YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: Feds spent over $1.3 billion in Russia, China on controversial projects. “The watchdog group, Open the Books, and U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, released the analysis, which detailed an array of examples they deemed troubling ‘including $770,466 to a state-run lab in Russia to put cats on treadmills’ and another project for nearly $100,000 for gender equality cartoons.”