Free Republic

Under pressure from farming advocates in rural communities, and following a report by The Daily Caller, the Obama administration withdrew a proposed rule Thursday that would have applied child labor laws to family farms. Critics complained that the regulation would have drastically changed the extent to which children could work on farms owned by family members. The U.S. Department of Labor cited public outcry as the reason for withdrawing the rule. “The decision to withdraw this rule — including provisions to define the ‘parental exemption’ — was made in response to thousands of comments expressing concerns about the effect of...

The Obama administration has reached a settlement with more than 40 Indian tribes to resolve claims of mismanaged funds by the Department of the Interior. After 22 months of negotiation, the U.S. Department of Justice agreed with tribal representatives for the government to pay more than $1 billion to 41 tribes. Attorney General Eric Holder said the settlements “fairly and honorably resolve historical grievances over the accounting and management of tribal trust funds, trust lands and other non-monetary trust resources that, for far too long, have been a source of conflict between Indian tribes and the United States.” The settlement...

The Department of Energy announced Thursday a $100,000 prize for software developers to come up with mobile applications to tell consumers how much energy they are using. But there’s already an app for that. A quick scan of the iTunes and Android markets shows nearly two dozen existing applications that accomplish the same purpose — helping users keep track of their energy consumption at home. The uMeter app, for example, allows consumers with Wi-Fi-enabled home energy meters to “manage and optimize their energy consumptions, in order to reduce their expenses and carbon footprint,” according to the description. Similarly, the Home...

President Barack Obama’s labor secretary, Hilda Solis, has authorized new posters in elevators throughout the Department of Labor’s Washington, D.C. headquarters building. The posters feature a photo of her marching in protest alongside the Rev. Jesse Jackson and MSNBC television host Rev. Al Sharpton, among others. The photo depicts Solis acting as an emissary of the Obama administration protesting against Alabama’s strict new law combating illegal immigration. Solis has her arms locked with Sharpton, and Jackson is a few feet away. The poster also carries a message for federal government employees — who are traditionally expected to be apolitical in...

Trayvon Martin's parents attend D.C. hearing

What a shock -- labor unions paying one of their biggest cheerleaders in the media. Perhaps Ed Schultz could explain what he does for unions to warrant such largesse. I don't recall hearing anything along these lines on his radio program or MSNBC show. (graphic after page break) In fiscal 2011, Schultz received $190,000 from the Communications Workers of America for what the U.S. Department of Labor categorized as "representational activities." For swag like that, you'd think Schultz could at least get it right about the CWA name. Instead, he invariably refers to it as the "Communication"

Wendy Sherman, undersecretary of state for political affairs at the State Department, had some rather nice things to say about the reclusive Kim Jong Il, the dictatorial leader of North Korea who died a few days ago. She had met the rogue dictator, Josh Rogin reports, when Sherman "served as State Department counselor and North Korea policy coordinator under former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, [and had] traveled to Pyongyang with Albright in 2000." An NPR obituary quotes the high ranking State Department official as saying that "He was smart and a quick problem-solver," and that "[Kim Jong Il] is...

Worst. Administration. Ever. The Justice Department today released a statement insisting Attorney General Eric Holder was not playing the race card when he played the race card in an article published yesterday in The New York Times. Clearly this incompetent Obama official thinks we’re all stupid. Eric Holder needs to go. They won’t own up to their incompetence and think we’re stupid.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has provided Congress with 1,364 pages of documents detailing how the department gave inaccurate information to a U.S. senator in the controversy surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, the flawed law enforcement initiative aimed at dismantling major arms trafficking networks on the Southwest border. In a letter last February to Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department said that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had not knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser

A proposed revision to Freedom of Information Act rules would allow federal agencies to lie to citizens and reporters seeking certain records, telling them the records don’t exist. The Justice Department has proposed the change as part of a large revision of FOIA rules for federal agencies. Specifically, the rule would direct government agencies who are denying a request under an established FOIA exemption to “respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist,” rather than citing the relevant exemption. The proposed rule has alarmed government transparency advocates across the political spectrum, who’ve called it “Orwellian” and...

Is the Obama administration literally rewriting history when it comes to the Solyndra scandal? "Someone affiliated with the Department of Energy has been going back to make changes to press releases posted on the Internet weeks and months ago," Eamon Javers of CNBC reported this afternoon. It remains to be seen what attention if any this attracts from other media outlets, such as the broadcast networks. "The changes occurred in two press releases from the Department of Energy's loan guarantee program — the same program that has been the center of controversy surrounding the failed solar company Solyndra," Javers noted....

Teachers Increasingly Use Home Visits To Connect With Students’ Families By Kevin Sieff, October 9 The two high school teachers knocked at apartment 512 of a Crystal City high-rise and waited to see the inside of Alvaro Nunez Alvarez’s life. Up to this point, the teachers knew this about 14-year-old Alvaro: He was quiet. He had recently arrived from somewhere in Latin America. He was smart and ambitious. They were here to fill in the blanks — to conduct a kind of parent-teacher conference on the family’s turf. There’s no better way, many educators say, to turn distant or unresponsive...

(CNSNews.com) - There were only 1.75 full-time private-sector workers in the United States last year for each person receiving benefits from Social Security, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Social Security board of trustees. That means that for each husband and wife who worked full-time in the private sector last year there was a Social Security recipient somewhere in the country taking benefits from the federal government. Most state and local workers are part of the Social Security system and pay Social Security taxes; and, since 1984, all federal workers have been part of the...

House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, will soon air a different side of Operation Fast and Furious: what Mexico-based U.S. law enforcement officials dealt with. Senior Justice Department leadership in Washington ignored concerns Mexico-based Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) officials raised about the program, according to assertions made as part of the congressional investigation. A House oversight committee hearing on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. will examine effects Operation Fast and Furious had on “The Other Side of the Border.” Former ATF attaché to Mexico, Darren Gil told Congressional investigators that, when he became...

"When a country is indebted to the degree that we’re indebted, the country always defaults. We will default because the debt is unsustainable," Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) said on the House floor today. "If we don’t understand this, this default will not be because we don't send out the checks. We will send out the checks. It will be defaulted on because people will get their money back, or they will get their Social Security checks and it won't buy anything."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has sworn in U.S. President Barack Obama’s “peace advisor” Dan Shapiro as new ambassador and reveals the United States learns so much about Israel by spending time in Florida. Shapiro served for two years and a half as White House senior director for Middle East and North Africa at the National Security Council and has been one of the president’s closest advisors during the period that the Middle East “peace process” has collapsed. Amid lots of jokes and laughter, Secretary Clinton said at the ceremony Friday, “You’d be surprised how much you can learn...

The U.S. Department of Education refused to allow reporters into break-out sessions at its first Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Youth Summit, held at the Washington Court Hotel in Washington, D.C., on Monday and Tuesday. When CNSNews.com asked organizers why reporters could not attend the break-out sessions, Education Department public affairs specialist Jo Ann Webb said: “Every summit we’ve had has been this way. It’s to promote an open exchange and that’s just the rule, okay?” CNSNews.com followed-up, asking, “Even though this is sponsored by the Department of Education and paid by federal tax dollars?” and Webb replied: “It’s been...

By: Mark Joppa (Mark is a tea party enthusiast in the Hudson Valley, New York) The United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) in fiscal year 2010 had a combined budget of $134 billion (this alone is insane!). Just three years prior, in fiscal year 2007 the USDA had a lower budget of $88 billion. No one really knows how or why the Department of Agriculture spent $88 billion in 2007, together with an additional $46 billion in 2010, but let’s examine USDA’s 2012 budget. President Obama has proposed $145 billion. In these tough times with high unemployment and the historically...

The Wisconsin Department of Justice has filed a motion with the 4th District Court of Appeals, seeking an order staying Judge Maryann Sumi’s temporary restraining order blocking the publication of 2011 Wis. Act 10. “The publication of this Act will allow the State to save significant money–evidence of which the trial court did not allow presented and did not appear to consider are the cost savings identified by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau which require, of course, publication.” the motion reads. “Thus it is vitally important that this Court act before March 25, 2011–the last possible publication date

(Reuters) - The New Orleans Police Department too often uses excessive force, conducts illegal stops and arrests, and has a pattern of discriminating on the basis of race, gender and sexual orientation, the Department of Justice said in a report on Thursday. "For too long, the Department has been largely indifferent to widespread violations of law and policy by its officers," according to the report by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. The report outlined problems with training, recruiting, supervision and interrogation practices. DOJ said that the police department encourages under-investigating violence against women. It also found that officers used...

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Export-Import Bank, an independent federal agency, loaned more than $1 billion to the Mexican state oil company PEMEX in 2009 to support the company’s oil drilling in the southern Gulf of Mexico. The bank has another $1 billion in loans in the pipeline for 2010, unless Congress objects. On May 27, after the British Petroleum oil spill, President Obama imposed a moratorium on U.S. deepwater drilling in the Gulf, effecting 33 deepwater drilling rigs in the region.

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Thursday the Justice Department "sandbagged" him with the lawsuit it filed earlier in the day against him. The Justice Department claims in its suit that the controversial Arizona lawman refused for more than a year to turn over records in an investigation into allegations his department discriminates against Hispanics. It surprises me because our lawyers have been meeting with the Justice Department officials the last week and we were cooperating," Arpaio told Fox News' Neil Cavuto.

This is the first issue of Sovereign Subjects, a new Morgan Stanley publication focusing on sovereign risk in advanced economies. In this first installment, we take a broad perspective on government balance sheets and raise several themes to which we will return in more depth in subsequent issues. We encourage clients to provide us with feedback on this new publication. Debt/GDP ratios are too backward-looking and considerably underestimate the fiscal challenge faced by advanced economies’ governments. On the basis of current policies, most governments are deep in negative equity. This means governments will impose a loss on some of their...

The Energy Department’s internal watchdog has mixed reviews of the department’s distribution and use of economic stimulus dollars, even as the White House touts the massive spending bill in the run-up to midterms. President Obama’s planned tour Monday of ZBB Energy Corp.’s facilities in Menomonee Falls, Wis., is the latest in a series of stops this election season to highlight what the administration calls the effectiveness of federal clean energy stimulus investments.

Back in February, a leaked memo from the Department of the Interior showed that the Obama administration was considering designating as many as 17 new national monuments throughout the West, effectively closing off huge swaths of land to development. That this was being done without the input of Congress or local authorities angered many. Now Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, Chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus and Ranking Member on the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands has uncovered 14 more pages from the document that were previously unavailable. The new pages show a federal bureaucracy...

From Tuesday’s Energy & Environment Daily story, “Lawmaker ownership in BP, Transocean, Halliburton stirs controversy” (subscription required): At least two dozen lawmakers own investments in the three companies tied to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as Congress investigates the disaster and considers reforms. “This is a serious conflict of interest,” said Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen, a watchdog group. “Only Congress exempts [itself] from this type of conflict of interest. “They should not be making decisions that affect their own personal well-being,” Holman added.

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. State Department is marking lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender “Pride Month” by changing its policy concerning gender change on passports and consular reports of birth abroad. As of June 10, the State Department no longer requires that individuals provide proof that they have had sex reassignment surgery, but only requires certification from an “attending physician” that the individual received “appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition,” which may or may not include surgery. In other words, a conservative group complained, "cross-dressers no longer need to undergo 'sexual reassignment' surgery to change the gender listed on their passports."

The United States has not determined whether Syria has transferred Scud missiles to Lebanon's Hezbollah, a U.S. State Department spokesman said on Tuesday. "We are still looking into it. We haven't [made] any particular judgment at this point as to whether any transfer has taken place but ... this is something that we have great concern about," Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley told reporters. The United States summoned the senior Syrian diplomat in Washington on Monday to address what it called "provocative behavior" regarding the potential transfer of Scud missiles to Hezbollah, which it said could be threaten Lebanon...

Top Obama counterterrorism adviser John Brennan says the Justice Department made the decision to handle the case of Detroit terror bomb suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in the criminal justice system. Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Brennan was asked why the Obama administration did not choose to treat Abdulmutallab as an enemy combatant. "He was arrested on U.S. soil," Brennan answered. "The Department of Justice makes that determination about what is the best tool to use."

In a case that raises questions about online journalism and privacy rights, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a formal request to an independent news site ordering it to provide details of all reader visits on a certain day. The grand jury subpoena also required the Philadelphia-based Indymedia.us Web site "not to disclose the existence of this request" unless authorized by the Justice Department, a gag order that presents an unusual quandary for any news organization.

The Obama State Dept. wants to discourage American citizens from traveling to Jerusalem, Israel this week during "Sukkot", also known as the "Feast of Tabernacles." This is the largest tourism event in Israel. According to this report in Jpost: "In an unusual move, the US State Department on Friday called on American citizens to avoid Jerusalem's Old City during the week of Sukkot, warning citizens of increased violence, crime and heavy traffic." Jews and Christians from all over the world have come to Jerusalem for decades to join in the Biblical celebrations without a problem. It is an occasion in...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Interior Secretary Ken Salazar moved Monday to prepare the nation's parks, refuges and endangered species for the onslaught of global warming. Salazar signed an order setting up a Climate Change Response Council and eight regional response centers to study and respond to such issues as rising sea levels threatening to swamp historic structures and warmer temperatures shifting where wildlife live. The order also commits the Interior Department to develop a plan to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions, including setting a firm target.

The Energy Department said Tuesday it would lend $5.9 billion to Ford Motor Co. and provide about $2.1 billion in loans to Nissan Motor Co. and Tesla Motors Inc., making the three automakers the first beneficiaries of a $25 billion fund to develop fuel-efficient vehicles.

The key lessons of the global financial crisis (GFC) may be that the current economic order is "built to fail." The ability to sustain high rates of economic growth, decreed by governments and central bankers, is questionable. The aggressive increase in debt globally resulted in a sharp increase in sustainable growth rates, wherein $4 to $5 of debt was required to create $1 of growth. Approximately half the recorded growth in the US over recent years was driven by borrowing against the rising value of houses (mortgage equity withdrawals). As the level of debt in the global economy decreases, attainable...

CNSNews.com) - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched an investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona following requests by congressional Democrats and allegations by liberal activists that the department has violated the civil rights of illegal aliens.

TROUP, Texas - The police chief and a sergeant in this eastern Texas town were arrested on drug and evidence tampering charges and the department shut down. Police Chief Chester Kennedy was charged Friday with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. He was released from jail on a $400,000 bond. Sgt. Mark Turner, last year's chamber of commerce Officer of the Year, was booked into Smith County Jail late Thursday on a misdemeanor delivery of marijuana charge and a third-degree felony charge of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. Turner was being held on bonds totaling $500,000. The department's equipment...

ABOARD USS AUSTIN, Jan. 24, 2006 - Crew members of the amphibious transport ship USS Austin (LPD 4) received a late Christmas surprise Jan. 20 when several pallets of care packages were delivered by helicopter. The care packages were sent by the New York City Sanitation Department, a project that was spearheaded by Gloria Coletti, the mother of Austin Sailor Ensign John Holzer. “I am a mom on a mission,” said Coletti. She said she wanted to ensure that everyone on board received something. The care packages included numerous items, such as DVD movies, snacks, toiletries and more. “I'm very...

In a move that could curtail Israeli power in the Middle East, the US is calling on Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and forego the use and stockpile of nuclear weapons. Twice in the past two weeks, State Department officials have compared Israel’s status as a nuclear power with that of India and Pakistan, calling on all three nations to give up their nuclear arms. The statements were made by two mid-level State Department Officials, ahead of the NPT Review Conference, scheduled to open in New York on May 2. The purpose of the conference is to...

"The Russians are coming...The Russians are coming..." Well, that could have been the headlines in Israeli newspapers until a few days ago, before Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov came to Israel. Now, after meeting with Israeli officials, the headlines could be, "Russian FM: Chechen Muslim terror evil, but justifies support for PLO Terror State and help for Iranian Nukes." The day before the Russian Foreign Minister came to Israel, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin, to express his shock at the seizure of the Russian school in Beslan. Sharon told Putin that, "We must concentrate political and...

DALLAS -- The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the role of federal officials in last month's hunt for Texas lawmakers who fled to Oklahoma to block passage of a redistricting bill. A department inspector general on June 4 began probing the use of Justice Department funds in the search, said Paul Martin, a deputy inspector general. The department is looking into the roles of the FBI, U.S. Marshals and federal prosecutors. "This is a review of what, if any, Department of Justice, resources were expended in connection with this matter," Martin told The Dallas Morning News for Friday's editions.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 4 — The police chief was on medical disability today, apparently suffering from high blood pressure, and no one knows when he might return to work. The Police Department was being run by a little-known deputy chief, Heather J. Fong, whose rise to the top was so unforeseen that the personnel office scrambled to pull together biographical information on her. Ten members of the department —including the chief, Prentice E. Sanders; the assistant chief; and two deputy chiefs — pleaded not guilty today in Superior Court to criminal charges ranging from conspiring to obstruct justice to felony...

The US State Department has posted on one of its web sites a translation of a letter purportedly written this month by Osama bin Laden. The site, which offers threat assessments to US companies doing business abroad, does not say the letter is genuine. However, advertises a link to the translation under the heading "new security incident report" and asks readers to look at it. "The attention of web site readers is invited to a purported letter by Osama bin Laden to the people of Afghanistan in late August 2002," the site said. A password is required to access the...