A.M. Links: IRS Fibbed About Surge in Non-Profit Applications, Aaron Swartz Left a Tipster-Friendly Legacy, Chicago FOIA Compliance Involves a Paper Shredder

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  U.S. Government

  While President Obama accepts the resignations of IRS apparatchiks who were about to leave anyway, he may want to do something about that smell of BS clinging to the tax collectors' offices. Their explanation that extra scrutiny was devoted to government critics because of a surge in non-profit applications runs afoul of the actual drop in applications at the time.

• Aaron Swartz may be gone, but his legacy lives on in a very relevant way. His DeadDrop project allows anonymous tipsters to communicate with journalists in a secure fashion. It will probably be banned in 3 … 2 … 1 …
• Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel apparently finds freedom of information requests annoying, so his administration has taken to destroying records so there's nothing to be free about.
• In Europe, Italy's economy is shriveling faster than Belusconi's likelihood of staying out of prison, and British lawmakers are having serious second thoughts about this whole European Union thing.
• The U.S. government has taken a strong dislike to Bitcoin, what with its anonymity and ease of use for stuff politicians don't like. Bitcoin was designed to withstand such opposition, but critics warn that legal targeting could cramp the digital currency's potential and keep it underground.
• Six Americans were killed by a suicide bomber in that winding-down war in Afghanistan.
• Among the off-message excesses of the U.S. Army sexual-assault prevention coordinator now under investigation for coordinating nothing of the sort was, allegedly, convincing a soldier to try her hand at prostitution.

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