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Court Orders Discovery to Begin on Clinton Email / Benghazi Scandals Documents Detail Nancy Pelosi’s CODEL Travel in 2015 U.S. Doles Out Millions to Costa Rica & Mozambique During Shutdown The Murder Epidemic in Indian Country Now We’re Providing Sex-Change Surgery to Convicted Child Sex Abusers Court Orders Discovery to Begin on Clinton Email / Benghazi Scandals Last week, I reported to you that we had submitted a court-ordered discovery plan for the depositions of several top former government officials involved in the Clinton email scandal, including Obama administration senior officials Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, Jacob Sullivan, and FBI...

Loretta Lynch's DOJ looks to further federal control of elections in ways that benefit the Democrats. The Obama Justice Department has quietly launched an effort to erode traditional state powers over elections. In the first instance, Attorney General Loretta Lynch has drafted and sent a bill to Congress which would force state election officials to turn over power to tribal governments to determine the location and number of polling places on Indian reservations in state-run elections. In the second instance, the DOJ is seeking to erode the power of states to prohibit the mentally incompetent from voting, as long as...

Gov. David Paterson is heading near Indian Country to sign a bill that would call for the state to collect taxes on sales by Indian retailers. Despite urgings by the Seneca Nation for the governor to veto the measure, he is traveling to Oneida County to sign the legislation in Utica on Monday

New taxes, deep cuts to education and health care, and a restructuring of the state's economic development programs will be hallmarks of Gov. David Paterson's first budget plan to be released in two days, according to interviews of people briefed on components. The plan will come with a host of revenue raisers — increased taxes on hospitals and insurance policies, for instance — and at least one new assessment, a so-called obesity tax on non-diet soda to raise $404 million. The governor also is contemplating requiring new license plates to raise cash, reviving sales tax on clothing purchases, removing the...

TALLAHASSEE - It was billed as the 11th annual tribute dinner to state Sen. Jim King, the Jacksonville Republican and veteran legislator who is former president of the Senate. The event, held last week at the Four Seasons luxury hotel in Dallas, attracted nearly a dozen lawmakers, including three state senators who will be responsible for helping craft legislation that regulates the use of slot machines at three Broward County racetracks and a jai-alai fronton. And who picked up the tab for the dinner? A cadre of Tallahassee lobbyists, many of whom represent the same tracks and other gambling interests...

The Maori Party is already driving a larger and considerably more dangerous wedge into the New Zealand Left than anything so far inserted by the National Party. As it grows in strength and consolidates its already powerful grip on the Maori imagination, the Maori Party has the potential to split Labour into two hostile camps, aggravate racial sensitivities within the trade union movement, and push the Greens below the all-important 5% MMP threshold. The Left's vulnerability to the Maori Party is entirely of its own making. From the early-1980s, the critical "sites of struggle" for most progressive political activists shifted...

Indian gambling casinos and the burdens they place on surrounding communities aren't the only problems old and newly formed tribes are imposing on the states. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being siphoned from state treasuries by the sale of tax-free cigarettes and gasoline at smoke shops and gas stations built on reservations and opened to the public. In refusing to acknowledge responsibility for collecting taxes, some tribes are ignoring court rulings that uphold the right of states to demand taxes be paid on transactions with outsiders on reservations. While their lawyers complain the states' demands violate a tribe's sovereignty,...

Unwelcome Surprise on State Income Tax Forms WBEN Newsroom - Wednesday, December 10, 2003 08:58 AM Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - As New York grapples with budget gaps, it is apparently looking to you to help plug them. On the state income tax form you'll fill out for the 2003 tax year, you'll be expected to estimate how much sales tax you avoided paying by shopping on-line, out-of-state, or on the reservation. If you failed to save your receipts all the year, the state will include a chart with estimated taxes you should have paid.

Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced the awarding of a $460,518 grant to the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, to support the Tribes' efforts to enter the oil refining business by building a Clean Fuels Petroleum Refinery (CFPR) on its reservation. "With the right help, tribes can find innovative ways of developing and using their natural resources to build a strong economic base and provide jobs for their people," McCaleb said. "The Three Affiliated Tribes want to become a player in the oil refining industry. I'm pleased that we can...

Smugglers pathway: Dealing with the border Mon Aug 12, 3:14 AM ET Tim Steller , ARIZONA DAILY STAR MENAGERS DAM Smugglers are endangering this border village and much of the Tohono O'odham Nation by tempting residents with cash for helping move people and drugs, residents say. The creeping corruption has even overcome some children, who have dropped out of school to join the smugglers' payroll as spies, said resident Ray Mattia. "These kids get paid a lot of money to watch the roads for them. They sit on the mountains over here," Mattia said, waving to a range east of...

UNCASVILLE, Conn. - The Mohegan Sun casino officially threw open the doors of its glitzy $1 billion hotel expansion this weekend with a star-studded $2 million bash that was more fun than creaming the house with a royal flush. Ex-President Clinton wailed on the sax with the Blues Brothers, talk-show titan Rosie O'Donnell dueted with Cyndi Lauper and Cher was Living Proof that Vegas-style entertainment has a new home in New England. ``When you have Cher, Cyndi Lauper and Steven Tyler in the house, why would you even think of going to bed?'' ex-``Party of Five'' gal Jennifer Love Hewitt...