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Members of the Small Business Committee in the House of Representatives urged the Environmental Protection Agency to go back to the drawing board on a proposed rule aimed at clarifying bodies of water that fall under the Clean Water Act. In March, the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed a rule to define what “waters of the United States” fall under federal jurisdiction. The rule would include smaller bodies of water including streams, riverbanks, wetlands and floodplains that may have access to larger bodies of water. Republican lawmakers have opposed the rule since its inception, saying the...

The Small Business Committee, under the chairmanship of Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), today conducted a hearing about how small businesses would be affected by the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) and United States Army Corps of Engineers' proposed rule to expand the Clean Water Act. Last week, Graves and Members of the Committee wrote to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Assistant Secretary of the Army Jo-Ellen Darcy, who oversees the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to urge withdrawal of the pending rule. Among the witnesses' and Members' concerns, the EPA and Corps of Engineers did not adequately assess the impact of...

Big Labor's VA Choke Hold How Democrats put their union allies before the well-being of veterans. By Kimberley A. Strassel May 29, 2014 We know with certainty that there is at least one person the Department of Veterans Affairs is serving well. That would be the president of local lodge 1798 of the National Federation of Federal Employees. The Federal Labor Relations Authority, the agency that mediates federal labor disputes, earlier this month ruled in favor of this union president, in a dispute over whether she need bother to show up at her workplace—the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Martinsburg,...

On the floor of the House Wednesday, the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs featured a dialogue between Chairman Jeff Miller and Dr. Thomas Lynch, assistant deputy undersecretary for health for clinical operations at the Veterans Health Administration. Another shocking piece of information about VA hospitals was revealed during that exchange. Miller revealed he had received an email from an employee at the Los Angeles VA Medical Center in which the employee raised concerns over the status of patient wait times and the possible manipulation of records. The director of the facility responded to colleagues via email and said that the...

Seven vulnerable Democrats are now calling for Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki’s resignation after a preliminary Inspector General’s report confirmed allegations of a scandal in the agency.

The White House unveiled its semiannual regulatory agenda Friday, detailing its plans for thousands of rules in the pipeline at agencies across the federal government. The release is the fourth consecutive time that the Obama administration has issued its regulatory roadmap on the eve of a major federal holiday, as many Americans depart for long weekends and there is typically less media coverage. ... the June deadline for the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal of regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions remains in place... as well as a host of unfinished regulations stemming from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform act.

Responding to the ever-widening "secret death list" Veterans Affairs (VA) scandal, on of the Senate's leading liberals has not only blocked legislation aimed at fixing fundamental problems within the VA's health care system, he's also let little doubt to exactly how he feels of the accusation that scores of vets have died due to administrative cover-ups that have resulted in medical care being needlessly withheld. As reported by The Washington Free Beacon on May 22, 2014, Vermont's junior US Senator, Bernard "Bernie" Sanders, has effectively frozen in committee the Veterans Affairs Management Accountability Act (VAMAA), which was aimed at giving...

We now know how much Sen. Mark Udall was willing to sell Colorado out for- $15 million (give or take). The eco-extremist Tom Steyer is hoping to have a $100 million dollars to spend in just seven races this election cycle. That means if Steyer distributes his hoped for funds evenly, it only took less than $15 million dollars for Udall to choose a San Francisco eco-extremist’s wishes over what is best for Colorado ... Opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline is nothing but an extremist issue pushed by those on the margins of the Democratic Party. The chance to...

Gov’t, locals want to fend off a new Bundy-type clash. New Mexico ranchers are plenty mad over the U.S. Forest Service’s refusal to open a gate blocking their cattle from reaching water ... still standing are the metal fences and locked gates along the banks of the Agua Chiquita, put up by the Forest Service to keep local cattle out. ... Ranchers point out that the fence has been opened for years every spring to allow the cattle access to the creek, which is also used by elk, deer and feral wild hogs.

<p>Land Grab: The Bureau of Land Management plans a Bundy-like seizure of New Mexico land for a national monument that will restrict Border Patrol access and provide an open corridor for drug and human traffickers.</p> <p>In August 2002, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument Ranger Kris Eggle was killed in the line of duty. Allegedly the killers were drug smugglers crossing through the Arizona park, which shares a border with Mexico. Since Eggle's death, Organ Pipe has been called the most dangerous park in America.</p>

[Video] 8 Year Old Schoolboy Reprimanded For Thinking a Cloud Looked Like a Gun During Assignment May 22 2014 by Dan Cannon Share This Post So I think we’re officially to the point where our public schools are punishing children for their imagination. According to KKTV, Second grader Kody Smith was assigned to go outside, look at the clouds, and then use his imagination to draw what he saw. “Draw a picture of what you see in the clouds from your imagination and that picture is a gun,” explained 8-year-old Kody. Because it was a gun, the teacher at Talbott...

<p>Those big, ugly early birds began circling over the corporate headquarters of the revenue-camera industry last week when federal prosecutors announced that felony corruption charges had been filed against the Chicago city official in charge of one of the world’s largest red-light camera operations. More dominoes are expected to fall as FBI agents take the investigation to other cities.</p>

Contrary to the White Houses explanation that a few rogue agents in Cincinnati lead the targeting of Tea Party groups by the IRS, newly released emails obtained by Judicial Watch detail Democratic Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) pressuring the IRS to target conservative groups. On March 30, 2012 Levin wrote to then IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman about his concern with the political activity by conservative nonprofits. “Some entities claiming tax-exempt status as social welfare organizations under 26 U.S.C.&501(c)(4) appear to be engaged in political activities more appropriate for political organizations claiming tax-exempt status under 26 U.S.C.&527. Because of the urgency of...

This video seems to show Lois Lerner discussing the pressure she is under to target conservative groups Lois Lerner speaks at the Sanford School of Public Policy on October 19, 2010. This video was released in 2013; but as the cover-up continues, it’s important that people understand the pressure surrounding Lois Lerner in the lead-up to the 2012 election to target conservative non-profit groups. The most important question to ask is, “Where was this pressure coming from?”

New documents obtained and released through a Judicial Watch lawsuit show the targeting of tea party and conservative groups came directly out of Washington D.C., not a rogue IRS office in Cincinnati. On July 6, 2012, former Director of the IRS Rulings and Agreements Division and current Manager of Exempt Organizations Guidance Holly Paz sent an email to IRS Attorney Steven Grodnitzky asking for an explanation of how tea party group applications were being handled. Grodnitzky responded by confirming the cases were being handled in Washington. "EOT is working the Tea party applications in coordination with Cincy. We are developing...

The estimated cost of the initial segment of California's bullet train, Golden State Governor Jerry Brown's pet project, has (excuse the pun) just shot up from $6.19 billion to $7.13 billion. If this is the only overrun encountered in this opening phase, which would be atypical, and if the California High Speed Rail Authority has similar experiences on the remainder of the project, assuming it's ever completed, its cost will rise from a currently estimated $68 billion to about $78 billion. Obviously a big cost overrun is news. But normally, evidence of an attempted government coverup of such an overrun...

Dozens of people rode their ATVs and motorcycles on an off-limits trail in southern Utah on Saturday in a protest against what the group calls the federal government's overreaching control of public lands. San Juan County Sheriff Rick Eldredge said from 40 to 50 people, many of them waving American flags and some carrying weapons, drove about a mile down Recapture Canyon

Militiamen and woman camping on Cliven Bundy’s cattle ranch are packing up and heading to Utah where another protest against the Bureau of Land Management will happen Saturday. Ryan Payne, a Montana resident who had been staying at the ranch for a month, said he drove eight hours to arrive in the eastern Utah town this morning. Three militia members from the ranch and a handful of people from a group called Citizens Action Network came to Utah, too, he said. ... At Recapture Canyon, federal officials aren’t planning to send armed federal agents to the Utah protest like they...

The May 10 All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) ride into restricted Recapture Canyon is still moving forward, threatening a collision between local residents and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The ATV ride is planned by a group of Blanding residents in an attempt to force the BLM to make a decision on who has jurisdiction within the canyon, which is just east of Blanding. Motorized access to the trail has been in dispute since the BLM forced its closure in 2007. San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman, who has planned the ride, does not plan to back down to mounting pressure...

The plan to void 60 western Colorado energy leases.. is a looming BLM-caused disaster. Hundreds of citizens from Mesa County and other affected areas gathered May 1 in De Beque to protest a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plan to void existing contracts the government made with private individuals and companies. The meeting in De Beque, a little town dependent almost entirely on gas, oil, coal and cows, was not originally planned by the BLM. Since half of the imperiled leases are in Mesa County, the Mesa County Board of Commissioners joined with various associations and individuals to demand that...