Race remained the leading motivator for hate crimes committed in the United States during 2008, according to the FBI's Hate Crimes Statistics, 2008 report. Read more...

Can you imagine members of the Congress spending your money to fund a National Peanut Festival, mariachi music grants or a museum of teapots? Well, they have, and will almost certainly approve similar expenditures in the future through an often-maligned, but rarely prevented budgetary vehicle called "earmark spending." [Learn more...]

Also See: The Federal Budget Process

Summoning up the words of his predecessors George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and asking Americans to give special tribute to "our country's men and women in uniform," President Obama issued his first Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. [Read full text...]

Also See:
President's Pay and Compensation

Presidential Retirement Benefits
About the President's Cabinet

The Veterans Administration (VA) has announced it will conduct its first in-depth study of the effects of military service on the women veterans who served during the Vietnam War. Read more...