AP
Ineffective management at the Internal Revenue Service allowed agents to improperly target tea party groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax exempt status, an internal Treasury Department report said Tuesday.
Lax managers allowed the practice to go on for more than 18 months, said the report from the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.
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AP
President Barack Obama tried to swat down a pair of brewing controversies Monday, denouncing as “outrageous” the targeting of conservative political groups by the federal IRS but angrily denying any administration cover-up after last year’s deadly attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
Simultaneous investigations – and demands by Republicans for more – have put the White House on the defensive, emboldened GOP lawmakers and threatened to overtake a second-term Obama agenda already off to a rocky start.
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AP
The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news.
The records obtained by the Justice Department listed outgoing calls for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, for general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and for the main number for the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP. It was not clear if the records also included incoming calls or the duration of the calls.
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CPSO
ERIC SCOTT RADIO | LAKE CHARLES, LA. — On May 12, 2013 at approximately 8:30 p.m., Corporal S. Brister and Officer S. Sizemore with the Lake Charles Police Department were dispatched to 400 N Lakeshore Drive (Veterans Memorial Park) in reference to a robbery.
Upon their arrival, officers learned from the victim that an argument ensued with the suspect, later identified as Lawrence Brown Sr. During the argument, Brown took the victim’s cell phone, car keys, and then committed battery upon her. Brown took $600 from the victim’s purse then threw the victim’s cell phone and car keys into the lake. Brown fled on foot but was apprehended shortly thereafter by police and arrested for Simple Robbery.
Detective D. Gaudet is the follow-up investigator on this case.
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AP
Chris Smith remembered his Kris Kross hip-hop partner Chris Kelly Thursday as a true friend who he’s sure is in heaven now.
Smith struggled to blurt out words at the pulpit of Jackson Baptist Memorial Church at Kelly’s funeral attended by some 300 friends, family and fellow entertainers
The 34-year-old Kelly, who had the 1992 hit “Jump” with Smith, was found dead May 1 of a suspected drug overdose. His mother and uncle told authorities Kelly had a history of drug abuse and experienced similar episodes in the past, according to a police report.
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AP
A worldwide gang of criminals stole a total of $45 million in a matter of hours by hacking their way into a database of prepaid debit cards and then draining cash machines around the globe, federal prosecutors said Thursday – and outmoded U.S. card technology may be partly to blame.
Seven people are under arrest in the U.S. in connection with the case, which prosecutors said involved thousands of thefts from ATMs using bogus magnetic swipe cards carrying information from Middle Eastern banks. The fraudsters moved with astounding speed to loot financial institutions around the world, working in cells including one in New York, Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said.
She called it “a massive 21st-century bank heist” carried out by brazen thieves.
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ESR Graphic
ERIC SCOTT RADIO | LAKE CHARLES, LA. — On May 6, 2013 at 9:05 p.m., Corporal J. Hurd and Officer D. Wagoner were dispatched to 947 3rd Avenue (Family Dollar) in reference to a robbery. Upon arrival, Officers made contact with employees who advised that they were locking the front door of the store when a black male rapidly approached them from the northeast side of the building. The employee entered the store and closed the door at which time the black male brandished a black handgun in his right hand. The suspect was wearing an orange jumpsuit with a black ski mask and black gloves. The suspect was unable to enter the store due to the door being locked. The employee observed two more black male suspects traveling toward the front door of the store from the northeast corner of the building. The second suspect, carrying an unknown black handgun, was wearing a white long sleeve t-shirt with black stripes, camouflage shorts and a red bandana over his face and head. The third suspect was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, and black shoes. All three suspects fled west across the parking lot on foot.
Detectives H. Sanders and K. Farquhar were called to the scene to handle the follow-up investigation.
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