Kelly Riddell

Islamist terror groups target Minnesota Somali refugees drawn by state’s welfare programs

The State Department has helped to relocate tens of thousands of refugees from the war-torn African nation of Somalia to Minnesota, where they can take advantage of some of America's most generous welfare and charity programs.

February 24, 2015

John Kirby to step down as chief Pentagon spokesman

Rear Adm. John Kirby, who has been the press secretary of the Pentagon for the past year, will step down and be replaced by a civilian in the first personnel move made by Ashton Carter, who started his job as Defense secretary this week.

February 18, 2015

Federal court rules residency requirements for pistol purchases unconstitutional

A federal district court in Texas overturned a 1968 gun law prohibiting the sale of handguns to out-of-state residents, granting those who live in Washington, D.C., the ability to travel to an out-of-state gun store, buy a handgun and bring it home without a middleman.

February 11, 2015

S&P pays $1.4B in settlement with DOJ for pumping up ratings before mortgage crisis

Ratings firm Standard & Poor's will pay $1.4 billion to settle a series of lawsuits stemming from the ratings it gave to a number of mortgage securities that helped contribute to the financial market crisis in 2008.

February 3, 2015

Hillary Clinton Libya tapes set for House Benghazi committee review

The chairman of a special House committee created to investigate the 2012 Benghazi tragedy on Monday instructed his staff to review secretly recorded tapes and intelligence reports that detail Hillary Clinton's role in advocating and executing the war in Libya, opening the door for a possible expansion of his probe.

February 2, 2015

Hillary Clinton Libya war genocide narrative rejected by U.S. intelligence

The intelligence community gathered no specific evidence of an impending genocide in Libya in spring 2011, undercutting Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's primary argument for using the U.S. military to remove Col. Moammar Gadhafi from power, an event that has left his country in chaos, according to officials with direct knowledge of the dispute.

January 29, 2015

Hillary Clinton undercut on Libya war by Pentagon and Congress, secret tapes reveal

Top Pentagon officials and a senior Democrat in Congress so distrusted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2011 march to war in Libya that they opened their own diplomatic channels with the Gadhafi regime in an effort to halt the escalating crisis, according to secret audio recordings recovered from Tripoli.

January 28, 2015

FDIC attempts to end Operation Choke Point with letter, action

In an effort to put an end to Operation Choke Point — a financial task force that was created by the Obama administration to "choke out" businesses it finds objectionable like gun shops — the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a letter Wednesday, saying all banks should examine their customer relationships on a case by case basis and not by industry operational risk.

January 28, 2015

George Soros funds Ferguson protests, hopes to spur civil action

There's a solitary man at the financial center of the Ferguson protest movement. No, it's not victim Michael Brown or Officer Darren Wilson. It's not even the Rev. Al Sharpton, despite his ubiquitous campaign on TV and the streets.

January 14, 2015

Wake Forest donor boycott sought over Imam Khalid Griggs’ ties to radical groups

A Wake Forest University alumnus is calling on fellow graduates to stage a donor boycott until the university addresses the ties its first Muslim chaplain has with some radical groups and conducts a "fair and open debate to air the very real dangers" of Shariah law.

January 13, 2015

FBI: North Korea is to blame for Sony hacking

The FBI remained insistent Tuesday that the Sony Pictures hack — which leaked embarrassing personal emails and confidential employee information such as salary — was to be blamed on North Korea, despite mounting evidence suggesting otherwise.

December 30, 2014

Gun owners fear Maryland police target them for traffic stops

A year ago this New Year's Eve, John Filippidis of Florida was driving south with his family on Interstate 95 when the Maryland Transportation Authority Police pulled over his black Ford Expedition and proceeded to raid it while his twins, wife and daughter looked on — separated in the back seats of different police cruisers.

December 30, 2014

Hunting, fishing clubs fight government coding system in struggle to survive

Scott Drummond, 45, is used to a busy holiday season. A little more than a decade ago, his $1.2 million, 14,000-square-foot, newly opened Pintail Peninsula Lodge in Stuttgart, Arkansas, was full of Wall Street guests, eager to hunt mallard ducks by day and sleep in five-star luxury at night.

December 14, 2014

Golden Hammer: EPA spends millions on partially empty storage units

The Environmental Protection Agency spends more than $5.1 million a year to lease partially filled warehouse space stocked with items the agency doesn't even keep track of, according to a critical internal review released this week.

December 11, 2014

Small business government loans subsidized Rolex dealerships, country clubs, spas

A federal program expanded by President Obama to help small businesses on Main Street recover from the financial crisis has backed loans to Rolex and Lamborghini dealerships, plastic surgery clinics, Napa Valley wineries, country clubs, and other industries servicing recession-proof clientele, government records show.

December 1, 2014

Jonathan Gruber warned of Obamacare premium spike as president promised savings

While President Obama campaigned on a promise that his universal health care plan would lower premiums, his controversial adviser and plan architect was privately warning the state of Wisconsin that Obamacare was poised to massively increase insurance costs for average residents, internal documents show.

November 24, 2014

Elizabeth Warren’s CFPB suffers from low morale, distrust of management

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the U.S. government's newest agency championed by Elizabeth Warren to regulate financial institutions, is suffering from sliding employee morale and distrust of the agency’s leadership, according to the latest internal survey of its workforce

November 21, 2014

Obamacare Facebook page comments mostly from small group of supporters

Americans began heading anew this weekend to President Obama's official Obamacare Facebook page to gather information on the new round of health care enrollment, share their experiences shopping for insurance on the federal exchange and voice their opinions on the president's signature domestic achievement.

November 16, 2014

CDC doled out $25 million in bonuses while blaming cuts for Ebola outbreak

Top public health officials have collected $25 million in bonuses since 2007, carving out extra pay for themselves in tight federal budgetary times while blaming a lack of money for the Obama administration's lackluster response to the Ebola outbreak.

October 16, 2014

Loophole gives Illinois teacher union bosses extra state pensions

Thanks to a loophole created by the Illinois legislature, retired teacher union leaders are getting pension credit for the years they did union work after leaving the classroom. The arrangement has put taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars in retirement benefits unrelated to teaching, and further drained an already overburdened state pension fund.

October 9, 2014