The revelation that Internal Revenue Service agents gave extra scrutiny to Tea Party and other conservative groups applying for tax-exempt, nonprofit status should offend all Americans. Back in school, many of us learned the legal axiom that the power to tax is the power to destroy.

The power of the federal tax agency means it must avoid political bias. That the IRS appears not to have done so makes this the first serious scandal of the Obama administration. The specter of government intrusion looms even larger because of unrelated reports this week that the Justice Department secretly obtained telephone records of Associated Press journalists. The department hasn't said what it was looking for but there can be no excuse for this infringement on an independent press.

In the IRS case, however deep the malfeasance or mismanagement runs, and whether or not it involves Obama and his appointees, it demands a full and free investigation and those responsible must be held accountable.

In a hyperpartisan era, people have new standards for judging when Washington controversies cross the line into real scandals. A case in point is the controversy that has, for eight months now, bid for wider public recognition as a full-fledged scandal: the deadly attacks on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya and the administration's statements about it.

Republicans' allegations of a cover-up are too easily belittled by Democrats as dirty politics designed to sink Obama and undermine former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential chances. Amid the Republican-Democrat back-and-forth, most people whose views are not dictated by partisan loyalty have yet to see the incident as much worse than a tragic security failure and clumsy spin.

By contrast, any American can see the scandal in the IRS case. The administration's supporters should not be allowed to get away with shrugging off any of this as merely a symptom of the "second-term curse" that has found a string of re-elected presidents beset by scandals and catastrophes. The IRS-Tea Party matter is a self-created administration crisis.

It is simple stupidity, or worse if the Obama administration played a role, through action or inaction, in the IRS targeting groups opposed to the president. Monday, Obama called the practice "outrageous" and said he learned of it via news reports late last week. However, the question of what officials knew, and when, must be answered. Top IRS officials seem to have hidden the facts from Congress.

Both the IRS-Tea Party and Justice Department-AP matters must be subjects of investigation from outside the Obama administration. These practices violate basic principles of how American should be governed. 

Officially Israel did not send rockets into Damascus. Unofficially Israel sent rockets into Damascus. Many believe the actions of Israel in this action may be the only thing to keep dangerous munitions out of the hands of Syrian rebel forces determined to bring the regime of President Bashar Assad to end.

However, Israel and many Western governments are wondering what would a Syrian government led by some of the so-called opposition groups look like? Many of the rebel groups express extreme views on religion, politics and human rights. This is problematic for our foreign policy.

President Barack Obama has drawn a line in the sand and has said that if the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against its own people they have crossed it.

Are we really ready to send American troops into this two-year civil war that has already left more than 70,000 Syrians dead? It is doubtful that the American people have the interest or the stomach for such an action. United States citizens appear war-weary and are ready to bring our soldiers home. The country’s experiences in Afghanistan and especially Iraq should give Americans pause. We want our leaders to be decisive, but we also want them to be right.

No reliable U.S. intelligence or information from any of our allies in the Middle East or Europe can confirm that Assad has crossed that line but no one doubts he is capable of doing so. Before we commit to engaging our troops at any level, President Obama must express a clear and genuine American interest. We suggest exploring every option available to us before stepping up our involvement. 

Tamerlan Tsarnaev allegedly committed the most terrible of acts, the killing and maiming of innocent people. So when cemeteries in Cambridge, Massachusetts refused to take his body for burial, it was easy to understand the dark mutterings about the Boston Marathon bombing suspect not deserving a proper burial, about how he should be cremated despite his family's wishes and his religion's traditions, or his corpse cast into the sea.

Easy to understand, but wrong. Ultimately, Tsarnaev's burial isn't so much about him or what he deserves as it is about our society, which generally tries to do the decent thing. Decency means treating the dead with basic civility and respect, no matter who the person was or what acts they may have committed.

Tsarnaev's mother reportedly wants his remains returned to Russia; an uncle in the United States, who has been working with the funeral home that has his body, thinks he should be buried in Cambridge, where he lived before he was killed in a shootout with police. In any case, the family wants him to be buried in accordance with Muslim belief but private cemeteries have refused to accept the body, and the city of Cambridge says it doesn't want the gravesite in public burial grounds for fear of protests; it also might be difficult to keep angry Bostonians from vandalizing the grave.

Tsarnaev's family might not get exactly what they wish for, but a dead person— even one who is suspected of evil— must receive appropriate funeral arrangements without undue public outcry. Texas, a state that is far too willing to execute criminals, at least understands its responsibilities toward those it has killed: Unclaimed bodies of criminals are buried, with a service, in a well-tended cemetery on prison grounds.

Funeral director Peter Stefan, who agreed to handle arrangements for Tsarnaev's remains, told the Associated Press that he has received abusive phone calls for this act of decency. "Can I pick and choose? No," he said. "Can I separate the sins from the sinner? No. We are burying a dead body. That is what we do."

Exactly! That is what we as a society are supposed to do— bury or cremate the dead with reasonable consideration of their families' wishes. The public isn't being asked to honor Tsarnaev, but it should honor its own standards of righteous behavior.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was on the money this week when she said the federal indictments of 25 people, including 13 correctional officers, at the city’s detention center “had serious implications.”

The facts of the case that have been made public are disturbing, salacious and raise troubling questions about the influence of gangs in correctional facilities and the complicity of corrupt of guards and other employees. However, the feeding frenzy by opponents of Governor O’Malley who are calling for his head over this long-standing problem should cool their heels. This is not the first time we have heard about inappropriate behavior at these facilities and it was a problem long before O’Malley became governor.

Let’s get all the facts on the table and figure out how to minimize the ability of these inmates to influence jail employees, put strong watchdog wardens in place to reestablish credibility and control, and resist finger-pointing until we know all the facts.