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

Illinois State Rep. Brandon Phelps says he is not worried that the U.S. Supreme Court has given IL Attorney General Lisa Madigan more time to consider an appeal of the state’s weapon laws. Phelps is the author of concealed carry legislation in Illinois.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez talks about being invited to Washington DC to the residence of Vice President Joe Biden to take part in a Cinco de Mayo celebration.
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez talks about being named as one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2013. Interview by Rob Nikolewski
 

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 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
SACRAMENTO — A corruption exemption remains in Assembly Bill 173, by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego. But calls I made to all the members of the Accountability and Administrative Review committee, which had reviewed the bill, indicated resistance by some Assembly members.
As I wrote earlier this week, the bill would increase the amount of money [...]

By Curt Olson | The Nerve
The South Carolina Senate this week refused to reverse its long-held tradition of funneling millions of tax dollars to nonprofit groups, despite an attempt by one senator to end the practice.
During floor debate on the state budget for next fiscal year, which starts July 1, Sen. Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, unsuccessfully [...]

By Audrey Spalding | Mackinac Center
The financial challenges faced in the Buena Vista and Pontiac school districts have been a hot topic for many weeks now, with several commenters trying to use these districts’ issues to make a case for giving schools more money.
But school districts do not simply find themselves one day without any cash on hand. [...]

By Curt Olson | The Nerve
A legislator who also is a volunteer state constable has co-sponsored a bill that would allow volunteer constables to claim a maximum state income-tax deduction of $3,000 a year.
But Rep. Bill Hixon, R-Aiken and one of five co-sponsors of H. 3089, which received unanimous approval Wednesday by a House Ways [...]

By Jack Spencer | Michigan Capitol Confidential
Medicaid expansion appears to face as many obstacles in the state Senate as it does in the state House.
In Tuesday’s edition of the Lansing insider political newsletter MIRS, Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, said there would be no expansion of Medicaid in Michigan unless the federal government is willing to [...]

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 [...]