Previously I happened to kind of mention in passing something or other about people who have the most punchable faces in the U.S. Now, as the year draws to a close, I thought it was important to honor people who have truly excelled this past twelve months in the fine art of being so obnoxious or so horrific that they would make the Baby Jesus ball up his tiny Baby Jesus little fist and swing so hard he comes out of his adorable Baby Jesus sandals.

You know what I mean. Sometimes you just have to tell your inner Gandhi to sit the hell down while you go straighten someone out using the only method that gets their attention.

As I pointed out before:

The desire to pop a particular person in the face is generally rooted in some backstory — evidence of inexcusable behavior, a history of being a terrible person who is somehow beyond the reach of even God's punishment, and quite simply: for being a major dick.

What sets them apart for all of the other dicks — like for example, every person who drives a black BMW — is a certain look on their face that has a triggering effect. A smirk, a sneer, the droopy-eyed too-cool-for-you look.

Those are the punchable ones.

As I also pointed out, I'm not saying that anyone should actually punch any of these people in the face — or better yet — in the genitals, because THAT WOULD BE WRONG. But, as Debbie Harry once sang: "Dreaming is free."

The ground rules again: Women are off limits. Yeah, it's sexist, so go ahead and call me a misogynist. Whatever.

Rule #2: They are all Americans. We have more than enough at home to tire our arms out from sweeping hooks. No need to go looking off-shore for someone to fill a spot an American can easily fill.

Rule #3: No real punching. This is a dream list, not a piece of evidence to be introduced at your trial for assault or "aggravated d**k-punching" — which I think is a real charge.

A 66-year-old woman was brutally arrested by traffic police in a Croatian city of Osijek after she crossed the road on red light.

The video of the unpleasant incident, filmed from a bodycam on the officer's uniform, was released on the Croatian police channel on YouTube.

The footage shows the policeman putting an arm lock on the elderly woman and violently bringing her to the ground as she cries for help.

The officer resorted to the use force after the female, who earlier skipped the red light, ignored calls to show her ID and tried to walk away from him in the street.

A witness told Index.hr that the policeman, who is described as a large man weighing around 130 kilograms, "threw himself onto [the woman] with all his mass, pushed her onto the concrete in a passage, and handcuffed her."

Another person on the scene told the website that he "attempted to intervene," but the officer allegedly warned that "he should move away himself, or be arrested as well."

The State Attorney's Office reviewed the video and ruled that the actions of the police were lawful, as the offender resisted arrest.

For the first time in 16 years, the direct aftermath of Venezuela's elections was peaceful. Until then, the day following each election when Hugo Chavez, Nicolas Maduro, or their political allies were victorious was full of street violence. Most recently in 2014, 43 people were killed in a wave of violence called "La Salida" in response to Maduro's victory in the presidential election.

What makes the day following the December 6th vote in Venezuela so unique? In this election, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) was defeated. The opposition forces who routinely resort to violence had no reason for doing so — as their Roundtable for Democratic Unity (MUD) won a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.

In six months in 2015 over 20 million people fled wars and persecution, more than in the whole of 2014, the UN has reported. Total global forced displacement this year is likely to exceed all previous records and go beyond 60 million people.

"2015 is on track to see worldwide forced displacement exceeding 60 million for the first time - 1 in every 122 humans is today someone who has been forced to flee their homes," the report said.

Not only are people fleeing their homes in record numbers, but opportunities for them to return safely are at the lowest level in three decades, the UN Refugee Agency's report said. Between January and June an estimated 84,000 refugees voluntarily returned home, compared to 107,000 over the same period last year.

"In effect, if you become a refugee today your chances of going home are lower than at any time in more than 30 years," the report said.

In 1984, an explosion at a pesticide plant exposed 500,000 people to a cloud of toxic gas in India. The tragedy killed 25,000 people and activists claim it is causing deformities in children today. Andrew Johnson reports on the victims' fight for justice

Few people will pay much attention to the handful of women who will sit in the public gallery of an unfashionable Indian city's lower court this Saturday morning. However, the families of Bhopal, three generations of them, will be interested in every face that comes and goes.

They will remember how, 31 years ago, the state capital of Madhya Pradesh experienced the world's worst industrial accident when a Union Carbide pesticide plant exploded, sending 42 tonnes of poison, methyl isocyanate, into the air and down into the slums next to the factory.

Then, their lungs and their eyes burned. Eight thousand were dead within a week. The explosion killed at least 25,000 people altogether and left tens of thousands with lifetime injuries.

The legacy of the Union Carbide disaster is still felt today, in the twisted limbs, brain damage and musculoskeletal disorders doctors continue to report in children. Its legacy will bring the women of Bhopal, and the campaign groups, to the court this morning.

They hope to see a representative of US pharmaceutical behemoth Dow Chemical arrive to answer for a disaster which was presided over by a company it did not own at the time of the explosion. Their hope appears unlikely to be answered. "Frankly, I'm amazed they have such faith in the (judicial) process," said Avi Singh, lawyer for the Bhopal campaigners planning to attend court.

A commercial regional jet landed at Greenville Spartanburg International Airport after a "declared emergency" Wednesday afternoon, according to officials.

The crew of the regional jet reported an electrical smell in the cockpit, leading to the landing.

Emergency vehicles were called to GSP to prepare for the plane's arrival.

The plane landed safely just before 3:30 p.m.

Rosylin Weston, with GSP, said the jet was a Delta flight from Roanoke to Atlanta.

The emergency landing at GSP is categorized as a diversion, since that was not its destination.

"These are always nerve-racking," Weston said. "But the good news is we have a great team of first responders -- policemen, firemen -- who are trained to spring into action and they do. And fortunately today was good practice for them."

The allegations read like a movie plot: a lottery industry insider installs an undetectable software program in the computers that pick winning numbers so he can know them in advance. He enlists accomplices to play those numbers and collect the jackpots. And they enrich themselves for years until a misstep unravels their high-tech scheme.

Eddie Tipton, former security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, has been accused of tampering with drawings in four states over a six-year period, and investigators are now expanding the inquiry nationwide to determine if the number could be larger.

State lotteries in Colorado, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma have confirmed they paid jackpots worth $8 million to Tipton associates, including his old college roommate, Robert Rhodes. Investigators are looking at payouts in the other 37 states and U.S. territories that used random-number generators from the Iowa-based association, which administers games and distributes prizes for the lottery consortium.

The inquiry is sending a chill through state governments that receive $20 billion annually in lottery revenue, and that depend on public confidence in the contests. Tipton installed software or had access to machines for national games such as Hot Lotto and some state-based games. The most lucrative ones, Powerball and scratch tickets, weren't part of the scheme, according to lottery officials.

"It would be pretty naive to believe they are the only four" jackpots involved, said now-retired Iowa deputy attorney general Thomas H. Miller, who oversaw the investigation for 2 ½bd} years. "If you find one cockroach, you have to assume there are 100 more you haven't found."

Tipton, 52, was convicted in July of fraud in the attempt to claim a $16.5 million jackpot in Iowa. He was sentenced to 10 years but is free pending appeal. He is also charged with ongoing criminal conduct and money laundering involving the other three state lotteries. Rhodes, a businessman from Sugar Land, Texas, is charged with fraud in connection with the Iowa jackpot, and is under investigation in Wisconsin.

Tommy Tipton, Eddie's brother, who bought a winning Colorado Lotto ticket in 2005, resigned his position last month as a justice of the peace in Flatonia, Texas, 100 miles west of Houston, but hasn't been charged. Colorado authorities are investigating.

Eddie Tipton's attorney, Dean Stowers, says his client is innocent.

"In many nations, rational people end up believing crazy things, including (false) conspiracy theories. Those crazy thoughts can lead to violence, including terrorism. Many terrorist acts have been fueled by false conspiracy theories, and there is a good argument that some such acts would not have occurred in the absence of such theories. The key point—and, in a way, the most puzzling and disturbing one—is that the crazy thoughts are often held by people who are not crazy at all."

Cass Sunstein - White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

If you don't know who Cass Sunstein is, or what he does now would be a good time to do some research. Not only because of his position with the White House and the power that entails, but because he understands quite clearly what problems are posed by people who, in his own words are, "...neither ignorant, not ill-educated. On the contrary they can be spectacularly well informed..."

Step into an American preschool classroom today and you are likely to be bombarded with what we educators call a print-rich environment, every surface festooned with alphabet charts, bar graphs, word walls, instructional posters, classroom rules, calendars, schedules, and motivational platitudes—few of which a 4-year-old can "decode," the contemporary word for what used to be known as reading.

Because so few adults can remember the pertinent details of their own preschool or kindergarten years, it can be hard to appreciate just how much the early-education landscape has been transformed over the past two decades. The changes are not restricted to the confusing pastiche on classroom walls. Pedagogy and curricula have changed too, most recently in response to the Common Core State Standards Initiative's kindergarten guidelines. Much greater portions of the day are now spent on what's called "seat work" (a term that probably doesn't need any exposition) and a form of tightly scripted teaching known as direct instruction, formerly used mainly in the older grades, in which a teacher carefully controls the content and pacing of what a child is supposed to learn.

One study, titled "Is Kindergarten the New First Grade?," compared kindergarten teachers' attitudes nationwide in 1998 and 2010 and found that the percentage of teachers expecting children to know how to read by the end of the year had risen from 30 to 80 percent. The researchers also reported more time spent with workbooks and worksheets, and less time devoted to music and art. Kindergarten is indeed the new first grade, the authors concluded glumly. In turn, children who would once have used the kindergarten year as a gentle transition into school are in some cases being held back before they've had a chance to start. A study out of Mississippi found that in some counties, more than 10 percent of kindergartners weren't allowed to advance to first grade.

After realizing they were holding 4 innocent men in jail, authorities issued them an ultimatum - If you want freedom, promise not to sue us.

Four innocent Native American men have been set free from prison this week after they agreed not to sue the city or the state for the wrongful conviction and the unnecessary time behind bars. Eugene Vent, Kevin Pease, George Frese and Marvin Roberts, known as the Fairbanks Four, have all been sitting in jail since 1997 for the murder of teenager John Hartman.

Even at the time of the conviction, the case was extremely controversial, with many supporters of the four insisting on their innocence. Family and supporters have continued to fight over the years, collecting evidence of their innocence and pushing for a new trial. As the years went on, the case against them fell apart, making it obvious that the justice system had locked away innocent men for a crime that they did not commit. After years of legal posturing, a new trial was granted this month, and the wrongfully convicted men were quickly released after the new evidence was finally brought to light.

Fearing legal retribution, the court forced the innocent men to agree that they would not sue the state or city, even though they should have every right to do so, after losing many of their adult years to prison.

Attorney General Craig Richards admitted that there was no case against them, but insisted that the state did not make any mistakes in its investigation.

"This is not an exoneration. In this settlement, the four defendants agreed they were properly and validly investigated, prosecuted and convicted. Nonetheless, in light of the new evidence produced at the recent hearing, this settlement is just that, a compromise by the parties in a hard-fought legal battle. This compromise reflects the Attorney General's recognition that if the defendants were retried today it is not clear under the current state of the evidence that they would be convicted," Richard's office said in a statement.

Obviously, if there was any doubt among the prosecution and the courts that these men were innocent, there is no way that they would allow them to walk free. Governor Bill Walker seemed pleased that the group was banned from filing a lawsuit, as he quickly released a statement praising the "compromise."