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Thursday at the 2015 White House Tribal Nations Conference, President Barack Obama praised Adidas for working with schools to remove Native American mascots and urged them to do the same for the Redskins.

"the National Football League team is appealing with a provocative tactic: listing the names of porn, clothing and beer companies that use offensive language but nonetheless have the support of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office."

<p>I couldn’t let the week of “Columbus Day Sales” pass without acknowledging the genesis of this now contentious holiday.  Why has Columbus Day become so controversial? Why has this intrepid adventurer come to be considered a villain rather than a hero?</p>

LOS ANGELES — Four California schools will be forced to change mascots after Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation barring public schools from using the "Redskins" name for sports teams. It was one of three sports-related bills Brown approved Sunday. He also signed a measure that bans using or possessing smokeless tobacco on the playing field at professional baseball parks and another that recognizes competitive cheerleading as a high school sport. The mascot legislation will prevent public schools from using a term that American Indians regard as offensive. It goes into effect in 2017. Only four schools still use the name....

The District of Columbia's congresswoman on Thursday introduced a bill to strip the NFL of its federal antitrust protection as long as it allows Washington's football team to use the name "Redskins," a moniker some see as racist. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton said the National Football League and Washington's football team "should not be benefitting financially from federal antitrust exemptions while they continue to promote a disparaging moniker that has been found by legal authorities to be a racial slur." A federal judge in July upheld an earlier decision by the United States Patent and Trademark Office that the...

The Redskins have plenty of work to do. The offensive line, specifically pass protection, would be a good place to start. Robert Griffin III and the Redskins starters managed 10 total yards on their first three series of Thursday night’s preseason game vs. the Lions. On the fourth series, Griffin got sacked on consecutive plays. On the second sack, his fumble was recovered by Gabe Wright of the Lions at the Redskins’ 11-yard line. To make matters worse, the Redskins announced Griffin was then evaluated for a right-side stinger and possible concussion. He was cleared to return to the game...

“Redskins President Bruce Allen says the team will not change their name even if it prevents them from getting a new stadium,” CBS Sports reported. “If changing the name ‘Redskins’ would get them a new stadium, should the team change their name?” one radio host asked another. The flustered commentator responded, “Wait … again?” The host then rephrased the question: “Their team president says they will not change their name … should they do it?” “No … they’re not changing their name,” the commentator said with certainty. This came as no surprise as the team has been asked several times...

As a sensational NFL rookie in 2012, Robert Griffin III so dazzled opponents that former Giants defensive end Justin Tuck cursed the football gods for delivering a fixture in his nightmares. Now that Griffin has followed that Offensive Rookie of the Year campaign with a pair of injury-ravaged disheartening seasons, one NFL coach believes the polarizing quarterback will never reach his once-limitless potential. "There's no coming back," the undisclosed offensive coach told ESPN.com's Mike Sando. "He is done. The reason is, the injury slowed his legs, and his ego will not allow him to hit rock bottom and actually grind...

Sports-TV powerhouse ESPN, a profit machine that has long towered over the media landscape, is showing signs of stress as the pay-TV industry goes through an unprecedented period of upheaval. A decline in subscribers as customers trim their cable bills, coupled with rising content costs and increased competition, has ESPN in belt-tightening mode, people familiar with the situation say. The company, majority owned by Walt Disney Co., has lost 3.2 million subscribers in a little over a year, according to Nielsen data, as people have “cut the cord” by dropping their cable-TV subscriptions or downgraded to cheaper, slimmed-down TV packages...

A federal judge in Virginia has ordered the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to cancel six of the Washington Redskins’ registered trademarks because their depiction of an Indian brave is considered offensive to Native Americans. “The evidence before the Court supports the legal conclusion that between 1967 [when the first Redskins’ trademark was registered] and 1990, the Redskins Marks consisted of matter that ‘may disparage’ a substantial composite of Native Americans,” U.S. District Judge Gerald Lee wrote in his July 8 ruling in Pro-Football Inc. v. Blackhorse. In his 70-page decision, Lee rejected the Redskins’ argument that the trademark...

D.C.’s delegate to Congress urged the Washington Redskins to throw in the towel after a key loss in court over the team name. Last year, the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board decided 2-1 not to renew the team’s trademark registration, ruling that Redskins is offensive to American Indians. The case went to court, and today U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee upheld the Patent Office decision. Lee noted that Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, in 1898, defined Redskins as an “often contemptuous” word, 70 years before the first team trademark was granted. The ruling doesn’t ban...

Well, what do you know? Again ignoring long-standing history, scientific data, and plain common sense, American liberals got a federal judge to help them further their totalitarian agenda. Yesterday, a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia upheld the ruling of an administrative appeal board and ordered the Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the registration of the trademark of “the NFL team located in Washington, D.C.” (Get used to such a phrase, as liberals will now be even more emboldened to ignore what has been for nearly a century. Of course, as we saw on marriage, liberals are quite adept at...

The Washington Redskins lost the biggest legal and public relations battle yet in the war over the NFL team’s name after a federal judge on Wednesday ordered the cancellation of its federal trademark registrations, opposed for decades by Native American activists who call the moniker disparaging. The cancellation, hailed by the activists as a “huge victory,” doesn’t go into effect until the team has exhausted the appeals process in the federal court system. And Redskins President Bruce Allen vowed Wednesday that the team would appeal. “We are convinced that we will win on appeal as the facts and the law...

A federal judge has ordered the Patent and Trademark Office to cancel registration of the Washington Redskins' trademark, ruling that the team name may be disparaging to Native Americans. The ruling Wednesday by Judge Gerald Bruce Lee affirms an earlier finding by an administrative appeal board.

The Obama Administration will not support a new Washington football stadium unless the team changes its name, according to Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post. Washington currently does not play in D.C., but there has been a push to get a new stadium approved and built there. RFK Stadium occupies the site where Washington has targeted a potential new stadium. However, a lack of support from the current administration would be a serious roadblock to the efforts. While the Obama Administration can't make the ultimate decision on whether a new stadium is built, it can put pressure where it's needed,...

[California Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a U.S. Senate candidate] Sanchez used an offensive gesture before a group of Indian Americans [Snip] In a video captured by an observer, Sanchez tells a story about how she was invited to an event by what she thought was a Native American group. “I’m going to his office, thinking I’m going to meet with a… ” Sanchez said before clapping her hand over her mouth and making a chanting sound.

U.S. Senate candidate Loretta Sanchez was criticized Saturday by her chief rival, Attorney General Kamala Harris, after a videotape surfaced showing her making a whooping cry in reference to Native Americans during an apparent joke. Harris called the gesture "shocking.'' A video posted on The Sacramento Bee website shows Sanchez, a 10-term congresswoman, fluttering her hand against her mouth and making a whooping sound while speaking to a group of delegates at a state Democratic Party convention.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) complained on the floor of the upper chamber today that America is more concerned with Tom Brady’s delfating balls than the Washington Redskins’ racist name. Brady received a four-game suspension as a result of “Deflategate” and the New England Patriots were fine d $1 million and stripped of two draft picks. “Yesterday the National Football League punished one of its most recognizable players for allegedly having tampered with game balls,” Reid said. “I find it stunning that the NFL is more concerned about how much air is in a ball than with a racist...

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid: I find it stunning that the NFL cares more about how much air is in a football than it cares about a racist franchise name. — Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) May 12, 2015 [Snip] Meanwhile, Reid has long been critical of Redskins owner Dan Snyder and his decision to keep the team's name. “Snyder has to realize, he is on the losing side of history,” Reid said in March 2014. “And the sooner he does it, the better off we are. The Wizards, you know, they were the Washington Bullets. With all the killing that...

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is slamming the NFL’s priorities as out of whack because of the league's decision to suspend New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady but live with the Washington Redskins “racist” franchise name.