Top-secret documents obtained by The Guardian reveal the National Security Agency (NSA) paid millions of dollars to Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft to cover costs associated with the agency’s PRISM surveillance program. The revelation is the the first evidence of a
A new report indicates rising Chinese demand and America’s shale boom have placed the U.S. on pace to give up its unwelcome title of the world’s number one oil importer by 2017. “China and the US are heading in opposite directions
Obamacare is bagging Washington lobbyists big bucks as corporate clients line up to hire K Street lobbying firms made up of former government officials with high-powered connections. “After passage of major legislation, those who have networks on CapitolHill take exceedingly
With black unemployment returning to double the rate of whites, President Barack Obama told a New York town hall audience on Friday that minority populations are struggling economically in part because of past discrimination and because of “anxiety” over embracing
Delta Air Lines says Obamacare and rising medical costs will explode its healthcare expenses by $100 million. Delta executives delivered the startling statistic to Obama Administration officials in a private memorandum obtained by RedState.com. Fox News confirmed the letter’s authenticity.
Former high-ranking Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official John C. Beale was charged on Friday with stealing $886,186 over 13 years. appropriate time we’ll need answers–a whole lot of answers.” Between 2000 and April 2013, Beale, a former deputy assistant administrator
The Nevada AFL-CIO unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday condemning the Affordable Care Act, known to its critics as Obamacare. “The unintended consequences of the ACA [Affordable Care Act] will lead to the destruction of the 40 hour work week, higher
The United Parcel Services (UPS) announced it will drop 15,000 workers’ spouses from medical insurance plans citing Obamacare as a chief reason for the decision. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports a UPS memo sent to employees says increased medical costs “combined
Federal agents on Wednesday arrested dozens of people in Puerto Rico in what may be one of the biggest disability scam busts ever. The Puerto Rico U.S. Attorney’s Office says three doctors–Wildo Vargas, Rafael Miguez Balseiro, and Erica Rivera Castro–allegedly
A new study finds that three million young Americans would save $1,000 by forgoing the Obamacare health exchanges and instead paying the government’s penalty for being uninsured. The study, conducted by the National Center for Public Policy Research, concludes that
The Clinton Foundation has spent over $50 million on travel expenses since 2003, reports the New York Post. The Post’s analysis examined tax forms from the William J. Clinton Foundation, Clinton Global Health Initiative, and the Clinton Health Action Initiative.
Germany took steps this week toward legitimizing the Internet-based currency known as “bitcoins.” Germany’s finance minister ruled that bitcoins are considered a “unit of account” akin to a form of “private money,” reports Spiegel. Still, the paper notes that designation
A new Education Department study reveals that for the first time ever, a majority of college students (57%) now receive federal financial aid. The number of undergraduate students taking out loans has also increased from 35% to 41% over the
New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize winning Princeton economist Paul Krugman is battling plagiarism charges after a distinguished UCLA professor of economics leveled the accusation against him on his blog. In an open letter to Paul Krugman, UCLA economics
A new study finds that a New York mother of two is eligible for $38,004 in welfare benefits–a sum more than the annual salary of a New York entry-level school teacher. The study, conducted by the CATO Institute, says in
President Barack Obama ran $1 trillion deficits for each of the four years of his first term. The Congressional Budget Office’s updated figures released last week reveal that in 2012, Obama had a $1.087 trillion deficit, marking the fourth year
The Obama Administration has missed 41 of 82 legally imposed implementation deadlines, according to a confidential Congressional Research Service memo. The memo, obtained by Avik Roy of Forbes, reveals the litany of blown benchmarks: As of May 31, 2013, when
Over four years ago, the federal government forced Bank of America to acquire Merrill Lynch. Last week, Bank of America signaled it will dissolve Merrill Lynch. In 2009, Bank of America chief Kenneth Lewis testified that the federal government threatened
The Obama Administration’s quiet embrace of natural gas and fracking has helped widen fissures in the Democratic Party between anti-fracking environmentalists and those in the party’s labor union base who view fracking as a jobs creator. “For the first time
In the wake of last week’s much-discussed New York Times investigative report detailing cronyism and mismanagement inside the Clinton Foundation, former president Bill Clinton issued an open letter in an attempt to stem the public relations backlash. Clinton’s letter challenged a couple of the Times’ assertions that
A new report in the Manhattan Institute publication, City Journal, says fracking “brings breathtaking economic and environmental benefits” to the places that have embraced the “shale revolution.” James Panero catalogs powerful fracking facts, including: According to the federal government’s Secretary
Seeking to blunt the public relations damage from a stinging New York Times exposé of his nonprofit, former president Bill Clinton issued a two-and-a-half page open letter on Friday attempting to rebut a couple of the Times‘ claims. The Clinton
On Thursday, the Obama Administration unexpectedly handed out $13 million more than the $54 million in grants it originally budgeted for Obamacare “navigators,” including $655,000 to abortion provider Planned Parenthood. “Navigators” is the term the Obama Administration has given to
President Barack Obama’s economic speaking tour has driven his economic approval ratings down even further to just 35%, according to a new Gallup poll released on Thursday. In early June, Obama’s economic approval rating stood at 42%. He then embarked upon a
Obama supporters are bagging big bucks by signing up as so-called Obamacare ‘navigators’ to help herd millions of confused Americans into the government’s healthcare exchanges. On Thursday, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N J) announced that his state scored $2 million in
A new study says more Americans received Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits in 2012 than the entire population of New York City. Our Generation, a free market non-profit advocacy group, says in its “Drivers of SSDI Growth” report that
On Thursday, CNN senior reporter John King said that the Obama Administration’s most recent delay of a key Obamacare provision that was supposed to limit consumers’ out-of-pocket expenses on deductibles and co-pays could prove seismic come the 2014 midterm elections. “This one
On Tuesday, Young America’s Foundation assembled a gathering of top conservative activists and students at the Reagan Ranch to celebrate the anniversary of President Ronald Reagan’s historic 1981 tax cut–the largest in American history. The event also focused on the
President Barack Obama went golfing Wednesday with Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts, the Democrat donor whose company owns NBC–the network presently producing a four-hour miniseries on Hillary Clinton. Comcast’s executive vice president David Cohen also raised over $1.4 million for
On Wednesday, the New York Times ran a blistering investigative report revealing the Clinton Foundation as a nonprofit rife with crony capitalist conflicts of interest and multi-million dollar deficits despite raking in at least $492 million from 1997 to 2007.
The Obama Administration’s dire warnings that cuts to the rate of spending increases–known as “sequestration”–would unleash economic destruction and national peril appear to have been wildly overblown, as nearly every major agency has reduced or eliminated altogether the number of
Last year, former Newsweek veteran reporter Peter Boyer and Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer wrote a much-discussed article highlighting Attorney General Eric Holder’s unwillingness to prosecute a single senior executive of any major financial services institution in the wake
The Obama Administration has delayed yet another critical provision of Obamacare until 2015 through a little-noticed ruling on the Labor Department’s website. The latest delay will extend enforcement of Obamacare’s caps on out-of-pocket costs like deductibles and co-pays for another
Wall Street is betting that the looming debt limit debate will, as in the past, be resolved. Politico’s Ben White and MJ Lee, however, argue this time could be different. “Really, seriously different,” write White and Lee: The House GOP
Last week, Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker came under fire for alleged crony capitalism involving his Internet startup, Waywire, which tapped CNN chief Jeff Zucker’s 15-year-old son to be a compensated “millennial adviser” for Booker’s company. Now, on Monday, the
Retailers are reeling from disappointing back-to-school sales as families pinch pennies in the dour economy. “It was a lousy start,” retail consultant Walter Loeb told USA Today. July retailer revenues rose by just 3.5%–the slowest pace since March, says the
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted one the nation’s 143 oil refineries an exemption from costly ethanol blending requirements but refuses to say which one or why citing “confidentiality restrictions,” reports the Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley A. Strassel. Page 11
Second-quarter economic growth estimates are being scaled back following Friday’s announcement by the Commerce Department that wholesale inventories dropped 0.2% in June after falling 0.6% in May. That means the government’s already anemic 1.7% annual growth forecast may be revised
On Friday, the National Security Agency (NSA) released a memo claiming that it “touches” 1.6% of all Internet traffic and that just 0.025% of data is selected for review. “The net effect is that NSA analysts look at 0.00004% of
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo bagged $100,000 in campaign donations from a developer that, two days later, received tax breaks that will cost New York taxpayers $35 million in revenue over 10 years. The company, Extell Development, made two $50,000
