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.

The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) has released a map showing the new 70 mile per hour speed zones.

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 [...]

HARRISBURG – Glenn Greenwald’s analysis of the newest details in the unfolding U.S. Department of Justice “war on journalists” scandal is a must-read.
Seriously, just read it.  There’s nothing I can add to this:
New revelations emerged yesterday in the Washington Post that are perhaps the most extreme yet when it comes to the DOJ’s attacks on press [...]

By Bre Payton│ Watchdog.org, Virginia Bureau
ALEXANDRIA – If you don’t live in the Old Dominion, you’re not guaranteed access to Virginia’s public documents through the state’s Freedom of Information Act. However, you can legally holster a gun in 25 states with a Virginia concealed-carry permit.
In 2009, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who was a state senator [...]

Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate for governor in Virginia, has an Internet problem.
Ask former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum how much fun that can be.
Last week, McAuliffe launched Women for Terry, a political subgroup designed to bolster his credentials with female voters in Virginia. Unfortunately for the Democratic hopeful,  his campaign forgot to tie up the [...]

ALEXANDRIA—The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that Virginia can deny public records access to non-residents may not be the final say.
Members of the Freedom Information Advisory Council, which makes recommendations on bills related to Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act, is looking for some sort of compromise between allowing access to all U.S. citizens and restricting FOIA rights to [...]

By Nick Dranias | Goldwater Institute
In upholding the federal health care law’s individual mandate as a tax, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts reiterated Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’ promise that “[t]he power to tax is not the power to destroy while this Court sits.”
With the IRS’ recent targeted investigations of tea parties, balanced budget advocates, [...]

By Sagar Jethani | Cal Watchdog
After being threatened with contempt by a panel of federal judges for failing to sufficiently reduce the number of prisoners in California’s jails, Gov. Jerry Brown reluctantly unveiled a plan this month to further reduce the Golden State’s overcrowded prisons by another 9,000 inmates. Enthusiasm in Sacramento was in short supply.
Brown argued that court [...]

By Jarrett Skorup | Mackinac Center
With a push from Gov. Rick Snyder, the business community, public employee unions and most of the significant lobbying groups in the state, both branches of the Legislature have proposed budgets that significantly expand spending on early childhood education. Unfortunately, this spending will likely not result in any significantly improved educational [...]

By Ron Aiken | The Nerve
In the months leading up to reportedly the worst cyber-security failure in U.S. history at a state agency, South Carolina Department of Revenue officials deemed data encryption too costly on one hand while spurning offers of free cyber protection from another state agency with the other.
The result was an unprecedented [...]

By Christopher Goins | Maryland Reporter
Judge Pamila Brown saw a need for more civic education.
A few years ago, Brown, a Howard County district judge, attended an American Bar Association meeting where the organization discussed implementing a national civics and law program for high schoolers lacking civics education.
In 2011, the Maryland State Department of Education dropped [...]

By Audrey Spalding | Michigan Capitol Confidential
Though the Highland Park School District spent $19,634 per pupil in 2010-11, the highest in the state, district schools were so mismanaged that they had rodents in the classrooms, holes in the ceilings and walls, and horrendous filth in the bathrooms.
“I [saw] it in the media center,” DeCarlos, a junior at Highland Park Community High [...]

By Grant Bosse | New Hampshire Watchdog
A bill giving New Hampshire auto dealers the ability to tear up their existing contracts with the factory could land the state back in court.
SB 126 would not only strengthen the current Auto Dealers Bill of Rights to let local dealers ignore terms of their franchise agreements, but expand [...]

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 Warren Duffy | Cal Watchdog
What is going on with the California-based Ivanpah solar plant?
In April 2011, Brightsource Energy received a loan guarantee of $1.6 billion from the Department of Energy for the Ivanpah project. It’s located along I-15 at the California-Nevada border, 29 miles northeast of Barstow. The loan amount was three times that given by the DOE to the [...]