Editorial Page Editor Mark Tapscott was voted Conservative Journalist of the Year for 2008 by the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), and he was inducted into the Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame in 2006. Before joining the Examiner in 2006, he was director of The Heritage Foundation's Center for Media and Public Policy and founded its Database 101 Computer-Assisted Research and Reporting Boot Camps at the National Press Club. He's a former assistant managing editor and managing editor for two other Washington region daily newspapers. He is also proprietor of Tapscott's Copy Desk blog.
New data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development on the housing industry might appear to be encouraging, in view of all the other negative economic news that's been heard in recent weeks.
According to the Census Bureau and HUD:
"Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 612,000. This is 8.7 percent (±1.5%) above the revised April rate of 563,000 and is 5.2 percent (±2.4%) above the May 2010 estimate of 582,000.
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"Fast and Furious" is the moniker for the Obama administration program that purposely released hundreds of sophisticated rifles, handguns and other weapsons to members of the Mexican drug cartels in an effort to link their users to crimes.
But a few more congressional investigative reports like the one released late yesterday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and that name will soon also describe the velocity with which what is left of the administration's credibility on law enforcement issues and U.S. border security is shredded.
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"Fast and Furious" is the name of the incredible program within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms that purposely allowed thousands of sophisticated weapons from the U.S. to fall into the hands of members of Mexican drug cartels.
A few more hearings by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, however, and that phrase could describe the velocity with which the last shreds of the Obama administration's credibility on a variety of law enforcement and immigration issues goes down the tubes.
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MacIver Institute is reporting that by a 4-3 vote the Wisconsin Supreme Court has overturned a lower court judge's ruling against Gov. Scott Walker's public employee collective bargaining reforms.
More details as they become available. You can read the decision here.
UPDATE: Wisconsinreporter.com confirms
Here's the first posting from Wisconsinreporter.com:
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Yes, that was an interesting evening of polite, sometimes incisive, discussion by the current lineup of Republican aspirants for the White House, but now back to reality - New Rasmussen Reports survey finds one in three voters would go third party if the current lineup of candidates remains unchanged.
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By:
Ken Klukowski
06/09/11 2:23 PM
Federal judges hearing arguments yesterday in the nation’s biggest Obamacare case asked some hard questions of the Obamacare administration in the 11th Circuit appeals court.
These exchanges give rise to guarded optimism that Obamacare’s individual mandate might be struck down, but it’s anyone’s guess as to whether the judges will preserve the rest of this massive 2,700-page statute.
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When Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was named Democratic National Committee chairman to succeed former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, it appeared the party was getting a feisty, in-your-face spokesman for the 2012 campaign season.
Instead, after a series of crude, intensely partisan, gaffes, Wasserman Schultz is being laughed at. And when they start making jokes about you, odds are it's over. But some GOPers are hoping she sticks around:
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Ever have one of those nights when you just cannot get to sleep because your mind is racing with thoughts about ... everything? Think how much more difficult it must be for a president, who really does have the weight of the world on his shoulders.
So it was for President Obama one recent night in the White House. He couldn't sleep, so he got up, fixed himself a drink and began strolling the hallowed halls to clear his mind. Then George Washington started talking to him. Politizoid brings us the entire fascinating account:
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President Obama's claims to have saved the U.S. auto industry with government bailouts, takeovers and buyouts in 2009 don't quite square with the facts.
Actually, according to The Washington Post's Fact Checker by Glenn Kessler, Obama's claims are "one of the most misleading collections of assertions we have seen in a short presidential speech. Virtually every claim by the president regarding the auto industry needs an asterisk, just like the fine print in that too-good-to-be-true car loan."
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President Obama's nomination of John Bryson for Commerce Secretary is generating opposition in some unexpected places, thanks to the nominee's status as a co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Two Massaachusetts Democrats, Rep. Barney Frank and Rep. John Tierney, have issued a joint statement expressing dismay over the nomination. Central to their concern is the heavy-handed way in which the Commerce Department has imposed a version of Cap-and-Trade on the east coast commercial fishing industry.
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Members of a Service Employees International Union (SEIU) chapter in Los Angeles turned out arm-in-arm with members of assorted Communist Party and socialist groups last month for their annual May Day demonstration.
If that sentence strikes you as jarring, be forewarned that the photo-essay reporting the demonstration by Southern California citizen-journalist Ringo will quite possibly make your head spin. The photo above of an SEIUer marching with a red flag is tame by comparison with many other shots in the essay.
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By:
Ken Klukowski
06/06/11 6:58 PM
On June 8, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta will hear arguments in one of the most important cases in history, the Obamacare case of Florida v. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.
This case is massive. The plaintiffs are 26 states, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), and two individuals who are members of NFIB.
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Local officials for the International Association of Aerospace Workers and Machinists (IAAWM) boasted about how political donations by the union's political action committee “gains your Union access to officials, which is critical to get our issues addressed and ensure our input is heard.”
That sounds like the union is up to its eyeballs in a "pay-to-play" lobbying game with officials in the government, so Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, put two and two together and fired off a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
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Sarah Palin stumbled into another controversy over the weekend, this one about whether she accurately described the midnight right of Paul Revere. I discussed this issue this morning on MSNBC with anchor Chris Jansing and Joy Ann Reid of the Miami Herald and ReidReport.com.
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Donations from at least 10 registered lobbyists during the 2010 election cycle are being returned by the Democratic National Committee after questions were raised about them by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP).
"We're in the process of reimbursing the money," DNC spokeswoman Caroline Ciccone told OpenSecrets Blog. "For whatever reason, be it human error, they gave donations that were out of line with our policy." OpenSecrets blog is CRP's blog.
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