Tuesday, June 30, 2009
New York City Council Honors Michael Jackson, White People Walk Out
The Village Voice reports:
Today the city council held a moment of silence for Michael Jackson and councilmembers Inez Dickens and Helen Diane Foster gave the King of Pop a nice tribute, but just as things got underway several members walked out. Staten Island's James Oddo confirmed to Azi Paybarah that he walked out in response to the tribute. His fellow Staten Islanders Erich Ulrich and Vinny Ignizio also left, though Ulrich said he just wanted to talk to Oddo.
What's North Dakota's Secret?
Forbes reports:
As the country has tipped into a deep recession over the past two years, North Dakota, under the leadership of the nation's longest-serving governor, John Hoeven, has bucked every trend. In 2008, North Dakota's economy grew 7.3%, twice as fast as any other state except Wyoming, which grew 4.4%. By this point, many states in the industrial Midwest, and housing-bubble states like Arizona, Nevada and Florida, were already shrinking.You'll want to read this one.
Unemployment in North Dakota is the lowest in the nation at 4.4%, less than half the national average. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says North Dakota and Montana are the only two states in the country that still have budget surpluses.
Chicago Public School's Failed Reform Efforts, Report Claims: Arne Duncan's Disaster
Crain's Chicago Business reports:
Chicago Public School reform largely has failed, with the vast bulk of students either dropping out or unprepared for college and apparent gains at the grade-school level more perceived than real.Here's the report(PDF). Obama didn't believe in Arne Duncan's Chicago Public School system, that's why he sent his kids to private schools. As you can see, being Barack Obama's basketball buddy is the road to getting a job: not school performance. For more on Chicago's public schools. I guess many Democrats don't mind paying high taxes for bad public schools.
That's the bottom line of a blockbuster report released Tuesday by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club, a report that directly challenges the legitimacy of one of Mayor Richard M. Daley's major claimed accomplishments.
Titled "Still Left Behind," the report freely uses terms like "abysmal" to describe the true state of public education in Chicago. The report was prepared by committee President R. Eden Martin, a lawyer, with analytical support from Paul Zavitkovsky of the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Half of the students drop out by high school, and of those who remain until 11th grade, 70% fail to meet state standards, the report says. In fact, "In the regular (non-magnet) neighborhood high schools, which serve the vast preponderance of students, almost no students are prepared to succeed in college."
The New Republic's Defense of Mark Sanford
The New Republic reports:
It took place almost 20 years into Mark Sanford's marriage. It caused him to risk his relationship to four sons, to betray his canny, classy, and beautiful wife, to abdicate his responsibility to the state, and to take at least one government-paid trip for private pleasure. He might, nonetheless, have limited the damage in the style of his colleagues in Washington (think David Vitter; think John Ensign) had he been willing to disown Maria once he was discovered, had he been willing to toss her out like an ex-smoker tosses out his cigarette pack once he quits the habit: piously, proudly, unfeelingly, with not a thought for the projectile at the base of the trash bin. But the governor of South Carolina was not willing to do this: Instead, he told a marveling press corps how important and beautiful the relationship was; how he'd flown to Argentina to discuss its fate and had spent the last five days weeping. He apologized not only for hurting his wife but--get this!--for hurting his mistress. He apologized to the Other Woman.Interesting.
Judge: I'm tired of crooked cops in Chicago
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
An ex-Chicago cop was sentenced today to almost 11 years in prison for robbing drug dealers — a case that prompted the judge to declare he’s tired of the growing pace of wrongdoing by police officers.We don't know if former Chicago Police Officer William Cozzi knew the Chicago Mob's long term plant on the force, former Chief of Detectives William Hanhardt. Just think, there are some people who say only police officers should own guns in Chicago!
“In this city, it seems to me we are bombarded by stories and cases and prosecutions of police misconduct,” said U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman, who imposed the sentence on Richard Doroniuk. “It’s been accelerating . . . It’s very discouraging.”
Last week, Chicago cop Anthony Abbate was sentenced to 18 months probation by a Cook County judge for pummeling a much smaller female bartender while he was drunk, in a caught-on-video beating that drew national attention.
Earlier this month, ex-Chicago cop William Cozzi was sentenced in federal court to three years in prison for the 2005 videotaped beating of a 60-year-old man who was handcuffed and shackled to a wheelchair.
Mozilla releases Firefox 3.5
CNET reports:
You'll want to check it out, it's free.
Firefox 3.5, the embodiment of Mozilla's attempt to "upgrade the Web," is now available for download.
Firefox 3.5 has a range of new features, including a new JavaScript engine for faster Web applications such as Google Docs; the ability to show video built into Web pages without plug-ins; a private browsing mode; fancy downloadable fonts; and geolocation technology that can let Web sites know where you are.
"So much is happening on the Web right now, it's a great time for browsers," said John Lilly, CEO of Firefox backer Mozilla, in a statement. And, he boasted, "Firefox 3.5 brings together the most innovative Web technologies and delivers them in the most complete and powerful modern browser."
With the software released, Mozilla programmers and their open-source comrades now can move on to the next round of updates, to encouraging Web developers to build in support for the new features, and to finalizing new standards such as HTML 5.
The end of ID cards: British Government scraps £5billion scheme in its most humiliating U-turn yet
The Daily Mail reports:
British citizens will never be forced to carry ID cards, the Government announced today.Let freedom ring.
In a humiliating U-turn, Home Secretary Alan Johnson said that a trial scheme that was to force some airport staff to carry the controversial cards has been scrapped.
The massive climbdown means that carrying an ID card will now never be made compulsory for members of the general public.
The move signals the end of one of Labour's most controversial policies, which has been championed by a succession of Home Secretaries, and threatens to further undermine the authority of the Prime Minister.
And the retreat will be seized upon by Opposition parties and campaigners who have argued the £5 billion scheme is unnecessary and excessively expensive.
Public Housing and Condo Owners Clash in Chicago Social Experiment
The Chicago Tribune reports:
Low-income apartment dwellers and middle-class condo owners have shared Westhaven Park Tower since the building opened in 2006 -- an innovative setup that the city hoped would unite residents and exemplify Chicago's $1.6 billion overhaul of public housing.The struggles of Blue America.
Proximity, however, has not led to harmony.
The most recent skirmish inside the 113-unit midrise on Hermitage Avenue on the West Side concerned building security. Another flare-up centered on the proper use of the lobby: Public housing residents -- who make up a third of the building -- saw it as a place to hang out; condo owners did not.
Kathy Quickery, president of the building's condominium association, put it bluntly in a letter to the CHA last month: "After living in the building for three years, I consider the project a failure for homeowners."
Detroit Public Schools May Declare Bankruptcy
The Detroit News reports:
Detroit Public Schools, struggling with a multiyear deficit, will cut 700 more employees and is even considering bankruptcy, emergency financial manager Robert Bobb said Monday.Corruption is a major problem here.
But even the cuts, including a work force reduction of 2,451 -- almost 18 percent -- won't eliminate a "legacy deficit" of $259.5 million, said Bobb. He said the district overspent its budget for seven years and that eliminating the deficit in one year would be too harmful to students.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Cook County Commissioner Starts Legal Action Against Mayor Daley Over Olympics
No Games Chicago reports:
CHICAGO, IL — Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica today requested that Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and Attorney General Lisa Madigan initiate quo warranto proceedings against Mayor Richard M. Daley for committing the taxpayers as guarantors for the cost of the Chicago 2016 Olympic Games.
“I am taking this action on behalf of the taxpayers in response to Mayor Daley’s actions – which were unilateral, without express authority, and without approval from the city council,” said Peraica. “Like most people, I am a fan of the Olympic games, but not if they leave the taxpayers on the hook for a huge price tag that wasn’t even approved by the city council.”
If the Attorney General or State’s Attorney do not respond to Peraica’s request within 30 days, he will petition the Circuit Court of Cook County for leave to file the quo warranto proceedings as an individual on behalf of the People of the State of Illinois. [Quo warranto for “by what warrant?”) is one of the prerogative writs, that requires the person to whom it is directed to show what authority he has for exercising some right or power (or “franchise“) he claims to hold.}
“As a Cook County Commissioner, I have a duty to protect the best interests of the people I represent in the 16th District,” said Peraica. “And right now, those people are hurting, looking for work, and wanting a government that spends their money legally and wisely.”
Will John Conyers Get Caught up in Detroit Bribery Scandal?
The Detroit Free Press reports:
Monica Conyers has admitted accepting bribes in a sludge deal, but the Detroit councilwoman's political adviser and onetime chief of staff told the Free Press she received cash and jewelry for brokering other questionable transactions.John Conyers, providing "constituent service".
The aide, Sam Riddle, said Conyers even helped draft a letter sent by her husband, Congressman John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., to help a man with whom she had financial ties. It is unclear whether John Conyers knew of his wife's alleged link to the businessman.
In that deal, Riddle said, Monica Conyers arranged for Riddle to get a $20,000 contract with Greektown entrepreneur Dimitrios (Jim) Papas in about 2007. Riddle said Papas hired him for crisis consulting and political advising -- but he was never asked to do any work. She then demanded $10,000 of that money as a "finder's fee," Riddle said.
At some point after Papas paid him, Riddle said, John Conyers sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in support of a controversial hazardous waste injection well in Romulus that one of Papas' companies was seeking to operate.
How a Loophole Benefits GE in Bank Rescue
The Washington Post reports:
You'll want to read the whole article. This is fascist economics.
General Electric, the world's largest industrial company, has quietly become the biggest beneficiary of one of the government's key rescue programs for banks.
At the same time, GE has avoided many of the restrictions facing other financial giants getting help from the government.
The company did not initially qualify for the program, under which the government sought to unfreeze credit markets by guaranteeing debt sold by banking firms. But regulators soon loosened the eligibility requirements, in part because of behind-the-scenes appeals from GE.
As a result, GE has joined major banks collectively saving billions of dollars by raising money for their operations at lower interest rates. Public records show that GE Capital, the company's massive financing arm, has issued nearly a quarter of the $340 billion in debt backed by the program, which is known as the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, or TLGP. The government's actions have been "powerful and helpful" to the company, GE chief executive Jeffrey Immelt acknowledged in December.
California Assembly Democrats OK budget package
The L.A. Times reports:
Democratic leaders in the state Assembly, frustrated by the refusal of Republicans to support tax hikes to help balance the state budget, pushed through a proposal Sunday night that uses a series of legal maneuvers to put higher levies in place without any GOP votes.Here's some of the higher taxes and fees:
Included in the package are a tax increase of $1.50 per pack of cigarettes, a 9.9% extraction tax on oil companies, a $15 vehicle license fee surcharge to fund state parks and a charge on homeowner insurance premiums to pay for emergency response systems.California prison guards need the money so they can make over 100K a year.
Powerful Chicago Alderman Burke Helps Law Clients on City Deals
The Chicago Sun-Times puts the boss on the front page:
Ald. Edward M. Burke wrote a letter in his official capacity that helped a client of his law firm win City Council approval to develop a blighted stretch of land near Midway Airport.For more on the real Mayor of Chicago.
It's the second time Burke has written such a letter so someone he's done business with could get a zoning change from City Hall. After writing those letters, Burke abstained from voting on both cases to avoid any conflicts of interest.
In the most recent case, Burke wrote a letter July 18, 2007, endorsing a development project for Calvin Boender -- who was indicted last month along with Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th) on bribery charges stemming from a different project.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Detroit Public Schools fraud investigation finds millions in district funds misappropriated
We want to thank the ever alert Beachwood Reporter for this tale of massive corruption and theft of taxpayer dollars. Crain's Detroit Business reports:
The investigation to uncover fraud within the Detroit Public Schools has found evidence that millions of dollars in district funds have been misappropriated, stolen or embezzled. Six district employees have been immediately suspended.You'll want to read the whole article. The Detroit Public Schools are a greedy monopoly which deserves to be defunded.
DPS Inspector General John Bell announced the findings at a press conference today detailing “only a few” of the 85 individual fraud investigations launched by his office, created by DPS Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb earlier this year in order to uncover fraud within the state’s largest school district.
“Parents, teachers and everyone ought to be disgusted, as I am,” Bobb said at the press conference.
Even as Bobb’s investigation team, with help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has worked to uncover “every red penny” slated to support education in the district, “people continue to steal from us…creating cesspools of corruption,” Bobb said.
Jealous of Farah Fawcett : An New York Times Op-Ed Contributor Comes Clean
Mimi Swartz writes an op-ed piece in The New York Times:
Growing up in Texas, I knew a lot of girls like Farrah Fawcett, and I hated them. They had everything I didn’t: blond hair, blue eyes, the power, seemingly, to get anything and everything they wanted in my small public high school — boys, head cheerleader, the ability to decide, in a twinkling, who was cool and who wasn’t.An interesting piece to read.
DON'T GET THAT COLLEGE DEGREE! INTELLECTUALLY AND FINANCIALLY, STUDIES SHOW IT'S NOT WORTH IT
The New York Post reports:
The four-year college degree has come to cost too much and prove too little. It's now a bad deal for the average student, family, employer, professor and taxpayer.You'll want to read the whole , though provoking article. The law of diminishing returns is kicking in for many.
A student who secures a degree is increasingly unlikely to make up its cost, despite higher pay, and the employer who requires a degree puts faith in a system whose standards are slipping.
Michiganders flock to Web site for flings with married cheaters
The Detroit Free Press reports:
economic instability forces shaky couples to stay together -- they can't afford to get divorced. Infidelity becomes a more likely option.An article well worth your time.
Research does indicate that as work demands and stress increase, so do marital conflicts. Financial declines have always triggered an increase in a range of unhealthy behaviors.
Some 43% of U.S. couples said they are arguing more about money because of the recession, according to the recent "Can't Buy Me Love" poll by Internet payment company PayPal.
How stars so rich and famous can go broke
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
Sports Illustrated estimates that 78 percent of former National Football League players, within two years of retirement, are bankrupt or "under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce." Within five years of retirement, an estimated 60 percent of former National Basketball Association players "are broke." And at least 10 major-league baseball players fell prey to alleged fraudster Robert Allen Stanford, the magazine says.An interesting article.
For each failure, there is usually a reason: a lawsuit, illness, injury, divorce, unexpected tax bill or bad investment. Those are the same things that throw ordinary folks into bankruptcy, but celebrities face challenges most of us don't.
One is that their careers are highly uncertain and often brief. In the business world, it's fairly easy for someone with a seven-figure income to guesstimate their future earnings, says Ken Naehu, a managing director of Bel Air Investment Advisors in Los Angeles.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
As economy in Silicon Valley slides, birth control booms
The San Jose Mercury reports:
Nine months after Wall Street tanked, there are signs of an impending baby bust. With the ranks of the uninsured increasing along with unemployment rates, many women are taking steps to avoid having a child.Interesting.
Gynecologists and family-planning clinics throughout the South Bay have been doing more birth-control consultations since the fall, and women are asking for more reliable, more permanent methods of contraception.
"They want to focus their finances on the one or two kids that they have," said Dr. Savitha Krishnan, an OB-GYN with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation's Fremont center. "Instead of going with condoms or birth-control pills, they want longer-term solutions like the intrauterine device."
Government Estimates of Health Care Costs
Peter Schiff reports:
When Medicare was first proposed back in 1966, it cost $3 billion per year, and the projection was for inflation-adjusted annual costs to rise to $12 billion by 1990. The actual cost in 1990 was $107 billion, and the 2009 estimate is a staggering $408 billion! So much for government estimates on health care.Just a reminder.
Debbie Halvorson’s Embarrassing Cave
Red State has the scoop how one Illinois Democrat caved on cap and trade.
Friday, June 26, 2009
The Albany-Trenton-Sacramento Disease
The Wall Street Journal reports:
From 1998-2007, which included two booms on Wall Street, New York and New Jersey ranked 36th and 31st in job creation. From 2000 to 2007, the New Jersey Business & Industry Association calculates that nine out of 10 new Garden State jobs were in the government.There's more:
Mr. Obama believes union power is a ticket to the middle class. The middle class is getting creamed in all three of these "progressive" states, where organized labor is king. The unionized share of the workforce is 20% in California, 19% in New Jersey and 27% in New York compared to 13% across the country. All three are non-right-to-work states, have super-minimum wage requirements and provide among the nation's most generous public-employee pensions.You'll want to read the whole article.
Workers in these paradises are indeed uniting -- by leaving. New York ranks first, California second and New Jersey third in moving vans leaving the state. A study by the National Institute for Labor Relations Research found that over the past decade these and other high-union states (mostly in the Northeast) had one-third the job growth of states with low union penetration.
Phila. judge broke the law, panel rules
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
Philadelphia Judge Willis W. Berry Jr. broke the law by running a real estate business out of his court office for more than a decade, a state disciplinary tribunal ruled yesterday.Great moments in Blue America!
The finding that Berry committed theft of services was the strongest criticism in a harsh report that concluded that the veteran criminal court judge had put the judiciary in "disrepute."
The Court of Judicial Discipline said Berry had operated a string of North Philadelphia apartments "with absolutely no overhead" by using court computers, telephones, fax machines, envelopes, postage, file cabinets, and the labor of his secretary - and sticking taxpayers with the tab.
To make matters worse, the panel said, the Common Pleas Court judge was a kind of slumlord, pocketing rent from derelict apartments marred by scores of code and safety violations that went uncorrected for years. Those problems were first described in an Inquirer investigation in 2007.
Monica Conyers convicted of conspiracy: She faces up to 5 years in prison
The Detroit Free Press reports:
Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers pleaded guilty this morning to conspiring to commit bribery and is free on personal bond.Please read this one.
U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn said, "The defendant now stands convicted."
The one count of conspiring to commit bribery is punishable for up to five years in prison.
Chicago Public Schools to test teens for STDs
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
With Cook County boasting the dubious distinction of first in the nation in reported cases of gonorrhea -- and second in reported chlamydia cases -- the Chicago Public Schools will begin testing teens, who represent 60 percent of new reports.Great moments in Blue America.
Approved by the Board of Education this week, the pilot education, testing and treatment program will be run by the city Department of Public Health in six high schools at no cost to CPS.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Another recession casualty: Recent college graduates
McClatchy reports:
The tough economy and tight labor market have tarnished the luster of a bachelor's degree for young college graduates seeking employment.Just think, the Obama administration says more people need to go to college.
New monthly survey data from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston finds that during the first four months of 2009, less than half of the nation's 4 million college graduates age 25 and under were working in jobs that required a college degree. That's down from 54 percent for same period last year.
''I've never seen it this low and we've been analyzing this stuff for over 20 years," said center director Andrew Sum.
Illinois NOW joins Chicago NOW in decrying probation rather than prison for Chicago Cop Abbate
All is not well in Obama's Blue City of Chicago. The Chicago branch of the National Organization of Women reports:
The Illinois National Organization for Women decries probation rather than prison for the vicious attack by Anthony Abbate against Karolina Obrycka. “Probation is a slap in the face to Obrycka and any other woman who has been beaten said Bonnie Grabenhofer” President of IL NOW and Executive VP elect of National NOW. It sends a message to men that it is okay to pummel a woman as long as you only do it once and take anger management classes afterward.The Chicago Council of Lawyers in 1996, didn't much like Judge Fleming who let the Chicago cop walk:
Previous Judicial DutiesFleming must have got the blessing from this man of immense power in Cook County to become a judge.
1996-1998: Judge, Circuit Court, First Municipal District
Elected to the Circuit Court in 1996.
Evaluation
3/96 Primary Election, Circuit Court: Not Qualified
John J. Fleming, 40, has been practicing law for 14 years. He is currently Director of
Administrative Adjudication, Administrative Hearings, for the City of Chicago. He spent one year
as a solo practitioner and three years with the Chicago Park District as Deputy General Attorney,
Litigation Supervisor. He was an Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney for eight years. We have
received significant reports that Mr. Fleming lacks a responsible attitude and good judgment in
his work. The Council finds him Not Qualified.
Clout used at U. of I. law school, documents show
The Chicago Tribune reports:
Great moments in Illinois government.
University of Illinois Chancellor Richard Herman forced the law school to admit an unqualified applicant backed by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich while arranging for the governor's go-between to seek jobs for five law school graduates, according to new documents released Thursday by the university.
The records suggest for the first time an explicit trading of favors, the most troubling evidence yet of how Illinois' entrenched system of patronage crept into the admissions process of the state's most prestigious public university.
The relative of deep-pocketed Blagojevich campaign donor Kerry Peck appears to have been pushed by trustee Lawrence Eppley, who routinely carried admissions requests from the governor.
'Simpsons' draws higher ad rates on Web than on TV
The San Jose Mercury News reports:
Big story. Those who say the internet can't be monetized should think twice and read this one.
Television programs such as "The Simpsons" and "CSI" are for the first time commanding higher advertising rates at Web sites including Hulu.com and TV.com than on prime-time TV.
The premium rates in the just-ended 2008-2009 television season are mainly for shows that rank among the most-watched by Nielsen, said David Poltrack, chief research officer at New York-based CBS, which is home to "CSI" and owns TV.com.
Marketers, who are now considering commitments for the 2009-2010 TV season, are willing to pay more because TV.com. and Hulu.com., owned by investors including News Corp., NBC and Walt Disney, provide committed viewers who actively seek out shows. There are fewer commercials, and consumers are twice as likely to recall Web ads, Poltrack said, citing Nielsen.
"The reason people are paying such a high premium for these ads on the Internet is they do have a captive audience," Poltrack said. "You know you have eyes on the screen."
Conyers abandons plan to probe ACORN
The Washington Times reports:
"The powers that be decided against it," Mr. Conyers told The Washington Times.It's a secret.
The chairman declined to elaborate, shrugging off questions about who told him how to run his committee and give the Democrat-allied group a pass.
Pittsburgh lawyer Heather Heidelbaugh, whose testimony about ACORN at a March 19 hearing on voting issues prompted Mr. Conyers to call for a probe, said she was perplexed by Mr. Conyers' explanation for his change of heart.
"If the chair of the Judiciary Committee cannot hold a hearing if he want to [then] who are the powers that he is beholden to?" she said. "Is it the leadership, is it the White House, is it contributors? Who is 'the power?'"
Liberal Blogger Claims Republicans Leaving Dems in the Dust on Sex Scandals
Prominent liberal blogger Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo reports:
1) Kwame Kilpatrick the Detroit Mayor who cost the taxpayers big money directly tied to the sex scandal.
2) Who could forget Governor Jim McGreevey the former Democratic Governor of New Jersey?
3)and 4) Senators Dodd and Kennedy?
These are just to name a few. We have a feeling that if the media wanted to they could find some "interesting" information on some present and past clients of David Axelrod. Stuff that wouldn't exactly be for a "family audience" or fit the narrative.
That's not to say that some high profile Dems haven't been found Hiking the Appalachian Trail in recent years. John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer come immediately to mind.Josh Marshall is a loyal partisan Democrat. I guess it would be nice to believe that only one party, the Republican party, has a monopoly on sex and other scandal. Here's a few sex scandals Josh Marshall "forgot" about.
But there's just no denying that in the sex scandal derby Republicans are leaving Dems in the dust. Let's run through the recent list -- Foley, Craig, Vitter, Ensign, Sanford, Gibbons, Fossella, just to hit a few of the highlights. Who'm I missing?
1) Kwame Kilpatrick the Detroit Mayor who cost the taxpayers big money directly tied to the sex scandal.
2) Who could forget Governor Jim McGreevey the former Democratic Governor of New Jersey?
3)and 4) Senators Dodd and Kennedy?
These are just to name a few. We have a feeling that if the media wanted to they could find some "interesting" information on some present and past clients of David Axelrod. Stuff that wouldn't exactly be for a "family audience" or fit the narrative.
Goldman Sachs: "Engineering Every Major Market Manipulation Since The Great Depression"
Zero Hedge brings us Matt Taibbi's latest piece in Rolling Stone magazine:
From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression - and they're about to do it againGoldman Sachs would have been destroyed by a free market.
Indicted Builder Aided Alderman Burke and His Wife Justice Anne Burke: Developer held fundraiser, later got zoning change for project in city
The Chicago Tribune has a big front page story on Chicago's power couple:
A developer now at the center of a City Hall bribery scandal hosted a political fundraiser for Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke in his home, just months before receiving crucial support for his real estate project from her husband, Ald. Edward Burke, a Tribune investigation has found.You'll want to read the whole article. Of course, Alderman Burke has no comment. He could care less what people think. For more on Alderman Burke's background. For a look at the sensitive subject of fixing trials and the Burkes.
Both Burkes got campaign donations from developer Calvin Boender while Boender was pushing to build a $35 million condo and restaurant project on a blighted stretch of Cicero Avenue near Midway Airport.
Several months after the March 2007 fundraiser for his wife and weeks after receiving his $1,500 campaign donation, Edward Burke (14th) gave his all-important backing for Boender's project in his Southwest Side ward.
For years, Boender has quietly forged ties with politicians as he pursued real estate deals around Chicago, but he was indicted in May on charges he bribed a West Side alderman to win backing for another project.
Is Patrick Fitzgerald's Reputation Worth $ 1 Million in a Book Deal?
Cliff Kincaid reports:
A journalist who has uncovered evidence of al-Qaeda involvement in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 has been threatened with a lawsuit by powerful U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.There's more:
In a curious revelation, one of the letters from Fitzgerald refers to HarperCollins, a subsidiary of News Corporation, having once offered Fitzgerald a “seven figure” sum for the rights to his biography. Fitzgerald calls this an “estimate of the market value of my personal reputation.”Imagine that.
While such a statement may be a reference to a monetary figure that Fitzgerald thinks he can sue to recover because of a book that he thinks damages his reputation, a blogger at the Able Danger site commented, “So, he’s suing Harper Collins after being offered ‘seven figures’ by Harper Collins which he obviously never got, or did I miss the story about a Fitzgerald book deal?”
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Blogger Arrested in Threats to Kill 3 Judges that Upheld Chicago Handgun Ban
The Chicago Tribune reports:
Hal Turner, an occasional talk show host on internet radio and blogger, was arrested today by the FBI in his New Jersey home on charges he threatened to murder three federal appeals court judges in Chicago following their recent ruling upholding handgun bans.
According to the U.S. attorney's office, postings on Turner's web site included photos of the judges and addresses for them, with statements such as: "Let me be the first to say this plainly; These judges deserve to be killed."
The three judges have long served on the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals: Frank Easterbrook, the current chief judge; and Richard Posner and William Bauer.
Author Calls For DOJ's Ethics Watchdog to Probe Patrick Fitzgerald
The Public Record reports:
An Emmy Award-winning journalist whose recent book sharply criticized U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and other officials as being negligent for failing to stop a key al-Qaeda figure during their tenure directing the FBI's elite bin Laden squad, filed a complaint with the Justice Department’s ethics watchdog requesting an investigation into Fitzgerald for allegedly using government resources to try and kill the publication of the book.You'll want to read this one.
Peter Lance, a former investigative correspondent for ABC News, sent a letter last week to the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) calling for a wide-ranging probe of Fitzgerald as a result of his “20 month campaign...to kill the hardcover and paperback editions of my Harper Collins investigative book Triple Cross.”
FOMC Statement June 24, 2009
The Fed statement:
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in April suggests that the pace of economic contraction is slowing. Conditions in financial markets have generally improved in recent months. Household spending has shown further signs of stabilizing but remains constrained by ongoing job losses, lower housing wealth, and tight credit. Businesses are cutting back on fixed investment and staffing but appear to be making progress in bringing inventory stocks into better alignment with sales. Although economic activity is likely to remain weak for a time, the Committee continues to anticipate that policy actions to stabilize financial markets and institutions, fiscal and monetary stimulus, and market forces will contribute to a gradual resumption of sustainable economic growth in a context of price stability.
The prices of energy and other commodities have risen of late. However, substantial resource slack is likely to dampen cost pressures, and the Committee expects that inflation will remain subdued for some time.
In these circumstances, the Federal Reserve will employ all available tools to promote economic recovery and to preserve price stability. The Committee will maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and continues to anticipate that economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period. As previously announced, to provide support to mortgage lending and housing markets and to improve overall conditions in private credit markets, the Federal Reserve will purchase a total of up to $1.25 trillion of agency mortgage-backed securities and up to $200 billion of agency debt by the end of the year. In addition, the Federal Reserve will buy up to $300 billion of Treasury securities by autumn. The Committee will continue to evaluate the timing and overall amounts of its purchases of securities in light of the evolving economic outlook and conditions in financial markets. The Federal Reserve is monitoring the size and composition of its balance sheet and will make adjustments to its credit and liquidity programs as warranted.
Blacks, Latinos in L.A. more conservative than whites, L.A. Times Poll finds
The L.A. Times reports:
In national politics, black and Latino voters are, on average, more liberal than white voters.Great moments in Blue America!
But in Los Angeles, not so. The Los Angeles Times poll of 1,500 registered voters in the city, released this week, shows 40% of white voters describing themselves as liberal, 36% moderate and only 22% conservative.
White voters in L.A. are about twice as likely to call themselves liberal as white voters nationwide, based on polling done nationally by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, which also conducted the Times Poll. And note that because this is a poll of voters in the city of Los Angeles, it doesn’t include such heavily liberal, largely white areas as Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and West Hollywood.
N.J. crash victim caught in county-insurer lawsuits
Overpaid Government Worker reports:
Nicholas Anderson should be a multimillionaire.Great moments in government.
Instead, he is penniless - and in need of medical treatment he can't afford.
On Dec. 23, 2004, Anderson was driving home to Atco when a tire caught on a six-inch lip on the roadside and he lost control of his car. The car crashed into a guardrail, which impaled the vehicle, severing Anderson's left leg and nearly severing his left arm. He was 18.
He sued Camden County, and last year a jury awarded him $31 million, finding that the county-maintained road was dangerous because of the drop in elevation between the road and shoulder, and because of the guardrail's design.
Exurban Growth Greater than Central Growth: Census Bureau
New Geography reports:
The US Bureau of the Census has just released an analysis of suburbanization showing that the nation continues to suburbanize, despite the consistent media “spin” that people are leaving the suburbs to move to core cities.You'll want to read this one.
The report, Population Change in Central and Outlying Counties of Metropolitan Statistical Areas: 2000 to 2007, goes further than our previous 2000 to 2008 analysis that showed strong domestic outmigration from central counties to suburban counties and beyond.
Amazon Tell California to Drop Tax Bill
Club For Growth reports this from the WSJ:
Amazon.com Inc. sent a letter to California legislators on Monday threatening to end its business with marketing affiliates in the state if legislation passes forcing the Seattle e-commerce company to collect sales tax from California customers.Heh.
The letter follows similar threats Amazon made last week in North Carolina and Hawaii, after those states moved closer to passing legislation that would force e-commerce companies to collect tax if they have online marketing affiliates – people who get a sales commission from links on their own Web sites – in the state. Amazon won't say how many people are in its affiliates program.
Chicago Style Justice: Chicago cop Anthony Abbate sentenced to 2 years probation in videotaped bar beating
The Chicago Sun-Times reports on what Cook County Judge John J. Fleming said:
“If I believed sentencing Anthony Abbate to prison would stop people from getting drunk and hitting people, I’d give him the maximum sentence,”This man is Chairman of Democratic Party Slating Committee in Cook County. Alderman Burke can be reached here. Someone might ask Alderman Burke if Judge John J. Fleming is going to be slated next time around.
D.A.: Illegal immigrants were playing by rules
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris said Tuesday that half a dozen illegal immigrants whose drug convictions were expunged as part of a job training program that she oversaw were "following the rules" and deserved to be exonerated even after prosecutors learned of their status.Following the rules!!!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
AP Exclusive: Blago’s politics all in day’s work
The AP reports on Blago:
Rod Blagojevich had misplaced a $10,000 campaign contribution. Luckily, his wife found the check at home and told the governor’s secretary, who promised to take care of it.You'll want to read this one. There's more:
Soon the money was deposited safely, just after the donor’s daughter began a new job at the state Department of Corrections.
“Andy” was assigned other errands — to pick up a book for Chicago Alderman Edward Burke and to deliver whisky to Blagojevich’s legal counsel Susan Lichtenstein’s house for a December 2003 Christmas party.For more on Alderman Burke.
Government Health Care: Arizona Resists
The National Review reports:
As the U.S. government rushes to pull us all into a government-run health-care system, one state is preparing to say "hands off my health care." The Arizona State Senate yesterday approved HCR 2014, a proposed constitutional amendment that forbids the government from forcing any citizen to participate in a government-run health-care system. The resolution will be on the ballot in November 2010. (I was privileged to have testified to the House Health & Human Services Committee on the resolution.)Very interesting, one wonders if Arizona thinks someone can opt of out Medicare.
Emanuel Uses Reporters to Go on the Offensive
The Washington Post reports:
Perhaps no White House chief of staff in modern history has worked the media as aggressively and relentlessly as Emanuel. Drawing on his long-standing relationships with journalists, Emanuel serves up on-the-record quotes, background spin and the sort of capital gossip that lubricates relationships. The former Chicago congressman also seeks their take on events and floats possible administration tactics.TARP and government licensure of TV outlets works wonders!
Chicago Cop gets probation for beating bartender
The Chicago Tribune reports:
You might ask who would slate a judge who would allow rogue cops to get away with this? This man slates the judges in Cook County.
An off-duty Chicago police officer was sentenced to two years probation today for beating up a bartender.
Anthony Abbate could have gotten up to five years.
You might ask who would slate a judge who would allow rogue cops to get away with this? This man slates the judges in Cook County.
Daschle's Wife Hired as GE Lobbyist
GE might not make goods that consumers want but they hired Tom Daschle's wife to be a lobbyist. Great moments in rent seeking.
Does Silicon Valley Still Matter?
Business Week reports:
The region may lose its edge as a tech hub as entrepreneurs focus on short-term gains and VCs increasingly look abroad for innovationAn article well worth your time.
Chicago Has 4 of Top 25 Most Dangerous Neighborhoods in America
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Chicago is home to four of the top 25 most dangerous "neighborhoods" in the country, including a sliver of Washington Park that ranked No. 2, a recently released study of FBI crime statistics shows.No word yet from the International Olympic Committee on this one. Also, no word yet from the handgun banners on why Chicago is so unsafe after years of a handgun ban.
Folks who lived near 55th and State -- less than two miles from President Obama's house and the possible site of a future Olympic stadium -- had a 1-in-4 chance of becoming a victim of violent crime each year between 2005 and 2007, according to NeighborhoodScout.com.
Monday, June 22, 2009
The Unfit Survive Through Government Takings
Mark Steyn reports:
When the going gets tough, the tough get bailed out. Your car business operates on a failed business model? Don’t worry, the taxpayers will prop that failed business model up forever. You went bananas on your credit card and can’t pay it back? Don’t worry, we’ll pass a law to make it the bank’s fault. Your once golden state has decayed into such a corrupt racket of government cronyism that the remaining revenue generators are fleeing your borders faster than you can raise taxes on them? Relax, we’re lining up a federal bailout for you, too. Your unreadable newspaper has just woken up from its 96-page Obama Full Color Inaugural Souvenir bender to discover that its advertising revenue has collapsed with the real-estate market and GM dealerships? Hey, lighten up, Senator Kerry’s already been pleading your case in the Senate. Is it really so hard to picture President Obama calling the mayor next spring to assure him he has no plans to move the New York Times out of New York?Imagine that.
State Spending Increases
Instapundit reports:
“In 2002 total combined state revenue was $1.097 trillion…. In 2007 this figure had risen to almost $2 trillion. That’s an 81 percent increase, at a time when prices plus population increased 19 percent. .You'll want to read the whole thing.
Cash goes to districts of legislators directing corps funds
USA Today reports:
Most of the $2.2 billion in economic stimulus money for Army Corps of Engineers construction projects will be spent in the home districts of members of Congress who oversee the corps' funding, a USA TODAY analysis found.Imagine that.
Two-thirds of the money will be spent in states or districts represented by members of the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees that direct how the Corps of Engineers spends its money, the analysis found. The corps is spending its stimulus money on construction projects in 43 states for building or fixing water and sewer lines, dams, reservoirs, levees and harbors.
Phila. VA errors went uncorrected for years
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
Almost as soon as the Philadelphia VA Medical Center began offering radiation seed therapy to prostate cancer patients in 2002, questions arose about the quality of the treatment, federal investigators said.Great moments in socialized medicine!
Yet it wasn't until a year ago that anything happened. The Philadelphia VA suspended the "brachytherapy" treatment program and began examining whether more than 100 veterans had received inadequate radiation doses.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees such radiation therapy, launched an investigation and published some results this month in the Federal Register.
In recent news reports, the extent of the problems with the brachytherapy program became public. Of 92 mismanaged cases, 57 men got significantly less radiation than prescribed, and 35 received excessive doses, including 25 who received too much radiation to the rectum.
Barney Frank Wants Fannie, Freddie to relax condo loan rules
Reuters reports:
Two U.S Democratic lawmakers want Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to relax recently tightened standards for mortgages on new condominiums, saying they could threaten the viability of some developments and slow the housing-market recovery, the Wall Street Journal said.Mr. Leverage Barney Frank is back for the sequel of mayhem and destruction through the lack of collateral. We are sure Barney Frank will have all sorts of recommendations for health care once the government controls that sector.
In March, Fannie Mae (FNM.N)(FNM.P) said it would no longer guarantee mortgages on condos in buildings where fewer than 70 percent of the units have been sold, up from 51 percent, the paper said. Freddie Mac (FRE.P)(FRE.N) is due to implement similar policies next month, the paper said.
In a letter to the CEO's of both companies, Representatives Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Anthony Weiner warned that a 70 percent sales threshold "may be too onerous" and could lead condo buyers to shun new developments, according to the paper.
Chapter 11 is allowing Chrysler, GM to shed hundreds of injury and death claims
The Detroit News reports:
The new Chrysler can't be held liable for incidents involving the estimated 10 million cars and trucks sold by the automaker before June 10, when the company emerged from bankruptcy. Victims and their survivors with pending and future lawsuits against the old Chrysler are in the least protected class of creditors, and are likely to get nothing.An article well worth your time.
The same rules could apply to General Motors' estimated 30 million vehicles already on the road when it emerges from bankruptcy, perhaps in July.
On Friday, attorneys general from eight states opposed the provision in GM's bankruptcy plan. They filed an objection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York.
Law firms may provide clerks for courts: Proposal raises ethical issues
The Boston Globe reports:
The Massachusetts judiciary has withdrawn offers for dozens of highly coveted law clerk jobs as a result of expected budget cuts. Instead, the court system is considering filling the vacancies, at no cost to the state, with newly hired private lawyers whose firms have pushed back their start dates because of the bad economy.
Some legal specialists say the unusual proposal raises ethical questions, including whether firms that donate their fledgling associates might expect preferential treatment from the court system. But the plan has already cleared one hurdle, receiving approval with conditions from an ethics panel that advises the state’s highest court. The plan will now be reviewed by the State Ethics Commission.
Chicago spends $22 million on rent : Powerful Alderman Ed Burke and Mayor Daley's Brothers John and William Make News
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
The city of Chicago spends more than $22 million a year leasing property, usually from clout-heavy landlords and often at higher rents than other tenants pay, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.Who's involved?:
The city has three leases with landlords who are clients of the insurance brokerage run by the mayor's brother, Cook County Commissioner John Daley.For a look at John Daley's ties to the Chicago Mob and this. For Alderman Burke's ties to the Chicago Mob. For Alderman Burke's views on Jewish electoral prospects in Chicago.
• • Two of the city's landlords have hired the law firm of Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) -- in one case to win a cut in their real estate taxes on property leased to the city.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Dodge facts, skip details, govern Chicago-style
Michael Barone reports on Barack Obama :
he does business Chicago-style. His first political ambition was to be mayor of Chicago, the boss of all he surveyed; he has had to settle for the broader but less complete hegemony of the presidency. From Chicago he brings the assumption that there will always be a bounteous private sector that can be plundered endlessly on behalf of political favorites. Hence the government takeover of General Motors and Chrysler to bail out the United Auto Workers, the proposal for channeling money from the private nonprofits to the government by limiting the charitable deduction for high earners, the plan for expanding government (and public employee union rolls) by instituting universal pre-kindergarten.An article well worth your time.
Chicago-style, he has kept the Republicans out of serious policy negotiations but has allowed left-wing Democrats to veto a measure upholding his own decision not to release interrogation photos. While promising a politics of mutual respect, he peppers both his speeches and impromptu responses with jabs at his predecessor. Basking in the adulation of nearly the entire press corps, he whines about his coverage on Fox News. Those who stand in the way, like the Chrysler secured creditors, are told that their reputations will be destroyed; those who expose wrongdoing by political allies, like the AmeriCorps inspector general, are fired.
Obama entered the presidency with what seemed like supreme self-confidence. He had, after all, advanced from the Illinois state Senate to the presidency of the United States in just four years — a steeper and more rapid ascent than any president since Woodrow Wilson. The success of his long-range campaign strategy seems to have made him confident that his long-range policy strategies would work as well.
The Salonkeeper and Gambler Who Started the Chicago Democratic Machine: Mike McDonald
Here's a podcast on the man who started the Chicago Democratic Machine. You'll want to listen to this one.
Lower California home values mean lower tax revenue
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
Hundreds of thousands of Bay Area residents will receive a pleasant surprise in the mail this summer - a notice that their property taxes are being cut because real estate values have dropped.You see the built in bias for artificially high real estate prices.
But this boon for homeowners will mean the loss of millions of dollars in property tax revenue, a pot that gets divvied up among K-12 schools, counties, cities, redevelopment agencies, community colleges and special districts - all already squeezed by California's financial crisis and the economic downturn.
Every Bay Area county assessor is doing downward revisions for big swaths of homes. And for some counties, it will be the first time anyone can remember that property tax revenue has dropped from the previous year.
In Contra Costa County, 150,000 homes will have their property tax bills reduced. The county expects to take a tax hit of about 7.6 percent, meaning its total property tax receipts will be about $134 million less than last year's.
Obama's Approval Index Goes Negative for the First Time
Rasmussen reports:
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 32% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-four percent (34%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -2. That’s the President’s lowest rating to date and the first time the Presidential Approval Index has fallen below zero for ObamaThe beginning of a trend?
Philadelphia Teachers cite intense push to promote
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
The pressure to pass students - even those who rarely go to class or can't read - is pervasive in the Philadelphia School District, teachers around the city say.Public sector fraud.
The push comes in memos, in meetings, and in talks about failure rates that are too high, the teachers say. It comes through mountains of paperwork and justification for failing any student. It comes in ways subtle and overt, according to more than a dozen teachers from nine of the city's 62 high schools.
"We have to give fake grades," said a teacher at Mastbaum High in Kensington. "The pressure is very real."
A teacher at University City High described getting pressure from the school's administrators to pass a student who had 89 absences over a half-year.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Obama's Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Mention in University of Illinois Admissions Scandal
The Chicago Tribune's investigation in University of Illiinois' admissions grows. The Lincoln Courier reports:
The university’s admissions practices have been in the spotlight recently because the Chicago Tribune reported in May that some academically shaky students got admitted through the influence of government officials and university trustees.The Tribune has been quite, quiet on former State Senator Barack Obama's presence in the admissions scandal.
One of those students was a relative of Antoin “Tony” Rezko, the onetime fundraiser for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich who was convicted on federal corruption charges, the Tribune said.
The school maintained a “Category I” list that tracked certain students, as well as the names of lawmakers and trustees who expressed interest in whether those students got admitted. The names of several area elected officials appeared on the list, which actually consists of multiple documents covering the past few years.
The documents mention Republicans and Democrats, including Leitch; former U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, who is now U.S. transportation secretary; former state Rep. Aaron Schock, who now is a congressman; state Reps. Dan Brady, Rich Brauer and Frank Mautino; and state Sens. Dan Rutherford, Larry Bomke and Deanna Demuzio.
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