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

• Far-right violence increases during presidential election years and the years preceding. • Far-right violence increases when political conservatives win power in Congress. • Far-right violence is concentrated in heterogeneous areas, where peoples of varying ethnic and religious backgrounds interact. • The South is no longer the hub of far-right violence. Judged by per capita attacks, the worst states are Oregon, Maine, New York, Vermont and Massachusetts.   read more

The FBI and the BOP, which make nearly two-thirds DOJ’s hires, indicated they relied on the background investigations in lieu of reference checks out of concerns over contacting current supervisors too early in the process and over the large number of references that would need to be checked. The IG report, however, criticized those concerns.   read more

Efforts to limit access to the lucrative business of tax preparation were struck down last week by a federal judge in Washington, DC, who voided Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations purporting to license and regulate the nation’s 600,000 tax preparers. The effort, which included mandatory continuing education, testing, and registration.   read more

ITEP found that the bottom 80% of Louisianans in income would see a tax increase. The poorest 20% of taxpayers, with an average income of $12,000, would see an average tax increase of $395; the middle 20%, with an average income of $43,000, would see an increase of $534; while the largest beneficiaries would be the top 1%, with an average income of more than $1 million, who'd see an average tax cut of $25,423.   read more

More than $507 million was paid to just four political consulting firms, mostly for buying attack ads on behalf of super PACs and nonprofits. The top recipient among consultants was Mentzer Media Services, which earned nearly $204 million from conservative super PACs and other outside groups. Second was Crossroads Media, which was paid about $163 million by conservative super PACs and nonprofits.   read more

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) conducted an audit of a $350 million contract awarded to the Dubai-based firm Automotive Management Services (A-M-S). SIGAR uncovered $6.8 million was reportedly spent performing maintenance on 7,324 Afghan police vehicles that were not in service.   read more

Davies started his business, Medizen, three years ago and quickly made it into an $8 million enterprise. He says he carefully followed all state laws in setting up his dispensary. But Benjamin Wagner, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, claims Davies has trafficked a controlled substances outlawed by federal statute.   read more

Wall Street’s sighs of relief were nearly audible when Obama announced his intent to nominate Jacob “Jack” J. Lew, the current Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to succeed current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Lew, who worked for Citigroup from 2006 through 2008, is arguably more of a Wall Street insider than was Geithner.   read more

Three polls show greater support for gun control since the shootings in Colorado and Connecticut. Gallup found support for tougher gun laws jumped to 38% from 25%. Pew Research revealed 85% support background checks for private gun sales and at gun shows. Washington Post-ABC News showed 52% are more supportive of gun control.   read more

Scientists at the University of Leeds School of Earth and Environment have discovered that black carbon, or soot, has been contributing to global warming on a much larger scale than previously calculated. It now has been determined that soot is the second leading contributor to climate change, behind only carbon dioxide. Methane ranks third.   read more

After avoiding payment for decades, U.S. defense contractor Cubic Defense Systems has been ordered by a federal appellate judge to pay Iran nearly $3 million it owes, plus hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest.   read more

Three years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency was convinced natural gas drilling company Range Resources had contaminated underground wells in Texas. But EPA officials dropped the investigation after the company threatened to not participate in a larger study of fracking.   read more

A new study published by the journal Pediatrics found heavy metal, gothic, punk music, rhythm and blues, hip-hop, and electronic dance music, such as trance and techno, were more likely to cause delinquency among minors than pop, classical and jazz.   read more

According to a secret State Department cable from U.S. consul general Scott Frederic Kilner, the government of Syria used chemical weapons on its own people on December 23 in Homs. That act could have provoked a tough response from the United States, but to date the White House has not become more involved in the crisis.   read more

Media sources and foreign policy analysts have questioned news reports that Iran has an intelligence ministry of 30,000 that is committed to terrorism and assassinations. The figure seemed surprisingly large, prompting ProPublica to investigate its validity, and finding that a terrorism researcher inflated the number.   read more

Coming just a month after the Newtown school shooting, owners of the iPhone and iPad can now download a target range game, thanks to the National Rifle Association (NRA). The phone app, called Practice Range, simulates shooting practice. Children as young as four can play the game.   read more