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

Environmental activistbTimothy DeChristopher, who garnered national attention for falsely bidding on oil-drilling leases during the Bush administration, has been released from prison. Jailed for two years for bidding at a December 19, 2008, Bureau of Land Management auction without any intent to pay, DeChristopher will spend the remaining six months of his term at halfway house in Salt Lake City.   read more

No “federal law exists that prevents corporations from requiring, on pain of termination, that employees attend one-sided partisan speeches, rallies, videos, or other events that advocate the election of specific candidates or parties....nothing prohibits employers from requiring employees to participate in one-sided political propaganda events."   read more

More than 80% of all ballots in Ohio are cast at polling places that handle more than one precinct. Oftentimes, poll workers will give a ballot for the wrong precinct to a voter who must cast a provisional ballot because they don’t have proper identification or other reasons. In these instances, the state threw out such ballots. In 2008, about 14,000 ballots were not counted because they were cast in the wrong precinct at the right polling place.   read more

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this week reinstated at least for the time being Montana’s campaign donation limits. The law capped individual contributions to the governor’s race to $630 and contributions to a state legislative candidate to $160, although the amounts were adjusted for inflation after each election cycle. The law also limited the total amount political parties could contribute to a campaign—for example $22,600 for a gubernatorial candidate.   read more

Almost half of Wall Street revenue goes to salaries and other compensation. The average annual compensation for securities industry employees in New York has gone up 16.6% in two years to $362,950. Yet, despite firms making more money, they’re still laying people off—1,200 so far in 2012—this after shedding 20,000 positions since 2007. Bank of America alone dropped 12,624 employees over the past year.   read more

A new study of 2,047 retractions of biomedical and life-science research articles published between 1973 and May 3, 2012, says that only 21.3% of the time are retractions the product of honest errors. That means misconduct is behind three-quarters of retractions. The misconduct includes suspected fraud (43.4%), duplicate publication (14.2%) and plagiarism (9.8%).   read more

If the homeowner’s request is rejected or the homeowner objects to the amount of compensation, the homeowner is not allowed to challenge the figure. The homeowner’s only avenue for an appeal is to sue Bank of America. Given the resources available to the average foreclosed homeowner compared to the resources available to BofA, this is an unlikely avenue of appeal and one whose outcome is heavily skewed in favor of the bank.   read more

Analysts credit rising home values, declining unemployment and stock market strength for the growth in consumer confidence, which has been reflected in other measures as well. UMSRC’s index of consumer expectations six months from now rose to its highest level since July 2007, and its monthly gauge of current conditions improved by 3.4%. Last week’s Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index remained near a three-month high.   read more

The multi-billion dollar “Medicare Advantage Quality Bonus Payment Demonstration” program, which was part of President Barack Obama 2010 health care reform, was supposed to give extra money to private plans that do a good job of providing high-quality care, Instead, the bonus payments have been given to “virtually all MA plans.”   read more

One of the studies estimated that the cuts would kill about 2.1 million jobs in 2013, including 746,000 direct jobs, 433,000 indirect jobs, and 959,000 induced jobs. A different but consistent study estimated defense-related job losses at between 900,000 and 1.2 million. On the non-defense side, a National Education Association study estimated that cuts to education would cost about 80,000 jobs, and an Aerospace Industries Association report foresaw between 40,000 and 132,000 jobs.   read more

Of the eight cases DOJ called recent, two were filed before Oct. 1, 2011, including the case of Chicago attorney Norton Helton, who was sentenced on January 18, 2012, to 15 years in prison for his involvement in 102 fraudulent mortgage bailout transactions. The case against Helton was filed in October 2006.   read more

Former pro cyclist Lance Armstrong did not to contest doping allegations brought by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). But legal observers believe that he may be liable, both civilly and criminally, for his doping and lying to cover it up, based on sworn testimony from 26 people.   read more

In what may be a first, Oakland, California, is suing the U.S. Department of Justice for cracking down on a medical marijuana dispensary in the city. Federal law enforcement began forfeiture proceedings in July against Harborside Health Center, which has operations in Oakland and San Jose, causing losses of $1.4 million in business taxes.   read more

President Barack Obama has nominated Keith Kelly, an Army veteran who has been a state-level labor official, as the next Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans’ Employment and Training Services (VETS), an agency in the Department of Labor that provides resources and services to help veterans locate grants, training, and employment opportunities.   read more

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has designated the MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, street gang with Los Angeles roots as an international criminal group, with membership at 6,000-10,000 nationwide, allowing the federal government to target the finances of a gang for the first time.   read more

A recent poll of Detroit residents shows that 50% of them would live elsewhere if they could and 40% want to leave within 5 years. If all of them actually exit, Detroit would be left with only 428,000 residents. More than half of those polled said crime is their biggest daily challenge.   read more