By Steve Miller | Texas Watchdog

DALLAS – Dallas’ finest have been knocked offline by that most sinister of all criminals. No, not a crazed violent felon or a serial predator.
A computer hacker.
Over the weekend, according to the Dallas Police Department, the agency noticed late Sunday that the names and passwords of several Dallas PD employees had [...]

By Wayne Lusvardi | CalWatchdog
SACRAMENTO – New extraction technologies are creating an oil and gas boom that is lifting the economics of several states, as reported by the Wall Street Journal’s recent article “Oil and Gas Boom Lifts U.S. Economy.”
Median incomes are growing since 2007 in such states as Wyoming, Alaska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas. [...]

By Sean Whaley | Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A Nevada think tank investigation shows that Clark County taxpayers are contributing $4.6 million a year to fund union activities by local government workers.
The results of the investigation by Steven Miller and Kyle Gillis of the Nevada Policy Research Institute, published today in the Nevada Journal, identifies almost [...]

By Jim Dooley | Hawaii Reporter
HONOLULU — A bill that would ban the sale of smokeless electronic cigarettes to minors and impose the 70% tobacco tax on the devices was briskly debated at the state Legislature today.

All of the testimony favored a ban on sale of the products to minors but more than 1,000 individuals and [...]

By Mark Lagerkvist | New Jersey Watchdog
TRENTON — For state Sen. Frederick Madden Jr., the path of public service also has been a road to personal wealth.
Madden collects more than $241,000 a year in public salaries plus retirement pay. He gets $49,000 as a legislator, a $106,983 as a police academy dean and an $85,272 annual pension as a [...]