Florida Audit Finds Oversight Issues with Lee County School District

A recent follow-up audit from the Florida Auditor General’s office found several issues with the Lee County School District’s lack of oversight.

According to the audit, the school district had failed to properly investigate claims of alleged unemployment benefit fraud during the spring of 2020. The audit states that the district’s board and the superintendent were emailed about the alleged fraud but failed to produce evidence that the matter had been properly investigated externally and resolved. In response to the audit, the school district began an investigation in February 2023.

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Commentary: Lowering the Bar on the ‘New McCarthyism’

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” That seems to be Kevin McCarthy’s favorite mantra. Friday night, on the 15th vote for speaker of the House, he finally got his moist little palm around Nancy Pelosi’s still-warm gavel. Welcome to the new Republican-ish speaker of the House!

The contest was brutal, occasionally absurd, and the occasion of hilarity and consternation among the punditocracy on both the Right and the Left. The Left clucked their tongues about the “chaos” on view on the other side of the aisle. Some among the GOP agreed and wondered why “their side” could not govern as effectively as the Democrats. Would Nancy Pelosi have put up with this level of dissension among the Democratic rank and file? Others said, no, no, the 20 freedom caucus members (and others) holding up the inevitable were just giving the world a reality show, live-action look at how “democracy” (if not quite Our Democracy™) works and should work.

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Reporting, Staff Turnover Contribute to Pennsylvania Audit Troubles

Recent audits show that poor accounting practices can cause Pennsylvania townships to lose out on thousands of dollars, either in interest from a pension fund or from state aid.

A September audit of Dunkard Township in Greene County, for example, found that administrative mistakes caused an overpayment from state aid, among other issues, and required the township to repay nearly $5,000. 

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‘Massive Abuse of Power’: Intel Committee Rep Mike Gallagher Vows to Use ‘Power of the Purse’ to Get Transparency from Biden, DOJ

Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, denounced a “massive abuse of power” and vowed to use congressional funding powers to get transparency from the Biden administration about the Aug. 8 raid on Mar-a-Lago during a Sunday appearance on Fox Business.

“For something of this magnitude, something unprecedented, you would expect the FBI and the DOJ to go to great lengths to insure they are conducting themselves with the highest level of professionalism, but they never notified our committee — which you would expect them to do if, indeed, there was a danger posed by the classified material that was in Donald Trump’s possession,” Gallagher told former Republican Rep. Sean Duffy of Wisconsin, who guest-hosted the show, adding that many committee members found out details of the raid from news reports based on leaks from the Justice Department.

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JC Bowman Commentary: Government Needs Oversight and Transparency

It is a disturbing trend to hire outside consultants or independent contractors, with little direct oversight, to perform government jobs, whether nationally or statewide. The running joke is “if you have an out-of-state license plate on your car and drive by slowly at the Tennessee Department of Education, they will throw a contract in your car, and you too can be an education consultant.” Now that is probably not very accurate or fair, but then again, I have a Tennessee tag on my car and I have been known to drive a little fast.

It is likely that the majority of consultants and contractors follow our state laws and maintain the necessary integrity. However, all Tennesseans should be somewhat concerned by a contracting process if it has little or no accountability. We must also do a better job of tracking performance data. Especially when we are using tax dollars in Tennessee to contract with people outside the state. Oversight is critical to making sure taxpayers are getting what they are paying for.

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Commentary: Newly Uncovered Documents Show Senior Virginia Officials Smearing a Whistleblower to Avoid Congressional Oversight

VA office of Administration

Whistleblowers—and the truths they tell—far too often become the first casualties in the clash of bigger forces with other agendas. People tend to oversimplify complex stories to fit their preferred political narrative or to protect their own interests.

If the facts do not fit neatly into a convenient set of preconceptions, too often they are ignored, dismissed, or twisted to cater to well-known biases. This tactic is common among those who are the subject of whistleblower disclosures. They often attempt to change the subject to avoid accountability by pointing a finger at the whistleblower, even if they don’t know who it is.

It’s probably just a “disgruntled employee” who has “an axe to grind.” The implication is that there is no need to look into it. Nothing to see here. Move along.

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Commentary: Is Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Still Smirking?

Rod Rosenstein

by CHQ Staff   Yesterday, Rep. Jim Jordan grilled Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein about the documents he has been withholding from Congress, as Rosenstein smirked his way through the questioning by Jordan, and Representatives Trey Gowdy and Louie Gohmert. You can watch the full exchange between Jordan and Rosenstein through this link to C-SPAN. “Mr. Rosenstein, why are you keeping information from Congress?” Jordan asked in a particularly heated exchange, reported by our friend Rachel Stolzfoos of the Federalist. “I want to know why you won’t give us what we asked for,” Jordan said. Rosenstein called Jordan’s characterization “inaccurate,” causing Jordan to erupt. “It is accurate!” he exclaimed. “We have caught you hiding!” Jordan dismissed the Deputy AG’s denials the DOJ is hiding anything, asserting that the House vote would dispute that notion. “I think in a few minutes the House of Representatives is going to go on record saying you haven’t complied with requests from a separate and equal branch of government, that you haven’t complied with subpoenas, and you got seven days to get your act together.” Jordan accused Rosenstein of instructing FBI agent Peter Strzok — who testified before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees — not…

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Why Is Congress Not Investigating Obama’s Unprecedented Political Espionage?

An award-winning national security correspondent for CIRCA News believes Congress needs to launch an investigation into Obama-era unmasking and warrantless surveillance of Americans, according to an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation. Sara A. Carter, of the Sinclair Broadcasting Group, has been an overseas war correspondent for the bulk of her professional life and…

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