Trump ordered that the term Homo sapiens be changed to Hetero sapiens. In history books and on websites, the airplane from which the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima will no longer be identified as the Enola Gay, but rather the Enola Straight. Trump also ordered billionaire Mark Cuban, who supported Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, to change his name to Mark American. If he does not do so, he will be charged with terrorism.   read more

The U.S. military has been ordered by a federal judge to stop force-feeding a hunger striker at Guantanamo Bay and to preserve videos showing the controversial procedure. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler’s ruling came in the case of Mohammed Abu Wa’el Dhiab of Syria, who has been detained without trial for 12 years. Kessler raised concerns in a previous ruling, noting that it was “perfectly clear” that “force-feeding is a painful, humiliating and degrading process.”   read more

An Army National Guard soldier has become the first person to receive death benefits following the loss of a same-sex spouse during combat. Staff Sgt. Tracy Dice Johnson will receive benefits dating back to the death of her wife, Staff Sgt. Donna Johnson, who was killed in Afghanistan two years ago. The VA benefits are the same ones provided to heterosexual widows and widowers, marking the first time a surviving same-sex spouse has been treated the same as non-gay individuals.   read more

Under fire about medical delays at veterans hospitals, the Obama administration offered up a political sacrifice … of an official who was already planning to step down. The announcement implied Petzel was to blame for the VA problems, and that his leaving meant they were serious about fixing the mess. But Petzel’s departure was announced last year. “We don’t need the VA to find a scapegoat,” said Tom Tarantino. “We need an actual plan to restore a culture of accountability [at] the VA.”   read more

With the government mired in debt, some members of Congress have decided their colleagues shouldn’t be able to fly first class at taxpayer expense. Pending legislation would bar lawmakers from flying first class unless they pay for it themselves. That change would put them in the same position as employees working for the executive branch. However, their travel allowance isn’t being cut, so the proposal is more symbolic than anything else.   read more

Name almost any group of Americans and the odds are they’re exaggerating about how often they attend church. A survey by PPRI tested Americans’ honesty when it comes to churchgoing. The research revealed “that every subgroup of Americans inflates their levels of religious participation, with young adults, Catholics and white mainline Protestants particularly likely to inflate the frequency of their attendance at religious services,” according to PRRI.   read more

Income tax evaders stand a good chance of getting light prison sentences. Last year, 45% of convicted tax cheats received sentences that were less than what is recommended. This practice came under scrutiny earlier this year when billionaire H. Ty Warner received probation for stashing more than $100 million in overseas bank accounts to avoid paying the IRS. Sentencing guidelines say he should have gone to jail for 46 to 57 months. Instead, he won’t serve a day behind bars   read more

It has long been assumed in the U.S. that torture was something that went on in other countries. Now, a large portion of the American population fears they will be tortured if arrested in their own country. Of Americans polled, 32% said they were not confident that they would be safe from torture after being arrested in the U.S. Worldwide, 44% of people are worried about the use of torture against them if they were taken into custody by local officials.   read more

The Justice Department wants to be able to conduct electronic searches of computers anywhere in the U.S. Civil libertarians fear this would put more personal information from innocent people in the government’s hands. “[It] significantly expand(s) the [conducting of] secret, remote searches of the sensitive contents of people's computers,” said ACLU's Nathan Wessler. “It is crucial that the courts place strict limits on [searches].”   read more

Members of the German parliament intent on learning more about the NSA surveillance of German citizens have said they want whistleblower Edward Snowden to testify before a special committee investigating the issue. Merkel’s government, however, fears it would only stir more trouble for the German-American alliance. The lawmakers have refused to back down, so government officials hired a Washington-based law firm to threaten them if they take Snowden’s testimony.   read more

Imagine you were terminally ill and had exhausted all conventional treatments for your sickness. Then you hear about a promising drug that had the potential to cure you, but it hadn’t been approved for use. You might be willing to give that drug a try, figuring you had nothing to lose. That’s the reasoning behind three states’ recent approval of “right to try” laws, where physicians may recommend potentially life-saving drugs to their patients before FDA approval.   read more

Thousands of oil and gas wells on federal land have gone without inspection at a time when drilling has expanded in many parts of the country because of fracking. The failings of the Bureau of Land Management has put the environment in peril, according to a GAO report. The agency was accused of relying on “outdated rules and guidancem” having “limited coordination with state regulatory agencies, and incomplete data on the location of resources and industry activities   read more

Members of the U.S. Congress want to be sure that the NSA will never again use “back doors” to crawl into Americans’ computers. Among the Edward Snowden revelations is the fact that the spy agency had engaged in weakening of encryption programs to facilitate access to computers for its surveillance operations. Now lawmakers hope.to amend the USA Freedom Act to restrict the agency from exploiting vulnerabilities in software to peek into computers.   read more

When Barack Obama was first inaugurated, he promised that his administration would “usher in an era of open government.” Instead, requests for documents under the Freedom of Information Act are increasingly being challenged or ignored by federal agencies. The Border Patrol has been denying requests for information, and both the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have released heavily redacted documents that had earlier been released with the censored parts intact.   read more

The enrollment issues with Obamacare are fixed, but the computer experts aren’t off the hook yet. More than a million Americans may be getting incorrect subsidies for their health plans, and problems also exist with citizenship verification. But since the government has no computer capability to address these problems, it will have to resolve every case by hand. Those whose subsidies are incorrect and who've been overpaid will have to refund the money to the government.   read more

A New Hampshire man is about to find out how good the sense of humor of his state’s police is. In 2010, David Montenegro applied for a vanity license plate reading COPSLIE. He was denied by the state DMV, who found it "insulting." He then appealed and lost. Montenegro applied again for the plate, but this time the state Supreme Court gave him the right to the plate. But the road ahead, on the streets of New Hampshire, may a tough one.   read more

Call them the greater of two evils. According to a new Gallup poll, Americans view the Republican Party with less favor than they do the Democratic Party. However, both parties are viewed more unfavorably than favorably. Some observers say this is the beginning of the end for national aspirations for the Republican Party. Democratic strategist Doug Sosnik said the moves the GOP is making to take the Senate in the upcoming midterm elections will doom them in 2016.   read more