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Coburn: Interior Dept. should stop counting sheep and keep parks open
Michal Conger
Published: Tue, Apr 30, 2013
Interior Department officials dealing with sequestration could keep national parks open if they’d stop counting sheep and buying hybrid autos, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., told Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in a letter today. A video on the department’s YouTube channel last month warned...
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Cities ask workers to pay their own pension costs
Michal Conger
Published: Mon, Apr 29, 2013
Pension costs have caused several recent high-profile municipal bankruptcies recently, so other cities are trying to avoid suffering similar disasters by asking employees to begin paying part of their pension costs. In Sacramento, Calif., City Manager John Shirey said today he will hire...
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Millions in stimulus spending violated Buy America Act, inspector general says
Michal Conger
Updated: Mon, Apr 29, 2013
Environmental Protection Agency officials overseeing a stimulus-funded wastewater treatment plant bought $3.8 million in foreign-made parts and won’t return the money or change the rules for using foreign parts in Recovery Act projects, according to the EPA Office of the Inspector...
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Mike Tyson: I had more money before Obama was president
Michal Conger
Published: Mon, Apr 29, 2013
“I look forward to paying my taxes… I know that they say that’s legal extortion, but I’m living in this country and if I have to pay taxes — that’s the money I paid for my life on earth,” said former boxer Mike Tyson said on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” this morning. “My...
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Food stamps pay for billions in junk food, but USDA won’t say how much
Michal Conger
Published: Sat, Apr 27, 2013
Food stamp participation is at an all-time high, costing taxpayers $80 billion in 2012 alone, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture refuses to make public how much of that money pays for junk food. A 2012 Yale study estimated Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits, formerly...
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Army burned millions on unused trash incinerators
Michal Conger
Published: Sat, Apr 27, 2013
A U.S. military base wasted $5 million on trash incinerators in Afghanistan it will never use, according to a new report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decided in 2010 to build two new trash incinerators at Forward...
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Watchdog group seeks FOIA records on nonprofit EPA ‘bullied’ out of contract
Michal Conger
Published: Fri, Apr 26, 2013
Environmental Protection Agency officials bullied a contractor into cutting ties with an air policy coalition designed to help states with cumbersome EPA clean air rules, the American Tradition Institute said Thursday. ATI filed a Freedom of Information Act request for EPA emails, instant...
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FAA using furloughs to politicize sequester, lawmakers say
Michal Conger
Published: Fri, Apr 26, 2013
Federal Aviation Administration officials could have avoided disrupting air travel by not furloughing controllers, as was done in the past, lawmakers have told Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. “It has been questioned why air traffic controllers are not exempt from furloughs,” House...
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Former labor secretary hired prestigious law firm before exiting administration
Michal Conger
Published: Thu, Apr 25, 2013
Hilda Solis, the former labor secretary who stepped down in January, hired one of the most prestigious law firms in the country during her last year in President Obama’s administration. Solis, who made $199,700 as labor secretary, paid between $50,000 and $100,000 to Sidley Austin Law Firm...
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Taxpayers spend billions on empty federal buildings while government idles
Michal Conger
Published: Thu, Apr 25, 2013
Thousands of federal buildings sit empty across the country, costing taxpayers $1.6 billion every year in maintenance, but the government agency that oversees them doesn’t even have a timeline for putting the buildings to good use. An arduous process tangled with bureaucratic rules slows the...
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