Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

What makes everyone decide to take their money out of a bank at once? In the case of New York’s Bank of United States in 1929, it may have started with a false rumor spread by an unhappy investor, or a ruse by brokers who wanted to earn commissions when stockholders dumped their shares. For one reason or another 2,500 account holders lined up at the bank on December 10, withdrawing $2 million. The next day the bank closed, never to reopen – and the Great Depression was on.

Mass panic and a stable financial system just don’t go together.  So the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) works to instill confidence in banks by insuring deposits up to $250,000. In fact, the agency boasts, “Since the start of FDIC insurance on January 1, 1934, no depositor has lost a single cent... (read more)

Federal Election Commission

The Federal Election Commission oversees the most expensive campaign process in the democratic world. The 2008 election saw the two presidential candidates raise a combined $2.5 billion—a new world record.

It’s the job of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to make sure donations for presidential campaigns are given and spent ethically — a tall order indeed. The commission interprets the campaign finance laws passed by Congress, fleshing out exact rules on how money can be received, how it should be accounted for, and how it may be spent. The FEC also investigates potential violators and oversees the public financing of certain aspects of federal elections (most notably presidential conventions).

The FEC gathers a lot of numbers about campaign finance, and it's not... (read more)

Transportation Security Administration

Ask airline travelers what their least favorite part of flying is and they’ll probably say “security.” The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) would probably agree: waiting in long lines, taking your shoes off, walking through machines that take pictures of you naked, or getting patted down by some stranger in creepy blue nitrile gloves is far from pleasant. But it’s all necessary for your safety, the agency argues.

The TSA was created as part of the Department of Homeland Security after the tragic attacks of September 11th. More than 45,000 Transportation Security Officers, also known as “screeners,” help keep dangerous materials off planes and search suspicious luggage and passengers at airports around the... (read more)

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Meteorologists take more than their share of ribbing, but ask anyone at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and they’d probably say weather forecasters have it easy. They just predict the weather, after all. FEMA has to deal with its consequences.

FEMA is the emergency recovery and response arm of the federal government. When a disaster —whether it’s a tornado, hurricane, earthquake, toxic spill, or even terrorist attack — strains the resources of a city, state, or region, FEMA brings in reinforcements. FEMA employees do damage control, clean up debris, evacuate victims, house the displaced, triage the injured, jumpstart rebuilding efforts, and do whatever else it takes stabilize the area. But FEMA comes only on... (read more)

Federal Bureau of Investigation

You hear a lot about the FBI investigating terrorism, raiding the offices of corrupt politicians, busting interstate crime rings and so forth – but the premier federal investigative agency has also made rich contributions to American culture. After all, what would a gangland movie be without stubble-faced guys hissing “Cheese it! The Feds!”? Not to mention the key roles played by G-men – and G-women – in Twin Peaks, The X-Files, Bones, and countless other TV shows.

... (read more)

Workplace Safety

As the nature of American jobs has changed, workplace safety standards have changed too.

In the early days of the U.S., most people worked on family farms. Safety was the worker’s responsibility and on-the-job injuries were typically treated at home. Even well into the 19th century, as the Industrial Revolution took hold, employers were held to a low standard of accountability. Companies were not... (read more)

Research and Development

“Eureka” moments are not a strictly modern phenomenon: scientific and technical discoveries have been happening in America since long before it was a nation. Ancient Mesoamericans, ranging from the southern U.S. to northern Costa Rica, domesticated corn and invented the rubber ball. American Indians are increasingly recognized for their early understanding of ecology. They kept... (read more)

Immigration

The United States is, of course, a nation of immigrants. Even Native Americans came here from somewhere else; recent evidence suggests they arrived thousands of years ago from Siberia.

The Naturalization Act of 1790 opened citizenship to "free white persons" of "good moral character" who had been living in the U.S. for at least two years. In 1875 Congress barred convicts and prostitutes from naturalization... (read more)

Business

Perhaps no country on earth is identified as closely with free-market economics as the U.S. But the earliest governments in our part of the world – American Indian tribes – preferred bartering, charity, and symbolic gifts to a money-based economy. The first settlers in Puritan New England, for their part, believed government regulation of markets was needed to ensure a “just price.” As... (read more)

Children, Youth and Families

Early American social welfare laws were based on the English system of Poor Laws, under which local governments could take impoverished, abused or neglected children from their families and apprentice them to working adults to learn a trade. There was no separate justice system for juveniles; those who broke the law were locked up with adults and the mentally ill.

In the early 1800s, waves of immigration... (read more)

Hit song "Louie Louie" was once investigated by FBI

On May 17, in 1965, the Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded, after a two year inquiry, that the lyrics of "Louie Louie" were in fact not obscene. Yes, several decades ago, the FBI was in the business of investigating "obscene" material, fighting to keep "pornography" away from the unsuspecting public.

Released in 1963 by the garage rockers The Kingsmen from Portland, Oregon, "... (read more)

USDA expands farmers market access for poor families

Many low-income families have diets that are high in sugar and processed foods and low in fresh fruits and vegetables. Philadelphia’s farmers markets offer an opportunity for such families to buy healthy food, thanks to a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) initiative that allows the markets to accept benefits under the food stamp program. Now, new USDA rules are expanding the... (read more)

Judges catching on to copyright trolls' abuse of the law

As much as one-fifth of Internet bandwidth is dedicated at one time to illegally downloading copyrighted material. And in the first six months of 2012, Americans illegally downloaded almost 96,681,133 million music files, according to a study from monitoring service Musicmetric. The most-popular type of illegally downloaded content is not a pop song or a Hollywood blockbuster, however; it's... (read more)

“Compassionate release” program at Bureau of Prisons criticized by Justice Department watchdog

In 2005, lawyer Lynne Stewart was imprisoned for publicizing messages from her jailed client, the blind sheikh and terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman. Today, the 73-year-old Stewart is fighting stage IV cancer that has spread to her lungs, and support is growing for her early release from a 10-year sentence.

Stewart may be one of the lucky ones. Over the last two decades, the Federal Bureau of... (read more)

IRS fumbles non-profit applications, targeting Tea Partiers but ignoring larger groups

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has apologized for singling out Tea Party and other conservative groups for special scrutiny, saying “some people” in its Cincinnati, Ohio, office were to blame. But new reports suggest that the practice of targeting select nonprofit applications was more widespread, and that top agency officials knew about it earlier, than the agency has said. The case is... (read more)

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