Illinois Senate President John Cullerton is pushing a pension reform plan written, and supported by, Illinois’ public sector unions.

Pennsylvania leaders are sounding the alarm of a pension squeeze.

“America’s governor” Scott Walker stumps with Wisconsin Republicans at the Wisconsin GOP Convention.

By Earl Glynn │ for Kansas Watchdog
The Topeka Capital-Journal reported the anonymous @JohnBrownsGhost’s twitter account was no longer anonymous.
Tweets Thursday evening took note of this change:
2013-05-16 18:29 @TheKansasRino: So @JohnBrownsGhost cover has been blown. Such a shame, I rather enjoyed that account.
2013-05-16 18:33 @manspeaker: Way to ruin the #ksleg feed Tim Carpenter. @JohnBrownsGhost was the [...]

By William Patrick | Florida Watchdog
TALLAHASSEE – Florida Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, went after a state budget watchdog on Thursday over a report that lists 107 questionable spending projects worth $106.8 million.
As it does every year prior to the Governor signing the state budget, Florida Tax Watch issued its Turkey Report listing items that [...]

By Eric Boehm | Watchdog.org
HARRISBURG – As the IRS scandal continues to slowly unfold in Washington, one key point has been missed in much of the analysis about how and why the agency would target certain groups for added levels of harassment based on political leanings.
If the IRS did not have so much power and [...]

By Eric Boehm | Watchdog.org
HARRISBURG – We’ve all been there.
You spend a little too much time shopping, or the lines were a little too long.  Or your doctor’s appointment didn’t get done on time.
You return to your car and find a $50 ticket tucked under the windshield – your only crime was occupying a spot [...]

By Melissa Daniels | PA Independent
HARRISBURG — You’ll see them everywhere –at the bank, at the gym, at the bar. Definitely at the farmer’s market. You can spot them by their skinny jeans, their iPhones held backwards in arms outstretched, and now-ubiquitous canvas shoes.
They are the hipster, a modern mainstay stereotype borne of early 21st [...]

By Shelby Sebens | Northwest Watchdog
PORTLAND – Gov. John Kitzhaber on Wednesday called for lawmakers to make a budget deal: Democrats trade additional pension reforms for Republican support on increased taxes.
A day before the state’s office of economic analysis is expected to release its quarterly report, laying out the budget picture for the next two [...]

By Kelli Weston | The Nerve
The mass killings in December at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School has forced lawmakers in South Carolina and across the nation to confront glaring security gaps at public schools in their home states.
S.C. Rep. Liston Barfield, R-Horry, has offered a possible solution for the Palmetto State that he contends would [...]

By Grant Bosse | New Hampshire Watchdog
The left’s simmering disdain for free speech went public this week. The Obama Administration’s abuse of power finally turned much of the left-leaning press corps against this increasingly Nixonian White House.
The final straw was the revelation that the Justice Department secretly seized two months of phone records from 20 [...]

By Nic Horton | The Arkansas Project
Upon rereading David Ramsey’s piece on the genesis of the “private option,” it’s hard not to notice the flood of admiring compliments he bestows on the intellect of its creators. They are “clever,” “smart,” “open-minded,” and “pragmatic.” As they work in tandem with Governor Mike Beebe, they are “thoughtful and nuanced.”
In particular, Senator Jonathan [...]

By Tom Gantert | Michigan Capitol Confidential
While the Michigan Education Association continues to blame state budget cuts on the fiscal crisis facing some schools, many districts are getting more money per pupil but face dramatic drops in enrollment.
Albion Public Schools is such a district. The school board voted last week to shut down its high [...]

By Katy Grimes | Cal Watchdog
The Caltrans Bay Bridge debacle is worse than just a case of embarrassment for government infrastructure projects. The bridge is unsafe, according to engineering experts across the country, after the discovery that a third of the of the 96 massive, high-strength steel rods, installed for seismic safety, cracked under pressure [...]

By Tom Gantert | Michigan Capitol Confidential
The Internal Revenue Service is in the news because of a growing scandal where it admitted targeting conservative non-profit groups and generally making their lives difficult.
That led me to think about my own experiences trying to start a conservative non-profit in which the IRS delayed approving my application. I was dismayed because I had [...]

By Grant Bosse | New Hampshire Watchdog
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen twice urged the Internal Revenue Service to investigate politically-active groups seeking tax-exempt status, even as the IRS was two years into an operation illegally targeting conservative organizations.
The New Hampshire Democrat first joined six Senate colleagues in a February 16, 2012 letter to then-IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, urging [...]

By Meg Tully | Maryland Reporter
Some Maryland state government workers more than doubled their salaries with overtime payments in 2012, and more than 3,300 topped $10,000 in overtime payments.
Maryland Reporter analyzed overtime payments in a database from the Maryland Comptroller’s Office as part of its third annual state government salaries series.
Government workers who got paid overtime [...]

By Katy Grimes | Cal Watchdog
As if plucked right out of the silly book, “There Oughta Be A Law,” San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has been pushing a bill through the Legislature which has the potential of turning all schools into beta test sites for social experiments.
AB 1266 would require a student to be permitted to [...]