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

The study found that the presence of a Hispanic police chief correlates with a reduction in the intensity of immigration enforcement, suggesting that the political power associated with a local Latino community being able to win the appointment of a Hispanic chief leads as well to more lenient immigration enforcement, the burdens of which tend to fall upon Latinos regardless of their legal status.   read more

The Air Force had lobbied for months to have the material labeled as naturally-occurring waste in order to qualify for disposal at Clean Harbors’ Buttonwillow landfill in the Bakersfield-area. The residue is believed to be from cleanup efforts related to radioactive paint used more than 50 years ago on glow-in-the-dark dials and gauges.   read more

Despite the decreasing coverage of the war in Afghanistan, there are still about 68,000 U.S. troops in the country and 280 Americans died there during the first ten months of 2012. The United States this year has launched more drone strikes than at any other time in the 11-year conflict.   read more

Rick Tyler, a top adviser to Todd Akin’s failed Missouri Senate campaign, called Crossroads’ efforts “a colossal failure,” and said that Rove “has a lot of explaining to do, mostly to his donors. I don’t think donors are ever going to invest in that level again because it turns out that the architect didn’t know what he was talking about,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.   read more

Every dollar spent on policing in Sunnyvale, California (pop.: 140,095) yields only 20 cents in crime reduction benefits, while every dollar spent on policing in Gary, Indiana (pop.: 80,294) yields $14 in such benefits. Sunnyvale boasts low crime rates, while Gary has one of the nation’s highest crime rates. The authors also confirm a controversial finding made by previous investigators that police reduce violent crime more than property crime.   read more

James F. Hitselberger, a civilian linguist working for the U.S. Navy in Bahrain, was caught possessing classified documents. The government admits, however, that Hitselberger did not pass on the information to any foreign power. It accuses him of stealing additional classified materials dealing with Iran and Iraq and donating at least three of them, along with other papers, to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, which established a collection in his name.   read more

“All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell,” Broun said. “And it’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior.” Broun further expressed his belief that the earth is only 9,000 years old, an opinion contradicted by both geology and archaeology, which have dated untold numbers of rocks and human-made objects as being millions of years old.   read more

New Jersey CVS supervisor Ryan Barna implored employees to “go out and make this happen this week and every week going forward.” Barna also provided pharmacists with helpful hints on how to respond if customers complain about the unauthorized refills. He recommended telling them that “we tried calling you several times this week on this past-due prescription” and that “I went ahead and filled it so it would be ready for you.”   read more

Katie McDonald wanted to vote, but between working nights at Christ Hospital as a patient care assistant, going to school at a local college and raising three kids, she just couldn’t find the time to get to the polling place. In Kentucky early voting is only allowed if a voter presents a valid excuse for being unavailable on Election Day. Unfortunately for the McDonalds, being a working mother who goes to school is not one of them.   read more

On May 30, 2010, David Jimenez was cleaning Christ’s face with soapy water when the marbled statue came loose and knocked him to the ground. The crucifix then landed on his right leg, crushing it so badly that doctors had to amputate. Jimenez was cleaning the crucifix on a voluntarily basis. He offered to do so after he prayed for his wife, Delia, to recover from ovarian cancer, which she did.   read more

A new book from historian Stuart Laycock says that over the course of British imperialism, the empire invaded nearly 90% of the 193 countries that are currently members of the United Nations and two others (Kosovo and Vatican City) which are not UN members but are recognized by the government of the United Kingdom. Only 22 nations were spared, according to Laycock, a group that includes Guatemala, Luxembourg, Tajikistan and the Marshall Islands.   read more

The Chamber’s scorecard for the Senate was particularly poor, winning only two out of 26 races. This despite spending $24 million on multiple races to defeat Democrats who wound up winning, including Timothy Kaine of Virginia ($4.4 million) and Sherrod Brown of Ohio ($4.3 million) and Bill Nelson of Florida ($3.8 million). In the House, the Chamber won six out of 33 elections after spending $7 million.   read more

In the end, spending by super PACs and other outside groups did not have as much influence as many observers feared, wrote Dan Eggen and T.W. Farnam in The Washington Post, characterizing the largesse as “the dog that barked but did not bite.” In several cases, the big three gave money to the same candidates, so here are their final individual records: Sheldon Adelson: 0 wins; 8 losses Harold Simmons: 1 win (Orrin Hatch of Utah); 6 losses Bob Perry: 0 wins; 5 losses   read more

The managers enjoyed broad powers allowing them to dictate labor contracts for city employees, dissolve local agencies and authorize academic changes in school districts, among other things. Michigan has seven local governments currently operating under emergency managers, including Ecorse, Benton Harbor, Flint and Pontiac, as well as school districts in Highland Park, Muskegon Heights and Detroit.   read more

Commissioners for Cook County, Illinois, which includes Chicago, have approved a $25 tax on each gun sold. The revenue generated from the tax, about $600,000 a year, will go towards helping pay for healthcare costs from gun violence. The levy represents the first time a major city has used taxation to mitigate the costs of gun-related violence. About 670 victims of gun violence were treated by the county’s health system in 2011, at an average cost of $52,000 per patient.   read more

Republicans wanted the prison, claiming the corrections system would need more bed space. Critics objected to an all-solitary confinement facility, citing a lack of need, as well as Colorado’s unnaturally high rate of isolating its prisoners. Democratic lawmakers didn’t want the prison, but they did want a new medical campus for the University of Colorado. So they brokered a deal with Republicans to support each other’s projects, and the prison got the green light.   read more