141 results for tag: Big Government

You will not believe how many credit hours it takes to qualify for this Tennessee license

A longtime hairdresser in Tennessee was driven out-of-state when Tennessee shampoo-licensing laws became too burdensome to handle. The Daily Signal has the story: In 1996, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a law requiring natural hair stylists to attain a cosmetologist’s license through the state’s Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners. Natural hair braiders like Nutall had excelled in their craft for years, learning braiding from their mothers and grandmothers. But now, the state was telling them they had to log more than 1,500 hours of education through an eight-week course with costs topping $12,000, Nutall recalled, and all for ...

Sen. Reid dubbed ‘Porker of the Month’ for stonewalling IGs looking into fraud, abuse

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) received the March Porker of the Month award from D.C.-based government watchdog Citizens Against Government Waste for supporting a bill that would stonewall inspectors general from looking into waste, fraud and government mismanagement. The Review Journal has the details: “Sen. Reid’s unfathomable objection to this measure exemplifies his utter and complete disregard for protecting taxpayers,” said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste. “Inspectors general are frontline fighters in the battle against waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in the federal government. They should have ...

VA supervisors instructed employees at facilities in seven states to falsify veteran wait times

Veterans Affairs supervisors told employees at facilities in seven states to  falsify veteran wait times, according to 70 reports investigating the agency. USA Today has the inside story: Overall, those reports — released after multiple inquiries and a Freedom of Information Act request — reveal for the first time specifics of widespread scheduling manipulation. Employees at 40 VA medical facilities in 19 states and Puerto Rico regularly “zeroed out” veteran wait times, the analysis shows. In some cases, investigators found manipulation had been going on for as long as a decade. In others, it had been just a few years. In many ...

Report: VA staff falsified time it took for suicidal vet to get care

  A Veterans Affairs report alleges staffers at the San Diego VA in 2014 falsified wait times of veterans seeking mental-health care, arguing one veteran even attempted suicide after his doctor cancelled numerous appointments. KPBS has the story: The report released last week said the unnamed veteran’s provider canceled four appointments in a row. The local VA concedes the report is true. “We rescheduled him — that got canceled. Rescheduled him — that got canceled,” said Ray A. Deal, deputy chief for health administration at VA San Diego. “But typically, if a provider calls in sick, we contact all the patients, let them know ...

Feds to impose fines on schools that ‘disregard’ Obama administration lunch program

Public schools that don’t comply with the Obama administration’s school lunch program rules are coming under fire from the federal government, which has announced plans to fine schools that “disregard” the program. The Washington Free Beacon has the details: The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service issued a proposed rule Monday to codify parts of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was championed by Mrs. Obama. The regulation would punish schools and state departments with fines for “egregious or persistent disregard” for the lunch rules that imposed sodium and calorie limits and banned white grains. ...

Veterans Affairs suspending supervisor of women involved in hiring scandal

  Veterans Affairs announced it’s suspending the head of Veterans Benefits Administration in charge of overseeing the two lower-ranking officials who gamed the agency’s hiring system for their own profit. U.S. News & World Report has the story: Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson says acting VBA chief Danny Pummill will be suspended without pay for 15 days for his role in a relocation scam that has roiled the agency for months. Pummill failed to exercise proper oversight as Kimberly Graves and Diana Rubens forced lower-ranking managers to accept job transfers and then stepped into the vacant positions themselves, keeping their ...

Tea Party Patriots Thanks NorCal Tea Party For Their “Relentless Pursuit of the Truth” About IRS Targeting

Tea Party Patriots Thanks NorCal Tea Party For Their “Relentless Pursuit of the Truth” About IRS Targeting Atlanta, GA – Tea Party Patriots CEO and co-founder Jenny Beth Martin released the following statement today, reacting to reports about the NorCal Tea Party’s victory over the IRS in federal court on Tuesday. "Tea Party Patriots thanks the NorCal Tea Party for their relentless pursuit of the truth about IRS targeting of Americans for their political views. The Tea Party movement started as a reaction to big government overreach and the IRS program targeting political speech was a chilling episode that should give pause to Americans ...

Brief: No ‘compelling’ evidence to support efficacy of Common Core assessments

New studies show imposed standards like Common Core, combined with high-stakes testing, have decreased student engagement, produced no apparent uptick in student achievement and actually decrease the likelihood a student graduates. The Washington Post has the details: More than 100 education researchers in California have joined in a call for an end to high-stakes testing, saying that there is no “compelling” evidence to support the idea that the Common Core State Standards will improve the quality of education for children or close the achievement gap, and that Common Core assessments lack “validity, reliability and fairness.” The ...

State Dept. wants more taxpayer money to cover FOIA requests from Clinton email scandal

Hillary Clinton’s emails aren’t just a hot topic this election season—they’re a taxpayer expense thanks to an extra flood of Freedom of Information Act requests that has the State Department scrambling. In the wake of controversy over Clinton’s private email server, State Department officials have asked for a major increase in their record-keeping budget. The Washington Examiner reports: Heather Higginbottom, deputy secretary of state for management and resources, said Tuesday in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the State Department received 22,000 FOIA requests in 2015. That was a significant uptick ...

Former Veterans Affairs director pleads guilty to felony

  Sharon Helman, former director of the Phoenix Veterans Affairs hospital, Tuesday pleaded guilty to a felony for hiding gifts from a lobbyist. The Daily Caller has the scoop:   The charge of filing a false financial disclosure carried up to five years in prison. Federal prosecutors said she took a car, cash, and a trip to Disneyland from a lobbyist and contractor seeking business at the hospital, and lied about the gifts, which were valued in excess of $50,000. Helman presided over a government hospital that systematically falsified data on how long veterans had to wait to see a doctor. The false data was used to insure that ...