Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

What has happened to the America I grew up in? When I was growing up if you got in trouble at school you were in a lot more trouble at home. If you got a spanking you would get one more if not two at home. Guess what? That behavior did not happen again....

Greetings and best wishes for a new year. A new year also marks a new season in your state capital. On Tuesday, the Senate convened for the 2013 30-day General Assembly session. The first week is traditionally an “organizational” week in which...

HARRISBURG — The Legislature's Independent Fiscal Office has been praised for its thorough, fair number-crunching and for being as nonpartisan as its name suggests since opening last year. But that pristine image may be tarnished now that the...

Modern history is the story of how liberal democracy, originating in Britain and America, spread around the world. This may sound like an absurd fantasy. In actuality, this Whiggish narrative of progress underpins most newspaper editorials, political...

IRS probe ignored most influential groups KEN THOMAS,Associated Press STEVE PEOPLES,Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — There's an irony in the Internal Revenue Service's crackdown on conservative groups. The nation's tax agency has admitted to...

Khaled Hosseini stormed the best-seller lists with his debut novel, “The Kite Runner,” in 2003, following it up with the even more popular “A Thousand Splendid Suns” in 2007. Both set in the author's native country of Afghanistan,...

By WILLIAM P. HOJNACKI I am very disappointed in the way that the Obama administration is dealing with the Republicans in the ongoing discussions concerning the federal budget. The administration has, once again, allowed the Republicans to set the agenda...

CONCEALED WEAPONS Mo. bill would let sheriffs print gun permits JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri lawmakers want county sheriffs rather than the state Revenue Department to print concealed weapons permits. The Senate passed legislation 24-5...

SACRAMENTO — California may finally be free of deficits, but Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled a cautious budget Tuesday, saying the state's financial condition remains treacherously unstable. Brown put lawmakers on notice that he had no desire to ratchet...

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Jerry Brown took a hard line Tuesday as he unveiled his latest budget plan, seeking to tighten general-fund spending and holding firm on his push to redistribute money for schools. He proposed general-fund expenditures of $96.4...

WASHINGTON -- Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" is a gooey confection of seasonal sentiment. It also is an economic manifesto that Dickens hoped would hit with "twenty thousand times the force" of a political tract. It concerned a 19th-century debate...

Just a few years ago, pension reform appeared inevitable. The drop in asset prices during the financial crisis had left public pension funds trillions of dollars behind on meeting future obligations. The defined benefit model was under fire as unduly...