President Donald Trump gleefully announced that, under his direction, U.S. military troops had swooped down on the Governor’s Mansion in Sacramento and kidnapped California Governor Gavin Newsom. “We’re charging Newscum with fraud.” When a reporter asked for specifics about the fraud charges, Trump pointed to Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi, clearly taken by surprise, said, “We’re looking into it and will let you know the details as soon as we’ve created them.”   read more

As members of Congress continue to wrangle about what to cut from the soon-to-be-enacted stimulus bill, some details have emerged as to what has already been eliminated. Among the expenditures considered not stimulating enough to be funded: $16 b...   read more

Each year American taxpayers spend more than $100 million for reports written by the 700-strong staff of the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which provides reports on topics requested by members of Congress. These reports are not secret, but...   read more

On October 20, 2008, then-Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, in explaining how the bailout of banks and others would work, told Americans that “This is an investment, not an expenditure, and there is no reason to expect this program will cos...   read more

“Revolving door” describes the common phenomenon of government officials being in charge of regulating companies for which they worked, and then, after they leave office, going to work for the same companies they were just regulating. Citizens for...   read more

The dangers of global warming have received a great deal of attention, but the alarming trend does have certain potential advantages. One example is taking place in the Arctic, where the rapid melting of polar ice has introduced the possibility th...   read more

Writing in The New York Times, Stephen Farrell and Alissa A. Rubin report the case of Luca Marchio, who showed up in Baghdad and Falluja as Iraq’s first Western tourist since the U.S. invasion in 2003. A 33-year-old from Como, Italy, Marchio obtai...   read more

The struggling companies whose unrestricted business practices have contributed to the country's economic crisis are getting an impressive return on at least one of their investments.   The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has found th...   read more

Abdul Qadeer Khan, known as the “Father of the Islamic Bomb,” has been freed from house arrest in Pakistan after five years. Khan became notorious for having shared nuclear technology with the dictatorships of North Korea, Iran and Libya.   Khan...   read more

As the Obama administration promises to revamp its immigration policy to target criminals, a new report says that in recent years, a high-profile federal program created to catch illegal immigrants with criminal records shifted its focus towards s...   read more

In a startling judgment, two British High Court Justices ruled that they would not compel release of evidence relating to U.S. use of torture because the Bush administration had threatened to withhold intelligence sharing if it did so. They furthe...   read more

President Obama’s announcement of a $500,000-a-year pay cap for executives of firms receiving bailout funds seems an appropriate response to public outrage about Wall Street excesses. However, as so often happens when money meets politics, there a...   read more

In selecting Republican Senator Judd Gregg as his second choice for Secretary of Commerce, Barack Obama chose not only a fiscal conservative, but also someone who blasted the president as “Obama spend-o-rama” when he unveiled his legislative agend...   read more

Think back just a few months ago when President Bush, his Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, and Ben Bernanke, the head of the Federal Reserve, threw the nation into a panic because the entire economy was days away from collapse. Fortunatel...   read more

The United States accounts for just 4.5% of the world’s population, but 23% of the world prison population. The U.S. has the highest prison population rate in the world: one out of 132 Americans are in jail or prison. One state that has concentrat...   read more

On Wednesday, February 11, Rep. John Dingell Jr. (D-Michigan) will break the record for the longest time served in the House of Representatives: 53 years 61 days. Since it was created in 1789, 10,631 Americans have served in the House of Represent...   read more

On February 3, 2009, Tom Daschle, a 26-year veteran of Capitol Hill, withdrew as Barack Obama’s choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services due to revelations regarding unpaid taxes.   Born on December 9, 1947, in Aberdeen, South Dakota,...   read more