Newsbusters
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
New Emails: Lois Lerner Referred to Conservatives as '***holes' and 'TeRrorists
CNS News reports:
A newly discovered email exchange from Lois Lerner's official IRS email account "directly demonstrates Ms. Lerner's deep animus towards conservatives, which she refers to as '---holes,'" House Ways and Means Committee Chair Dave Camp wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday.The great moments of partisan Lois Lerner.
In that Nov. 9, 2012 email, Lerner further suggests that conservatives will ruin the country: "So we don't need to worry about alien teRrorists (sic). It's our own crazies that will take us down," she wrote.
Camp (R-Mich.) told Holder the email "shows that Ms. Lerner's mistreatment of conservative groups was driven by her personal hostility toward conservatives."
Golden Gate Transit District Median Compensation $129,708 per Year, Union Threatening Strike
Union Watch reports:
If you were receiving a pay and benefits package that averaged $125,678 per year (ref. Transparent California), in exchange for working a 37.5 hour week, would you feel exploited? What if along with that, you got 13 paid holidays per year, five weeks annual paid vacation (ref. MOU, page 20), and 12 paid sick days (MOU, page 16) per year that accumulated without limit?Government greed.
Would you feel exploited? Would you have “little choice” but to go on strike?
America's Poorest Shoppers Are Putting Discount Stores Out Of Business
The Business Insider reports:
Discount stores are slowly dying.The great moments of the Obama "recovery".
Yesterday, Dollar Tree announced it would buy Family Dollar, a chain that is in the process of closing hundreds of stores and firing workers.
Other discount stores have been struggling as well, writes Heidi Moore at The Guardian. Fashion discounter Loehmann's filed for bankruptcy, while Wal-Mart's sales have declined for the past five quarters.
"There’s just not enough money deployed by American families to keep all the discount chains in business," Moore writes.
U.S. Universities With the Most International Students
U.S. News and World Report reports:
International students interested in studying in the U.S. are in good company. The U.S. welcomed 819,644 international undergraduate and graduate students in 2012-2013 -- the highest number ever, according to the Institute of International Education.American universities will need a lot more foreign students to keep tuition sky high.
Oakland nixes proposal to gradually increase minimum wage
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
The Oakland City Council voted late Tuesday to scrap a plan that called for a gradual increase in the city's minimum wage for nonprofits and small businesses, instead leaving it up to the voters to consider a more aggressive proposal in November.Can Oakland handle even more unemployment via higher minimum wage?
The resolution, which was voted down 5-3 by the council, had called for Oakland to raise the city's minimum wage more slowly than a competing plan, called Lift Up Oakland, that will appear on the November ballot.
GDP: Economy grew 4 percent in second quarter
CBS News reports:
The U.S. economy grew at a rate of 4 percent in the second quarter of 2014, the Commerce Department said Wednesday in it first estimate of gross domestic product for the April-to-June period.Will Nancy Pelosi still demand an extension of long term unemployment benefits?
That topped forecasts of 3 percent growth for the quarter and marks a strong rebound from the first three months of the year, which saw the economy shrink by a revised 2.1 percent. The federal government initially estimated that first-quarter growth fell 2.9 percent, a decline that economists largely blamed on harsh winter weather.
"Not only did second-quarter GDP rebound by 4 percent annualized, but the decline in the first quarter was trimmed to 2.1 percent, from 2.9 percent, and other revisions show the economy growing at an even faster pace than previously believed in the second half of last year," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist for Capital Economics, in a research note.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Chicago telephone tax to rise by 56 percent to shore up Public Pensions
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Desperate to avoid a pre-election property tax increase, Chicago aldermen advanced an alternative Tuesday that could end up costing their constituents even more money: a 56 percent increase in the monthly surcharge tacked on to telephone bills.Compassion in Blue America.
Effective Sept. 1, the City Council's Finance Committee agreed to raise the surcharge from $2.50 to $3.90--$1.40-a-month or $16.80-a-year--for every land line and cell phone in Chicago. The tax applied to pre-paid phones will rise from 7-to-9 percent, effective Oct. 1.
A family of four with four cell phones and a land-line would end up paying $84 in additional taxes each year.
Led Zeppelin's 'IV', 'Houses of the Holy' out Oct. 28
USA Today reports:
It's been a long time since they rock 'n' rolled, but Led Zeppelin's music has never been fresher.
The defunct British band's reissue campaign got off to a roaring start in June with a trio of deluxe editions: Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin III, all of which entered in the top 10 of Billboard's album chart.
On Oct. 28, Led Zeppelin IV and Houses of the Holy, newly remastered by guitarist and producer Jimmy Page, will be released on Atlantic/Swan Song. Each will include a second disc of previously unreleased material.
Obama Thanks Muslims for ‘Building the Very Fabric of Our Nation’
CNS News on Barack Obama's "alternative" history of America. No Muslims signed the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution. There wasn't even a Muslim Congressman until 2007!
The Cook Political Report: July Senate Overview For November 2014
The Cook Political Report explains the odds in November:
We give Republicans about a 50-50 chance of taking the majority. They are halfway there, but picking up the other three seats won’t be easy. They can afford to lose one of their own seats and still have a chance at 51 seats, but they can’t lose both Georgia and Kentucky. As the cycle progresses, the answers to many of the questions we posed above will become apparent. This will in turn provide some clarity as to just how close Republicans are to winning the majority, or whether Democrats have been able to erect enough roadblocks for them to be able to hold on to what would be a very slim majority.The establishment speaks.
Michigan union tricks teachers into prolonging membership
Fox News on the tricksters who will only let you leave in August. You better pay up or else!
Leaders In Fresno Oppose White ‘Cultural Studies’ Teacher
The Daily Caller reports:
Black community leaders in Fresno, Calif. are urging the Fresno Unified School District to re-evaluate the hiring of a white guy to teach three cultural studies courses at a brand-new middle school that will overwhelmingly serve minority students.No word yet on whether Fresno's community leaders think only whites should teach the U.S. Constitution since 55 white guys were delegates.
Rutherford B. Gaston Middle School — named after the city’s first black principal — will open in a few short weeks. It’s the first middle school in the immediate, poverty-ridden vicinity since 1979.
The protesters are unhappy because the school has chosen to hire Peter Beck, a person with white skin, over other, unidentified candidates, The Fresno Bee reports.
Beck will teach African-American studies, Latino studies and Southeast Asian studies.
On Monday morning, a small band of activists showed up in front of the sparkling new school at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Church Avenue. The local press was also there.
“We’re just saying what the community wants,” said Rev. Karen Crozier, one of the activists. “We didn’t fight for a white male or female teacher to educate our babies.”
2014 pressure builds on Dems
The Hill reports:
The Senate is racing to approve three must-pass bills this week and avoid falling even further behind its schedule at a time when voters are angry about gridlock in Washington.Harry Reid's Senate.
With public approval of Washington dismally low, Senate Democrats face the greatest risk of a public backlash, because the House Republican majority is safe and President Obama does not face reelection.
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