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

JLENS, manufactured by defense contractor Raytheon, is essentially a blimp 75 yards in length that carries sophisticated radar and lenses that can see 320 miles in any direction, while hovering about 10,000 feet above the earth.   read more

The Pentagon is refusing to release the names of the enemies the U.S. is currently fighting on the grounds that the information is classified. A Pentagon spokesman told the journalism website ProPublica that revealing the list could cause “serious damage to national security” by allowing listed organizations to use their inclusion to inflate their importance, “build credibility … [and] strengthen their ranks.”   read more

During a two-year period ending December 31, 2012, the 217 “no” voters received on average more than twice as much cash ($41,635) from the defense and intelligence industries than did the 205 “yes” voters ($18,765). The donations totaled $12.97 million. Of the top 10 recipients of defense dollars, only one House member—Rep. Jim Moran (D-Virginia)—voted to end the program   read more

Stung by a century of investigations and exposés into animal cruelty and unhygienic conditions at sites where animals are raised, slaughtered and chopped up for consumption, corporate interests have lobbied lawmakers in six states to pass “Ag-Gag” laws that make it a crime to take videos or photos at agro-industrial sites that reveal illegal or unethical practices toward livestock, or to apply for a job at a factory farm with the intent to conduct an undercover   read more

The complaint alleges the existence of a double standard under which black contestants have been disqualified for reasons—including having taken topless photos, witnessing a murder, and having an arrest record—that did not cause white contestants in similar circumstances to be disqualified.   read more

The litigation represents the first time that CFPB has gone after a financial institution for this kind of business practice, which was common before the financial crisis last decade. Castle & Cooke violated a federal prohibition on paying loan officers more when they sell loans with higher interest rates and fees.   read more

Before 2010, the U.S. prison population increased every year for 30 years, from 307,276 in 1978 to a high of 1,615,487 in 2009. The decline has not affected federal prisons, which are seeing record numbers of prisoners. At least 17 states are selling or are considering selling some of their underutilized prisons.   read more

Since 1932, Louisiana has lost more than 1,900 square miles of its coastline, enough to cover the state of Delaware, and may lose another 700 square miles in the coming decades. John M. Barry, vice-president of SLFPA-E, noted that, “The industry has taken about $470 billion of the state’s natural resources during the past 20 years, and we ask that it pick up its share of the increased costs of flood protections.   read more

The test included a mock attack by HSS commandoes against SRS’s security guards, who work for government contractor Wackenhut Services, Inc. POGO was told by a “senior government official” that the attackers in one scenario were able to reach a key building and gain access to simulated bomb material. Furthermore, HSS stopped at least two of the security tests early because a shift change resulted in a number of workers entering the “combat” area.   read more

Acidization is a subject state regulators don’t want to talk about, or can’t for lack of information from the industry. Pavley pointedly asked the California Department of Conservation and its Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources last May to share with lawmakers what they know about the process and its use in California and the nation. The response from Department of Conservation Director Mark Nechodom was less than satisfying.   read more

In years when high raisin production threatens to cause prices to fall substantially, the RAC can decide that the government should seize part of the crop and keep it off the market by storing it in “reserve,” specifically in warehouses located in California. The result should be higher raisin prices. Here’s the rub: the government often does not pay the raisin growers for the raisins seized.   read more

Originally expected to be online by 2009 at a cost of $1.6 billion, the Savannah River, South Carolina, plant is 10 years behind schedule and the bill is up to $7.7 billion—so far. A recent life-cycle cost estimate for the MOX program calculated by environmental activist Tom Clements of Friends of the Earth foresees a price tag of about $22.11 billion. The Department of Energy estimates that it won't be ready to open until November 2019.   read more

Following the blowout of the undersea well, Halliburton tried to shift the blame to BP, the British oil company, saying that Hallibuton recommended the well include 21 metal centralizers to stabilize the cementing. BP chose to use six instead. Halliburton twice told its workers to destroy computer simulations that showed little difference between using six and 21 centralizers.   read more

The government can use the Patriot Act’s business records authority to collect, collate and retain all sorts of sensitive information, including medical records, financial records, or credit card purchases. They could use this authority to develop a database of gun owners or readers of books and magazines deemed subversive. This means that the government’s authority to collect information on law-abiding American citizens is essentially limitless.   read more

Although the proposal sent to Congress lists 16 drones for the sum of $1.5 billion, this is in fact an overestimate, as is often the case in arms deals, in order to allow a partner to order additional hardware without having to reapply to Congress. The initial acquisition project actually involves only 12 drones. The French government wants to deploy two drones by the end of the year in the Sahel, a region in north-central Africa, south of the Sahara Desert.   read more

Bauer hosted multiple fundraisers and raised $4.3 million for the President’s two election campaigns, served on the Obama for America National Finance Committee from 2007 to 2008 and from 2011 to 2012, and was Finance Chair for Women for Obama from 2011 to 2012. She was also on the Democratic National Committee from 2008 to 2012, serving as chair and co-chair of the Women’s Leadership Forum and as co-chair of the National Issues Conference.   read more