 years ago, the 297 plaintiffs cited the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act (pdf), which for the first time was successfully used to hold a financial institution responsible for knowingly supporting terrorism efforts. They claimed Arab Bank supported Hamas by handling transfers and payments for the group. And they did so despite a “high” burden of proof, which entailed proving Hamas was behind 24 suicide attacks.   read more

When television writers or screenwriters need some expert advice for a medical storyline, they turn to Hollywood, Health, and Society, a private group of experts funded by the federal government’s leading health research agency. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides up to half a million dollars a year to Hollywood, Health, and Society, which has been advising the entertainment industry for 13 years.   read more

In a lawsuit filed by the Oglala Sioux, plaintiffs claim the lack of an election office on reservation land has forced Pine Ridge tribal members to travel at least 27 miles to Kadoka to register for voting and to vote. And that’s the struggle for Sioux who own a car. Federal census data reportedly shows 25% of reservation residents have no access to an automobile.   read more

Former members of Congress and aides to the president have been left wondering what happened to the arms-reduction version of Obama who took over the Oval Office. Former Democratic Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia, whose positions favoring nuclear disarmament reportedly meant something to Obama at one time, told the newspaper that the president’s new position is “hard to explain.”   read more

The U.S. averaged 16.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere for each individual—a rate that’s far ahead of all other nations. China, the second largest per-capita polluter, averages 7.2 metric tons. The U.S. emission rate had slowed because of increased use of natural gas in power generation, but coal has recently made a bit of a comeback in that role, causing more carbon to flow into the atmosphere.   read more

The Los Angeles Police Department received more than 1,600 M16 assault rifles even though the LAPD was under the supervision of a federal monitor until just last year following accusations of excessive force, false arrests and unreasonable searches. Warren, Ohio, reached a settlement in 2012 with the U.S. Department of Justice for excessive force and illegal searches, but is expected to receive 30 M16 rifles.   read more