OPINION
March 17, 2014 | By The Times editorial board
Last November, the Internal Revenue Service asked for public comments on proposed rules to rein in political activity by tax-exempt "social welfare" groups that don't disclose their donors. The agency has gotten an earful of negative reaction, not only from conservatives who long have accused the IRS of political bias, but also from some liberal and civil-liberties groups. (The Republican-controlled House has voted to delay the rules for a year.) A few of the criticisms are justified and easily addressed.
NATIONAL
March 3, 2014 | By Lisa Mascaro
WASHINGTON - Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), the former Republican vice presidential nominee, launched an attack Monday on the nation's poverty programs, provoking an election-year confrontation with the White House amid a growing focus on income inequality. Drawing on his political roots as a student of conservative anti-poverty thinkers, the House Budget Committee chairman said many aspects of the expansion of the federal safety net since President Johnson's "War on Poverty" 50 years ago were "making it worse.
NEWS
February 6, 2014 | By Carla Hall
We expect cities hosting the Olympic Games to take extreme measures to be presentable and safe for the world to descend on, but Sochi's mass killing of stray dogs is appalling. Many European cities have a problem with roaming cats or dogs: a stray, unsterilized population of animals left to fend for themselves. And I understand officials of the Russian city that sits on the Black Sea, just south of the Caucasus Mountains, worrying about stray dogs wandering onto snowboarding courses.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
February 5, 2014 | By Samantha Schaefer
" Octomom " Nadya Suleman, who drew international attention in 2009 when she gave birth to octuplets, has been charged with an additional count of welfare fraud, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said Wednesday. The amended felony complaint includes an additional count of aid by misrepresentation, and alleges Suleman, 38, received nearly $10,000 in Medi-Cal benefits she was not entitled to. Prosecutors said earlier this month that Suleman received $16,481 in state welfare payments during the first half of 2013 that she would not have been sent had she properly disclosed nearly $30,000 in earnings during that same period.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
January 24, 2014 | By Garrett Therolf
Responding to recent high-profile deaths and injuries, a special county commission on child welfare is proposing a far-reaching overhaul of the Los Angeles County child protection service. The plans would impose greater oversight on private foster care agencies and improve coordination among the many agencies who deal with child welfare cases, officials said. In addition, representatives of the commission drafting reforms are calling on the county to establish a position of child welfare czar empowered to coordinate services between the Department of Children and Family Services and other county agencies involved in child abuse cases, including health services, social services and mental health.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
January 13, 2014 | By Paresh Dave
"Octomom" Nadya Suleman, who drew international attention in 2009 when she gave birth to octuplets, could face years in jail for allegedly failing to disclose nearly $30,000 in earnings when she applied for welfare last year, prosecutors announced Monday. Suleman, 38, is only the second U.S. woman to deliver a healthy set of octuplets. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said prosecutors recently charged her with one count of aid by misrepresentation and two counts of perjury by false application for aid. Suleman, who has a total of 14 children, filed for welfare in Lancaster in January and February of last year, but in the following months didn't report all of her income from personal appearances and video royalties, Deputy Dist.