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 [...]
Bolling’s political future open as Virginia campaign heats up
By Carten Cordell │ Watchdog.org, Virginia Bureau
ALEXANDRIA — Seemingly cast aside by his own party in the governor’s race and with time winding down on his term as lieutenant governor, Bill Bolling’s political career seemed to be in its twilight.
But with the ideological direction of the Virginia GOP in question and an election growing more [...]
Florida red-light cameras flash on the cash
When it comes to red-light cameras in Florida, the focus is on the money.
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.
Cuccinelli’s transparency stance is a double standard, critics say
By Kathryn Watson | Watchdog.org, Virginia Bureau
ALEXANDRIA — When Mike Signer read the small-print footnote on the response to his Freedom of Information Act request from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s office recently, he was astonished.
The office of the state’s top legal official — an official who has claimed a “commitment to transparency and accountability” — said [...]
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 [...]
Homeland Security meets IRS protesters in St. Louis
By Johnny Kampis | Missouri Watchdog
A few hundred Missouri residents participated in a rally in front of the local Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday in support of the tea party and other conservative groups who were targeted by the tax agency.
The protesters, holding signs as they chanted and sang, were met not by local police but officers with the Department of Homeland Security, who were on hand to keep the peace.
Legislative inaction ends latest ‘liquor wars’ in Missouri
By John K. Ross | For Missouri Watchdog
Missouri senators concluded the legislative session without voting on a bill that would have strengthened the state’s alcohol distribution cartel.
The inaction on the legislation, which would have made it more difficult for spirits suppliers to switch distributors, brings the latest round of the state’s “Liquor Wars” among producers and distributors to a close.
IRS protesters gather in Albuquerque as tea party groups demand answers
By Rob Nikolewski | New Mexico Watchdog
Angry at disclosures that the Internal Revenue Service has admitted targeting tea party groups and conservative organizations, an estimated 130 residents protested at the IRS office in Albuquerque during lunch hour Tuesday.
Many of the protesters were members of the Albuquerque and Rio Rancho tea parties and a line covered the block along [...]
Federal land buries rural economies in WA and OR
By Shelby Sebens | Northwest Watchdog
In Skamania County, Wash., growing an economy is nearly impossible.
The federal government owns 80 percent of the land.
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.
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
Eric Boehm | Watchdog.org
HARRISBURG – An FBI agent in Florida shot and killed a man who was being questioned about his ties to suspected Boston bombers Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
But this was no bloody shoot out like the one that took place on the streets of Boston last month. The man killed early Wednesday [...]
FBI plays judge, jury and executioner while investigating man with suspected ties to Boston bombers
By Johnny Kampis | Missouri Watchdog
A few hundred Missouri residents participated in a rally in front of the local Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday in support of the tea party and other conservative groups who were targeted by the tax agency.
The protesters, holding signs as they chanted and sang, were met not by local police but officers with the Department of Homeland Security, who were on hand to keep the peace.
Homeland Security meets IRS protesters in St. Louis
HOUSTON – True the Vote, the Houston-based secure elections organization, filed a federal lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service Tuesday, seeking damages over the agency’s handling of its application for nonprofit status and asking the court to grant it the 501(c)(3) exemption it applied for in 2010.
Since that application was filed, True the Vote’s founders, [...]
True the Vote sues IRS over targeting
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 [...]
Top 10 quotes about Obama’s #scandalpalooza
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
By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter
MADISON — Since word hit that the University of Wisconsin System had accumulated more than $1 billion in reserves even as tuition continued to soar and state funding plummeted, the UW Board of Regents has gotten a lot suggestions on what to do with that money.
A lot of unhappy Republican lawmakers and [...]
UW System reserve option: Cap tuition reserves at no higher than 20 percent
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 [...]

























