WASHINGTON (AP) — When IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel met privately with senators recently, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee asked for his assessment of a startling report: A whistleblower estimated that 95% of claims now being made by businesses for a COVID-era tax break were fraudulent. “He looked at his shoes and he basically […]

A Pennsylvania law that makes it a crime to release information about teacher disciplinary complaints is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment, a federal judge has ruled. The judge sided with a school board member who sought to publicize a misconduct allegation against his son’s school psychologist — and criticize the state’s dismissal of […]

BOSTON (AP) — Hewlett Packard Enterprise disclosed Wednesday that suspected state-backed Russian hackers broke into its cloud-based email system and stole data from cybersecurity and other employees.  The provider of information technology products and services said in a Securities and Exchange Commission regulatory filing that it was informed of the intrusion on Jan. 12. It […]

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A concerned college student asked police if they’d seen his fraternity brother early one Saturday morning after he’d sent the 20-year-old home from a sports bar in an Uber. He hadn’t heard from his friend in the hours since, but the rideshare driver had let him know that the young man […]

NEW YORK (AP) — Months before Donald Trump’s defiant turn as a witness at his New York civil fraud trial, the former president came face-to-face with the state attorney general who is suing him when he sat for a deposition last year at her Manhattan office. Video made public Friday of the seven-hour, closed-door session […]

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sought to end a whistleblower lawsuit by former top staff members on Thursday, announcing his agency would not contest the facts of the case and would accept any judgement.  The lawsuit was brought by a group of former top deputies. They alleged they were improperly fired […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The secrecy surrounding Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalizations due to prostate cancer surgery set off a political firestorm, launched multiple reviews and triggered calls for his ouster.  To some, the uproar may be puzzling or even offensive. An individual’s right to privacy, particularly about medical issues, is sacred. And most people have […]

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who presides over one of the largest and busiest offices of prosecutors in the nation in Manhattan, issued what amounts to a casting call for whistleblowers Wednesday in a bid to discover non-violent crimes his office doesn’t yet know about. The prosecutor whose Southern District of New […]

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly renewed her call Wednesday to expand Medicaid and countered an anticipated single-rate flat income tax for individuals with a plan that would instead cut taxes by doing things like accelerating the phasing out of the state’s sales tax on groceries.  Kelly said in her annual State of the State address that […]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Wednesday unveiled new legislation designed to protect songwriters, performers and other music industry professionals against the potential dangers of artificial intelligence. Lee made the announcement while standing in the middle of Nashville’s famed RCA Studio A, a location where legends such as Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson […]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A lawsuit to block enforcement of Louisiana’s new ban on transgender health care procedures for anyone under 18 was announced Monday by LGBTQ+ advocates. The lawsuit was prepared by Lambda Legal and others on behalf of five Louisiana minors and their parents, identified in the filings by pseudonyms. Lambda Legal said […]

BOSTON (AP) — The U.S. retail mortgage lender loanDepot is struggling to recover from a cyberattack that impacted its loan processing and phone service. In a filing on Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said data was encrypted by the “unauthorized third party” who broke into company systems. It said certain unspecified […]