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

Even after that gift from Judge Streitfeld, Philip Morris still appealed the reduced judgment—and recently got Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal, which had affirmed the verdict in June, to reverse itself and throw out the award entirely. The appeals court now says Naugle must face a new trial to determine damages, which will take months, if not years, to complete.   read more

Swiss bank UBS has been fined $1.5 billion by the U.S. Department of Justice for manipulating a key interest rate that affects borrowing between banks. When asked why the Justice Department chose to not prosecute any UBS executives, Criminal Division chief Lanny Breuer told reporters, "Our goal here is not to destroy a major financial institution.”   read more

One piece of bad news was that African-Americans age 12-17 were still experiencing higher rates of violent crime. From 2002 to 2010, the rates of serious violent crime declined among white youth by 26% and among Hispanic youth by 65%, but actually increased by 4% among black youth.   read more

Energy companies would have to inform the state what chemicals were being injected into the ground, but a giant loophole would allow them to keep private any chemicals they deemed “trade secrets.” There is no process explicitly laid out for appeals by property owners who oppose the fracking, and well operators wouldn’t be required to collect pollution data that could be used to gauge environmental effects.   read more

More than 7 million “elves” would be on “general assignment,” while half a million people would have to handle the company’s human resources, accounting and administrative duties, not to mention filing flight plans, obtaining flyover and landing rights. Santa would also need 40,000 customer liaisons to clear customs in various countries.   read more

In 1963, when Inouye joined the Senate, 39 of 100 senators had served in WWII and another 25 had served in World War I. As of next month when Congress reconvenes, there will be only one WWII vet in the Senate: Democrat Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey. When Barack Obama and Joe Biden faced Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in the 2012 presidential elections, it marked the first time in 80 years that neither major party included a veteran on their ticket.   read more

Many people around the world misunderstood the Mayan calendar and predicted that the end of the world would take place on December 21. Evidently this did not occur. But this should not have come as a great surprise considering that there is a long history of people predicting the end of the world. Here is a sampling of end of the world predictions, originally compiled by Jeremy Beadle and later augmented by the staff of The People’s Almanac.   read more

The appellate panel tossed a key charge against McRae, who admitted to burning Glover’s body. The justices said there was “insufficient evidence to convict McRae of denying Glover's descendants and survivors the right of access to court.” But the court upheld the remaining convictions against McRae for use of fire to commit a felony, obstruction of a federal investigation, and denying a man a right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure.   read more

Savage is not the first academic to propose that the universe is not real. Nick Bostrom, a philosophy professor at the University of Oxford, offered a computer simulation idea in 2003, which prompted Savage to take a crack at proving it. Since a story on Savage’s paper was published by the university, the web page has received more than 100,000 views in just a week, setting off a lively discussion among students and professors about what is real and the state of consciousness.   read more

The agency currently has only 2,500 agents—a total smaller than what it had four decades ago—and 60,000 gun retailers to inspect and oversee. The NRA has been so effective in keeping a permanent director from being confirmed by the Senate that even President George W. Bush couldn’t get his choice of Michael J. Sullivan, a former U.S. attorney in Boston, from winning confirmation.   read more

U.S. Army Sergeant Robert Bales could become the first soldier in more than half a century to be executed by the U.S. military. Bales is accused of murdering 16 Afghan villagers, including nine children, in two separates rampages last March. By Afghan standards, there was a seventeenth victim…an unborn fetus.   read more

Republicans have grown to despise the NLRB, claiming it has turned itself into an advocate for labor unions. This is actually not that surprising considering that the NLRB since that was its purpose when it was created in 1935. Since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whenever Republicans have occupied the White House, they have appointed NLRB members who leaned more towards the employers than towards the employees.   read more

Carpio-Leon, who had lived in the U.S. without authorization for 13 years, claimed he had the right to keep firearms around to protect his home and family. The justices concluded that the Second Amendment right to bear arms does not extend to illegal immigrants because the amendment only applies to “law-abiding citizens” and they are not law-abiding citizens.   read more

Fowler helped implement Obamacare as Special Assistant to the President for Healthcare and Economic Policy at the National Economic Council. Fowler is now leaving that post to handle global health policy at Johnson & Johnson. Like other companies in the industry, Johnson & Johnson will increase their profits greatly thanks to the fact that Obama’s healthcare reform will provide insurance to tens of millions of Americans who will now being to purchase drugs and use medical devices.   read more

The five-member panel said the State Department lacked veteran security personnel to guard the mission. The agency also relied too much on local militias to safeguard the compound, according to the Pickering panel. Officials in Washington were also criticized in the panel’s report for not making safety upgrades at the mission and ignoring requests for more guards.   read more

Of the 43 people executed by the government in 2012, 33 of them died in Texas, Arizona, Mississippi and Oklahoma, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. As it usually does, Texas led the nation with 15 executions. The other three states each had six. Nine states total conducted executions this year, the lowest number of states to do so in 20 years.   read more