Do illegal immigrants cost $338.3 billion dollars a year? More than the Iraq war? April 6, 2009 A chain e-mail that makes this claim is loaded with errors and misleading assertions. Published studies vary widely but put the cost to government at a small fraction of that total.

Is Congress creating a mandatory public service system? Are participants not allowed to go to church? March 31, 2009 The national service bill does not mandate that youth must participate nor does it forbid anyone who does participate from going to church.

Would a new bill in Congress make my backyard organic garden illegal? March 27, 2009 A House bill proposes to split the Food & Drug Administration, creating a separate entity to oversee food safety. It's aimed at food sold in supermarkets and doesn't say anything about organic gardening, pesticides, farmers' markets or that tomato plant...

Did FDR promise that Social Security would be voluntary? Did Democrats end tax deductions for Social Security withholding? March 24, 2009 Social Security has never been voluntary and taxes paid to support it have never been deductible from federal income taxes. A widely e-mailed "history lesson" gets nearly all its facts wrong.

Is it true that Obama is dropping the federal safety program that allowed pilots to carry guns? March 21, 2009 No, the program is not being ended, according to the Transportation Security Administration, the Department of Homeland Security and the largest airline pilots union. In fact, TSA says the program is being expanded. The claim comes from a Washington Times...

Did AIG give $100,000 to Obama? March 19, 2009 AIG employees gave $104,332 to Obama during the 2008 campaign, the most to any candidate. They also gave heavily to McCain, who was third on their list.

Are anti-drilling forces blocking access to the world's largest oil reserve in the western U.S.? March 16, 2009 The Bakken Formation touted in a chain e-mail isn't the world's largest oil reserve. The amount of oil it contains, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, is less than one one-hundredth of the estimate cited in the e-mail.

Will 300,000 illegal immigrants get construction jobs through the stimulus package? March 13, 2009 There's no way of knowing how many illegal immigrants may or may not end up with a job from stimulus funds. But this inflated estimate comes from conservative groups concerned about the absence of employee verification requirements in the final...

How many of the uninsured are U.S. citizens? March 10, 2009 The vast majority of the uninsured are citizens from working families.

Is the fairness doctrine coming back, and would it shut down conservative talk radio? March 6, 2009 Obama has made it clear he opposes it. If it were revived, it probably would reduce the overall number of radio hours devoted to conservative talk shows.