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 concerns weren’t enough for U.S. officials to turn down Tel Aviv’s request for more military assistance, specifically 120mm tank rounds and 40mm illumination rounds for grenade launchers. Washington received the request on July 20 and three days later approved the munitions release from a special stockpile in Israel known as the War Reserve Stockpile Ammunition-Israel. The U.S. set up the little-known arsenal several years ago in case of need by U.S. or Israeli forces.   read more

Insisting the change will reduce the risk of food poisoning cases, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will let poultry companies inspect their own processing lines, instead of maintaining the current system of federal inspectors doing so. The switch will leave the industry responsible for spotting and removing diseased chickens and turkeys, as well as fecal matter from areas where birds are prepped for shipping to food producers.   read more

According to O’Connell, her supervisor, Mark Lewis, told her in 2013 not to hire Latino employees. He later came to O’Connell’s store and saw a Hispanic employee, Feliciano Romero. “Didn’t I tell you not to hire Hispanics?” Lewis allegedly said to O’Connell, who is suing Taco Bell.   read more

Colvin has been serving in the job in an acting capacity since February 14, 2013. One of her major decisions in her current job was to halt collection of decades-old Social Security overpayments from beneficiaries or their descendants. Some people found their refunds from 2013 income taxes attached to settle overpayments of which they had no knowledge and derived no benefit. In April, Colvin halted the collections.   read more

In 2007, Haney moved to Pzena Investment Management as principal and director of business development and client services. In 2013, he was made a director of the firm. Haney donated $30,800 to the Obama Victory Fund for the 2008 election and $75,800 to the group in the 2012 cycle and has given to other Democratic races as well. In December 2013, he was named a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.   read more

The nation’s most famous fast-food chain may now become infamous for being held responsible for the operations of its franchises and even liable for labor violations involving minimum-wage workers. McDonald’s found itself on the losing end of a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board, whose legal counsel rejected the company’s—not to mention the industry’s—longstanding defense that individual franchise owners are at fault for any legal or labor troubles, not the parent corporation.   read more

“Instead of firing someone, you force them out of government through criminal investigations or actual prosecutions that affect their prospects for future federal employment,” said Tom Devine. “It’s a dangerous, scary trend that’s likely to get worse. All a criminal investigation takes is one bully to give the suspect the third degree. The threat of jail [to a whistleblower] has a more chilling effect."   read more

A tanker loaded with Iraqi oil has been sitting off the coast of Texas, a floating pawn in an international game of chess, intrigue and subterfuge involving the government of Iraq, the U.S. State Department and federal court system, and the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan inside Iraq. The Kurdish tanker, carrying more than one million barrels of crude oil, has so far refused to dock, given the risk of being seized by order of a federal judge.   read more

The FBI's resumption of its investigation into tainted forensics evidence was ordered by the Office of the Inspector General, which made some alarming discoveries. Among other things, the IG discovered that three defendants had been executed and a fourth died on death row during the five years it took the FBI to reinvestigate 60 convictions that may have been tainted by improper conduct on the part of federal agents.   read more

The Dept. of Defense has announced it may ship 5,000 Hellfire missiles to Iraq, which its air force can fire from jets or aircraft such as the Cessna Caravan. The deal is valued at about $700 million, which is good news for Hellfire’s maker, Lockheed Martin. The Iraqi military welcomed the news, having used up its supply while fighting the incursion of Islamic militants. Human rights advocates were dismayed by the deal due to Iraq's indiscriminate airstrikes in rebel territories.   read more

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Delhi this week as Washington tries to reset ties with India. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected in May, the U.S. found it had to do business with a leader to whom it had denied a visa in 2005 over anti-Muslim riots. So the U.S. finds itself in an awkward position. This is unfortunate since both countries are natural allies: both are democracies, targets of Islamic terrorism, and worried about China’s rise.   read more

After weeks of media coverage about the influx of unaccompanied children into the U.S., a strong majority of Americans say the young immigrants should be treated as refugees, and not like undocumented adults. A survey revealed 69% of respondents felt that the children should remain as refugees “if authorities determine it is not safe for them to return to their home country.” Eighty-three percent of Democrats, 66% of independents and even 52% of Republicans agreed.   read more

The EPA has been faulted by a federal watchdog agency for failing to properly oversee hundreds of thousands of underground wells involving hydraulic fracturing. A new report by the GAO said the EPA has inconsistently performed safety inspections of fracking wells. EPA has also failed to maintain proper records for the wells and has not updated its guidelines for dealing with the fracking boom in the oil and gas industry.   read more

For the majority, Judge Gerald Tjoflat wrote: “The Act simply informs physicians that inquiring about a private matter irrelevant to medical care isn’t part of the practice of good medicine and that...a physician may face discipline for [doing that].” Judge Charles Wilson dissented, saying “a gag order that prevents doctors from even asking... about firearms” is unacceptable. Doctors must have the discretion to decide when gun conversations are relevant, he added.   read more

If you can fight fire with fire, then why not fight big money with big money in the world of elections? That’s what a coalition of liberals, Republicans and wealthy donors have decided in creating a super PAC called Mayday, which plans to spend millions of dollars to reduce the influence of big donors in campaigns. Two of the super PAC’s founders are Lawrence Lessig, co-founder of Creative Commons, and Mark McKinnon, former adviser to President George W. Bush.   read more

For the second consecutive month, a major social media website has admitted to manipulating its users, all in the name of Internet experimentation. In June, it was Facebook, which said it had deliberately changed its news feed to 700,000 people to gauge their emotional response. Users did not respond well to the news. Now, it’s the popular dating site OKCupid, which revealed that it had conducted experiments on its members.   read more