RUTHFULLY YOURS

The Justice Department has opened up an new investigation into the Clinton Foundation to see if it conducted “pay-to-play” politics or other illegal activities while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, The Hill reported on Thursday.

FBI agents from Little Rock have already interviewed at least one witness, according to the report.

The Hill’s John Solomon reported that the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “the probe was examining whether the Clintons promised or performed any policy favors in return for contributions to their charitable efforts or whether donors promised to make donations in hopes of government outcomes.”

The probe may also examine whether any tax-exempt assets were converted for personal or political use and whether the Foundation complied with applicable tax laws, the officials said.

One witness recently interviewed by the FBI described the session to The Hill as “extremely professional and unquestionably thorough” and focused on questions about whether donors to Clinton charitable efforts received any favorable treatment from the Obama administration on a policy decision previously highlighted in media reports.The U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Arkansas is Cody Hiland, who is a veteran of the Huckabee administration.

“He was working for Mike Huckabee back in the days when the Clinton machine was trying to take Huckabee out as governor,” Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt said Thursday night on Fox News@Night. “This is some old blood-feud stuff,” he added.

“If this prosecutor out in Little Rock wants to take a good look at what the Clintons were doing and what was going on, I don’t think there’s probably much to stop him,” Stirewalt said. “We remember Peter Schweizer’s book (Clinton Cash),” he continued. “We reported on it, the New York Times reported on it, others reported on it — that had a lot of stinky stuff in it. It seemed inappropriate.” CONTINUE AT SITE

The Ohio state treasurer who was pressing forward with a well-funded challenge to incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) dropped out of the race today, citing his wife’s health issues.

Josh Mandel challenged Brown’s Senate seat back in 2012, but lost with 45 percent of the vote. Some polls over the past year showed Mandel with the lead in a head-to-head rematch with Brown, in a race rated as leaning toward the Dems.

Mandel, a 40-year-old Marine Corps veteran, issued a statement noting that his campaign has been “on a path to defeating Sherrod Brown this November,” including by being “the top fundraising Republican challenger in the country.”

The candidate said he “recently learned” that his wife, Ilana, “has a health issue that will require my time, attention and presence. In other words, I need to be there.” The two were married in 2008 and have three children together.

“Understanding and dealing with this health issue is more important to me than any political campaign. For as long as that takes, whether it is months or years, it is important that I heed my dad’s advice and be there for my wife and our kids,” Mandel continued. “After recent discussions with our family and healthcare professionals, it has become clear to us that it’s no longer possible for me to be away from home and on the campaign trail for the time needed to run a US Senate race.”

The Republican called it “a difficult decision for us, but it’s the right one.”

Hiring at private U.S. employers grew more than expected in December, according to a report, as the busy holiday shopping season prompted businesses to hire in order to keep up with demand.

Firms across the country added 250,000 workers to their ranks in December, according to payroll processor Automatic Data Processing Inc. and forecasting firm Moody’s Analytics.

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected the addition of 195,000 jobs.

The November total was revised down to 185,000 from 190,000.

The ADP report is based on private-payroll data in addition to government data.

“Robust Christmas sales prompted retailers and delivery services to add to their payrolls,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics.

“We’ve seen yet another month where the labor market has shown no signs of slowing,” vice president and co-head of ADP Research Institute Ahu Yildirmaz.

Growth was driven by small businesses which added more than double their monthly average for the past six months.

The ADP report comes ahead of the monthly jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. The BLS report is expected to show slower growth in employment in December compared to the strong gains seen in November. Economists expect nonfarm jobs to rise by 180,000 for December, compared with 228,000 the prior month.

Friday’s Labor Department report on the December jobs market was mostly ho-hum, with the economy creating 148,000 net new jobs and the unemployment rate staying flat at a low 4.1%. But one more hopeful figure leapt out at us and a few others: The unemployment rate for black Americans fell to its lowest rate ever at 6.8%.

That’s right. The jobless rate for African-Americans hasn’t been lower since 1972, the earliest date we could find in the Bureau of Labor Statistics data tables. The jobless rate for blacks has always been substantially higher than for whites, and it tends to fall faster later in the economic cycle as growth picks up steam. The black jobless rate fell into the 7%-8% range in 1999-2000, before the dot-com bubble burst, and briefly in 2007 before the financial panic. But it climbed back to as high as 16.8% in 2010 before a long, slow decline as the economy recovered.

The rate has fallen especially fast the last couple of years, and in December fell another 0.4 percentage points. That big a fall might be a statistical anomaly that bounces back up in future months, but the downward trend is as clear as the political and economic message: Get the economy growing faster, and everyone will benefit.