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Uprising’s Thursday guest expert Adele Stan, longtime chronicler of the right wing, and senior Washington correspondent for RHRealityCheck.org, analyzes today’s news headlines:

New revelations from Edward Snowden show how the intelligence community’s so-called Black Budget has doubled since 9-11. The Washington Post broke the story of the bloated intelligence budget yesterday, after analyzing budget documents obtained from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. What they found was that tax payers foot an annual bill of $52.6 billion for intelligence operations that include a program to spy on them. The CIA apparently sucks up the largest portion of the money at about $14.7 billion a year. The “black budget” as it’s being called, is not subject to public or congressional scrutiny, that is, until now. Click here for the Washington Post report about the story.

While most of us have never stored cash in offshore Swiss bank accounts, hundreds of wealthy Americans who have more money than they know what to do with, avoid paying taxes on their excess wealth by storing it in secret banks in the Alps. The US government has been attempting to track down some of the tax evaders for years and now, Reuters is reporting that a deal with some 100 Swiss banks may be close. The deal could allow banks to pay a fine and/or turn over client names in exchange for avoiding prosecution. Click here for a Reuters article about the story.

And finally, continuing a wave of victories for marijuana legalization advocates, the Justice department just announced it would not challenge states like Washington and Colorado that recently passed legalization measures. Legalization advocacy organizations were pleasantly surprised by the announcement saying it gives greater incentive for other states to do the same. Click here for a Wall Street Journal article about the story.