Free Republic

The IRS has agreed to overhaul a controversial proposal that Republican lawmakers warned would revive the agency’s “harassment and intimidation” of conservative groups, after receiving a record number of comments on the proposed regulation. […] At issue were new rules that would prohibit so-called 501(c)(4) groups from counting “candidate-related political activity” and other political work as activities that qualify them to be tax-exempt “social welfare” organizations. Critics of the proposal warned that this would effectively force many grassroots organizations to shut down. …

Some 2,000 Southeast Side residents lost electrical power for about an hour Sunday after the driver of an SUV lost control and rolled over, knocking down a power pole and cables on Pantano Parkway. The driver, a 58-year-old man with a heart pacemaker whose identity was not released, apparently "blacked out" and his car left the road and flipped, according to a police report. He was taken to University Medical Center's trauma center with injuries not considered life-threatening. Power went out around noon in an area bounded by East 22nd Street, East Golf Links Road and Pantano Parkway east to...