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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) delivered remarks at a press conference before a closed Committee executive session to review new evidence provided by IRS whistleblowers in the Hunter Biden investigation. WATCH: Chairman Smith’s Remarks As prepared for delivery. “Good morning and thank you all for coming today. I have a short, prepared statement I’d like to make. “The Ways and Means Committee will be entering a closed-door executive session in a few moments to consider additional evidence provided by the two IRS whistleblowers, Joseph Zeigler and Gary Shapley, who first approached our committee back...

A suburb of Chicago has become the first to start paying reparations to qualifying black residents in what is being seen as “a test run for the whole country.” The city of Evanston has already paid 16 locals from a $10 million package first approved in 2019, the Evanston RoundTable said Monday. By the end of the year, the reparations committee expects to have paid $25,000 each to 140 qualifying residents in the city of about 75,000, officials also told the Wall Street Journal. “I see it as like a test run for the whole country,” Justin Hansford, head of...

The federal government paid Wyoming farmers $5.5 million in 2022 not to farm certain land plots, a significant leap from the 2021 grant of $3.4 million. Industry experts credit changing demands for food and skyrocketing fuel and equipment prices in 2022 for Wyoming farmers’ growing interest in the federal Conservation Reserve Program. The program’s goal is to preserve fragile land plots or other environmentally sensitive areas from the rigor of farming by letting farmers receive federal “rent” payments to leave the land alone for a decade. They also get cost-share payments for conservation startup costs, like ground-cover seeds. Farmers will...

The establishment media has reported on Hunter Biden’s $4.8 million received in payments from a Chinese energy company, but not the alleged payout mechanism by which the Biden family likely profited from peddling influence. “I hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family for 30 years,” Hunter texted his daughter, Naomi, in 2019, the New York Post reported in 2021. “It’s really hard. But don’t worry, unlike Pop [Joe], I won’t make you give me half your salary,” the text string continued as reported.

In October, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration was considering paying $450,000 to illegal immigrants who crossed the southern border and were separated from their families during the Trump administration. When asked about it, Joe Biden called the report “garbage,”Now we know that the Biden administration won’t be compensating illegal immigrant families… but that’s only because they ceased negotiations, not because it was never under consideration.“The families’ lawyers said Justice Department attorneys informed them that the government would no longer work with them to settle lawsuits filed on behalf of parents and children seeking damages over the...

It certainly looks like the prejudice against Republicans, conservatives, and especially Trump supporters, is so virulent that Facebook was willing to pay a hundred mill to rid itself od one. The company denies this is the case, but the Wall Street Journal is not convinced. Facebook Inc. executive and virtual-reality wunderkind Palmer Luckey was a rising star of Silicon Valley when, at the height of the 2016 presidential contest, he donated $10,000 to an anti-Hillary Clinton group. His donation sparked a backlash from his colleagues. Six months later, he was out. Neither Facebook nor Mr. Luckey has ever said why...

A steering committee for a Marjory Stoneman Douglas donation fund approved a measure Monday allowing every person who was on the school’s campus at the time of the Florida shooting to be eligible to receive financial compensation. The committee settled upon an allocation formula consisting of four levels of compensation based on the severity of those effected in the Parkland massacre, reported The Sun Sentinel. The next of kin for the 17 killed will each receive $400,000. The 18 gunshot victims will receive varying amounts with outpatients receiving $35,000 and inpatient payouts dependent on the length of the hospital stay....

When Capt. Tia Morris turned 50, after about three decades in the Los Angeles Police Department, she became eligible to retire with nearly 90% of her salary. But like many cops and firefighters in her position, the decision to keep working was a financial no-brainer, thanks to a program that allowed her to nearly double her pay by keeping her salary while also collecting her pension. A month after Morris entered the program, her husband, a detective, joined too. Their combined income for four years in the Deferred Retirement Option Plan was just shy of $2 million, city payroll records...

The Treasury Department paid $220,000 in a previously undisclosed agreement to settle a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment that involved Florida Democrat Alcee L. Hastings, according to documents obtained by Roll Call. Winsome Packer, a former staff member of a congressional commission that promotes international human rights, said in documents that the congressman touched her, made unwanted sexual advances, and threatened her job. At the time, Hastings was the chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, where Packer worked. Hastings has called Packer’s charges “ludicrous” and in documents said he never sexually harassed her. “Until this evening, I...

Two members of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics sent a letter Friday to the Office of Compliance requesting all of their records on claims of impropriety, a move that follows a series of allegations against current members of Congress. The letter, signed by committee Chairman Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Vice Chairman Christopher A. Coons, D-Del., requested "all records" that are "related to any claims of sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, or any other employment practice prohibited by the CAA involving alleged conduct by any current Member, officer, or employee of the Senate." According the letter, “sexual harassment or employment...

Minnesota lawmakers today will begin looking into the issue of payments for unused sick and vacation time to retiring state employees. The joint legislative subcommittee hearing follows reports by the Pioneer Press and KSTP-TV in November about $57 million paid out in unused sick time to state employees - a practice largely unheard of in the private sector - and $32 million paid out in unused vacation time between January 2008 and June 30, 2011.

In November 2011, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reported $86 million in unused vacation pay, sick time, and other severance had been paid to departing state workers and MnSCU employees in the past three years. And the total is growing by the day. Now, the University of Minnesota has released its separate payroll records, showing it paid departing employees $30 million during the same time period. That brings the total to at least $116 million for all departing state workers in the past three years.

In November 2011, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reported $86 million in unused vacation pay, sick time, and other severance had been paid to departing state workers and MnSCU employees in the past three years. And the total is growing by the day. Now, the University of Minnesota has released its separate payroll records, showing it paid departing employees $30 million during the same time period. That brings the total to at least $116 million for all departing state workers in the past three years.

A group set up to help victims of paedophile priests in the Netherlands has defended a scheme that calculates compensation according to the level of abuse suffered, saying the amounts awarded will be far higher than if individuals were to pursue cases through the courts. Hulp Recht, which has strong links with the Roman Catholic church, devised the system to offer speedy settlements without people having to resort to costly and lengthy legal procedures. Bishops have agreed to the tariff and the settlements are funded by the church. The scheme, which offers €25,000 (£21,400) for single or multiple acts of...

Facing widespread criticism over secret and lucrative executive payouts, University of California President Robert Dynes is considering a reorganization plan that would hand over day-to-day administrative operations of the 10-campus system to someone else. He and UC Regent Chairman Gerry Parsky are in the early stages of crafting a proposal for restructuring the Office of the President, one that would augment Dynes' academic background with a chief operating officer's administrative skills. The chief operating officer could operate “not quite parallel” with Dynes, Parsky said yesterday. “Let's leave open the possibility that someone could be in charge of administrative matters and...

<p>PG&E's top brass may be laughing all the way to the bank with more than $83 million in bonus money. But state regulators are gearing up to investigate the matter, and legislation is in the works aimed at discouraging such generous payouts from happening again.</p>

SA announces apartheid pay-outs By Barnaby Phillips BBC Southern Africa Correspondent There have been reconciliation celebrations in South Africa this month South Africa has started paying reparations to thousands of victims of apartheid, the government says. They were identified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which spent seven years examining the crimes committed under apartheid. The government is giving a one-off payment equivalent to about $4,500 to the victims of apartheid. The TRC examined decades of human rights abuses and identified about 20,000 victims earlier this year. Slow processThe government says it has processed payments for 9,000 people, but more...

France may block Lockerbie payouts August 15 2003 at 05:04AM London - Libya's ambassador to Britain on Thursday confirmed a deal to pay compensation for the victims of the 1988 Lockerbie aircraft bombing, but said France was threatening to block the lifting of United Nations sanctions on his country, a key condition of the accord. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin telephoned his Libyan counterpart, Abdel Rahman Chalgam, on Thursday and threatened that France would block the lifting of sanctions if it did not receive compensation in the UTA affair," Mohammed Al-Zouai said. That was a reference to the 1989...

This is developing, but I thought it was an outrageous amount of money. Any comments??