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.
View full article »
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.
View full article »
AP
Police swept across the U.S. Capitol complex to chase a flurry of reports of suspicious packages and envelopes Wednesday after preliminary tests indicated poisonous ricin in two letters sent to President Barack Obama and a Mississippi senator.
In an intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press, the FBI says that the letters to Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., were postmarked Memphis, Tenn. Both letters say: “To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance.” Both are signed, “I am KC and I approve this message.”
View full article »
NBC
A career criminal who stole a truck containing President Obama’s audio equipment was sentenced Thursday to seven years in federal prison.
Sentencing guidelines called for a term of about three years, but Eric Brown of Richmond, Va., agreed to the longer sentence to avoid prosecution for 14 similar truck thefts in three localities. However, he could still face charges in Stafford County, which did not join Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico counties in the agreement.
View full article »
AP
A Republican critic of the Obama administration’s drone policy succeeded Wednesday in blocking a vote on John Brennan’s nomination to be CIA director over questions about the possible use of the unmanned weapons against American citizens.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., mounted a filibuster against President Barack Obama’s pick to lead the spy agency and he demanded that Obama or Attorney General Eric Holder issue a statement making clear that drones would not be used in the United States to kill terrorism suspects who are U.S. citizens.
View full article »
AP
The Obama administration is quietly considering urging the Supreme Court to overturn California’s ban on gay marriage, a step that would mark a political victory for advocates of same-sex unions and a deepening commitment by President Barack Obama to rights for gay couples.
Obama raised expectations among opponents of the Proposition 8 ban when he declared in last month’s inaugural address that gays and lesbians must be “treated like anyone else under the law.” The administration has until Feb. 28 to intervene in the case by filing a “friend of the court” brief.
View full article »
AP
Evidence of an unrelenting campaign of cyberstealing linked to the Chinese government is prompting the Obama administration to develop more aggressive responses to the theft of U.S. government data and corporate trade secrets.
The Obama administration is expected to announce new measures Wednesday, including possible fines and other trade actions against China or any other country guilty of cyber-espionage. Officials familiar with the administration’s plans spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the threatened action.
View full article »
 84°F |
| Today: 90°F / 70°F |  |
| Tomorrow | Monday | Tuesday |
| |  |
| 90° / 72° | 90° / 72° | 90° / 73° |
