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Federal prosecutors have for months been using a grand jury to investigate former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe — an indication the probe into whether he misled officials exploring his role in a controversial media disclosure has intensified, two people familiar with the matter said. The grand jury has summoned more than one witness, the people said, and the case is ongoing. The people declined to identify those who had been called to testify. The presence of the grand jury shows prosecutors are treating the matter seriously, locking in the accounts of witnesses who might later have to testify at...

Last night news broke that U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras “has been recused” from the case overseeing the prosecution of General Mike Flynn. Details are vague. According to Reuters, both the judge and the Flynn legal team have yet to comment. Additionally, there is no concrete answer as to whether the recusal was done by the judge himself or was forced upon him. While the reasoning is the key, the difference between the two options adds another layer of consequence within the rest of this outline. Reuters News Service puts it this way:

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said Wednesday the Congressional Budget Office sabotaged scoring of the Republican health care bill. (Photo/AARON P. BERNSTEIN/REUTERS) July 14, 2017 OAN Newsroom The Congressional Budget Office says President Trump’s proposed budget would slash the deficit and greatly help the economy. Analysis by the CBO claims the 2018 budget would reduce the deficit by $160 billion, while increasing the GDP. Additionally, cuts to health care spending would save the economy over one trillion dollars over the next decade. The White House says it is thrilled by the CBO’s analysis, and claims the president’s...

Hillary Clinton’s lawyers failed to give the FBI at least 13 different mobile devices containing information about Clinton’s private email network clintonemail.com, according to a new FBI document dump.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivered some rather strongly worded remarks in advance of the upcoming G20 summit in Hamburg Germany. Reuters frames the Merkel statements as a warning to U.S. President Donald Trump. ... However, seeking control is a reaction to fear. Ms. Merkel, the EU, and the larger multinational global interests therein, fear Trump… and for good reason, he’s winning. President Trump has put a jaw-dropping U.S. energy platform solidly into place. ... The announcements last week are tectonic in consequence though seemingly lost amid the chafe of media reporting over twitter spats. ... You cannot overemphasize how strong...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Georgia's 9th District Congressman Doug Collins issued a statement following President Obama's speech Friday night, promising that the president will get push-back from the House of Representatives on an immigration plan. "The majority of the People’s House will fight this because it is wrong. It is political retribution under the false guise of compassion, and it is yet another abuse of power the branch of government closest to the people will have to resolve," said Collins. In a prime time address to the nation, President Obama said he would use executive order to grant work permits to...

Email reply from Sen. Isakson...Emphasis is mine and is what I think he's misleading me about. ...snip... While the New START treaty was pending before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I was able to successfully amend Senator Richard Lugar's resolution of ratification to ensure modernization and maintenance of the U.S. nuclear arsenal as well as the unfettered ability of the United States to deploy missile defense. I also worked with the committee to support the amendment introduced by Senator Jim DeMint, which reaffirmed the United States' commitment to defend itself by any means possible. ..snip... As the full Senate considered...

Franklyn Wynne (Tony) Plemmons, age 86, born September 8, 1924 in Asheville, NC and formerly of Oglethorpe, GA, residing in Marble, NC passed away Thursday, November 25, 2010 at his residence. Affectionately called (Tony) by his family and friends, Tony was very proud of his Native American heritage as an enrolled member of the Ioway Tribe of KS and NE. He was also a decorated veteran of WWII serving in the US Army Air Corps in the Pacific Theater with the 7th Air Force, 11th bomb group, 431st squadron as Flight Engineer and machine gunner on a B‐24 bomber participating...

More than a week after a judge blocks parts of Arizona's immigration law, the executive director of a Georgia Latino group said if that law is passed in the peach state, the poultry industry would feel the fallout. Jerry Gonzalez with the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials said anywhere between 40 and 50 percent of the workforce in the poultry industry is illegal. "If we were to remove 40 to 50 percent of the workforce, would our economy suffer," Gonzalez asked during WDUN's The Local Hour Friday morning. "The answer to that is yes." He said lawmakers need to...

snip... The poll results released Saturday showed 68 percent of voters support enacting a law similar to one recently adopted in Arizona. It allows police to inquire about the immigration status of people already stopped for other offenses. ... snip

ATLANTA - The Georgia secretary of state's office mailed out letters to more than 4,200 voters - including 81 in Hall County - telling them they must prove their citizenship for their ballots to count. A three-judge federal panel ruled last month that Georgia can to continue asking....

ATLANTA - The University System of Georgia is requiring colleges to verify that no illegal immigrant students are paying in-state tuition or getting financial aid. The state's 35 public colleges and universities have two months to sift through more than 300,000 students. No estimate has been given yet for how much the project will cost. The move stems from the discovery that Kennesaw State University student was living in the country illegally but paying in-state tuition. That violates a 2006 policy set by Chancellor Erroll Davis that prohibits campuses from giving taxpayer-subsidized tuition rates to undocumented students. Out-of-state tuition is...

ATLANTA - An analysis suggests recipients of federal stimulus dollars have overstated the number of jobs created or saved in Georgia. ..snip In one such case, the Central Savannah River Area Economic Opportunity Authority in Augusta reported saving 317 jobs. But fiscal officer Chris Whitley says that represents the number of Head Start workers who received 2.3 percent raises from the stimulus funds.

WASHINGTON -- After working for months behind the scenes to help shape health care reform, the insurance industry is now sharply attacking the emerging plan with a report that maintains Senate legislation would increase the cost of a typical policy by hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars a year.

The two largest offshore drilling companies, one of the largest oilfield service companies, and other major firms have announced plans to relocate their corporate offices to Switzerland: “Noble Corp. today became the latest in a recent string of Houston oil and gas firms to announce plans to move their corporate headquarters to Switzerland, a change experts said is cheifly for tax purposes. The world’s second largest offshore drilling contractor, now incorporated in the Cayman Islands and run from Sugar Land [Texas], said its board has approved the change, and now will put the proposal to shareholders and the Cayman courts....

ATLANTA – Bob Barr, a former Georgia congressman and the Libertarian Party’s nominee for president, responds to concerns that he’ll siphon votes from Republican John McCain. “The fact of the matter is the Republican Party has problems that go far deeper than Bob Barr,” he said. Barr is fundraising in Georgia over the weekend. “Our goal is to impede the chances to be president for both Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama,” Barr added. Barr is one of two former Georgia congressional representatives running on third party tickets. Cynthia McKinney is the Green Party’s presidential nominee.

First electricity rates jumped, now gasoline prices are galloping up, and the next sticker shock could be chicken prices, which are likely to go up at least 10 percent by the summer. That’s what James Perdue, chairman of the East Coast’s largest poultry company, told members of the Maryland Economic Development Association on Tuesday morning. The culprit is the rising price of corn, which is the main source of chicken feed. More than a third of all corn is going to produce ethanol, a fuel added to or used instead of gasoline. “We’ve got to feed those chickens,” Perdue said....

The bulk of 3M facilities are located in the U.S. now, but Campbell said that will change. He said more manufacturing plants will be located in low-tax overseas locations...

PEWAUKEE, Wis. — An immigration bill resurrected by the U.S. Senate is a “monstrosity” that is “fundamentally dishonest and impossible to implement,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Friday. Addressing about 300 people at a taxpayer rally about 20 miles west of Milwaukee, the Republican said the bill amounts to the government asking citizens to trust it to protect the borders, even though border security is so flawed that one official recently ignored a computer warning and allowed a tuberculosis patient back into the country. “The problem here is not illegal immigration, it’s American employers who willfully refuse to enforce...

Hidden [income tax] costs go well beyond the question of economic incidence versus legal incidence or the compliance burden. Every tax system distorts economic decisions, alters economic behavior, and retards economic output below that which otherwise would occur, resulting in what economists agree is the “deadweight loss” or “excess burden” of taxation. Deadweight loss is a hidden extraction cost of taxation – the machine that didn’t spin, the worker who didn’t show up – which represents a depletion in purchasing power perhaps more nefariously improvident than if the government had collected that resource. The average worker is of course completely...