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Agency says radioactive materials recovered in home of man allegedly slain by his wife ...BELFAST, Maine — James G. Cummings, who police say was shot to death by his wife two months ago, allegedly had a cache of radioactive materials in his home suitable for building a “dirty bomb.” According to an FBI field intelligence report from the Washington Regional Threat and Analysis Center posted online by WikiLeaks, an organization that posts leaked documents, an investigation into the case revealed that radioactive materials were removed from Cummings’ home after his shooting death on Dec. 9 It says that four 1-gallon...

While debt ceiling talks have put Social Security payments in the news, one topic that's been put on the back burner is a deadline Congress faces to shore up the program. Social Security's trust funds for retirement and disability benefits are projected to be able to pay only 78% of promised benefits by 2034. To fix that, Congress could consider several major adjustments. Here's what they could mean..... In just 13 years the trust funds Social Security relies on to pay retirement and disability benefits will be depleted, according to the most recent Social Security trustees' report. While benefit checks...

The caller, identified as “Bob from West Hartford,” hit a nerve when he dialed into Gov. Ned Lamont’s Jan. 9 appearance on WTIC-1080 AM with morning hosts Ray Dunaway and Joe D’Ambrosio. “Hi Governor Lamont. In the most recent [state] budget you diverted $170 million out of gas taxes in the Special Transportation Fund,” Bob said. “That’s a myth that gets perpetrated day-in and day-out,” Lamont responded. “There is no diversion taking place, so you can put that one to rest.” Not so fast, governor. Although Lamont and fellow Democrats insist the diversion charge is a “myth,” the truth is...

Honest to God-- heard this dripped out of the radio news Fox news as "coming out of Congress"... this is a leak from Pelosi's next country breaking bunch of crap. There is NO "trust fund" for these thieving lawyers to "loan" from. Book entry LBJ accounting--- they have themselves ALREADY taken money from and left the IOU's as the "trust fund" in a file cabinet in West Virginia. Coupled with 22 plus million current workers NOT currently "contributing" to the fund as the system requires. So it is far less than the 2.5 working for each SS beneficiary... not to...

Lee Boyd Malvo, half of the two-man D.C. sniper team that killed 10 people in 2002, has found his “soul mate” in a wealthy political activist who spent a short amount of time in jail herself following a Black Lives Matter protest. Malvo, 35, married Sable Noel Knapp, 30, in a low-key civil ceremony in Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison on March 6, according to a marriage certificate filed in the Wise County Circuit Court. Knapp, part of a prominent Iowa family of property developers and power brokers, has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to political causes. However, the...

I recently had the privilege of representing residents in eastern Connecticut that were opposed to the construction of the proposed state police gun range immediately adjacent to Pachaug State Forest. I personally thanked Gov. Ned Lamont for keeping his word in opposing this project. In politics, you are only as good as your word. That is why Lamont must also keep his word and not institute tolling on cars in Connecticut. Leaders in Hartford are missing the mark when it comes to tolling. They always seek to find alternate revenue sources through taxes or fees before first examining priorities, spending...

The projected Social Security shortfall is likely to hit younger workers hardest. Social Security has two trust funds: the Old-Age and Survivors (OAS) fund, and its smaller sibling, the Disability Insurance (DI) fund. Last year’s report said the combined reserves of both funds would be exhausted in the year 2033, at which time it could pay only 77¢ on the dollar of its benefit obligations. The DI fund, however, faces a more immediate crisis. It will run out of money in 2016—as in next year—and its 0.9% payroll tax levy will then collect only enough to pay 81% of its benefit obligations....

Hours after a chaotic end to the 2015 legislative session, Gov. Mark Dayton said he wants to summon lawmakers back to the Capitol to fix an "insufficient" education funding bill. Dayton renewed his promise Tuesday to veto the $17 billion spending bill that had yet to cross his desk, noting it left out his top priority of universal preschool. That means lawmakers, who came within $25 million of a deal that didn't materialize before the end of the legislative session Monday, will have to come back to St. Paul in the coming weeks for a special session held somewhere other...

Rep. John Delaney was in Hagerstown Wednesday to pitch his proposal for long-term funding of transportation and other infrastructure projects by repatriating the overseas earnings of American corporations. "There hasn't been anything really transformative to put a lot of money into infrastructure," Delaney, D-Md., told a small group of businesspeople at Bulls & Bears restaurant. He pointed out that the federal gas tax — the primary source of revenue for the Highway Trust Fund — has not been increased since the early 1990s, in part, because it is politically unpopular. It also is a regressive tax that hits lower-income people...

A homework assignment: What is the name of this #BlackLivesMatter leech who was among those who stopped traffic on I-93 in Boston last week? We know his real name is Noah McKinney and that this leech lives in daddy's mansion as you can see in this VIDEO. His dreadlocks plus the fact that he must be as much a Trust Fund Kid as WILLIAM RIVERS PITT means he is a Trustafarian. Note that he can't answer the question from the reporter as to what kind of work he does which means he is a 28 year old bum. Oh,...

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s assets rose in value by at least 8 percent during 2013, raising their total to between $5.3 million and $14.1 million, according to her latest financial disclosure released Thursday. Yellen’s biggest asset is a trust fund she set up in 1992 with her husband, George Akerlof, a Nobel Prize-winning economist. The value of the trust fund is estimated at between $1 million and $5 million. Yellen’s assets have likely been driven up in value by a rebounding economy and a rising stock market. In 2012, her disclosure form estimated her assets at between $4 million...

On the road in a tour bus this week, the U.S. transportation secretary is spreading some bad news: The government’s Highway Trust Fund is nearly broke. If allowed to run dry, that could set back or shut down projects across the country, force widespread layoffs of construction workers and delay needed repairs and improvements. Anthony Foxx kicked off an eight-state bus trip in Ohio to whip up public support for congressional approval of legislation to keep federal transportation aid flowing to states for another four years, and possibly longer. But Congress will have to act fast. The trust fund—the source...

While discussing federal spending and transportation funding, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said “there is absolutely no way we’re going to cut spending.” Boxer was discussing the Highway Trust Fund with members of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in Washington on Feb. 26th, when she addressed various tax increases that may be used to raise money for the program. “I don’t see support for raising the gas tax and there is absolutely no way we’re going to cut spending, so it’s going to have to be a creative way to fund this in reality,” Boxer said....

For decades, coal from West Virginia’s vast deposits was mined, loaded on rail cars and hauled off without leaving behind a lasting trust fund financed by the state’s best-known commodity. Big coal’s days are waning, but now a new bonanza in the natural gas fields has state leaders working to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself. West Virginia’s Senate president, Jeff Kessler, is pushing to create an oil and natural gas trust fund to support core government functions decades from now. His goal: a cushion of funds long after the gas is depleted to buoy an Appalachian mountain state chronically vexed...

This week’s charts show total receipts, expenditures, and assets left in the Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) trust fund. Data from the 2013 Trustees Report show that the disability fund is currently predicted to be three years from insolvency. Under more pessimistic assumptions, the insolvency date is pushed up to 2015. The fact that the DI trust fund is not currently depleted shouldn’t mislead us into thinking we have until 2016 to deal with the shortfalls.Spending on Social Security has more than doubled in the past decade, and DI now accounts for almost 20 percent of Social Security’s budget, up...

We Stand for Principle Over Politicsand the Establishment Can't Stand It December 21, 2011 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: "House Democrats tried Wednesday to force a vote on the Senate’s two-month extension of the payroll-tax cut, but Republicans gaveled the House closed to prevent them from having a chance, as top GOP leaders huddled down the hall to try to figure a way out of the mess. The House was set to hold a pro forma session, but two top Democrats, Reps. Steny H. Hoyer and Chris Van Hollen, demanded to be recognized to try to force a vote on the...

ANNAPOLIS — A Maryland commission recommended Tuesday that the state raise its gas tax by more than 60 percent over the next three years, but members acknowledged that taxpayers facing a dire economy could find the increase hard to swallow. The proposed hike, approved by the state-appointed Blue Ribbon Commission on Maryland Transportation Funding, would raise the gas tax on wholesalers by 5 cents a year for three years, from the current rate of 23.5 cents per gallon. The move could generate nearly $500 million in annual revenue and is part of $870 million in annual tax-and-fee increases recommended by...

  Social Security Scam Now Obvious David C. Stolinsky July 18, 2011 Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money.− Margaret Thatcher If there is a silver lining to the dark clouds hanging over our economy − and that’s a big if − it is highlighting the sad fact that Social Security is an enormous fraud. This fraud goes beyond even the fact that it is a Ponzi scheme − that it depends on enough new workers joining the workforce to pay for older people retiring. Yes, Social Security is as...

Social Security and Medicare — the elephants sidelined in the latest budget talk — took center stage Friday as trustees' annual reports showed both programs' finances have deteriorated. Social Security's trust fund — which gives it carte blanche to spend beyond the government's means until its IOUs from the Treasury Department run out — is now seen running empty in 2036, a year earlier.

Liberal : I can’t believe what Republicans want to do now. Taxpayer: What are you talking about? Liberal : They want to destroy the most successful government program in the history of the US. Taxpayer: What program is that? Liberal : Social Security. They want to steal the Social Security trust fund to pay for the tax cuts for the wealthy. Fortunately Senate Majority Harry Reid said he will stop Republicans from taking it. Taxpayer: Did you say that Social Security has a trust fund? What on earth are you talking about? Liberal : Social Security saved the surplus for...