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Virginia overpays 15 percent of all unemployment benefits

By Paige Winfield Cunningham Nearly 15 percent of unemployment benefits were paid last year to Virginians who didn’t qualify for them, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In 2009, Virginia ranked ninth for how much states overpaid workers claiming unemployment. Of $1.14 billion the state paid in unemployment, $166 million was handed to workers who didn’t qualify. Louisiana had the ...
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News & Headlines

Distressed cities balking on bills, contracts

Posted on September 3, 2010
U.S. cities facing rising debt, pension payments and budget holes, are taking extraordinary measures to maintain solvency, including selling assets, defaulting on payments and re-negotiating union contracts. Read More>>

NY comptroller candidate slams pension funding

Posted on September 2, 2010
Wilson pushes pension under funding as "largest financial problem;" DiNapoli says pension fully funded despite decline. Read More>>

Ashford: For Merger, Against Recall

Posted on September 2, 2010
By Joe Jordan  Despite an avalanche of financial problems at Omaha City Hall, State Senator Brad Ashford of Omaha says he’s against recalling Mayor Jim Suttle. Instead, Ashford is pushing for a merger of City-County government, with a countywide Mayor, to fix a mess of higher taxes, increasing pension costs, and cuts in services. In an interview with Nebraska Watchdog, Ashford says a [...]Read More>>

Latest Look at Milwaukee Public Schools Checkbook Shows More Questionable Expenditures

Posted on September 2, 2010
MacIver News Service [Milwaukee, Wisc...] Although they were able to recall some laid off teachers courtesy of the latest federal bailout, Milwaukee Public Schools’ spending practices continue to come under scrutiny. Some of the more interesting expenditures are highlighted, above. They include: $450 for the rental of a ‘bounce house’ $4,000 for youth and adult martial arts, Yoga [...]Read More>>

New UNC System President Funded Abortions and Gay Rights in North Carolina

Posted on September 2, 2010
Jessica Anderson This is the second of a three part series examining the new president of the University of North Carolina Thomas Ross. Part 1: Ross speedily confirmed as President of UNC System, ACORN ties and all Thomas Ross, while the head of the Z Smith Reynolds Foundation, steered over $280,000 to Planned Parenthood from 2001-2007 [...]Read More>>

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Blog & Analysis

This economic crash is going to get real

Posted on September 2, 2010
False balancing of state and municipal budgets on crumbling bridges is one government accounting trick that actually kills. Read More>>

GAO: State, local governments ‘will steadily decline’

Posted on August 26, 2010
Two reports highlight government fiscal crisis from around the world to city hall. GAO: State and local fiscal gap $9.9 trillion. Morgan Stanley report: 'Ask not whether governments will default, but how.' Read More>>

Pick a Board, Any Board (S.C. Has Plenty)

Posted on August 26, 2010
Kevin Dietrich The Nerve South Carolinians certainly do love their boards and commissions. How else do you explain the fact that the Palmetto State has approximately 300 statewide supervising bodies, according to the Governor’s Office, overseeing everything from the University of South Carolina system to real estate appraisers, from the S.C. State Ports Authority to Charleston’s Old Exchange [...]Read More>>

Cuccinelli starts the wheels turning — again

Posted on August 24, 2010
By Paige Winfield Cunningham Sometimes politics is like a Rube Goldberg machine. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli usually sets Virginia’s ball in motion, triggering a predictable chain of events. The sequence goes like this: 1. Cuccinelli issues an opinion or files a lawsuit. 2. Right away, Del. Bob Marshall strongly and publicly supports it. 3. Democrats such as Sen. [...]Read More>>

All municipal bondholders should file SEC complaints

Posted on August 19, 2010
All states and municipalities suffer to one degree or another from the fraud New Jersey on Wednesday agreed to stop committing. Investors, taxpayers and betrayed public employees in every state must force governments to admit their true fiscal condition. Read More>>

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