Free Republic

A former IRS consultant was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday for leaking tax information about “thousands of the nation’s wealthiest individuals” to news outlets between 2018 and 2020. Charles Littlejohn, 38, pleaded guilty in October to one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax return and return information after reaching a plea agreement with government prosecutors. The Justice Department did not name the news outlets or individuals whose tax information was disclosed, though the description and timeline of Littlejohn’s actions coincided with reporting in The New York Times and ProPublica about former President Trump’s tax returns. In his...

A Maryland-based mosque held a memorial celebration Sunday for an Islamist assassin who was convicted of murdering a Pakistani governor for criticizing the country’s blasphemy laws. The Gulzar E Madina mosque hosted an “Urs” for convicted murderer Mumtaz Qadri, reported Ehsan Rehan of the Rabwah Times, a Pakistan-based news agency. Urs is a traditional death anniversary usually reserved for Sufi saints celebrated by Muslims in South Asia. A Pakistani high court charged Qadri with murder after he killed Salman Taseer, the former governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province. Qadri, who was part of Taseer’s bodyguard, shot him 27 times with an...

MINNEAPOLIS -- Explosive documents about the Interstate 35W bridge suggest the engineering company the state hired to make sure the bridge was safe actually predicted it would collapse months before it fell apart. The documents are part of a lawsuit victims are bringing against California based URS Corporation. They accuse the firm of predicting a catastrophic event, but allegedly not telling anyone about it. The thought has been tough to swallow for the victims of that day in August 2007, when 13 people lost their lives and well over 100 were injured. "I remember until probably about 5:15 that day,"...

URS in deal to acquire Washington GroupThe $2.6-billion union of the engineering and construction firms would give it more heft. By Evelyn Iritani, Times Staff Writer May 29, 2007 San Francisco-based URS Corp. is buying Washington Group International Inc. for $2.6 billion in a corporate marriage that would create one of the country's top engineering and construction powerhouses, the companies announced Monday. Directors of both companies unanimously approved the deal, which calls for Washington Group stockholders to receive $43.80 in cash and 0.772 of a share of URS stock for each share in Boise, Idaho-based Washington Group. **SNIP** The combined...

IN THE November 2006 election, the voters demanded congressional ethics reform. And so, the newly appointed chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is now duly in charge of regulating the ethical behavior of her colleagues. But for many years, Feinstein has been beset by her own ethical conflict of interest, say congressional ethics experts. As chairperson and ranking member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON) from 2001 through the end of 2005, Feinstein supervised the appropriation of billions of dollars a year for specific military construction projects. Two defense contractors whose interests were largely controlled by...

<p>URS Corp., a San Francisco planning and engineering firm partially owned by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein's husband, landed an Army contract Monday worth up to $600 million.</p> <p>The award to help with troop mobilization, weapons systems training and anti-terrorism efforts is the latest in a string of plum defense jobs snared by URS. In February, the firm won an army engineering and logistics contract that could bring in $3.1 billion during the next eight years.</p>