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York County didn't qualify to receive low-interest loans to help residents and businesses impacted by severe weather earlier this month. The announcement came after a federal survey team from the U.S. Small Business Administration visited the county this week to assess damage caused by tornadoes and severe storms on Aug. 7. The SBA didn't say why York County didn't qualify for assistance. The National Weather Service confirmed two tornadoes touched down – one in Manheim Township and the other in East Hopewell Township. Thousands of people were without power for up to a week. Some families said it will take...

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday angrily protested Chairman Chuck Grassley's decision to vote on one of President Trump’s nominees to a federal appeals court position, over objections from a Democratic senator from the nominee's home state. Under Senate tradition, home-state senators have had the right to delay or veto nominees before they are taken up in committee, and the process has started only after these senators have returned their "blue slip" on the nominee. But on Thursday, Grassley's committee ignored that tradition and approved the nomination of Michael Brennan of Wisconsin to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court...

U.S. Navy Cmdr. Bobby Pitts was sentenced Friday to 18 months in jail for his role in the largest fraud scheme to ever plague the service. U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino scolded Pitts on Friday and told him he had “betrayed the Navy and betrayed the country,” the Associated Press reports. “Pitts deliberately and methodically undermined government operations and in doing so, diverted his allegiance from his country and colleagues to a foreign defense contractor, and for that, he is paying a high price,” U.S. Attorney Adam Braverman said. Singapore-based defense contractor Leonard Francis perpetrated the fraud scheme, termed Fat...

Because accepting donations from those distasteful, money-grubbing corporations is just not acceptable --- except, you know, when you really need the money.In 2008/2009, President Obama’s inaugural committee (amidst much self-promoted fanfare, I might add) decided to buck precedent and announced that they would not be accepting corporate donations or individual donations in excess of $50k in a grandiose display of thwarting special interests.Now, of course, the situation is quite different --- worn-out donors and a still-"recovering" economy mean that the inaugural committee is totally okay with corporations and the wealthy possibly ingratiating themselves with Team Obama. It is what it...

The Center for Public Integrity released a new report on Obama’s 2012 bundlers yesterday: Dozens of Obama’s elite donors — many of them wealthy business figures — have been appointed to advisory panels and commissions that can play a role in setting government policy. Others have been invited to a range of exclusive White House briefings, holiday parties and splashy social events. And some have snagged lucrative government contracts that benefit their business interests or investment portfolios, a Center for Public Integrity investigation has found. Here’s the breakdown: At least 68 of 350 Obama bundlers for the 2012 election or...

COMPLETE TITLE: STEVE WYNN Goes On Big Rant About Occupy Wall Street, Obama, Deficits, And Anger At The Government ### Classic. On the conference call for Wynn Resorts, CEO Steve Wynn went on a big rant on Occupy Wall Street, Obama, and deficits. Here are our notes in raw form. It's all mostly paraphrased. In a nutshell, he says: Deficits are killing us, our dollars are worthless, and the Democrats are bankrupting the country and vilifying anyone who's successful. So naturally, people are protesting. *snip* You're seeing it taken to the next level in Greece. People are trying to break...

PITTSBURGH — For President Barack Obama, it's almost as if the election campaign never ended. Just look at his travel schedule. The same states that Obama targeted to win the White House are seeing an awful lot of the president, Vice President Joe Biden and top Cabinet officials. Only this year, the taxpayers are footing the multimillion-dollar tab for the trips, and Obama officials are delivering wheelbarrows of economic stimulus money — also compliments of taxpayers. An Associated Press review of administration travel records shows that three of every four official trips Obama and his key lieutenants made in his...

Oct 02, 2009 Rent-Seekers Inc. By Kimberley A. Strassel, Potomac Watch It isn’t often an energy company (of all things) gets to present itself as an environmental crusader, cozy up to Washington rulemakers, buy political protection, and pad its bottom line - all in one neat little announcement. So give Pacific Gas & Electric, PNM and Exelon credit for going for the gold. The three utility giants have made news recently by quitting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Their finer sensibilities, they explained, would no longer allow them to associate with an organization lacking in environmental fervor. How dare the...

WASHINGTON – The Senate Democratic leader expressed optimism Friday about the prospects for a massive economic recovery package while President Barack Obama used the cudgel of his office — and the latest dire jobless numbers — to challenge lawmakers to act swiftly. On Capitol Hill, centrists from both parties scrambled to cut the massive, $900-billion-plus price tag of the package in hopes of making it more palatable to Republicans. On the flip side of the bipartisan effort, Obama sharpened his rhetoric in challenging the GOP to back the measure, arguing that last November voters rejected "partisan posturing," and "the same...

Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama, seeking to sell his stimulus package to the public, promoted plans to build up clean-energy industries, expand health-insurance coverage and boost security at U.S. ports as part of the broader effort to jump-start the sputtering U.S. economy. “If we do not act boldly and swiftly, a bad situation could become dramatically worse,” Obama said today in his first weekly radio and video address as president. The administration released a report today outlining some of Obama’s priorities for the two-year recovery package. They include loan guarantees and other support to open up credit for...

Gov. Bill Richardson used his veto pen to cut $7 million in capital improvement financing, and members of the Senate were on the losing side. The Senate has bucked Richardson on a number of issues, including the governor's top priority this session: a plan to expand health care coverage. Richardson signed a bill (SB 471) into law Wednesday to provide $341 million for capital improvements, often called pork, across the state. But he vetoed $7 million for projects, and all were sponsored by members of the Senate, according to an analysis by the Legislative Finance Committee. Among the casualties of...

Posted on Thu, Jul. 01, 2004 White, Kemp deny charges By Emilie Lounsberry, Leonard N. Fleming and Marcia Gelbart Inquirer Staff Writers Ronald A. White and former City Treasurer Corey Kemp pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges leveled in a sweeping corruption indictment, and White said federal authorities had "taken a genuine friendship and tried to portray it as something corrupt and manipulative." White and Kemp, with two other defendants, were in court the day after prosecutors asserted that White showered Kemp with money and gifts, and that Kemp, in return, allowed White to call the shots on who got...

No denying redistricting was payback As a scholar of redistricting and someone who has studied the Texas case in particular, I must point out some facts that have been ignored in the storm of partisan rhetoric. First, to claim that the Democratic redistricting plan enacted in 1991 was not a partisan gerrymander is absurd. Population growth increased the number of seats from 27 to 30 after the 1990 Census. The three new seats were all won by Democratic state senators who were involved in creating the districts they won. The advent of sophisticated mapping technology allowed the Democrats to comply...

Jilted Italian woman 'vandalised 60 Alfa Romeos to get back at ex' An Italian woman has been arrested for allegedly vandalising 60 Alfa Romeo cars because they reminded her of her ex-lover. Police say the 28-year-old woman told officers she damaged the cars because her former boyfriend drives the same make and model. She is accused of going on a two month wrecking spree, armed with a pair of scissors and scratching the bodywork and slashing the tyres of the cars. Officers arrested the woman after setting up surveillance on Alfa Romeos parked in the town of Rovereto, near Trento,...

Carter's policies have left a trail of bloodshed, war, and revolution during his long career in global politics. What about Jimmy Carter - --How newly discovered KGB documents prove how America's worst president betrayed his country by trying to get the Soviets to intervene in two U.S. elections to stop Ronald Reagan. --Carter's role in starting the Islamic Jihad by allowing the Shah of Iran to fall -- and beginning more than two decades of international terrorism. --Carter's actions that led to the murders of dozens of top Iranian military officials. --Carter's long "blame America first" history, and his support...