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I'm not sure why CNN felt this required a headline instead of an eye roll. Hillary Clinton is getting more involved in the 2018 midterms. Clinton, through her political organization Onward Together, donated the maximum of $5,000 to 19 Democratic House candidates and four secretary of state candidates in June, according to the group's filings with the Federal Election Commission. The donations represent the most concentrated midterm effort the former Democratic presidential nominee has made to date Hillary's most concentrated midterm effort was donating $95K? That's her monthly chardonnay bill. Onward Together promised to make a difference. It's been taking...

BREAKING: 7th Circuit hands Jeff Sessions a win by staying most of an order that had blocked the DOJ from withholding millions in police funds from sanctuary jurisdictions. Now the district court’s preliminary injunction only applies to Chicago. Order:

My wife and I have an account with one of the large mutual fund companies. We were just informed that the state is getting ready to seize the account because it is considered abandoned. We have had the fund for about 12 years with the dividends and capital gains automatically deposited in our bank account. After calling the fund we were told that even though there have been approximately 150 automatic transactions on the account over the last 12 years they did not count as activity and so the state is preparing to seize the account. We were told we...

The Democratic National Committee announced Friday that it is still holding onto most of the money it received from Hollywood mogul and alleged sexual harasser Harvey Weinstein.

Make the Road New York is closely involved in a number of anti-Trump campaigns! A prominent liberal activist group that is closely involved with anti-Trump campaigns has been awarded more than $20 million in taxpayer-funded government grants since 2002, according to a review of the organization's Form 990s. Make the Road New York (MRNY), a New York City-based Latino immigrant group with 19,000 dues-paying members, has been actively involved with anti-Trump campaigns and is closely linked to an organization that is spearheading a new $80 million anti-Trump network that will span across 32 states. {..snip..}

Conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos announced Friday that he has secured $12 million in funding to start a media company. Yiannopoulos said in a Facebook post that he has secured the funding from undisclosed investors and has hired a "seasoned media executive" to manage a 30-person team based in Miami. The new company will be titled MILO, Inc. and will manage his books, tours, merchandise, as well as TV and radio "opportunities." The alt-right figure said his media company would be aimed at "the destruction of political correctness and the progressive left." "This isn't some vanity nameplate on a personal blog....

In a move that Democrats in the committee fought very hard to resist, a house panel has approved a legislation that will allow a government watchdog audit the federal reserve's spending. Democrats in the committee were firmly against the bill.

DELTA TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Public school advocates are suing to block the state of Michigan from helping private schools with the cost of complying with state requirements such as immunization reporting and safety drills. The lawsuit will be filed later Tuesday in the Court of Claims. The Michigan Association of School Boards and groups representing school administrators and others said at a news conference that spending $2.5 million in the current state budget on nonpublic schools is unconstitutional.

Abbott previously said he is preparing to deny Travis County $1.8 million in grants administered through his office, in response to new Sheriff Sally Hernandez’s policy of honoring only some requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants booked into the jail. But in a memo from state Budget Director Steven Albright, Abbott’s office asked all state agencies to account for all funds — including federal funds — administered to Travis County. Last year, Travis County received $10 million in federal grants, many of them passed through state agencies, plus $4.8 million from the state.

Billions in unfunded obligations in the South Carolina pension funds for state and local government workers, teachers and police officers are “a freight train out of control,” a state representative said Tuesday. The unfunded obligations of the largest of those pension funds, the S.C. Retirement System, are expected to grow by $1.4 billion over the next year, according to actuarial firm Gabriel Roeder Smith and Co. That system serves more than 180,000 state and local government employees, including teachers. Another 134,634 retirees also are part of the system. The Retirement System has about $24 billion in assets, according to the...

Leaked emails show the Democratic National Committee scrambled this spring to conceal the details of a joint fundraising arrangement with Hillary Clinton that funneled money through state Democratic parties. During the three-month period when the DNC was working to spin the situation, state parties kept less than one half of one percent of the $82 million raised through the arrangement — validating concerns raised by campaign finance watchdogs, state party allies and Bernie Sanders supporters.

Hijacking the Environmental Movement What makes 350 so devious, is that they hijack public emotions (and ignorance) using phony “divestment” as a disorganizing tool to redirect activism away from effective work.—Jay Taber A coalition of environmental activist groups, led by 350.org, is promoting a series of “Break Free From Fossil Fuels” training sessions and protests during May 4-15, 2016, at locations involved in fossil fuel production or transportation. The protests will occur at key sites related to production and transport of fossil fuels, including rail lines and yards, in the United States and Canada. The problem? 350.org only cares about...

This week, the Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) established a joint-fundraising account, "Romney Victory Inc." The idea is that donors can write one big check to the joint account, which can then be divvied up between Romney's campaign committee and the RNC. According to Romney Victory fundraising documents, the first $5000 in an individual's contributions to Romney Victory will go to the Romney campaign (the $2500 maximum for use in the primary campaign, which technically runs through the convention, and the $2500 maximum for the general election). The next $30,800 goes to the RNC, again the maximum...

The president will propose in his 2017 budget next month that families who qualify for subsidized school meals be given a special electronic benefits card that will allow them to buy an additional $45 in groceries per child each month when school is out. ... The USDA, states and nonprofit groups have been trying for several years now to figure out how to boost participation in a summer feeding program. They've experimented with offering free meals at camps and libraries, where children are likely to show up. And they're using food trucks to deliver meals to more remote areas. ......

Ben Carson's finance chairman resigned early Thursday hours after the release of a critical news story that questioned his lofty salary and other spending as rising costs cut into the former pediatric neurosurgeon's Republican presidential campaign's bottom line. A statement from the campaign announced the departure of Dean Parker, who panned the report. "It has been a great honor to serve alongside Dr. Carson as he seeks the office of President of the United States," Parker said. "While current allegations towards me are misrepresentations, my primary goal is to help Dr. Carson save our nation. I am excited about the...

Last month the Obama administration's Labor Department issued Interpretive Bulletin 2015-01, which tells pension funds what factors to use when choosing investments, including climate change. Only a few tax lawyers noticed, but with U.S. pensions at $9 trillion, this is a gross power grab that will hurt the retirees it claims to protect. This government is essentially saying: Don't you dare invest in anything that causes or is hurt by climate change, or you'll be sued for failing your fiduciary responsibilities. Energy, utilities and industrials are 20% of the market. How can pension funds now own any of them? Pushing...

**SNIP** About $4.6 billion was given to these 17 recipients, including California, New York, Washington state and Kentucky. But the GAO report found that so far, just $1.4 billion of that has been spent on IT projects, and a total of $3 billion has been “spent or drawn down,” though not all the spending is detailed. That, then, leaves at least $1.6 billion unaccounted for. Yet only three states returned any portion of the money – a total of just over $1 million was given back. “[T]he specific amount spent on marketplace-related projects was uncertain, as only a selected number...

You're John McCain, a fallen hero who wanted to become president so desperately that you sold yourself to Charlie Keating, the wealthy con man who bears such an incredible resemblance to The Joker. Yes this was written in 1989, but has John McCain changed that much????

The oil and gas industry has been one of the better investments made by Michigan’s two largest government employee pension funds, according to a recent report by Sonecon LLC, a Washington D.C. economic advisory firm. The report examined the combined investment returns of Michigan's separate pension funds for school and state employees. Together, their investments in oil and natural gas companies gave a rate of return that was 37 percentage points higher than the return on all of their investments. Oil and gas investments outpaced investments in other industries by 43 percentage points. Due to chronic underfunding, both pension funds...

Former state Sen. Leland Yee’s campaign committee for last year’s secretary of state race has spent $128,000 on attorney's fees since he was indicted on federal corruption charges, he reported this week. The practice is legal, but one ethics expert said it should be restricted. "Unfortunately California’s relatively weak restrictions on the use of surplus campaign funds mean that politicians can turn these accounts into personal slush funds," said Sarah Swanbeck, an advocate for the group Common Cause.