Kansas town feels ‘duped’ by ethanol plant deal
By Travis Perry │ Kansas Watchdog
OSAWATOMIE — In 2007, the 6,000 residents of Ulysses, Kan., were given big promises and high hopes with the proposal of a second major ethanol processing plant in the southwest corner of the state.
The facility, to be built by Nexsun Ethanol LLC, brought with it a commitment to the economic [...]
Top 10 quotes about Obama’s #scandalpalooza
By Dustin Hurst | Watchdog.org
As scandal after scandal continues to unfold in front of the nation, President Barack Obama’s administration reels, struggling to defend itself, allay fears about government ineptitude and reset the narrative in the the president’s favor.
Unfortunately for the administration, the barrage of scandals is leaving a mark, at least in the news [...]
Wyden: political groups should expect IRS scrutiny
Tuesday morning, the Senate Finance Committee grilled IRS officials over the agency’s targeting of conservative nonprofit groups. Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden defended the scrutiny.
Banned from state biz, Texas contractor cashes in on school districts
By Jon Cassidy | Watchdog.org
BEAUMONT – An electrical contractor for the scandal-plagued Beaumont Independent School District was barred from doing business with the state nine months ago, yet the school district continues to send business his way.
Federal land buries Oregon rural economies
By Shelby Sebens | Northwest Watchdog
In Skamania County, Wash., growing an economy is nearly impossible.
The federal government owns 80 percent of the land.
NJ records council helps Christie avoid election year scandal
By Mark Lagerkvist | New Jersey Watchdog
The New Jersey agency entrusted with ensuring access to public records may be Gov. Chris Christie’s biggest ally for keeping a pension scandal secret in an election year.
After a sudden decision last year not to review state Treasury documents that could incriminate Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno – Christie’s running [...]
Help pouring in as OK tornado cuts water, blood supply
Early Tuesday morning, rescuers in Moore, Okla., revised the death count from Monday’s massive storm downward, from 51 to 24.
Iowa withholds student cheating documents
By Sheena Dooley | Iowa Watchdog
DES MOINES – Officials with the Iowa Department of Education say they won’t release any information related to the student cheating in the Davenport School District.
Hey, IRS, here’s prison camp survivor you asked about
By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
ALBUQUERQUE – The Internal Revenue Service not only wanted a wide variety of information from the Albuquerque Tea Party‘s application for nonprofit status, it also wanted to know what contacts it had with people from other political organizations too.
That included an 83-year-old great-grandmother who was once held in a World War [...]
IL fracking fight now only between green groups
SPRINGFIELD — When environmental activists half-heartedly chanted “shame” as an Illinois legislative panel gave the first approval to high-volume hydraulic fracturing regulations, they were speaking as much to other green groups as they were to lawmakers.
$102k salary doesn’t go as far in Florida under terms of Hertz deal
The truth behind a deal with Hertz Corp. to bring 700 jobs to southwest Florida with an average annual salary of $102,000 may be hidden under skewed statistics and misleading numbers.
Video: IRS targets NM Tea Party, elderly woman
The IRA went after a the Albuquerque Tea Party, which meant the IRS went after Marianne Chiffelle. Who is that? Chiffelle is an 83-year-old retiree and former WWII internment camp survivor who is active in Republican politics and conservative causes in New Mexico. She spoke with Watchdog.org’s Rob Nikolewski.
Video: Did IL gov hire crony to clear Congressional ballot?
Illinois Senate Republicans say Gov. Pat Quinn’s latest crony hire was not just political payback, but a move to clear the ballot for one downstate Congressional seat.
IL Senate GOP member Darin LaHood says David Gill has to answer questions about how he went from a failed candidate for Congress to an executive at the Illinois [...]
Video: Newtown parents push for IL ammo ban
It was an emotional plea from Newtown CT parents as Illinois lawmakers look to ban ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 bullets.
Newtown mom Nicole Hockley says IL proposed high capacity magazine ban is not a total ban.
Vandermyde says the IL magazine ban is targeted at the most popular pistols and rifles being sold today, [...]
MORE VIDEOS
Illinois Senate President John Cullerton is pushing a pension reform plan written, and supported by, Illinois’ public sector unions.
Video: IL Sen Pres like union-backed pension reform
Pennsylvania leaders are sounding the alarm of a pension squeeze.
Video: PA Gov, lawmakers fear pension squeeze
“America’s governor” Scott Walker stumps with Wisconsin Republicans at the Wisconsin GOP Convention.
Video: Scott Walker at WI GOP convention
WATCHBLOG
The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) has released a map showing the new 70 mile per hour speed zones.
Ohio has a need for speed, or at least new 70 mph 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 [...]
Florida budget watchdog blasted for reporting last minute spending
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 [...]
U.S. government makes journalism a crime
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 [...]
Virginia denies out-of-state residents access to public documents, grants them handgun permits
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 [...]
Terry McAuliffe has an Internet problem
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 [...]
Subcommittee reconsiders law limiting FOIA access to VA residents
SPECIAL REPORT
Terry McAuliffe, gubernatorial candidate and carmogul
- VA: As he runs for governor, McAuliffe wheels and deals electric cars in Mississippi
- VA: Media echo Watchdog exclusive on McAuliffe’s electric car maneuvers
- No news here: PolitFact brands Terry McAuliffe’s electric-car claim ‘false’
- Experts question source of McAuliffe car-company funding
- Terry McAuliffe on business ventures: ‘Some work, some don’t’
- McAuliffe feels heat over GreenTech resignation
- How McAuliffe’s car company failed the Virginia test, landed in Mississippi
- Virginia official wants probe of McAuliffe company ‘visa-for-sale’ program
- McAuliffe car company sues Watchdog in libel claim
- Barack Obama’s GreenTech connection: Rick Wade
- Silence, secrecy, cops follow GreenTech’s China deal
- McAuliffe hones China’s crony-capitalism model in U.S.
- Promises keep Tunica County afloat
- McAuliffe company’s China hook-up: Will it work?
- McAuliffe car co. parent in off-shore tax shelter
- McAuliffe car lags in Domino’s delivery
- Lawmaker gives feds one more week for EB-5 answers
- Bolling: McAuliffe’s Mississippi package ‘attractive’
- Inside, execs knew McAuliffe plan had ‘substantial risk’
- Union darling McAuliffe and his non-union car company
Section 7
From our Citizen Correspondents
FROM AROUND THE WEB
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, [...]
Who’s next on the IRS list?
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 [...]
California prison guards lock up reforms
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 [...]
Mackinac Center: Michigan Head Start a false start
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 [...]
SC Senate cyber security bill faces tough test in House
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 [...]
Maryland judiciary promotes civics education
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 [...]
Spending of $20K per student in MI district yields rodents, filthy toilets
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 [...]
New Hampshire auto dealer bailout could lead to lawsuit
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 [...]
Are private-option advocates in AR really that much smarter?
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 [...]

























