Weldon Angelos’s story has become known around the country as a horrifying example of how harsh mandatory minimums can ruin the lives of non-violent criminals and their families. Angelos was sentenced in 2004 to 55 years for drug-related crimes. Judge Paul G. Cassell, who handed down the sentence, was vocal about his frustration with a system that would have Angelos spend the rest of his life incarcerated while child rapists and airplane hijackers received significantly shorter sentences.

On Wednesday, May 18 FreedomWorks Director of Communications Jason Pye traveled to Columbus, Ohio to be part of a panel for the Fair Sentencing and Fair Chances National Tour by the Coalition for Public Safety. The panel was co-hosted by the Buckeye Institute and focused on a bipartisan push for justice reform.

On Wednesday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing to examine employee misconduct at the EPA. Misconduct has continued at the EPA despite repeated reform efforts and multiple hearings. Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) opened the hearing by calling the EPA “one of the most toxic places in the federal government to work.” That is a big claim, and one that should alarm conservatives and libertarians who consciously worry about corruption, protectionism, and bureaucracy in the federal government.

Today on the FreedomCast, reporter from the Washington Free Beacon, CJ Ciaramella is here. We'll talk about an EPA official who cost taxpayers nearly $1 pretending to be a CIA spy, the administration's continued efforts to stonewall Congress on the investigation into former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson and why Big Corn is pushing back against an investigation by the Associated Press.   Related Links:

Earlier this week, CNS News released a story that revealed the NIH granted $3 million to the University of California, San Diego to, "study the context and epidemiology of HIV, STIs and associated risk behaviors among high risk female sex workers (FSWs) and their non-commercial male partners in two Mexico-US border cities."

Have you ever wondered what would happen if older people played online game World of Warcraft for hours? Do you lie awake at night wonder if gaydar is real or what rattlesnakes would do if confronted with a robotic squirrel? Apparently, the American government does. Today, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) released his Wastebook 2012, a report outlining wasteful federal policies that cost taxpayers more than $19 billion dollars a year.

September 10th, 2012 is National Deficit Day. That means that September 10th is the date on which the United States government is out of money for the year. Every single penny they spend for the rest of the year, explain economists James Harrington and Antony Davies, will be added to our debt. Deficit Day should ideally be on January 31st.

This Thursday, FreedomWorks will host the first field hearing for the newly-formed Tea Party Debt Commission in Salt Lake City. The hearing will take place at Noah’s meeting and conference center, 322 West 11000 South, South Jordan, UT, 84095.