TSA Collected $400,000 In Change Left Behind By Travelers
Apparently, a lot of us are forgetting to take back the coins we keep tossing in those little plastic bins at the airport: Airline passengers left more than $400,000 at airport security checkpoints operated by the Transportation Security Administration in 2011. TSA found $409,085.56 in spare change last year that was unclaimed by passengers, according [...]
Today In Washington: V.P. Biden Attends A Secret Meeting On Transparency
You really can’t make things like this up: “At 1:00 PM, the Vice President will attend a meeting of the Government Accountability and Transparency Board in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. At 2:30 PM, the Vice President will meet with representatives of the National Sheriffs’ Association in the Roosevelt Room. These meetings are closed press.“ [...]
Justice Department Inspector General: There Were No $16 Muffins
You may recall last month when the Justice Department’s Inspector General released a report claiming that DOJ officials had been wasting money on outside seminars, including the now famous $16 muffins and $32 box of Cracker Jacks. While outrageous at first glance, the report didn’t really seem to stand up to scrutiny, and even the [...]
The Final Word On Those $16 Muffins
The people at Hilton have weighed in on those $16 muffins that the Department of Justice supposedly paid for: Stung by an audit report this week that highlighted “$16 muffins” at a conference at the Capital Hilton in Washington, the hotel chain is fighting back, insisting the pricey pastries were not that expensive.. Hilton Worldwide [...]
$120 Million Per Year Paid To Dead Federal Retirees
It’s a small part of the Federal Budget, but this is likely to be an example of government waste that’s remembered for a long time: The federal government pays out millions of dollars to dead people each year — including deceased retired federal workers, according to a new report. In the past five years, the [...]
The Kennedys vs. Transparency
John Tierny notes that the Kennedy family has been blocking access to Robert Kennedy’s official papers from his time as a public servant. But so far, nobody has been able to see this trove of documentary resources about the foreign-policy intrigues and governmental activities of a half-century ago. Why not? Because Robert Kennedy’s family controls [...]
Drilling Moratorium Misguided
President Obama’s decision to suspend drilling in the Gulf of Mexico for six months in the interests of public safety may actually have the opposite effect, reports NPR’s John Ydstie. Ken Arnold, one of the engineers called on by the department to help strengthen safety standards after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, says [...]
Tyranny of the Sky Waitresses
So, we’re in Minnesota for a wedding. Since we live in the DC suburbs and the wife and I need to be back at work Monday, that means flying and enduring the depredations of airport security and being herded about a jetliner like cattle. While we’re not such frequent fliers that we’re awaiting our meeting [...]
35 Million Could Lose Coverage Under ObamaCare!
Peter Suderman cites a “study” showing that 35 million Americans who are currently insured could lose their coverage and be forced into the government pool. A number of big employers are already considering dropping employee coverage, and a new study from former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Cameron Smith suggests that, depending on [...]
Safe Bets: Minerals Management Service Edition
Reacting to news that Minerals Management Service Director Elizabeth Birnbaum — who was ostensibly charged with regulating drilling in the Gulf of Mexico — has been fired, Dave Schuler offers a sucker bet: Prediction: the MMS will be abolished and its responsibilities split among several other agencies. Most of the same people will remain in [...]
Private Pay Shrinks to Lowest Level
Private pays share of personal income has shrunk to its lowest historical level. Private wages. A record-low 41.9% of the nation’s personal income came from private wages and salaries in the first quarter, down from 44.6% when the recession began in December 2007. The article also points out that the trend is not sustainable. The [...]
Census To Catch Up With The 21st Century, In Ten Years
If you’re still around in 2020, the Census Bureau hopes to be able to give you the option of responding electronically: Happy Tuesday! How will Americans use the Internet in 2020? Will we all use cell phones? Will we still have snail mail? A team of experts at the U.S. Census Bureau is asking those [...]
Financial Reform or a Commitment to Future Bailouts?
It is unsurprising given the melt down in the financial sector that politicians are looking at “reforming” financial regulations. To most people the general idea of regulatory reform should be to prevent conditions form coming about that lead to the meltdown and thereby prevent further bailouts. Problem is it is looking like the reform in [...]
Frustration and Ideology
Radley Balko “got a little more libertarian” yesterday after a frustrating experience with his income taxes. Essentially, his e-file was rejected because of an invalid Social Security number which wasn’t invalid at all, the Social Security office wouldn’t help him by phone, and the office was closed by the time he got there. And he [...]
DHS Has More Contractors than Employees
It should come as a surprise to no one familiar with how our government works that the Department of Homeland Security employs more contractors than civil servants. Excepting, of course, Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins. The Department of Homeland Security has more contractors working for it than full-time employees, a situation two members of Congress [...]
Using Food Stamps to Buy Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone (Oh, SNAP)
Like Ezra Klein, I was surprised to read that “one in eight Americans” are now getting food stamps. But, reading Jason Deparle and Robert Gebeldoff‘s feature, it’s not hard to see why: We’re actively recruiting people to sign up! A decade ago, New York City officials were so reluctant to give out food stamps, they [...]
Intelligence, Bureaucracy, and Groupthink
Former UN Ambassador John Bolton argues that we need to get the bureaucracy out of intelligence if we are to adequately assess the threats facing the country. Although the U.S. intelligence community (IC) has been stung by failures relating to the Christmas terrorist attack, these failures are symptomatic of far larger problems. In analyzing the [...]
TSA a Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone
In the thread discussing the idiotic new TSA guidelines issued in overreaction to the Detroit terror plot, longtime commenter DC Loser observes, As a lifelong civil servant, anytime you create a large bureaucracy to deal with a specific problem, it is not in the interest of said bureaucracy for the root problem to go away. [...]
Just Shoot Him
And be done with it for God’s sake. UPDATE (James Joyner): An excerpt from the story for those who can’t click through or in case the story goes away: Matthew Freeman is struggling to move on with his life, six years after being convicted of having sex with a high school girlfriend who was one [...]
TSA Publishes Airport Screening Manual
Are you a terrorist who would like to blow up an airliner but confused about how best to elude screening? Well, luckily for you, the Transportation Security Administration has published a How To manual to answer all your questions. In a massive security breach, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) inadvertently posted online its airport screening [...]
Starving the Homeless is Healthy
New York City’s ban on food cooked with transfats is forcing shelters to throw out food donated to homeless shelters. When a small church comes to the Bowery Mission bearing fried chicken with trans fat, unwittingly breaking the law, they’re told “thank you.” Then workers quietly chuck the food, mission director Tom Bastile said. “It’s [...]
Lobbyists Booted from Advisory Panels
Josh Marshall points me to a story by WaPo’s Dan Eggen that sheds light on a little-known aspect of how Washington works: Hundreds, if not thousands, of lobbyists are likely to be ejected from federal advisory panels as part of a little-noticed initiative by the Obama administration to curb K Street’s influence in Washington, according [...]
Congress to Investigate Fake Districts
Amanda Carpenter broke the news Tuesday that “The government Web site that promised to show exactly where the $787 billion in stimulus spending was going to ‘create or save’ jobs is allocating billions of tax dollars to hundreds of congressional districts that don’t exist.” Researchers at the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity found [...]
Kelo Follow Up
Well looks like the entire town of New London, Conn. is going to get screwed by Pfizer. “Look what they did,” Mr. Cristofaro said on Thursday. “They stole our home for economic development. It was all for Pfizer, and now they get up and walk away.” That sentiment has been echoing around New London since [...]
Health Reform & Standards for Equal Justice
The Urban Institute’s Eugene Stuerle is not very happy with the health care expansion legislation that is likely to be passed into law. Stuerle argues that the legislation violates the standards of equal justice. Of course, families in this income bracket pay far more than $14,700 for health care. They get hit by uninsured expenses [...]
UPS vs. FedEx Whiteboard Video
Reason‘s Nick Gillespie has a bit of fun with the UPS-FedEx fight to make a larger argument about unions. What’s particularly amusing about this is that, rather than seeking to get the favorable regulatory treatment that FedEx enjoys, UPS is fighting to put FedEx under the same onerous rules. I’m reminded of the old joke [...]
Political Control of Government Motors
Back when talks about bailing out General Motors started one potential issue was that GM would “encouraged” to make decisions based on political considerations vs. a sound business plan. Looks like there is evidence for such concerns with this story of how Montana’s Congressional Representative and two Senators are pushing to get a contract reinstated [...]
Obama Spoils System Champ
A USA Today report that “Nearly a year after he was elected on a pledge to change business-as-usual in Washington, Obama also has taken a cue from his predecessors and appointed fundraisers to coveted ambassadorships” and in fact has done so at “a rate higher than any president in more than four decades” combined with [...]
Resource Allocation and Health Care
Over at his web site Dave has put up a post discussing how resources are allocated. I’ve touched on this very briefly in comments and a post or two, but nothing this extensive. As such, go read it, it’s good. Here is a snippet, Despite the author’s attempt to assuage concern by pooh-poohing the idea [...]




















