Johnson’s poker face. No wonder she needed all that money!(Image from news.yahoo.com)

Most people are aware that the old saying “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” is a total fallacy, but apparently General Services Administration (GSA) chief Martha Johnson and 300 other members of the government agency didn’t get the memo.

What they did get, however, was a $3,200 psychic mind reader , $4-a-piece shrimp, and $44 breakfasts, all at a more than $820,000 conference in a lavish Las Vegas spa and casino.

So who foot the bill? You and thousands of other taxpayers, of course!

When the news broke in the form of an agency inspection report on Monday, Johnson fired her two top deputies and resigned in disgrace. Yet the investigation has really only just begun–two House committees are now inquiring further into the matter.

The spending controversy comes as a huge embarrassment for President Obama, who was furious with the extravagant spending. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney and some other Republicans are citing the GSA’s lack of monetary discretion as yet another example of the federal government’s disregard for the taxpayer.

While it is true that the egregious spending came as a shock to many, we here at USDemocrazy saw it coming. For one thing, the GSA has a history of scandals, and not just with respect to excessive squandering…

And also, we hired a clairvoyant mind reader.

“The president of the Council of Prince George’s County PTAs said her phone has been ringing nonstop since final results from Tuesday’s primary election were reported,” writes Ovetta Wiggins in today’s Washington Post. The results of that election? Three young adults, including two students from UMBC and one from College Park, soundly defeated their Prince George’s County Board of Education primary opponents to advance to the general election in November.

Wiggins reports that although the isolated election of a single teenager to a school board is not unusual, this case’s three young candidates make it exceptional. UMBC student David H. Murray, a 20-year-old UMBC economics major and Sondheim Scholar, is vying for a District 1 seat. Fellow sophomore Edward Burroughs is running for reelection in District 8. Both received the most votes in their districts by wide margins.

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