By Yaël Ossowski / August 31, 2015 / Watchdog.org Just eight months after it was created to eliminate corruption in local government, the Tallahassee Ethics Board seems to have ethics problems of its own. At…
Date Archives 2015
I Tried to Reach Liberland, and Here’s What I Learned
By Yaël Ossowski | PanAm Post Just 20 seconds after crossing the Croatian border, our car was already being tailed by a police sedan. I gripped the wheel a bit tighter and tried to issue…
Western Pennsylvania school districts brought down by pension debt
By Yaël Ossowski / July 31, 2015 / Watchdog.org A frank assessment from Moody’s rating agency this week has given several Pennsylvania school districts sour financial notes, and western PA’s schools top the list….
Rand Paul’s ‘Economic Freedom Zone’ a fix for western PA?
By Yaël Ossowski | Watchdog.org Rand Paul wants troubled cities declared “Economic Freedom Zones,” with targeted tax cuts and reduced regulation to promote growth and spur jobs. So-called Economic Freedom Zones — known as Zones…
Erie stocks up on prison gear after shootings, but leaves community without answers
By Yaël Ossowski | Watchdog.org In 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice awarded Erie, Penn., $600,000 to revitalize its crime-troubled Little Italy neighborhood, and another $300,000 to help combat violence throughout the city. The money…
The European Union’s fate lies in its embrace of open borders
By Yaël Ossowski | 3H Magazine, translated into Turkish by Zübeyr Kavık Spanning over 420 million people and thousands of kilometers of territory, the Schengen Area, the area of complete freedom of movement within Europe’s…
Obama’s ‘girl power’ foreign policy boosts UN aid
By Yaël Ossowski | Watchdog.org The U.S. government’s ‘girl power’ foreign policy has been signed into law, boosting support for a UN aid project to empower girls in developing countries. Just last month, President Barack…
Welfare program for laid-off workers doesn’t work; renewed anyway
By Yaël Ossowski | Watchdog.org A billion-dollar welfare program to help laid-off workers displaced by foreign competition has been saved from extinction, even though it’s been judged ineffective and wasteful according to the federal government’s…
Deval Patrick’s travel slush fund no longer secret
By Yaël Ossowski | Watchdog.org If your governor had a secret travel slush fund worth tens of millions of dollars used to jet set to Japan, Israel and the United Arab Emirates, wouldn’t you want…
‘I Was Attacked By the Serbian Internet Mob’: The Art of Being Hated in the Modern Age
‘I Was Attacked By the Serbian Internet Mob’: The Art of Being Hated in the Modern Age