Lerner to testify on tea party scrutiny
WASHINGTON – A House committee expects to hear firsthand from the embattled former official at the center of what the government has acknowledged was the improper targeting of tea-party groups claiming tax-exempt status.
Lois Lerner headed the Internal Revenue Service division handling applications for tax-exempt status before she retired last year in furor of controversy over IRS actions.
Last spring, she made brief comments before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee denying wrongdoing and then invoked the Fifth Amendment protecting her against self-incrimination and refused to answer any questions.
The committee chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, told “Fox News Sunday” Lerner’s lawyer “indicates” Lerner will testify at Wednesday’s hearing. Her lawyer didn’t immediately confirm that to The Associated Press.
The California Republican says his committee didn’t offer any immunity, and he believes she’ll answer all questions.
Evacuation orders lifted after California storm
LOS ANGELES – Residents in three California foothill communities headed home Sunday after a powerful storm threatened to unleash mud on neighborhoods beneath unstable hills scarred by recent wildfires.
With the storm reduced to sprinkles, residents in the Los Angeles County cities of Glendora and Azusa were allowed back into their homes. Monrovia residents were allowed back late Saturday, officials said.
The storm – the largest since 2010 – kept emergency planners and rescue crews busy, but it didn’t produce enough rain to pull California out of a crippling drought grown to crisis proportions for the state’s vast farming industry.
The precipitation will bring the Los Angeles region to about half its normal rainfall for the season, Bill Patzert, a climatologist for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, told the Los Angeles Times.
Associated Press
