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Ballerinas, a white rabbit and a mad hatter danced around the venue and served tea to the community during Santa Clarita Ballet Companys Tea and Toe Shoes party.

Its such a unique event, said Corinne Glover, director of the ballet company. Its a formal tea and its a great afternoon.

The non-profit ballet school put on the annual event at the Tournament Players Club in Valencia to raise money for their upcoming performance of Alice in Wonderland.

Performers from the cast showcased a few numbers from the show and interacted with children aspiring to be ballerinas when they grew older.

The young kids see us as role models, Eliga De Fazio said, a performer portraying Alice in the schools upcoming production.

De Fazio, who started with the company when she was little, knows first hand how the younger ballerinas view the older performers.

When I was little, I looked up to all of the older girls, she said. Its a different perspective. It is like were shifting places.

Tawny Clement, a teacher with the company, performed at the tea party years ago when she was 17.

Clement was back on Saturday to bring her 5-year-old daughter to watch the ballerinas and sip tea for the first time.

Its been a very special journey, she said as she helped her daughter add sugar to her tea.

Its inspiring for them to get to see the older girls and to see what they can develop into after years of hard work and practice.

The Santa Clarita Ballet Company will be performing Alice in Wonderland at the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center on June 10.

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A tea party for the storybooks - Santa Clarita Valley Signal

A judge has ruled that there was a 'strong showing' the IRS had a bias against Tea Party groups. USA TODAY

Lois Lerner, former Exempt Organizations Director at the IRS(Photo: Enquirer file)Buy Photo

The Enquirer asked a federal judge Tuesday to open a secret court hearing about tea party bias claims against the IRS, arguing the media and the public havea vested interest in the proceedings.

"The First Amendment protects the press's right to gather news," wrote Jack Greiner, the Enquirer's lawyer. "Given the nature of these proceedings, any decision by this court to prevent public access will add to the suspicion and mistrust already raised by the allegations."

Mistrust is at the heart of the tea party's case against the IRS, which is accused of singling out conservative-leaning public interest groups for extra attention while reviewing applications for tax-exempt status.

A civil lawsuit brought by several of those tea party-affiliated groups is now before Judge Michael Barrett in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati. The judge, however, has kept some court filings secret and has closed a hearing scheduled for Friday.

He's done so at the urging of Lois Lerner and Holly Paz, IRS officials who oversaw the applications in the IRS' nonprofit division, which is based in Cincinnati.

Lerner and Paz both say their lives are in danger if they testify publicly about the handling of the groups' applications. They say they have been harassed and received death threats when their roles at the IRS first were disclosed several years ago.

The two women recently provided the judge with documentation, which was not made public, containing "graphic, profane and disturbing language" from people they say have threatened them.

Lawyers for the tea party groups say the public's right to know outweighs any concerns raised by Lerner and Paz.

The Enquirer asked Barrett, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, for permission to intervene in the case to argue for an open hearing.

"Allowing (Lerner and Paz) to keep these judicial records secret would not only deprive The Enquirer of its ability to report on the conduct of the litigation, but also deny the public its ability to assess for itself the merits of judicial decisions," Greiner wrote.

The lawsuit against the IRS is one of several filed in 2013 after the agency acknowledged it had singled out some groups for special attention. A Senate subcommittee reached the same conclusion in 2014, but found no evidence of political bias.

Applications for some liberal-leaning groups also were delayed, but about 80 percent of groups affected were conservative.

Lerner, the agency's former Exempt Organization Director, resigned over the scandal and Paz was reassigned. Paz has previously said the nonprofit division was overwhelmed by applications from conservative groups and employees struggled with how to respond.

Read or Share this story: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2017/05/16/enquirer-sues-open-secret-tea-party-hearing/325935001/

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Enquirer sues to open secret tea party hearing - Cincinnati Enquirer - Cincinnati.com

Congratulations to The Roanoke Times for it's May 11 edirorial entitled "Shameful," the coverage of the recent Moneta town-hall meeting of Rep. Tom Garrett, R-Buckingham Co. I gather the meeting was best described in the partial sentence, "many members of the audience who repeatedly interrupted Garrett to boo, jeer, heckle and generally try to disrupt the proceedings."

The thought immediately came to me, "we reap what we sow." To this observer of the passing scene, I believe such behavior at these meetings can be laid at the feet of Tea Partiers from about four or five years ago. From memory, such persons had a legitimate fear concerning the national debt. They became very forceful and vocal at town hall meetings. But their rudeness and impoliteness was soon brushed aside by the radicals of their persuasion. (In political circles, it's near impossible for moderates not to be pushed aside by radicals -- of whatever party.) And repeating the newspaper's rhetorical question "This is good for democracy how?" We used to say, "I went to a brawl, and a hockey match broke out." Now we just substitute the words "town hall meeting" for "hockey match." Disgusting!

Allied to this behavior we now have the Bully-in-Chief in the White House (occasionally). Excuse my pessimism, but I'm not convinced we will still have a democracy by year 2020, How many years did it take for Adolf Hitler to rise from legitimately chosen Chancellor of Germany to Der Fuehrer?

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Williamson: Blame the Tea Party for rudeness - Roanoke Times

Lois G. Lerner and Holly Paz, two key figures in the IRS tea party-targeting, can keep testimony about their role in the targeting secret, at least for now, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

The two women had said they feared death threats and other harassment if their depositions in a class action lawsuit against the IRS became public.

U.S. District Judge Michael R. Barrett had originally ordered their depositions be sealed, but on Thursday he removed that prohibition and instead said the testimony should be deemed confidential, keeping it secret until he can see what the women had to say and what effect releasing it to the public would have.

He said the parties in the case can eventually ask to make the information public, and at that point the burden will be on Ms. Lerner and Ms. Paz to explain why it should be kept secret.

Good cause exists to maintain the confidentiality of the depositions during the discovery phase, Judge Barrett ruled.

For now, only the lengthy list of lawyers involved in the case will be allowed to see the deposition testimony.

In a case already fraught with tension, the womens request for secrecy added a new dimension.

Im outraged, said Mark Meckler, president of Citizens for Self-Governance and co-founder of Tea Party Patriots.

Mr. Mecklers group is funding a class action lawsuit against the IRS for its targeting, and hundreds of organizations snared in the targeting are part of the case. They want to talk to Ms. Lerner and Ms. Paz as part of their effort to get to the bottom of what went on.

What shes claiming is the public should have no right to know, if theyre made at a public official, what that official says under oath, Mr. Meckler said.

He also said Judge Barrett got Thursdays ruling wrong. He said the judge should have said his plan is for transparency, leaving open the chance for limited parts to be kept secret if need be.

I think he got it backwards, Mr. Meckler said.

More than 400 groups were on the list of nonprofit organizations the IRS said it subjected to intrusive scrutiny up through 2013. It singled groups out because of worries about perceived political activities.

The targeting came to light in May 2013 after Ms. Lerner, knowing a scathing inspector generals report was coming, staged a question at a conference to get her version of events out to the public first.

The Obama Justice Department conducted a criminal investigation but cleared Ms. Lerner and other employees, saying while the IRS showed incompetent management, it did not show an intent to deny applicants their rights. The Justice Department singled Ms. Lerner out for praise, saying she was one of the first to conclude the behavior was inappropriate and took steps to clean up the mess.

Lawyers for Ms. Lerner and Ms. Paz didnt respond to requests for comment. Neither did the lawyer representing the class of targeted groups.

Judge Barrett had originally scheduled a closed-door hearing for Friday to let lawyers for Ms. Lerner and Ms. Paz argue the need for secrecy.

The Cincinnati Enquirer this week filed a motion to force open the proceedings, saying the press has a right to observe the arguments unless theres a clear and present danger, or a serious or imminent threat to a fair trial.

The papers lawyers said Ms. Lerner and Ms. Paz havent proved either of those conditions.

On Thursday Judge Barrett canceled the secrecy hearing, saying it was moot now.

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Lois Lerner's tea party-targeting testimony can stay secret: Judge - Washington Times

Taxes among discussion topics planned for Beaufort TEA Party meeting Island Packet Local property tax increase proposals and national voting issues will be discussion topics at an upcoming meeting of the Beaufort TEA Party. The meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. Monday at Fuji's Restaurant, 97 Sea Island Parkway, Lady's Island, according ...

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Taxes among discussion topics planned for Beaufort TEA Party meeting - Island Packet