Secret Service head’s story investigated
WASHINGTON – The Homeland Security Department’s internal watchdog says the Secret Service director knew earlier than he originally stated about a rumor that agents were digging up dirt on a congressman who had been critical of the agency.
Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy had previously told investigators that he heard on April 1 about rumors that Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, had applied to work at the Secret Service. Clancy later recalled that he actually heard the rumor at least one week before then.
The director’s changing story is the latest blemish on an agency that has been beset with scandal. Clancy took charge of the Secret Service after the previous director resigned because of embarrassing security lapses protecting the president.
U.S. stocks bounce back from tumble
NEW YORK – Maybe you shouldn’t have put your money under a mattress after all.
The stock market is back in the black for the year after a bruising late-August tumble that had investors worrying about their money in a way they hadn’t in four years.
A three-week surge in stocks has now lifted the Standard & Poor’s 500 index above where it was at the beginning of 2015 for the first time since the summer.
The S&P 500 fell 12 percent from its mid-July high to its depths in late August, as investors worried that slowing growth in China, along with continued weakness in Europe and Japan, would crush any hopes of stronger global growth.
It was the first correction in four years, and it looked like investors in the U.S. stock market could be on track for their first annual losses since 2008.
IRS official won’t face charges after probe
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department is declining to bring charges against Lois Lerner, the former IRS official at the center of a political controversy over the processing of applications for tax-exempt status.
Federal prosecutors announced their decision Friday in a letter to members of Congress.
A firestorm erupted more than two years ago with an inspector general’s audit that said IRS agents had improperly singled out tea party and other conservative groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections.
The disclosure set off investigations by the Justice Department and multiple congressional committees.
Florida hunters to get chance to hunt bears
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Hunters for the first time in more than 20 years will trudge through Florida woods on Saturday to legally kill black bears, a contentious wildlife management action that has activists taking to the streets in protest.
Florida wildlife officials have sold more than 3,200 permits to hunters from all over, including 1970s rocker Ted Nugent and Liesa Priddy, a rancher and Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission member who voted to approve the new hunts.
The hunt was approved by the commission earlier this year after much debate. In the end, the members said the black bear population had grown to 3,500, up from a few hundred in the 1970s, and presented a safety problem. With the state’s ballooning human population pushing development into ever more rural areas, human-bear encounters have shot up recently. The decision overturned a 20-year ban on bear hunting in Florida.
Democrats to stay on Benghazi committee
WASHINGTON – Democrats on the House Benghazi committee said Friday they are staying – for now – on the Republican-led panel, despite calling it a “fishing expedition to derail” Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
At the same time, they called on House Speaker John Boehner to shut down what they called an “abusive, wasteful and obviously partisan effort.”
If Boehner rejects the request, Democrats said they will continue to participate “in order to make sure the facts are known and the conspiracy theories are debunked.”
The five committee Democrats made the announcement after a meeting Friday with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who had said earlier Friday that Democrats could halt their participation in the committee.
Associated Press
