President Donald Trump gleefully announced that, under his direction, U.S. military troops had swooped down on the Governor’s Mansion in Sacramento and kidnapped California Governor Gavin Newsom. “We’re charging Newscum with fraud.” When a reporter asked for specifics about the fraud charges, Trump pointed to Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi, clearly taken by surprise, said, “We’re looking into it and will let you know the details as soon as we’ve created them.”   read more

The World Economic Forum (WEF) asked about a thousand industry and government experts what issues concerned them the most. The response was similar to a previous report: the divide between rich and poor, governments carrying too much debt, and greenhouse gases producing too much extreme weather.   read more

The Tea Party enjoyed the support of nearly a quarter of American voters at the peak of its popularity two years ago. But now the party’s popularity has plummeted—only 8% of voters claim to be Tea Party members. In April 2010, its support was at 24% among voters.   read more

Things really heated up in 2012 in the United States—last year was the hottest one on record in the contiguous U.S., with the average temperature measuring 55.3 degrees Fahrenheit, a full degree higher than the previous record set in 1998, a significant jump.   read more

The New York Police Department (NYPD) must stop randomly frisking people on sidewalks, according to a federal judge who ruled as unconstitutional the NYPD’s policy of targeting pedestrians in areas of the Bronx that suffer from high crime rates.   read more

John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s CIA nominee, endorsed the Bush administration’s use of torture on detainees, favored granting immunity to telecommunications companies that participated in warrantless wiretapping, and was a principal architect of the U.S. drone “kill list.”   read more

It is no longer illegal for Illinois residents to record police officers on duty, now that a law that has been in effect since 1961, has been nullified by the courts.   read more

Disney World will offer MyMagic+, a special rubber bracelet encoded with customers’ credit card information, enabling visitors to enter the park and purchase food or souvenirs without using credit cards or cash, while their actions, behaviors, and whereabouts are tracked within the park.   read more

The use of biofuels, specifically certain trees grown and burned to replace the need for oil and coal, could worsen air pollution and cause more than 1,000 premature deaths a year.   read more

Tracking down illegal immigrants has become the dominant law enforcement priority of the U.S. government under President Barack Obama.   read more

Operated and maintained by the FBI, the federal Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database contains data regarding 10 million offenders and 1.3 million arrestees, and is growing at an accelerating rate. At present, however, prosecutors have an iron grip on CODIS and only nine states—Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas—have laws granting defendants access to DNA databases.   read more

Under the terms of the agreement, BofA will pay $3.6 billion directly to Fannie Mae, and spend another $6.75 billion to buy back mortgages from the housing finance giant. BofA also agreed in a separate legal case to pay an undisclosed sum as part of a $8.5 billion settlement reached between federal regulators and several large banks. Bank of America officials assured their investors that the entire sum of the BofA payouts will be covered by reserves and 2012 fourth quarter set-asides.   read more

A third provision in the measure would mandate that mobile services reveal the names of the advertising networks or other third parties with which they share consumers’ locations. Franken says his privacy bill is needed to prevent companies from creating a precise profile of consumers’ family connections and professional associations, as well as political and religious beliefs and even health status.   read more

The mandate in the Obamacare law says insurance companies must provide details in no more than four pages that utilize plain English, and include easy-to understand formats. Wendell Potter lauded the change in law because he felt the industry had “profited for years by using legalese and gobbledygook in describing their policies, and also by purposely withholding information we really need to make informed coverage decisions.”   read more

“Smart guns” can come equipped with biometrics and grip pattern detection that allow only the registered owner of a gun to fire it. The iGun, made by Mossberg Group, requires the owner to wear a special chip-implanted ring that activates the gun. TriggerSmart in Ireland makes a childproof smart-gun that can’t be fired near schools that have the requisite technology installed on campus.   read more

Taxpayers for Common Sense estimates that oil companies will receive $78 billion in tax breaks and subsidies between 2012 and 2017. In March 2012 a majority of senators did vote in favor of the Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act, which would have eliminated $2.4 billion in deductions gained by the five biggest oil companies, but the bill needed 60 votes to pass. By the end of the fiscal cliff negotiations, Republicans and Democrats left all of the subsidies in place.   read more

When individual citizens are investigated and prosecuted for white collar crimes or other wrongdoing, they often agree to pay a financial settlement to the federal government as a way to avoid prison time or criminal charges. When corporations are in similar situations, they often go on to claim the settlement payments as tax-deductible business expenses, something individuals cannot do. In effect, such corporations get taxpayers to foot the bill for their misconduct.   read more