Times Online: Ben Webster, Environment Editor, and Jonathan Leake

The university at the centre of the climate change row over stolen e-mails broke the law by refusing to hand over its raw data for public scrutiny.

The University of East Anglia breached the Freedom of Information Act by refusing to comply with requests for data concerning claims by its scientists that man-made emissions were causing global warming.

The Information Commissioner’s Office decided that UEA failed in its duties under the Act but said that it could not prosecute those involved because the complaint was made too late, The Times has learnt. The ICO is now seeking to change the law to allow prosecutions if a complaint is made more than six months after a breach.

POLITICO’s Kasie Hunt, who’s in the House chamber, reports that Justice Samuel Alito mouthed the words “not true” when President Barack Obama criticized the Supreme Court’s campaign finance decision.

“Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections,” Obama said. “Well I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that’s why I’m urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong.”

The shot of the black-robed Supreme Court justices, stone-faced, was priceless.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) stood up behind the justices and clapped vigorously while Alito shook his head and quietly mouthed his discontent.

Schumer and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md) are trying to find a way to legislate around the Supreme Court decision.

“All you have to do is read the dissent, the four justices who said this will defintely open the floodgates to big corporate special interests. Anybody who thinks that’s not true is out of touch with the American political process.” Van Hollen said.

Fortunately, the Senate place S 391 on special order yesterday. S 391 will reform the ESC. This should have been done a long time ago. They stopped prosecuting fraudulent claims: The Legislative Audit Council release their report yesterday. Here’s a few shocking items in the report. To read the full report click or the summary click.

$171 million were given to folks who were fired for cause. Here’s a few examples:

An employee made unauthorized charges on his company’s credit card, which included motel rooms, hardware, and internet dating charges. He was terminated by the company, but ESC still allowed him to collect $3,586 in unemployment benefits.

An employee made a job-related threat and alluded to a weapon in his car. Police found a loaded firearm in the employee’s car. He was terminated for cause, but still collected $2,440 in unemployment benefits.In February 2008, the agency stopped referring for criminal prosecution claimants who had fraudulently obtained unemployment benefits. In FY 08-09, the agency identified more than $7.3 million that was lost due to claimant fraud. In all seven fraud cases we examined, the claimants knowingly withheld information to obtain or increase their unemployment benefits; each case had overpayments totaling over $10,000.

By FITSNews || S.C. government agencies would be prohibited from arbitrarily raising fees and fines on taxpayers – or assessing new fees and fines – under the provisions of a bill that cleared the State Senate on Tuesday.

Designed to protect taxpayers from an anticipated slew of fee increases during the coming fiscal year, the bill would require that lawmakers approve these increases individually – separate from the state budget bill.  That’s an added layer of taxpayer protection.

The measure – sponsored by Sen. Tom Davis (R – Beaufort) – passed the Senate unanimously on a voice vote.

“Taxpayers deserve transparency in the budget process and hidden fees and fines do a disservice to that notion,” Davis said.

From Davis’ legislation:

The General Assembly shall not authorize a state agency, department, or entity to increase or implement a fee for performing a service or function, or a civil penalty or fine for failure to comply with a requirement or provision of law under its jurisdiction in the temporary or permanent provisions of the State General Appropriation Act or acts supplemental thereto, and any increase or implementation of any fee or fine may only be authorized by an act separate from an appropriations act.

Obviously, this bill would end the current practice of agencies hiking fees and fines without legislative approval – a system that has caused this particular portion of the state budget to soar from $4.5 billion to $7.2 billion over the past decade.

Currently, agencies are required only to notify lawmakers of their fee hikes.  If lawmakers do nothing – something they have proven quite skilled at – then the fee hike becomes law after ninety days.

“It’s safe to say agencies are quite concerned over the potential impact of this legislation,” one State House insider told FITS.

They should be.

In addition to clamping down on fee and fine hikes, Davis’ bill also creates a legislative panel that will – for the first time ever – examine the massive “other funds” section of the state budget, which has historically represented roughly a third of the state’s total spending plan each year.

“This is a sizable chunk of the state budget that has gone virtually unexamined for years,” Davis said. “It deserves the same level of scrutiny we give other expenses.”

read on

I need to give y’all an explanation. I’m a ’89 University of Georgia graduate. A lifelong DAWG. As you probably know, that means I HATE the Florida Gators by nature. But, as a conservative, the right to liberty of the unborn trumps all.

The sanctity of life is priority.

So, um, this, is, very, difficult…ok…my…right…to…life…f…f…friend, Tim Tebow is going all out to feature himself in a pro-life super bowl ad for the good cause for the one’s that can’t speak for themselves…the unborn.

College football phenom Tim Tebow is about to become one of the biggest stars of Super Bowl XLIV — and he’s not even playing in the game.

Tebow, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback for the University of Florida, and his mother Pam will appear in a pro-life commercial that tells the story of his risky birth 22 years ago — an ad that critics suggest could lead to anti-abortion violence, even though none of them have seen it.

The 30-second spot, paid for by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, is expected to recount the story of Pam Tebow’s turbulent pregnancy in 1987:

When Tebow suffered from a dangerous infection during a mission trip to the Philippines, doctors recommended that she terminate her pregnancy, fearing she might die in childbirth. But she carried Tim to term, and he went on to win the 2007 Heisman Trophy and guide the Florida Gators to two BCS championships…read on