REMEMBER WHEN OBAMA CRITICIZED WASTEFUL CORPORATE JUNKETS? Watchdog: Junkets held by Education Department cost taxpayers $1.5m a year. “Last year’s four-day conference, which opened in late November, was hosted by the U.S. Department of Education at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The year before that, the event was at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort in Orlando. . . .Sole-source contracts were used to select sites for the events, according to internal Education Department documents obtained by The Washington Examiner. The MGM event cost taxpayers about $1.6 million, according to the agency, including $790,000 paid to an outside consultant to help plan and present the conference.”

Best bit: “The keynote speaker was the department’s secretary, Arne Duncan. His topic: controlling college costs.” Heh.