Voter Identification

Wisconsin Expanding DMV Services For Voter-ID, After Complaints About Closures

Eric Kleefeld | August 5, 2011, 12:47PM

Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI)

The state of Wisconsin's recently passed Voter ID law will now result in an increased cost to the state, as Department of Motor Vehicles offices are expanded in order to accommodate the increased demand for photo identification cards.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports that state Secretary of Transportation Mark Gottlieb announced the expansion on Thursday, which will leave all current DMV offices still open, increase the total number of offices from 88 to 92, and increase total office hours across the state by about 32,000 per year.

The change is expected to cost $6 million in the first year, and $4 million for each additional year going forward.

Read more »

Public Campaign

Watchdogs Want Bright Light On 'Super Committee's' Activities

Susan Crabtree | August 4, 2011, 3:07PM

Two dozen public interest, consumer, and government watchdog organizations want to shine a bright light on the activities of the newly established super committee tasked with finding $1.5 trillion in additional deficit reduction this fall.

Specifically, the groups want members of the joint Congressional committee to put a halt to all political fundraising while they conduct their work and provide details of any and all meetings and contacts with with lobbyists and outside parties.

Read more »

Martin Resendiz

NM Mayor: I Was Quite Drunk When I Signed Those $1 Million Contracts

Jillian Rayfield | August 4, 2011, 2:09PM

Martin Resendiz, Mayor of Sunland Park, NM

Ever have one of those nights where you wake up with a hangover and $1 million worth of architecture contracts?

No? Martin Resendiz (D), the Mayor of Sunland Park, New Mexico, certainly has.

Read more »

Scott Bloch

Scott Bloch Gets Jail Time Overturned, Court Blames Lawyers

Zoe Schlanger | August 4, 2011, 12:00PM

Geeks On Call and former U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch

Scott Bloch, the former Bush administration official who pleaded guilty to using Geeks On Call to scrub his computer while under investigation for retaliating against his employees, has just had his month-long jail sentence overturned.

Bloch pleaded guilty to misdemenor contempt of Congress in February 2010, which carried a sentence of "not less than one month nor more than twelve months" in jail, according to statute. As TPM reported in July, Bloch's lawyers had worked out a plea deal that would keep him out of prison.

Read more »

News Corp.

British MPs Call On Piers Morgan To Respond To Heather Mills Phone Hacking Claims

Jillian Rayfield | August 4, 2011, 11:22AM

Piers Morgan

Though members of the British Parliament say they have no plans to call Piers Morgan to testify before them just yet, two lawmakers have called on the celebrity CNN host to answer questions about his connection to Heather Mills' allegations about phone hacking at Trinity Mirror.

Read more »

David Wu

Rep. David Wu Formally Resigns From House

Ryan J. Reilly | August 3, 2011, 8:15PM

Rep. David Wu (D-OR)

Oregon Rep. David Wu (D) announced Wednesday evening that he has notified Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) of his resignation, effective from 11:59 p.m.

Wu, who has been accused of having an "unwanted" sexual encounter with the teenage daughter of a campaign donor, announced that he would resign following a vote on the debt ceiling, which took place this week.

Read more »

Rupert Murdoch

Heather Mills: Trinity Mirror Reporter Admitted He Hacked My Phone

Jillian Rayfield | August 3, 2011, 6:35PM

Heather Mills walks with now ex-husband Paul McCartney and Russian PM Vladimir Putin

Former model Heather Mills alleged on Wednesday that a reporter working for the British newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror admitted to her that he hacked into her cell phone to get a story about her and then-boyfriend Paul McCartney.

Read more »

Abortion

Judge Rules Against Anti-Abortion Group's Claim That Health Care Reform Law Funds Abortion

Jillian Rayfield | August 3, 2011, 4:36PM

Former Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-OH)

A federal judge has allowed a defamation lawsuit by former Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-OH) to move forward, on the grounds that an anti-abortion group's ad campaign erroneously attacked him for supporting taxpayer-funded abortion with his vote for health care reform.

Read more »

John Boehner

Boehner Legal Team: It Doesn't Matter If Science Says Being Gay Isn't A Choice

Ryan J. Reilly | August 3, 2011, 2:30PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and former United States Solicitor General Paul Clement

Remember a few months ago how John Boehner decided to step in to keep the Defense of Marriage Act in place after the Justice Department decided it was discriminatory? Well the legal team Boehner hired to defend the law has a few interesting things to say about gays and lesbians.

A briefing submitted on Monday by Paul Clement on behalf of the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the House of Representatives notes that "gays and lesbians have achieved and continue to achieve substantial political success." In sum, he argues that there hasn't been enough of a history of discrimination against gays and lesbians because most were in the closet throughout so much of history.

Read more »

Red Wing High School

Black Alumna Sues High School Over 'Wednesday Wigger Day'

David Taintor | August 3, 2011, 1:56PM

Students at a high school in Red Wing, Minnesota brought school spirit to new lows with a "Wigger Wednesday" dress-up day tradition, according to a lawsuit filed against the school district.

Quera Pruitt, a Red Wing high school alumna, is suing the school district and administrators over creating a hostile and racist educational environment.

Here's what happened: Students during the 2008 and 2009 homecoming celebrations wore "oversized sports jerseys, low-slung pants, baseball bats cocked to the side and 'doo rags' on their heads," according to the suit. About 60 or 70 students took what was supposed to be "tropical day" and turned it into "wigger day," the suit claims. To the unfamiliar, and as the case points out, the term "wigger" is a derogatory term for a white person who emulates African-American culture.

Read more »

Peter LaBarbera

IRS Revokes Tax-Exempt Status For Group That Calls Gay Rights 'Demonic Manipulation'

Jillian Rayfield | August 3, 2011, 12:02PM

The IRS has revoked the tax-exempt status of Americans for the Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), a group whose leader once said that gay rights is "Satan's point of attack on the United States of America."

Read more »

Pam Bondi

Florida AG Seeks Independent Probe Of Firing Of Foreclosure Investigators

Ryan J. Reilly | August 3, 2011, 10:05AM

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi

Florida's Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi is seeking an independent probe of the firing of two foreclosure fraud investigators from her office, who claim they were let go because they were going after lenders too aggressively.

Read more »

Nuclear Energy

Senate Hearing Moves NRC Towards Nuclear Reform, Airs Its Concern for Industry

Zoe Schlanger | August 2, 2011, 4:15PM

Tennessee Valley Authority nuclear plant

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is not as fundamentally split as it previously appeared on the issue of post-Fukushima U.S. nuclear regulation, as a Tuesday Senate hearing showed. By the end of the hearing, the majority of the 5-person commission sounded reasonably ready to vote on at least a few of the recommended safety measures within 90 days.

It is, however, not doing much to dissuade rising murmurs and recent reports that the commission is too close to its industry, as it became evident that the primary roadblock to voting on the recommended safety measures was a concern for the lack of stakeholder input.

Read more »

Barack Obama

Political Action Committee To Defeat Barack Obama As Soon As They Spell His Name Correctly

Ryan J. Reilly | August 2, 2011, 2:32PM

A newly formed political action committee aimed at defeating President Barack Obama took in $9,780.00 in just a few months. And they didn't even have to spell his name correctly to do it.

Read more »

Whitey Bulger

Official Mugshots Of Whitey Bulger, Girlfriend Released By U.S. Marshals

Ryan J. Reilly | August 2, 2011, 11:10AM

The U.S. Marshals Service released mugshots of gangster Whitey Bulger and his girlfriend Catherine Greig on Monday thanks to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by TPM and other media outlets.

Read more »

News Corp.

Key Former News Of The World Editor Arrested Over Phone Hacking Scandal

Jillian Rayfield | August 2, 2011, 10:37AM

British police have arrested another key figure in connection with the News Of The World phone hacking scandal, taking former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner into custody Tuesday.

Read more »

Nuclear Energy

In Wake Of Fukushima, U.S. Senate Hearing Examines U.S. Nuclear Industry

Zoe Schlanger | August 2, 2011, 9:45AM

When the five members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) appear before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Tuesday, they will not be speaking as a unified body. Since the NRC task force released its report on what changes should be implemented at American reactors to prevent a Fukushima-like catastrophe on U.S. soil, the committee has been publicly split and struggling on how to respond. The NRC chairman and another commissioner formed a two-person minority, calling for decisions on the recommendations within 90 days, while a three-member majority opposed swift action, saying they lacked sufficient basis to alter nuclear standards.

The committee chairman, Gregory Jaczko, has been outspoken in his support of the task force's recommendations to establish a uniform framework of regulations, while Commissioner William C. Ostendorff told the NYT, "I personally do not believe that our existing regulatory framework is broken."

Read more »

David Wu

Rep. David Wu Takes Last Vote; 'God Speed To You All. Take Care.' (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | August 1, 2011, 8:45PM

Rep. David Wu released the video we told you he recorded earlier today and took his final vote as a member of Congress on the debt ceiling deal.

Read more »

David Wu

Rep. David Wu To Release Resignation Web Video

Ryan J. Reilly | August 1, 2011, 6:55PM

Oregon Rep. David Wu (D) filmed a video on Monday evening in which he announces a timeline for his resignation over the allegation he had an unwanted sexual encounter with the young daughter of a campaign contributor, a spokesman told TPM.

Read more »

Department of Justice

DOJ Files Lawsuit Against Alabama Immigration Law

Jillian Rayfield | August 1, 2011, 6:09PM

Attorney General Eric Holder

The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit challenging Alabama's immigration crackdown, arguing that the law is unconstitutional because it interferes with federal enforcement of immigration policies.

The DOJ has asked the courts to grant a preliminary injunction against the law, which is scheduled to go into effect September 1st, because it will cause "irreparable harm" if allowed to stand until the law can work its way through the court system.

Read more »

Kansas

Federal Judge Blocks Kansas Law To Defund Planned Parenthood

Jillian Rayfield | August 1, 2011, 1:51PM

A federal judge has issued a temporary injunction against a Kansas law that would strip all federal funding from Planned Parenthood.

Read more »

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Dane County D.A. Seeks Recusal, Special Prosecutor For Alleged Prosser 'Chokehold'

Eric Kleefeld | August 1, 2011, 1:11PM

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser

In the latest sign of just how politically difficult it's proving to mount an investigation into the alleged physical altercation at the Wisconsin Supreme Court -- in which liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley has accused conservative Justice David Prosser of grabbing her neck in a chokehold -- Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne has announced that he will ask a judge to appoint a special prosecutor, rather than make a decision on the matter himself.

The key point here is that the incident in the court occurred during an argument over the court's decision to uphold Gov. Scott Walker's anti-public employee union legislation, with Prosser in the court's 4-3 conservative majority and Bradley in the liberal minority. And for his part, Ozanne is a Democratic official, and more importantly he was the lead plaintiff seeking to have the law blocked on procedural grounds.

In his statement, Ozanne said that he does not think he or his office would be unfair in making a determination, but he wishes to avoid the appearance of a political conflict.

Read more »

Rupert Murdoch

News Of The World Also Accused Of Computer Hacking, Mass E-Mail Deletion

Jillian Rayfield | August 1, 2011, 11:23AM

Scotland Yard announced Saturday that it will set up a new task force to investigate allegations that News Of The World reporters took part in computer hacking as well as phone hacking.

Read more »