Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a senior member of the Finance Committee with Senate jurisdiction over the IRS, today made the following comment on the employment status of Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS tax-exempt division in the middle of a debacle over the targeting of certain tax-exempt groups.

"My understanding is the new acting IRS commissioner asked for Ms. Lerner's resignation, and she refused to resign.  She was then put on administrative leave instead.  From all accounts so far, the IRS acting commissioner was on solid ground to ask for her resignation.  She was the head of the division that the inspector general found inappropriately targeted groups over their political associations.  She had an opportunity to disclose the targeting to Congress days before her disclosure at a legal conference and didn't do it.  Then she gave the impression that the issue came up independently at the conference, when it really was a plant that she arranged.  The IRS owes it to taxpayers to resolve her situation quickly.  The agency needs to move on to fix the conditions that led to the targeting debacle. She shouldn't be in limbo indefinitely on the taxpayers' dime."

May 23, 2013 -- MOORE, Okla. -- New information is coming in on the damage caused by the tornadoes in Oklahoma. At the request of the Department of Emergency Management for the state of Oklahoma, Civil Air Patrol is flying the tornado paths capturing high-quality imagery to assess the damage from the storms. CAP is also deploying ground teams to go block by block, house by house and document the destruction.

"The damage is difficult to see and process," said Maj. Sam Ory, ground team leader for the initial response. "Before you get here and witness it, you really can't imagine a storm causing this destruction." The damage path in the Moore vicinity is estimated to be 17 miles in length and at its peak was almost 2 miles wide, with debris scattered more than 3 miles from ground zero.

CAP's Oklahoma Wing has flown five sorties taking several hundred digital photos at the request of the state. Wing aircrews flew over the track of the tornados that hit the Shawnee and Edmond areas on Sunday, and are currently flying sorties over the track of the storm that hit Moore and surrounding communities on Monday afternoon.

Two more sorties were flown today. 

Ground teams from CAP's Oklahoma and Kansas wings, at the request of Federal Emergency Management Agency, are taking images of every residence affected by the storm. CAP has additional ground teams responding from the Texas and Arkansas wings to assist in that task. CAP members from Alabama, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Missouri and Pennsylvania have offered to help as well.

Immediately following the tornadoes, members of CAP's Flying Castle Composite Squadron, Edmond Composite Squadron and Cleveland County Composite Squadron responded in numbers. They assisted in search and rescue in the hardest-hit areas and provided temporary communications support to the city of Moore and logistics support in the staging areas.

"More than 100 members from four wings are assisting with air and ground team efforts, and the number of requests is growing by the hour," said Lt. Col. Russell Davis, CAP's incident commander for the Oklahoma tornado response. "CAP's unpaid professionals are ever vigilant, trained and ready to serve our fellow citizens when disaster strikes.  Additional CAP volunteers from across the nation will join forces with us, as needed, to get the job done."

In addition to their flights for the state, members of the Oklahoma Wing are providing air and ground sorties to a combat camera team from Air Combat Command, which plans to do a story on military support of the ongoing relief efforts.

Civil Air Patrol (CAP), the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization chartered by Congress in 1941 with a 501(c)3 designation and pre-dates the Air Force. CAP consists of 61,000 unpaid professional members nationwide, and operates a fleet of 550 aircraft. CAP, in its Air Force auxiliary role, performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC) and is credited by the AFRCC with saving an average of 80 lives annually. Its unpaid professionals also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to more than 26,000 young people currently participating in the CAP cadet programs. CAP is a force multiplier to the Air Force CAP received the World Peace Prize in 2011 and has been performing missions for America for 71 years. CAP also participates in Wreaths Across America, an initiative to remember, honor and teach about the sacrifices of U.S. military veterans.

DES MOINES, IA (05/21/2013)(readMedia)-- State Treasurer Michael L. Fitzgerald's Great Iowa Treasure Hunt spring publication is scheduled to be released soon. The upcoming list is the latest names of unclaimed property owners with undiscovered treasures. This is part of Fitzgerald's continuous promotion of the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt.

"In upcoming weeks, we will be publishing names of people who have had funds turned over to the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt," stated Fitzgerald. "You don't have to wait for the publication, go to greatiowatreasurehunt.com and search the entire list anytime. I encourage everyone to search for their name; a lot of individuals will be pleasantly surprised."

The Great Iowa Treasure Hunt program has returned over $160 million in unclaimed property to more than 394,000 individuals since Fitzgerald started it in 1983. Unclaimed property refers to money and other assets held by financial institutions or companies that have lost contact with the property's owner for a specific period of time. State law requires these institutions and companies to annually report and deliver unclaimed property to the state treasurer's office, where it is held until the owner or heir of the property is found. Common forms of unclaimed property include savings or checking accounts, stocks, uncashed checks, life insurance policies, utility security deposits, safe deposit box contents and many other types of property.

Check the unclaimed property database to see if the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt has property belonging to you. Simply visit greatiowatreasurehunt.com to begin your search.

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