Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
A new study finds the government’s Cash for Clunkers program hurt the industry it intended to help, leaving taxpayers to cover the $3 billion price tag. The Texas A&M University study reveals that any benefit “was completely offset” by a consumer’s tendency to purchase cheaper vehicles with the federal credit. Altogether, researchers estimate the auto…
BRISTOW, Va. — Corey Stewart, who made his name in politics by implementing what he calls the nation’s “toughest” crackdown on illegal immigration, lives in a house steeped in history. The top elected official in Virginia’s second-largest locality, Stewart resides in the oldest house in Prince William County, located abruptly off a road lined with…
If Tate Reeves has his way, one of the Mississippi's most onerous taxes may be on the chopping block. The Republican lieutenant governor wants the state Senate to look at tax cuts this legislative session, and the corporate franchise tax might top the list, along with a cut to the state’s income tax. Mississippi ranks…
Move over, Oklahoma. New Mexico has regained its position as the fifth-highest state in terms of oil production in the country. In an annual report of the top 10 oil states put together by the financial website 24/7 Wall St., New Mexico supplanted Oklahoma with 965 million barrels of proven oil reserves. That’s an 11.4 percent increase…
A new report by the Homeland Security inspector general has once again put the spotlight on the Obama administration’s release of more than 600 illegal immigrants with criminal convictions. Last night, Sharyl Attkisson helped Fox News’ Lou Dobbs make sense of the story. In early 2013, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released thousands of…
In another effort to clear up enrollment inconsistencies in Obamacare, the federal government announced that 310,000 enrollees will receive notices about questionable citizenship or immigration data. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is in charge of Obamacare’s federal health insurance marketplace, says notices require consumers to send in documents supporting their citizenship status by Sept. 5…
A beleaguered federal agency has overspent its travel budget by at least $3 million, House investigators determined. The Export-Import Bank allocated $1.3 million for travel this year, but is projected to spend $2.3 million, according to records obtained by The Hill. Last year, the agency budgeted $1.2 million for travel but spent $2.2 million, and in 2012 it budgeted $1.7…
A Planned Parenthood counselor was caught on video telling someone she thinks is 15 that if she’s too young to buy sex toys across the street, she could “get a horse whip” instead. Pro-life group Live Action captured the taxpayer-financed guidance on camera at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Eden Prairie, Minn., after having an…
Half of America’s public school employees aren’t classroom teachers, according to a new study. Instead, they’re non-teaching personnel such as instructional aides, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, secretaries, and librarians. It hasn’t always been this way. The study from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a nonprofit think tank specializing in education policy, found that the number of non-teaching…
It’s not just the Internal Revenue Service that allows hundreds of employees to do union business full time on the public’s dime. “Taxpayers spent around $156 million [in 2012] on federal employees who did no federal work at all,” said Nathan Mehrens, president of Americans for Limited Government. An earlier report revealed how the practice—known…
When the North Carolina Legislature approved a budget in late July that allocated more money for a new school choice program, it was the answer to one mom’s prayer. Kena Cooper’s son, Keenan, already had received a scholarship to a private school. He was chosen in a lottery of 4,200 students for 2,400 slots in a…
A new map—presented as a GIF—is putting unemployment rates in historical context. Courtesy of Metric Maps, the image shows how unemployment rates have changed state-by-state from 1976 to 2014. From the economic downturn in the late 1970s and early 1980s to the oil boom that has lowered the unemployment rate in North Dakota to national lows, the evolution of…
For Robert and Susan Blair, it was time for an exit strategy. The couple had been in the business of home health care for three decades, and retirement looked more and more attractive. The Blairs’ history of working in the home health care industry began as Ronald Reagan’s presidency was winding down. In 1998, they opened…
It was off to the races for a top Obama administration official earlier this summer — and on the taxpayers’ dime. Attorney General Eric Holder took a one-day trip to Elmont, N.Y., for the Belmont Stakes. Cost to taxpayers: $14,440. But the nation’s lead law enforcement officer, who traveled to the Triple Crown race aboard a…
Today many Americans are taking home a smaller paycheck than they used to, according to a study released Monday by the United States Conference of Mayors. According to the report, people who worked in job sectors particularly hard hit by the recession had an average salary of $61,637 before the recession. But when it comes…
More than 600 convicted criminals, including felons, were among thousands of illegal immigrants freed under the Obama administration in advance of 2013 budget cuts mandated under sequestration. That’s according to a new report today from the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security. The Obama administration released 2,226 immigrant detainees, 617 of whom had…
The sentiment is clear, and it resonates all the way to Brampton, Canada. “There is no future for Yezidis in Iraq,” said Mirza Ismail, speaking of the suffering religious minority to which he belongs. Since the Islamic State terrorist group attacked his hometown in the Sinjar plain of northern Iraq on Aug. 2, forcing the…
With no explanation, Brian Brookman last month lost the bank account for his pawn shop. He had no idea why. Brookman says his store in Grand Haven, Mich., never had been in trouble with federal or state officials. And being in the pawn industry, he was required by law to get a city license every…
The Faith and Freedom Coalition today demanded release of a secret legal agreement between the IRS and an atheist group about censoring the content of sermons and other messages heard in houses of worship by challenging their tax-exempt status. The agreement followed the voluntary dismissal of a 2012 lawsuit filed in federal court by the Freedom…
A new video in which filmmaker James O’Keefe crosses from Mexico into the U.S. while costumed as Osama bin Laden dramatizes the need for better surveillance technology at the border but doesn’t illustrate “the biggest threat,” Heritage Foundation analysts say. Arriving in the wake of much media and official attention to thousands of children from…