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

A new Bloomberg poll of 921 subscribers to Bloomberg Professional service revealed that 47% of global investors surveyed said they are reducing their investments in the U.S. as a direct result of “repeated confrontations between the U.S. Congress and President Obama.” More than a third of respondents said the nation’s fiscal problems pose the biggest threat to the world economy, while 29% chose Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and 15% named China’s slowing economy.   read more

Among the school districts with questionable content were those of Lubbock, Amarillo, Ector County (Odessa) and Longview. Lubbock used a textbook that included fake quotes from Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and Herbert Hoover. The district has agreed to suspend use of the book. In Amarillo Students are urged to learn about “fulfilled prophecy” and to create a “Messianic prophecy list.” They are also taught that Jesus is superior to “Jewish leaders…and their priests.”   read more

Oxfam recommends that the rich donate all of their earnings from 2012, which totaled about $240 billion. The report also suggested that world leaders take action to reduce the widening gap between rich and poor, with a goal of bringing inequality back down to at least 1990 levels. Oxfam proposed that closing tax havens and taxing capital gains at normal rates would raise at least $189 billion a year.   read more

During the 2010-2011 school year, there were 1,065,794 homeless students in preschools and K-12 schools, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. This marked the first time in history that public schools reported more than one million homeless children and youth.   read more

The CIA will be exempted from the rules for at least a year. Agency leaders objected to being bound by the playbook, citing the pressing need to continue bombing Taliban and al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan before the U.S. withdraws from neighboring Afghanistan, where the drones are based. Critics of the government assassination program view the playbook as indicative of the institutionalization of the U.S. killing policy.   read more

two products with specific functions for surveillance, filtering and censorship―ProxySG and PacketShaper―were in widespread use. ProxySG was detected in Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, while PacketShaper was in Afghanistan, Bahrain, China, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, and Venezuela.   read more

Some observers said the email was intended to strengthen McConnell’s support among conservatives. The Senate minority leader faces reelection next year, and the McConnell camp may be worried about heading off a potential primary challenge. McConnell was blasted by those on the right for helping resolve the fiscal cliff drama, with some calling the deal “the McConnell tax hike.”   read more

Obama met with the White House press corps 79 times over four years. His predecessor, George W. Bush, held 89 press conferences. Bill Clinton had 133, and George H.W. Bush 142. Reagan held only 27 press conferences during his first term. When meeting with reporters, Obama demonstrated a preference for fielding questions from certain news outlets over others. ABC led the way with 29 chances to query the president, followed closely by CBS (28), the Associated Press (27) and NBC (26).   read more

The provision buys Amgen another two years of selling the drug without federal caps. That’s great news for the company’s bottom-line, but bad news for Medicare, which will pay an extra $500 million for the drug. The delay will go a good way towards making up for Amgen’s most recent criminal activity. On December 19, Amgen—as a corporate entity—pleaded guilty to illegal marketing of its anti-anemia drug, Aranesp, and agreed to pay penalties totaling $762 million.   read more

Last year, the legislature eliminated $1.8 million from school safety programs, while Governor Rick Scott vetoed $5.7 million for mental health services. But lawmakers made sure $10 million in taxpayer money was available to help weapons makers, as well as Hollywood production companies and video game designers that produce violent entertainment. The state government also made it easier and cheaper to buy high-powered weapons, by cutting the cost of obtaining a weapons license by $5.   read more

The amount of refunds that prisoners tried to receive also skyrocketed, from $68 million in 2004 to $2.5 billion in 2012. In many instances, inmates used stolen identities and other false information as part of their schemes. The IRS has taken actions to catch many of the phony refunds before they are sent out. In 2010, the agency received $757 million in refund requests from prisoners, but only issued $35.2 million (about 4.6%).   read more

I want people around the world to look at the United States as a model. If people are afraid to speak their minds for fear of government oppression, I want them to think, “I want my country to be like the United States of America.” If they are malnourished or starving or their children are threatened by disease, I want them to think, “I wish my country could be like the United States of America.”   read more

Corporate bashing of President Barack Obama’s economic policies have belied the fact that companies are enjoying huge profits since the Democrat came into office. Under Obama, corporations’ after-tax profits have leaped 171%, which is more than under any president since World War II, according to Bloomberg News. Corporate profits are also at their highest level relative to the size of the economy since the government began keeping records in 1947.   read more

Obama’s 2012 win also makes him only the seventh President in modern political history (since 1932) to win two presidential elections. That places him in some elite company, including Franklin Roosevelt, who won in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944, Dwight Eisenhower (1952 and 1956), Richard Nixon (1968 and 1972), Ronald Reagan (1980 and 1984), Bill Clinton (1992 and 1996) and George W. Bush (2000 and 2004).   read more

After reviewing financial disclosure forms filed by the 94, the Center for Responsive Politics determined that the median estimated net worth of the freshmen is more than $1 million. At $1,066,515 the net worth is nearly $1 million more than the typical American household, whose median net worth is $66,740. The richest of the incoming members of Congress is Rep. John Delaney (D-Maryland), whose net worth is estimated at $139 million.   read more

Bank robbery, selling child porn, selling slaves, genocidal eugenics: all these federal crimes carry a maximum sentence of 20 years, less than half the 50-plus years that U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz and prosecutors Stephen P. Heymann and Scott L. Garland threatened against Internet genius and activist Aaron Swartz, who killed himself on January 11 at age 26, mere weeks before he was to be tried on charges of stealing academic journal articles from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).   read more