“Federal” on The Daily Caller

The director of the Washington State Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises resigned after a KING 5 investigation exposed fraud in the minority and women-owned contracting program. (more)

It’s getting personal now. In a shift still evolving, federal enforcers are targeting individual executives in health care fraud cases that used to be aimed at impersonal corporations. (more)

Several states have started reassessing their medical marijuana laws after stern warnings from the federal government that everyone from licensed growers to regulators could be subjected to prosecution. (more)

Did a top official from the Department of Education receive a ‘golden parachute’ upon his leaving the administration for a consulting gig? (more)

Speaking alongside industry advocates, U.S. Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) called Wednesday for Congress to end the prohibition on marijuana, stressing the need to reduce drug violence while hailing the medical cannabis market’s capacity for growing the economy. (more)

The wisest and most successful bond investor of all time, Bill Gross, has dumped his bond fund’s $150 billion investment in U.S. bonds. One should not ignore the importance of this event. The largest bond fund in America no longer believes that Treasury bonds are a good investment. Moreover, Gross is not alone. Blackrock, the world’s largest money manager, is now underweighting Treasuries overall and reducing the duration of the bonds it still holds. That means they are dumping their long-term bonds, which are the most sensitive to interest-rate changes, in favor of Treasury instruments that mature in a year or less. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A voluntary program to run all criminal suspects’ fingerprints through an immigration database was only voluntary until cities refused to participate, recently released documents show. The Obama administration then tightened the rules so that cities had no choice but to have the fingerprints checked. (more)

“Scapegoating,” claimed the American Federation of Government Employees. “Punishment,” said the Federal Managers Association. “Transparently cynical,” declared Paul Krugman. President Obama’s late November announcement of a two-year pay freeze for federal workers has been poorly received by unions and left-wing activists, who see it as the end result of a year-long campaign to reduce federal salaries. Taxpayers should hope it is just the beginning. Fundamental reform of federal pay would save tens of billions of dollars annually, and it would be a strong indication that lawmakers are serious about reducing long-term deficits in all parts of the budget. (more)

A federal judge’s ruling could pave the way for taxpayer-funded legal representation for immigrants facing deportation in cases of mental incapacity — a move praised by civil libertarians but opposed by advocates of stricter immigration enforcement. (more)

President Obama’s proposal of a pay freeze for federal employees is a small step towards curbing government spending. However, a closer look shows there is less to it than meets the eye. In fact, many federal employees will still see their salaries increased. (more)

The federal government says THIS is harder to read than This. (more)

BEIJING (AP) — China’s central bank chief said Friday that the Federal Reserve’s move to inject money into the U.S. economy is understandable because of its slow recovery but still might hurt the rest of the world. (more)

Public housing is falling apart around the country, as federal money has been unable to keep up with the repair needs of buildings more than half a century old. (more)

A Tea Party activist is working to get state backing for a constitutional convention to pass a constitutional amendment that would give two-thirds of the states the ability to repeal congressional acts, such as the new health care law. (more)

Though Republican Rep. Ron Paul told The Daily Caller last week that he was worried that “some people have slipped into the Tea Party who are awfully close to being part of the establishment,” on at least one particular anti-establishment issue close to the Texas congressman’s heart — auditing the Federal Reserve — Tea Party leaders told The DC that they are all for it. (more)

WASHINGTON — Federal law enforcement and national security officials are preparing to seek sweeping new regulations for the Internet, arguing that their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is “going dark” as people increasingly communicate online instead of by telephone. (more)

Chrysler may have accepted millions in a federal bailout to stay in business, but now it has a scandal on its hands because of carloads of dope-smoking, beer-drinking workers on a shift break near a Detroit plant. WJBK Fox 2 News in Detroit caught dozens of Chrysler auto workers drinking alcohol and smoking what appear to be joints during their shifts at the automaker’s Jefferson North auto plant in Detroit. (more)

States’ rights issues were featured in Congress again Wednesday as House Democrats and Republicans battled over whether local or federal authorities should make the final decision on the use of public airport runways. (more)

California, New York and other states are showing many of the same signs of debt overload that recently took Greece to the brink — budgets that will not balance, accounting that masks debt, the use of derivatives to plug holes, and armies of retired public workers who are counting on benefits that are proving harder and harder to pay. (more)