Midday Roundup: The IRS had Lois Lerner's emails after all

Found. The U.S. Treasury Inspector General has discovered 30,000 emails sent by former IRS official Lois Lerner—messages the IRS claimed had been destroyed and were irrecoverable. Lerner is accused of using her authority to harass nonprofit conservative groups. She has refused to testify before Congress in the matter, taking the Fifth Amendment when questioned. Some Republicans said the recovery of the emails proves IRS statements about the issue cannot be trusted. “The IRS has continually dragged its feet, changed its story, and been less than forthcoming with information related to its egregious violation of Americans’ First Amendment rights,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

Bated breath. Onlookers are still holding their breath for a decision by the grand jury in the fatal shooting case of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch predicted a decision in mid- to late-November, and this is the last week of the month. In anticipation of an announcement, some area schools canceled classes Monday and Tuesday so students would stay home safe from any violent protests that might erupt. The grand jury is weighing whether to charge Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting of Brown, who was unarmed but might have been attacking the officer. The August shooting set off protests in St. Louis, some of which turned into looting and rioting. Leaders from local protest groups, and even President Barack Obama, have called for peace and nonviolence from demonstrators once the decision comes out.

“Mayor for life.” Marion Barry, the controversial, longtime mayor of Washington, D.C., died Sunday. He was 78. He served as mayor from 1975 to 1991 and 1995 to 1999. As a politician, he was known for expanding the city payroll and working to create jobs for minorities. He was instrumental in the city’s fight to establish home rule instead of having Congress manage its affairs. Barry remained involved in city government throughout his life, serving on the city council during many of the years he was not mayor. Around the world, he is perhaps best known for his arrest in 1990, when the FBI caught him using crack cocaine in a drug sting. His own struggle with the law became synonymous with the D.C. cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and ’90s.

Dinged up. The president took a public ribbing Saturday night for his executive action on immigration. A sketch on Saturday Night Live showed Obama interrupting the classic School House Rock song about how a bill becomes a law by pushing a person-sized piece of legislation down the steps of the U.S. Capitol. In an interview Sunday on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Obama acknowledged the country is growing weary of him, as it often does at the end of a president’s second term. When asked whether he would campaign for the Democratic nominee in the 2016 election, he said, “I think the American people, you know, they’re going to want, you know, that new car smell. … They want to drive something off the lot that doesn’t have as much mileage as me.”