On Monday, June 10, 2013, Gov. Tom Corbett held a press conference to call for an expansion to the human services block grant program introduced in a pilot program for 20 counties last year. The program lets counties spend their human service dollars on whatever programs they see fit, as opposed to having line items [...]

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., the chairwoman and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and House Intelligence Committee, respectively, appeared together on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, to offer a bipartisan defense for the NSA’s unprecedented-and-questionably-legal-but-unquestionably-creepy secret collection of Americans’ phone records.

Some Wisconsin lawmakers say the have concerns about the “unique relationship” created between a non-profit journalism center and the University of Wisconsin.

By Eric Boehm | Watchdog.org
HARRISBURG – During his live interview with The Guardian newspaper Monday, NSA leaker Edward Snowden had several fascinating things to say about his experience with the clandestine American spy machine (you can read the entire transcript here), but one of the most interesting was a comment about the absurdity of the [...]

By Shelby Sebens | Northwest Watchdog
The Oregon House on Tuesday unanimously voted to improve the state’s transparency website to include more information about state spending and revenue.
The website will have more information about economic development tax incentives provided by state government, including details about enterprise zones, state Rep. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, said in a press [...]

By Kenric Ward | Watchdog.org
WASHINGTON – Amtrak trains featuring gourmet menus in their café cars are losing more than $400 per passenger ticket, and a leading House Republican wants an investigation.
“With a $72 million food service loss in 2012, it’s time for Congress to stem the financial bleeding from chef-inspired gourmet meals on Amtrak’s money [...]

By Travis Perry │ Kansas Watchdog
OSAWATOMIE — The Wichita City Council is looking to spend millions of dollars in the name of procrastination.
After all, why deal today with something you can put off for another four years? Or, at least a few more election cycles.
In a 5-2 vote Tuesday morning, Wichita elected officials opted to [...]

By Kenric Ward | Watchdog.org
WASHINGTON – A food fight erupted over a House farm bill Tuesday, with a handful of Democrats and a Republican aide wrangling over the cost of groceries.
About 30 Democrats launched a “SNAP Challenge,” intended to show that proposed cuts to food stamps would leave families unable to feed themselves.
The Democrats claimed [...]

By William Patrick | Florida Watchdog
TALLAHASSEE – Polls – not to be confused with our Central European allies – have never been kind to Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott.
That is, until now.
A new Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday is offering something for the Scott Administration to cheer about: his highest approval rating ever.
That’s the good news.
The bad [...]

By John Hrabe | Cal Watchdog
When he isn’t in Sacramento, state Sen. Ed Hernandez is busy treating patients at his five-star rated optometry practice, Hernandez Optometry, in La Puente. The nearby picture is of him on the front page of his website.
For most people, it might be a challenge to balance two full-time jobs. Hernandez, though, has found [...]

By Rick Brundrett | The Nerve
South Carolina Sen. Hugh Leatherman, who wields more power than most legislators, apparently is still in the driver’s seat on a compromise bill that would direct $50 million to the state Transportation Infrastructure Bank, which is governed by a board that includes the Florence County Republican.
House and Senate members on [...]

By Audrey Spalding | Mackinac Center
On Tuesday morning, the Grand Rapids City Commission will consider transferring 163 or more properties to the Kent County Land Bank. These properties will not go to tax auction, where private individuals could bid on them.
If city commissioners approve this resolution, they will be helping the Kent County Land Bank [...]

By Grant Bosse | New Hampshire Watchdog
The intelligent and hard-working members and staff at the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission are working hard to lower your electric rate.
They’re from the government, and they’re here to help.
The PUC and the New Hampshire Legislature have been trying to reduce New Hampshire’s shockingly high utility bills for a [...]

By Tom Gantert | Michigan Capitol Confidential
In 2009, a year after signing the nation’s most lucrative film incentive program, then Gov. Jennifer Granholm touted the jobs it would create.
“We are working hard to build a diversified economy and create good-paying jobs in Michigan,” Granholm said. “As a result of our aggressive film incentives we are not [...]

By Rebecca Phillips | Freedom Foundation
It’s that time of year in Washington when things begin to emerge. Flowers bloom. The sun finally shrugs off its cloudy cloak. Students leave school for summer break, and people get out of their houses more often to enjoy the summertime splendor.
Meanwhile, there’s one group still stuck indoors: the Washington [...]

By Mark Smith | Maryland Reporter
Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called Edward Joseph Snowden, who recently leaked classified information about the National Security Agency, “a legend in his own mind,” and said President Obama made “a big mistake” in saying he had informed Congress about the surveillance of phone records, [...]

By Katy Grimes | Cal Watchdog
SACRAMENTO – The California Assembly and Senate Republicans should have registered their ‘no’ votes on the budget, and packed up and gone home to their districts on Friday, instead of allowing the process to be dragged out for another 24 hours.
The Democratic supermajority not only has enough votes to pass [...]

By Dan Greenberg | The Arkansas Project
My children will be adolescents in a few years; occasionally, when I recall the way I behaved towards my parents as a teenager, I react less in happy anticipation than in horror. Too often as a teenager, in an attempt to get my way, I said things to my [...]