The Truth-O-Meter has arrived down under. PolitiFact Australia, our first international venture, launches today. It marks a new milestone for PolitiFact and a big step for the global fact-checking movement. Headed by veteran editor Peter Fray and a talented team of reporters, PolitiFact Australia will fact-check government officials and candidates in Australia's federal election, scheduled for Sept. 14. Australia's politics are every bit as rough and tumble as the United States’, with passionate voices across the political spectrum. The Australia staff began fact-checking just a week ago and it didn't take them long to find exaggerations and falsehoods. The first ... >>More

We have attempted to extricate anything that might have even remote substance that we could research on Google, but found the process incredibly frustrating.

Q: Is it true that there are bills in Congress that would exempt members and their staffs and families from buying into

Dead Americans, a botched rescue and a political coverup — that’s the story Republican lawmakers told this week as the nation heard riveting testimony from a diplomat who was in Libya the night of Sept. 11, 2012, attacks. If your reaction to "Benghazi" is — "What?" — here’s the short, official version: Diplomatic workers staffed a temporary residential outpost in the Libyan city after the death of dictator Moammar Gadhafi. On a night the U.S. ambassador was visiting from the capital in Tripoli, armed Islamic terrorists attacked, setting a toxic diesel-fueled fire that killed the ambassador and a colleague. Americans ... >>More

During an interview on the MSNBC show Morning Joe, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., argued for legislation he’s proposing that would allow guns to be carried into lands controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers. A similar measure for national parks took effect in 2010. "In 2010," Coburn said on Morning Joe, "everybody said you can't dare let guns go into the national parks, and of course the rapes, murders, robberies and assaults are down about 85 percent since we did that." That’s a pretty stunning drop. Is it accurate? In a word, no. We rated the statement False. Read our ... >>More

The Senate begins its work today of scrutinizing, amending and tweaking an ambitious piece of blueprint legislation to repair and modernize the nation’s immigration system. Until now, S. 744 has been confined to a public relations battle between supporters and opponents of reform. Now the real work of -- possibly -- turning the bill into law begins. The measure, crafted by a bipartisan group of senators knowns as the Gang of Eight, creates a 13-year pathway to citizenship for many of the 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. And it allocates billions of dollars to tighten border security. ... >>More