By Michael Noyes on July 29, 2010 BOZEMAN – Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says justices who “rewrite the Constitution” to fit their own views are responsible for the politicization of the nomination process. Speaking in front of more than 200 people at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, MT on Wednesday night, Scalia said he [...]Read More>>

Thu Jul 29 14:58:00 2010 CST By Steve Miller Being an employee in Texas has for years been a desired status. Available jobs, no state income tax and relatively affordable costs of living have drawn folks here for years. But if you hit some hard times, the place isn’t so hospitable, a recently released audit shows. In fact, [...]Read More>>

By Paige Winfield Cunningham on July 29, 2010 Virginia is paying a private firm too much for tax collections that could likely be done in-state, say members of the Treasurers’ Association of Virginia. In fiscal year 2009, CGI collected just 15 percent of the delinquent taxes it was assigned by the state and retained nearly one-third [...]Read More>>

By Earl Glynn on July 29, 2010 Quick Stats from Recovery.gov about Stimulus Spending in Kansas, 2010 Q1 Recently Recovery.gov updated its data to include stimulus spending from the first quarter of 2010. Hovering over Kansas on the U.S. map gives the quick stats summary shown at the right. Some of the curious Recovery.gov Kansas stimulus spending projects [...]Read More>>

Citizens of Bell, Calif., outraged at high pay for city officials also must pay them tens of millions of dollars more for the rest of their lives in retirement benefit promises that apparently are not funded. Officials claim 15 years of "balanced" budgets that may have used accounting tricks. Public finance experts say the situation [...]Read More>>

Local government leaders' threat to cut about half a million workers because of the recession is nothing more than a shakedown based on a lie. Read More>>

By Mike Klein Georgia Public Policy Foundation Georgians can safely bet the farm their next governor will say he or she can put Georgians back to work. One candidate is a former governor.  One was investigated for allegedly trying to influence lucrative deals that would directly benefit him and a business associate.  One is Georgia’s former secretary of [...]Read More>>

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a compilation of official state debt and obligations compiled from the most recent public records available and a foundation report. It represents only a fraction of total long-term deficits. This report should be used as a minimum baseline for further research. Read More>>

By ANDREW W. GRIFFIN Oklahoma Watchdog, editor Posted: July 20, 2010 andrew@oklahomawatchdog.org OKLAHOMA CITY — One week remains until Oklahoma’s primary election. We here at Oklahoma Watchdog have been closely watching some of the more interesting races taking place across the state. And we have attempted to be diligent in following up with certain candidates in our attempt to interview [...]Read More>>

By Mike Klein Georgia Public Policy Foundation The newest snapshot into Georgia student academic performance shows 67% of the state’s government-run public high schools did not make “Adequate Yearly Progress.” The state says more rigorous academic standards caused the performance to worsen year-to-year. This is none too good news for educators during an election year when they have [...]Read More>>