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A consultant being paid $100,000 to find a light at the end of the tunnel of Erie’s fiscal crisis has discovered almost no reason for hope. “On one hand they have a lot of issues that require attention with urgency,” the consultant and urban architect Charles Buki told Watchdog.com. “On the other, they have neither […]

As the debate over light rail goes on, a report from the Cato Institute shows endemic mismanagement of funds and project estimates which aren’t worth the paper they are written on. The report shows several projects coming in at double their original budget. Among 35 projects studied in the institute’s report, 33 overestimated the number […]

According to a report released by New Jersey Watchdog, the garden state’s deficit is a staggering $170 billion, $10 billion higher than was reported by the New Jersey government. State debt across the country has been increasing at a rapid rate. According to Truth in Accounting, a nonprofit for governmental transparency, states have a combined […]

As two large wildfires burning in Northern California destroy over 1,000 homes, this year’s wildfire season looks set to be one of the worst on record in terms of both damage and costs. At the same time, funding inconsistencies when it comes to wildfire management may be making the problem worse. As the number and […]

Already mired in scandal, a new report concluded that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is so flawed that it needs a “system-wide reworking” to overcome its current “crises in leadership and culture.” Other findings are that healthcare facilities run by the VA cost twice the price of other public facilities, and the excessively long […]

Colorado lawmakers’ expense reimbursements are being used to increase lawmakers’ pension payments. Increased pensions are costing taxpayers as much as $99,000 annually. Lawmakers are entitled to daily per diems or expense reimbursements; a standard procedure. However, reimbursements are being paid as salary per diems rather than expense per diems. Salary per diems are treated like […]

According to local media, Russia is preparing to dump the dollar in a move which could be bad news for the strength of the greenback. Russia Today reported this week that President Putin has drafted a bill which would ban both the dollar and euro from being used in trade amongst “Eastern bloc” countries (Russia, […]

Chicago Public Schools started classes this week without being certain how it would fund itself until the end of the school year. The district originally calculated that it was $1.1 billion shy of its budget. After layoffs, school closings, loans, and contract negotiations, the district has been able to cover approximately half of the shortage. […]

The FAA has taken its serious stance on drones to new heights, approving a permit for a paper airplane to fly in commercial airspace. The authority granted a Section 333 exemption (which allows unmanned aerial systems “to operate safely in the national airspace system” ) to the smartphone-controlled PowerUp 3.0 paper airplane. The petition for […]

US stock markets have been showing further losses, allegedly over concerns about the possibility of a Federal Reserve rate hike this month. According to Koen de Leus from KBC, who spoke to the BBC, said “China is the catalyst for stock market selloffs, but the real reason …is the nervousness about the first US rate […]