Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
TALLAHASSEE—The way it’s going, government hard drives might be the next protected class under federal law. Internal Revenue Service hard drives containing two years of emails to and from Lois Lerner, the senior Obama administration official at the heart of the alleged political targeting of conservative nonprofits, have been “recycled” and the contents destroyed. So have…
MIAMI — Florida once again is getting a hefty bonus from federal officials for “saving” taxpayers money. This year, the state’s Department of Children and Families misspent $47.8 million in food stamp benefits. However. that’s out of almost $6 billion the federal government gave to Florida. So, Florida’s error rate of .81 percent is the…
In Florida, one school choice program got 75,000 applications for 68,000 spots. In North Carolina, 5,558 students applied for a program with 2,400 seats. But in Arizona, the education savings accounts program is capped at 5,500 students. Still, just 700 students took part in the programs last year. What makes the difference? Advocates of school…
Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, called on President Barack Obama yesterday to fly down to the U.S.-Mexican border so he can exhibit leadership in the current immigration crisis. Cuellar said the president needs to do more than appropriate funds to fix the situation and that visiting the border would take no more than 45 minutes of…
A Texas congressman floated his own theory last night about the crisis of illegal immigrants at his state’s border with Mexico. Speaking on “The O’Reilly Factor,” Rep. Louie Gohmert said he believes President Obama is encouraging Central Americans to cross into Texas because he wants them to stay and vote Democrat. “The president has said he…
A coalition of 38 journalism advocacy groups penned an open letter to President Obama urging him to better foster transparency and curb systemic censorship within his administration and the federal government. Released yesterday, the letter chastised the president for failing to live up to his own promises, and endangering the critical role of a free…
In asking for $3.7 billion from Congress yesterday to combat the border crisis, President Obama attached another request that has nothing to do with illegal immigration. The president wants $615 million to fight wildfires. Acting on similar bipartisan proposals in Congress, Obama also requested a change that he says would treat spending to fight wildfires…
JPMorgan Chase refused to confirm or deny that employees of the global banking giant were asked in a recent survey about their sexual orientation and whether they are “an ally of the LGBT community.” At least two Chase bank employees have said they were asked such questions, and one said employees’ identification numbers appeared on the…
MADISON, Wis. — For voters who fancy congressional term limits, state Sen. Glenn Grothman might just be their man. Grothman, one of three Republicans running to replace Rep. Tom Petri, R-Fond du Lac, in Wisconsin’s 6th congressional district, pledged Monday in a press release he would limit his tenure in the House to 10 years….
JOHNSTON, Iowa — Most of what Tim Maher knew about the renewable fuel standard came from TV commercials. “They all talk about how it’s good for the environment and good for the country because we won’t have to import so much oil from the Middle East,” Maher said as he was filling up his car…
Rep. Darrell Issa, the House’s top investigator of the IRS targeting scandal, isn’t holding his breath for those missing Lois Lerner emails. Obama administration officials have done “everything they can to slow down the process,” the California Republican told The Daily Signal in an exclusive interview, and have a “cavalier attitude” about producing documents. Americans, he…
President Obama has asked Congress for $3.7 billion in “emergency” funds to stem a surge in children and families from Central America illegally crossing the U.S. border with Mexico. Obama’s request is nearly double the amount he originally signaled last week. Most of the money in his request, made public today, would be used for…
According to a report released by the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this month, “the online federal marketplace could not resolve nearly 90 percent (or 2.6 million) of its 2.9 million data ‘inconsistencies,’ which include citizenship status, income, incarceration status, and Social Security numbers,” as Marguerite Bowling reported last…
On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., laid out the Senate’s legislative agenda for the “coming weeks.” Listed among his top priorities was legislation to “correct” the Hobby Lobby decision. Since the Supreme Court’s ruling in June, congressional Democrats have vowed to protect employer-sponsored insurance coverage of contraception and abortion-inducing drugs mandated by the…
MADISON, Wis. — Leaders of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department figured that the department would be more effective if officers are viewed as hipper and approachable. So the UW-Madison police made a music video. Chief Susan Riseling was among about 25 department employees, on duty at taxpayer expense, who participated in making a video to Pharrell…
To show support for the recent Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case, Holly Fisher – aka “Holly Hobby Lobby” – posted a photo of herself wearing a “pro-life” T-shirt and holding a Chick-fil-A cup in front of one of the arts-and-crafts chain’s locations in West Virginia. The Army wife and mother of three became an instant…
A dramatic ad, commissioned by U.S. homeland security officials to discourage youngsters from Central America from crossing the southern border, depicts the death of a youth on his way to America to make “great money.” The public service announcement, in Spanish, is airing in Guatemala as part of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials’ $1 million…
In Seattle, a grassroots organization has submitted a petition complete with nearly 20,000 signatures—well above the 16,000 signature prerequisite, calling for a ballot referendum to repeal the city’s minimum wage hike, which will eventually increase the hourly wage to $15 an hour. On Wednesday, Seattle Forward, a non-partisan coalition of local business owners and citizens,…
A fortune cookie to expose the so-called war on women? That’s what former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina wielded yesterday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” telling host Candy Crowley that the left’s meme is “shameless, baseless propaganda.” The idea only works, added the former Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from California, because it “scared women…
“Reauthorize with reforms.” That’s the new mantra from supporters of renewing the charter of the Export-Import Bank. But a review of reforms that Congress ordered the bank to make during the last reauthorization fight shows the agency has done little to remedy issues identified by the lawmakers in 2012. Some House Republicans view reforms as…