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The Obama administration’s Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) knew that a breach of veterans’ personal information was “practically unavoidable” months before it happened in January, according to an internal VA risk assessment that also said the department’s security programs are “non-compliant” with three federal laws. House Veterans Affairs chairman Rep. Jeff Miller recently wrote a letter demanding VA secretary Eric Shinseki take steps to address software glitches like the kind that plagued the department’s eBenefits portal, which in January exposed the “medical and financial information” of more than 5,000 veterans to anyone able to log on to the portal. This...

The United Auto Workers (UAW) filed a legal challenge late Friday with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to the certification of the organizing vote it lost last Friday at Volkswagen's auto plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The challenge was submitted just hours before the seven day post-election filing deadline expired. On Tuesday, attorney Joseph Farelli, a nationally recognized labor law expert, told Breitbart News the UAW would have little chance of success if it filed a challenge to NLRB certification of the election. "I don't think the NLRB is willing to break new ground and state the conduct of a...

America, you know how to treat a president and his family. With another Presidents' Day bachelor holiday planned by President Obama, this time golfing in California, and Aspen, Colo., resort reporters on the lookout for the annual first lady ski trip this weekend, the taxpayer's tab for the first family's vacations has topped $2.4 million. But that's just the start. That total is just from the skimpy documents detailing travel and security expenses obtained by the public watchdog group Judicial Watch from a handful of first family vacations.

The White House is keeping close tabs on who has read the text of the recently signed Iran nuclear deal, a document that has been marked as “unclassified,” yet is being kept in a highly secured location. Members of Congress and staffers with high-level security clearances are being forced by the White House to consent to top-secret security measures in order to view the deal text, which is off limits to the American public, according to a senior Senate aide familiar with the process. The White House has come under fire from Congress and others for refusing to publicly release...

After House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced Tuesday that the vote on an increase of the debt ceiling would have no strings attached he exited by signing "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" from the Disney 1946 movie "Song of the South"... to short to excerpt

How will the feds know what employers were thinking when hiring and firing? Simple. Firms will be required to certify to the IRS – under penalty of perjury – that ObamaCare was not a motivating factor in their staffing decisions. To avoid ObamaCare costs you must swear that you are not trying to avoid ObamaCare costs. You can duck the law, but only if you promise not to say so.

WASHINGTON — A newly-released email shows that 11 days after the killing of terror leader Osama bin Laden in 2011, the U.S. military’s top special operations officer ordered subordinates to destroy any photographs of the al-Qaida founder’s corpse or turn them over to the CIA. The email was obtained under a freedom of information request by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch. The document, released Monday by the group, shows that Adm. William McRaven, who heads the U.S. Special Operations Command, told military officers on May 13, 2011 that photos of bin Laden’s remains should have been sent to the...

ABC reporter Jonathan Karl asked how much it costs to be named an ambassador by the Obama administration during the State Department press briefing Friday, in the wake of embarrassing gaffes by Obama bundlers nominated for diplomatic posts. “The percentage is 37 percent, which is considerably more political appointees than George Bush had, considerably more than Bill Clinton had,” Karl said. “I mean, most of these gave hundreds of thousands of dollars or raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Obama campaign. How much does it cost to become an ambassador, to be named ambassador, in the Obama administration?”...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is considering adopting new regulations for zoos at the request of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) that would require “humane” treatment for bears. The proposed rules would mandate the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to hire a “bear expert,” prohibit bear pits, and require rules so bears are not “stressed, frustrated, and bored.” PETA, which killed 1,792 stray cats and dogs in 2013, first petitioned the USDA to adopt its rules in 2012. The agency began accepting comments on its petition last November, and extended the comment period on Monday.

(CNSNews.com) – Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, the nation’s top immigration law enforcer, said on Friday that the estimated 11.5 million illegal aliens in the United States are “not going away.” “They’re here, and they’re not going away,” Johnson said at the Woodrow Wilson Center in remarks billed by the Obama administration as his “first major speech.”

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Officials in California on Friday were set to outline proposed state legislation requiring smartphones and other mobile devices to have a "kill switch" that would render them inoperable if lost or stolen.

Documents recently released by the government show that the value of hotels and local transportation contracts for the U.S. delegation to Nelson Mandela's funeral in December were considerably higher than previous estimates. On December 19, we first reported the cost at about $11 million. However, rather than two hotels and one vehicle contractor, additional contracts have been disclosed bringing the total to five hotels and two vehicle contractors. The transportation contracts include passenger vehicles, SUVs, vans, buses, pickup trucks, box trucks, and "larger capacity vehicles," but do not include the cost of travelling from the U.S. to South Africa and...

Asked if the White House would consider replacing any of its choices, Jarrett’s answer was a terse, “No.” The message was not well received. CBC members have criticized the nominees who they say champion policies that discriminate against minorities. Georgia Rep. David Scott (D), said he approached Jarrett about two nominees in particular: one who once supported a state bill to keep the Confederate battle emblem a part of Georgia’s flag, and another who led the defense of the state’s photo ID law, which Scott claims is a statute designed “to keep black folks, as much as possible, from voting.”...

President Obama offered a public prayer Thursday for two Americans held separately by North Korea and Iran, saying his administration will continue to fight for their release. Mr. Obama said at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington that the U.S. “will do everything in our power” to gain the release of Kenneth Bae, a Christian missionary in prison in North Korea, and the Rev. Saeed Abedini of Boise, Idaho, who remains imprisoned in Iran SNIP The president prayed, “Let us never forget those who are persecuted today, among them Americans of faith. “

Documents show that on Dec. 14, 2010, Terry's team was on a hill above a ravine. A ground sensor went off alerting them to the approaching smugglers. When agents yelled "police" in Spanish, the smugglers turned and fired. According to the documents, this happened at 11:08 p.m. Just 52 minutes later, Terry would have been relieved by a second BORTAC team and gone home for Christmas. "I saw some members of the group point their weapons at us," Agent Gabriel Fragoza declared to the court. "Agent Castano and I deployed less lethal bean bag rounds as the individuals began to...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Michelle Obama has a message for students who are thinking about going to college: fill out the federal financial aid form. The first lady says completing the form is an important first step for students who want to finish their education.

With just two days before America hits the debt ceiling deadline, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced on Tuesday his desire to raise it. "The goal here is to increase the debt ceiling," said Boehner. "Nobody wants to default on our debt."

Former “American Idol” finalist Clay Aiken on Wednesday announced his bid to unseat second-term Rep. Renee Ellmers, R-N.C., in North Carolina’s 2nd congressional district. Aiken, who lost the singing competition's second season to Ruben Studdard in 2003, will seek the Democratic nomination for the seat currently held Ellmers, who first won the seat held by a Democrat for more than a decade in 2010. In a video posted online Wednesday, Aiken discusses his success in the music industry and humanitarian work. He also sharply criticizes Ellmers' voting record during the budget battle that led to a partial government shutdown.

Justice Antonin Scalia predicts that the Supreme Court will eventually authorize another a wartime abuse of civil rights such as the internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II. "You are kidding yourself if you think the same thing will not happen again," Scalia told the University of Hawaii law school while discussing Korematsu v. United States, the ruling in which the court gave its imprimatur to the internment camps.

CNSNews.com) -- Not building the 875-mile Keystone XL Pipeline could result in the release of up to 42 percent more greenhouse gases than would be released by building it, according to the State Department. Not building the pipeline “is unlikely to significantly impact the rate of extraction in the [Canadian] oil sands or the continued demand for heavy crude oil at refineries in the United States,” the department noted in a long-awaited environmental report released January 31st. But the “No Build” option is likely to result in an increased number of oil spills, six more deaths annually, and up to...