"China’s holdings of U.S. Treasuries increased $12.2 billion to a record $1.317 trillion in November, data released on the Treasury Department’s website showed.
"Newport Beach, California, where four ranking lifeguards earned more than the town’s $109,677 median household income in 2012, may partially disband its municipal ocean rescue to deal with rising pension costs."
Coast to coast, states are leaving taxpayers on the hook for massive debt payments over the coming decades as state governments continue to abuse their metaphorical credit cards.
WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a $1.1 trillion omnibus appropriations bill tonight, sending the spending whopper to President Obama’s desk for a signature and leaving the hacktivist collective Anonymous simply commenting on its Twitter account, “Where is the cash coming from?”
Under civil forfeiture, someone does not have to be convicted, or even charged, with a crime, to have their property confiscated. Plus, under New York state forfeiture law, the burden of proof is placed on the property owner. In other words, owners have to prove their innocence in court.The NYPD does not keep public records of how much money or property it seizes through civil forfeiture, nor does it publicly account for how that money and property is spent or allocated. Based on the sheer volume of cases that the department pursues, experts estimate that the amount the NYPD has taken from New Yorkers over the past decade is well into the millions.
"A potential deal for greater suburban control over Detroit’s water system is running up against political recriminations from two of southeast Michigan’s top elected officials, who on Thursday accused negotiators for the city’s emergency manager of withholding critical data about the long-term costs of any such agreement.
A former NYPD cop accused of teaching black-belt karate while collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in disability checks was blasted in Manhattan court Monday as “one of the most flagrant’’ scammers in a $400 million pension-fraud scheme.
US weekly unemployment benefit claims drop to 326k - The Denver Post:
"KENTWOOD, MI -- The third-grade reading guarantee, school system grading and the Education Achievement Authority were key discussion points three state lawmakers reviewed during a parent advocacy meeting Wednesday night.
"Provisions from last year’ SAFE Act (aka one of the worst gun control bills ever passed into law) continue to roll out in New York.
More than 100 local residents applied to participate, 20 of whom were selected. 
A.Word.A.Day
Government officials and political operatives working for Christie, for weird and petty reasons, chose to make traffic worse. That’s the takeaway. When they are reminded of the fact that people working on Christie’s behalf thought it was a good political game to mire tens of thousands of their fellow Americans in the nightmarish gridlock that is a daily dreaded prospect for tens of millions, they will be discomfited by that and by the politician in whose name it was done.And yet, you know what is also something everybody would find “relatable”? Politicians who sic the tax man on others for political gain. Everybody has to deal with the IRS and fears it. Last year, we learned from the Internal Revenue Service itself that it had targeted ideological opponents of the president for special scrutiny and investigation — because they were ideological opponents.
That’s juicy, just as Bridgegate is juicy. It’s something we can all understand, it speaks to our greatest fears, and it’s the sort of thing TV newspeople could gab about for days on end without needing a fresh piece of news to keep it going.And yet, according to Scott Whitlock of the Media Research Center, “In less than 24 hours, the three networks have devoted 17 times more coverage to a traffic scandal involving Chris Christie than they’ve allowed in the last six months to Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service controversy.”Why? Oh, come on, you know why. Christie belongs to one political party. Obama belongs to the other. You know which ones they belong to. And you know which ones the people at the three networks belong to, too: In surveys going back decades, anywhere from 80% to 90% of Washington’s journalists say they vote Democratic.
Scandals are not just about themselves; they are about the media atmosphere that surrounds them. They are perpetuated and deepened by the attention of journalists, whose relentless pursuit of every angle keeps the story going. That is exactly what has been missing from the IRS scandal from its outset; Republicans in Congress have been the dogged pursuers, not the press.
Youth enrollment at only 24 percent means the target was missed by 14 percent, yet the administration remains confident that these numbers will rise. They should hope so, because if not, it will prove what Republicans have warned since the beginning and what the media ignores altogether - Obamacare is too expensive.A recent report from the Kaiser Family Foundation said having younger adults make up only 25 percent of enrollees would present a "worst case" scenario. They found that costs then would be about 2.4 percent higher, but insurers would retain a very slim profit margin.
Senior UK Defense Advisor: Obama Is Clueless About ‘What He Wants To Do In The World’ - The Daily Beast:.gif)
"A program to refund insurance companies for losses incurred during the implementation of President Obama’s health care law could impose significant costs on American taxpayers, but under regulations issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, those costs won’t be known until the summer of 2015.
House easily passes $1T omnibus spending bill with 359-67 vote | TheHill:
"WASHINGTON—U.S. consumer prices rose last month by the most since June, driven up by higher gas prices, but excluding energy, inflation was tame.
"The first is the Reinsurance Program under which large claims are capped for insurers offering individual plans under Obamacare.
"A study across the Texas Panhandle, using government statistics from 16 counties, found that the teen pregnancy rates among 13-17-year olds from 1994 through 2010 showed dramatic declines even as Planned Parenthood Federation of America facilities in the region shut down—dwindling from 19 family planning facilities to zero."
"DENVER - A one-month supply of marijuana edibles, gone in the first three days of January.
Lawmaker calls for Udall investigation over Obamacare numbers | The Daily Caller
were canceled under Obamacare. that is caught red-handed in a hostile phone call where they are trying to change what is recognized as legitimate numbers for political purposes, that’s an inappropriate use of government power,” Gardner told the Colorado Observer., he wanted to change the numbers so it didn’t look bad.”
Obama to Dems: I'll act with or without Congress - Yahoo News:
"(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
