"There are some positions that are just leftover fossils from some previous something or other that now are getting identified."
His comments came shortly before state finance commissioner Dave Goetz held a capitol hill update on the $50-million dollar voluntary buyout package that will save 64-Million dollars in next years state budget by eliminating 2000 state government jobs.
Two decades ago, however, socialism and communism died rudely, then were buried forever by the empirical demonstration of the superiority of market capitalism everywhere from Thatcher's England to Deng's China, where just the partial abolition of socialism lifted more people out of poverty more rapidly than ever in human history.
Just as the ash heap of history beckoned, the intellectual left was handed the ultimate salvation: environmentalism. Now the experts will regulate your life not in the name of the proletariat or Fabian socialism but -- even better -- in the name of Earth itself.
Environmentalists are Gaia's priests, instructing us in her proper service and casting out those who refuse to genuflect. And having proclaimed the ultimate commandment -- carbon chastity -- they are preparing the supporting canonical legislation that will tell you how much you can travel, what kind of light you will read by, and at what temperature you may set your bedroom thermostat.
To help offset high gas prices, the 4-day work week is coming back (just like it became popular in the 1970s and early 1980s when gas prices rose); just another example of how consumers will find many ways to deal with $4 gas: buying smaller cars (see post below), driving less, and working four 10-hour days instead of five 8-hour days to achieve 20% savings, etc.
Bottom Line: Markets adjust, consumers adjust, producers adjust, employees adjust, employers adjust, everybody makes adjustments; that's part of the miracle of the market - continual adjustments to the never-ending dynamic changes in the economy and the marketplace.
The proposal -- backed by giant insurers Allstate Corp. and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., as well as Florida lawmakers -- focuses on "reinsurance," the policies bought by insurers themselves to protect against catastrophic losses. The proposal envisions a taxpayer-financed reinsurance program covering all 50 states, which would essentially backstop the giant insurers in case of disaster.
The program could save homeowners roughly $500 apiece in annual premiums in Florida, according to an advocacy group backed by Allstate and State Farm, the largest writers of property insurance in the U.S.
But environmentalists and other critics -- including the American Insurance Association, a major trade group -- say lower premiums would more likely spur irresponsible coastal development, already a big factor in insurance costs. The program could also shift costs to taxpayers in states with fewer natural-disaster risks.
It gets better:
Critics cite that debt forgiveness as an example of how states with little or no hurricane risk can end up footing the bill for damage in flood-prone areas. "For years, federal flood-insurance backers told us the program was financially sound, but the storms of 2005 left it $17 billion in the hole," said Steve Ellis of nonpartisan budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Even some analysts hired by lobbyists for the federal program acknowledge it has its risks. "If you charge something less than the private-market cost for homeowners' insurance, that creates a potential incentive to increase exposure on the coast" -- in other words, to build in risky or flood-prone areas -- said David Chernick of Milliman Inc., an actuarial firm hired by ProtectingAmerica.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. Bobby Jindal's push to funnel state dollars into a program that would send some New Orleans students to private schools will get a debate in the full Senate after narrowly passing another legislative hurdle Friday.
The Senate Finance Committee voted 6-4 for the voucher program, the final approval needed to send the bill to the Senate floor. The proposal, sponsored by Rep. Austin Badon, D-New Orleans, already has approval from the House.
Supporters said the program would give students in failing schools in New Orleans the ability to get a better education and a better quality of life. Opponents said it would siphon dollars away from public schools and undercut school reform efforts under way in the city.
MAY 30--An Internal Revenue Service employee snooped on the tax records of about 200 celebrities and athletes, confessing to investigators that he accessed the confidential material out of "curiosity." John Snyder, a 56-year-old tax examiner from Cincinnati, was named this month in a misdemeanor criminal complaint charging him with accessing the computerized accounts of "at least 202 taxpayers," almost all of which were Hollywood figures, sports stars, and "well-known Cincinnati-area individuals."
LinkSapphire's "green crude" has been certified with a 91-octane rating, but the company disclosed few details about its technology.
Its process can grow algae using wastewater, and the executive team said it is confident that the technology can scale up to produce gasoline on a commercial scale.
Video of the incident shows one of the officers walking away, looking at the photographer, and then walking out of frame while the other officer drives away from the scene.
The photographer then began to put his camera in the news vehicle to move to the media staging area when the officer begins circling around.
At that point the tape shows that the officer physically attacked the reporter.
State Sen. E.B. McClain has been named in a 50-count indictment by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy, mail fraud money laundering and bribery involving a program receiving federal money.
U.S. Attorney Alice Martin during a press conference today said McClain used his public office for "personal profit."
"He worked the 'pass through grant process not to help his community and those in need of GED training, but to line his pockets with over $300,000," Martin said.
McClain, 67, a Midfield Democrat, is already facing state theft charges. Both cases involve a $65,000 grant in 2002 from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs to the Community Resource Center, a nonprofit founded by the Rev. Sam Pettagrue.
Pettagrue was also named in the federal indictment.
McClain, who was hired as a consultant for Pettagrue's nonprofit, received at least $55,500 from special legislative grants sent to the group from 2001 to 2003. At times he was paid directly from the state grants he requested for the group. Pettagrue was also charged in that case.
Link HT: Club for Growth
There actually IS a citywide special election on a sales tax referendum, and early voting ends today. Election Day is June 3.
There was a countywide sales tax referendum four months ago (February 5) that failed by a narrow margin.
It is amusing to observe and speculate about the dramatic difference in local newspaper coverage (Citizen Tribune) of the February 5 countywide sales tax increase referendum (THEN) and the current June 3 citywide sales tax increase referendum (NOW).
Four Types of Tax Returns | |||||||
Single People |
| Couples | |||||
| All | Individual | Head of | Joint | Filing | ||
Returns | Returns | Household | Return | Separately | |||
| Total Returns | 134,372,678 |
| 59,347,974 | 19,985,059 |
| 52,505,729 | 2,462,804 |
| Paying Returns | 90,593,079 |
| 41,900,154 | 6,572,893 |
| 40,081,458 | 2,004,781 |
| Non-paying Returns | 43,779,599 |
| 17,447,820 | 13,412,166 |
| 12,424,271 | 458,023 |
| Fraction of Returns Non-paying | 32.58% | 29.40% | 67.11% | 23.66% | 18.60% | ||
Hey !! It is not supposed to work that way. All the people drinking alcopop are supposed to stop it !! Why do you think they put the excise tax up on the stuff - c'mon, play fair you ex-alcopop drinkers. A five-year old could have worked out that a 750ml bottle of vodka and a bottle of fanta is cheaper than 6 cans of alcopop. Next the Government will tax people for going to school because they are becoming smarter !!
The audit, released Monday by the Department of Energy's inspector general, said the lab spent $236,300 on food and beverages for 318 people attending a four-day conference it hosted in Boston last year — almost 400 percent of the federal daily allowance.
Registration fees were used to pay for entertainment expenses, including a $25,000 bar tab at two conferences in Knoxville in 2006 and 2007. Some federal and contractor attendees may have even been reimbursed twice for meals on their travel vouchers, auditors said.
As budget hearings continued Tuesday, some commissioners questioned the county's spending priorities, saying they want to get out of the parks and golf course business and direct resources toward social services and pretrial programs to hasten inmates through the jail.
"Which services help us avoid a higher cost?" asked commission chairman David Lillard. "We have to look at what services are essential and we have to prioritize based on that. There are some things that are real easy and one of them is, are you going to run a golf course or are you going to fund these other essential services?"
In 1980, 5.7% of households owned stocks or mutual funds. In 2007 that number had grown to 44%...a quiet revolution.
Makers of brand-name prescription drugs reached 14 agreements with makers of generic drugs to delay the generic drug makers entry into the market, according to a new report released by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC says these deals, which it has dubbed 'pay-for-delay,' are harmful to consumers, but it hasn't been very successful in blocking them to date. The agency is on record as supporting legislation that would ban such deals, but such measures haven't made much progress on the Hill due to opposition from both brand-name and generic drug makers.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's inability to stop the growth of the state's payroll despite his pledges to reform government spending shows that he is hampered by a problem that has cursed many of California' governors before him, political observers said Tuesday.
In his first State of the State speech in 2004, Schwarzenegger said that "if we continue spending and don't make cuts, California will be bankrupt." But the fact that the state's payroll has mushroomed on his watch - as its budget deficit has grown to $17.2 billion - shows that promise was hard to keep, experts say.
The latest research comes from Nicholas A. Christakis, a medical sociologist at the Harvard Medical School, and James H. Fowler, a political scientist at the University of California at San Diego. The pair reported last summer that obesity appeared to spread from one person to another through social networks, almost like a virus or a fad.
In a follow-up to that provocative research, the team has produced similar findings about another major health issue: smoking. In a study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, the team found that a person's decision to kick the habit is strongly affected by whether other people in their social network quit -- even people they do not know. And, surprisingly, entire networks of smokers appear to quit virtually simultaneously.
Taken together, these studies and others are fueling a growing recognition that many behaviors are swayed by social networks in ways that have not been fully understood. And it may be possible, the researchers say, to harness the power of these networks for many purposes, such as encouraging safe sex, getting more people to exercise or even fighting crime.
LinkA new high-tech system is being pioneered locally by the Ohio Petition Co., a Columbus business that sprang up after a strip-club issue dismally failed to qualify for the November ballot. Backers of the petition drive spent $1.5 million, but only 29 percent of the signatures were valid, dooming the effort.
Several other issues have suffered the same fate in recent years.
The new system uses a "digital pen" that captures signatures electronically on special paper. It transmits them to a BlackBerry, which, in turn, sends the information to a computer, where the signatures and accompanying details are checked visually against a statewide voter-registration database maintained by county boards of elections.
Ian James, a veteran Democratic political operative, saw a chance to fill the vacuum when the strip-club petition drive crashed.
"Our program is not the cheapest out there," James said. "But if you want cheap, you'll get failure."
"We guarantee that we will get your issue on the ballot," he said. If that doesn't happen, Ohio Petition will pay a "significant monetary penalty," depending on the size of the contract.
Ok, calling it espionage may be a bit dramatic but Google Maps is an extraordinary tool for amateur sleuths.
I am hereby vetoing H. 3567, R-288, which increases the tax on cigarettes by 50 cents per pack…I do so because the revenue from this tax increase is dedicated to the start of additional spending on health care – for which there is no additional revenue as these programs grow. In that regard, the bill represents two tax increases – an immediate one with the bill’s passage, and a second over time to pay for these new programs.
It's all very perplexing to the seventh-grader from Maryland, who doesn't understand why she's being denied medicine that might help her live longer.
"I really don't want to stop and I don't think we should stop," she said in an interview Thursday. "I know there are other drugs out there for me. ... I'm not happy with it. I don't think it's right."
With more than 550,000 Americans dying from cancer each year, such pleas are gaining increased sympathy on Capitol Hill. In an unusual alliance, conservative Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback and liberal California Democratic Rep. Diane Watson introduced legislation this week that would force the government to speed up its drug-approval process and make sure that terminally ill patients get quick access to investigative drugs.
"What we need is a system that looks at the patient and their life-or-death situation, not at a bureaucracy and its needs," said Brownback, a melanoma survivor. "This is deadly neglect and it can't continue."
“Opryland.” “Party.” “Prizes.” “Training.” “Teamweek.” And an eight-letter expletive for orgy.
Those are the words that Drew Johnson, executive director of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, focused on when asking for e-mails regarding “Team Week,” an August training session for Tennessee Department of Revenue employees. The training week for 380 employees costs about $140,700, according to the department’s full funding request.
Mr. Johnson was curious to find out just what goes on during that week. The expletive has been mentioned as a nickname employees have used to describe the week.
He asked to look at messages sent between Jan. 1 and April 30 from the department’s commissioner and six others.
Revenue officials gave Mr. Johnson a choice. Department employees could go through the e-mails themselves for free, or the state’s Office for Information Resources could do it at a cost of $3,201 for each day of correspondence, they said.
Click on image to see full size. (I pixelated the name)
I was watching the Big Oil execs testifying before Congress. That was my first mistake. If memory serves, there was lesbian mud wrestling over on Channel 137, and on the whole that's less rigged.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz knew the routine: "I can't say that there is evidence that you are manipulating the price, but I believe that you probably are. So prove to me that you are not."
Had I been in the hapless oil man's expensive shoes, I would have answered, "Hey, you first. I can't say that there is evidence that you're sleeping with barnyard animals, but I believe that you probably are. So prove to me that you are not. Whatever happened to the presumption of innocence and prima facie evidence, lady? Do I have to file a U.N. complaint in Geneva that the House of Representatives is in breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?"
Billions of pounds are being wasted in paying industries in developing countries to reduce climate change emissions, according to two analyses of the UN's carbon offsetting programme.
Leading academics and watchdog groups allege that the UN's main offset fund is being routinely abused by chemical, wind, gas and hydro companies who are claiming emission reduction credits for projects that should not qualify. The result is that no genuine pollution cuts are being made, undermining assurances by the UK government and others that carbon markets are dramatically reducing greenhouse gases, the researchers say.
The criticism centres on the UN's clean development mechanism (CDM), an international system established by the Kyoto process that allows rich countries to meet emissions targets by funding clean energy projects in developing nations.
PROVIDENCE — First there were the $84,000 neon lights on the side of the Rhode Island Convention Center.
Then there was the $100,000 recording of birds chirping outside the new Kent County Courthouse.
And who can forget the proposed $500,000 cloud machine that would have floated into the terminal at T.F. Green Airport years back?
When it comes to using taxpayer dollars for public art installations, some lawmakers say it’s time to cap the amount of money spent.
A state law enacted 20 years ago requires that at least 1 percent of the construction budget for any new or expanded state building be set aside for an art installation that will make the building more inviting.
The idea was to promote the arts in well-traveled public spots and the law has helped place dozens of sculptures, paintings and murals around the state, in addition to the more unusual pieces.
Wow, this takes me back...way back. Ms Lewis, my 4th grade teacher's class was pretty much a constant charm class, we even learned basic ballroom dance steps like foxtrot etc. She also wrote a play, which the class performed, that taught us how to receive a visitor to our home from another country."Children aren't taught manners anymore," said Trice, who adapted the idea of in-school charm clinic from a relative.Trice, who has been teaching for 27 years, said girls and boys in her charm clinic learn the importance of saying "please" and "thank you."
"The girls learn to sit like a lady, and the boys learn about shining their shoes and tying a tie," Trice said.
Christine Rosen is a fellow at Washington's Ethics and Public Policy Center; I like to think of her as the premier techno-scold of our time. Her classic 2004 essay, "Our Cell Phones, Ourselves," is a penetrating view of what the mobile phone has wrought and is worth revisiting.
There are the quotidian problems of the cell phone: The ringing interruptions which intrude on every aspect of daily life — in movies, at church, during dinner. In the infamous Paris Hilton video of a few years back — which surely you did not see — there was a moment when, in the midst of amour, Miss Hilton's cell phone rings off-camera. Hilton vaults off the bed at light speed, leaving her partner clutching at the air. The viewer hears Hilton shriek with recognition as she examines the caller ID; her playmate looks down dejectedly.
Perhaps few of us have suffered this level of cellular abuse, but the tweeting, beeping tone is a constant artifact of life these days, and one I suspect most of us would just as well do without.
And phonus interruptus is just the most obvious problem the cell phone presents. There's also the way it breaks down the walls of privacy. When people yack on their phones about the most personal matters in public, they are forcing the rest of us to become privy to their confidences.
Rosen's analogy is that it's "a form of communications panhandling — forcing our conversations on others without first gaining their tacit approval."
Yet there is a deeper problem still, as Rosen explains: The cell phone "encourages us to connect individually but disconnect socially, ceding, in the process, much that was civil and civilized."
A friend who is a speech therapist explained that the mix-up stems from my saying my name with a soft ‘b.’ To learn to say a hard ‘b,’ she suggested I place my hand in front of my mouth and practice repeating my name, so that I can feel my breath strike my palm.
I practiced and practiced, to no avail. Recognizing defeat, I have considered changing my name to Dan, but then everyone would probably call me Ben.
Another option is to go by Benjamin (I can hear it now, ‘Danjamin’). Benjamin, however, sounds to stuffy. I would rather be known as Dan.
Despite the difficulties it imposes, I am at peace with my dual identity. Given the ordinariness of my name it would be narcissistic to take offense at someone thinking I am one of the 1,193,150 Dans in America?rather than one of the 330,750 Bens.
Manama, Bahrain (AHN) - U.S.-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. will carry out new oil exploration in Bahraini territorial waters.
Dr. Abdul Hussain Mirza, minister of oil and gas authority, said the cost of the new discovery would range from $10- 20 million depending whether it is offshore or onshore.
"Oil exploration requires technical work which takes one to one and half years before it starts. The first oil well will be dug in 2010," Mirza was quoted as saying by the Bahrain News Agency.
For anyone related to the mortgage lending business.
Link HT: Flashpoint
Yet earlier this week, a measure creating a federal fingerprint registry totally unrelated to national security passed a U.S. Senate committee almost without notice. The legislation would require thousands of individuals working even tangentially in the mortgage and real estate industries — and not suspected of anything — to send their prints to the feds. The database and fingerprint mandates were tucked into housing and foreclosure assistance bills that on Tuesday passed the Senate Banking Committee by a vote of 19-2.
The measure the committee passed states that “an indvidual may not engage in the business of a loan originator without first … obtaining a unique identifier.” To obtain this “identifier,” an individual is required to “furnish” to the newly created Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry “information concerning the applicant’s identity, including fingerprints for submission” to the FBI and other government agencies.
[...]
The amendment adopted the fingerprint provisions in a section called the “S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act.” The fingerprints will be part of what the amendment calls “a comprehensive licensing and supervisory database.”
And the database would cover a broad swath of individuals involved with mortgage lending. The amendment defines “loan originator” as anyone who “takes a residential loan application; and offers or negotiates terms of a residential mortgage loan for compensation or gain.” It states that even real estate brokers would be covered if they receive any compensation from lenders or mortgage brokers. Since many jobs in both real estate and mortgage lending are part-time and seasonal, even some of the most minor players in the mortgage market may have to submit their prints.
Justifications listed in the bill for this database include “increased accountability and tracking of loan originators,” “enhance[d] consumer protection,” and “facilitat[ing] responsible behavior in the subprime mortgage market.”
May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Vallejo became the largest California city to seek bankruptcy protection a week after it rejected an offer by labor unions for $10 million in pay cuts.
The Northern California city listed assets of $500 million to $1 billion and debt of $100 million to $500 million in its Chapter 9 filing today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Sacramento. Bankruptcy protection would keep city services running and freeze creditor claims while officials devise a recovery plan.
``It's a bittersweet moment,'' City Councilwoman Stephanie Gomes said in a phone interview. ``It's bitter because our city is in such pain, but it's sweet because we are finally addressing our problems. We are finally addressing it head on.''
The filing came two weeks after the City Council's unanimous decision to file court papers seeking bankruptcy and talks with public safety labor unions failed to produce enough savings to keep the San Francisco suburb solvent. The bankruptcy makes Vallejo the first local government in the state to seek protection from creditors after running out of money amid the worst U.S. housing slump in 26 years.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Gov. Phil Bredesen vetoed legislation that would have exempted small, private Mennonite schoolhouses in Henry County from state fire safety codes.Bredesen said in a letter to Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey that exempting the small schools would "erode Tennessee's reasonable system of building and fire code protections."
The sponsor, Democratic state Rep. Butch Borchert of Camden, said Bredesen's veto contradicts an earlier administration pledge to allow the exemption that was sought by parents of about 20 students.
Borchert said administration officials earlier told him they were "fine with it."
What's so great about being in the union?
Half of Colorado's United Food and Commercial Workers would stop paying union dues if they could, according to the group's local president.
In a May 1 letter to members, Ernest Duran warns that the right-to-work initiative headed for Colorado's November ballot would decimate his ranks of dues-paying members.
"If this amendment passes, we will enter all future negotiations divided," Duran wrote. "In my opinion, we will enter with less than 50 percent of the workers as union members."
If Amendment 47 passes, no one could be forced to pay union dues. Under current state law, those working at union-organized companies may have to pay union dues whether they like it or not.
JALALABAD, Afghanistan — Single soldiers and civilians working for the U.S. military in Afghanistan can now have sex legally. Sort of.
A new order signed by Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, commander of Combined Joint Task Force-101, has lifted a ban on sexual relations between unmarried men and women in the combat zone.
General Order No. 1 outlines a number of prohibited activities and standards of conduct for U.S. troops and civilians working for the military in Afghanistan. Previously, under the regulation, sexual relations and "intimate behavior" between men and women not married to each other were a strict no-no. The regulation also barred members of the opposite sex from going into each other’s living quarters unless they were married to each other.
But the latest version of General Order No. 1 for Afghanistan, which Schloesser signed April 19, eases those restrictions.
The new regulation warns that sex in a combat zone "can have an adverse impact on unit cohesion, morale, good order and discipline."
But sexual relations and physical intimacy between men and women not married to each other are no longer banned outright. They’re only "highly discouraged," and that’s as long as they’re "not otherwise prohibited" by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to the new order.
Single men and women can now also visit each other’s living quarters, as long as everyone else who lives there agrees, and as long as visitors of the opposite sex remain in the open "and not behind closed doors, partitions or other isolated or segregated areas," according to the new regulation.
Unmarried men and women who are alone together in living quarters must leave the door open, according to the new policy.
Federal authorities are set to announce charges Thursday against 15 people, including seven City of Chicago employees, after an investigation into bribe-taking at the city's Zoning and Building Departments.
Developers, contractors and city inspectors or other employees were arrested Wednesday and Thursday for bribery in connection with city building, zoning and construction permits, the U.S. attorney's office announced.
The investigation targeted city employees who allegedly took money to influence zoning applications or alter building plans, authorities said.
Five Columbia (Tennessee) Academy teachers are in danger of losing their jobs unless they promise to end their relationship with churches that allow the use of musical instruments, a local minister and a teacher involved said Tuesday.
“It feels that they are being asked to choose between their job and their church,” said Russ Adcox, minister at Maury Hills Church, where all five teachers attend services.
Adcox said school officials deemed the teachers to be in breach of their contract because of a Good Friday service held at the church that included musical instruments. They are now being asked to sign a pledge promising not to participate or affiliate themselves with worship services that use musical instruments.
The scene of this crime is Medicaid, the open-ended program that provides health coverage for about 59 million low-income people, with the rolls expanding every year. States determine eligibility and what services to cover, and the feds pick up at least half the tab, though the effective "matching rate" is as high as 83%. Now it turns out that states have been goosing their financing arrangements to maximize their federal payouts and dump more of their costs onto taxpayers nationwide.
The swindle works like this: A state overpays state-run health-care providers, such as county hospitals or nursing homes, for Medicaid benefits far in excess of its typical rates. Then the federal government reimburses the state for "half" of the inflated bills. Once the state bags the extra matching funds, the hospital is required to rebate the extra money it received at the scam's outset. Cash thus makes a round trip from states to providers and back to the states – all to dupe Washington.
It takes an unhealthy mix of dishonesty and daring for a city employee to drive to a suburban golf course to play 18 holes on the taxpayers' dime.
You've got to be a fool to do it when you're carrying a cell phone with a GPS tracking device.
That's apparently what happened this week, landing the city's $106,115-a-year superintendent of sewers in the disciplinary equivalent of a sand trap.
Winston Cole has been placed on administrative leave with pay after he was tracked to an unidentified suburban golf course when he was supposed to be on the clock at the Water Management Department's South District headquarters, 1054 W. 95th St.
His name is Matthew, he is 26 years old, and his supporters hope to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.
But he won't be able to give evidence on his own behalf - since he is a chimpanzee.
An anonymous businessman has offered a substantial amount to cover his care, but under Austrian law only humans are entitled to have guardians.
Animal rights activists led by British teacher Paula Stibbe are fighting to have Matthew legally declared a 'person' so she can be appointed as his guardian if the bankrupt animal sanctuary where he lives in Vienna is forced to close.The country's supreme court has upheld a lower court ruling which rejected the activists' request to have a trustee appointed for Matthew.
So now 36-year-old Miss Stibbe and the Vienna-based Association Against Animal Factories have filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The insists that the chimp needs legal standing so a guardian can be appointed to look out for his interests - especially if the sanctuary shuts down.
Miss Stibbe, who is from Brighton but has lived in Vienna for several years, says she is not trying to get the chimp declared a human, just a person.
'Everybody who knows him personally will see him as a person,' she said.
Only hours before the House's 316-108 vote, Bush had vetoed the five-year measure, saying it was too expensive and gave too much money to wealthy farmers when farm incomes are high. The Senate then was expected to follow suit quickly.
Action stalled, however, after the discovery that Congress had omitted a 34-page section of the bill when lawmakers sent the massive measure to the White House. That means Bush vetoed a different bill from the one Congress passed, raising questions that the eventual law would be unconstitutional.
In order to avoid those potential problems, House Democrats hoped to pass the entire bill, again, on Thursday under expedited rules usually reserved for unopposed legislation. The Senate was expected to follow suit. The correct version would then be sent to Bush under a new bill number for another expected veto.
A Postal Service study found the new vehicles got as much as 29 percent fewer miles to the gallon. Mail carriers used the corn-based fuel in just 1,000 of them because there weren't enough places to buy it.
``You're getting fewer miles per gallon, and it's costing us more,'' Walt O'Tormey, the Postal Service's Washington-based vice president of engineering, said in an interview. The agency may buy electric vehicles instead, he said.
Would you favour or oppose a law that banned the sale of handguns?
| Apr. 2008 | Apr. 2007 | |
| Favour | 36% | 37% |
| Oppose | 59% | 55% |
| Unsure | 5% | 8% |
Source: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,502 American adults, conducted from Apr. 23 to Apr. 27, 2008. Margin of error is 3 per cent.
- Health Insurance. The bill provides universal access to affordable health insurance, by shifting the ownership of health coverage from the government and employers to individuals. It provides a refundable tax credit – $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families – to purchase coverage. Individuals will be able to buy insurance offered by any provider in any state – not just the one where they live – and carry it with them if they move or change jobs.
This will encourage, and enable, people to shop for the coverage best suited to their needs and financial circumstances. Insurance companies will also have an incentive to diversify coverage at competitive prices. The active participation of individuals and families in a national, competitive market will restrain health-care costs.
The plan also establishes transparency in health-care price and quality data, so this critical information is readily available before someone needs health services. It also encourages the adoption of health information technology.
- Medicaid and Medicare. The bill modernizes Medicaid by giving states maximum flexibility to tailor their Medicaid programs to the specific needs of their populations. It also allows Medicaid recipients to avail themselves of the health-coverage options open to everyone else through the tax-credit option.
The bill secures the existing Medicare program for those over 55 – so Americans can receive the benefits they planned for throughout most of their working lives. Those 55 and younger will, when they retire, receive an annual payment of up to $9,500 to purchase health coverage – either from a list of Medicare-certified plans, or any plan in the individual market, in any state.
The payment is adjusted for inflation and based on income, with low-income individuals receiving greater support and a funded medical savings account.
- Social Security. Workers under 55 will have the option of investing over one-third of their current Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts. These personal accounts are likely to grow faster than the traditional benefit. They are also the property of the individual, and are thus fully inheritable. The bill includes a guarantee that no one's total Social Security benefits from the personal accounts will be less than if he had chosen to say in the current system.
Combined with a more realistic plan for growth in Social Security benefits, and an eventual increase in the retirement age, the Social Security program can thus become sustainable for the long term.
- Tax Reform. The current federal tax code is complex, burdensome and discourages economic growth. It cannot be fixed with incremental changes; it needs a complete overhaul.
To accomplish this goal, the bill first of all offers individuals a choice of how to pay their taxes – either through the existing law, or through a simplified code with a tax return that fits on a postcard, just two rates and virtually no special tax deductions, credits or exclusions (except the health-care tax credit). Taxpayers themselves choose which code serves them better.
The rates in the simplified code are 10% on income up to $100,000 for joint filers ($50,000 for single filers); and 25% on taxable income above these amounts. There is also a generous standard deduction and personal exemption totaling $39,000 for a family of four. The alternative minimum tax is eliminated. And to promote long-term investment in economic growth, taxes on capital gains, dividends and estates are also eliminated.
On the business side, the bill gets rid of our uncompetitive corporate tax – currently the second highest in the industrialized world – and replaces it with a business consumption tax of 8.5%, which is half the average industrialized world rate.
The roadmap I'm offering is a real plan, with real proposals, real numbers to back them, and real legislation to implement it. Based on the analysis of government actuaries, it is projected to make Social Security and Medicare permanently solvent, lift the growing debt burden on future generations, and hold Federal taxes to 18.5% of GDP.
While many of his questions remain unanswered, Mr. Nelson says that federal agencies have been taking a cut from earmarked funds for years, some for unrelated purposes as varied as staff salaries and postage stamps.
Mr. Nelson calls the practice “earmark skimming,” and lately he has become increasingly vocal over what he describes as unaccountable federal bureaucrats diverting millions of dollars into agency “slush funds.”
“They are skimming a percentage of each earmark off the top and failing to disclose what happens to those funds they withhold,” Mr. Nelson said in an e-mail message.
Embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick revealed to city employees last week a policy, which he implemented last month, making private all text messages from publicly-funded devices. The policy, which took effect on April 15, will prevent the public from accessing messages and pages under the Freedom of Information Act.
In March, Kilpatrick was charged with perjury and other counts after sexually explicit text messages contradicted what he said under oath regarding an affair with former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 62% of voters would prefer fewer government services with lower taxes. Nearly a third (29%) disagrees and would rather have a bigger government with higher taxes. Ten percent (10%) are not sure.
Those numbers have changed little over the past month.
Republican voters overwhelmingly prefer fewer government services—83% of the GOP faithful hold that view while just 13% prefer more government involvement. Democratic voters are evenly divided on this question: 46% prefer more government services, while 43% prefer less government services.
The federal government's long-term financial obligations grew by $2.5 trillion last year, a reflection of the mushrooming cost of Medicare and Social Security benefits as more baby boomers reach retirement.That's double the red ink of a year earlier.
Taxpayers are on the hook for a record $57.3 trillion in federal liabilities to cover the lifetime benefits of everyone eligible for Medicare, Social Security and other government programs, a USA TODAY analysis found. That's nearly $500,000 per household.
When obligations of state and local governments are added, the total rises to $61.7 trillion, or $531,472 per household. That is more than four times what Americans owe in personal debt such as mortgages.
The $2.5 trillion in federal liabilities dwarfs the $162 billion the government officially announced as last year's deficit, down from $248 billion a year earlier.
-- $10 million achieved by increasing the estimate of how much the state will receive in both the current year and next year from unclaimed property. State law provides that property held by financial institutions and other entities goes to the state if abandoned or unclaimed by the owner for a period of several years.
Anderson, incoming chairwoman of the bar association's legislative committee, said she had not broken any ethics laws because she was acting as a volunteer lobbyist, and lobbied on the issue less than the 10 days that would require her to register as bar association lobbyist.
She said that while she discussed judicial selection with Ramsey and Naifeh, she treated the issue as she would with any of her clients and that there was no conflict of interest.
"I don't consider my work on this to be a conflict of interest. Do I think there could be a perception of that? I think you'd have to ask other people," she said. "I don't perceive one."
Dick Williams, chairman of the Tennessee chapter of the government watchdog group Common Cause, said that even if Anderson's lobbying was legal, her role raises an appearance of impropriety.
"I can't blame the public for saying it looks a little funny," he said. "I wouldn't use the term 'it doesn't pass the smell test,' but I wouldn't be surprised if some people would."
LinkNewspaper photographer Ryan McGeeney of the Standard-Examiner in Utah in the US was spared serious injury in the mishap, and even managed to snap a photo of his speared leg while others worked to help him.
"If I didn't, it would probably be my editor's first question when I got back," McGeeney said.
The 33-year-old, an ex-Marine who spent six months in Afghanistan, was taking pictures of the discus event and apparently wandered into off-limits area set aside for the javelin throw.
| RANK | SCHOOL | LOCATION | STATE | INDEX | SUBS. LUNCH | E&E | |
| | 23 | Martin Luther King Academic Magnet | Nashville | Tenn. | 5.371 | 13 | 79.3 |
| | 24 | Hume-Fogg Academic | Nashville | Tenn. | 5.332 | 9.2 | 80.3 |
| | 187 | Brentwood | Brentwood | Tenn. | 2.852 | 3 | 97.1 |
| | 390 | Hillsboro ** | Nashville | Tenn. | 2.218 | 35.7 | 44 |
| | 465 | Ravenwood | Brentwood | Tenn. | 2.053 | 2 | 30.6 |
| | 717 | Franklin ** | Franklin | Tenn. | 1.679 | 9 | 26 |
| | 823 | Fairview | Fairview | Tenn. | 1.55 | 25.5 | 20.4 |
| | 844 | White Station | Memphis | Tenn. | 1.525 | 38 | 36.2 |
| | 892 | Oak Ridge | Oak Ridge | Tenn. | 1.465 | 36 | 35.9 |
| | 952 | Collierville | Collierville | Tenn. | 1.409 | 9 | 24 |
| | 1031 | Farragut | Knoxville | Tenn. | 1.323 | 5 | 24.7 |
| | 1042 | West | Knoxville | Tenn. | 1.31 | 37 | 21.3 |
| | 1229 | Dobyns-Bennett | Kingsport | Tenn. | 1.13 | 26.3 | 30.5 |
| | 1256 | Independence | Thompson's Station | Tenn. | 1.102 | 6.5 | 22.7 |
| | 1339 | Centennial | Franklin | Tenn. | 1.021 | 14 | 24.6 |
Democratic House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh talked about the weekend discussions during a House committee meeting on Monday. Also attending the secret budget meetings were state Comptroller John Morgan, Treasurer Dale Sims and Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz.
Complaints from several House Democrats' about a lack of detail about the buyout proposal delayed the expected conclusion of the legislative session last week.
No public announcement was made of the weekend meetings. The Legislature is exempt from the state Sunshine Laws requiring government bodies to hold open meetings.
LinkTired of the United States and the other 190-odd nations on Earth?
If a small team of Silicon Valley millionaires get their way, in a few years, you could have a new option for global citizenship: A permanent, quasi-sovereign nation floating in international waters.
With a $500,000 donation from PayPal founder Peter Thiel, a Google engineer and a former Sun Microsystems programmer have launched The Seasteading Institute, an organization dedicated to creating experimental ocean communities "with diverse social, political, and legal systems."
"Decades from now, those looking back at the start of the century will understand that Seasteading was an obvious step towards encouraging the development of more efficient, practical public-sector models around the world," Thiel said in a statement.
Top Secret Recipes® is the world’s only Web site that brings you original custom recipes that have been created from scratch in the test kitchen by the guy who has devoted the last 15 years to kitchen cloning. With over 4 million Top Secret Recipes® books in print, Todd Wilbur can often spend days at a time and dozens of attempts creating the perfect clone of a famous brand-name product. He brings those recipes to you here every week without misrepresentation. When you cook using one of these recipes, you can rest-assured that it is time well-spent.
Obama 42%
McCain 38%
Barr 6%
Nader 4%A separate survey found slightly different results when third-party candidates were mentioned by name. In a four-way race, Obama earns 42% of the vote, McCain 38%, Bob Barr 6% and Ralph Nader 4%. Given those options, 11% were undecided. Barr and Nader were mentioned as candidates of the Libertarian Party and the Green Party respectively.
Barr picked up 7% of the Republican vote, 5% of the Democratic vote, and 5% of the unaffiliated vote. participants to choose between Barack Obama, John McCain and some other candidate.
Nader got 1% of the Republican vote, 3% of the Democratic vote, and 8% support from those not affiliated with either major party.
Calling in sick has often required a certain proficiency in the art of lying. Now you'll have to be even better...or be caught out even before the phone call is over.
Firms are starting to use lie detectors using a new generation of voice analysis systems to crack down on employees who are swinging the lead.
The technology means someone phoning in for a sickie will speak not to a sympathetic secretary but to a computer set up to check whether their voice is steady and reliable.
On May 9, Flake sent Boehner a candid letter: "We need more than individual members of the Republican leadership to state their opposition to the bill. We need the leadership to use its good offices to explain the importance of sustaining the president's veto as opposed to advising members to 'vote their districts.' " Last Tuesday, waiting four days before responding, Boehner rejected the "vote their districts" escape for House Republicans: "I believe they should also vote their consciences, and cast their votes in a manner consistent with the small government principles upon which our party was founded." Boehner took the floor Wednesday to speak against the bill.
But nobody cracked the party whip. On the contrary, Minority Whip Roy Blunt voted for the bill. So did Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam, who was seen whipping for passage. House Republicans voted 100 to 91 to approve the bill (with only 15 Democrats opposed), assuring a veto override. Similarly, in the Senate, 35 Republicans voted for the bill. Only 13 Republicans voted no, and the only Democrats opposing it were Rhode Island's two senators.
Newspapers are dying, networks are dying, and if teenage boys playing GTA 4 and World of Warcraft have any say about it, so is television. More than 200 million people now belong to just two social networks: MySpace and Facebook. And there are more than 80 million videos on YouTube, all put there by the same individual initiative.
The most compelling statistic of all? Half of all new college graduates now believe that self-employment is more secure than a full-time job. Today, 80% of the colleges and universities in the U.S. now offer courses on entrepreneurship; 60% of Gen Y business owners consider themselves to be serial entrepreneurs, according to Inc. magazine. Tellingly, 18 to 24-year-olds are starting companies at a faster rate than 35 to 44-year-olds. And 70% of today's high schoolers intend to start their own companies, according to a Gallup poll.
An upcoming wave of new workers in our society will never work for an established company if they can help it. To them, having a traditional job is one of the biggest career failures they can imagine.
Much of childhood today is spent, not in organized sports or organizations, but in ad hoc teams playing online games such as Half Life, or competing in robotics tournaments, or in constructing and decorating MySpace pages. Without knowing it, we have been training a whole generation of young entrepreneurs.
And who is going to dissuade them? Mom, who is a self-employed consultant working out of the spare bedroom? Or Dad, who is at Starbuck's working on the spreadsheet of his new business plan?
In the past there have been trading states like Venice, commercial regions like the Hanseatic League, and even so-called nations of shopkeepers. But there has never been a nation in which the dominant paradigm is entrepreneurship. Not just self-employment or sole proprietorship, but serial company-building, entire careers built on perpetual change, independence and the endless pursuit of the next opportunity.
Without noticing it, we have once again discovered, and then raced off to settle, a new frontier. Not land, not innovation, but ourselves and a growing control over our own lives and careers.
This document is intended for first responders who may have the responsibility of protecting, recognizing, collecting, and preserving electronic evidence at a variety of crime scenes.
Customers in shopping centres are having their every move tracked by a new type of surveillance that listens in on the whisperings of their mobile phones.
The technology can tell when people enter a shopping centre, what stores they visit, how long they remain there, and what route they take as they walked around.
The device cannot access personal details about a person’s identity or contacts, but privacy campaigners expressed concern about potential intrusion should the data fall into the wrong hands.
The surveillance mechanism works by monitoring the signals produced by mobile handsets and then locating the phone by triangulation – measuring the phone’s distance from three receivers.
$1.1 billion at 300 stores and nothing over $10. A very inspiring entrepreneurial story from the NY Times about Steve & Barry's.Steve & Barry’s, for the uninitiated, is to fashion what Tower once was to music. Steve & Barry’s is manna, a store that sells stylish celebrity-branded clothes at prices that are absurdly inexpensive, lower than those at Old Navy, H & M or Forever 21, undercutting even Wal-Mart by as much as half.
At its 264 barnlike stores in malls across the country, including the perpetually mobbed one at the Manhattan Mall in Midtown, Steve & Barry’s offers an assortment of flowery sundresses designed by Sarah Jessica Parker ($8.98), heart-printed hoodies by the Nickelodeon alumna Amanda Bynes ($8.98) and basketball shoes by the New York Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury ($8.98). Lines at the registers are often 20 deep.
The question on everyone’s lips: How do they make a decent dress or a jacket, with sleeves, or a pair of functioning shoes for $8.98?
[...]
Though the prices will raise concerns that the clothes are made in sweatshop factories that underpay or otherwise exploit workers, Mr. Shore and Mr. Prevor said absolutely not.
Howard Schacter, the company’s chief partnership officer, said Steve & Barry’s monitors its subcontractors carefully and demands ethical business practices. The key to its low prices, he said, is a razor-slim profit margin.
LinkThere are a number of reasons for this decline, according to political scientists and those involved in some of the initiative campaigns. Although 24 states permit initiatives, many legislatures don’t like them because they short-circuit the usual lawmaking process and can wreak havoc with state budgets if, for instance, they mandate new programs or tax cuts. Some states have imposed ever-stricter requirements for initiatives.
And thanks in part to such strictures, petition-gathering drives to get initiatives on the ballot have become a growing private-sector business. Some companies even move from state to state, gathering signatures for so much per name. That process, in turn, has further exasperated state legislatures, some of which have enacted still stricter standards to keep commercial petition carpetbaggers out of their electoral systems. Many of the states that allow ballots initiatives have stipulated that workers circulating petitions live close to their target voter populations and some have shortened the time in which petitions can be circulated.
When Sam Houston was still hanging his hat in Tennessee in the 1830s, it wasn't uncommon for fellow Tennesseans who were packing up and moving south and west to hang a sign on their cabins that read "GTT" – Gone to Texas.
Today obstetricians, surgeons and other doctors might consider reviving the practice. Over the past three years, some 7,000 M.D.s have flooded into Texas, many from Tennessee.
Why? Two words: Tort reform.
In 2003 and in 2005, Texas enacted a series of reforms to the state's civil justice system. They are stunning in their success. Texas Medical Liability Trust, one of the largest malpractice insurance companies in the state, has slashed its premiums by 35%, saving doctors some $217 million over four years. There is also a competitive malpractice insurance industry in Texas, with over 30 companies competing for business. This is driving rates down.
The result is an influx of doctors so great that recently the State Board of Medical Examiners couldn't process all the new medical-license applications quickly enough. The board faced a backlog of 3,000 applications. To handle the extra workload, the legislature rushed through an emergency appropriation last year.
| Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll. May 1-8, 2008. N=2,208 adults nationwide, including 1,657 investors (respondents who have stocks, bonds, or mutual funds). MoE ± 3. | ||||
| Regardless of whether you own stock, in your opinion, do you think now is a good or a bad time to buy stock, or is it neither a good nor a bad time to buy stock? | ||||
| . | ||||
| Good | Bad | Neither | Unsure | |
| % | % | % | % | |
| ALL adults | 29 | 34 | 24 | 13 |
| Investors | 35 | 26 | 30 | 9 |
The key ingredient of politics is the idea that all of society’s ills can be cured politically. It’s like a cookbook where the recipe for everything is to fry it. The fruit cocktail is fried. The soup is fried. The salad is fried. So is the ice cream and cake. And your pinot noir is rolled in breadcrumbs and dunked in the deep fat fryer. It is just no way to cook up public policy. Politics is greasy. Politics is slippery. Politics can’t tell the truth. ...There is only one number that matters in politics. And you may think that that’s the number of votes, but that’s not the number. The number that matters in politics is the lowest common denominator. It is the avowed purpose of politics to bring the policies of our nation down to a level where they are good for everyone. No matter how foolish, irresponsible, selfish, grasping, or vile everyone may be, politics seeks fairness for them all. I do not. I am here to speak in favor of unfairness.
The bill includes the usual favors like the tax break for racehorse breeders pushed by Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate minority leader. But the greater and more embarrassing defect is that the bill perpetuates the old subsidies for agriculture at a time when the prices that farmers are getting for big row crops like corn, soybeans and wheat have never been better. Net farm income is up 50 percent.
The legislation preserves an indefensible program of direct payments amounting to about $5 billion a year that flow in good times and bad. It raises support levels for wheat and soybeans, while adding several new crops to the list in a way that will make it easier for farmers to raid the federal Treasury even when prices go up.
He dropped out of high school in the ninth grade, shot to major stardom (and notoriety) in 1972 with his "Seven Words You Can't Say on Television," took nearly 20 years to pay off a $3 million debt to the IRS, has filmed 14 HBO specials over the past 31 years, is in his 52nd year in show business, performs 80 concerts a year, and celebrated his 71st birthday on Monday.
But the numbers don't tell George Carlin's whole story.
The man the New York Times called "the prince of outrage" wouldn't be as relevant as he is today -- three heart attacks and one cocaine addiction later -- if it weren't for a little chip on his shoulder, that IRS debt and a dogged devotion to his art.
“Why should a high official like the governor of the state of the New York live in a government-subsidized apartment?” Mr. Long said in an interview. “By any standard, Governor Paterson is a wealthy man with plenty of perks. He has a home he owns in Albany, and a mansion in which he could live.”
The director of government affairs for the Rent Stabilization Association, Frank Ricci, said yesterday that high-income New Yorkers should not be eligible for rent protections.
“I’m not going to comment on the governor’s personal situation, but our position is that people who have that kind of income — it doesn’t matter what their rent is — should not have the benefit of rent stabilization,” Mr. Ricci said. “People who make over $100,000 have plenty of choices where to live.”
Mr. Paterson told a reporter for The New York Sun yesterday that his apartment’s rent, which he estimated at $1,250 a month, was appropriate given the city’s rent regulations. “It is within the spirit of the law,” he added.
Commissioner Glen Hasse, who made the proposal along with Commissioner Bob Farmer, said the cutback is needed because taxpayers are being forced to “severely cut their expenditures just to buy food, gasoline and keep a roof over their heads.”
“It is the duty and the responsibility ... of this commission to help them when we can,” he said. “We cannot be callous, insensitive and passive to their plight, nor can we raise taxes regardless of the amount.”
County Mayor A C Wharton unveiled a balanced budget on Wednesday that will not require a property tax increase next year, but will include about $12 million in cuts, layoffs and no salary increase for employees.
"The commission said no tax increase, see if you can do it by way of cuts and we honored that request," Wharton said. "It's up to the 13 members of the commission to see if they wish to adopt what we're proposing. I hope they will."
LinkAfter pushing a similar initiative that almost passed six years ago, a group called the Committee for Small Government is back for another round, asking voters to end the income tax and save the average taxpayer $3,600 a year. The group, led by libertarian Carla Howell, is almost certain to gather the 11,000 signatures needed to put a question on the November ballot.
To say that state officials are worried about the prospect would be an understatement.
Community, political, and business officials are grasping for words such as "chaos," "devastating," and "catastrophe" to describe the scenario that would unfold if the measure passes.
Six years ago, Beacon Hill didn't pay much attention to what seemed to be a pie-in-the-sky campaign. Confident that voters would reject the plan as folly, no one even organized a campaign to fight it.
But it almost passed, gaining the support of 45 percent of voters.
While I have always been a strong supporter of workers rights and collective bargaining, a close examination of House File 2645 shows that it is not in the best interests of the taxpayers of Iowa to let this legislation become law. It is vaguely written with the potential for far reaching, unintended consequences that could obligate the citizens of Iowa to substantial new public expenditures. Therefore, I will veto the bill.
CHICAGO, May 14 (UPI) -- The city of Chicago Wednesday overturned its controversial ban on foie gras, a liver pate delicacy some say requires inhumane treatment of geese to produce.
The Chicago City Council voted 37-6 to reverse a 2-year-old ordinance forbidding the serving of foie gras in city restaurants, a measure that Chicago Mayor Richard Daley opposed and said had made the city look foolish in the eyes of the world.
The vote to overturn the foie gras ban came over the strenuous objections of its author, Alderman Joe Moore, who tried to halt the vote but was ruled out of order by Daley, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Moore denounced Daley's maneuver as dictatorial.
"Even in the ugliest days of one-man rule, members of the City Council still had the opportunity to ... state their case," Moore told the newspaper. "For the mayor to fail to recognize me to debate the merits of this issue was the height of arrogance."
Daley said the foie gras ban was meaningless because restaurant owners were finding ways around it. HE also questioned whether it was the city's role to police what types of food are acceptable.
Since October, the teachers have been pushing a ballot initiative that would raise the gaming tax on the state’s largest casinos from 6.75 percent to 9.75 percent.
The union has until Tuesday to submit 59,000 signatures of registered voters to county clerks throughout the state. Once the signatures are submitted and a sufficient number is verified, the union cannot remove the initiative from the ballot, said Matt Griffin, deputy secretary of state.
Hence the flurry of last-minute meetings, phone calls and posturing to see whether a deal can be worked out.
Steve Wynn and former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones, now an executive at Harrah’s, met with teachers union President Lynn Warne and political consultant Dan Hart last week to propose raising the room tax rate.
Wynn flew to Reno to meet with Gov. Jim Gibbons and Raggio about the plan. Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, also has been involved in the discussions.
| State | Business Tax Burden as % of GSP |
| Delaware | 3.5 |
| Oregon | 3.8 |
| DC | 3.8 |
| N Carolina | 3.9 |
| Connecticut | 4.0 |
| Indiana | 4.0 |
| Virginia | 4.0 |
| Colorado | 4.2 |
| Georgia | 4.2 |
| Maryland | 4.2 |
| Missouri | 4.3 |
| Utah | 4.3 |
| Mass | 4.5 |
| Ohio | 4.5 |
| Alabama | 4.6 |
| Arkansas | 4.6 |
| Idaho | 4.6 |
| Minnesota | 4.6 |
| Tennessee | 4.6 |
| California | 4.7 |
| Iowa | 4.8 |
| Florida | 4.9 |
| Nevada | 4.9 |
| New Jersey | 4.9 |
| Kentucky | 5.0 |
| S Carolina | 5.0 |
| Texas | 5.0 |
| Wisconsin | 5.0 |
| Arizona | 5.1 |
| Illinois | 5.1 |
| Michigan | 5.1 |
| Pennsylvania | 5.1 |
| Hawaii | 5.4 |
| Nebraska | 5.4 |
| New Hampshire | 5.4 |
| South Dakota | 5.5 |
| Oklahoma | 5.8 |
| Washington | 5.8 |
| Kansas | 6.1 |
| Rhode Island | 6.1 |
| Mississippi | 6.3 |
| New Mexico | 6.3 |
| New York | 6.4 |
| Louisiana | 6.5 |
| Montana | 6.5 |
| Vermont | 6.8 |
| West Virginia | 7.2 |
| North Dakota | 7.4 |
| Maine | 7.6 |
| Wyoming | 9.3 |
| Alaska | 11.6 |
Armed with new and established Web sites, people are uncovering surprising details about colleagues, lovers and strangers that often don't turn up in a simple Internet search. Though none of these sites can reveal anything that isn't already available publicly, they can make it much easier to find. And most of them are free.Zaba Inc.'s ZabaSearch.com turns up public records such as criminal history and birthdates. Spock Networks Inc.'s Spock.com and Wink Technologies Inc.'s Wink.com are "people-search engines" that specialize in digging up personal pages, such as social-networking profiles, buried deep in the Web. Spokeo.com is a search site operated by Spokeo Inc., a startup that lets users see what their friends are doing on other Web sites. Zillow Inc.'s Zillow.com estimates the value of people's homes, while the Huffington Post's Fundrace feature tracks their campaign donations. Jigsaw Data Corp.'s Jigsaw.com, meanwhile, lets people share details with each other from business cards they've collected -- a sort of gray market for Rolodex data.
The company examined prescription records from 2001 to 2007 of a representative sample of 2.5 million customers, from newborns to the elderly.
Medication use for chronic problems was seen in all demographic groups:
• Almost two-thirds of women 20 and older.
• One in four children and teenagers.
• 52 percent of adult men.
• Three out of four people 65 or older.
Among seniors, 28 percent of women and nearly 22 percent of men take five or more medicines regularly.
To date, the Democratic National Convention Host Committee has lined up 56 corporate sponsors.
A few have local ties, like Qwest, Molson Coors and Vail Resorts. Others are huge national corporations, such as Anheuser-Busch, Union Pacific and 3M.
It is not a phenomenon unique to the Democrats or Denver. A slew of corporate donors have lined up for the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, and 20 of them also are sponsoring the DNC.
They include companies like 3M, Allstate, AstraZeneca, AT&T, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co., Ford, Merck, Qwest, the Service Employees International Union, US Bank, Visa and Xcel Energy.
"Welcome to the American political system," Barnes-Gelt said of the companies ponying up money on both sides of the aisle.
and thus won't be getting their stimulus checks (which is a bit ironic since many people who pay no taxes will still be getting a check.) This is just a tad better than the overall delinquency rate.Federal employees are held to a high standard when it comes to ethics and the public trust. That's also the case when it comes to taxes.
Recently released data from the Internal Revenue Service show that federal employees owed $1.23 billion in overdue taxes in October 2007. According to the IRS snapshot, 3.79 percent of federal employees could be labeled tax deadbeats.
A billion-dollar tax debt sounds pretty bad. But the percentage of federal employees who have not paid their taxes on time actually has dropped slightly. For example, in 2005, the delinquency rate was 3.93 percent, and in 2006, 3.81 percent.
The compliance rate for the government is generally better than the rate for all Americans, the IRS said. The agency, though, does not release data that can be compared against information on federal employees, in part because the IRS knows a lot more about the income of people who work or have worked for Uncle Sam and can more easily match payroll, pension and other documents.
Most of the great problems we face are caused by politicians creating solutions to problems they created in the first place. Politicians and a large percentage of the public lose sight of the unavoidable fact that for every created benefit, there's also a created cost or, as Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman put it, "There's no free lunch." While the person who receives the benefit might not pay or even be aware of the cost, but as sure as night follows day, there is a cost borne by someone.
I know it may surprise some that I would support a school voucher program, but I am proud to do so -- and I especially support the D.C. scholarships. Many here in Washington also favor this program: community and business leaders, educators, parents, and elected officials who are putting children first. I would oppose this voucher program if it took money from the D.C. public schools, but it doesn't.
I support this package because it provides much-needed financial support to all D.C. schools and because it offers parents a choice without hurting public schools. That's a win-win situation. We must make sure that children in the District are given every chance to attend schools that work for them. To do anything else is wrong.
Link
The 50 U.S. states are holding more than $32 billion worth of unclaimed property that they're supposed to safeguard for their citizens. But a "Good Morning America" investigation found some states aggressively seize property that isn't really unclaimed and then use the money -- your money -- to balance their budgets.
Unclaimed property consists of things like forgotten apartment security deposits, uncashed dividend checks and safe-deposit boxes abandoned when an elderly relative dies.
Banks and other businesses are required to turn that property over to the state for safekeeping. The problem is that the states return less than a quarter of unclaimed property to the rightful owners.
In 2001, Democrats in the Legislature pounded Republican plans to start a private school voucher program for poor and predominantly minority kids. They said it was unconstitutional, a drain on public schools, even un-American. In the end, all but one Democrat voted against it.
Times have changed. This year, a bill to vastly expand the same program passed by large margins.
And this time, a third of the Democratic caucus was on board.
"I'm a strong advocate for public school education, and I'm not necessarily a strong advocate for vouchers," said Rep. Bill Heller, D-St. Petersburg, one of four Tampa Bay-area Democrats to vote yes. But "the bottom line has to be the child. If good things are happening for the child, then you can justify it."
Link from Charlotte ObserverLast August, Concord leaders learned that Bruton Smith, billionaire owner of Lowe's Motor Speedway, wanted incentives for a proposed drag strip and track expansion.
Three months passed, and Smith threatened to move his racing complex, before Concord and Cabarrus County worked out a deal he would accept.
The $80 million package included $20 million that local leaders hope the state will pay. If the state doesn't pay -- and there has been no indication that it will -- local taxpayers will be on the hook for the entire amount.
Link
Link
Many in Metro Nashville's core group of public school reformers, including the mayor, attend parent-teacher conferences for their children at upscale private schools.
Mayor Karl Dean, the council's Education Committee chairman and some nonprofit leaders heavily involved in Metro's potential transformation have opted out of public schools for one or both of their children.
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Each of them cited the same reasons: family tradition or educational options they couldn't get anywhere else. And they contend it doesn't take having children in public schools to understand the issues and help out.
Dean campaigned as the education mayor and is pushing hard for reform. But his daughter attends Nashville's prestigious Harpeth Hall all-girls school, and his son is a Montgomery Bell Academy graduate.
"As for where my children go to school, that is a decision my wife and I made about what we think is best for our children. It's not a political decision," Dean wrote in an e-mail.
The city's top leadership is challenged to find ways to bring those middle-class students back. If they don't, the district faces a much tougher task educating the historically harder-to-reach low-income population and getting back the support of the city's residents.
As it stands, Metro's dismal reputation drives both families and businesses across county lines to higher-performing Williamson and Rutherford counties. And many from the middle class who have remained in Nashville have opted for the private school route, willing to pay pricey tuitions to escape the public school system.
Despite the city's growth, so many families have left that fewer students are enrolled in Nashville's public schools today than in 1970.
But the accounting techniques used by state and local governments to balance their pension books disguise the extent of the crisis facing these retirees and the taxpayers who may ultimately be called on to pay the freight, according to a growing number of leading financial analysts.
State governments alone have reported they are already confronting a deficit of at least $750 billion to cover the cost of the retirement benefits they have promised. But that figure likely underestimates the actual shortfall because of the range of methods they use to make their calculations, including practices that have been barred in the private sector for decades.
Local governments use these same techniques for their pension funds and face deficits that further contribute to what some investors and analysts say may be shaping up to be a massive breach of faith with a generation of public employees.
"Today I offered the convention my resignation so as not to become a distraction in this campaign. I continue to strongly support John McCain for president, and wish him the best of luck in this campaign."
Goodyear is chief executive of DCI Group, a lobbying firm that Newsweek reported in a story posted online was paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent Myanmar's junta.
This state-of-the-art manufacturing complex in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia is not only the centerpiece of Ford's Brazilian turnaround plan, it is also one of the most advanced automobile plants in the world. It is more automated than many of Ford's U.S. factories, and leaner and more flexible than any other Ford facility. It can produce five different vehicle platforms at the same time and on the same line.Ford sources said it is the sort of plant the company wants in the United States, were it not for the United Auto Workers, which has historically opposed such extensive supplier integration on the factory floor.
First day with lots of traffic, especially sailboats...must be some kind of sailing event. There are even a few brave souls in the water.
"Basically, what you've got is a tax increase and I'm against a tax increase," said Odom, D-Nashville.
[...]NFIB state director Jim Brown said in a memo that FONCEs "have enabled thousands of Tennessee families to pool their resources and purchase commercial property for the purpose of long-term planning and investing and receiving passive income."
"Some families use FONCEs for college tuition, some for retirement and others for estate-planning purposes," the memo says. "The provision would cost substantial money to thousands of small business families at a time when it is very difficult to operate a mom-and-pop business."
Odom said he told Farr of his plans to oppose the provision on Friday and plans to outline his objections to a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus on Monday.
Department of Revenue spokeswoman Sophie Moery said officials intend to meet with both sponsors before the bill goes before the Senate Tax Subcommittee on Monday.
Suppose a swimming instructor told his 10-year-old students to swim the length of the pool to demonstrate what he'd taught them, and half of them nearly drowned? Would it be reasonable to make a judgment about his teaching ability?
Or suppose nearly all the 10-year-old students in a particular clarinet class learned to play five or six pieces well in a semester? Would it be reasonable to consider their achievement when deciding whether to rehire the music teacher?
These questions answer themselves. Only an idiot would overlook student performance, be it dismal or outstanding.
However, suppose test results indicated that most students in a particular class don't have a clue about how to multiply with fractions, or master other material in the curriculum? Should that be considered when the math teacher comes up for tenure?
Whoops, the obvious answer is wrong. That's because public education lives in an upside-down universe where student outcomes are not allowed to be connected to teaching.
| Rank | Representative | District | Direct Payment Projection for District, 2008-2012 |
| 1 | Rep. Earl Pomeroy | At Large | $1,125,375,749 |
| 2 | Rep. Marion Berry | AR-01 | $965,377,428 |
| 3 | Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin | At Large | $801,246,829 |
| 4 | Rep. Collin C. Peterson | MN-07 | $691,066,140 |
| 5 | Rep. Bennie G. Thompson | MS-02 | $501,717,641 |
| 6 | Rep. Leonard L. Boswell | IA-03 | $283,039,097 |
| 7 | Rep. Mike Ross | AR-04 | $225,098,631 |
| 8 | Rep. Brad Ellsworth | IN-08 | $214,975,167 |
| 9 | Rep. John S. Tanner | TN-08 | $177,085,368 |
| 10 | Rep. Joe Donnelly | IN-02 | $143,989,286 |
| 11 | Rep. Jim Costa | CA-20 | $134,825,063 |
| 12 | Rep. Baron P. Hill | IN-09 | $99,249,268 |
| 13 | Rep. Robert E. (Bud) Cramer Jr. | AL-05 | $60,096,218 |
| 14 | Rep. Dennis A. Cardoza | CA-18 | $51,948,144 |
| 15 | Rep. John Barrow | GA-12 | $48,282,911 |
| 16 | Rep. Mike McIntyre | NC-07 | $48,276,933 |
| 17 | Rep. Zachary T. Space | OH-18 | $43,163,469 |
| 18 | Rep. Dan Boren | OK-02 | $30,302,858 |
| 19 | Rep. John T. Salazar | CO-03 | $26,642,254 |
| 20 | Rep. Michael A. Arcuri | NY-24 | $25,559,916 |
| 21 | Rep. Lincoln Davis | TN-04 | $23,460,756 |
| 22 | Rep. Charles A. Wilson | SC-02 | $22,442,875 |
| 23 | Rep. Bart Gordon | TN-06 | $18,358,929 |
LinkIn Colorado and other US states, it's legal for ordinary people to own them. Dana's marketing them to women as the ideal personal protection device.
"I've been to everyone's Avon-type tupperware-style parties, purse parties, clothing parties, boutique parties and I felt like why not have a self-defence party? Why not have a Taser party, because without self-defence you won't have any of the other stuff."
Take Jeff Forbes, for example. In 2003, Forbes was Baucus' lead staffer on the Senate Finance Committee working extensively on the Medicare prescription drug bill. Baucus, then the top-ranking Democrat on the panel, was one of the bill's central architects.
In late November, just five days before the Senate took the final, key vote on the bill, Forbes quit. Six weeks later, he was registered to lobby for two drug companies and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the lobby representing the nation's biggest prescription drug companies.Those same companies got a multimillion-dollar windfall in the Medicare drug program, critics of the program contend, because the law forbids the government from negotiating with drug manufacturers for cheaper prices.
Forbes earned $144,000 the last year he worked for Baucus. The next year, his PhRMA contract alone brought $180,000 to the lobbying firm he founded after quitting Baucus' staff.
All told, Forbes has reported almost $5.4 million in lobbying income since leaving Baucus, representing drug companies, nursing homes, banks and other industries that often appear before the influential Senate Finance Committee, which Montana's senior senator now chairs.
Forbes did not respond to several phone calls seeking comment.
Baucus rebuffs the idea that his former staff members have special access to him. However, the issue seems certain to be part of his ongoing re-election campaign; Montana Republicans charge too many of Baucus' former staff are now lobbying him.
Lobbying abuses and promises of reform played a pivotal role in Montana's 2006 Senate election. Colored by a far-reaching lobbying scandal, Republican Sen. Conrad Burns narrowly lost to Democrat Jon Tester after months of withering attacks from Democrats for his ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Link
Link HT: Don Fenley
There's also growth in the number of students from high-income families - those with an adjusted gross income of $96,000 a year.
Four years ago, 23 percent of all recipients in Tennessee for the lottery scholarship came from families from that income bracket. This year, the percentage grew to 31 percent.
Dean said the city needs a merit-based, less political nonprofit grant process. A panel of reviewers selected by the mayor, vice mayor and Metro Council budget committee chair will evaluate applications and make recommendations to the mayor, who will submit a budget amendment for the council's final approval, Dean spokeswoman Janel Lacy said.
Lacy acknowledged that applicants who are turned down by the reviewers could lobby council members for funding in the final Metro budget. She said the program could change in future years "depending on how this year goes."
(Mass) Legislators have asked state finance officials to study a plan that would impose a 2.5 percent annual assessment on colleges with endowments over $1 billion, an amount now exceeded by nine Massachusetts institutions. The proposal, which higher education specialists believe is the first of its kind across the country, drew surprising support at a debate on the State House budget last week and is attracting attention in higher education circles nationally.
The idea has prompted a range of questions, including whether it is legal to infringe upon private colleges' tax-exempt status or single them out based on their wealth. It also faces significant opposition from the colleges and some skeptical lawmakers.
If you're seeking employment, get a grip. A firm handshake is key to landing a job.In a new study, scientists put 98 students through mock job interviews with businesspeople. The students also met with trained handshake raters who, unbeknownst to the students, rated their grips. Separately, the businesspeople graded each student's overall performance and hireability. The two group's scores were then compared.
Students who got high handshake marks were also rated most hireable.
"We've always heard that interviewers make up their mind about a person in the first two or three minutes of an interview, no matter how long the interview lasts," said study leader Greg Stewart, associate professor of management and organizations at the University of Iowa. "We found that the first impression begins with a handshake that sets the tone for the rest of the interview."
Knox County Commission voted 18-1 last week to oppose toll roads.
