According to the Center for Public Integrity (June 20), Supreme Court justices averaged $250,000 last year in addition to their courtly salaries: $244,400 for associate justices; $255,500 for the chief justice. “Top earner Justice Antonin Scalia,” the Center writes, “raked in more than $100,000 in book royalties for his 2012 tomeReading Law: Interpretation of Legal Texts and teaching wages from Southern Methodist University,...

Jeb Stewart Magruder, one of the last key individuals in the scandal known simply as ‘Watergate’ which led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, died last week. Magruder eventually confessed his role in the botched break-in of National Democratic Headquarters at the Washington, D.C. hotel in the early 70’s. However, decades later, Magruder added another interesting twist to the...

In an interview for Spanish channel Univision (Sept. 20, 2012), President Obama stated: “I think it’s important for us to understand that the Fast and Furious program was a field-initiated program begun under the previous administration.” The Washington Post Fact Checker wasted no time in giving the president’s statement three out of four Pinocchios. “Clearly, ATF didn’t develop the practice of gun walking under the current...

Operation Fast and Furious was the name given by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) “…to a group of Arizona gun trafficking cases under Project Gunrunner that began in the fall of 2009,” according to a report by CBS News. President Obama took office in January of the same year. CBS News journalist Sharyl Attkisson offers one of the clearest narratives based...

“Facts are stubborn things…” – John Adams On March 5, 1770, the Boston Massacre began as a flash mob of citizens who surrounded and heckled British soldiers quartered in the city. With the local citizenry up in arms about the incursion of British troops by England’s King George, the growing crowd of Americans-to-be threw snowballs, sticks and ultimately stones at...

Looking for a more rewarding job? Good with people? Good with numbers? We’re looking for a few thousand upwardly mobile individuals capable of enjoying perks like a company credit card, bonuses and absolutely no accountability. If you’re that kind of individual, you might just be our kind of employee! The IRS is hiring! That’s right, the Internal Revenue Service, our nation’s “finest” tax administrator,...

At the time of his retirement in 2010, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court John Paul Stevens was the oldest Justice then serving and the second-oldest serving in the history of the Court. This excerpt, from his latest book, Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution first appearing in The Washington Post (Apr. 11), offers both clarity and context...

Two headlines; two very different perspectives. The Wall Street Journal:“High Court Ends Limit on Donations” The New York Times:“Supreme Cour Strikes Down Political Donation Cap” In a decision that builds on the 2010 Citizens United case, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5 to 4 decision on Wednesday, ruled that placing limits on the total amount of money individuals can donate to political candidates,...

Hold on folks, we’re about to enter The Corporate Zone – that bizzaro world where upholding the law and common sense go to die. Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, corporations are not only people entitled to as much free speech as money can buy, but may soon be able to claim that their religious beliefs can determine what...

Last year, NBC News reported that America’s teenagers scoredbelow the international average in math, and only average in science based on a report from a 2012 Program for International Student Assessment. Fortunately, 1,700 science students from around the country did not have time to pay much attention to the study. Each year since 1998, Intel, the computer chip corporation sponsors the Intel Science...