The WasteWatcher
The WasteWatcherTaxpayers Get Charged Overtime
In March 2005, The Record revealed that more than 100 retired police officers with the New York Port Authority (PA) are getting at least $100,000 a year in pensions. Because many senior PA cops were logging long hours of overtime, and because...
The WasteWatcherThe CVC - Not a Capitol Idea
With 580,000 square feet, three underground stories, and space three-quarters the size of the Capitol itself, the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) is a monument to Congress’s own excess. It was recently announced that the project is experiencing yet...
The WasteWatcherMrs. Bush, too, Loves the Earmarks
It’s funny how sometimes we just disregard the Constitution and the specific powers it gives to each branch of the federal government. I learned as well as many others in the ninth grade that the power of the purse is given to the Congress, so the...
The WasteWatcherThe Wal-Mart Bill
In January, the Maryland legislature overrode Governor Bob Ehrlich’s veto of the Fair Share Act. The legislation requires all businesses in the state of Maryland with 10,000 or more employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on employee...
The WasteWatcherBingo Terror
In October 2005, the Kentucky Office of Charitable Gaming won a $36,300 grant from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to protect bingo halls from terrorists. The money will pay for laptop computers with access to a law-enforcement database...
The WasteWatcherGovernment Credit Cards and Hurricane Katrina
The damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina left no question that taxpayers would be paying a hefty bill for rescue and reconstruction. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, more than $39 million of that bill was paid for by federal employees...
The WasteWatcher"Buy America" Rips Off America
“Buy America” provisions have been insterted into legislation, especially defense bills, for many years. Usually, such provisions are removed from the final version of the defense legislation. That happened late last year, when Senate leaders and...
