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A reporter’s tool | Are regulations killing jobs? Here’s how to find out. ASK THIS NYU Law School’s Institute for Policy Integrity has put out a tip sheet for reporters to get to the bottom of assertions that government regulations, such as ones by EPA, are killing jobs. And also to check on claims to the opposite – that regulations are creating jobs. 
National security | What about whistleblowers? And why the big Obama turnaround on state secrets? ASK THIS In the last two weeks, the Obama administration announced lie-detector tests on leaking, and House members introduced a state secrets bill that Obama has notably failed to endorse. National security reporters should be asking lots of questions, and here are some of them.
Out of step | What does the U.S. have in common with South Sudan and Somalia? ASK THIS| June 159, 2012 They're the only three countries in the world that haven't ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. The authors of a new report, 'Cruel and Unusual: U.S. Sentencing Practices in a Global Context', find that overlong sentences and prosecution of children are two ways the U.S. is out of step with most of the rest of the world.
A whistleblower wonders | Why does Congress refuse to even ask the right questions about Afghanistan? ASK THIS Army Lt. Col. Danny Davis, who broke ranks to debunk official reports of progress, cites multiple journalistic and analytical reports that back his perspective, and wonders: Isn't Congress the least bit curious about whether it's been badly deceived?
Big numbers | Just how much does Washington spend on national security, all told? ASK THIS The Pentagon base budget of $530 billion is only about half of it, write two researchers for the National Priorities Project. Add in war funding, nuclear weapons spending, the homeland security budget, international security assistance, retirement costs and 'defense-related activities' and you're talking about an easily trimmable $1 trillion a year.
As charitable giving grows | Time to regulate online philanthropic proxies? ASK THIS These days, Web-based charities may serve as pass-throughs for donations to nonprofit groups, sometimes without the knowledge of the nonprofits themselves. There are mountains of money involved, occasional confusion and added expense and an obvious potential for abuse as well. Expert William Bagley raises serious questions about key aspects of this system.
Unintended consequences | Questioning the fundamentals in Afghanistan ASK THIS How does supporting warlords help create a stable government? Why are we counting the money spent instead of the good achieved? A scholar who has done extensive field research in Afghanistan on the intended and unintended effects of foreign aid writes that reporters are missing some of the key dynamics at play there.
An inside job | Tough questions about ALEC -- from ALEC itself ASK THIS Memo to ALEC members on how to dodge pointed inquiries into the group's mechanisms exposes its vulnerability to accusations that it is a lobbying arm for corporate interests.
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