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

From October 4 to November 28, a “Free Weibo” app was available on the Chinese version of Apple’s online “App store,” allowing users to access the uncensored, but government-blocked “Free Weibo” website, which for about a year has been documenting the messages censored from Sina Weibo.   read more

Cantor Fitzgerald reached a settlement last week of its 2004 lawsuit against American Airlines over Cantor’s business losses arising from the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center. Cantor lost 658 of its 960 New York employees when terrorists flew an American Airlines jet into the center’s north tower, where its headquarters was located.   read more

The bill, introduced by Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) and Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma), would cap funding for the portraits at $20,000 per painting. Another provision says taxpayer money can only be spent on portraits of those officials who are in the line of succession for the presidency (that being the vice president, the speaker of the House, the president pro tempore of the Senate and cabinet members).   read more

The cross has been around in one form or another 100 years and the target of litigation for the past 24 years. The first cross was erected in 1913, stolen and replaced in 1923, then burned to the ground by the Ku Klux Klan after a black family moved into the area. A new cross was erected in 1934 but was blown down by high winds in 1952. It was replaced in 1954 with a 29-foot cross on a 14-foot-high base that remains there to this day.   read more

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, ruling the paragraph he called “8(h)(i)” was really just a badly indented “8(i),” interpreting the “(i)” as a lower case letter “I”. “The printer simply made mistakes in the indentation of the two subparagraphs placed within paragraph 8(h), which the lawyers who proof-read the documents overlooked,” the court concluded.   read more

A new CBS News poll shows 49% support stricter gun laws. Only 12% backed easing regulations, while 36% preferred keeping laws as they are. An AllGov examination of The New York Times’ data revealed that 18 states approved changes that only loosened regulations; 12 states adopted laws that only tightened regulations; and 9 states passed laws that both loosened and tightened regulations.   read more

The stings were lauded by ATF in recent years for arresting violent criminals and making communities safer. But agency leaders left out stories like that of Aaron Key, whom ATF agents paid $150 to get a large tattoo of a squid on his neck to help promote their phony storefront operation at Squid’s Smoke Shop in Portland, Oregon. Key, who is mentally disabled, went along, got the tattoo, and later was arrested by ATF.   read more

The lieutenant signed a written decree crafted by child welfare officials in which he admitted to causing “moderate harm” towards his daughter. This conclusion led to the officer’s name being added to Virginia’s State Child Abuse and Neglect Registry (pdf). He was barred from seeing his children until they turned 18. The matter was reviewed by the Navy. But commanders determined no punishment was warranted, and the officer eventually received a promotion.   read more

Megan McLemore, HRW’s senior health researcher and the report’s author, said in a prepared statement, “People who use drugs can’t get clean needles, and police are confiscating condoms from sex workers and those suspected of sex work, such as transgender women.”   read more

The focus of the legal and diplomatic controversy is Edgar Tamayo Arias, 46, who shot and killed 24-year-old officer Guy Gaddis on January 31, 1994, while being escorted to jail following a robbery. Tamayo was in the U.S. illegally, but still had the right to contact the Mexican Consulate after being arrested. But Texas never informed him of this right, which put the U.S. in violation of an international agreement: the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.   read more

The transit police officer injured the ring finger—of his non-shooting hand—seven years ago while target practicing at a shooting range. Using a staple gun to secure his target to its mark, Onesti accidentally put a single staple in his digit. the state decided he was “totally and permanently disabled.” This meant he could no longer handle a gun or perform duties as a New Jersey Transit cop. And yet, he still visits the shooting range, firing an Austrian-made sniper rifle.   read more

Among married women ages 40 to 44, about 6% had no children of any kind (biological, adopted or step kids) from 2006 to 2010, according to the National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University, which examined figures from the National Survey of Family Growth. Six percent may not sound like a big number, but experts told the Los Angeles Times that the figure was still significant, statistically speaking, given that the rate was only 4.5% in 1988.   read more

Akuetteh served two straight stints as embassy deputy chief of mission, first at the embassy in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from 2005 to 2007, and then at the embassy in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, from 2007 to 2009. From 2009 to 2011, Akuetteh was the director in the Office of Central African Affairs, and from 2011 to 2012, she was the director in the Office of Europe, Middle East and Africa in the Bureau of Energy Resources.   read more

FDA officials claimed a voluntary approach would be the quickest way to implement the rules. Michael Taylor, the FDA’s top food safety official, told the media that making compliance mandatory would have created “legalistic, product-by-product regulatory proceedings that would take years to complete.” It is estimated that 23,000 Americans die every year from antibiotic-resistant infections.   read more

ALEC boasts having members in statehouses throughout the United States. But in two states—Iowa and South Dakota—it has managed to sign up every single lawmaker, according to documents from an ALEC board meeting on August 6. The South Dakota legislature’s executive board, in April, voted for the state’s treasury to pay the $100, two-year ALEC membership dues for all 105 lawmakers, as well as the cost of unlimited out-of-state travel to ALEC meetings for those who are ALEC committee members.   read more

The Obama administration spent $486 million to purchase the aircraft, which were supposed to comprise 15% of the Afghan Air Force. A key problem was that the planes couldn’t handle the heat and dust of Afghanistan’s environment, which caused numerous maintenance troubles and prevented them from flying. Davis said the Air Force tried to sell the aircraft to another country, but couldn’t locate any buyers. So now they will be dismantled for parts.   read more