Blog Archives

Democrats, IRS

IRIS Audits More Under Dem Control

The comprehensive study of the agency’s activities dating back to 1978 shows that Democratic control leads to more spending on the agency (big surprise, we know).

“Democratic control of the Senate is correlated with an increased IRS budget and workforce. The president’s party has a statistically significant impact on the number of IRS enforcement personnel when both houses of Congress are controlled by Democrats,” the research, published last week in the Journal of Public Policy, said.

The increased hiring leads to an uptick in audits for individual and corporate tax filers.

Via IRS ‘significantly’ more likely to audit taxpayers under Democratic control @ Personal Liberty.

Crime, Justice, Law, Open Government, Police Misconduct

Transparency in Accountability

California will no longer use grand juries in cases involving police shootings of civilians after Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a bill Tuesday banning the secret deliberations.SB 227, authored by state Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), makes California the first state to ban the use of grand juries to decide whether law enforcement should face criminal charges in use-of-force cases.

The ban, which will go into effect next year, comes after grand juries failed to indict police officers who killed unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York, last year, heightening scrutiny of the process. Mitchell argues that the grand jury process, during which evidence is presented to a panel of civilians in secret, fosters a lack of trust in the system.

Via California Bans Use Of Grand Juries In Police Shooting Cases @ Huffington Post.

Assault Awareness & Prevention, Crime, Education, Lawsuits, Misconduct, Schools

Public University Mistreats Another Sex Assault Survivor

Second federal complaint against UW-Whitewater in eighteen months:

Raechel-liska-650-jpg
Raechel Liska, aged 22.  Photo from Channel 3000.

“I got assaulted twice,” Liska said. “Once by my attacker, which was the traumatic, horrific part, but again by the school, which was the betrayal.”

Liska said UWW Dean of Students Mary Beth Mackin violated her civil rights by refusing to interview two witnesses and by not accepting either the police report or her medical records stemming from the incident. She also asserts Mackin did not issue a no-contact order against her alleged attacker, even as he retaliated and intimidated her after she spoke to authorities. Further, it was the Army that stepped in and removed her assailant from her classes three months after the incident in question, even after she’d asked the university to do the same multiple times, only to be rebuffed.

“The reason I filed my complaint is because something here needs to change,” she said. “I thought the dean of students would be protecting the students, protecting me. She’s the dean of students. I thought I’d be her priority, but I walked out feeling like protecting the school was her top priority.”

Via Sex assault survivor claims discrimination by university @ WISC-TV Madison, Channel 3000.