Millions of Americans stand to receive overtime pay as a result of President Obama’s new labor proposal that targets workers deemed “executive or professional” by their companies. The White House decided to go this route after Republicans refused to support legislation raising the minimum wage. Administration officials argue the government needs to act to help workers whose wages have stagnated, while corporate profits have soared since the Great Recession.   read more

The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that the state’s method for funding schools created too many disparities between districts and must be modified. The state had cut payments to less-wealthy districts during the recent recession. Restoring that money will be difficult, thanks to massive tax cuts enacted by the state’s Republican governor, Sam Brownback, and its legislature.   read more

In states where medical marijuana has been legal, pot has been sold by cooperatives and small businesses. But with the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in Colorado and Washington, can the corporatization of the marijuana business be far behind? The state of Washington is mulling regulations that would virtually eliminate cooperatives and the dispensaries that are now giving advice with the marijuana they sell.   read more

The Justice Department is going after Sprint in federal court claiming the telecommunications company overcharged law enforcement agencies for wiretapping costs. It says Sprint inflated its bills to the FBI, DEA and other agencies by 58%--overcharging by $21 million--causing "significant loss to the government’s limited resources.” It claims Sprint tried to get away the overbilling by disguising it as other spying costs. Sprint denies the allegations.   read more

Among all cabinet-level departments, Justice will take the biggest hit. Its 2015 budget request is nearly 40% lower than what the department received in the current fiscal year. The Small Business Administration would suffer a 22% loss in funding, while the Army Corps of Engineers’ cut would be 18% if Obama’s budget succeeds. Over at the Pentagon, the defense budget will remain the same from 2014 to 2015.   read more

The United States has no peer when it comes to producing the means of warfare, according to a new worldwide ranking of corporate arms merchants. Of the top half dozen weapons makers on earth, five of them are American, says the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. They are Lockheed Martin (ranked No. 1), Boeing (No. 2), Raytheon (No. 4), General Dynamics (No. 5) and Northrop Grumman (No. 6).   read more

Many of America’s most successful businesses have exploited state and local tax breaks and other government subsidies to further enrich their corporate earnings. A new report says 75% of all economic development funding provided at the state and local level has gone to just 965 corporations, many of them Fortune 500 enterprises. The Fortune 500 recipients of government welfare accounted for more than 16,000 subsidy awards worth $63 billion, says the report.   read more

Many Republican governors hate Obamacare, but some don’t hate the federal dollars tied to it. That’s why a few GOP politicians are asking Washington for money—provided under the Affordable Care Act—to be redirected into state-run health programs. Republican Governor Mike Pence of Indiana was an early critic of Obamacare. Now he’s seeking funding for the Healthy Indiana Plan, which assists about 45,000 low-income residents establish health savings accounts.   read more

The use of food stamps at military commissaries continues to rise, with nearly $104 million in food stamps redeemed in those stores in the fiscal year that ended September 30. Those using food stamps are usually families of those in the junior enlisted ranks with children. In 2011, about 5,000 military families were on food stamps.   read more

The General Services Administration says it’s willing to pay $90,000 for solutions to bringing down Washington’s annual travel cost of $9 billion. Anyone with ideas can go to a new GSA website, Travel Data Challenge, which is operated by the agency’s Office of Governmentwide Policy. The person(s) with the best idea will receive $35,000, while the runner up will get $30,000 and the honorable mention $25,000.   read more

Top officials at the IRS have taken tax deductions on travel-related expenses they were not entitled to under the law, according to the IRS’s watchdog agency. Many IRS executives had improperly classified their travel as something other than “long-term taxable travel” (LTTT). The audit discovered that nine out of 31 IRS senior executives did not use LTTT to avoid paying taxes in 2011 and 2012. Three other employees were faulted for not submitting their records on time.   read more

Peter “PistolPete” Valentin has been sued 28 times since 2006 “on allegations of running slash-and-burn raids that left dozens of lives in ruins while resulting in few criminal convictions,” wrote the N.Y. Daily News reported. Vincent Orsini has been sued 21 times. But he’s cost the city more in settlements, $1.09 million, compared with $884,000 for cases involving Valentin. A total of 55 NYPD personnel were named as defendants in at least 10 lawsuits apiece over the past decade.   read more

Nine months before the mid-term election in November and super PACs already are overflowing with cash, particularly those run by Democrats. These independent operators that will undoubtedly praise some politicians and lambast others have already collected $63 million in contributions. Democrats’ super PACs were well ahead of their Republican counterparts in collecting cash, $41 million versus $22 million at the start of the year.   read more

The federal government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars believing it could promote healthy marriages. But a new study shows the investment has had little impact. Marriage rates didn’t change for the better overall from 2000 to 2010, when Washington poured $600 million into the Healthy Marriage Initiative. By the end of the year, the Obama administration will have spent another $200 million on pro-marriage efforts, bringing the total to $800 million.   read more

In signing a farm bill that restricts the public’s knowledge of which corporations will benefit from it, President Barack Obama has traded transparency—something he vowed to bring more of to Washington—for politics. Lawmakers listened to the agriculture industry since it gave nearly $42 million in campaign contributions and poured more than $62 million into lobbying Washington. Top recipients include Obama with $474,000 and Sen. Debbie Stabenow with $169,550.   read more

Last year, the two top donors to super PACs hailed from the left: Former New York City Mayor and Republican-turned-independent Michael Bloomberg and California billionaire hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer, who’s big on the environment. Steyer gave out $11.1 million in donations, while Bloomberg contributed $8.7 million, according to the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan watchdog group. The biggest Republican sugar daddy, homebuilder Bob Perry, doled $3.1 million before he died last April.   read more