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

About 20,000 gun owners in the state are barred from possessing firearms, including the mentally ill, convicted felons, and those subject to a domestic violence restraining order. Last year, the state seized about 2,000 weapons, along with 117,000 rounds of ammunition and 11,000 high-capacity magazines. Thirty-three California Department of Justice agents are assigned to the task of tracking down and confiscating the disallowed guns.   read more

According to Clapper, al-Qaeda’s main operation, located in Pakistan, is in such bad shape that it is “probably unable to carry out complex, large-scale attacks in the West.” Furthermore, the terrorist organization’s regional spinoffs in the Middle East and Africa may pose trouble locally, but aren’t in a position to carry out attacks on American soil. And yet, the FBI keeps exposing and arresting anti-American elements in the U.S. that are allegedly a threat.   read more

For decades, the U.S. government used the existing 18.4 cents-per-gallon gas tax to finance the fund, which pays for roads and rail programs throughout the U.S. But over the last 20 years, inflation and fuel-efficient automobiles have caused more money to be spent than what the highway trust takes in through the gas tax. Consequently, the trust—which will have about $12 billion by the end of the current fiscal year—is projected to have zero dollars left by 2014.   read more

Over the last 15 years, 5,513 bodies have been recovered along the border. In 2012 alone, the total was 463. The border area near Tucson, Arizona, has proven the most deadly since 2001, with 177 bodies found in the last fiscal year. But fatalities have jumped significantly in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, where the death toll went from 66 in 2011 to 150 last year.   read more

The news of what went on within the section was nonetheless bad for Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney general for DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, who is reportedly President Barack Obama’s choice for labor secretary. In his current capacity, Perez has overseen the Voting Section, and details from the IG’s report could be used against him during confirmation hearings, if he is nominated.   read more

That email, written by EPA lawyer Geoffrey Wilcox, suggested various ways to derail FOIA requests. "One of the first steps is to alert the requestor that they need to narrow their request because it is overbroad,” wrote Wilcox, “and secondarily that it will probably cost more than the amount of $ they agreed to pay."   read more

Information that the government would use to vet passengers would include data that individuals have volunteered through trusted traveler programs. But some of the information would come from the Department of Homeland Security, which has agreed to edit out some of the information it has, such as meal preferences.   read more

Another Democrat, Representative Gary Ackerman of New York, who retired this year after 20 years in the House, led the list of biggest givers by handing out $147,633.34 as going-away presents. A Democrat may have headed the list, but the next nine next biggest givers were all Republicans.   read more

In May 2010, the lawyer, Anthony Trujillo, discovered the Wells Fargo typo in its original letter to Delassus, which listed the parcel number of a neighbor. The bank acknowledged the mistake in September 2010, but had already tacked on a reinstatement fee and other costs. Delassus was hospitalized in May 2011, suffering from the rare liver disease Budd-Chiari Syndrome, and was notified on the day he got out that the bank had sold his home of 16 years.   read more

The United States poured more than $50 billion into reconstructing Iraq after blowing a lot of it up during the war. But the mess that the U.S. created transcended buildings and infrastructure that were demolished—it also made a mess of accounting for how the money was spent, and as a result wound up losing at least $8 billion.   read more

Pharmaceutical and technology companies were most likely to take advantage of U.S. laws that help them avoid taxes on earnings overseas by creating foreign subsidiaries and then shifting patents and marketing rights to these subsidiaries. Prime examples were Pfizer, Merck and Johnson & Johnson, and Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and Apple.   read more

In 2009, the number of ex-soldiers waiting more than a year for their VA care totaled 11,000. By December 2012, the list had ballooned to 245,000 veterans, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting. Those filing for the first time who live in major urban centers can wait more than 600 days before they receive help. In New York City, the delay can be 642 days, and in Los Angeles 619.   read more

In the statement filed in a Maryland federal court, the Justice Department said all individuals—not just credentialed photojournalists—have a First Amendment right to record law enforcement officers performing their duties. The department added that Americans are protected under the Fourth and 14th Amendment from having their recordings seized without a warrant or due process.   read more

34% of U.S. households possessed guns, according to a new national survey. But only 4.4% of Americans (13.7 million) went hunting, based on data collected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Much more often, Americans buy guns for self-defense, although two-thirds of gun-related deaths were suicides.   read more

Manchin was recently dubbed the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, according to National Journal. OpenSecrets.org went even further in assessing Manchin’s political standing, claiming the first-term senator is the only member of Congress who enjoys higher ratings from Republicans than from those in his own party.   read more

Until now, the government has relied on the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), a joint resolution passed by Congress three days after 9/11, which served as the legal basis for hunting down Osama bin Laden and other leaders of al-Qaeda. But the AUMF limited military action against terrorists to anyone connected to the 9/11 attacks.   read more