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Each investigator/team is locked in their own private compartment. They’ve got the info they’re collected on their own, and that’s about it. All they’ve got is a handful of unconnected puzzle pieces. There are many such teams, each with their own puzzle pieces that are entirely different from the pieces other teams have collected. In fact, they probably don’t even know exactly how many other teams there are, or how many pieces any of them have. Nobody knows if all the pieces have yet been collected, or even how many pieces the finished puzzle will have.

Donald Trump’s oft-used excuse for not releasing his tax returns is that they are still under audit at the US Internal Revenue Service—no matter that this doesn’t prevent their release—but if his pick for Treasury secretary gets his way, the interminable audit may end sooner. Steven Mnuchin, the investor tapped by Trump for the top job in US economic policy, told lawmakers at his confirmation hearing today (Jan. 19) that he would like to expand the workforce at the IRS and modernize technology there in order to collect more taxes. “The IRS headcount has gone down quite dramatically, almost 30%...

Will America learn in time from the price being paid by British companies and families? The Obama Administration still hasn't gotten the message voters sent Washington on November 2. The lame duck session and 111th Congress finally ended, without the White House getting key items on its wish list. So now, the Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department intend to impose costly, job-killing, economy-strangling new rules for power plants and refineries, and implement more land-grabs that will lock up additional millions of acres and more billions of dollars of American energy. Their goal is to end the hydrocarbon and nuclear...

What is a kakistocracy? How about the perfect description of Obambi's regime? kakistocracy (plural kakistocracies) 1. Government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens. And from World Wide Words: KAKISTOCRACY/kækɪˈstɒkrəsɪ/Help with IPA The government of a state by its most unprincipled citizens. Writers down the years have found this to be an appropriate word with which to belabour either their political system or other people’s. The American poet James Russell Lowell wrote in a letter in 1876: What fills me with doubt and dismay is the degradation of the moral tone. Is it or is it not...

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they...

BOSTON -- Lawmakers on Beacon Hill are set to consider a proposed ban on spanking children in the commonwealth. NewsCenter 5's Shiba Russell reported that the issue is set for debate at a Statehouse hearing Wednesday morning. The Boston Herald reported that State Rep. Jay Kaufman filed the spanking ban petition at the request of an Arlington, Mass., nurse who wants Massachusetts to become the first state in the country to stop corporal punishment.

Ever been had? Last year, the United States Agency for International Development gave Ghana $22.5 million in food aid. Last Monday, that same country began a 12-month celebration of its independence from British rule, which was granted 50 years ago, on March 5, 1957. The total budget for these festivities, which commenced with an all-night party in Accra, is said to be $20 million. You might reasonably ask if this is a sensible way of spending $20 million at a time when the typical citizen of Ghana has a daily income of $1.33. You might also ask what exactly Ghana...

County officials have sent 94,000 letters warning people of possible identity theft after some documents containing their confidential information were publicly exposed in January. The documents were left next to a recycling bin outside a Department of Public Social Services office in Exposition Park.

There was a time when I anxiously anticipated the end of the candidate filing period to see what the match-ups would be for the upcoming election. I was a political junkie in the spirit of college basketball fans waiting to fill out their brackets for March Madness. I no longer have that enthusiasm for elections in California. They mostly don't matter, especially at the legislative level where political manipulation by both major parties has robbed voters of anything approaching competitive elections. Unless incumbents do something really stupid, they are guaranteed to be in office until term limits force them out...

Read Our Series on Child Custody in TheCourtOfPublicOpinion.com Hummer: A Humdinger of a Judge! See the photos Judge Hummer doesn't want you to see! October 6, 2005 Why would a Lancaster County Judge not want you to see evidence that cleared a man of criminal charges? 5thEstate.com has been following family court Judge, Wayne Hummer, after receiving many complaints regarding Hummer's bias and improper rulings that damage families and destroy careers and lives. The accusations came from many quarters and from people from all walks of life. The accusations were seemingly outrageous, but were they true? After spending over a...

If you haven’t followed the John Lynch story in our past issues, you have truly missed a real tragedy. To summarize, Mr. Lynch bought a lake property on which the previous owner had already secured a building permit. What could be safer? Unfortunately, there were some things the previous owner didn’t tell Mr. Lynch, the most important of which would be the extreme difficulty Mr. Lynch would have if he ever had to build a driveway to the house, since it would have to cross a wetland. The previous owner accessed the building site from a neighbor’s road. Things went...

Phantom Goatsucker on Government Payroll Mon Aug 12, 8:43 AM ET BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) - Argentina's bankrupt government is notorious for writing checks to workers who have never showed up, but eyebrows were raised when an imaginary "goatsucker" showed up on payroll recently. Registered as "goatsucker, male, born in 1900," the mythological figure blamed for animal maulings throughout Latin America is eligible to receive unemployment benefits of about $42 per month, local media reports said on Friday. "It could be in doubt whether he deserves the money or not, but he is registered as a real person with an...

EFF HomeJoin EFF/Donate! About EFF Free Speech Online Audiovisual Freedom Online Privacy Active Legal Cases Recent News EFF Newsletter Internships EFF Topics Radio EFF Contact Us Calendar Media Resources Subscribe toEFFector Newsletter EFF's Privacy Policy Search: Site Map Most Popular EFF Pages Today Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release Director Sues Organization that Oversees Internet ICANN Broke Law, Refused to Disclose Documents For Immediate Release: Monday, March 18, 2002 Los Angeles - The Electronic Frontier Foundation today helped a member of the ICANN Board of Directors file a lawsuit forcing ICANN management to grant him some reasonable access to corporate...