WASHINGTON — THE federal government spends around $500 billion annually on goods and services. So when Uncle Sam throws his weight around, markets move. Historically, presidents have used this leverage to achieve policy goals that were politically difficult to accomplish through legislation. In 1941, for example, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order prohibiting racial discrimination by defense contractors after it became clear that federal legislation would be impossible because of the stranglehold that Southern Democrats had on Congress.

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In December, a congressional report found that the federal government did a relatively poor job preventing taxpayer money from going to contractors with labor violations. The report, written by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said that tens of billions of dollars in contracts had gone in recent years to companies that were found to have violated federal safety and wage laws and paid millions in penalties. At least 18 federal contractors were among the recipients of the largest 100 penalties issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration between 2007 and 2012. The report called on the government to weigh a company’s safety and wage violations more closely as it awarded contracts.

In 2010, the Obama administration considered a plan that did just that. Tentatively named the High Road Procurement Policy, the plan would have disqualified many companies with labor or other violations and given an edge to companies with better levels of pay, health coverage or pensions. One in five American workers are employed by a company that contracts with the federal government. The plan was dropped after strong opposition from business leaders who described it as anti-competitive and an expensive gift to unions.

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Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, said that an added difficulty was that many federal agencies did not reveal the addresses of their contractors’ overseas factories, which got in the way of independent oversight. By contrast, at least five states and more than 20 cities require garment companies to reveal the location of their domestic and overseas suppliers and to submit to audits if they want to compete for public contracts.

Right up there with a job I once had sweeping a textile mill, covering the NFL is one of the most tedious gigs going. Almost as regulated as the airline industry when it comes to managing media access, the league, unlike MLB and the NBA, doesn't allow reporters to talk to players before games. Weekday "open" locker-room sessions virtually amount to the long-snapper and a few rookie special teamers milling about.

The NFL regulated fun right out of pro football a long time ago, about the point when franchise irrelevancy crushed all those delightful free spirits who played for the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders. Who needs Ambien these days when a Tom Brady interview is available?

That's why this whole Richard Sherman debate seems so misguided. Forget the sociopolitical smoke screens pundits have floated since the Seattle cornerback's delightful rant last Sunday. I don't care if Sherman went to Stanford or was Otis Sistrunk's teammate at the University of Mars. Bless his heart for remembering in a brilliant moment of clarity that the NFL, beyond anything else, is an entertainment business, not that far evolved from professional wrestling.

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In fact, this whole Super Bowl buildup has become far too much of a morality play for something as ethically sketchy as a football game. Sherman vs. All-Around Good Guy and Pizza Salesman Peyton Manning. Heart Patient Survivor John Fox vs. Shady Pete Carroll. The New Jersey Meadowlands vs. The Civilized World.

Now, more than seven decades after their meeting, and many years since both men died, Schmidt's rare and valuable collection of Robert Frost-inscribed first editions, correspondence, Christmas cards and other papers have been acquired by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

"It's really awesome. Robert Frost items of this magnitude you just don't see much anymore," said Gregory Kocken, special collections librarian and university archivist.

Schmidt's widow, Joan Christopherson Schmidt, known as "Miss Chris," recently parted with her husband's collection of 45 rare Frost books, Christmas cards Frost sent each year featuring a new poem, pages Frost tore from his notebooks filled with poetry and other papers. Many of the books are inscribed in Frost's handwriting to Frederick G. Schmidt and several include poetry Frost scribbled on the opening pages.

Though Miss Chris declined to say how much the collection is worth, a prominent auction company contacted her to sell it. She declined. "I knew I could get a lot of money for the collection but then it would be on some rich guy's book shelf," Miss Chris said. "My thinking was to have it in a school, especially one with a facility where it will be taken care of."

Rep. Christine Sinicki had enough of the BS and let her constituents know how she really felt with a facebook post(it is 2014): On Wednesday, Sinicki posted, "OMG...this speech is so full of sh**. Wish I could get up and walk out” and then “Bottom line..the rich get richer and the poor and middle class continue to get kicked in the butt.

Not the Speech full of lies, but the one word facebook page set off a shitstorm of fake outrage. The storm was so bad and so brown that Mary Burke decided to jump on the criticize Sinicki bandwagon!

Walker’s Democratic opponent, former Trek Bicycle Corp. executive Mary Burke, said that Sinicki’s post wasn’t appropriate.
Asked if she though Sinicki should apologize, Burke said, “I think people should make their own decisions. It’s certainly something that I would have apologized for.”

Ahh yes, the lady who has nothing bad to say about her opponent has decided she can throw her friends under the bus quick enough!

If you want to feel truly dispirited about the health of U.S. democracy, skip the stories about Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell and go straight to today's report on the American voting experience. The report, by a presidentially appointed commission that included the campaign attorneys for both President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, looked at the problems that plague U.S. elections -- everything from needlessly long lines at the polls, inaccurate voter lists and aging voting machines to a failure to make polling places accessible for the disabled or those with limited English.

One of the report's more distressing findings centered on the effect mass shootings have on Americans' ability to cast a ballot. The commission noted that schools are the best venue for polling places: "They have the needed and desirable space, are inexpensive, widespread, conveniently located, and accessible for people with disabilities."

But the December 2012 Newtown shooting has led some states to look at limiting access to schools for voting. "It is this concern -- security -- that has presented the largest obstacle to widespread use of schools," the commission reports, in what appears to be a reference to the risks of letting voters, some of whom may be armed, get too close to school kids. It goes on: "Even in states where schools are authorized to serve as polling places, the Commission heard that many school districts resist using schools as polling places for this reason. This resis­tance can even extend to cases where the schools appear obligated to make themselves available by statute, but have adopted strategies to avoid being pressed into service."

In other words, to the many ugly consequences of America's increasing embrace of gun rights, we can now add making it more difficult to cast a ballot. The commission proposes dealing with those concerns by sending children home on election day to keep them out of harm's way; meanwhile, "teachers could use the day to perform administrative functions and conduct professional training." (Some school districts, including New York City, already do so, while not necessarily citing safety as the reason.) It's worth dwelling on the absurdity of it all: The profusion of gun violence means more U.S. communities feel compelled to weigh making voting easier against educating, and protecting, their children.