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NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Trump has paid the $110,000 in fines he racked up after being held in contempt of court for being slow to respond to a civil subpoena issued by New York’s attorney general. Trump paid the fine Thursday but must still submit additional paperwork in order to have the contempt order lifted, the office of Attorney General Letitia James said Friday. A message seeking comment was left Friday with Trump’s lawyer.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has officially filed his paperwork to run for a second term in 2022. The Republican governor’s statement of candidacy was filed on Friday, but didn’t become visible in the state’s public database until Monday. DeSantis said at a Monday morning press conference that a formal campaign kickoff will be forthcoming. “It’s more of a formality to open a campaign committee,” he said. “We won’t do any public announcements until after the Special Session but you have to prepare for these things.”

Tech entrepreneur and failed Democrat presidential candidate Andrew Yang has filed paperwork to run for mayor of New York City, according to the Big Apple’s Campaign Finance Board.

Tens of thousands of people who took out private loans to pay for college but have not been able to keep up payments may get their debts wiped away because critical paperwork is missing. The troubled loans, which total at least $5 billion, are at the center of a protracted legal dispute between the student borrowers and a group of creditors who have aggressively pursued them in court after they fell behind on payments. Judges have already dismissed dozens of lawsuits against former students, essentially wiping out their debt, because documents proving who owns the loans are missing. A review...

If you’re wondering why we’re having so much trouble winning the War on Terror, here’s how much bureaucracy taking out a Taliban terrorist involves. I explained that for the more complex missions, such as a mission to search for a weapons cache or to kill or capture a Haqqani commander, my Special Forces teams had to assemble a forty-slide conop for briefing and approval by a dozen higher headquarters if the team wanted to use helicopters.“A dozen command approvals?” Vickers asked me incredulously. “Name them.” The lieutenant colonel who was accompanying him glared at me over Vickers’ shoulder.“Absolutely. Now,...

A Dallas hospital's bizarre bungle of the first U.S. case of Ebola leaves me wondering: Is someone covering up for a crony billionaire Obama donor and her controversy-plagued, taxpayer-subsidized electronic medical records company? Last week, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital revealed in a statement that a procedural flaw in its online health records system led to potentially deadly miscommunication between nurses and doctors. The facility sent Ebola victim Thomas Duncan home despite showing signs of the disease -- only to admit him with worse symptoms three days later. Hospital officials, who came forward "in the interest of transparency," initially cited workflow...

Dallas Store Manager Fends Off 5 Armed Robbers with .38 Revolver, Wounding One; Police Arrive 74 Minutes LaterA Dallas store manager using his handgun to fend off an attempted robbery by five armed robbers. There's also audio of the 911 call from the Dallas store manager asking for police help because of the robbery. Reports indicate he asked for police to come because the armed men had tried to rob his store. The store manager shot at the men with a .38 Caliber revolver, sending the robbers scurrying away, and wounding one of them twice. But his call was misclassified...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius dismissed criticism that Obamacare is leading to higher costs and more paperwork as “misplaced.” “Since the vast majority of visits to doctors are unnecessary and often result in more harm than good, if costs for medical care rise we should expect overall health to improve,” Sebelius projected. “I mean, unless you are a trauma victim, the chances of medical intervention helping you are slim. Higher costs for treatment of other alleged ailments will deter people from exposing themselves to the risk iatrogenic complications.” As for the estimated 111 million hours of increased paperwork...

In its first three years, President Obama's healthcare law has imposed more than $30 billion in costs and 111 million hours of paperwork burdens, according to a new study from the American Action Forum. The forum, a conservative think tank led by former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said the law will raise premiums and hurt small businesses. "The macro figures, $30.8 billion in costs and 111 million hours, might give policymakers some concern, but the real impact is how these figures affect the healthcare market, consumers, and small businesses," the report said. Some provisions of the law are...

Pres. Barack Obama promised Americans “health-care reform.” So far, “health-care form” is more like it. Obamacare is devolving into the Paper Industry Salvation Act of 2010. This new law spans 2,562 tree-killing pages. Far worse, it will force Americans to spend countless irritating hours completing, transmitting, and filing endless reams of federal paperwork. The scariest news for America’s forests may be a brand-new mandate that will compel each business — from General Electric to the neighborhood handyman — to file an IRS Form 1099 for every business on which it spends at least $600. Form 1099 today applies only to...

Are the chips being stacked in the favor for an Andrews, Indiana politician? If you ask the citizens around Huntington County, the answer would depend on the view of the one asked. How did it start, you ask? In February of this year, Kristopher Underwood (Huntington County GOP Chairman) filed for candidacy for Huntington Township Board. Following procedure, he filed at the Huntington County Clerk's Office. The clerk, Fran Felts, stamped the paperwork and filed it. The file date was Feb. 20, 2010 at 7:35 am. Nobody noticed the problem.

You can transform that mountain of papers into a molehill without fearing the wrath of the IRS. Here's exactly what you need to keep -- and for how long. I can build a papier-mâché replica of the Empire State Building with my old tax records. Unless financial nostalgia brings you a warm feeling on a cold night, most of us would like to dump our old records as soon as possible.

Judge: Unseal Jefferson raid paperworkSaturday, June 03, 2006 From staff reports A federal appeals court judge has ruled that The Times-Picayune should have access to legal paperwork that led to the Aug. 3 raid by federal authorities on the New Orleans home of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, along with his car and the office of his campaign treasurer, Jack Swetland. The Justice Department has already released similar paperwork laying out its justification for the recent raid of Jefferson's congressional office as part of the same federal inquiry. **SNIP** A similar case is pending in a Maryland court regarding materials filed...

I have a theory that bad judicial opinions generally require a whole lot of “explanation” that consumes much more paper. Consider the number of pages in the following opinions. To be fair, a few include one or more dissenting opinions, but the cause of the paper consumption is still the majority. Dred Scott v. Sandford: Chief Justice Roger Taney wasted 175 pages explaining why “the [Negro] had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” Roe v. Wade: The Supreme Court used 50 pages to explain that a woman’s “right” to terminate the life of her unborn child...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

More people than ever are using tax professionals or computer software programs to help prepare their tax returns. Convenience is one reason for the trend, but Internal Revenue Service officials say the increasing complexity of the federal tax code is what's driving most to seek help. "If the law gets too complicated," said IRS Commissioner Mark Everson, "people just throw up their hands." He said about 60 percent of all tax returns are now prepared by professionals, and many of the rest are prepared by taxpayers who use software programs to help them file over the Internet. So far this...