The minimum coverage qualifies as acceptable under the new healthcare reform law, so benefit advisers and insurance brokers are pitching minimum plans nationally, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Employers who offer the plans are recognizing they can avoid a $2,000-per-worker penalty by doing so, even though the plans often don’t cover basics like surgery, X-rays or prenatal care, let alone hospitalization.

The employers could still face other penalties, but they expect them to cost less than the $2,000 per worker fine for opting out of Obamacare. As a result, the Journal reported, more companies are seeking minimum coverage plans helping to create what amounts to a new industry of basic insurance brokers and benefit administrators pushing the plans to clients.

Some of the low-benefit plans will cost employers only between $40 and $100 per employee monthly, quite a savings over the $2,000 fine, the Journal noted.

“For certain organizations, it may be an ideal solution to minimize the cost of opting out,” David Ellis, chief executive of Youngtown, Ariz.-based LifeStream Complete Senior Living, told the Journal.

Ellis said his firm, which employs about 350 people, may consider the low-benefit plan in order to comply with the law.

Department of Health and Human Services officials say they have seen little evidence of companies switching to the skinny plans, and that most employers are choosing to provide better benefits.

In addition, the limited plans may not appeal to all workers – and could backfire on employers.

While they would avoid the $2,000 fine, they still could be fined $3,000 for each employee who chooses not to take the company coverage and buys insurance through a state healthcare exchange.

Chicago gained nearly 10,000 people from July 2011 to July 2012, but was the slowest-growing major city in the country according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday.

It was the second year in a row that population grew here, but the increase so far shows no signs of making up for the loss of 200,000 people over the previous decade.

The growth here reflects a recession-driven trend of fewer people moving out of urban centers, said demographer Ken Johnson of the University of New Hampshire.

“The recession has frozen the population into place, so it can’t move,” Johnson said. “Places like Chicago or the inner suburbs which were losing so many migrants just aren’t losing them anymore at the same rate.”

Like Chicago, suburbs in Cook County also grew slightly, adding about 7,600 people in contrast to losses from 2000-2010.

And because more people are staying put, towns in formerly fast-growing Will and Kendall Counties aren’t growing as fast as they used to, Johnson said.

Among cities with more than one million people, sun-belt metropolises like Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix, Houston and San Diego all posted gains of more than 1.3 percent, while Chicago grew by little more than one-third of 1 percent.

With a total estimated population of 2,714,856. Chicago held on to its spot as the third largest city. But the two largest cities padded their leads, with New York City adding 67,000 in 2012 and No. 2 Los Angeles gaining 34,000 people.s

“The good news for Chicago is that it is growing, but we would like to see it grow more,” said Chicago-based demographer Rob Paral of Rob Paral and Associates. Chicago’s diversified economy contributed to the growth the area did have. “We’re not dominated by one industry, we have tech, financial, shipping and manufacturing sectors,” Paral said.

Within Illinois, only two of the top 10 cities lost population: Rockford and Waukegan. However, none of the top ten cities’ population rank changed. Of towns with more than 10,000 people, Oswego in Kendall County and Country Club Hills in south suburban Cook County had the highest percentage growth, 1.8 and 1.5 percent, respectively.

Of hundreds of Chicago-area towns, only 15 actually lost any population, all less than one-third of 1 percent.

Would you like to have a “skinny” health insurance policy? Probably not. But if you’re employed by a large company, you may get one, thanks to ObamaCare.

That’s the conclusion of Wall Street Journal reporters Christopher Weaver and Anna Wilde Mathews, who report that insurance brokers are pitching and selling “low-benefit” policies across the country.

Wonder what a “skinny” or “low-benefit” insurance plan is? The terms may vary, but the basic idea is that policies would cover preventive care, a limited number of doctor visits and perhaps generic drugs. They wouldn’t cover things such as surgery, hospital stays or prenatal care.

That sounds similar to an auto-insurance policy that reimburses you when you change the oil but not when your car gets totaled.

You might ask how ObamaCare could encourage the proliferation of such policies. It was sold as a way to provide more coverage for more people, after all. And people were told they could keep the health insurance they had.

As Weaver and Mathews explain, ObamaCare’s requirement that insurance policies include “essential” benefits such as mental-health services apply only to small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. But larger employers “need only cover preventive service, without a lifetime or annual dollar-value limit, in order to avoid the across-the-workforce penalty.”

Low-benefit plans may cost an employer only $40 to $100 a month per employee. That’s less than the $2,000-per-employee penalty for providing no insurance.

“We wouldn’t have anticipated that there’d be demand for these type of Band-Aid plans in 2014,” the Journal quotes former White House health adviser Robert Kocher. “Our expectation was that employers would offer high-quality insurance.”

Oops.

It’s probably true that businesses trying to attract and retain high-skill employees for long-term positions have an economic incentive to offer generous and attractive health insurance. Otherwise they’d lose good people to competitors.

But the kind of businesses mentioned in the Journal story — restaurants, retailers, assisted-living chains — tend to employ lower-skill workers who typically work there only temporarily.

In a high-unemployment economy, they may not need to offer gold-plated health insurance to get the workforce they need.

Such employers would have to pay a $3,000 penalty for each employee who buys insurance on ObamaCare’s health-insurance exchanges. But it seems likely that many workers, especially young ones, would opt not to pay the hefty premiums for that.

The problem here is that ObamaCare’s architects seem to misunderstand the concept of insurance.

People buy insurance to pay for low-probability, high-cost and undesirable events. It doesn’t make sense to hold onto enough cash to replace your house if it burns when you can buy an insurance policy that will cover that unlikely disaster.

But Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has a different idea of what insurance is. In response to an American Society of Actuaries report that health premiums would rise 32 percent under ObamaCare, she said, “Some of these folks have very high catastrophic plans that don’t pay for anything unless you get hit by a bus.”

Her idea apparently is that insurance should pay for just about every health-care procedure.

In her defense, the World War II decision to make the cost of health insurance deductible for employers and nontaxable for employees has moved things in that direction. Many people have come to expect that.

But as the Daily Beast’s Megan McArdle commented, “Coverage of routine, predictable services is not insurance at all; it’s a spectacularly inefficient prepayment plan.”

If large numbers of employees are enrolled in “skinny” health insurance plans, as the Journal article suggests, ObamaCare will have produced an unanticipated outcome no one wants.

People stuck with these policies will have insurance that pays for the equivalent of oil changes (up to six a year!) but not for the equivalent of wrecked car. Just the opposite of real insurance.

For the past few months, the Federal Reserve has been squarely in the financial markets‘ corner, thanks to its massive dollops of monetary stimulus. But signs that the central bank is discussing reducing that support by purchasing fewer bonds mean that trading is likely to get bumpier in coming months.

The Fed’s evolving stance was made apparent by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s remarks to Congress Wednesday, where he laid out the conditions that might cause the Fed to reduce its $85 billion a month buying of Treasuries and mortgage-backed bonds.

U.S. stock and bond markets were whipsawed – the S&P 500 rose dramatically On Wednesday, only to fall sharply in its largest one-day point swing since early November, and bond yields rose above 2 percent to a 10-week high. On Thursday, both markets stabilized.

Volatility has been low over the past few months. The 50-day moving average of the CBOE volatility index, Wall Street’s favorite fear gauge, hit a six-year low last week. In the past two days it rose as much as 13 percent, but it remains at historically low levels. That may change, depending on future remarks and moves by the Fed.

“As you start hearing about the Fed tapering off asset purchases I wouldn’t be surprised if that spooks investors and you begin to see volatility pick up,” said Joseph Tanious, global market strategist at JPMorgan Funds.

Fed officials say they will need more signs of sustained improvement in the economy and the labor market before reducing the bond buying that has lowered borrowing costs, underpinned a rebound in housing, and helped to boost stocks to record levels.

Since its November lows, the S&P 500 has gained nearly 25 percent. In that time, corrections have been brief – with the largest drop a 3.8 percent fall over a five-day period in April. Wednesday’s action looked like the initial stage of a larger pullback.

“This wobble is coming from sellers who view much of the stock market’s ascent as being mostly attributable to central bank liquidity provisions, and less so to any fundamental economic improvement,” said David Joy, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial in Boston.

With a stronger economy as a prerequisite for a Fed exit, for now analysts see U.S. stock market declines related to fears of Fed decisions as buying opportunities.

Thursday’s action speaks to that point. In the early going, the market looked primed for its second consecutive drop of more than 0.8 percent, which would have been the first such occurrence since November. But buyers jumped in, and the S&P ended just 0.3 percent lower.

The Fed will however have to walk a thin line as it communicates its next policy steps. Officials including New York Fed President William Dudley have cautioned against investor over-reaction to policy adjustments.

“The Fed won’t adjust unless and until it is convinced that the private sector can function well, and sustainably so, without the present extent of accommodation,” Joy said. “That should be viewed as a welcome economic vote of confidence.”

PULLBACK IN THE CARDS

With the sharp rally, stocks were nearing overbought levels in various technical readings and Bernanke’s Congressional testimony on Wednesday, taken as slightly hawkish, was seen as an opportunity for investors to take some profits off the table.

Adding to investors’ jitters, minutes from the latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting show a hawkish bent in the policy-setting group, with some members discussing if it would be appropriate for the unwinding of stimulus to begin as early as June.

When the Fed eventually reduces its monthly bond buying, known as quantitative easing, that should be reflected in the Treasury market. Goldman Sachs strategists said this week that the fair value of the 10-year yield is closer to 2.5 percent. That may also have an effect on corporate debt, where the yield on the average high-yield bond recently dipped below 5 percent.

“A cessation of QE would certainly precipitate a re-pricing in the market,” said Bonnie Baha, head of Global Developed Credit at DoubleLine Capital LP, which manages more than $60 billion in Los Angeles.

“I doubt, however, that Bernanke envisions ending QE cold-turkey. His remarks yesterday were most likely a trial balloon. He has not taken ongoing bond-buying off the table,” she said.

The rise in yields should be gradual. In its note, Goldman Sachs said rising yields may not even hurt equities, because it would suggest less uncertainty about the outlook for growth or inflation. That said, previous instances where it appeared the Fed was going to reduce support for markets have jolted the stock market.

“I think the market is overreacting, and overly focused on this notion of tapering,” said Steven Einhorn, vice chairman at hedge fund Omega Advisors Inc in New York.

“I don’t think it’s at all imminent. I think Bernanke and his associates have made clear that before they opt to taper they want to see substantial improvement in the labor market.”

• Zimmerman’s second-degree murder trial is set to start next month
• His attorneys have released a batch of photos and texts from Martin’s cell phone including images of Martin smoking and a photo of a gun
• Prosecutors want evidence omitted from trial
• The defense team also want to use blood tests that show traces of marijuana in Martin’s system

Explosive new pictures from Trayvon Martin’s cell phone show the slain Florida teenager blowing smoke rings, a photo of a gun and what appears to be a marijuana plant.The data released on Thursday by George Zimmerman’s attorneys also include worrying text messages with a friend about fighting, smoking pot and being forced to move out of his mother’s house because of trouble at school.A hearing next week will decide if the information can be used at the trial for Zimmerman, who is charged with fatally shooting the unarmed 17-year-old last year.

Photos: New photos, including above, from Trayvon Martin’s cell phone shows the slain Florida teenager blowing smoke rings, a gun and what appears to be a marijuana plant

Prosecutors want the negative evidence omitted, but Zimmerman’s lawyers said if they try to portray his client as the antagonist and Martin as the victim, he wants to show the jury that Martin has talked about fighting before.

‘If they had suggested that Trayvon is nonviolent and that George is the aggressor, I think that makes evidence of the fighting he has been involved with in the past relevant,’ said Mark O’Mara.

Zimmerman, 29, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, claiming self-defense and his trial starts next month. O’Mara also filed a motion on Thursday asking for a delay in the start of the trial so the defense team can talk at length with an expert witness for the prosecution.

The photos released by Zimmerman’s defense team also show Martin extending his middle finger to the camera.

In the text messages, Martin tells a friend that his mother has told him he needs to move in with his father since he was caught skipping school. He also talks with a friend about smoking ‘weed.’

Gun: A photo of a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun were among those released

Building a defense: The data, including the above photo of what appears to be a marijuana plant, was released on Thursday by George Zimmerman’s attorneys

On November 22, 2011, three months before the shooting, Trayvon wrote messages about being involved in a fight. His unnamed opponent, he wrote: ‘got mo hits cause in da 1st round he had me on da ground an I couldn’t do ntn. (sic)’

Six weeks earlier he wrote a text about problems at school involving a fight: ‘I was watcn a fight nd a teacher say I hit em. (sic)’

Prosecutors have filed a motion asking Circuit Judge Debra Nelson to prevent the photos, texts and other personal information from being used at the trial.

The hearing is set for next Tuesday when the judge also will consider the motion to delay the trial.

Attorneys for Martin’s parents said in a statement that the photos and texts were irrelevant to the trial and could pollute the jury pool.

‘Is the defense trying to prove Trayvon deserved to be killed by George Zimmerman because (of) the way he looked?’ they said.

Trial: The prosecutors want the negative data about Trayvon, pictured, omitted

Texts: The text messages show Martin and a friend discussing fighting

‘If so, this stereotypical and closed-minded thinking is the same mindset that caused George Zimmerman to get out of his car and pursue Trayvon, an unarmed kid who he didn’t know.’

As for the delay, O’Mara said he needed more time to review the qualifications of a prosecution witness with an expertise in speech identification.

O’Mara said prosecutors only made him aware of the expert a short time ago. The expert could be used to testify whose voices were on 911 calls that captured the fatal fight between Zimmerman and Martin.

O’Mara said in an interview that he needed another month or two to prepare. He also said that he is going to ask a judge to sequester not only the jury but the jury pool in the upcoming trial. That may involve sequestering 500 potential jurors in order to find six people who can serve on the jury.

The texts and pictures come after Zimmerman’s attorneys released photos showing evidence related to the night in February 2012 when the neighborhood watch volunteer shot and killed Martin.

The new batch of photos include pictures of Martin’s belongings on the night he was killed including the cell phone he used to speak to his girlfriend for the last time, plus the Skittles and bottle of ice tea he had just bought at a local 7/11.

Defense attorneys have issued the photos as they prepare for Zimmerman’s upcoming second-degree murder trial, which is scheduled to begin June 10.

Zimmerman in a cap and gown during a graduation ceremony at Seminole State College, although he himself didn’t actually graduate because he failed a class

Included in the batch is a photograph of Trayvon Martin’s cell phone which he was using to speak to his girlfriend when he was attacked

This bag of Skittles was found at the scene after Trayvon Martin’s shooting

The photos, taken by Zimmerman’s defense team on August 8 at a state crime lab, show other important pieces of evidence including the hoodie with a bullet hole in it that Trayvon wore, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Two photos that had not been released before Wednesday show Zimmerman in a cap and gown during a graduation ceremony at Seminole State College.

Zimmerman was pursuing a two-year criminal justice degree, but while he attended the ceremony, school records show he did not actually graduate, having failed one of his classes.

Other images, which have been seen before, include photos of Zimmerman with a broken and bloody nose and surveillance images showing Martin buying Skittles and a bottle of iced tea at a 7-Eleven just minutes before the deadly scuffle.

Final moments: Included in the batch of photos released by Zimmerman’s defense attorneys are surveillance images showing Martin buying Skittles and a bottle of iced tea at a 7-Eleven just minutes before the deadly scuffle

A photo of Trayvon Martin’s hooded sweatshirt showing the bullet hole that killed him has been submitted by George Zimmerman’s defense lawyers

This can of Arizona iced tea was found at the scene of Trayvon Martin’s death

These are the photographs his defense team believe will best serve their client’s self-defense case when his trial begins next month hope these are the images that

Defense attorneys had to list all evidence turned over to prosecutors. It include items they opted not to make public because of Florida privacy laws, including half dozen autopsy photos of Martin plus 17 taken of him at the scene of the shooting.

The 29-year-olf former Neighborhood Watch volunteer killed Trayvon, an unarmed black 17-year-old, on Feb. 26, 2012, after calling Sanford police and describing the teenager as suspicious.

Zimmerman’s defense team also filed a motion on Tuesday asking the judge to deny a request by prosecutors to ban blood samples from Trayvon Martin’s autopsy from being submitted as evidence during the trial.

According to Zimmerman’s lawyers, the results of those blood tests showed traces of marijuana in Martin’s system, and they argue jurors should know that.

Other images include photos of Zimmerman with a broken and bloody nose

Zimmerman volunteer killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old, on Feb. 26, 2012, after calling Sanford police and describing the teenager as suspicious

The defense claimed Martin brought pot with him to Sanford and used it at least once before he was killed.

But prosecutors called that evidence irrelevant to the events surrounding the shooting, saying there was no evidence suggesting Martin used the pot at or even near the time of his death, and no witnesses have suggested that the level of marijuana in Martin’s blood had any bearing on the cause of his death.

Two weeks ago Zimmerman told a circuit judge he would not be seeking an immunity hearing under the state’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ self-defense law.

Under questioning from Circuit Judge Debra Nelson, George Zimmerman repeatedly said ‘yes’ to a series of questions asking if he was aware he was giving up the right to a hearing before his second-degree murder trial in June.

Back in court: George Zimmerman, defendant in the killing of Trayvon Martin, arrives with his attorney Mark O’Mara, right, for a pre-trial hearing

Heavy burden: Zimmerman, pictured left during his latest court appearance and right in a mugshot,  reportedly has put on more than 100lbs from the time of his arrest in 2012

A judge would have sole discretion in an immunity hearing to decide if Zimmerman is exempt from culpability in the shooting. A jury would make the determination in the murder trial.

‘After consultation with my counsel, yes, your honor,’ Zimmerman said.

The judge had set aside two weeks at the end of April for an immunity hearing should Zimmerman want one.

Prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda had filed a motion asking that Zimmerman make clear his intentions on whether he wanted the hearing.

Zimmerman’s defense attorney, Mark O’Mara, told the judge there was nothing in the law that required the immunity hearing to take place before Zimmerman’s trial and could be requested after prosecutors have presented their case.

Major move: The former neighborhood watch leader told a judge that he will not seek an immunity hearing under the state’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ self-defense law

High-profile case: Zimmerman (left) is accused of shooting dead Trayvon Martin (right), an unarmed 17-year-old boy, during a February 2012 confrontation in a gated community in Florida

‘We’d much rather have the jury address the issue of criminal liability or lack thereof,’ O’Mara said.

Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty, claiming self-defense. Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old boy, was fatally shot February 26, 2012, during a fight with Zimmerman in a Sanford gated community.

O’Mara also wanted the court to unseal details on a civil settlement totaling more than $1million that Martin’s parents received from Zimmerman’s homeowner’s association.

O’Mara contended the settlement could influence the testimony of Martin’s parents, if they are called as witnesses.

The judge said defense attorneys and prosecutors could see full copies of the settlement but the public would only be able to see a version from which some information has been removed.

Opposing sides: Zimmerman’s attorney Mark O’Mara (left) asked the court to unseal details of a settlement that Martin’s parents, represented by Benjamin Crump (right), received from homeowner’s association

Nelson rejected a request by O’Mara to find fault with prosecutors for what the defense attorney described as violations in providing discovery evidence to them.

O’Mara said that prosecutors’ failure to disclose evidence in a timely manner had caused his team ‘hours and hours of work.’

The judge said she would hold a hearing after the trial to determine if prosecutors should have to pay for some costs that O’Mara said he incurred because of the alleged discovery problems.

An Oregon woman was told by a 911 dispatcher that authorities wouldn’t be able be able to help her as her ex-boyfriend broke into her place because of budget cuts.

Oregon Public Radio reports that an unidentified woman called 911 during a weekend in August 2012 while Michael Bellah was breaking into her place. Her call was forwarded to Oregon State Police because of lay-offs at the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office only allows the department to be open Monday through Friday.

“Uh, I don’t have anybody to send out there,” the 911 dispatcher told the woman. “You know, obviously, if he comes inside the residence and assaults you, can you ask him to go away? Do you know if he’s intoxicated or anything?”

The woman told the dispatcher that Bellah previously attacked her and left her hospitalized a few weeks prior to the latest incident. The dispatcher stayed on the phone with the woman for more than 10 minutes before the sexual assault took place.

“Once again it’s unfortunate you guys don’t have any law enforcement out there,” the dispatcher said, according to Oregon Public Radio.

The woman responded: “Yeah, it doesn’t matter, if he gets in the house I’m done.”

Police say Bellah choked the woman and sexually assaulted her. He was arrested by Oregon State Police following the incident.

“There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t have another victim,” Josephine County Sheriff Gil Gilberson told Oregon Public Radio. “If you don’t pay the bill, you don’t get the service.”

The sheriff’s department had to cut 23 deputies and the entire major crimes unit after it lost a multi-million dollar federal subsidy, according to Oregon Public Radio. There are now only six deputies left.

The sheriff’s department even put out a press release warning domestic violence victims to “consider relocating to an area with adequate law enforcement services.”

Bellah pleaded guilty to kidnapping, sex abuse and assault.

The Obama administration woke up on Tuesday to another morning of scorching criticism about the Justice Department’s decision to secretly obtain months of Associated Press phone records.

The DOJ tracked the incoming and outgoing calls on more than 20 AP phone lines, as well as the home, office and cell phone lines for six individual journalists involved in writing a national security-related story about Yemen that the Obama administration did not want them to write.

The operation has been roundly condemned by journalists and press freedom groups. That condemnation continued on Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Reporters Without Borders called the probe an “extremely grave violation of freedom of information.”

NBC News’ Michael Isikoff quoted a whistleblower advocate who made the dreaded comparison to Richard Nixon:

“The Justice Department’s seizure of the Associated Press’ phone records is Nixonian,” said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a group that advocates on behalf of whistleblowers. “The American public deserves a full accounting of why and how this could happen.”

Speaking to Rachel Maddow on Tuesday night, Isikoff explained further why people were so alarmed.

“It is not unprecedented for the Justice Department to secretly get the numbers of reporters,” he said. “What’s remarkable is the sweeping nature of this, the dragnet approach … and that’s why you have some press watchdog groups tonight, and freedom of the press groups saying this is positively Nixonian. They have not seen a precedent for this in decades.”

Others also zeroed in on the link. Buzzfeed editor Ben Smith even put up a GIF that showed Obama transforming into Nixon in his article on the scandal.

Smith wrote that the nuclear nature of the probe could, in part, be traced back to Obama, who has made it a policy to aggressively go after leaks in a fashion not seen in any of his predecessors. Though the White House said it had nothing to do with the probe and referred reporters to the Justice Department, Smith wrote that it was not hard to see Obama’s hand in some way:

Elements of this approach, Obama’s friends and foes agree, come from the top. Obama is personally obsessed with leaks, to the extent that his second chief of staff, Bill Daley, took as one of his central mandates a major and ill-fated plumbing expedition. Attorney General Eric Holder, who pressed the leak policy, is a trusted Obama insider.

Writing for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, Trevor Timm also said that the scandal was one of the White House’s own making.

“The White House created this war-on-leaks monster,” he wrote. “Congress has only encouraged its expansion, instead of investigating the wrongdoing that many of the leaks exposed. And now, it’s out of control.”

On Tuesday, AP executive editor Kathleen Carroll underscored just how stunning the Justice Department’s actions were.

“I’ve been in this business for more than 30 years,” she said on “Morning Joe.” “Our First Amendment lawyers, and our lawyers inside the AP, and our CEO, who’s also a well-known First Amendment lawyer, none of us have ever seen anything like this.”

Speaking on the same program, famed Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein was even more scathing, calling the operation “inexcusable.”

“This administration has been terrible on this issue from the beginning,” he said. “The object of it is to intimidate people who talk to reporters … there’s no excuse for it whatsoever.” He added that it was “nonsense” to say that the White House would have been unaware of such a probe.

“This is a policy matter, and this does go to the president,” he said. “There is no reason that a presidency that is interested in a truly free press and its functioning should permit this to happen.”   Watch video…

At various points over the past two years, Internal Revenue Service officials targeted nonprofit groups that criticized the government and sought to educate Americans about the U.S. Constitution, according to documents in an audit conducted by the agency’s inspector general.

The documents, obtained by The Washington Post  from a congressional aide with knowledge of the findings, show that on June 29, 2011, IRS staffers held a briefing with senior agency official Lois G. Lerner in which they described giving special attention to instances where “statements in the case file criticize how the country is being run.” Lerner, who  oversees tax-exempt groups for the agency, raised objections and the agency revised its criteria a week later.

But six months later, the IRS applied a new political test to groups that applied for tax-exempt status as “social welfare” groups, the document says. On Jan. 15, 2012 the agency decided to target “political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform movement.,” according to the appendix in the IG report, which was requested by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and has yet to be released.

The new revelations are likely to intensify criticism of the IRS, which has been under fire since agency officials acknowledged they had deliberately targeted groups with “tea party” or “patriot” in their name for heightened scrutiny.

During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) described the practice as “absolutely chilling” and called on President Obama to condemn the effort.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday he’s not satisfied with the Obama administration’s handling of the controversy. The IG report was “leaked by the IRS. to try to spin the output,” Issa said, and lawmakers now need to go through the full report so they can “see what the instituted changes need to be to make this not happen again.

The agency did not appear to adopt a more neutral test for social welfare groups — which file for tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code — until May 17, 2012, according to the timeline in the inspector general’s report.

At that point, the IRS again updated its criteria to focus on “organizations with indicators of significant amounts of political campaign intervention (raising questions as to exempt purpose and/or excess private benefit.)”

While the mainstream media and our leaders in Washington want you to believe that the economy is getting better, thanks to more spending, higher taxes, and more regulation, six million people have dropped out of the work force since the recession began in 2008. Young Americans, especially, have it bad.

About 45 percent of 18 to 34-year olds are unemployed according to a recent poll by Demos, a public policy firm. I still know of college classmates who have yet to find meaningful jobs or are severely underemployed almost four years after graduation. However, a recent poll on young people’s views of limited government, free markets, and economic liberty suggests some may be waking up to the conclusion that government, over-regulation, and more spending will not turn our futures around.

In a survey launched by Young America’s Foundation and conducted by the polling company, Kellyanne Conway, Inc.,  more than 60 percent of college-age students feel that government should not take an active role in their day-to-day-lives, and half of respondents believe that the federal government is mostly hurting economic recovery.

President Ronald Reagan said, “Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.” And, as the poll suggests, young people share this belief: 66 percent of the students polled had a positive opinion of “entrepreneurship,” 44 percent found “free markets” positive, and 42 percent believe the federal government is an opponent rather than a partner in the pursuit of the American Dream. Read more…

A look at some a few of the new ones.

Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio adds to its fat portfolio (16!) of coasters with GateKeeper, which makes its debut Saturday. The steel, wing roller coaster will suspend riders 170 feet above the Cedar Point Beach then send them hurtling through six inversions and stomach-dropping falls at close to 70 mph. GateKeeper, the new wing roller coaster at Cedar Point amusement park/resort in Sandusky, Ohio, breaks seven world records, boasting the longest track (4,164 feet), tallest drop (164 feet) and six inversions, the most of any wing coaster on the planet. It debuts May 11, 2013.

Also opening Saturday is Dollywood’s RiverRush, a water coaster in the Pigeon Forge, Tenn.’s Splash Country water park. Four-person boats cruise through an acre of hills, twists and tunnels at heights of up to 237 feet.

On the West Coast, California’s Great America in Santa Clara is introducing Goldstriker in May (no specific date yet) that lasts more then two minutes, hits speeds of 54 mph and has the longest initial descent tunnel (174 feet) of any wooden coaster. Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park unveils Coast Rider on May 25. It’s a 1,339-foot-long, 52-foot-tall ride and is meant to evoke the twists and turns of the state’s winding coastline. On the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, a steel coaster dubbed Undertow opens this summer. The spinning coaster sports individual four-seat cars in which passengers’ weight distribution determines the vehicle’s rotation. And at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, Full Throttle features a triple launch — two forward and one backward — and hits speeds of more than 70 mph. It’s opening this summer, but the exact date hasn’t been determined.

In Orlando, Fun Spot America (formerly Fun Spot Action Park) introduces its 2,000-foot-long White Lightning coaster as part of a $40 million expansion.

Opening this summer at Six Flags White Water in Marietta, Ga., is Typhoon Twister, which drops riders five stories into a wide bowl and then spits them into a corkscrew chute.

A new twist on Batman: The Ride at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Ill.: The ride now goes backward at top speeds of 50 mph and over 2,700 feet of track.

Silver Dollar City in Branson, Mo., rolled out Outlaw Run earlier this spring. The hybrid wooden coaster hits speeds of 68 mph and has three inversions.

Another hybrid coaster, Iron Rattler, premieres this summer at Six Flags FiestaTexas in San Antonio. It sports a 171-foot-drop and hits speeds of 70 mph.

Six Flags St. Louis unveils Boomerang, a 125-foot-tall coaster that tops out at 50 mph as it hurtles over 1,650 feet of track.

And in the Wisconsin Dells, Mt. Olympus Water and Theme Park has spiced up its traditional wooden coaster. Re-dubbed Hades 360, it features an upside-down roll.   Watch video…