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pomt-01413 | 20,000 Kansans lost their health insurance because of (Obamacare). | false | /truth-o-meter/statements/2014/oct/09/pat-roberts/pat-roberts-obamacare-killed-insurance-20000-kansa/ | In an unexpectedly tight race, Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas is doing everything he can to paint his opponent -- independent Greg Orman -- as a liberal henchman. One of Roberts’ favorite points is Orman’s stance on the Affordable Care Act. Orman says he does not support the health care law, but he also says pushing legislation to repeal it is impractical, because President Barack Obama would simply veto it. In a recent Web video, Roberts treats that view as support for Obamacare. The ad starts out with video of Orman shaking hands with constituents, one of whom asks him a question about repealing Obamacare. Orman replies, "That’s an interesting question," and moves on down the line. "Greg Orman won't repeal Obamacare," the ad’s narrator says, "even though 20,000 Kansans lost their health insurance because of it." Roberts was expected to easily win a fourth term (the last time Kansas elected a Democrat to the Senate was in 1932). Then, Democratic candidate Chad Taylor dropped out, and independent Orman surged in the polls. Now the race is a toss-up. Some see a Roberts win as necessary for Republican Senate control in 2015. Both candidates say they do not support Obama’s health care law, but we wanted to know how the law had affected Kansas -- did 20,000 people really lose their health insurance? The answer, it seems, is no. How many Kansans lost insurance? We asked Linda Sheppard, health policy adviser for the Kansas Insurance Department, how many Kansans had lost their insurance due to Obamacare. She said the state does not require health insurance carriers to report when people go on or off coverage, so there’s no way to definitively know the answer. However, Sheppard said insurance carriers do have to check in with the department when they decide to terminate a policy. So 20,000 people losing health insurance would have likely come to her attention. "We are not aware of any wide-scale cancellation of policies," she said. Here’s what happened. About a year ago, in October 2013, Kansas’ largest insurance carrier -- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas -- sent letters to about 9,450 policyholders, according to numerous news reports. Those members would be unable to renew their plans for 2014 because those plans do not comply with new standards under the Affordable Care Act. Sheppard told us there are no official numbers for how many people received these notices from insurance carriers other than Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas. Roberts’ ad cites the 20,000 figure from an October 2013 story out of Kansas Watchdog, a conservative news website. That story says Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (which is primarily based in Missouri but also serves two Kansas counties) sent out notices to about 10,000 Kansan policyholders, on top of the 9,450 from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas. For Roberts, this is where the story ends. But in reality, the thousands of people who received these letters did not end up without insurance. The following November -- after the failed roll out of HealthCare.gov (Kansas uses the federal marketplace) -- Obama announced that people who had recieved these nonrenewal notices could keep their policies through 2014. Then in March of this year, Kansas agreed to another transitional policy that allowed all of these policies to continue through 2016. It’s Sheppard’s understanding that Kansas insurance companies turned around and retracted those nonrenewal notices -- meaning the thousands of people who received those notices were able to keep their health insurance. Retracting the nonrenewal notices caused some behind-the-scenes challenges for the carriers, but "for the consumer it was pretty easy," said Scott Brunner, senior analyst at the Kansas Health Institute, a nonprofit think tank. Of course, these policyholders could have chosen not to renew. They could have picked a different plan, switched to a different provider or dropped insurance altogether -- but they were not forced out of health insurance by the Affordable Care Act. "It is disingenuous to focus on those who lost insurance without acknowledging that it doesn’t mean they are currently (uninsured)," said Roberta Riportella, a professor of community health at Kansas State University who supports the Affordable Care Act. Roberts’ ad also ignores that the number of uninsured Kansans who have gained coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Because the state does not meticulously track the number of insured folks, and the law only became fully implemented this year, it is hard to know with certainty how many people gained insurance as a result of Obamacare. But about 57,000 Kansans are now enrolled in the health insurance marketplace, Riportella said. If Kansas follows national estimates, then roughly half of those people were previously uninsured. There’s no evidence to suggest that more people are uninsured now than before the Affordable Care Act was implemented, Brunner said. "The expectation would be that with the Affordable Care Act that the number would continue to decline," he said. Our ruling Roberts said, "20,000 Kansans lost their health insurance because of (Obamacare)." There’s no official information to corroborate Roberts’ claim. Several thousand Kansans received notices that their insurance plans could not be renewed because they did not comply with Obamacare standards, but the notices were retracted about a month later. Meanwhile, about 57,000 Kansans obtained insurance on HealthCare.gov. If the state follows the national trend, roughly half of these people were uninsured before the law. We rate Roberts’ claim False. | null | Pat Roberts | null | null | null | 2014-10-09T18:39:19 | 2014-10-01 | ['None'] |
tron-00339 | London is a Target for terrorism on October 22, 2001 | fiction! | https://www.truthorfiction.com/londonterror/ | null | 9-11-attack | null | null | null | London is a Target for terrorism on October 22, 2001 | Mar 17, 2015 | null | ['London'] |
pomt-10099 | John McCain's health care plan "won't guarantee coverage of cancer screenings or maternity care." | true | /truth-o-meter/statements/2008/oct/27/planned-parenthood/few-guarantees-in-mccains-plan/ | The Planned Parenthood Action Fund has launched an attack ad on John McCain that makes a case that his health care plan hurts women. The ad features a nurse, Shaina Klackle, talking about a study created by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. "As a nurse, I'm concerned about your health care," Klackle says. "And so is Planned Parenthood's Action Fund. In fact, their study found John McCain's plan won't guarantee coverage of cancer screenings or maternity care." The ad goes on to make other claims about McCain's health plan, but here we wanted to look at the claim about guaranteed coverage for cancer screenings and maternity care. We should say off the bat that McCain's health plan contains no details about specific conditions or coverage. The heart of his plan seeks to stimulate the market for individual health insurance by ending the tax exemption on employer-provided health care benefits in exchange for a tax credit. McCain hopes this will lead to greater competition in the health care market by allowing people to shop around for their own insurance. Also along those lines, his plan calls for allowing people to shop for policies across state lines, so they can purchase the most effective policy, no matter where the insurance provider is located. It's that last provision that is the basis for Planned Parenthood's statement, according to the report they issued to back up the ad. Many states have passed laws that say health care providers operating in their state must provide coverage in certain areas. Planned Parenthood cites requirements for cancer screenings and maternity care in more than 20 states. Under a McCain plan, insurers could operate in any state and sell all over the country. A rollback of insurance requirements isn't spelled out in McCain's plan. But it's a reasonable fear, said Sara Collins of the Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan policy group that seeks to improve the health care system. Health insurance requirements differ substantially from state to state, and insurance companies would likely locate in the states with the least regulations, Collins said. "Ultimately, you would have an individual market that's not regulated in any state," Collins said. "It's very different from what we have right now." Planned Parenthood's ad says that McCain's plan doesn't "guarantee" coverage of cancer screenings or maternity care, and on a literal level, that's true. But Planned Parenthood's deeper point is that some people have a "guarantee" under their respective state's current laws, and they could lose that guarantee under McCain's plan. McCain's plan has no literal guarantees for coverage, and Planned Parenthood makes an additional case that his regulations could undermine existing state guarantees. On that basis, we rate Planned Parenthood Action Fund's statement True. | null | Planned Parenthood | null | null | null | 2008-10-27T00:00:00 | 2008-10-24 | ['None'] |
pomt-10548 | Says the difference between her and Barack Obama is "about 35 years of experience." | false | /truth-o-meter/statements/2008/feb/19/hillary-clinton/she-has-experience-but-maybe-not-at-math/ | Sen. Hillary Clinton often boasts that she has a long resume. Asked during a Texas campaign event about the difference between her and Sen. Barack Obama, Clinton replied, "Well, about 35 years of experience." But we find her math is off. Although we find here that she is largely correct when she says she has 35 years of experience in politics, she has failed to include Obama's experience in her calculation. By our count, Obama, who is 14 years younger than Clinton, has about one year running a voter-registration project, three years as a community organizer, four as a full-time attorney handling voting rights, employment and housing cases, and 12 years in the Illinois Senate and U.S. Senate. That's a total of 20 years in public policy matters. So the difference between Clinton and Obama is really 15 years. We rate her claim False. | null | Hillary Clinton | null | null | null | 2008-02-19T00:00:00 | 2008-02-13 | ['None'] |
snes-05126 | Mark Cuban praised Donald Trump for giving honest (not prepared) answers. | true | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cuban-on-trump/ | null | Politics | null | Kim LaCapria | null | Mark Cuban on Donald Trump? | 2 March 2016 | null | ['None'] |
pomt-08469 | Says "Sean Duffy was a no-show" as Ashland County District Attorney while he was on the campaign trail | mostly false | /wisconsin/statements/2010/oct/13/julie-lassa/congressional-candidate-julie-lassa-says-gop-rival/ | Ashland County’s Courthouse couldn’t be much smaller -- one judge, one district attorney, one part-time assistant DA. So it was no surprise that Dan Goglin, the part-time assistant DA, stirred attention when he appeared in a television ad for Democratic congressional candidate Julie Lassa ripping Sean Duffy -- his former boss and Lassa’s opponent -- for spending more time campaigning than prosecuting criminals. For most voters in the northwest Wisconsin district, both candidates are new -- they are aiming to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Dave Obey (D-Wausau), who has held the 7th District seat since 1969. The ad from Lassa, a state senator, aims to undercut Duffy by relying on first-hand testimony from someone who presumably knows his work best. "We did not see him often," Goglin says of Duffy in the ad. "His campaign was taking him away from the job." Goglin continues: "All the time, witnesses (and) victims would have to wait in the hallway for him to come to work. The quality of services that were provided to the citizens of this county suffered." Goglin’s image fades and is replaced by these words, with a voice saying: "Sean Duffy was a no show." It’s unclear whether or not the final words were spoken by Goglin. So, is Lassa right: Was Sean Duffy a "no show"? We started with Lassa’s campaign, to see what evidence they could provide beyond the testimony of Goglin, who is active in the local Democratic party. (Goglin gave $150 to Obey’s campaign fund Feb. 22. There is no indication he has contributed to Lassa’s campaign.) The Lassa campaign, relying largely on Duffy’s campaign finance reports, cited seven nights where Duffy apparently stayed out of town overnight in the time period between March 22 and June 2, 2010. The list included a GOP "Young Guns" fund-raiser in Washington, D.C., on May 25. The campaign also said Duffy didn’t log onto his work computer for 20 work days in the first six months of the year "but attended campaign events on more than half of those same dates." A little background will help here. Duffy served about eight years as district attorney for the small county in far northern Wisconsin. He was appointed by former Gov. Scott McCallum, a Republican, and soon hired Goglin as his part-time assistant. In July 2009, Duffy announced he would challenge Obey, the third most senior member of the U.S. House and chair of the powerful Budget Committee. In late April, 2010, The New York Times ran a front-page story noting Obey faced a stiff challenge. Ten days later Obey, made the surprise announcement that he was retiring. Now an open seat, the race became even more of a target for national Republicans and the campaign heated up. In June 2010, Duffy resigned from the $93,123-a-year job to campaign full time. Gov. Jim Doyle named his replacement, Kelly McKnight, a month later. Lassa’s evidence, on its face, does not support the charge she is making. There was no list of hearings that were delayed or any phone records of citizen complaints. Duffy, for instance, could have used vacation time on the days he was out of town or his computer was not turned on. We attempted to find Duffy’s vacation records, but there are none. As a state employee, district attorneys are allowed to take time off at will and no record is kept of that, according to McKnight, Duffy’s replacement. So Lassa’s claim hinges largely on the testimony of Goglin. We called Goglin, who refused to take our call. He said through a staff person he would not take political calls from our work phone. We left several additional messages. He did not respond. We then turned to a variety of other people familiar with the inner workings of the courthouse and the community. All said they have not been actively involved in the campaign on either side. Was Duffy a "no show" on the job, prompting complaints and problems? * "That did not seem to be the case," said Claire Duquette, editor of The Daily Press newspaper in Ashland. She said the paper had received no complaints and the paper did not hear of problems with cases being delayed or mishandled. *"Nobody called me on that," said district court administrator Scott Johnson, who added: "It’s a busy court. It was situation normal." * "As far as the court system, no," said Ashland County Clerk of Courts Katie Colgrove. "It did not come to a screeching halt." Colgrove and others said the comment about people waiting in the hallway makes sense to a point. "That sounds like a usual Monday here" when Judge Robert Eaton holds intake court for those arrested over the weekend, Colgrove said. Others noted that there isn’t a waiting room for the district attorney’s office. "The waiting room for the DA’s office is the hallway," said defense attorney Joe Rafferty, who added: "I have never seen anyone sitting on that bench." The most detail about the campaigning DA came from Nancy Thyberg, the office’s victim-witness coordinator. She said Duffy, a married father of six young kids, tried to do too much -- a full-time job and the campaign. "Sean was a very good DA, but in all honesty in the last couple of months he wasn’t there a lot," she said. "He really thought he could do both and he couldn’t. It’s just an impossible thing." She said Duffy was difficult to reach at times, and "we had some scheduling issues." She said the transition increased frustration, particularly for Goglin, who had to do more work to help run the office. McKnight, Duffy’s replacement, said there were some cases backed up when he took over but said it wasn’t clear to him whether it was because of Duffy’s campaigning or the four weeks between Duffy’s announcement and his being named to the job. Finally, Mark Perrine, assistant state public defender, said in his view Duffy was "getting a little frazzled" and that others in the office were "covering for Sean." But like others, he did not cite any cases that were delayed or specifics on items missed or mishandled. The Lassa campaign noted that between September 2009 and March 2010, Duffy’s campaign reimbursed him $13,712 for campaign-related travel. At 50 cents a mile, that means Duffy drove 27,422 miles during that period. Duffy said the figure is accurate: "I’m working my tail off here." He acknowledged the demands on his time mounted in the spring but said it did not come at the expense of his job. He said he tried to flex his schedule and came into the office on weekends. By the end of May, he said he realized campaigning in a large district would not work with his job, a position he could have held at least until the 2012 election. "I did the honorable thing" and stepped down, he said, noting he worked until Doyle named his replacement: "It’s not like I said ‘OK, I’ve moved on, see you all later.' " Lassa, it should be noted, has continued to hold her $49,943-a-year job as a state senator -- and many other officials, including gubernatorial candidates Democrat Tom Barrett (Milwaukee mayor) and Scott Walker (Milwaukee County executive) have campaigned for higher office while keeping their day jobs. So what to make of Lassa’s allegations of an AWOL DA? In making her charge, Julie Lassa cites some nights out of town and days out of the office, but by themselves they are not evidence that Sean Duffy’s campaign schedule had a negative impact on his work schedule. Thus, her claim largely centers on the testimony of assistant district attorney Dan Goglin, who cites several general examples of delays. But others at the Ashland County courthouse paint a different story and largely do not back up his claims. Nevertheless, by Duffy’s own admission, in his final months on the job it was a difficult balance. That is why, he said, he resigned -- something Lassa and other higher-office seekers have not done. We rate Lassa’s claim Barely True. Editor's note: This statement was rated Barely True when it was published. On July 27, 2011, we changed the name for the rating to Mostly False. | null | Julie Lassa | null | null | null | 2010-10-13T09:00:00 | 2010-09-21 | ['None'] |
pomt-08793 | U.S. taxpayers are being forced to fund Feisal Abdul Rauf’s trip to the Middle East. | true | /truth-o-meter/statements/2010/aug/19/ileana-ros-lehtinen/ileana-ros-lehtinen-peter-king-correct-federal-fun/ | As the high-voltage battle over the "Ground Zero Mosque" was raging on Aug. 10, 2010, two Republican lawmakers -- Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and New York Rep. Peter King, the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee -- took aim at the State Department for allegedly footing the bill for foreign travel by the imam behind the proposed center in lower Manhattan. "It is unacceptable that U.S. taxpayers are being forced to fund Feisal Abdul Rauf’s trip to the Middle East," the lawmakers wrote. "Abdul Rauf has cast blame for 9/11 on the U.S., and even refuses to call Hamas what it is –- a Foreign Terrorist Organization. This radical is a terrible choice to be one of the faces of our country overseas. The U.S. should be using public diplomacy programs to combat extremism, not endorse it. The State Department’s selection of Feisal Abdul Rauf to represent the American people through this program further calls into question the Administration’s policy and funding priorities." We're separately looking at other aspects of the controversy here, including some elements of what Ros Lehtinen and King said in their statement. But in this item, we wanted to look at the narrow question of whether the lawmakers were correct that "U.S. taxpayers are being forced to fund Feisal Abdul Rauf’s trip to the Middle East." At an Aug. 10, 2010, State Department briefing, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P.J. Crowley confirmed that a program under the State Department's auspices -- the Bureau of International Information Programs -- is paying for Rauf's trip. "Imam Faisal will be traveling to Qatar, Bahrain, and the UAE on a U.S. government-sponsored trip to the Middle East," Crowley said. "He will discuss Muslim life in America and religious tolerance. ... We have about 1,200 of these kinds of programs every year, of sending experts in all fields overseas. Last year we had 52 trips that were specifically focused on religious -- promoting religious tolerance. We will expect to have roughly the same number of programs this year." On Aug. 18, 2010, Fox News and the Associated Press, citing the State Department, reported that Rauf will be paid $3,000 directly by the U.S. government and that the government will pay for his airfare, lodging and expenses. The total amount for sending Rauf overseas will be roughly $16,000. Crowley noted that this will be Rauf's fourth trip overseas on the government's dime, including two of them under the administration of former President George W. Bush and one earlier this year. "In 2007, he visited Bahrain, Morocco, the UAE and Qatar," Crowley said. "And earlier this year, in January, he also visited Egypt. So we have a long-term relationship with him. You know, his work on tolerance and religious diversity is well-known and he brings a moderate perspective to foreign audiences on what it's like to be a practicing Muslim in the United States. And our discussions with him about taking this trip preceded the current debate in New York over the center." So Ros-Lehtinen is correct that the federal government (and, therefore, U.S. taxpayers) will be funding Rauf's trip to the Middle East. Some commentators have gone a step further by saying the trip is tantamount to a fundraising jaunt for Rauf's center. The Washington Times' editorial page wrote that "by funding the trip so soon after New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission gave the go-ahead to demolish the building on the proposed mosque site, the State Department is creating the appearance that the U.S. government is facilitating the construction of this shameful structure. It gives Mr. Rauf not only access but imprimatur to gather up foreign cash. And because Mr. Rauf has refused to reveal how he plans to finance his costly venture, the American public is left with the impression it will be a wholly foreign enterprise." Crowley, in his Aug. 10 briefing, was asked about the fundraising issue. He knocked down the notion. "It is something that we have talked to him about, and we have informed him about our prohibition against fundraising while on a speaking tour," Crowley said. "We do not expect him to fundraise." We aren't rating this claim, because we don't believe it's provable either way that the trip will offer fundraising opportunities. On the one hand, the government has made clear that fundraising cannot take place during the trip. On the other hand, it's possible that the trip, indirectly, will raise Rauf's profile with people who hear him speak in Qatar, Bahrain, and the UAE and, in the process, ease future fundraising for his planned center. But while we're not taking sides on the fundraising question, we believe that the less-far-reaching statement by Ros-Lehtinen is accurate. U.S. taxpayers are indeed funding Rauf’s trip, as they have his prior two trips to the region. It's worth noting that the decision to sponsor his trip was made before the current controversy became the focus of media attention, and also that Rauf took his first State Department-funded trip during the Bush administration rather than Barack Obama. But none of those facts undercut the statement we checked by Ros-Lehtinen. We rate her statement True. | null | Ileana Ros-Lehtinen | null | null | null | 2010-08-19T14:56:25 | 2010-08-10 | ['United_States', 'Middle_East'] |
pomt-01053 | The economy is "creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999." | true | /truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jan/21/barack-obama/barack-obama-says-us-economy-creating-jobs-fastest/ | President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address was notable for its celebratory language about the state of the economy, following a recovery that was widely considered long and slow. Here’s one of the claims Obama made: "Tonight, after a breakthrough year for America, our economy is growing and creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999." We initially read this to mean that both the economy and the number of jobs had been growing at the fastest pace since 1999. That would have been a problematic claim, since the final figures for growth in gross domestic product in 2014 aren’t in yet. However, when we asked the White House press office for clarification, they responded that the president was making two separate claims -- first, that the economy is growing, and second, that the United States is creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999. The first of those claims is clearly true -- except for one quarter of negative growth in the first quarter of 2014, the economy has been expanding -- but we weren’t sure about the second part. So we decided to take a closer look at Obama’s claim that the economy is "creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999." Looking at job growth over the course of the calendar year We looked at total nonfarm employment from December of one year to December of the next, using official figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Here’s what we found: Time period Total job growth Dec. 1998 to Dec. 1999 3,177,000 Dec. 1999 to Dec. 2000 1,946,000 Dec. 2000 to Dec. 2001 - 1,735,000 Dec. 2001 to Dec. 2002 - 508,000 Dec. 2002 to Dec. 2003 105,000 Dec. 2003 to Dec. 2004 2,033,000 Dec. 2004 to Dec. 2005 2,506,000 Dec. 2005 to Dec. 2006 2,085,000 Dec. 2006 to Dec. 2007 1,140,000 Dec. 2007 to Dec. 2008 - 3,576,000 Dec. 2008 to Dec. 2009 - 5,087,000 Dec. 2009 to Dec. 2010 1,058,000 Dec. 2010 to Dec. 2011 2,083,000 Dec. 2011 to Dec. 2012 2,236,000 Dec. 2012 to Dec. 2013 2,331,000 Dec. 2013 to Dec. 2014 2,952,000 So Obama’s on target: The job growth during calendar year 2014 was higher than any year going back to 1999. Adding some context That said, the current recovery is hardly perfect. There have been three clear periods of job growth over the past quarter century. We looked at the gain in employment between the low point in jobs and the high point (or, for the current period, the most recent month). As this chart shows, these periods of expansion were quite consistent while they lasted. SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics Here’s the breakdown of the three job expansions: Time period Total jobs created Jobs created per month May 1991 - Feb. 2001 24.5 million 207,847 Aug. 2003 - Jan. 2008 8.2 million 152,167 Feb. 2010 - Dec. 2014 10.7 million 181,220 This shows that the current jobs recovery, while more robust and longer than the one from 2003-08, pales in comparison to the one that lasted from 1991-2001. Indeed, it pales in two different ways: The current job expansion has created 13 percent fewer jobs every month on average than the one in the 1990s, and it has so far lasted only half as long. The earlier expansion lasted for almost a full decade. Our ruling Obama said the economy is "creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999." The current jobs recovery isn’t perfect, but Obama is correct that it’s the fastest since 1999. So we rate the claim True. | null | Barack Obama | null | null | null | 2015-01-21T16:21:46 | 2015-01-20 | ['None'] |
pomt-09174 | I've traveled the country advocating for the FairTax ... | mostly false | /georgia/statements/2010/jun/04/tom-graves/linder-says-graves-played-minor-role-fairtax/ | U.S. Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.) and 9th Congressional District candidate Tom Graves seemed to be on the same page regarding their support for the FairTax, particularly since they spoke in favor of the idea at an event in Missouri in June 2009. Not exactly. Graves has been telling supporters and voters about his efforts to work with Linder on the FairTax. "I’ve traveled the country advocating for the FairTax, along with Herman Cain, Neal Boortz and John Linder," Graves, a former state representative, said at an April 23 candidate debate at the Georgia Mountains Center in Gainesville. Linder, who represents Georgia's 7th Congressional District and is retiring at the end of this term, says that's an exaggeration. The congressman took the unusual step of accusing Graves, a fellow Republican, of lying about his efforts to push the idea. Linder even said he "didn't know who [Graves] was or why he was there." "Tom Graves is telling you that he has traveled the nation with John Linder to sell the FairTax. That simply is not true," Linder said in a 30-second robocall on May 27 for Graves’ opponent, Lee Hawkins. The congressman added: "If a candidate is willing to lie to you to get elected, what will you expect from him after he is elected?" The Graves campaign said it is surprised by Linder’s remarks and baffled by Linder's seeming unfamiliarity with the candidate. "It’s kind of bizarre for the congressman to say he didn’t know what he [Graves] was doing there," said Graves campaign spokesman Tim Baker, who added the two men traveled together to the event. We decided to check out how involved Graves has been with Linder to sell the FairTax. First, what is the FairTax? It would abolish all federal personal and corporate income taxes and other taxes, and replace them with a federal retail sales tax, according to the Web site FairTax.org. It essentially is a consumption tax -- the more you buy, the more tax you pay. The FairTax is an important cause to Linder. He’s been advocating the idea for more than a decade and co-wrote a book with Boortz explaining its benefits. Jennifer Drogus, Linder's communications director, said her boss appreciates Graves' support for the FairTax. But Linder felt like Graves exaggerated his role in the effort. We asked Graves campaign officials whether they thought their candidate was exaggerating things a bit by saying he "traveled the country" in support of the idea. "The record speaks for itself," said Baker, the campaign manager. "If you look at the fact, he was there." When asked whether they made other trips to talk about the FairTax, the Graves campaign focused on that Missouri trip as proof that their candidate is correct. Yes, they made a trip halfway across the country. But we think one trip to Missouri does not equate to "traveled the country." We find Tom Graves’ claim is Barely True. Editor's note: This statement was rated Barely True when it was published. On July 27, 2011, we changed the name for the rating to Mostly False. | null | Tom Graves | null | null | null | 2010-06-04T20:22:44 | 2009-06-13 | ['None'] |
pomt-07294 | Next year, "you will be mandated by federal law to get rid of your existing light bulbs." | pants on fire! | /truth-o-meter/statements/2011/may/20/chain-email/conservative-group-claims-new-law-would-require-pe/ | A fundraising letter making the rounds from a conservative political action committee draws a political line in the sand over light bulbs. The letter, circulated by AmeriPAC, a political action committee that largely supports conservative Republican candidates, claims President Barack Obama is "banning" incandescent light bulbs in favor of compact fluorescent lighting. It includes a lengthy letter purported to be written by Ron Arnold of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise Action Fund. "A silly little light bulb is merely a small piece of the larger puzzle of global socialism that he feels is his agenda to enslave the American people -- and to choke Americans from a free enterprise system!" the letter states. The letter seeks contributions and support for S.B. 395, the Better Use of Light Bulbs (BULB) Act, sponsored by Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., which seeks to repeal the light bulb efficiency standards included in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. We're writing about several claims in the letter, but here, we wanted to set the record straight on one of its worst inaccuracies. "Next year your light bulbs will be obsolete," the letter reads. "You will be mandated by federal law to get rid of your existing light bulbs." A few paragraphs later, the letter hits on the same idea, stating, "Next year you will be required to trade in -- whoops...throw away...your trusty incandescent light bulbs so you will supposedly be 'environmentally-safe' with much more expensive Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs)." Sec. 321 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 spells out the new standards for light bulbs, essentially requiring them to be 25 percent more efficient. The idea is that, over time, more efficient light bulbs will replace older, less efficient ones. But there is nothing in the bill that requires you to get rid of the light bulbs you've got. Rather, the bill sets standards for new light bulbs "manufactured or imported" to the United States. Just to be sure, we asked Jen Stutsman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy, who said, "The standards apply to bulbs being imported or manufactured after the standards go into effect." Not only can people keep using their existing bulbs, she said, stores can continue to sell the old ones -- even after the new standards are in place -- until they are sold out. "There are no energy police coming to your home to make you remove your light bulbs," scoffed Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. We asked Arnold of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise Action Fund, who is purported to have penned the letter, about the claim. Initially, Arnold told us "that's probably not a very good way to put that. I could have been more careful with that." Then he said he didn't recall including such a phrase in his letter at all. When we sent him a copy of the letter we received, he said it was "an earlier version that was sent out by AmeriPAC, which had no reason to believe it was wrong in any part." Arnold attached another version of the letter, the one he said CDFE sent out, and it words the claim a little more carefully: "Democrats in Congress have mandated that you must give up using traditional light bulbs all because environmentalists believed that traditional light bulbs caused global warming." But we're fact-checking the earlier version from AmeriPAC because it was widely circulated and spread even further via chain e-mail. The claim that next year, "you will be mandated by federal law to get rid of your existing light bulbs," has no basis in fact. It amounts to a manufactured, baseless charge, and we rate it Pants on Fire. | null | Chain email | null | null | null | 2011-05-20T15:03:29 | 2011-05-16 | ['None'] |
goop-00275 | Brad Pitt Moved Back In With Angelina Jolie And Kids? | 0 | https://www.gossipcop.com/brad-pitt-angelina-jolie-kids-moved-back-in-together-not-true/ | null | null | null | Andrew Shuster | null | Brad Pitt Moved Back In With Angelina Jolie And Kids? | 11:23 am, September 13, 2018 | null | ['None'] |
snes-06356 | Al Gore's residence uses considerably more energy than the average American home. | mixture | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/al-gores-energy-use/ | null | Business | null | David Mikkelson | null | Al Gore’s Home Energy Use | 28 February 2007 | null | ['United_States', 'Al_Gore'] |
snes-00280 | The Roman orator Cicero issued a warning about a nation's being destroyed by "treason from within." | misattributed | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cicero-treason-quote/ | null | Questionable Quotes | null | Dan MacGuill | null | Cicero’s ‘Two Thousand Year Old Warning’ About Treason | 31 July 2018 | null | ['None'] |
goop-00687 | Meghan Markle “Miserable” As A Royal? | 0 | https://www.gossipcop.com/meghan-markle-miserable-royal-life/ | null | null | null | Shari Weiss | null | Meghan Markle “Miserable” As A Royal? | 3:00 am, July 6, 2018 | null | ['None'] |
pomt-11809 | Congressional Republicans "want to take health care from millions of Americans in order to pay for" a tax bill. | half-true | /new-york/statements/2017/nov/16/andrew-cuomo/what-impact-will-eliminating-individual-mandate-ha/ | Republican efforts to reverse portions of the Affordable Care Act are not over yet. A few months after failing to pass a bill repealing and replacing the law, some senators are pushing to add a provision to the tax overhaul bill that would repeal the individual mandate, which requires Americans to have health insurance coverage or else pay a tax penalty. While the repeal provision wasn’t in the original version of the bill released by Senate Republican leaders, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said on Twitter he would introduce an amendment to add it. Democratic critics of both the tax bill and the effort to undo the Affordable Care Act pounced on this development. "Apparently giving a massive tax cut to corporations and the wealthy wasn't enough for the GOP. Now they want to take health care from millions of Americans in order to pay for it," tweeted New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat. See Figure 1 on PolitiFact.com We wondered whether Cuomo was right to say that congressional Republicans "want to take health care from millions of Americans in order to pay for" a tax bill. We found his phrasing misses some important points, including this one: Many Americans would be choosing to give up their health insurance if the individual mandate were lifted. See Figure 3 on PolitiFact.com New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at a news conference on Nov. 2, 2017. (Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News/TNS) Where Cuomo has a point In the tweet, Cuomo linked to a story in The Hill newspaper headlined, "Senate GOP tax bill will include repeal of ObamaCare mandate." The article supports Cuomo’s assertion that savings from eliminating the individual mandate could help offset lower revenues from tax cuts elsewhere in the bill. The general principle is this: The more money an additional tax bill provision saves for the Treasury, the more tax cuts lawmakers can propose without adding more to the deficit. Getting rid of the mandate "will raise an estimated $300 billion to $400 billion … that could be used to pay for lowering individual and business tax rates even further," The Hill article said. The estimate cited in The Hill story originated with an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan office that studies legislative proposals for Congress. The CBO projected that eliminating the individual mandate would reduce the federal deficit by $338 billion over 10 years. The savings would come from a reduction in subsidy payments for people who currently buy insurance on the law’s online marketplaces but would not do so if the mandate was lifted, and from reductions in Medicaid payments. Collectively, these reductions would more than balance out the loss of penalty payments by uninsured Americans, which CBO projected to be $43 billion in 10 years. Meanwhile, the CBO also projected that 4 million fewer Americans would have health insurance in 2019 as a result of the individual mandate being eliminated, which would rise to 13 million in 2027. What Cuomo’s claim doesn’t tell you Cuomo is putting the cart somewhat before the horse. For starters, the provision is already controversial among some senators, including Susan Collins, R-Maine -- one of the GOP senators who sank the previous repeal-and-replace effort and whose support is widely expected to be crucial for passing the tax bill. And even if a Senate bill that includes the individual mandate repeal does pass, the same language appears unlikely to be in the House bill. In remarks to CNBC, House Speaker Paul Ryan said that his chamber would not include the provision in the version it takes up on the floor, though he left open the possibility that it could be included in the "conference committee" version of the bill that attempts to iron out differences between any bills that pass the House and Senate. The bigger problem, however, is Cuomo saying that the GOP will be taking away people’s coverage. In reality, it’s more complicated than that. Some Americans who are only buying insurance today under threat of the mandate will choose to drop their coverage voluntarily. But if this group is healthier than average, as health care economists say is likely, then the people remaining in the insurance pools would be less healthy — and thus more costly to insure. That would increase premiums, potentially squeezing out some people who, all things considered, would have rather kept their insurance. If the mandate is lifted, no one knows for sure how many people will drop their coverage voluntarily and how many will have their insurance stripped against their will. The CBO figures do not drill down into the reasons that people will be uninsured -- just that they will be uninsured. Here’s CBO’s summary (look at the bottom line). See Figure 2 on PolitiFact.com Christine Eibner, a health policy analyst with the RAND Corp., said it’s "reasonable" to argue that the disenrollment from Medicaid would be voluntary, since price would not be a factor for beneficiaries. This would account for 1 million fewer Americans with insurance in 2019 and 5 million fewer in 2027, the bulk of them "voluntary." Eibner said it’s harder to guess about disenrollments from the individual market. (The individual market consists of policies purchased outside the employer-provided insurance market.) In previous research, RAND estimated that roughly two-thirds of disenrollment would stem from voluntary choices and one-third would be due to price increases. Other research has put the percentage at about 50-50, said Linda Blumberg, a health policy specialist at the Urban Institute. Cuomo did say "millions" rather than specifying CBO’s 13 million figure, and even on the lower end, estimates such as these could well produce "millions" of involuntary losses of coverage. But it’s worth remembering that there’s a lot of uncertainty in the numbers. Our ruling Cuomo said that congressional Republicans "want to take health care from millions of Americans in order to pay for" a tax bill. Cuomo has a point that Republicans would be able to increase the size of their tax cuts if they could count on a projected $338 billion in added revenue over 10 years, and ending the individual mandate would result in an estimated 13 million fewer Americans with health coverage by 2027. However, it’s worth pointing out that ending the individual mandate isn’t the same thing as stripping away health insurance away for a large number of Americans. While some would lose access to health insurance due to increased premiums, many others would drop their coverage voluntarily. We rate the statement Half True. See Figure 4 on PolitiFact.com | null | Andrew Cuomo | null | null | null | 2017-11-16T11:54:50 | 2017-11-14 | ['United_States', 'Republican_Party_(United_States)'] |
tron-00255 | Mourners of Suicide Bomber are Darwin Award Candidates | fiction! | https://www.truthorfiction.com/mourners-of-suicide-bomber-are-darwin-award-candidates/ | null | 9-11-attack | null | null | null | Mourners of Suicide Bomber are Darwin Award Candidates – Fiction! | Mar 17, 2015 | null | ['None'] |
pomt-15229 | Wisconsin’s "rainy day fund" is "165 times bigger than when we first took office." | true | /wisconsin/statements/2015/aug/07/scott-walker/scott-walker-says-wisconsin-reserve-fund-165-times/ | One of Gov. Scott Walker's talking points -- a claim about the size of Wisconsin’s budget stabilization fund -- is striking in seemingly contradictory ways. Here is how Walker phrased the claim Aug. 3, 2015 at a presidential candidate forum in New Hampshire: "Our rainy day fund's 165 times bigger than when we first took office." On one hand, "165 times" sounds like a huge increase. On the other, what was the size of the fund if it could be made 165 times larger? So let's dig in a little. To back Walker's claim, the governor's office cited two state reports. They show that the so-called rainy day fund was $1.68 million when Walker took office and now is $280 million. That's more than 165 times bigger. Some history The Wisconsin Legislature created the budget stabilization fund with a 1985 law. No significant deposits were made during the first 20 years of the fund’s existence, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the state’s budget scorekeeper. But the 2001-’03 state budget added a requirement that whenever the state budget runs a surplus, 50 percent of the surplus must be transferred to the fund. So, a governor is required to put money in the rainy day fund whenever there is a surplus; it's not a voluntary act. At the same time, a governor can take some credit for there being a surplus in the first place. There have been three deposits to the rainy day fund as a result of budget surpluses since Walker took office in January 2011: Fall 2011: $15 million. That was a result of a surplus in the final budget of Walker’s predecessor, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle. (The end of that budget, it should be noted, came at the beginning of Walker's term. So, adjustments and actions in the final six months under Walker helped lead to the surplus.) Fall 2012: $109 million. While that was the largest deposit to the fund in state history at the time, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted, it was only enough to run state government for about three days. Fall 2013: $153 million. Those deposits, plus interest earned, put the total in the rainy day fund at $280 million. In 2014, with another surplus projected, Walker proposed a combination of tax cuts and adding another $117 million to the rainy day fund. But the tax-cut legislation he later signed suspended the required contributions to the fund for the 2013-’15 biennium. (The state's fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30.) Had the requirement remained in effect, it would have meant another $113 million in the rainy day fund. Walker instead used the money instead to help cut taxes. Still, there’s no question the fund has grown significantly under Walker. Our rating Walker said Wisconsin’s "rainy day fund" is "165 times bigger than when we first took office." The $280 million currently in the budget stabilization fund is 165 times larger than the $1.68 million when Walker took office. Walker signed a tax cut law in 2014 that contained a provision voiding a requirement that would have put another $113 million into the fund. But that doesn’t change how much larger the fund is.. We rate Walker’s statement True. (Editor's note: After this item was published, a spokeswoman for Walker's gubernatorial office noted that the budget that resulted in the Fall 2001 contribution overlapped with Walker's time in office. The item has been adjusted to reflect that. It does not change the rating.) | null | Scott Walker | null | null | null | 2015-08-07T12:00:00 | 2015-08-03 | ['None'] |
tron-02431 | Vice President Dick Cheney’s view of the military | fiction! | https://www.truthorfiction.com/cheneyletter/ | null | military | null | null | null | Vice President Dick Cheney’s view of the military | Mar 16, 2015 | null | ['None'] |
snes-03337 | The state of Florida is "moving" to undertake a "full recount" of all 2016 general election votes after "massive voter fraud" was uncovered. | false | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/florida-moves-for-full-recount-of-state-votes-over-massive-voter-fraud/ | null | Ballot Box | null | Kim LaCapria | null | Florida Moves for Full Recount of State Votes Over Massive Voter Fraud | 15 December 2016 | null | ['None'] |
pomt-11332 | Walmart rewards everyone with $75 coupon to celebrate its 125th Anniversary | pants on fire! | /punditfact/statements/2018/apr/10/walmis2018-com/walmart-targeted-online-free-coupon-scam/ | If you see an Internet offer from Walmart promising a $75 coupon, know that it’s a scam. A story circulating on Facebook appears to offer a discount in exchange for taking a three-question survey about Walmart. Why? Because, the story says, the mammoth retailer is celebrating its 125th anniversary. First of all, Walmart was founded in 1962. So it’s at least 55, not 125. More importantly for Walmart fans, the offer is not real. Walmart spokeswoman Tara Aston confirmed the scam. "We care deeply about our customers and have procedures in place to help protect them from criminal behavior," she said. "We frequently review our educational and prevention measures and when necessary, take additional steps to better inform our customers about the dangers of scams." Walmart also clarifies on its website cases of fraud in which surveys are listed as potentially suspicious. A legitimate survey from Walmart is only taken on its official website. PolitiFact decided to test out the offer. When clicking on the survey link, we were notified that only 456 coupons remained. (That number didn’t change as we refreshed and revisited the page at different points.) The survey consists of three questions: Have you ever shopped at Walmart? You prefer Walmart because of? Are you satisfied by the services of Walmart? When we finished, we were asked to share the survey with our Facebook friends — the promised coupon never materialized. It wasn’t a bug. It’s just not real. Neither were free Delta and Southwest airline tickets. We rate this scam Pants on Fire. See Figure 1 on PolitiFact.com | null | Walmis2018.com | null | null | null | 2018-04-10T17:14:02 | 2018-04-10 | ['None'] |
pomt-08305 | Paul Workman wants to raise the sales tax. | false | /texas/statements/2010/oct/31/valinda-bolton/rep-valinda-bolton-says-paul-workman-wants-raise-s/ | The run-up to Nov. 2 is full of frightful statements. For instance, a recent political mailer from Rep. Valinda Bolton, D-Austin, that casts GOP challenger Paul Workman as a vampire with a tax scheme that will suck your wallets dry. Flip the mailer over to see a picture of a Jack-O-Lantern bucket filled with money. "Paul Workman's scary sales tax: A treat for politicians and a trick on families." When Bolton's leaflet landed on our desks, we were already reviewing a similar statement from an earlier mailer. In it, Bolton says "Paul Workman wants to raise the sales tax" and that he "admitted that he supports a plan to raise the sales tax dramatically." Both ads cite a Sept. 9 Oak Hill Association of Neighorhoods (OHAN) forum where Workman and Bolton each spoke. When we asked Bolton to back up her statement, her campaign manager, Elizabeth Hartman, sent a campaign document citing both the Republican Party of Texas platform and Workman's remarks at the forum. The Bolton camp's document says that since Workman is listed as a Republican candidate on the Travis County Republican Party website and received campaign contributions from the Republican Party of Texas, "one can assume his positions are in alignment with his party's platform." According to the document, the Texas GOP's platform proposes to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, repeal the 16th Amendment — the one that allows Congress to collect income tax —and implement a national sales tax in place of all other federal taxes. "However, until such time that the income tax is abolished, we support deductions for private and home schooling, home mortgages and sales tax," the party's platform states. On the state level, the party supports abolishing "property taxes for the purpose of funding schools and to shift the tax burden to a consumption-based tax while maintaining or reducing the overall tax burden." The party opposes "all professional licensing fees and real estate and similar transaction fees or taxes," taxes on Internet sales and wants the state to repeal the revised franchise tax. Under the GOP scenario, until property taxes can be abolished property valuations should remain fixed for no less than three years following each revaluation. Currently, property is taxed based on its Jan. 1 market value. Bolton's take-away point: the platform "urges the elimination of property taxes and would have that revenue stream replaced by a consumption-based tax — in other words, a sales tax." From the OHAN forum, the Bolton camp's document quotes Workman saying: "We're not going to get an income tax in this state. It ain't gonna happen, so there's really only two ways to pay for schools. It's either going to be a property tax or it's going to be a sales tax... The only way that I would be in favor of a sales tax is if we eliminated property tax. But if you believe that the state of Texas is the one who is responsible for providing that free education, then the money needs to be collected to the state and then distributed to the school districts in some equitable basis." Workman then says that Texas would need to increase the sales tax by 5 cents for every dollar spent in order to replace the property tax system. The state sales tax is now 6.25 percent, though Texas cities, counties, transit authorities and special purpose districts can impose an additional local sales tax up to a total tax of 8.25 percent. The Bolton campaign's conclusion: "Mr. Workman gave an 'either or' scenario — property taxes or sales taxes... Workman would support his party's plan to reform school funding — to first eliminate property taxes and then to replace them with increased sales tax." On Oct. 19, Workman's campaign issued a press release responding to what it called Bolton's "intellectually dishonest attack." "Workman didn't advocate raising the sales tax at the OHAN forum," the release says. Eric Bearse, a consultant for Workman's campaign later cited another statement Workman made at the forum: "My position is that we will balance the budget by cutting spending," he said. "We will not raise taxes." Lastly, we reviewed an audio recording of Workman's Oct. 12 interview with Austin American-Statesman reporter Kate Alexander. In it, he says: "There's really in my mind only three ways to pay for schools. That's an income tax, a state sales tax, or the current system of property tax plus whatever state revenue. Because we're not going to have an income tax, and I don't know if you can get the people to buy off on a state sales tax in lieu of property tax, so it appears to me that we're liable to be just kicking the can down the road further with no real fair equitable solution to the problem." We'll stop kicking our own can to sum up what we've learned. The state GOP platform, in keeping with the so-called national Fair Tax agenda, advocates replacing current taxes with a national consumption or sales tax. (A bipartisan panel convened under former President George W. Bush estimated that such a scheme would require a sales tax of 34 percent or more.) While Workman doesn't seem to have distanced himself from his party's platform, he has indicated he has practical concerns — like getting "people to buy off on a state sales tax in lieu of property tax." True, going the GOP's preferred school-funding route would require a dramatic increase in the sales tax. Workman said as much at the forum attended by Bolton. He also said he'd favor such a change only if school property taxes were wiped out. Her statement ignores this critical fact, distorting Workman's position. We rate the statement as False. | null | Valinda Bolton | null | null | null | 2010-10-31T06:00:00 | 2010-10-29 | ['None'] |
pomt-05903 | The national debt is equal to $48,700 for every American or $128,300 for every U.S. household. It is now equivalent to the size of our entire economy. | true | /virginia/statements/2012/feb/03/randy-forbes/rep-randy-forbes-says-national-debt-comes-48700-pe/ | U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes is sounding the alarm on the U.S. debt. "The national debt is equal to $48,700 for every American or $128,300 for every U.S. household," Forbes, R-4th, wrote in a January 24 blog post. "It is now equivalent to the size of our entire economy." Those are some eye-catching numbers, so wanted to see if Forbes was right. Forbes is referring to gross national debt -- which includes publicly held debt as well as the amount the government owes trust funds for Social Security and Medicare. The gross debt was about $15.2 trillion on the day the congressman made his statement, according to data from the U.S. Treasury Department. Joe Hack, Forbes’ spokesman, said the congressman used census data to break down the debt load to per-person and per-household shares. Hack referred us to the U.S. Census population clock, which continuously updates the estimated number of people living in the the nation. On Feb. 1, the clock showed the U.S. population was 312.9 million. When you divide the amount the U.S. owes creditors by the population, the national debt equals $48,686. So Forbes, rounding up, is right in saying the debt comes to $48,700 per person. Now, let’s turn to households. There were 118.7 million of them in the U.S. in March 2011, according to the most current Census Bureau estimate. Doing the math, that means the debt per household comes to $128,378 -- just above Forbes’ calculation of $128,300. Still, Forbes is comparing a January 2012 debt figure to a March 2011 household number. We found a sure-fire way to make an updated estimate. The Census 2012 Abstract of the United States shows that the size of the average household was 2.6 people in 1990, 2000 and 2010. So we divided 312.9 million (the Feb. 1, 2012 U.S. population tally) by 2.6, and arrived at 120.4 million households. That would equal $126,585 of debt per household at the of this month -- pretty close to the number Forbes cited. But if the debt comes $48,700 per person, does that mean each individual in the U.S. would end up paying that amount to make the nation whole? Bill Frenzel, a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, said the answer is no. The debt is owed by the U.S. government, which ultimately pays up through its ability to tax, said Frenzel, a former Republican congressman. "We as individual citizens will pay for that debt in quite differing amounts," Frenzel said. Frenzel, the former ranking member of the House Budget Committee, used multi-billionaire Warren Buffett as an example. The overall amount Buffett would pay in taxes would be much higher than Americans of lesser means, he said. Breaking down the debt by person and household creates a "gee whiz" number aimed at grabbing people’s attention, Frenzel said. "The problem is that $15 trillion is such a big number that it doesn’t mean anything to anybody," he added. Patrick Louis Knudsen, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, echoed that sentiment. But he said it would be better to measure debt not by its gross total, but rather by the amount of "publicly-held" debt. "That’s how much the government actually owes to outside entities," Knudsen said. On the day Forbes made his statement, publicly-held debt was about $10.5 trillion. Running the numbers again, that would equal to $33,470 per person or $87,023 per household. Economists have told PolitiFact in recent years that publicly-held debt as well as the gross national debt tally are each valid measures of the nation’s debt load. What about Forbes’ last contention -- that the national debt is equivalent to the size of the U.S. economy? Hack cited data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis showing that the average U.S. Gross Domestic Product -- the market value of all final goods and services produced -- was $15.1 trillion throughout all of 2011. That’s just below the total debt level of $15.2 trillion. The BEA data also shows that for the last three months of last year, the GDP came in at $15.3 trillion. Still, when talking about such large numbers, that’s roughly equal to the size of the national debt. Our ruling: Forbes said the national debt is equal to $48,700 per person and $128,300 per household. He also said the debt is equivalent to the size as the U.S. economy. On all three scores, he’s pretty much on target. We rate the claim True. | null | Randy Forbes | null | null | null | 2012-02-03T11:18:04 | 2012-01-24 | ['United_States'] |
abbc-00256 | The controversy over dual nationality that has engulfed the Australian Parliament since mid-July now involves at least seven politicians from the Government, the Greens and One Nation. | in-between | http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-08/fact-check-the-high-court-and-dual-citizenship-scandal/8874064 | Contrary to Mr Dreyfus's claim, the situation is not cut and dried. In those cases the court said that for a person to be eligible to stand and be elected to Parliament he or she must take "all steps that could reasonably be taken to renounce" any foreign nationality or citizenship. Looking at the facts in isolation, Mr Joyce, Senator Canavan and Senator Nash did not meet that requirement, as all continued to be dual citizens after being elected. But the matter is not black and white: the court has not had to deal with a situation exactly like this one before. In the previous cases, the people in question were not Australians from birth and there was no dispute that they knew that they obtained citizenship of another country at some point in their lives. It is open to the High Court to completely overturn its existing interpretation of section 44(i). Alternatively, the court can add or clarify its existing interpretation to take into account these different circumstances. This is the position conveyed by the Solicitor-General and the legal representatives of Senator Canavan and Mr Joyce at a recent High Court directions hearing. Whether this would constitute a "change" to the existing position is up for debate. | ['constitution', 'laws', 'alp', 'australia'] | null | null | ['constitution', 'laws', 'alp', 'australia'] | Fact check: What does the High Court think about dual nationality? | Fri 10 Nov 2017, 12:20am | null | ['Australia', 'One_Nation_(Australia)'] |
snes-04881 | The likeness of President Obama will be added to Mount Rushmore. | false | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/plan-launches-to-make-obama-addition-to-mount-rushmore/ | null | Politicians | null | Kim LaCapria | null | Plan Launches to Make Obama Addition to Mount Rushmore | 21 April 2016 | null | ['Barack_Obama'] |
pomt-09985 | Already we've identified $2 trillion in deficit reductions over the next decade. | mostly false | /truth-o-meter/statements/2009/apr/21/barack-obama/obamas-claim-deficit-depends-how-you-figure-number/ | President Barack Obama says his 2010 budget is a responsible plan that will reduce the deficit. "Already we've identified $2 trillion dollars in deficit reductions over the next decade," Obama said in a speech at Georgetown University on April 14, 2009. Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer called the $2 trillion number "transparently phony" and a "whopper," and we've seen similar criticisms elsewhere. So we decided to check it out. Keep in mind that the deficit is a number that reflects income minus expenses over the course of a single year. At the end of Bill Clinton's administration, the government had a few years of surplus, but since then it's been running a deficit every year. Each year's deficit gets tacked on to the growing pile of public debt. Obama's budget assumes the government's expenses will continue to exceed its income for the next four years. But it proposes policies that Obama says will make the deficit smaller. He claims the budget cuts the deficit in half over four years (a claim we found Mostly True ) and cuts deficit spending by $2 trillion over 10 years. When you talk about the deficit getting "smaller," though, you have to ask, "smaller compared to what?" The answer: smaller than it would have been without Obama's proposed changes. The reductions depend on looking 10 years into the future and comparing Obama's proposal with what we would have spent if we continued with current policies. These projected numbers of current policies are called the baseline. Obama's critics contend he's inflating the baseline. In particular, they say, Obama claims we would have spent a pile of money on "overseas contingency operations," which means the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama's budget then posits that he wouldn't spend that much money, and he totals up the savings at $1.6 trillion. The numbers get bigger the further into the future we go. In 2019, for example, Obama projects that he will save $187 billion than would have otherwise been spent on those "overseas contingencies." We asked the White House's Office of Management and Budget how it came up with its numbers, but we didn't hear back. We turned to several federal budget experts from across the political spectrum to see if they thought Obama was inflating the baseline. Absolutely, said Brian Riedl, a senior policy analyst with the right-leaning Heritage Foundation. "It's the equivalent to assuming an expensive vacation, then not taking it, and saying you've cut your family's budget," he said. "To claim savings off that baseline is ridiculous." The left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities also looked at the $2 trillion number and found it a bit inflated. Its research said a more realistic number for deficit savings was $900 billion, a little less than half of Obama's estimate. Calculating the baseline can be an honest difference of opinion, said James Horney, the center's director of federal fiscal policy. Obama's budget "does a different thing, but I can't say it's wrong," Horney said. Also, he pointed out, Obama's budget increases revenues by letting the Bush tax cuts expire on people who make more than $200,000 a year for singles or $250,000 for couples. The Obama budget document shows a deficit reduction of $636 billion over 10 years from those tax increases. Obama's critics don't mention his deficit reductions due to the tax increases, Horney said. "They don't tell you the next step, which is that he is still below current policy, because that is driven by ending the tax cuts that they support," he said. We found yet another interesting perspective from the Heritage Foundation's William Beach, the director of their center for data analysis. Beach said that the problem with Obama's budget is that he assumes he can reduce the spending on Iraq and Afghanistan at all. Beach thinks that's highly unlikely. "Everybody who has said we can reduce costs in Iraq has been wrong, whether on the left or the right," Beach said. "Everyone who goes in stays longer than they want to. It's almost like a budget trap over there." "Four years from now, Obama will be as intractably involved in Iraq and Afghanistan as he is today," Beach said glumly. "I hope I'm wrong," he added. So after hearing arguments from both sides, we agree with critics who say Obama is exaggerating his savings estimates. Even Sen. John McCain, Obama's opponent, said during the campaign that he would have brought home most of the troops in 2013 if elected president. So for Obama to estimate costs getting bigger and bigger for a full 10 years is a stretch. On the other hand, it's very difficult to say how much of a stretch it is — after all, we're talking about numbers based on predictions about complex military and global events. In one sense, Obama's statement is true. He has identified $2 trillion in deficit reductions. But presenting a budget figure 10 years out as a solid number is dicey. And people on both ends of the political spectrum say his numbers are exaggerated considerably. And we find it's significant that the estimate from the well-respected, left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is less than half of Obama's. So we find Obama's statement Barely True. Editor's note: This statement was rated Barely True when it was published. On July 27, 2011, we changed the name for the rating to Mostly False. | null | Barack Obama | null | null | null | 2009-04-21T15:47:34 | 2009-04-14 | ['None'] |
tron-01667 | U.S. foreign aid to Ukraine will go to Russia | truth! | https://www.truthorfiction.com/us-billion-to-ukraine/ | null | government | null | null | null | U.S. foreign aid to Ukraine will go to Russia | Mar 17, 2015 | null | ['United_States', 'Ukraine'] |
tron-02328 | Partial ejection from a Navy Jet | truth! | https://www.truthorfiction.com/partialeject/ | null | military | null | null | null | Partial ejection from a Navy Jet | Mar 17, 2015 | null | ['None'] |
snes-01772 | The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that Hurricane Florence had airlifted several sharks. | false | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hurricane-now-contains-sharks/ | null | Fauxtography | null | Dan Evon | null | Does Hurricane Florence Now Contain Sharks? | 7 September 2017 | null | ['None'] |
pomt-13749 | Unemployment numbers "are artificial numbers. These are numbers that are massaged to make the existing economy look good, to make this administration look good when, in fact, it's a total disaster." | pants on fire! | /truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jul/25/donald-trump-jr/donald-trump-jr-says-unemployment-rates-are-manipu/ | Are the unemployment numbers being manipulated to make the Obama administration look good? That was the contention of Donald Trump Jr., son of the Republican presidential nominee, during the July 24 edition of CNN's State of the Union. Trump was making a point frequently made by his father — that the official unemployment rate is lower than it should be because it doesn't take into account the people who would like a job but have stopped looking. "The way we actually measure unemployment is after x number of months if someone can't find a job, congratulations, they're miraculously off," he said. "That doesn't count" in the calculation. "These are artificial numbers," Trump continued. "These are numbers that are massaged to make the existing economy look good, to make this administration look good when, in fact, it's a total disaster. ... Those are the people we want to put to work" He's correct that the widely-reported unemployment number doesn't capture the full employment picture. But for this check, we'll talk about whether the numbers are massaged to make the economy look better than it is. We've looked at the issue before with Donald Trump Sr. when he claimed the "real" rate was 18 to 20 percent (False) or may be as high as 42 percent (Pants on Fire). The unemployment rate is developed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics based in part on data from interviews of about 60,000 households conducted by the Census Bureau As Trump Jr. indicated, it only includes people who have recently looked for a job. But that's the way it's consistently been done for decades. Alternative methods have their own limitations. Allegations of manipulation When we asked for evidence that the numbers are distorted for political reasons, Trump campaign spokesman Dan Kowalski referred us to a 2013 New York Post story alleging that the Census Bureau "faked" the sharp drop in the September 2012 unemployment rate just prior to the election that gave Obama a second term. The story's only identified source was a Census employee, Julius Buckmon, who told the Post that his superiors had told him to make up interviews that serve as the basis for the statistic. Two problems: Buckmon had left the bureau by 2012, and he told the paper he was never told to sway the statistic in favor of Obama. As we reported in 2013, even a worker who made up interviews wouldn't be able to pull enough statistical weight to significantly affect the unemployment rate for any month. A typical worker handles data from 35 to 55 of the 60,000 or so households surveyed. And the bureau routinely double-checks its findings by having households re-interviewed by a different person in an attempt to look for inconsistencies that might point to manipulation. The Office of the Inspector General at the Commerce Department concluded in May 2014 that there was "no evidence" that the numbers had been manipulated in the runup to Obama's reelection, especially when other sources confirmed the trend. The report said: "It would have taken 78 Census Bureau Field Representatives working together, in a coordinated way, to report each and every unemployed person included in their sample as 'employed' or 'not in labor force' during September 2012" to produce that kind of manipulation. Since then, unemployment has continued to fall. Artificial numbers? Other experts joined Baker in dismissing the younger Trump’s allegation about the standard unemployment rate. "The same basic definition of the unemployment rate has been used (with minor changes) going back almost all the way to World War II, under both Republican and Democratic administrations," said Gary Burtless, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. "This measure has been consistently produced following the same basic methodology in the U.S. and copied around the world for over 50 years," said Tara Sinclair, an economist at George Washington University. And what about Trump's complaint that the numbers are skewed by not including people who have given up looking for work? Sinclair said the BLS tries to track that through a variation of the unemployment rate known as U-6, or the "underutilization" rate. This version includes people who have stopped looking for work but say they would start if the market improved, people working part-time because they can't get full-time work, along with the people included in the standard unemployment rate. By it's nature, the U-6 rate is higher. The June rate was 9.6 percent compared to the conventional unemployment rate of 4.9 percent. But that estimate has its limitations as well. It doesn’t count recent graduates who never entered the labor market in the first place because they feared there would be no jobs for them, and it doesn’t count people who chose to take care of their kids full-time, went back to school or retired early to avoid having to compete for a job. By that statistic, the economy is not as healthy as the conventional unemployment estimate would indicate. Casey Mulligan, professor of economics at the University of Chicago, said it's fair for the younger Trump to dispute the standard unemployment rate as an indicator of economic performance because the labor market has not gained the type of strength you would expect with the current unemployment rate. It's a question of which BLS data to use "rather than the competence of the BLS per se," he said. But Harvard University government professor Jeffrey Frankel said the important thing "is to be consistent across time in which measure you use. It wouldn't be right to switch from looking at the conventional rate to a measure that includes discouraged workers just because you don't like the incumbent president and want to make things look bad for him." Other experts were more blunt. Trump’s comment "is a reprise of the same nonsense his father floated a few months ago. It is yet another conspiracy theory that the Trumps have grabbed onto," said Neil Buchanan, a George Washington University law professor. The limitations of the unemployment number are well known, he said. "Everyone who reads an article in a decent newspaper about the employment picture each month reads about discouraged workers, part-time workers, and so on." "There are plenty of grounds for us nerd-types to complain about the accuracy of the BLS numbers," said Dean Baker, co-director of the left-leaning Center for Economic Policy and Research in Washington. "No survey is perfect and there will always be issues with how a survey is conducted and questions are posed. But the idea that BLS cooks numbers is beyond ridiculous." Our ruling Trump Jr. said that unemployment numbers "are artificial numbers. These are numbers that are massaged to make the existing economy look good, to make this administration look good when, in fact, it's a total disaster." The economists with whom we spoke said Trump is wrong to question the integrity of the federal unemployment data. The method of developing the estimates have been used for decades, their limitations are widely recognized, other economic indicators have confirmed their reliability, and there's no evidence that they have been massaged for political purposes. Because his claim is in the realm of the ridiculous, we rate it Pants on Fire! https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/5ff3b1f3-79ac-4f4e-bce9-8a10cc1ddcfa | null | Donald Trump Jr. | null | null | null | 2016-07-25T13:37:49 | 2016-07-24 | ['None'] |
vees-00294 | New study says fake news production goes beyond money | none | http://verafiles.org/articles/new-study-says-fake-news-production-goes-beyond-money | null | null | null | null | fake news,disinformation architects,Jonathan Ong,Jason Cabañes | New study says fake news production goes beyond money | February 06, 2018 | null | ['None'] |
pomt-01551 | Over 40 of our 100 (House of) Delegates seats go uncontested every year, and over 40 percent of our state senate seats go uncontested every year. | mostly true | /virginia/statements/2014/sep/14/robert-sarvis/sarvis-says-over-40-percent-virginias-general-asse/ | Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Robert Sarvis says the two-party system leads to a lot of one-candidate elections. In a speech at the Buena Vista Labor Day Festival, Sarvis said voters need more choices, particularly in General Assembly elections. "Over 40 of our 100 (House of) Delegates seats go uncontested every year, and over 40 percent of our state senate seats go uncontested every year," Sarvis said. With all General Assembly seats up for election next year, we put Sarvis’ statement to the Truth-O-Meter. Nicholas Cote, spokesman for the Sarvis campaign, said the claim was based on election data compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project. The records examine general elections going back to 1999 and show the number of uncontested statehouse elections. All seats in the 100-member House are up for grabs every two years. Cote accurately noted that in the last eight elections, an average of 49.75 seats House seats were uncontested. That would be in line with Sarvis’ proclamation that more than 40 House of Delegates seats are one-candidate elections. All seats in the 40-member Senate are up every four years. And Cote correctly noted that an average of 17.25 Senate seats were uncontested in the last four elections. That’s an average of 43 percent per election, Cote said, consistent with Sarvis’ claim. But Sarvis didn’t phrase his statement as an average. He said "every year" more than 40 percent of the seats in each chamber weren’t contested. So we have to look at each election year individually. Here are the number of uncontested seats in biennial House elections since 1999, according to returns from the state Board of Elections: 2013 -- 45 2011 -- 63 2009 -- 31 2007 -- 59 2005 -- 51 2003 -- 61 2001 -- 40 1999 -- 48 Sarvis’ claim that "over" 40 seats went uncontested each cycle doesn’t hold up for 2009 and -- because it’s our job to be sticklers -- in 2001. Here are the number of uncontested seats in quadrennial Senate elections since 1999: 2011 -- 14 2007 -- 17 2003 -- 19 1999 -- 19 Remember, the Senate has 40 members. Sarvis’ claim that more than 40 percent of the seats went uncontested each cycle sputters in the latest election, in 2011, when 35 percent the races had no competition. Virginia’s not the only place where a significant percentage of state legislature races go uncontested each election year. An October 2012 study from the College of William and Mary found that 39.7 percent of the 6,000 statehouse races across the country that year lacked competition between major party candidates. The study examined the 44 states that had legislative races that year. Virginia wasn’t included because it holds General Assembly races in odd-numbered years. The study said legislative redistricting -- in which lawmakers draw election maps and usually fashion safe districts for themselves -- discouraged competition for statehouse seats. That would carry over to Virginia, where lawmakers control redistricting, according to John J. McGlennon, a professor of government at the College of William and Mary who co-authored the report. McGlennon said another factor deterring competition is that Virginia’s statehouse races occur in years when there are no presidential or congressional races. That means down-ballot candidates for the state legislature can’t ride a coattail effect into office, he said. Our ruling Sarvis said "every year" more than 40 percent of House and Senate seats have only one candidate. Election figures generally back Sarvis. The only blip is that during a few years -- 2011 for the Senate, as well as 2009 and 2001 for the House -- the number of uncontested races didn’t quite hit the threshold Sarvis cited. His point is basically correct but could use some additional information. We rate it Mostly True. | null | Robert Sarvis | null | null | null | 2014-09-14T06:00:00 | 2014-09-01 | ['None'] |
pomt-10819 | The Republican governor who stood up and cut spending instead of raising taxes. | half-true | /truth-o-meter/statements/2007/sep/21/mitt-romney/define-tax-increase/ | This claim depends on your definition of a tax increase. As governor of Massachusetts, elected in 2002, Romney inherited a $3-billion state budget shortfall. And it's true that the budget problem was fixed without raising state income taxes. But Romney closed loopholes in the corporate income tax, which effectively increased taxes for some companies. And he and the legislature did increase a myriad of fees, on such things as boat registrations and court filings, which some might consider tax increases. Also, state payments to cities and towns for schools and police were reduced, which caused those local governments to increase property taxes. The Club for Growth, a conservative political action committee that pushes for spending cuts and tax cuts, evaluated Romney's fiscal record: "Overall, Romney's record on tax policy is mixed. His record is marred by questionable statements and positions and his fee hikes and 'loophole' closures are troubling." We will note that the Club for Growth applauded Romney for supporting broad-based tax cuts. We find his claim that he "cut spending instead of raising taxes" to be only half of the story about how he dealt with the state's financial crisis. | null | Mitt Romney | null | null | null | 2007-09-21T00:00:00 | 2007-09-21 | ['Republican_Party_(United_States)'] |
pomt-07047 | Says that as a gubernatorial candidate, Chris Christie "promised no school cuts." | true | /new-jersey/statements/2011/jul/01/stephen-sweeney/new-jersey-senate-president-stephen-sweeney-says-w/ | Democrats and Republicans made many promises during the 2009 gubernatorial campaign, but did Chris Christie vow not to slash aid for the state’s public schools? State Senate President Stephen Sweeney claims he did. "The governor, who as a candidate promised no school cuts, was well aware that his draconian cuts to education were illegal," said Sweeney (D-Gloucester) in a May 24 press release following the New Jersey Supreme Court’s latest ruling on school funding. The court said the state had to send $500 million in additional funding to 31 urban school districts known as Abbott districts. PolitiFact New Jersey questioned Sweeney’s claim about Christie. As governor, Christie cut school funding -- he withheld $475 million in aid in 2010 and slashed $820 million in funding from the current budget.. But did he promise to maintain school funding during his campaign? We initially found some conflicting evidence, but then the governor admitted that he had made that promise. Derek Roseman, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats, sent us to two news reports to support Sweeney’s statement: an Asbury Park Press article dated Jan. 9, 2010 that said Christie "promised not to cut state aid to local school districts" and another report from the newspaper dated Oct. 14, 2009 that reported Christie "would keep local education funding flat for the year, saving the planned $500 million increase" in state aid. PolitiFact New Jersey searched newspaper archives and found more contradictory reports, some saying he would cut the aid; others saying he wouldn’t. The governor’s office did not return two requests for comment. The conflicting evidence had the Truth-O-Meter jammed, but the governor himself made a statement that tipped its scales. During a question and answer session on June 28, after the governor signed legislation overhauling public employee benefits, Christie responded to a question about a campaign promise not to change pensions for law enforcement officials. "When I got here I found circumstances to be different than the governor was characterizing them when I ran. When you are a candidate, what you are restricted to is what the current occupant of the office will tell you about the circumstances surrounding the fiscal state of New Jersey. Gov. Corzine told us that fiscal year '11 was going to be a $6 to $7 billion deficit. It turned out to be $11 billion," he said. "So, I made a lot of other promises. I also said that I wouldn't cut education aid in fiscal year 2011, but when a $6 or $7 billion budget deficit turns into a $11 billion deficit and you don't have the option to print money, you got to make a lot of decisions." Now, let’s return to Sweeney’s statement. Sweeney said Christie promised during his campaign that he would not cut school funding. The spokesman for the Senate Democrats provided conflicting evidence to support Sweeney’s claim and PolitiFact New Jersey found even more conflicting evidence in news reports. However, Christie himself recently said he promised not to cut school aid while he was a candidate. We can’t argue with that. We rate Sweeney’s statement True. To comment on this ruling, go to NJ.com. | null | Stephen Sweeney | null | null | null | 2011-07-01T05:00:00 | 2011-05-24 | ['None'] |
tron-00548 | Chili’s Donating to Planned Parenthood | outdated! | https://www.truthorfiction.com/chilis-donating-planned-parenthood/ | null | business | null | null | ['abortion'] | Chili’s Donating to Planned Parenthood | Jan 27, 2017 | null | ['None'] |
pomt-07346 | During the Eisenhower Administration, "not a single soldier … died in combat." | false | /truth-o-meter/statements/2011/may/10/doris-kearns-goodwin/doris-kearns-goodwin-says-no-us-combat-deaths-unde/ | During the May 8, 2011, edition of NBC’s Meet the Press, historian and author Doris Kearns Goodwin offered a striking statistic about combat casualties under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Host David Gregory began the exchange by playing a video clip from Robert Kagan, a foreign policy scholar and commentator who has advised several Republican office-holders. "The American people," Kagan said, "have an interesting quality in their character which you can trace all through their history. They want their presidents to be men of peace, but they also want to know that, if necessary, the American president can kill." Gregory asked Goodwin whether she thought Kagan had a worthwhile point in analyzing President Barack Obama’s recent success in ordering the killing of al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden. "I think that's right," Goodwin said. "I mean, think of two of our most lovable presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, what was his slogan? Speak softly and carry a big stick. This was a big stick. Eisenhower, having won World War II, could then take enormous pride in the fact that not a single soldier had died in combat during his time. So I think what happened in this thing is, it's not just the public perception of Obama that's strengthened now because he acted as commander in chief, but you never know what happens internally to a president when they take a risky thing and it works. JFK took control of his presidency after the Cuban missile crisis. This guy will now take control of his presidency. I think he's going to be able to trust his own judgment even more than the military, and that's huge psychologically. And America feels better again. I mean, that's the huge thing that we don't know about how long that will last. But our prestige and our sense of ourself is now heightened for a while, and everybody wants that." We thought we’d look into whether Goodwin was correct that "not a single soldier … died in combat" during the Eisenhower presidency. We knew that Goodwin’s claim had problems when we checked the starting and ending dates of the Korean War. It was an active conflict through the signing of a truce on July 26, 1953. Since Eisenhower was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 1953, he served as commander-in-chief for the final six months of the war. His presidency ended on Jan. 20, 1961. The final six months of the Korean war included a battle that became emblematic of the war -- the Battle of Pork Chop Hill. The battle produced many casualties at a time when the powers were negotiating an armistice, even though the battle was fought to control a topographic feature that had little inherent value. In his book The Korean War, Max Hastings wrote that the battle reflected both the "courage of the defenders and the tactical futility" of that stage of the war. How many casualties were there during those six months? We didn’t find any official government data with casualties separated by year, but we did find a private collection. The veteran-supported Korean War Project has a website that offers day-by-day casualty figures for the war. So we looked at the figures for the first six months of Eisenhower’s presidency and found 3,406 casualties. Casualties, however, include non-combat deaths and non-mortal wounds, not just combat deaths. So we took casualty ratios for the entire Korean War and determined that combat deaths accounted for 24 percent of casualties. Multiplying this percentage by the number of casualties produces 802 combat deaths during Eisenhower’s six months in charge. (The total for the war was almost 34,000.) The figure we came up with isn’t exact, but it seems safe to assume that combat deaths during that period numbered in the hundreds. In addition, Eisenhower was president during the start of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. At the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall, the names of the fallen begin with Air Force T-Sgt. Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr., with a casualty date of June 8, 1956. The number of casualties in Vietnam remained much smaller than the number during the final part of the Korean War. The first battlefield fatality came in late 1961, almost one year into the Kennedy Administration. Eisenhower also presided over some small-scale military deployments in or near Taiwan, Lebanon and Cuba, and he was president during the Suez crisis of 1956. But we were unable to confirm any casualties for these events. Meanwhile, a lower-profile source of U.S. casualties stemmed from covert operations related to the Cold War. "Eisenhower ordered a wide array of covert operations against the Soviet Union and Communist China, including clandestine overflights of both countries, during his two terms, and some of those missions involved American deaths," said Lance Janda, a historian at Cameron University in Lawton, Okla. "The deaths were generally kept secret and did not occur during declared wars or major operations known to the public, and for that reason a scholar might argue they technically do not fall into the ‘combat death’ category. But I would find that line of reasoning extremely suspect. Eisenhower ordered Americans into harm’s way in support of the national interest, and their deaths therefore fall very clearly in my view under his responsibility as commander-in-chief." All this means Goodwin’s statement is incorrect. She’s "wrong, and not just technically so," said William W. Stueck, a historian at the University of Georgia. When we contacted Goodwin, she immediately acknowledged her error. "What I was reaching for when I talked was a more general point -- which is accurate -- that the general who had overseen major battles in a time of war was basically a man of peace during his presidency, thus fitting the idea that Americans love men of peace who can also kill," Goodwin said. "That would have been a better way of putting it!" Goodwin does have a point. After the shooting war on the Korean peninsula had ended -- a war that Eisenhower had inherited and which he ended within six months-- Eisenhower did preside over a relatively peaceful seven and a half years, particularly compared to his two immediate predecessors (Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman) and two of his three successors (Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon). "Eisenhower was extremely skillful when it came to foreign policy and military affairs," Janda said. "He was extraordinarily judicious in his application of American power, negotiating severe crises over Indochina in 1954, the Taiwan Strait in 1955, and Suez in 1956, which could easily have led to massive U.S. intervention and/or the use of nuclear weapons. He was also a powerful proponent of covert operations and diplomacy during one of the most difficult periods of the Cold War and the president who argued most forcefully of the dangers posed by the military-industrial complex. He should be celebrated for those achievements, but not by overstating the facts." We agree that Goodwin’s broader point is reasonable, and we appreciate her quick acknowledgement of error. Still, she made a pretty clear-cut mistake: Hundreds of combat deaths is a number vastly greater than saying that "not a single soldier had died in combat" under Eisenhower. So we rate her statement False. | null | Doris Kearns Goodwin | null | null | null | 2011-05-10T12:02:53 | 2011-05-08 | ['None'] |
snes-02190 | Andrew Lincoln Death | false | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/andrew-lincoln-death-hoax/ | null | Junk News | null | Kim LaCapria | null | Andrew Lincoln Death Hoax | 23 February 2017 | null | ['None'] |
snes-00225 | In 1943 the Supreme Court ruled that no one can be forced to participate in patriotic rituals such as the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem, so calling for NFL players to be fired for "taking a knee" in protest amounts to calling for the law to be broken. | mixture | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/supreme-court-rule-1943-patriotic-rituals/ | null | Legal Affairs | null | David Emery | null | Did the Supreme Court Rule in 1943 That No One Can Be Forced to Participate in Patriotic Rituals? | 13 August 2018 | null | ['None'] |
pomt-09887 | Health insurance companies are "making record profits, right now." | false | /truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jul/23/barack-obama/health-insurance-company-turned-profit-not-rec/ | President Barack Obama has often argued that health insurance companies need more competition, and he's proposed a public option for health insurance to provide it. "There have been reports just over the last couple of days of insurance companies making record profits, right now," Obama said during a prime-time news conference. "At a time when everybody's getting hammered, they're making record profits, and premiums are going up. What's the constraint on that? ... Well, part of the way is to make sure that there's some competition out there." We wanted to know if he was correct that insurance companies are making record profits during one of the worst economic recessions on record. It seems likely that Obama was referring to the latest earnings report from UnitedHealth Group, one of the largest publicly traded health insurance companies. The day before Obama's news conference, UnitedHealth had announced unexpectedly robust profits that prompted the company to revise its annual earnings guidance upwards. There are many ways to look at a company's earnings, but Obama said "profits," so we looked at net income, which is revenue minus expenses. For the quarter, UnitedHealth earned $859 million. But that's not a record for quarterly net income. During the same period in 2007, for example, its net income was $1.23 billion. We reviewed the income statements of the other largest publicly traded health insurance companies — WellPoint, Aetna, Cigna, Humana and Coventry Health Care — and found similar trends. Generally speaking, profits were higher during 2007 and 2006, before the economy began its slide. So Obama's modifier "record" does not appear to be correct. Of these companies, only UnitedHealth has announced its second quarter earnings. Coventry Health Care is set to announce earnings on July 28; Aetna and WellPoint on July 29; Cigna on July 30 and Humana on Aug. 3. Still, UnitedHealth did make healthy profits, and we asked Steve Shubitz, a health care financial analyst with the investment firm Edward Jones, about it. "The profits are still significant, there's no question about that. But the reality is they're losing a lot of customers in this economy," Shubitz said. When companies lay off workers and the workers lose their health insurance, the insurance companies lose customers, and that's why UnitedHealth has seen declining enrollments, he added. If UnitedHealth only offered insurance to companies, "they would not have had a very good quarter because of the numbers of customers they've lost," Shubitz said. But UnitedHealth has diversified, and its business with the government health programs Medicare Advantage and Medicaid performed well, as did divisions that handle pharmaceuticals and health information technology. Shubitz added that the stock prices for health insurance companies are not as high as one might expect, because of impending efforts at health reform. "There are so many different possibilities of what can happen," said Shubitz, who also follows WellPoint and Aetna and has "hold" recommendations on all three. "A lot of this uncertainty is already priced into these stocks." Getting back to our ruling, we wonder if Obama was simply remembering a story he'd read in the paper that day and puffed it up a bit. One health insurance company did report unexpected profits. But it's not clear yet whether others will. And the profits UnitedHealth reported were not "record profits." We find his statement False. | null | Barack Obama | null | null | null | 2009-07-23T18:53:01 | 2009-07-22 | ['None'] |
pomt-14149 | Missouri "is the state with the lowest paid workers." | half-true | /missouri/statements/2016/may/02/kiki-curls/missouri-state-senator-half-right-pay-states-worke/ | Following a Missouri Senate Budget Committee hearing about Medicaid coverage, Sen. Kiki Curls claimed on April 4 that Missouri "is the state with the lowest paid workers." We decided to see how Missouri's workers compare to the rest of the country. Curls' office didn't respond to our requests for the background information behind her claim. We see three ways to read her words. She might be talking about all workers, just private sector workers, or possibly, just state government workers. We examined all three. All Workers The latest numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show the average weekly wage for all workers in Missouri is $846. This number places Missouri 31st and well above the state with the lowest paid workers, Mississippi, where workers make an average weekly wage of $706. Private Sector BLS reports show that in Missouri the average weekly wage in the private sector is $851. The national average is $965 per week. This ranks Missouri in the bottom half of all states, but far from having "the lowest paid workers." Public Sector The BLS also reports the average weekly wages for state workers. In the third quarter of 2015, Missouri's state government employees made an average weekly wage of $803. This puts Missouri dead last of all the states. The national average weekly wage is $1,083 for state government employees, more than $200 over Missouri's average. Our Ruling Sen. Kiki Curls claimed that Missouri "is the state with the lowest paid workers." We don't know if she meant all workers, workers in the private sector or state government workers. For any analysis that includes private sector employees, Missouri ranks closer to the bottom than the top, but it does not rank last. Missouri does hold the distinction of having the lowest paid state workers, based on their average weekly wages. That's enough to make her statement partially accurate. We rate this claim Half True. | null | Kiki Curls | null | null | null | 2016-05-02T10:25:06 | 2016-04-04 | ['None'] |
pomt-02965 | About 47 percent of able-bodied people in the state of Maine don’t work. | pants on fire! | /truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct/23/paul-lepage/maine-gov-paul-lepage-says-47-percent-able-bodied-/ | Maine’s Republican governor, Paul LePage, has a history of making controversial comments, from telling the NAACP that the group can "kiss my butt" to charging that a Democratic legislative leader "claims to be for the people but he’s the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline." Recently, LePage made another comment that has attracted national attention. On Oct. 22, 2013, a blogger for the Bangor Daily News posted an audio clip from a speech LePage made in Falmouth, Maine. Here’s what the blogger wrote: "Informed that the event was wrapping up, LePage said he had two more points to make. The first was just one word: ‘energy.’ The second was, he said, in reference to ‘workforce development.’ "‘About 47 percent of able-bodied people in the state of Maine don’t work,’ said LePage. "On the recording you can hear a member of the audience ask, ‘What?’ LePage repeats himself. ‘About 47 percent. It’s really bad.’" The blog post inspired a flurry of media attention, in part because LePage’s comment echoed the one from the 2012 presidential campaign in which Republican nominee Mitt Romney said that 47 percent of the American people are "dependent upon government." Romney’s comment was widely considered a blunder that hampered his bid for the White House. But what about the substance of LePage’s remark? Was he correct that "about 47 percent of able-bodied people in the state of Maine don’t work"? The strength or weakness of Maine’s labor market isn’t out of the mainstream; the unemployment rate in August 2013 was 7.0 percent, putting it in a six-way tie for 22nd place nationally. We contacted LePage’s press office for supporting evidence, but no one responded. A spokeswoman for LePage did send Huffington Post a statement, saying in part that "the governor understands that not everyone who is dependent on taxpayer dollars is 'able-bodied,' but he does believe that everyone, regardless of their ability or physical condition, can contribute to society in a meaningful way." The Census Bureau found that Maine’s estimated population in 2012 was 1,329,192. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that in August 2013, Maine had 659,059 people employed. So by the roughest calculation, Maine had 670,133 people not working, or about 50 percent. This number would suggest that LePage is in the ballpark. But calling this a "rough" calculation is too kind. It’s actually a silly way of calculating it. First, doing it this way suggests that everybody -- no matter how old or young -- should be working. The numbers change dramatically if you exclude Maine residents up to age 18 and over 65 from the statistics. In 2012, Maine’s 18-to-64 population was 836,898. Using this as the denominator means that about 21 percent of Maine residents were not working. What about LePage’s reference to "able-bodied people"? The Census Bureau has estimated that in 2011, Maine had 101,000 people aged 18 to 64 who have a "health problem or disability which prevents them from working or which limits the kind or amount of work they can do." If you subtract this group, then there were 735,898 "able-bodied people" age 18 to 64 in Maine, and only 10 percent of them were not working. Finally, in August 2013, there were 49,966 unemployed people in Maine. These are people who have looked for work recently but have not found it. If you add these to the number of employed Maine residents, then just 3.6 percent of able-bodied Maine residents aged 18 to 64 are neither working nor actively looking for employment. That’s far off from the 47 percent LePage claimed. It’s possible to quibble about the specifications we’ve used, said Gary Burtless, an economist with the Brookings Institution. For instance, you could get a bit closer to LePage’s 47 percent figure if you counted 16- and 17-year olds or people up to age 74, who have been working in growing numbers in recent years. Still, Burtless said, "even if you tried to include all the ‘able-bodied’ Maine residents past 65 in your calculations, I'm pretty confident you'd find Gov. LePage's claim to be ridiculous." Our ruling LePage said that "about 47 percent of able-bodied people in the state of Maine don’t work." Unless LePage thinks newborns and nonagenarians ought to get off their tushes and find a job, this is a ridiculous claim. In reality, only about 10 percent of able-bodied Maine residents aged 18 to 64 aren’t employed. And if you include those who are actively looking for work but who can’t find a job in today’s poor economy, the figure drops as low as 3.6 percent. We rate LePage’s claim Pants on Fire. | null | Paul LePage | null | null | null | 2013-10-23T13:06:59 | 2013-10-14 | ['None'] |
tron-02428 | “It’s Not About Sex”-an open letter to Bill Clinton from a veteran | truth! | https://www.truthorfiction.com/notaboutsex/ | null | military | null | null | null | “It’s Not About Sex”-an open letter to Bill Clinton from a veteran | Mar 17, 2015 | null | ['Bill_Clinton'] |
tron-00030 | New Jersey’s First Muslim Mayor Vows to “Glorify Allah” in Every Decision | fiction! | https://www.truthorfiction.com/new-jerseys-first-muslim-mayor-vows-to-glorify-allah/ | null | 9-11-attack | null | null | null | New Jersey’s First Muslim Mayor Vows to “Glorify Allah” in Every Decision | Nov 13, 2017 | null | ['None'] |
goop-02765 | Robert Pattinson “Twilight Curse” Real, | 1 | https://www.gossipcop.com/robert-pattinson-twilight-curse-real/ | null | null | null | Andrew Shuster | null | Robert Pattinson “Twilight Curse” NOT Real, Despite Report | 1:54 pm, May 30, 2017 | null | ['None'] |
hoer-00463 | Woman Claims She is Daughter of Marilyn Monroe and JFK | statirical reports | http://www.hoax-slayer.net/fake-news-woman-claims-she-is-daughter-of-marilyn-monroe-and-jfk/ | null | null | null | Brett M. Christensen | null | FAKE-NEWS: Woman Claims She is Daughter of Marilyn Monroe and JFK | February 28, 2016 | null | ['None'] |
pose-00469 | The Bush administration has invested only a small fraction of the $6 billion that transportation officials have said is necessary to implement needed security improvements. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that this critical hole in our homeland security network must be addressed. | compromise | https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/489/seek-more-funding-for-transportation-security/ | null | obameter | Barack Obama | null | null | Seek more funding for transportation security | 2010-01-07T13:27:00 | null | ['Joe_Biden', 'Barack_Obama', 'George_W._Bush'] |
pomt-05089 | The transportation tax is regressive, and Emory University is "literally getting its own transit line at virtually no cost to itself." | half-true | /georgia/statements/2012/jul/02/georgia-green-party/transportation-tax-opponents-says-emory-gets-free/ | Georgia voters will decide on a series of regional transportation plans in the July 31 primaries that could bring as much as $8.5 billion in new spending to metro Atlanta alone. The money would come from a special 1-cent sales tax dedicated to dozens of road, rail and other projects. The plan has a lot of support from the business community, but groups across the political spectrum oppose it. For example, the left-leaning Georgia Green Party has circulated a list of the "top ten lies" about the referendum, including a claim that the projects are giveaways to rich businesses and institutions at the expense of working people who would pay the "regressive" tax. The flier specifically mentions a proposed $700 million MARTA rail spur from the Lindbergh Center station to the Emory University campus. "Sales taxes [are] highly regressive, falling most heavily on low income consumers, much more lightly on higher income persons and almost not at all on big corporations and other wealthy institutions like Emory University, which is literally getting its own transit line at virtually no cost to itself," the flier claims. If the referendum passes, the 3.7-mile rail line is scheduled to be built along the Clifton Corridor around 2020. Hugh Esco, a member of the state Green Party committee, said the line is an example of the problem with using sales taxes to fund infrastructure projects. "We’re being asked to pony up ... to pay for this new construction," he said. "If there were no other mechanisms for raising funds, that might be appropriate." Esco said the rail line to Emory is an example of working-class people subsidizing a benefit for a wealthy institution. As a nonprofit, private university, Emory does not pay sales tax, so the university itself will not contribute to building the line. "This is insane to ask us to pay for this nonsense. This isn’t serving the general public," he said. Let’s split the Green Party claim into its two basic parts: -- Sales taxes are regressive and place a heavier burden on the poor. -- Because the line is built with sales tax money, big business and institutions such as Emory are getting something for nothing. Georgia State University economist David Sjoquist said the regressiveness of the sales tax depends on how you look at it. "Conventional wisdom is that if you look at annual income, people with lower income pay a higher percentage of their income in sales taxes," he said. In that sense, the Green Party is right that the sales tax is regressive. A 1 percent sales tax on groceries means more to a person making $18,000 a year than someone making $180,000 a year. The Green Party claims that big businesses pay almost no sales taxes. That’s not true. Sjoquist said businesses account for between 35 percent and 40 percent of sales tax collection in Georgia. "They buy a computer, a desk, food for parties, they pay sales tax," he said. "They are paying a share of this." But he said businesses have a choice when paying that tax to either eat it or pass that cost along. Except in highly competitive situations, sales taxes that businesses pay end up being passed down to the consumer in higher prices or to employees in lower wages, he said. Sjoquist said the inequities of the sales tax tend to flatten out over a consumer’s lifetime due to changes in how people of even modest incomes spend and save, but he said people typically don’t look at it that way. That gets to the Green Party’s second point: The proposed line to Emory is a freebie catering to a wealthy private university. While it may be true that Emory -- as an institution -- would not pay the sales tax (private colleges are specifically exempt), Douglas Hooker, executive director of the Atlanta Regional Commission, said another funding mechanism might make little difference. "Large institutions that are nonprofits tend not to pay any kind of tax, so this is no different," he said. But it is not true that Emory has nothing invested in the effort. Hooker said the university is a member of the Clifton Corridor Transportation Management Association, which funded the design of the rail spur. That design work costs money, but it is just a tiny fraction of the cost of building it. So, if Emory doesn’t pay into the sales tax, is it true the university would get its "own transit line"? According to a project fact sheet developed for the referendum, the line would have five stations with an estimated 10,300 daily boardings. Emory spokesman Ron Sauder said the line would serve people heading to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, among other big employers. Emory is by far the largest of the employers in the corridor, plus it has more than 7,200 students in its undergraduate programs alone. Emory would likely claim a large share of the ridership on the rail line. But not all of it. Sauder said Emory already operates a shuttle bus fleet and subsidizes public transit fees for employees, but the line isn’t "just about Emory." ARC spokeswoman Julie Ralston said this: ""That’s the largest employment center in DeKalb County. Those are jobs that contribute to the livelihoods of people. It’s been part of an aspirational plan for a long time to have rail in that area." So where does that leave the Green Party’s two-barreled statement? There is general agreement that the sales tax is more of a burden on lower-income people than people with higher incomes, businesses and nonprofit institutions. But there is also evidence that the proposed rail line is not simply a paean to Emory University. Half the Green Party statement is true; the other half, not so much. We rate the Green Party claim Half True. | null | Georgia Green Party | null | null | null | 2012-07-02T06:00:00 | 2012-07-02 | ['None'] |
pomt-02693 | The Obama administration offered "no magic number" of people that needed to sign up for health care on the marketplaces. | mostly false | /truth-o-meter/statements/2014/jan/05/gene-sperling/obama-economic-adviser-gene-sperling-says-theres-n/ | What botched rollout? That was so 2013. Talking points from President Barack Obama’s advisers are pointing to something new about Obamacare, something that sounds good: About 2.1 million people signed up for health insurance plans through the federal and state marketplaces. NBC’s Meet the Press host David Gregory posed a key follow-up question to Obama economic adviser Gene Sperling during the Jan. 5 show: Is the progress good enough for the administration to meet its original goal? "2.1 million have signed up. The goal is 7 million by March. How do you think you realistically get there?" Gregory said. "Well, first of all, there’s no magic number," Sperling said. "The key is to enroll as many people, have an exchange that’s working, have a stable exchange ..." "The secretary of Health and Human Services said that was success, 7 million by March," Gregory said. "I think success is having an ongoing, strong market," Sperling said. PolitiFact wanted to know: Is Sperling trying to rewrite the past by saying Obama had "no magic number" for the number of people that need to sign up for coverage by the end of open enrollment in March? (We offer a hat-tip to our friend The Fact Checker of the Washington Post, which recently visited this topic after White House health care adviser Phil Schiliro made a similar denial on MSNBC.) The 7 million mark There were at least two times Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the official Obama appointed to oversee the agency in charge of implementing Obamacare, referred to 7 million as the mark. The number, though, didn’t come from her. The figure originated with the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which analyzes the impact of legislation. In February 2013, CBO estimated 7 million people would sign up for health insurance through the federal and state marketplaces starting in October through the end of March, the deadline to enroll and avoid a tax penalty. By 2024, enrollment in the marketplaces would be 24 million, CBO said. Sebelius offered cautious optimism about the target for enrollment in a June press briefing and pointed out the sheer size of the risk pool is not the only concern. "We're hopeful that 7 million is a realistic target and that we're going to be driving our efforts toward that kind of enrollment effort," she said. "And it's both about numbers and also hopefully getting a balanced risk pool." A Politico story covering her appearance opened with, "For Obamacare the magic number is 7 million." A leaked Sept. 5 memo from another high-ranking HHS official, Marilyn Tavenner, to Sebelius outlined the department’s month-by-month projections for enrollment. Drawing on the estimates from CBO, as well as "the experience of Commonwealth Care in Massachusetts, Medicare Part D, and conversations with employers, issuers and states," Tavenner wrote that she expected marketplace enrollment to start at a slow pace but ramp-up in December and March, the months with deadlines. Tavenner’s memo anticipated 3.3 million people to have enrolled by Dec. 31, rising to 7.066 million by March 31. Remember, the estimates and targets from CBO and Tavenner happened before healthcare.gov made its dysfunctional debut. That was not part of the equation. On Sept. 30, the night before the exchanges opened, NBC Nightly News aired an interview with Sebelius in which a reporter asked her, "What does success look like?" "I think success looks like at least 7 million people having signed up by the end of March 2014," Sebelius said. The next few weeks were not pretty, to say the least. The online federal marketplace wasn’t ready, with big kinks preventing lots of people from buying plans. Some people, like Wonkblog’s Ezra Klein, argued CBO’s estimates should be tossed because October and November were lost months. The Obama administration considers someone to be "enrolled" if they select a plan, not necessarily if they paid for it. Data is not yet available for people who paid a first month’s premium to their insurers. Couching it HHS and White House spokespeople directed us to recent statements by administration officials whose answers about the 7 million goal mirror Sperling’s. For example, senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said on ABC’s This Week on Nov. 3, "Well, that’s a goal that the CBO said is what they thought would happen. Our goal is to get as many people done as possible." The position, said HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters, has been the mix of people is more important than the number. She pointed to Sebelius’ June comments and a late November post by Klein, who said White House officials told him as he reported a July story they defined success as "a function of the mix of people in the exchanges -- the ‘ratio’ -- rather than the number of people in the exchanges." The administration made plans for a marketing campaign aimed at signing up young adults who tend to be healthier and uninsured. A good health mix in each risk pool is crucial to control costs, and sick people who require more care "are most likely to sign up and do so early," said Gail Wilensky, an expert on the health care law who was the director of Medicaid and Medicare under President George H.W. Bush. At this point, we don’t know much background about the enrollees, such as health and payment status. Obama’s officials are not backtracking so much as they are "realizing that factors are coming into play that weren’t expected," said Timothy Jost, a Washington and Lee University law professor who is an expert on the law. "I really think it’s still possible by March to get 7 million," Jost said, adding that it’s "meaningless" that there are not as many people signed up by the end of the year as once projected. Other experts, such as Stan Dorn, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, have been quoted as saying the federal marketplace will function properly even with as low as 2 million enrollees. "Everyone's been trumpeting this 7 million target," Dorn told USA Today. "I think they can fall well short of it and still be on their way to a very successful program." Our ruling Sperling denied the administration had a "magic number" for how many people it wanted to see enrolled through the exchanges for health insurance coverage. No one knows how many people need to sign up to make the health care law work. And Sperling has a point that the mix of individuals signing up is likely more important than the raw number. But the Obama administration has used a number -- 7 million by March -- in the past. There’s no denying that. We rate this claim Mostly False. | null | Gene Sperling | null | null | null | 2014-01-05T16:41:24 | 2014-01-05 | ['Barack_Obama'] |
snes-04623 | Pat Robertson asserted the Orlando nightclub shooting was God's punishment for legalizing same-sex marriage. | false | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pat-robertson-orlando-shooting/ | null | Junk News | null | David Mikkelson | null | Pat Robertson: “Orlando Shooting Is God’s Punishment for SCOTUS’ Same-Sex Marriage Ruling” | 12 June 2016 | null | ['God', 'Orlando,_Florida', 'Pat_Robertson'] |
mpws-00014 | Here’s what the Minnesota Republican Party wants to do with the state’s nearly $1.9 billion surplus: Give it all back to Minnesotans. The party hasn’t detailed how it proposes to do that. But during a press conference to launch the party’s “Give it all back” ad campaign, party chair Keith Downey said that Democrats have overtaxed Minnesotans. “Democrats raised taxes $2 billion, it creates a surplus of nearly $2 billion in this budget, and a $3 billion surplus in the following biennium,” he said. | misleading | https://blogs.mprnews.org/capitol-view/2015/03/poligraph-gop-ties-surplus-to-tax-cuts/ | null | null | null | Catharine Richert | null | PoliGraph: GOP ties surplus to tax cuts | March 12, 2015, 5:00 AM | null | ['Democratic_Party_(United_States)', 'Republican_Party_of_Minnesota', 'Minnesota'] |
tron-01891 | Breast cancer can be caused by underarm antiperspirants | disputed! | https://www.truthorfiction.com/breastcancer/ | null | household | null | null | null | Breast cancer can be caused by underarm antiperspirants | Mar 16, 2015 | null | ['None'] |
goop-00685 | Brad Pitt Relapsing Because Neri Oxman Dumped Him? | 0 | https://www.gossipcop.com/brad-pitt-relapse-dumped-neri-oxman/ | null | null | null | Shari Weiss | null | Brad Pitt Relapsing Because Neri Oxman Dumped Him? | 9:56 am, July 6, 2018 | null | ['None'] |
vees-00310 | In a speech Aug. 29, Duterte announced the creation of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC): | none | http://verafiles.org/articles/vera-files-fact-check-anti-graft-body-not-operation-five-mon | PACC is not yet in operation, Palace spokesperson Harry Roque in a media briefing Jan. 9, said: | null | null | null | Duterte,Harry Roque,corruption | VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Anti-graft body not in operation five months since Duterte’s urgent vow | January 11, 2018 | null | ['None'] |
pomt-11272 | Says of disclosing his $20,000 speech about Syria, "there was no hiding. I released it." | half-true | /ohio/statements/2018/apr/26/dennis-kucinich/dennis-kucinich-said-he-didnt-hide-payment-syria-s/ | When Dennis Kucinich amended his financial disclosure to show that he was paid by a pro-Syrian government group, it set off a firestorm in the Democratic primary for Ohio governor. Former Gov. Ted Strickland, who supports Kucinich’s main rival Richard Cordray, accused Kucinich of trying to hide the $20,000 payment. "The fact that Dennis intentionally omitted his ties to these despicable individuals speaks volumes, I think, and it shows he knew these relationships were problematic," Strickland said during a conference call with reporters arranged by the Cordray campaign. In 2017, Kucinich was paid by the Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees to give a speech in England at an event hosted by the European Centre for the Study of Extremism. The California-based association is the parent of the Syria Solidarity Movement, which says it takes no sides about Bashar Hafez al-Assad but appears sympathetic to the Syrian president. Kucinich disputed Strickland’s characterization that he hid anything in an interview with Cleveland radio talk show host Mike Trivisonno. "There was no hiding," Kucinich said April 10. "I released it," adding, "I released the information. There’s no hiding here. I’ve never hid anything in my life." Time for PolitiFact to weigh in. Did Kucinich hide who paid him for a $20,000 speech about Syria? Kucinich’s speech has become a hot topic in the crowded Democratic May 8 primary for governor. Kucinich was asked to amend his financial disclosure On his April 9 financial disclosure form, Kucinich listed "paid speeches." Ohio Ethics Commission Executive Director Paul Nick sent Kucinich an April 13 letter asking him to identify the source of the paid speeches. Most filers must list every source of income and briefly describe the services they provided, according to the instructions. Kucinich provided additional information to the commission showing that he was paid $20,000 by the Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees. He also wrote that he received $10,000 from Nexus Earth and $3,000 from author Marianne Williamson. Kucinich said he went beyond the disclosure requirements. "I instantly not only said who I spoke to but I also said what the amount was, which I wasn’t required to do," he said in the radio interview. The amount of income is only required in some cases, such as if they were providing services to a lobbyist. Kucinich said that he should have included who paid him on his first filing. "I made a mistake," he said. "It was an omission. It was an error, but it wasn’t deliberate." Syria Solidarity Movement appears pro-Assad Kucinich has said that the conference was about peace. He posted an abstract of his 2017 speech, in which he said the West can’t impose its will on Syria. "The Syrian people, who are not unanimous on the question of President Assad, are resolute in protecting their way of life, which includes free education and free health care, while supporting the Assad government from a military overthrow which would destroy Syria." Paul Larudee, a steering committee member of the Syria Solidarity Movement, told PolitiFact that it doesn’t support Assad or any candidate. "We have no position on whether Assad should remain in power, and neither should the U.S. or your organization or anyone who is not Syrian," he said. "This is for Syrians to decide without interference or outside pressure." The Syria Solidarity Movement tries to cast doubt that Assad used a chemical attack and suggests the majority of Syrians support the Assad government. It includes articles with headlines such as "Voices from Syria: Assad is Essential for Syria’s Unity & Security." It calls for the West to not intervene and accuses human rights groups such as Doctors without Borders and Amnesty International of false allegations about the government in Syria. Robert S. Ford, former ambassador to Syria during the Obama administration and a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, told PolitiFact he is certain that the Syrian government used chemical weapons. Ford said the Syria Solidarity Movement appears to be"vehemently pro-Assad government, denying regime war crimes." "They are trying to discredit the harder-line opposition (secular and Islamist both) while recommending that the world accept the Russian-mobilized Succhi dialogue process," he said. "That process aims to keep Assad now in return for promise of reforms at some later date." Kucinich has faced criticism in the past for meeting with Assad in 2017. His spokesman said that he held "fact-finding missions to find a way to end the violence." While in Congress, he opposed entering into war in Iraq and other military incursions. In April, Trump ordered a missile attack on Syria following reports that Assad’s regime used chemical attacks. Kucinich criticized that attack, stating that it "puts the U.S. on a path of military escalation with Russia, which opens wide the possibility of further miscalculations, errors or accidents that can ignite a world war." Our ruling Regarding his $20,000 speech about Syria, Kucinich said, "there was no hiding. I released it." But Kucinich initially listed "paid speeches" on his campaign financial disclosure form with no further detail. When the Ohio Ethics Commission asked him to identify the source of payments, Kucinich provided the commission with a list of the entities that paid him to give speeches, including $20,000 from the Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees. So Kucinich initially omitted the information, but disclosed it when asked to do so by a state commission. He also admitted that he made an error by not initially disclosing the source of who paid him for the speech. We rate this claim Half True. See Figure 1 on PolitiFact.com | null | Dennis Kucinich | null | null | null | 2018-04-26T11:49:35 | 2018-04-19 | ['Syria'] |
pomt-09018 | The company I created, Point Judith Capital, "is the only venture capital firm in Rhode Island." | true | /rhode-island/statements/2010/jul/09/gina-raimondo/raimondo-says-hers-only-venture-capital-company-rh/ | In her quest to become general treasurer, Democrat Gina Raimondo is stressing her Rhode Island roots and her financial experience. In a YouTube video available through her website, she talks about wanting to come back to the state to start a business. "I wanted to create a company, create a business, in Rhode Island. I could have chosen to put it elsewhere, but I wanted it in Providence. So I came home and created it. It's called Point Judith Capital, and it's the only venture capital firm in Rhode Island. I'm very proud of what we've built." Venture capitalists are people who raise money from entities such as private investors and public pension funds, and then invest it in start-up companies, hoping for a big return if those companies take off. It's a risky proposition, which is why there are not a lot of them around. But we thought Rhode Island had others besides Point Judith. So we called Richard G. Horan, senior managing director of the Slater Technology Fund, which also gives money to start-up companies. It turns out that there are other groups in Rhode Island that serve a similar function, but they are not truly venture capital firms in the strict sense, which supports Raimondo's claim. "There are others engaged in venture investment, but they have a different orientation," said Horan. Slater, for example, is publicly funded. It was created by the state in 1997 to stimulate the creation of new companies that focus on technology and is financed annually by the General Assembly. The Slater Fund typically invests up to a million dollars in "seed" money at the earliest stage of a company's development, with the expectation that a traditional venture capital firm, such as Raimondo's, will make a play to be involved in the company and provide the next round of funding. Another class, known as angel investors, also provides start-up money for promising businesses. They are represented in the state by the Cherrystone Angel Group. "They tend to be individual investors acting like investment clubs" and think of themselves as being in a separate class from venture capital firms, said Horan. Peter Dorsey, executive director of Cherrystone, agreed, explaining that his group, with 50 members, differs from a venture capital firm because it is not a committed fund, not professionally managed and doesn't have a paid staff. Finally, people often think of private equity firms, such as Providence Equity Partners, as being involved in venture capital, but they invest only in mature companies, he said. Providence Equity, for example, specializes in enterprises that deal with media, communications and information. So both Dorsey and Horan agree with Raimondo, who told The Providence Journal on Jan. 20 that she would quit Point Judith Capital if she is elected. Point Judith is "the one capital venture fund based here in Rhode Island," Horan said, adding that, "We need more. The Rhode Island entrepreneurial community would benefit greatly if other firms like Point Judith were established and operating here." So we rate Raimondo's claim as True. | null | Gina Raimondo | null | null | null | 2010-07-09T06:00:00 | 2010-07-01 | ['Rhode_Island'] |
chct-00035 | FACT CHECK: Do Only 12 Percent Of UN Member States Allow Gay Marriage? | verdict: true | http://checkyourfact.com/2018/10/10/fact-check-12-percent-un-gay-marriage/ | null | null | null | Brad Sylvester | Fact Check Reporter | null | null | 11:19 AM 10/10/2018 | null | ['None'] |
snes-06127 | Home remedies to repel mosquitoes are effective ways to defend yourself from West Nile Virus. | false | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/repel-tell/ | null | Old Wives' Tales | null | David Mikkelson | null | Mosquito Repellent Lore | 3 January 2005 | null | ['None'] |
faan-00004 | “This government committed to ending fossil fuel subsidies.” | factscan score: misleading | http://factscan.ca/jagmeet-singh-fossil-fuel-subsidies/ | The commitment to end fossil fuel subsidies appears in a 2015 statement by leaders of the Group of 20 countries including Canada under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and an earlier G20 statement from a 2009 summit. Implementing the G20 commitment is also in the Liberal election platform from 2015. The commitment, however, is about phasing out fossil fuel subsidies over the medium term to 2025. | null | Jagmeet Singh | null | null | null | 2018-09-13 | June 23, 2018 | ['None'] |
hoer-01166 | Emirates Air Free Flight Tickets | facebook scams | https://www.hoax-slayer.net/emirates-air-free-flight-tickets-scam-again-hitting-facebook/ | null | null | null | Brett M. Christensen | null | Emirates Air Free Flight Tickets Scam Again Hitting Facebook | February 16, 2016 | null | ['None'] |
faly-00008 | Claim: FDI equity flow has gone up by 47%. | false | https://factly.in/fact-check-has-india-been-attracted-more-fdi-in-the-last-few-years/ | Fact: The claim is very vague and the available data does not corroborate this number. Hence the claim is FALSE. | null | null | null | null | Fact Check: Has India attracted more FDI in the last few years? | null | null | ['None'] |
snes-01091 | Of the six U.S.-based Nobel science laureates in 2017, all were immigrants; every U.S.-based laureate in 2016 was also born outside the country. | mostly false | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/immigrants-nobel-prize/ | null | Science | null | Dan MacGuill | null | Did Immigrants Dominate the U.S. Nobel Prize Tally in 2016 and 2017? | 31 January 2018 | null | ['United_States'] |
pomt-09951 | Judge Sotomayor has said "that policy is made on the U.S. Court of Appeals." | half-true | /truth-o-meter/statements/2009/may/26/republican-national-committee-republican/rnc-claims-supreme-court-nominee-sonia-sotomayor-s/ | On the day President Barack Barack Obama announced Sonia Sotomayor as his Supreme Court nominee, many conservative opponents seized on a Sotomayor statement they say revealed her as someone who thinks judges make laws. While Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele struck a measured pose — saying Republicans would "reserve judgment on Sotomayor until there has been a thorough and thoughtful examination of her legal views" — the RNC also sent around a talking points memo to the press and hundreds of influential Republicans that claimed "Judge Sotomayor has also said that policy is made on the U.S. Court of Appeals." And Wendy E. Long, counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, called Sotomayor a "liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important than the law as written. She thinks that judges should dictate policy." The conservative blogosphere is full of similar sentiments, all based on the Sotomayor statement, "The Court of Appeals is where policy is made." So we decided to take a look at the context of Sotomayor's statement. It came during a presentation at Duke University in February 2005. Sotomayor was one of three judges who participated in a panel discussion for law students thinking about applying to be judicial law clerks. Snippets of Sotomayor's comments have been popular on YouTube; see the full, unedited video here (the pertinent part starts around the 43-minute mark). Sotomayor was asked about the differences between clerking for judges in the federal district courts as opposed to those in federal appeals court. "The Court of Appeals is where policy is made," said Sotomayor, a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. "And I know this is on tape and I should never say that because we don't make law. I know … I know. (some laughs) I'm not promoting it. I'm not advocating it. I'm … you know. Okay. (more laughs) "Having said that, the Court of Appeals is where, before the Supreme Court makes the final decision, the law is percolating. It's interpretation. It's application." So keep in mind the audience and the question here, said Tom Goldstein, a partner at Washington law firm Akin Gump and the founder of ScotusBlog, a widely read blog on the Supreme Court. Goldstein watched the full video, and simply sees it as Sotomayor noting that in comparison to district court judges, "there's more policy involved" in the appeals courts. "The truth of the matter is, in the court of appeals, they are dealing with gaps and ambiguities in the law," Goldstein said. There's a lot for judges to interpret. Appeals court judges often have to make a call when a statute is unclear. In a sense, the policy is set by those calls made by the judges, even if they don't want to. To use that one line from Sotomayor to paint her as an activist judge is misleading, he said. "She's not a sweeping visionary ideologue in any way," Goldstein said. "Conservatives who are genuinely concerned about the direction of the Supreme Court, they are sort of grasping at straws here. That's an awful lot to put on one sentence." David Garrow, a historian who follows the Supreme Court, agrees. There has always been two schools of thought on the role of judges, Garrow said: those who see the law almost as an academic exercise, trying their best to mechanically apply the law; and the legal realists, who believe interpreting the law involves making choices, discretion. "What she (Sotomayor) said there is simply the honest version of what any judge knows and realizes," Garrow said. But "you're not really supposed to acknowledge it on the record." It's unfair to extrapolate that comment to suggest Sotomayor would mandate policy, he said. "To anyone who knows the intellectual history of judicial decisionmaking, she's just being honest, not activist," Garrow said. In short, the quote in question is the first line of a larger discussion about the differences between clerking for a district court rather than an appeals court judge. And Sotomayor goes on to detail those differences. In full context, it's clear that she is making the point that there are more decisions about interpreting and applying policy at the appeals court level. To the extent that the RNC raises the point to suggest it means she would be an activist judge on the Supreme Court, we think that's misleading. Sotomayor even noted that judges don't make law, that she was talking about interpreting and applying it. And so we rule the RNC's statement Half True. | null | Republican National Committee | null | null | null | 2009-05-26T16:39:22 | 2009-05-26 | ['Sonia_Sotomayor'] |
pomt-05158 | More than 43 percent of all food stamps are given to illegals. | pants on fire! | /truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jun/19/facebook-posts/facebook-post-says-more-43-percent-all-food-stamps/ | A reader recently sent us a Facebook post with "10 Illegal Alien Facts." One of them was that "more than 43 percent of all food stamps are given to illegals." We decided to take a look -- and quickly found the claim was preposterous. In March 2012, the most recent month for which figures are available, a total of 46.4 million people received food stamps, so 43 percent of that number would be slightly less than 20 million. For obvious reasons, the numbers of illegal immigrants is much trickier to track. However, the most widely accepted number comes from the Pew Hispanic Center, which estimated that there were 11.2 million illegal immigrants in the United States in 2010. So it’s mathematically impossible for more than 43 percent of all food stamps to be given to illegals -- there simply aren’t enough undocumented immigrants in the country to make the math work. Nor does the math work if you choose a month before the number of food stamp recipients rose due to the recession. In October 2008, there were 30.8 million recipients; 43 percent of that number is 13.2 million, which exceeded the total number of illegal immigrants at the time, 11.6 million. None of this even takes into account an even more basic reality: It is against the law for Illegal immigrants to receive food stamps and the government has a process to verify immigration status. Citizen children of illegal immigrants can qualify (there are 3.5 million, according to Pew) but that's not enough to make the math work. Is it possible some illegal immigrants receive food stamps anyway? Sure. But even if every single one somehow managed to fool the government, it still wouldn't be enough to account for the 43 percent. Our rating The first of the Facebook post’s 10 claims -- that "more than 43 percent of all food stamps are given to illegals" -- is ridiculously false. It isn’t mathematically possible given the number of illegal immigrants in the United States, and it ignores the fact that illegal immigrants can’t even receive food stamps legally. Pants on Fire! | null | Facebook posts | null | null | null | 2012-06-19T11:29:01 | 2012-06-18 | ['None'] |
goop-00378 | Kourtney Kardashian, Travis Barker Still Dating, | 0 | https://www.gossipcop.com/kourtney-kardashian-travis-barker-dating-untrue/ | null | null | null | Shari Weiss | null | Kourtney Kardashian, Travis Barker Still NOT Dating, Despite Speculation | 3:01 pm, August 27, 2018 | null | ['Kourtney_Kardashian'] |
pomt-10081 | And 100 percent, John, of your ads . . . 100 percent of them have been negative. | pants on fire! | /truth-o-meter/statements/2008/dec/03/barack-obama/no-mccains-ads-havent-all-been-negative/ | (Published Oct. 15, 2008) One of the more pointed exchanges between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain in the third and final debate on Oct. 15, 2008, was over the topic of negative ads. Here’s how one exchange went: Obama: "And 100 percent, John, of your ads — 100 percent of them have been negative." McCain: "It’s not true." Obama: "It absolutely is true." (You can find the exchange on the YouTube version about 26:30 into the debate.) Obama appears to be cherry-picking the ads run during a single week — from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4 — during which the Wisconsin Advertising Project found "nearly all" of McCain’s ads were negative. That week, they found that 34 percent of Obama’s ads were negative. But McCain has aired many, many ads that were not negative. If you look at a report from the same organization on Sept. 17, they found that in the week after the conventions, for example, Obama aired a higher percentage of negative ads than did McCain (76 percent to 56 percent). In all, the Wisconsin Advertising Project has found that 73 percent of McCain’s ads have been negative, to date. That's far short of 100 percent. (It also found 61 percent of Obama’s ads have been negative.) That’s up for both parties from the 2004 election, when 64 percent of George Bush’s ads were negative, compared to 34 percent of John Kerry’s. So Obama might be right for one week, but he is way off for the overall campaign, when McCain's negative ads accounted for 73 percent. That's so far off that we find it Pants on Fire wrong. | null | Barack Obama | null | null | null | 2008-12-03T00:00:00 | 2008-10-15 | ['None'] |
faan-00055 | “The oil sands are about two per cent of GDP.” | factscan score: true | http://factscan.ca/elizabeth-may-oil-sands-two-per-cent-of-gdp/ | It is true the oil sands contribute a direct two per cent to Canada’s GDP, a figure that comes from Statistics Canada. This figure does not include any indirect contributions of the oil sands to related sectors, like construction and finance. By one estimate, the GDP share could rise to six or seven per cent by including indirect contributions in jobs and investment in related sectors. | null | Elizabeth May | null | null | null | 2015-10-01 | ugust 6, 2015 | ['None'] |
snes-04988 | A 101-year-old Italian woman gave birth after an ovarian transplant. | false | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/101-year-old-mom-gives-birth/ | null | Junk News | null | Kim LaCapria | null | Did a 101-Year-Old Woman Give Birth After an Ovarian Transplant? | 30 March 2016 | null | ['Italy'] |
pomt-06640 | $360 million of our tax dollars went straight to ... the Taliban. | mostly true | /florida/statements/2011/sep/15/alan-grayson/alan-grayson-says-360-million-taxpayer-dollars-wen/ | Democratic ex-congressman Alan Grayson is talking about the Taliban again. The first time -- when he not-so-subtly compared his opponent in the 2010 election to the Taliban -- didn't work so well. See, previous paragraph (i.e., ex). But Grayson is back, preparing to run for Congress after losing to Republican Dan Webster. In an e-mail to supporters (subject line: "Iraq: I Did My Part") on Sept. 1, 2011, Grayson wrote about the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, which released its final report on prevalent waste and fraud among taxpayer-paid contractors in those countries. The bipartisan commission determined the U.S. government lost between $31 billion and $60 billion to waste and fraud as a result of ineffective oversight of contract spending. Grayson elaborated in his e-mail: "In fact, $360 million of our tax dollars went straight to ... the Taliban. Wow. Who could have imagined that? Well ... me." The rest of Grayson's note details how he revitalized a Civil War-era law that allows people to file lawsuits in the name of the federal government, a move that attracted attention from the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and Wall Street Journal (he included links). He wrote that he voted against the wars, was a vocal opponent of them while in office and provided breakdowns of the war's toll on taxpayers. His point? He did something against the wars. But did he also make a false claim? Of all his figures, his statement that the United States sent $360 million "straight to the Taliban" was the most striking. It didn't take long to turn up what he was talking about. Grayson was referencing an Aug. 16, 2011, story by the Associated Press that preceded the commission's in-depth report. The AP reported that an investigation by a military task force found that $360 million in taxpayer money meant to strengthen Afghanistan's economy ended up going to "the Taliban, criminals and power brokers with ties to both." It happened through a process called "reverse money laundering." The AP explained it like this: American money starts out clean as it is given to companies hired by the military for transportation, construction, fuel and other projects. But the funds become "tainted" -- landing in the hands of crime groups and the Taliban -- either by direct payments or through the network of subcontractors. The Taliban and insurgent groups only reaped a "small percentage" of this $360 million, an anonymous Kabul-based military official told the AP. Most of the money was lost to profiteering, bribery and extortion by criminals and power brokers. About half of the lost money stemmed from a large transportation contract called Host Nation Trucking, comprised of eight prime companies that hired nearly three dozen subcontractors to transport supplies to U.S. troops in Afghan bases. Those subcontractors then paid off insurgents or warlords who control the roads. The task force found that one of the prime contractors, HEB International Logistics, made direct payments to "malign actors," the designation given to the network of corrupt Afghan government and business officials, criminals and insurgents. The work of the military task force ran "parallel" with the research of the wartime contracting commission, commission spokesman Clark Irwin said. But the military's findings have not been publicly made available (at least as far as we can tell). The wartime contracting commission's report, however, is a publicly available document. That report does not peg a specific dollar figure on moneys lost to the Taliban and other criminal groups. It notes, however, that extortion of U.S. transportation and construction project money is the second-largest source of revenue for insurgent groups, behind the drug trade (pages 73-4). From the report: "In Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. funds have been diverted to insurgents and warlords as a cost of doing business in the country. In Afghanistan, insurgents, warlords, or other groups control or contest parts of the country. They threaten to destroy projects and harm personnel. The Commission finds it particularly alarming that Afghan subcontractors on U.S.-funded convoys, road construction, and development projects pay insurgent groups for protection." We asked the member of the commission who wrote that excerpt and an expert on the issue, University of Baltimore government contracting professor Charles Tiefer, for his opinion on Grayson's statement. There was no unclassified amount for money diverted to the Taliban until recently, Tiefer said, but the $360 million figure is credible based on information he gained while on a trip to Kandahar in March and the commission's conclusions. "That figure is consistent with it being the insurgent's second-largest funding source," he said, noting that finding a precise number would be nearly impossible. Tiefer went on to compliment Grayson, saying he "was among the first lawyers to discuss publicly the scale of contracting waste in Iraq -- I never talked to him but I read what he had to say -- so, I think he has more right than most congressmen to pronounce on this issue." Grayson, reached by e-mail, said he received further information on the subject from military briefings during his time in Congress, congressional delegation trips and several whistle-blower clients who worked for contractors in Afghanistan, "none of which, unfortunately, I am allowed to share with you, except to say that the figure is corroborated," he wrote. Here's what we know: Grayson correctly quoted a figure from a national story about U.S. money being diverted to "the Taliban, criminals and power brokers with ties to both." A member of the Commission on Wartime Contracting -- and an expert in the field of government contracting -- found this information credible based on extensive research. But Grayson's statement comes with two minor caveats. He said that tax dollars went "straight to ... the Taliban." The process is actually more complicated and involved a type of money laundering. And the money went to bad actors other than the Taliban in some cases. Those are noteworthy clarifications and enough to rate Grayson's statement Mostly True. | null | Alan Grayson | null | null | null | 2011-09-15T12:32:35 | 2011-09-01 | ['None'] |
pomt-05894 | Since ObamaCare and the stimulus passed, the unemployment rate in the U.S. has increased. | false | /truth-o-meter/statements/2012/feb/06/pete-koekstra/debbie-spend-it-now-ad-pete-hoekstra-errs-unemploy/ | On Feb. 5, 2012, former Rep. Pete Hoekstra -- a Republican seeking to unseat Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. -- released an ad titled "Debbie-Spend-It-Now." The ad quickly attracted public attention for its use of a young Asian woman thanking Americans, in broken English, for helping to boost the Chinese economy. The ad directed viewers to a website that provided additional statistical details. One of the claims on the site is that "since ObamaCare and the stimulus passed, the unemployment rate in the U.S. has increased." We decided to see whether that claim was correct. The stimulus was the first of the two bills to be signed into law -- on Feb. 17, 2009. That month, the national unemployment rate stood at 8.3 percent. Meanwhile, the health care law was signed on March 23, 2010. During that month, the national unemployment rate was 9.8 percent. And in the most recent month for which figures are available -- January 2012 -- the unemployment rate stood at 8.3 percent. So, since enactment of the stimulus three years ago, the unemployment rate has -- after a rise and then a decline -- remained at exactly the same rate. And since the health care legislation was passed, it has fallen by 1.5 percentage points. We should note some fine print. The source for the claim on the website is "Bureau of Labor Statistics, Accessed 1/23/2012" -- a time before the latest decline in the unemployment rate. The rate on that date was 8.5 percent, but it dropped to 8.3 percent by the time the ad aired on Super Bowl weekend. Using the December figure makes the comparison for the stimulus correct, though the comparison for the health care law still would have been incorrect. Either way, though, it’s not the current figure. Our ruling Neither time span offered in Hoekstra’s website checks out, based on the unemployment rate on the day the ad first aired. One shows that the unemployment rate is the same now as it was when the stimulus passed (although it went up in the interim). The other shows that the rate has fallen since the health care law passed. We rate the statement False. EDITOR’S NOTE: After we published this story, a reader asked us to evaluate Hoekstra’s claim from the perspective of Michigan, where he’s running for Senate. So we did. In February 2009, when the stimulus was signed, unemployment in Michigan was 12.0 percent. In March 2010, when the health care bill was signed, the rate was 13.3 percent. In December 2011 -- the most recent month available -- the rate was 9.3 percent. So the declines in unemployment over both time spans were actually steeper in Michigan than they were nationally. We are keeping our rating at False. | null | Pete Hoekstra | null | null | null | 2012-02-06T14:53:08 | 2012-02-05 | ['United_States'] |
snes-00206 | The late songstress Aretha Franklin worked for Donald Trump on numerous occasions. | mixture | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/aretha-franklin-donald-trump/ | null | Politics | null | David Emery | null | Did Aretha Franklin ‘Work for’ Donald Trump on Numerous Occasions? | 17 August 2018 | null | ['Aretha_Franklin', 'Donald_Trump'] |
pomt-08422 | Ted Strickland destroyed Ohio jobs when he busted the budget. | false | /ohio/statements/2010/oct/19/john-kasich/kasich-ad-puts-all-states-budget-woes-job-loses-st/ | Republicans have made jobs the central theme of the campaign, and "400,000" -- an aptly titled TV ad from GOP gubernatorial candidate John Kasich -- dutifully delivers its refrain: "Under Ted Strickland as governor, Ohio has lost nearly 400,000 jobs." PolitiFact Ohio earlier rated that claim as Half True. We found it did not reflect the larger economic backdrop of a national recession and a steady loss of Ohio jobs since January 2000. We found the claim broke down at the suggestion that the governor, or any one official, is responsible for the job losses. But the pitchman in "400,000," a burly fellow with a white hardhat tucked under his arm, goes a step further. He says: "Ted Strickland destroyed Ohio jobs when he busted the budget and raised our taxes to help pay for his mistakes." That's a mouthful. PolitiFact Ohio bit off a piece of it earlier, when we examined Kasich's charge that Strickland raised taxes on Ohioans, a charge the Democratic governor has vehemently denied. Strickland says he didn’t raise taxes -- he only froze the final year of a five-year, 21-percent income tax cut that started in 2005. That move, narrowly approved by the Republican-controlled Ohio Senate, saved the state approximately $840 million. Strickland insists the only alternative was to cut the money from primary and secondary education. But there are no guarantees that the tax cut will be unfrozen next year. Taxpayers, who had to pay more in income taxes for 2009 than they had expected, may continue to pay at the higher rate. That’s why PolitiFact Ohio rated Kasich’s statement as Mostly True. But what about the first part of the statement, which we take up now. How did the governor destroy Ohio jobs? What does "busted the budget" mean? And what were Strickland's "mistakes"? We asked the Kasich campaign. This was the answer from press secretary Rob Nichols: "He tried to fill the $850 million hole with slot machines and racetracks. And that didn't work. So he reneged on his pledge not to raise taxes, to the tune of $840 million, in a recession, in the worst economy since the Depression." That still didn’t tell us what "busted the budget" means, or how Strickland busted it. Ohio law requires the state budget be balanced, and the governor shares authority and responsibility for it with the General Assembly. A share of the blame for the $850 million shortfall, or hole, can be pinned on Republicans, who were in power in the General Assembly while spending increased seven consecutive budgets while taxes were cut. House Speaker Armond Buddish, a Democrat, recently chided Republicans for not paying for their tax cuts, a claim PolitiFact Ohio found Mostly True. Democrats, he said, "made the cuts that Republicans wouldn’t" slicing almost $2 billion from the current $50.5 billion general revenue fund budget. Strickland did propose installing slot machines at horse racing tracks, a plan he said would have brought the state almost $1 billion. That plan -- which the legislature agreed to put in the budget bill -- was killed by a lawsuit from a group of conservative activists called LetOhioVote. That doesn't make the plan a mistake. It still could be adopted. When lawmakers draft a new two-year budget next year will have to find some source of revenue, or chop programs. They won’t have nearly $5 billion in one-time money that helped balance the current budget. Finally, the claim that Strickland destroyed Ohio jobs amounts to political hyperbole. Ohio and other industrial states all hemorrhaged jobs when the economy hit the skids, and the causes of the recession are much broader than just the state’s budget woes. So where does that leave us? The ad pins all of Ohio’s budget woes on Strickland, when no one person is responsible for the state’s budget. As governor, Strickland must work with the legislature to get a budget approved. The bottom line is that the budget wasn’t busted, it was balanced. The ad labels an effort to fill the budget hole via slot machines at Ohio’s horse tracks as a mistake by Strickland, although the legislature went along with the idea. The ad pins Ohio’s job losses on the governor, claiming they were a result of those state budget woes. We rate Kasich’s claim that "Ted Strickland destroyed Ohio jobs when he busted the budget" as False. Comment on this item. | null | John Kasich | null | null | null | 2010-10-19T18:00:00 | 2010-10-03 | ['Ohio', 'Ted_Strickland'] |
pomt-14808 | More black babies are aborted in NYC than born. | true | /texas/statements/2015/nov/25/cynthia-meyer/cynthia-meyer-says-more-black-babies-are-aborted-n/ | During the first Democratic presidential debate in October 2015, Hillary Clinton proclaimed, "We’ve got to be committed to getting every child to live up to his or her God-given potential." Cynthia Meyer, who took up the post of deputy press secretary for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in early 2015, fired back with a tweet, "Would help if they had the chance to be born." About a month later, in the next Democratic debate Nov. 14, 2015, the episode was repeated. Clinton echoed her earlier comment, again declaring, "Every single one of our children deserves the chance to live up to his or her God-given potential." This time, Meyer responded by tweeting, "More black babies are aborted in NYC than born," followed by the hashtag #blacklivesmatter. NYC meaning the city of New York. The pair of exchanges elicited a strong sense of deja vu, but Meyer’s second tweet raised a more specific question about abortion rates among black women in the Big Apple: Are there more abortions by black women in NYC than births? To our inquiry, over email Meyer said her responses were an effort to highlight the value of human life and call attention to NYC’s "startling" numbers, which come from a 2013 report on pregnancy outcomes compiled by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Bureau of Vital Statistics. The numbers have been widely reported by conservative media outlets, including a National Review article that Meyer emailed to us. "To be clear, that tweet came from my personal Twitter account and I was speaking as a private citizen," Meyer said in an email. "Happy to defend the stats, though." Abortions by black women in NYC outpacing births? Figuring out the answer to this question proved rather simple. The first place we went was that 2013 report, the most recent data available, which provides exhaustive breakdowns of birth statistics in New York City. The agency lists pregnancy outcomes by race and ethnicity, as well as by borough, type of birth (live birth, C-section, premature) and health of the mother. According to the report, in 2013 black women accounted for 29,007 terminated pregnancies, representing almost 42 percent of all abortions in the city. That same year, black women in the city gave birth to 24,108 babies. With abortions surpassing live births by nearly 5,000, African American women in the city clearly terminated pregnancies more often than they carried babies to term. Black women terminated pregnancies at a rate of 67.3 per 1,000 women ages 15 to 49, a rate far higher than any other racial or ethnic group. We checked: the statistics were similar the previous year, when African American women in the city had 24,758 births and underwent 31,328 abortions. The numbers for black women in NYC starkly contrasted with women in other racial and ethnic categories. In 2013, births far surpassed abortions for white, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander women. Hispanic women accounted for the second-most abortions in the city with 21,555, but they also had 35,581 live births. Asian women had both the fewest abortions and fewest births, while white women accounted for the most births overall and second-fewest abortions. There was less discrepancy between the number of births and terminated pregnancies for black women statewide. In 2013, black women in New York state gave birth to 36,130 babies and underwent 34,960 abortions, according to the state’s health department. During the previous year, the numbers were almost dead even, with black women accounting for 36,905 births and 36,633 abortions across the state. The numbers are far different for the four biggest cities in Texas. The Texas Department of State Health Services reports births by both county and city, but abortions are only reported by county. We examined the numbers in 2013 for Bexar, Dallas, Harris and Travis Counties, which contain the cities of San Antonio, Dallas, Houston and Austin, respectively. In all four counties, black women had more live births than abortions. The same was true for white women in those counties. For Harris County, which includes Houston, the largest city in Texas and fourth-largest city nationwide, black women had 12,569 live births and 5,515 abortions, while white women accounted for 16,247 births and 2,661 abortions. If you’d like to peruse the numbers for all four counties, we input the data into a Google spreadsheet for easier side-by-side comparison. It’s important to note that abortion access across the state of Texas stands in stark contrast to NYC. Texas currently has 19 operating abortion clinics, but that number would drop to 10 if the U.S. Supreme Court allows the state's contested 2013 law to fully take effect. In contrast, New York state has 80 abortion clinics. Attitudes toward abortion also differ greatly between the two states. Nationally in 2009, black women had abortions far more often than white and Hispanic women, according to data compiled in December 2013 by the National Center for Health Statistics. For some perspective, an online search turned up a 2008 Guttmacher Policy Review article by Susan A. Cohen, a vice president for the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit that promotes reproductive health and abortion rights. Cohen, saying the national abortion rate for black women is almost five times the rate for white women, suggested this is greatly explained by higher incidences of unintended pregnancy among African American residents. Higher rates, Cohen wrote, "reflect the particular difficulties that many women in minority communities face in accessing high-quality contraceptive services and in using their chosen method of birth control consistently and effectively over long periods of time. Moreover, these realities must be seen in a larger context in which significant racial and ethnic disparities persist for a wide range of health outcomes, from diabetes to heart disease to breast and cervical cancer to sexually transmitted infections (STI), including HIV." In examining the socioeconomic factors behind this phenomena, Cohen disputed the idea that black women are recruited into having more abortions, a sentiment that has been shared by anti-abortion activists and conservative politicians. These issues were also extensively explored last September by Zoe Dutton in a piece for The Atlantic called "Abortion’s Racial Gap." GOP leaders have used these statistics to argue against abortion, positing that it disproportionately affects black communities. In August, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson articulated this stance in relation to Planned Parenthood, claiming during an appearance on Fox News that the organization has contributed to abortion being "the number one cause of death for black people." The leading causes of death for black Americans are actually heart disease, cancer and stroke, according to the CDC, but Carson’s rhetoric speaks to the GOP’s broader stance against abortion. The debate over abortion has taken on more fervor in recent years as many states have introduced increased abortion restrictions. Texas has led in this area, in 2013 enacting a law requiring abortion clinics to adhere to the standards of surgical centers and employ doctors with admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic. In November 2015, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case challenging the constitutionality of those two provisions as undue burdens on women seeking abortions. Our ruling: A Hillary Clinton declaration that every child should be allowed to live up to his potential prompted a tweet from a spokeswoman for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that "More black babies are aborted in NYC than born." The tweet from Deputy Press Secretary Cynthia Meyer echoes what has become a talking point among anti-abortion activists, that abortion disproportionately affects the nation’s African American population. Nationally, African American women had a higher rate of abortion than whites, Hispanics or Asians, according to 2013 figures. Even so, black women gave birth more than they terminated pregnancies that year. The same was not true for New York City, where more abortions were recorded for black woman than live births in both 2012 and 2013, the most recent available data. We rate this claim True. TRUE -- The statement is accurate and there's nothing significant missing. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check. CLARIFICATION, 4:20 p.m., Dec. 1, 2015: We amended this fact check to clarify that the described 2013 abortion rate for black women related to women aged 15 to 49. This change did not affect our rating. | null | Cynthia Meyer | null | null | null | 2015-11-25T15:15:14 | 2015-11-14 | ['New_York_City'] |
tron-02081 | The Easter story of Edith Burns | fiction! | https://www.truthorfiction.com/edith-burns/ | null | inspirational | null | null | null | The Easter story of Edith Burns | Mar 17, 2015 | null | ['None'] |
tron-01922 | Charles Manson Granted Parole | fiction! | https://www.truthorfiction.com/manson-granted-parole/ | null | humorous | null | null | null | Charles Manson Granted Parole | Mar 17, 2015 | null | ['None'] |
pomt-08617 | Kasich’s trade deals cost Ohio thousands of jobs - 49,000 jobs to Mexico, 91,000 to China. | false | /ohio/statements/2010/sep/21/ted-strickland/gov-ted-strickland-ties-ohios-job-losses-john-kasi/ | Gov. Ted Strickland's re-election campaign hasn't wavered from the message that his Republican opponent, John Kasich, cost Ohio jobs when he was a congressman by supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement and overseas trade deals, especially with China. A Strickland TV ad, "Truth," sticks to the theme with claims that have been posted on the campaign's website: "Kasich’s trade deals cost Ohio thousands of jobs - 49,000 jobs to Mexico, 91,000 to China." The ad says voting for NAFTA, which took effect in 1994 and eliminated most trade barriers between Canada, Mexico and the United States, cost the state 49,000 jobs to Mexico. It says 91,000 Ohio jobs were lost to China because of Kasich’s vote in 2000 to normalize trade relations with China. We wondered if the effect of the trade deals on jobs was so clear-cut - and if the numbers can be determined so specifically. Calculating job losses and gains is not a simple matter of counting heads. The ad's estimate of job losses tied to NAFTA comes from a 2006 study by the Economic Policy Institute, a pro-union think tank that has long been critical of NAFTA. The study did not, however, claim to count actual job losses. Extrapolating from employment, census and trade data, it estimated how many jobs might have been supported by production that the study says was "displaced" by growing U.S. trade deficits with Canada and Mexico. There are other complications. The nonpartisan General Accounting Office said that job losses were overestimated, because some NAFTA imports displaced imports from other countries instead of production in the U.S. Both the Congressional Budget Office and the Congressional Research Service concluded that factors other than NAFTA caused the widening trade deficit with Mexico. And the Congressional Research Service, evaluating studies by the Congressional Budget Office, the World Bank, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the U.S. International Trade Commission, found that none attributed changes in employment levels to NAFTA. The estimate of jobs lost to China carries virtually identical problems. The figure also comes from EPI, through a study published this year. It also is based on "displaced production" resulting from trade imbalance, and not on a tally of actual job losses. Further clouding the estimate is the effect that other economic policies and forces - including product dumping, price controls and currency manipulation - have on the trade imbalance. The effect of normalized trade relations cannot be isolated. Kasich did vote for NAFTA in the House of Representatives in 1993 and for normalizing trade relations with China in 2000. Labeling them as "Kasich’s trade deals," as does the ad, is a stretch, though. The Clinton administration supported NAFTA, and 102 Democrats joined Republicans voting for the agreement, which the House approved 234 to 200. Clinton also fought for the Chinese trade bill, which the House passed with 164 Republican and 73 Democratic votes. Strickland, who was also in Congress, voted against both measures. So in the end, here’s what we’re left with: The ad makes claims about jobs lost, but relies on studies that didn’t actually count jobs that were lost. The estimates in those studies of what might have been displaced are affected by factors beyond NAFTA and trade with China, making it virtually impossible to measure the specific impact of either agreement on Ohio. The ad labels NAFTA and the Chinese trade bill as "Kasich’s deals," although he was just one of many members of Congress to vote for them, and both received support from Democrats and Republicans. We rate Strickland's claim as False. Comment on this item. | null | Ted Strickland | null | null | null | 2010-09-21T18:30:00 | 2010-08-27 | ['Mexico', 'Ohio', 'China'] |
snes-05885 | A newborn child declared dead revived after being placed on his mother's chest. | true | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/kate-ogg/ | null | Medical | null | Snopes Staff | null | Mother’s Hugs Bring Dead Son Back to Life | 6 June 2013 | null | ['None'] |
goop-01946 | Kylie Jenner “Devastated” She Won’t Spend NYE With Travis Scott? | 1 | https://www.gossipcop.com/kylie-jenner-nye-travis-scott-new-years-eve-plans/ | null | null | null | Shari Weiss | null | Kylie Jenner “Devastated” She Won’t Spend NYE With Travis Scott? | 12:15 pm, December 29, 2017 | null | ['None'] |
vogo-00537 | Statement: “Over the next three months, expect a vigorous and costly campaign as there are no limits on how much money can be donated,” KUSI reported last week about a ballot measure that would require San Diego city officials to reform financial policies before raising the sales tax. | determination: true | https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/news/fact-check-limitless-contributions-for-the-financial-reform-campaign/ | Analysis: San Diego’s election rules limit how much money individuals can contribute to City Council candidates and advocacy groups called political action committees. They can give up to $500 to candidates and up to $1,000 to the advocacy groups. | null | null | null | null | Fact Check: Limitless Contributions for the Financial Reform Campaign | August 11, 2010 | null | ['San_Diego'] |
pomt-14139 | Seven hundred thousand. That’s how many California jobs will be lost thanks to the politicians raising the minimum wage….Now Florida is adding one million jobs, not losing them. | mostly false | /florida/statements/2016/may/04/enterprise-florida/florida-agencys-misleading-attack-californias-mini/ | Florida Gov. Rick Scott is not on board with the minimum wage increase in the sunny, oceanside state — of California. As Scott toured the West Coast for the second time attempting to attract businesses, Enterprise Florida (the state’s public-private economic development arm) ran radio ads in San Francisco and Los Angeles attacking California’s $15 wage and trumpeting Florida’s superior job prospects. "Seven hundred thousand. That’s how many California jobs will be lost thanks to the politicians raising the minimum wage," the ad says, as the Miami Herald reports. "Ready to leave California? Go to Florida instead — no state income tax, and Gov. Scott has cut regulations. Now Florida is adding 1 million jobs, not losing them." California Gov. Jerry Brown didn’t take this lying down, penning a letter welcoming Scott back to California, "a state that in the last year has added more jobs than Florida and Texas combined," and not-so-subtly suggested Scott worry about more pressing matters back home. "Rick, a fact you’d like to ignore: California is the 7th largest economic power in the world. We’re competing with nations like Brazil and France, not states like Florida," Brown wrote on May 2. "If you’re truly serious about Florida’s economic well-being, it’s time to stop the silly political stunts and start doing something about climate change – two words you won’t even let state officials say. The threat is real and so too will be the devastating impacts." Here, we’ll look at Scott’s claim that California will lose almost as many jobs as Florida will gain. The ad is comparing California's projected employment with Florida's past performance — an apples-to-oranges comparison. It also distorts what the 700,000 jobs-lost figure actually refers to. Even with the wage hike, California is expected to gain more jobs than Florida over the next decade, albeit not as many as without it. Furthermore, all the economists we spoke with cautioned against pinning a figure to the minimum wage hike’s impact on employment in California. All that glitters in Golden State jobs A spokesperson for Scott cited a post by American Action Forum, a self-described center-right policy institute, as the source of the 700,000 lost jobs. But the figure doesn’t refer to a decline in the total number jobs in the state, as the ad suggests. Rather, it’s the difference between the number of jobs that California could have gained without and with the wage hike. California will gradually increase the current $10 hourly minimum wage to $15 by 2022. According to the institute's labor market policy director, Ben Gitis, that will lead to a 3.5 percent decrease in employment growth or about 692,235 jobs by 2026 that could have been added if the wage did not increase. Gitis walked us through his math. He used the California Employment Development Department’s latest 10-year forecast, which projects that the state will add 14.9 percent or 2.3 million more jobs from 2012 to 2022. Gitis then calculated the impact of the minimum wage hike; he concluded that California would see its projected 2026 jobs numbers reduced by 3.5 percent. In other words, California would have added about 3.4 million new jobs from 2012 to 2026 without the hike, but 2.7 million with it. So the state isn’t so much "losing" 700,000 jobs as "forgoing" them, said Jeremy West, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who co-authored the Journal of Human Resources study Gitis used for his calculations. Bright employment outlook in Sunshine State Scott’s office forwarded us a press release that says Florida has added more than a million jobs since 2010, a claim that PolitiFact Florida rated Mostly True. But Scott was talking about future projections for California, so we’ll look instead at the number of jobs Florida will gain in the same time frame as Gitis’ analysis. From 2012 to 2026, Florida is actually projected to add more than a million jobs. The increase, however, will still be less than California’s. (We would be remiss to not mention that California’s cost of living is higher than Florida's and its population size is almost twice as big. But as Enterprise Florida touted raw employment numbers, we’ll follow suit.) Florida added about 552,000 jobs from Dec. 2012 to Dec. 2015. According to the Florida Dept. of Economic Opportunity, the state will gain 1.1 million more jobs from 2015 to 2023. That’s a compounded annual growth rate of 1.5 percent, equal to about 445,000 new jobs from 2023 to 2026. Put it all together, Florida will add 2.1 million jobs from 2012 to 2026. That’s still 600,000 fewer jobs than California will add in the same time frame with the $15 wage. Waging in uncharted waters As we have previously reported, there’s a great amount of debate over the effect that minimum wage hikes have job growth. A spokesperson for Brown forwarded us academic and think-tank studies showing that past increases have had little or no effect on employment. California’s hike, however, is so unprecedented that past research may be less relevant. All the experts we spoke with suspect it will reduce employment. "An increase the size of California’s is outside of the experience of any state over the last four decades," said Jonathan Meer, a Texas A&M University economist and co-author of the study Gitis cited. "A dramatic increase in the minimum wage like California’s will undoubtedly reduce employment. However, I would be very cautious about putting any precise figures on the amount." Two home-state economists — Jeffrey Clemens of the University of California, San Diego and David Neumark of the University of California, Irvine — agreed that the huge wage hike will likely cause job losses, but the magnitude is uncertain. "The recently passed minimum wage increases are sufficiently beyond the range of historical experience that I do not think it is possible to predict their effects on employment with any precision," Clemens said. Neumark added that Scott’s job-poaching mission is nonetheless ill-fated, given that the flow of jobs into or out of California is typically miniscule and the jobs most affected by hike (low-skill jobs in the service and agricultural sectors) are hard to move out of state. "Maybe a few low-wage manufacturers will move. But there's no reason to expect they'd go to Florida more than many other low-wage states or overseas, so I suspect the employment growth in Florida from California’s minimum wage increase would be negligible, and statistically undetectable," Neumark said. "So Gov. Scott is probably wasting his and his Florida taxpayers' time." Our ruling A radio ad by Enterprise Florida said, "Seven hundred thousand. That’s how many California jobs will be lost thanks to the politicians raising the minimum wage….Now Florida is adding 1 million jobs, not losing them." This is misleading. The 700,000 figure refers to the number of jobs California could have added by 2026 if it didn’t increase the minimum wage, not a decline in net employment. Based on projections, California will still gain more jobs with the minimum wage increase than Florida during the same time frame. While experts agreed that a $15 wage will reduce employment in California, they said it’s near impossible to pin a number on the impact given how unprecedented the hike is. We rate the claim Mostly False. https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/22054202-4acc-431a-9397-5400fc73d984 | null | Enterprise Florida | null | null | null | 2016-05-04T10:40:08 | 2016-04-27 | ['California'] |
pose-01326 | We’ve got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt. ... Well, I would say over a period of eight years. And I’ll tell you why.” stalled https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer/promise/1418/eliminate-federal-debt-8-years/ None trumpometer Donald Trump None None Eliminate the federal debt in 8 years 2017-01-17T09:06:03 None ['None']
snes-01069 The Philadelphia Eagles responded to a tweet from President Trump congratulating the team on winning the Super Bowl by telling the Commander-in-Chief to go f*ck himself. false https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/eagles-respond-trumps-congratulatory-tweet-vulgarity/ None Fauxtography None Dan Evon None Did the Eagles Respond to Trump’s Congratulatory Tweet With a Vulgarity? 5 February 2018 None ['Philadelphia_Eagles', 'Super_Bowl']
abbc-00309 The claim: Treasurer Joe Hockey says abolishing negative gearing could push up rents, because that's what happened in the 1980s. in-between http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-06/hockey-negative-gearing/6431100 The claim: Treasurer Joe Hockey says abolishing negative gearing could push up rents, because that's what happened in the 1980s. ['tax', 'liberals', 'australia'] None None ['tax', 'liberals', 'australia'] Fact check: Did abolishing negative gearing push up rents? Thu 3 Mar 2016, 1:44am None ['None']
tron-01736 Delta Airlines to ban Jews and Israeli Citizens From Boarding Flights to Saudi Arabia disputed! https://www.truthorfiction.com/delta-saudi-air/ None government None None None Delta Airlines to ban Jews and Israeli Citizens From Boarding Flights to Saudi Arabia Mar 17, 2015 None ['None']
pomt-13481 Says Ron Johnson gave himself a $10 million 'sweetheart corporate payout' half-true /wisconsin/statements/2016/sep/09/russ-feingold/did-ron-johnson-approve-10m-bonus-himself/ Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson has touted his private-sector experience in his 2016 re-election bid, just as he did in 2010. But it’s a big final payday his opponent wants you to remember. Russ Feingold invoked the matter in a campaign ad in June. Then again in early July. And again in late July. The central claim in all three is that Johnson gave himself a $10 million payout when he left his Oshkosh manufacturing firm after winning the 2010 election. The ads imply there’s something shady about the payment, particularly one launched June 14, 2016. Black and white images of Johnson, the U.S. Capitol and cash fill the screen as a narrator ominously states: Before Sen. Johnson left for Washington, he gave himself $10 million, a sweetheart corporate payout." Was such a payment made, and, if so, is there anything questionable about it? Let’s dig in. Johnson’s $10 million At issue is money Johnson received shortly before taking office in 2011. It came to light in a federal Financial Disclosure Report that listed the payment as compensation from Pacur, the company he helped found and bought in 1997. Johnson told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Dan Bice in 2011 the payment was back pay for serving as CEO the previous 13 years, as he had not taken a paycheck since purchasing the company. Johnson sold most of the company in 2010 and stopped active involvement in its operations, though he retains a 5 percent stake, according to campaign spokesman William Allison. Johnson hasn’t gone into much detail on the nature of the payout, saying at the time, "It's a private business. I've complied with all the disclosure laws, and I don't have to explain it any further to someone like you." The column noted the pay didn’t appear to be part of a pre-determined compensation package. Johnson described the payment in 2011 as an "agreed-upon amount," then acknowledged the person who agreed to it was the owner — himself. Allison said Pacur followed "followed standard business practices to settle the account and independently calculate the back pay (Johnson) was owed as a result." He said the payout was reviewed as part of a routine IRS audit and the IRS "took no issue with it." Allison declined to elaborate on the process by which the $10 million amount was decided and approved. So Johnson received $10 million. Does that make it a "sweetheart corporate payout" as the ad claims? That’s a pretty subjective description, but it implies there was something special or unusual about the amount. When considered as back pay, the $10 million works out to about $770,000 per year. That would be a "fairly typical" compensation package for an owner and CEO of a company the size of Pacur, according to a blog post last year in Plastics News. The trade publication does an annual executive pay study for the plastics industry, though it noted it had to estimate the size of Pacur since the private company does not release sales information. David Walker, a professor and executive compensation expert at Boston University School of Law, said that annual amount "doesn’t seem implausible," for someone in Johnson’s position, since many owners of small businesses take out most of the profits as compensation. But like other experts contacted by PolitiFact Wisconsin, Walker said it’s hard to put the amount in context since Pacur is a private company, so we don’t know key factors like its size, profits and other executive compensation. The timing of Johnson’s payment is also noteworthy, though it’s not directly addressed in any of Feingold’s ads. The original column points out the $10 million payment came on the heels of a campaign where Johnson spent $9 million of his own money. Critics said the payout looked like an attempt to circumvent federal regulations and have the company pay for Johnson’s campaign. Corporations are not allowed to contribute directly to federal or state campaigns, and they can’t give money to a candidate for the express purpose of reimbursing campaign costs. The Federal Election Commission never issued a public finding regarding the payment to Johnson. A group claimed to have submitted a complaint last year, but an FEC spokeswoman said it the agency never received it. Election lawyers told Bice in 2011 that Johnson likely didn’t violate any election laws, and proving otherwise would have required a written agreement or other direct proof of a prior plan to reimburse campaign expenses. Such proof never surfaced. Our rating In a recent TV ad, Feingold claims Johnson gave himself $10 million in a "sweetheart corporate payout." The amount is accurate, and Johnson did essentially give it to himself since he acknowledged he was the one to approve it. But there’s no evidence to show this payment was unusual or out of line, as the tone and use of the "sweetheart" descriptor imply. An industry trade publication said the amount is reasonable given Johnson’s role and longevity. For a statement that is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context, our rating is Half True. https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/00cdbff3-5150-48b7-bcf4-12e5fdd5fc83 | null | Russ Feingold | null | null | null | 2016-09-09T10:30:00 | 2016-06-14 | ['None'] | null | null | null |
pose-00803 | Expand the Advanced Placement Training and Incentive Program to 50 additional high schools. | promise broken | https://www.politifact.com/texas/promises/perry-o-meter/promise/834/expand-advanced-placement-training-program-to-50-a/ | null | perry-o-meter | Rick Perry | null | null | Expand Advanced Placement training program to 50 additional high schools | 2011-01-03T10:00:00 | null | ['None'] |
peck-00017 | Is Kilifi County Getting Its Fair Share Of Development Funds? | false | https://pesacheck.org/is-the-national-government-withholding-ksh3-2-billion-in-development-funding-for-kilifi-county-22ccfe44ef93 | null | null | null | George Githinji | null | Is Kilifi County Getting Its Fair Share Of Development Funds? | Jul 24, 2017 | null | ['None'] |
pomt-01786 | Oregon "is the most trade-dependent state in the nation" | false | /oregon/statements/2014/jul/25/john-kitzhaber/oregon-most-trade-dependent-state-nation/ | Gov. John Kitzhaber’s first debate with Republican challenger state Rep. Dennis Richardson covered a lot of ground, with both candidates spending considerable time on economic issues. Their exchanges made clear that the economy will continue to be a pivotal issue as the campaign heads toward the November election. The claim: Kitzhaber, a Democrat seeking a historic fourth term in office, touted his job-creation work and said his policies have helped stabilize the state’s budget. Looking ahead, he said, the state has untapped gold in the form of international trade possibilities. Then Kitzhaber added this: "We are the most trade-dependent state in the nation." PolitiFact Oregon decided to check. The analysis: We called Christian Gaston, a policy adviser for the governor’s campaign. He was sitting in the front row at the debate and said the claim caught his ear as well. In a subsequent email, Gaston said, "The governor misspoke. He meant to say that Oregon is one of the most trade-dependent states in the nation." The latter claim is one Kitzhaber has made before, Gaston said. His email included a YouTube link to an interview in December 2013 in which the governor does say "is one of" the most trade-dependent states. For context, we looked at where Oregon ranks. "Determining trade dependence is extremely difficult," said Robert Whelan, an economist with ECONorthwest, a Portland-based company that provides economic analyses and professional consulting services to public and private entities. "It’s one area that cannot be absolutely checked." For instance, Whelan said, Oregon exports about $1.6 billion worth of chemicals a year, much of that in soda ash and potash. "Most people would see that figure and say, ‘Wow,’" Whelan said, "‘where’s the chemical factory?’ Well, there isn’t any. It’s mined elsewhere, brought in by rail and shipped. But it shows up as an export." All of the products made at a Boeing plant near Gresham, on the other hand, are hauled to Seattle, where they are finished and shipped. Those are counted as Washington exports, not Oregon. Still, Whelan said, "there’s no way to say we are the most trade-dependent, but we are certainly one of them." The value of exports from Oregon to foreign countries this year will be about $19 billion, a figure that ranks 23rd among the 50 states, according to International Trade Association statistics. A trade study released in 2010 by the Portland Business Alliance ranked Oregon seventh nationally in the share exports hold -- 12 percent -- of the state’s economy. A more recent study prepared for the same group indicates that nearly 80,000 jobs in Oregon are directly tied to exporting goods and services, with one in four manufacturing jobs in the state being export-related. Those same numbers are far larger in states that dwarf Oregon in terms of population. But according to the Portland Business Alliance’s study, Oregon exports ranked seventh on a per capita basis in 2013. The ruling: Gov. John Kitzhaber, in a debate with Republican challenger Dennis Richardson, claimed that Oregon is "the most trade-dependent state in the nation." A spokesman said Kitzhaber has previously said that Oregon "is one of" the most trade-dependent states in the U.S. If he had said that, we would have reached a different ruling. As it is, we find Kitzhaber’s claim False. Thoughts on this ruling? Click on over to OregonLive.com/politics and leave a comment | null | John Kitzhaber | null | null | null | 2014-07-25T17:39:09 | 2014-07-18 | ['Oregon'] |
pose-00243 | Will "eliminate wasteful subsidies to private student lenders, which will save nearly $6 billion dollars per year, and invest the savings in additional student aid." | promise kept | https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/259/reduce-subsidies-to-private-student-lenders-and-pr/ | null | obameter | Barack Obama | null | null | Reduce subsidies to private student lenders and protect student borrowers | 2010-01-07T13:26:53 | null | ['None'] |
pomt-01771 | The Obama administration's policies "have reduced minority dropout rate by 25 percent." | half-true | /truth-o-meter/statements/2014/jul/29/joe-biden/joe-biden-says-obama-policies-have-cut-minority-dr/ | During a recent address in Las Vegas to the NAACP, Vice President Joe Biden touted the Obama administration’s role in helping students who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups. Calling the right to vote central to so many other human needs, Biden asked, "How else, were it not the right of all those folks to vote, do you think we would have been able to expand Pell grants for 2.5 million more students? How else would we have put in place the educational policies that have reduced minority dropout rate by 25 percent?" We wondered whether minority dropout rates have fallen by one-quarter during President Barack Obama’s tenure and, if so, whether it’s fair for the administration to take credit in a significant way. Before we look at the numbers, we should explain that there is more than one way to measure dropout frequency. One of the most common is the "status dropout rate," which measures, at a specific point in time, what percent of people within a certain age range are dropouts. The other measurement is called the "event dropout rate." This measures what percentage of people in an age range dropped out during the prior year. The different methods can lead to different figures. In addition, we should note that the data is not entirely up to date. The Education Department has released data on the status dropout rate through 2012, and on the event dropout rate for two specific years, 2008 and 2011. We’ll use the most recent data, but it isn’t a perfect fit for studying the entire Obama era. Using the status dropout rate, Biden is right on the numbers. For African-Americans between the ages of 16 and 24, the status dropout rate declined from 9.9 percent in 2008 to 7.5 percent in 2012. That’s a 24 percent decrease -- very close to what Biden said. For Hispanics, the rate declined from 18.3 percent to 12.7 percent over the same period -- a decrease of 31 percent, which is well above what Biden claimed. The data is somewhat more mixed if you look at the event dropout rate for 15-to-24 year-olds. Between 2008 and 2011, the dropout rate for African-Americans fell from 6.1 percent to 3.8 percent, or a decrease of 38 percent. For Hispanics, however, the decrease was smaller than the 25 percent Biden cited -- the rate fell from 4.9 percent to 4.1 percent, or a decline of 16 percent. So on the numbers, Biden isn’t perfect, but he’s pretty close. What about whether the administration deserves credit for the decline? On an Education Department Web page, the administration cites a number of policies it credits for reducing the dropout rate. The list includes competitive funds such as the Race to the Top, Promise Neighborhoods, and Investing in Innovation programs; an initiative that give states more flexibility to target schools most needing improvement; and programs like Ladders of Opportunity and Promise Zones that provide federal assistance to "communities of concentrated poverty." The administration says it has committed $6.2 billion to School Improvement Grants focused on roughly 2,000 persistently low-achieving schools, "which produce a disproportionate number of the more than 500,000 students who drop out of high school each year." Education experts we contacted said such efforts may well have made a difference. But they added that there’s a long list of factors that likely played a role as well. "While the educational policies put in place by the Obama administration have played their role in addressing the dropout crisis, it would be unfair to attribute the recent decreases in minority dropout rates solely to them," said Jennifer DePaoli, education advisor at Civic Enterprises, a research group that studies education. Here’s a rundown of the other factors that likely influenced the decline in dropout rates, according to experts: Policies instituted by George W. Bush President George W. Bush spearheaded and signed the No Child Left Behind Act, and there’s evidence that it has had an impact on dropout rates. While the decline in dropout rates has accelerated under Obama, the decline actually began under Bush. Between 2000 and 2008, status dropout rates fell by 24 percent for African-Americans and by 34 percent for Hispanics -- significant decreases on their own, even before Obama took office. Changes in policy "can take a while to trickle down, and we might be seeing a delayed and ongoing effect of policies from several years earlier," said Christopher Swanson, vice president of Editorial Projects in Education, which publishes Education Week. "If you look at the overall trend, things have been moving in the right direction for a while." State policies matter, too -- not just federal policies Not only can states pass their own education laws, but they often have some discretion in shaping how federal education policies take effect within their borders. "If Biden is right that national policies are driving things, you wouldn’t get a lot of state-level differences in dropout trends," said David Bills, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Education. "But in fact there are differences." Indeed, a study by Civic Enterprises, America’s Promise Alliance, the Alliance for Excellent Education and the Everyone Graduates Center at John Hopkins University found quite a bit of variation. Twenty states recorded annual gains of at least one percentage point in graduation rates between 2006 and 2010, the report found, while nine states saw flat or declining graduation rates over the same period. In fact, one problem with trusting the statistics too much is that the state numbers may be subject to bureaucratic hijinks, said Julian Vasquez Heilig, a University of Texas professor of educational policy and planning. In Texas, for instance, there’s been skepticism about the validity of statistics showing large shifts in the number of students going from in-school to home-school status. Home-schooled students, as it happens, don’t count in dropout calculations. "Only politicians believe that the dropout rate has gone down," Heilig said. "Ask any educator in an urban schools and they will tell you otherwise. Essentially, we find ways to define away students." A poor economy can keep more kids in school One of the perverse impacts of a weak economy is that it may lead to lower dropout rates. During a strong economic period, slack labor markets may lure teens away from school through job offers and higher wages. But during weaker economic periods, someone who drops out of school would face few employment options. That might be enough to keep a lid on the dropout rate. "Kids are more likely to stay in school when there are no job opportunities," Bills said. "I think economics generally trumps policy." Broader demographic factors can drive dropout trends, too Richard Murnane, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, cites several trends beyond the Great Recession that may have helped lower the dropout rate over the last decade or so. One is a decline in the teenage birthrate, which means that fewer high-school girls are dropping out to take care of a newborn. Another is a decline in arrests of teenagers for violent crimes, reducing another reason for dropping out. And a third is an increase in the number of children attending preschool -- a predictor of future academic success, especially for low-income boys, Murnane said. "There’s no causal evidence that can tell you the relative importance of these factors in explaining the trends" in dropout rates, Murnane said. In all, then, these experts don’t doubt that there’s been some impact from Obama administration policies, but they add that there are many bigger forces that can claim a share of the credit for lowering dropout rates. "It would be nearly impossible to point to any specific federal policies put in place by the Obama administration -- or the Bush administration, for that matter -- that have been directly responsible for the decrease in dropout rates and the increase in graduation rates for minority students," DePaoli said. Our ruling Biden said Obama administration policies "have reduced minority dropout rate by 25 percent." He’s very close on the numbers, and the administration can take some credit for the decline. But a lot of other factors likely played a role, from Bush-era policies to state-level action to larger forces such as the weak economy, falling teen birth rates and rising preschool enrollment. On balance, we rate Biden’s claim Half True. | null | Joe Biden | null | null | null | 2014-07-29T12:20:06 | 2014-07-23 | ['Barack_Obama'] |
snes-01497 | The Department of Defense has planned communications drills to coincide with "antifa protests" on 4 November 2017. | false | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dod-drill-coincide-november-demonstrations/ | null | Politics | null | Kim LaCapria | null | Is the Department of Defense Planning a Communications Drill to Coincide with ‘Antifa’ Demonstrations? | 31 October 2017 | null | ['None'] |
snes-00052 | Does This Photograph Show a Woman Abused by Keith Ellison? | miscaptioned | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/keith-ellison-former-girlfriend-photo/ | null | Fauxtography | null | David Mikkelson | null | Does This Photograph Show a Woman Abused by Keith Ellison? | 22 September 2018 | null | ['None'] |
snes-03068 | Female lawmakers unveiled a bill prohibiting the disposal of "unused semen." | false | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/unused-semen-bill/ | null | Junk News | null | Kim LaCapria | null | Did Female Lawmakers Unveil a Bill Governing ‘Unused Semen’? | 25 January 2017 | null | ['None'] |
pomt-11331 | There are "paid protesters" involved in the Stephon Clark demonstrations. | false | /california/statements/2018/apr/10/scott-jones/protesters-hire-sacramento-sheriff-provides-no-evi/ | Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones claimed "paid protesters" fueled the conflict with law enforcement after a recent vigil and demonstration for Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old shot and killed by police. Responding to a call of a man breaking car windows, Sacramento police fired 20 times at Clark, who they said was advancing toward them with a gun in his grandparents’ backyard on March 18, 2018. Later, it was revealed, he was carrying a cellphone. Ever since, demonstrators have filled Sacramento’s streets, as well as city council meetings, calling for police reform. Jones made his statement about paid protesters during a news conference in early April. The sheriff showed video from March 31, 2018 of a deputy’s SUV striking a demonstrator who walked in front of the vehicle. A crowd of marchers had blocked two sheriff’s SUVs after a vigil for Clark in south Sacramento. Deputies had asked the crowd to step away before the collision took place. Jones described some of the people in the streets as "professional protesters and professional instigators." "We do know because of our intelligence, because of the same folks that we see at protests completely out of the area and because of our history with some of these folks that there are paid protesters," the sheriff added. "And paid people to instigate just as there are paid folks to monitor protests and video camera for their own purposes." When asked for evidence by a reporter at the conference, Jones said: "We do have evidence of it and we've seen it previously," though he was not specific. For this fact-check, we decided to zero in on Jones’ claim that some "paid protesters" took part in the Stephon Clark demonstrations, either on the evening of the vigil or before. Protest organizers have described the sheriff’s statement as baseless and inflammatory, saying the demonstrators are volunteers and not for-hire protesters. Stephon Clark, 22, was shot and killed by Sacramento police on March 18, 2018. Courtesy photo Response from sheriff’s department In a phone interview, Sgt. Shaun Hampton, a spokesman for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, declined to provide evidence supporting the sheriff’s statement. "I don’t think we’re going to disclose that at this time," Hampton said, adding that he did not foresee the department disclosing evidence in the future. He also declined to say why Jones made the claim without providing any supporting material. "It’s based on our information," he said. Jones appears to be the only top law enforcement official to make such a claim. A spokesman for the Sacramento Police Department told us he did "not have any specific information" about paid protesters. Asked about paid protesters on Capital Public Radio's Insight program, Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn said he believes Jones was referring only to the March 31, 2018 demonstration outside city limits. "I don't know. We weren't there," Hahn said of any payments. A spokeswoman for the California Department of Highway Patrol, which has also provided law enforcement at the demonstrations, said in an email the "CHP does not have evidence of paid protesters." Hundreds gather at the Sacramento District Attorney’s office on April 4, 2018 demanding justice for Stephon Clark. Vanessa S. Nelson / Capital Public Radio Response from protest organizers Most of the Sacramento demonstrations after Clark’s death have been well organized and peaceful. There have been isolated cases of vandalism, including breaking car windows, the disruption of a city council meeting, a brief closure of a freeway and the closure of a basketball arena. Jamier Sale is an organizer with the ANSWER Coalition’s Sacramento chapter. It helped lead the March 31, 2018 vigil and protest. ANSWER stands for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. The national organization helped organize the U.S. antiwar movement opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq, according to its website. Sale challenged Jones to release evidence to support his claim. "We’re an all volunteer-based organization and we’re run all from donations," Sale told PolitiFact California. "And we print our signs and we put them on sticks with our own hands. Nobody pays us to do anything. We’re organized and we’re effective. And if we come off as professional, that’s because we take what we do very seriously." Claire White is an attorney representing Wanda Cleveland, the woman struck by the deputy’s SUV. She is also vice president of the National Lawyers Guild Foundation, a volunteer organization which monitors police activity at protests, including at the recent Sacramento events. "This allegation that these people are paid, or that they’re outside agitators, has no basis in reality," White told Capital Public Radio. "The longer that Sheriff Scott Jones tries to sell that snake oil to the public, the more it’s going to tarnish his own credibility." Tanya Faison is with the Sacramento chapter of Black Lives Matter, which has also organized recent protests. "We are not paid," Faison said. "We work for free. Some of us are mothers, students and interns. We do this on the side." She said Jones’ comments are "irresponsible" and could give his supporters in the community "permission to be more aggressive" with protesters. David Meyer is a sociology and political science professor at UC Irvine who wrote the book The Politics of Protest: Social Movements in America. He said politicians frequently make claims about paid protesters, without evidence, to marginalize people who represent opposing points of view. He said Democrats made those allegations about Tea Party activists in 2009 and Republicans made them about liberal activists who packed congressional town hall meetings in 2017. Meyer said it’s not realistic to think groups paid for protesters in the Stephon Clark case. He added that the sheriff’s "assertion without evidence is unconscionable." Other claims without proof This isn’t the first time PolitiFact has examined a provocative claim from a politician who didn’t support it with evidence. President Trump has repeatedly stated there was "serious voter fraud" in California in the 2016 election — without providing any proof. PolitiFact California investigated that allegation and rated it Pants On Fire. In February 2017, PolitiFact National probed a claim by GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas that political activists were "being paid" to protest members of Congress. It concluded "It’s possible some protesters somewhere may be paid, but there’s zero evidence of a wide-ranging conspiracy to bring in paid activists to disrupt meetings." It rated that claim False. Our ruling Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones claimed "paid protesters" inflamed recent demonstrations over the death of Stephon Clark. Protest organizers say Sacramento’s streets have been filled with volunteers, not for-hire demonstrators. They’ve called the sheriff’s claim baseless. Jones appears to be the only top law enforcement official to make this assertion and has said he has evidence to back it up. His spokesman, however, declined to provide any information to support it and said it’s unlikely they ever will. When we evaluate statements at PolitiFact, the burden of proof is on the person making the claim. We’ll assess any information that might be released in the future. In the meantime, we rate Jones’ claim False. FALSE – The statement is not accurate. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check. UPDATE: We have updated our fact check with comments from Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn and an organizer from the Sacramento chapter of Black Lives Matter. Read Capital Public Radio's full coverage of the Stephon Clark shooting here. Our coverage includes PolitiFact California's article on the facts behind police shootings. See Figure 1 on PolitiFact.com | null | Scott Jones | null | null | null | 2018-04-10T18:11:33 | 2018-04-02 | ['None'] |
snes-00035 | A photograph shows a young Brett Kavanaugh passed out from too much alcohol. | false | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/brett-kavanaugh-wasted-photo/ | null | Fauxtography | null | Alex Kasprak | null | Is This a Photograph of a Wasted Brett Kavanaugh? | 28 September 2018 | null | ['None'] |
pomt-01976 | The typical Wisconsin worker makes $5,000 less each year than our neighbors in Minnesota under Gov. Scott Walker’s policies. | mostly true | /wisconsin/statements/2014/jun/18/mary-burke/minnesota-tops-wisconsin-average-wages-5000-year-m/ | Democrats ripping jobs gains under Republican Gov. Scott Walker often point to the post-recession progress in Minnesota, where the jobs recovery has outpaced that of Wisconsin. Walker, meanwhile, prefers comparisons to Illinois and its budget problems and big tax hikes. In September 2013, we rated Half True a Minnesota lawmaker’s claim that the Gopher State is "kicking butt relative to Wisconsin" on employment, school test scores, workforce education and other rankings. But we haven’t, until now, tested claims of an income gap. Gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke proclaimed such a gap in June 6, 2014 remarks to delegates gathered in Lake Delton for the state Democratic Party’s annual convention. "As you know," Burke said, "our current governor has made quite a name for himself. His divisive brand of politics may have made national headlines, but those policies have hurt middle-class families right here in Wisconsin." She added: "But the people of Wisconsin, we know Scott Walker. He promised us 250,000 new jobs. But what did we get? We’re 9th out of 10 midwestern states in job growth -- ninth out of 10! And the typical Wisconsin worker makes $5,000 less each year than our neighbors in Minnesota." Let’s see if Burke’s statement about a Minnesota advantage in the Walker era holds up. What the numbers show Burke’s campaign cited one source for numbers on earnings. We looked at it and two others. All show Minnesota on top. -- The annual average wage of Minnesota workers was $47,370 as of May 2013 -- $5,060 higher than the $42,310 figure for Wisconsin, according to survey-based estimates published by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 2013 data is the most recent available. -- Average earnings per job in 2012 were $53,928 in Minnesota, $4,931 more than Wisconsin’s $48,997, according to the most recent U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data. That figure takes in a larger group -- not only workers’ wages and salaries but "proprietor’s income" from self-employment. -- The same data, stripped down to exclude proprietor’s income to focus more on regular salaries and wages, shows a gap of $5,757 in Minnesota’s favor, according to research by Dale Knapp at the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance. So Burke’s figures are solid. More about the numbers In her convention speech, Burke argued in a general way that Walker’s policies are linked to the wage gap. Given all the factors that influence a state’s economy, experts agree the actions of a governor have a limited effect. Nevertheless, Burke’s claim misses the mark by pinning the gap solely on Walker. The Minnesota-Wisconsin wage gap dates to at least the 1960s, and gradually has grown despite ups and downs. When we asked Burke campaign spokesman Joe Zepecki about that, he argued that Walker's economic policies -- which Walker touts as turning the state around -- haven't improved it or closed that gap. As examples, he cited Walker’s refusal to accept the federal expansion of Medicaid and his opposition to a minimum wage increase. By any of our three measures, the gap did not narrow in Walker’s first two years. It grew significantly based on the average earnings per job data. It held steady if you use the other two methods. The average earnings data shows the Minnesota wage advantage averaged 7.4 percent during the second four-year term of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, who preceded Walker. So far under Walker the average is 8.8 percent. The gap of 9.1 percent in 2012, Walker’s second year, is the highest since 2000, when Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson was in charge. It’s not that Wisconsin’s average wage has fallen during the Walker era. It’s up 5.5 percent in two years, right around the national average increase. But Minnesota has fared somewhat better, which creates the increase in the gap. In combing through the annual average wage data for the two states, there are some interesting disparities between specific jobs. Minnesota ran up part of its lead on these: Occupation Minnesota average wage Wisconsin average wage Registered nurse $71,160 $64,460 Management, all positions $107,130 $97,920 Dentist $193,100 $177,430 Police and sheriff patrol officer $58,220 $54,140 Social worker (child/family/school) $59,830 $49,720 School bus driver $32,500 $29,190 Computer systems analyst $81,560 $75,170 Lawyer $126,520 $105,080 Wisconsin holds the upper hand in other categories, including: Occupation Minnesota average wage Wisconsin average wage Farm, fishing, forestry $30,910 $31,260 Retail Salesperson $23,730 $24,420 Mortician, undertaker, funeral director $58,340 $65,720 Chiropractor $72,810 $90,170 Pediatrician $185,550 $200,480 According to a bankrate.com calcuator, the Minneapolis area’s cost of living is 8.5% higher than that of the Milwaukee metro area. Our rating Burke told delegates at the state Democratic convention that "the typical Wisconsin worker makes $5,000 less each year than our neighbors in Minnesota" under Walker’s policies. The gap is real and Burke hit the mark with her description of it. The gap has grown or held steady in Walker’s time depending on the measuring stick used. Burke didn’t say Walker created the gap, but the disparity is a longstanding one, and one that existed and grew under governors of both political stripes. We rate her claim Mostly True. | null | Mary Burke | null | null | null | 2014-06-18T05:00:00 | 2014-06-18 | ['Minnesota', 'Wisconsin'] |
peck-00065 | Is Kenya the World’s ‘Least Toxic’ Country? | false | https://pesacheck.org/is-kenya-the-worlds-least-toxic-country-95e48f316663 | null | null | null | Soila Kenya | null | Is Kenya the World’s ‘Least Toxic’ Country? | Sep 3 | null | ['Kenya'] |
pose-01057 | As mayor, I will ... support staff and treating our Codes Compliance Assistance Department as a budget priority. As we continue to emerge from the economic downturn and related budget cuts, we must look to restore funding to the areas that were hit the hardest, and that includes Codes. | promise kept | https://www.politifact.com/florida/promises/krise-o-meter/promise/1139/treat-codes-compliance-assistance-department-budge/ | null | krise-o-meter | Rick Kriseman | null | null | Treat Codes Compliance Assistance Department as a budget priority | 2013-12-31T12:18:01 | null | ['None'] |
snes-04789 | An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent left a suicide note warning of looming mass disarmament and collapse in the United States. | false | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/new-york-ice-agent-suicide-note/ | null | Conspiracy Theories | null | Kim LaCapria | null | New York ICE Agent Suicide Note | 9 May 2016 | null | ['United_States'] |
snes-05969 | Halloween hanging stunt goes wrong and hangs a man for real. | true | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/halloween-hanging/ | null | Horrors | null | David Mikkelson | null | Halloween Trickery Turns Deadly | 11 July 1999 | null | ['None'] |
snes-01171 | President Trump said that a number of state laws allow a baby 'to be born from his or her mother’s womb in the ninth month.' | true | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-baby-ninth-month/ | null | Politics | null | David Mikkelson | null | Did President Trump Decry Babies Being ‘Born in the Ninth Month’? | 20 January 2018 | null | ['None'] |
snes-01058 | Does a New Facebook Algorithm Only Show You 26 Friends? | false | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/new-facebook-algorithm-26-friends/ | null | Viral Phenomena | null | Kim LaCapria | null | Does a New Facebook Algorithm Only Show You 26 Friends? | 6 February 2018 | null | ['None'] |
pomt-11588 | Apple has just announced it plans to invest a total of $350 billion in America, and hire another 20,000 workers. | half-true | /truth-o-meter/statements/2018/jan/31/donald-trump/donald-trump-inflates-apple-investment/ | In his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump led off with the economy, and he drew particular attention to the recently passed tax law. "Since we passed tax cuts, roughly 3 million workers have already gotten tax cut bonuses," Trump said. "And it’s getting more every month, every week. Apple has just announced it plans to invest a total of $350 billion in America, and hire another 20,000 workers." A number of readers asked us to take a closer look at his claim about Apple, so we did. Apple’s press release We can see where Trump got his number. Under the headline "Apple accelerates US investment and job creation," Apple announced on Jan. 17 a series of initiatives to bolster its position in the United States. "Combining new investments and Apple’s current pace of spending with domestic suppliers and manufacturers — an estimated $55 billion for 2018 — Apple’s direct contribution to the U.S. economy will be more than $350 billion over the next five years," the statement said. Notice that Apple did not say it plans to invest $350 billion. It described its "direct contribution to the U.S. economy." Charles Lee, accounting professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, told us the distinction is huge. "Apple certainly did not just announce it plans to invest a total of $350 billion in America," Lee said. "This is a statement about its importance to the U.S. economy, not a statement about its new investments due to the tax law change." So what did Apple’s press release actually say? It said its purchases from other companies will be large -- about $55 billion in 2018. Lee said if that number didn’t grow, Apple would spend about $275 billion over five years. But that’s "pre-planned," Lee said. It’s the cost of doing business and doesn’t represent new investment. If it isn’t an investment in expansion, such as building new facilities, buildings and data centers, that brings the investment total down to $75 billion. But even that figure is too high. Apple wrote the $75 billion includes expected "repatriation tax payments of approximately $38 billion." The new tax law offers a lower tax rate for companies that move profits off the books of their overseas subsidiaries and put them on their domestic balance sheets. Not only is paying Uncle Sam not an investment, Lee cautioned that it doesn’t even mean that Apple is doing anything with those overseas profits immediately. "It simply means they are pre-paying the taxes on that cash right now to take advantage of the lower rates," Lee said. "This ensures Apple will not need to pay any more taxes when, if ever, they decide to bring the cash back." After subtracting the taxes, Lee said "My best estimate of the change in Apple's U.S. investments attributable to the new laws is at most $37 billion." It could be a few billion less. In a section called "Growing Apple's U.S. operations," the company wrote that it "expects to invest over $30 billion in capital expenditures in the U.S. over the next five years and create over 20,000 new jobs through hiring at existing campuses and opening a new one." In addition, it will add $4 billion to an Advanced Manufacturing Fund, an Apple program that helps finance American and foreign companies to expand in America. That adds up to $34 billion over five years. Our ruling Trump said that Apple said it will invest $350 billion in America and hire another 20,000 workers. Trump got the new hires figure right, but Apple’s own announcement doesn’t back him up on the investment dollars. After deducting the costs of paying suppliers and paying taxes, an accounting professor estimated the investment at no more than $37 billion. And based on the press release, it could be $34 billion. That’s still a lot of money, but it’s less than 10 percent of what Trump said. We rate this claim Half True. See Figure 1 on PolitiFact.com | null | Donald Trump | null | null | null | 2018-01-31T15:46:22 | 2018-01-30 | ['United_States'] |
pose-00866 | Require “the legislature to explicitly state when they are creating a new cause of action in statute, forcing courts to read statutes strictly and providing only those rights and remedies the legislature intended.” | promise broken | https://www.politifact.com/texas/promises/perry-o-meter/promise/898/require-legislature-say-when-it-creates-new-cause-/ | null | perry-o-meter | Rick Perry | null | null | Require the legislature to say when it creates a new cause of action in statute | 2012-08-23T13:04:26 | null | ['None'] |
tron-01479 | Trey Gowdy on Transgender Ban: Nobody Has Right to Serve in Military | incorrect attribution! | https://www.truthorfiction.com/trey-gowdy-transgender-military-ban/ | null | government | null | null | ['donald trump', 'facebook', 'LGBT', 'military', 'trey gowdy'] | Trey Gowdy on Transgender Ban: Nobody Has Right to Serve in Military | Aug 2, 2017 | null | ['None'] |
vees-00405 | VERA FILES FACT SHEET: Commander Digong in uniform and the AFP Uniform Code | none | http://verafiles.org/articles/vera-files-fact-sheet-commander-digong-uniform-and-afp-unifo | null | null | null | null | Duterte,AFP uniform code,factcheckph | VERA FILES FACT SHEET: Commander Digong in uniform and the AFP Uniform Code | July 20, 2017 | null | ['None'] |
Subsets and Splits
SQL Console for pszemraj/multi_fc
Filters dataset entries containing 'law' in categories, tags, or reason fields, providing basic topic classification but offering limited analytical insight beyond simple keyword matching.
Healthcare Related Entries
Retrieves sample records containing healthcare-related keywords but doesn't provide meaningful analysis or patterns beyond basic filtering.