IRS rewarding workers who owed back taxes
WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service has paid more than $2.8 million in bonuses to employees with recent disciplinary problems, including $1 million to workers who owed back taxes, a government investigator said Tuesday.
More than 2,800 workers got bonuses despite facing a disciplinary action in the previous year, including 1,150 who owed back taxes, said a report by J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration. The bonuses were awarded from October 2010 through December 2012.
George’s report said the bonus program doesn’t violate federal regulations, but it’s inconsistent with the IRS mission to enforce tax laws.
New policy could limit some deportations
WASHINGTON – Tens of thousands of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally but don’t have serious criminal records could be shielded from deportation under a policy change being weighed by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.
The change, if adopted following a review ordered by President Barack Obama, could limit removals of people who have little or no criminal record but have committed repeat immigration violations such as reentering the country illegally after having been deported or failing to comply with a deportation order.
The possible move, confirmed by two people with knowledge of the review, would fall short of the sweeping changes sought by activists.
Young stowaway found on surveillance tapes
HONOLULU – Surveillance cameras at San Jose International Airport successfully recorded the teenager on the tarmac, climbing up the landing gear of a jet. But in the end, the cameras failed because no one noticed the security breach until the plane and the boy landed in Hawaii hours later.
Although the 15-year-old apparently wanted nothing more than to run away, his success in slipping past layers of security early Sunday morning made it clear that a determined person can still get into a supposedly safe area and sneak onto a plane.
The boy’sidentity has not been disclosed.
Associated Press
