Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Earl Forrest has been killed by the State of Missouri tonight.
May 11, 2016
Less than an hour ago.
Bonne Terre, Mo. (AP) — A man (click here) who killed two people in a drug dispute and a sheriff's deputy in a subsequent shootout was put to death Wednesday in what could be Missouri's last execution for some time.
Earl Forrest, 66, died by injection for the December 2002 deaths of Harriett Smith, Michael Wells and Dent County Sheriff's Deputy Joann Barnes. He was pronounced dead at 7:18 p.m. CDT, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.
Forrest's fate was sealed hours before his punishment when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt the execution and Democratic Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon turned down a clemency request....
Times a wasting...
February 25. 2016
S. 2598 (click here)
(1) (2) (3)
S. 2598 (click here)
Ms. Warren (for herself and Mr. McCain) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
The Congress finds that—
on December 21, 1891, a young physical education instructor named James Naismith introduced the game of
basket ballto his physical education class in Springfield, Massachusetts;
in
1959, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was founded and
dedicated to the creator of basketball, Dr. James Naismith, in
Springfield, Massachusetts,
The Birthplace of Basketball, and became the first and only museum to honor the game at all levels around the world;
the
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame honors players who have
achieved greatness, exemplary coaches, referees, and other major
contributors to the sport of basketball;...
I am not sure if the USA can afford to let Elizabeth Warrne run for Vice President.
She also has some very novel and valuable bills she has sponsored:
Tax Filing Simplification Act of 2016
A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to establish a free online tax preparation and filing service and programs that allow taxpayers to access third-party provided tax return information.
FAA Community Accountability Act of 2016
A bill to direct the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to improve the process for establishing and revising flight paths and procedures, and for other purposes.
Genetic Research Privacy Protection Act
A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to protect the privacy of individuals who are research subjects, and for other purposes.
Behavioral Health Coverage Transparency Act of 2016
A bill to strengthen parity in mental health and substance use disorder benefits.
National Biomedical Research Act
A bill to establish the "Biomedical Innovation Fund", and for other purposes.
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin Act
A bill to require the Secretary of the Treasury to mint coins in recognition of the 60th anniversary of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Reducing Unused Medications Act of 2016
A bill to amend the Controlled Substances Act to permit certain partial fillings of prescriptions.
Puerto Rico Emergency Financial Stability Act
A bill to provide for certain assistance and reforms relating to the territories, and for other purposes.
SAVE Benefit Act
Seniors And Veterans Emergency Benefits Act
Elizabeth Warren is so much more than the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It is going to take awhile to sincerely get to know her. It is very unfair to toss her into the middle of a national Presidential election without realizing her scope and dedication to people and not financial institutions.
She has sponsored nine bills so far since taking office and many in only the first half of 2016. That is a prolific legislator. There is every indication she does this alone. She is quite the legislator.
I remember some time ago her sitting completely alone in a committee oversight hearing with financial somebody or other and asking very frank questions with intention to reveal the truth about processes that allow corruption and act against the consumer. She was completely alone. Not even the chairperson was in the room. She is brave, focused and to all other legislators that can't find wholesome funding, radioactive.
Realizing her stance on issues, I think the USA has another Lioness of the Senate. She makes Massachusetts proud and I hope they send her back to her job that she loves so much term after term after term.
Someday, Senator Warren will be running for President of the USA. I look forward to that day. Her shadow is HUGE.
Bought and paid for corruption. It is fact and stands between the USA government and the needs of the American people.
When Republican worry about losing seats in November and scapegoat Donald Trump as the reason, it is a lie. The reason seats are lost by either party is because they are tied to the favors and service they provide for donors.
The only corruption that can be linked to Donald Trump is what he has embarked on for his benefit. He is self funded through the primary. He is off to a good start.
March 11, 2016
The only corruption that can be linked to Donald Trump is what he has embarked on for his benefit. He is self funded through the primary. He is off to a good start.
March 11, 2016
By the NYT editorial board
This year the Republican and Democratic (click here) nominating conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia will be bankrolled entirely with money from corporations and wealthy individuals. Not since the Watergate era, when a $400,000 pledge to the 1972 Republican convention from ITT Corporation was linked to a favorable outcome for the company in a federal antitrust decision, has this happened.
Industries with business before the federal government have long found opening their checkbooks for the conventions to be one of the most efficient means for influencing an incoming administration and Congress in one quick action....
This is corruption in a very big way. Citigroup took advantage of a bill that had to be passed to avert a government shutdown. Citigroup and US Representative Randy Hultgren played brinkmanship with the lawful stability of the USA economy.
December 10, 2014
By Ericka Eichelberger
Update Friday, December 12, 2014: (click here) On Thursday night, the House passed the spending bill with the Citigroup-written provision. The Senate is expected to approve the legislation.
A year ago, Mother Jones reported that a House bill that would allow banks like Citigroup to do more high-risk trading with taxpayer-backed money was written almost entirely by Citigroup lobbyists. The bill passed the House in October 2013, but the Senate never voted on it. For months, it was all but dead. Yet on Tuesday night, the Citi-written bill resurfaced. Lawmakers snuck the measure into a massive 11th-hour government funding bill that congressional leaders negotiated in the hopes of averting a government shutdown. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the legislation.
"This is outrageous," says Marcus Stanley, the financial policy director at the advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform. "This is to benefit big banks, bottom line."...
US Rep. Randy Hultgren (click here) is from Illinois. His top donor to his 2013-2014 campaign was a company called Huizenga Holdings from South Florida. Randy Hultgren is corrupt to the core. But, he pretends to be a dream come true conservationist because of an internet page featuring "The Cougar Fund" (click here).
He should have been brought up on ethics violations and an investigation in case of further wrong doing as if this isn't enough.
Huizenga Holdings, Inc. (click here) operates as an investment and entertainment conglomerate that owns and manages marinas and yacht-related companies in Florida. The company develops and manages residential and commercial properties throughout Florida. Additionally, the company also owns the Miami Dolphins football team and Dolphins Stadium in South Florida. Huizenga Holdings, Inc. was formerly known as Waco Services, Inc. and changed its name to Huizenga Holdings, Inc. in June 1988. The company founded in 1984 and is based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida....
This year the Republican and Democratic (click here) nominating conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia will be bankrolled entirely with money from corporations and wealthy individuals. Not since the Watergate era, when a $400,000 pledge to the 1972 Republican convention from ITT Corporation was linked to a favorable outcome for the company in a federal antitrust decision, has this happened.
Industries with business before the federal government have long found opening their checkbooks for the conventions to be one of the most efficient means for influencing an incoming administration and Congress in one quick action....
This is corruption in a very big way. Citigroup took advantage of a bill that had to be passed to avert a government shutdown. Citigroup and US Representative Randy Hultgren played brinkmanship with the lawful stability of the USA economy.
December 10, 2014
By Ericka Eichelberger
Update Friday, December 12, 2014: (click here) On Thursday night, the House passed the spending bill with the Citigroup-written provision. The Senate is expected to approve the legislation.
A year ago, Mother Jones reported that a House bill that would allow banks like Citigroup to do more high-risk trading with taxpayer-backed money was written almost entirely by Citigroup lobbyists. The bill passed the House in October 2013, but the Senate never voted on it. For months, it was all but dead. Yet on Tuesday night, the Citi-written bill resurfaced. Lawmakers snuck the measure into a massive 11th-hour government funding bill that congressional leaders negotiated in the hopes of averting a government shutdown. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the legislation.
"This is outrageous," says Marcus Stanley, the financial policy director at the advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform. "This is to benefit big banks, bottom line."...
US Rep. Randy Hultgren (click here) is from Illinois. His top donor to his 2013-2014 campaign was a company called Huizenga Holdings from South Florida. Randy Hultgren is corrupt to the core. But, he pretends to be a dream come true conservationist because of an internet page featuring "The Cougar Fund" (click here).
He should have been brought up on ethics violations and an investigation in case of further wrong doing as if this isn't enough.
Huizenga Holdings, Inc. (click here) operates as an investment and entertainment conglomerate that owns and manages marinas and yacht-related companies in Florida. The company develops and manages residential and commercial properties throughout Florida. Additionally, the company also owns the Miami Dolphins football team and Dolphins Stadium in South Florida. Huizenga Holdings, Inc. was formerly known as Waco Services, Inc. and changed its name to Huizenga Holdings, Inc. in June 1988. The company founded in 1984 and is based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida....
Republicans need a refresher course in logic, if they had one in the first place.
Republicans are very short sighted. They don't take the problems of the country seriously. They practice politics 24-7 and when they are faced in actually addressing problems they are completely illogical playing citizens for fools.
Wasn't it Mitch McConnell that started the obstruction movement that leaves the country in purgatory? McConnell refused the will of the people when President Obama wanted to carry forward infrastructure projects. So, Republicans have no room to complain about the choices the people make in primaries or otherwise. The Republicans ignore the people while stating the Democrats are the ones ignoring the will of the people.
The entire Republican field were shaking in their boots while Donald Trump stated if he wasn't treated fairly he would run as an Independent. They were shaking in their boots because they didn't want to split the Republican vote. They were shaking in their boots because they are a complete abhorrence of governance. The Republicans know they are lousy leaders that cannot balance their governance in recognition of a two to three party system. They are only successful when the extremism of their voter base is left intact.
So, basically, the 17 Republican member field thought they had Donald Trump hog tied when he signed an agreement to not run as an Independent. Donald Trump was not going to win as a Republican.
Today, when all strategies have failed to contain Donald Trump, Republicans are willing to live up to their agreement in backing the Republican nominee. Today, Paul Ryan is having a difficult time in CONTAINING the Republican nominee, Donald Trump. The same lack of willingness to see the issues of the people and acting on them IS NOT at the heart of Ryan's governance. Ryan is far more interested in containing Donald Trump still yet than lose his cronies. Republican cronies are in complete opposition of the will of the people.
The Republicans cannot govern when they are only interested in maintaining their politics and funding no matter what it costs the people of the country.
It is amazing. At the time all the candidates were signing an agreement to run as Republicans they fully believed someone other than Donald Trump was going to be the nominee come November. They never thought it through and entered into an agreement based ONLY IN ARROGANCE.
May 10, 2016
By JE Reich
It looks like (click here) we should start planning certified robot Marco Rubio’s belated bar-mitzvah, because it looks like the GOP’s babiest automaton has turned into a real boy—at least when it comes to refusing to publicly back presumptive GOP nominee/withered Cheeto behind your couch Donald Trump.
Well, sort of.
In an interview on Tuesday with anchor Jake Tapper on CNN’s The Lead, the former GOP hopeful and current Florida senator once again flatly denied the possibility of running on the same ticket as his former rival.
“It would be impossible,” Rubio stated, citing his lack of advisers currently “out in the field.”
“I stand by the things that I said,” Rubio went on to insist, while referring to Trump as an “erratic con-man” who should not be given nuclear codes—which is all probably correct, considering that Trump seems to think that nuclear warfare is about the same as playing Sid Meier’s Civilization II....
Wasn't it Mitch McConnell that started the obstruction movement that leaves the country in purgatory? McConnell refused the will of the people when President Obama wanted to carry forward infrastructure projects. So, Republicans have no room to complain about the choices the people make in primaries or otherwise. The Republicans ignore the people while stating the Democrats are the ones ignoring the will of the people.
The entire Republican field were shaking in their boots while Donald Trump stated if he wasn't treated fairly he would run as an Independent. They were shaking in their boots because they didn't want to split the Republican vote. They were shaking in their boots because they are a complete abhorrence of governance. The Republicans know they are lousy leaders that cannot balance their governance in recognition of a two to three party system. They are only successful when the extremism of their voter base is left intact.
So, basically, the 17 Republican member field thought they had Donald Trump hog tied when he signed an agreement to not run as an Independent. Donald Trump was not going to win as a Republican.
Today, when all strategies have failed to contain Donald Trump, Republicans are willing to live up to their agreement in backing the Republican nominee. Today, Paul Ryan is having a difficult time in CONTAINING the Republican nominee, Donald Trump. The same lack of willingness to see the issues of the people and acting on them IS NOT at the heart of Ryan's governance. Ryan is far more interested in containing Donald Trump still yet than lose his cronies. Republican cronies are in complete opposition of the will of the people.
The Republicans cannot govern when they are only interested in maintaining their politics and funding no matter what it costs the people of the country.
It is amazing. At the time all the candidates were signing an agreement to run as Republicans they fully believed someone other than Donald Trump was going to be the nominee come November. They never thought it through and entered into an agreement based ONLY IN ARROGANCE.
May 10, 2016
By JE Reich
It looks like (click here) we should start planning certified robot Marco Rubio’s belated bar-mitzvah, because it looks like the GOP’s babiest automaton has turned into a real boy—at least when it comes to refusing to publicly back presumptive GOP nominee/withered Cheeto behind your couch Donald Trump.
Well, sort of.
In an interview on Tuesday with anchor Jake Tapper on CNN’s The Lead, the former GOP hopeful and current Florida senator once again flatly denied the possibility of running on the same ticket as his former rival.
“It would be impossible,” Rubio stated, citing his lack of advisers currently “out in the field.”
“I stand by the things that I said,” Rubio went on to insist, while referring to Trump as an “erratic con-man” who should not be given nuclear codes—which is all probably correct, considering that Trump seems to think that nuclear warfare is about the same as playing Sid Meier’s Civilization II....
Multiple fronts are coming together to cause the deadly weather trend for the past week.
2230.19z
UNISYS Infrared US Satellite (click here for twelve hour loop - thank you)
Twelve hours ago it looked as though the deadly day would end. It was looking like bad storms but not deadly bad storms. But, then Earth assembled it's power drawing on multiple sources of water vapor drenched in heat.
May 11, 2016
1048 GMT
Current Surface Map at the Weather Channel (map of the weather fronts)
May 11, 2016
0430.19z
UNISYS Infrared US satellite (from the same loop of previous satellite image)
May 11, 2016
1045 GMT
Weather Channel Current Temperature Map
1030.18z
UNISYS Infrared US satellite image
Wind Map (click here)
May 11, 2016
5:35 am EST
top speed: 26.7 mph
average: 6.5 mph
There is a lot of energy being used by Earth when these extreme events occur. In that energy level comes the understanding of the power of heat contained in water vapor.
Agadez, Niger is the hottest place on Earth today.
118 degrees Fahrenheit (click here)
The route to Europe for many African migrants passes through the underworld of Agadez, Niger.
July 20, 2015
By Kevin Sieff
The smuggler (click here) walked past the diaper aisle, through the back door of the convenience store and into the metal shed where the migrants were hiding. It was Monday in one of the world’s human-smuggling capitals, the day when trucks crammed with Africans roar off in a weekly convoy bound for Libya, the threshold to Europe. For Musa, an expert in sneaking people across the Sahara, it was time to get ready.
He walked around the white Toyota pickup parked next to the shed, loaded with jugs of water. Then he glanced at the cluster of 30 people waiting to climb atop the load.
One of them was an 11-year-old girl from Burkina Faso, sucking a lollipop. Another was a mother who held her wailing 6-month-old baby. Next to them, 27 men, from five countries, shifted their eyes nervously between Musa and the truck. If they weren’t caught or stranded or killed, it would take them three days to get from the stash house to Libya.
“We need to leave soon,” Musa said, examining the truck, its windows tinted, its license plate missing, prayer beads hanging from the rearview mirror....
The route to Europe for many African migrants passes through the underworld of Agadez, Niger.
July 20, 2015
By Kevin Sieff
The smuggler (click here) walked past the diaper aisle, through the back door of the convenience store and into the metal shed where the migrants were hiding. It was Monday in one of the world’s human-smuggling capitals, the day when trucks crammed with Africans roar off in a weekly convoy bound for Libya, the threshold to Europe. For Musa, an expert in sneaking people across the Sahara, it was time to get ready.
He walked around the white Toyota pickup parked next to the shed, loaded with jugs of water. Then he glanced at the cluster of 30 people waiting to climb atop the load.
One of them was an 11-year-old girl from Burkina Faso, sucking a lollipop. Another was a mother who held her wailing 6-month-old baby. Next to them, 27 men, from five countries, shifted their eyes nervously between Musa and the truck. If they weren’t caught or stranded or killed, it would take them three days to get from the stash house to Libya.
“We need to leave soon,” Musa said, examining the truck, its windows tinted, its license plate missing, prayer beads hanging from the rearview mirror....
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Congratulations to Secretary Clinton for winning the popular vote in Nebraska.
May 10, 2016
By Cyra Master
Hillary Clinton (click here) won a symbolic victory Tuesday in Nebraska, taking 59 percent of the primary vote and rival Bernie Sanders getting 40 percent.
Democrats in the Cornhusker State held a presidential caucus in March, with Sanders emerging victorious. The two Democratic candidates appeared on the state’s primary ballot on Tuesday, as voters went to the polls to make their choice in the GOP race....
In all fairness, Secretary Clinton points to her ability to win the people's vote. She frequently states besides the delegation numbers she has won millions more voters in her campaign for President. It would appear Nebraska is exactly that win.
By Cyra Master
Hillary Clinton (click here) won a symbolic victory Tuesday in Nebraska, taking 59 percent of the primary vote and rival Bernie Sanders getting 40 percent.
Democrats in the Cornhusker State held a presidential caucus in March, with Sanders emerging victorious. The two Democratic candidates appeared on the state’s primary ballot on Tuesday, as voters went to the polls to make their choice in the GOP race....
In all fairness, Secretary Clinton points to her ability to win the people's vote. She frequently states besides the delegation numbers she has won millions more voters in her campaign for President. It would appear Nebraska is exactly that win.
Has anyone told them the Arctic belongs to them solely, because, they really are struggling.
May 4, 2016
The Hague-based Royal Dutch Shell (click here) plc (RDS.A - Analyst Report) owns one of the largest integrated oil and gas businesses in the world....
...Revenue: Revenues below expectations. Revenues of $48,554 million were below Zacks Consensus Estimate of $53,164 million...
While Royal Dutch Shell had sustained losses with their Arctic Ocean relinquished plans, they were fine. Stockholders are little disappointed, but, they should seek solace in realizing the lives saved by a very wise CEO. The Arctic Ocean is a very hostile place to be.
Some made the mistake to think a melted ice ocean would be no different than the North Atlantic on a bad day. The North Pole is no picnic. People have technology that primarily tames Earth's natural world. It is easy to forget people live on Earth, a planet rotating on an axis (click here) and traversing around Sol.
27 August 2015
Suzanne Goldenberg
Survival of walruses (click here) threatened as they wash ashore on a remote barrier island just before Obama is due to visit region to draw attention to climate change....
This is a very good documentary.
The Hague-based Royal Dutch Shell (click here) plc (RDS.A - Analyst Report) owns one of the largest integrated oil and gas businesses in the world....
...Revenue: Revenues below expectations. Revenues of $48,554 million were below Zacks Consensus Estimate of $53,164 million...
While Royal Dutch Shell had sustained losses with their Arctic Ocean relinquished plans, they were fine. Stockholders are little disappointed, but, they should seek solace in realizing the lives saved by a very wise CEO. The Arctic Ocean is a very hostile place to be.
Some made the mistake to think a melted ice ocean would be no different than the North Atlantic on a bad day. The North Pole is no picnic. People have technology that primarily tames Earth's natural world. It is easy to forget people live on Earth, a planet rotating on an axis (click here) and traversing around Sol.
27 August 2015
Suzanne Goldenberg
Survival of walruses (click here) threatened as they wash ashore on a remote barrier island just before Obama is due to visit region to draw attention to climate change....
This is a very good documentary.
Who do you suppose the Chinese sold the security clearance information to?
Congratulations to Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in winning the West Virginia primaries.
Congratulations to Ted Cruz in his return to Congress today.
Hm. Data base error.
Prominent white nationalist (click here) William Daniel Johnson was included on the official list of Trump’s California delegates to the Republican National Convention
Maybe it was Chinese hackers.
Homeland Security never has been able to stop them, especially with the F35 Strike Fighter that defies all odds in the least defensive a jet of it's pilot, yet a nation. None of that statement is a lie. Yep.
June 12, 2015
By Ellen Nakashima
The Chinese breach of the Office of Personnel Management (click here) network was wider than first acknowledged, and officials said Friday that a database holding sensitive security clearance information on millions of federal employees and contractors also was compromised.
In an announcement, OPM said that investigators concluded this week with “a high degree of confidence” that the agency’s systems containing information related to the background investigations of “current, former and prospective” federal employees, and others for whom a background check was conducted, were breached....
I do not lie. I take my country seriously. Chinese hackers have been doing this when everyone in the Chinese government thought they were in prison. No lie. The Chinese government finally took them out of prison and put them to work. They all work in the same building and live within a block or two of their place of work. That was so the Chinese government could keep an eye on them. They are suppose to give all the information they dig up to the government. I suppose.
The nukes aren't online, right? They were bombs a long time before computers. That is a fact. There haven't been improvements, are there? I mean how can anyone improve on nukes? Right?
I wonder if Chinese hackers know anything about non-proliferation. They do live a regular life worth living. I am sure they have developed a conscience with their lives and work appreciated. I am sure it's fine.
Congratulations to Ted Cruz in his return to Congress today.
Hm. Data base error.
Prominent white nationalist (click here) William Daniel Johnson was included on the official list of Trump’s California delegates to the Republican National Convention
Maybe it was Chinese hackers.
Homeland Security never has been able to stop them, especially with the F35 Strike Fighter that defies all odds in the least defensive a jet of it's pilot, yet a nation. None of that statement is a lie. Yep.
June 12, 2015
By Ellen Nakashima
The Chinese breach of the Office of Personnel Management (click here) network was wider than first acknowledged, and officials said Friday that a database holding sensitive security clearance information on millions of federal employees and contractors also was compromised.
In an announcement, OPM said that investigators concluded this week with “a high degree of confidence” that the agency’s systems containing information related to the background investigations of “current, former and prospective” federal employees, and others for whom a background check was conducted, were breached....
I do not lie. I take my country seriously. Chinese hackers have been doing this when everyone in the Chinese government thought they were in prison. No lie. The Chinese government finally took them out of prison and put them to work. They all work in the same building and live within a block or two of their place of work. That was so the Chinese government could keep an eye on them. They are suppose to give all the information they dig up to the government. I suppose.
The nukes aren't online, right? They were bombs a long time before computers. That is a fact. There haven't been improvements, are there? I mean how can anyone improve on nukes? Right?
I wonder if Chinese hackers know anything about non-proliferation. They do live a regular life worth living. I am sure they have developed a conscience with their lives and work appreciated. I am sure it's fine.
There is not an election that goes by when coal country worries about the economy. They are well programed.
In 2015, West Virginia had a total personal income (TPI) of
$68,328,638*. This TPI ranked 40th in the United States. In 2005, the
TPI of West Virginia was $47,989,066* and ranked 39th in the United
States.
The people of West Virginia don't understand coal production and how labor is minimized by the industry. I don't know if anyone talks to them about the truth or they like to be scared for their own economic life, but, they are always scared for their jobs.
It is no big deal if there is coal dust covering the local elementary school, but, the most important thing is that coal jobs remain and regulation is putting the industry out of business.
It is an age old paradigm and the people in West Virginia still believe it.
Illiteracy Statistics for US (click here)
West Virginia's rate far exceeds the US rate of 14 percent. I also found very interesting the illiteracy rate of prisoners in the USA at 70 percent.
20% of West Virginians struggle with low literacy levels. (click here)
December 20, 2010
By Jay B. Tabor
You regularly read columns (click here) that state businesses are poised on the state line, only needing the author's expressed cause celebre to be enacted and they will relocate here. Sometimes it's taxes, or it's lawsuits or other reasons. I suspect these are agendas driven by specific groups, already here in the state, trying to loosen their responsibilities to the community.
This is also part chimera. Downstate, the problem, outside of the larger communities, is road access. Hundreds of small towns are located on winding; narrow two-lane roads that traverse mountain after mountain. Unless someone develops a distribution model to tackle that, business in West Virginia will be confined to the cities....
...You continue to hear though, "If it were not for (some pet peeve), we'd be rich beyond our wildest dreams." But for all the benefits, there is a number they dare not speak, do not address and do not want revealed. "Just make my pet peeve go away," is their mantra, not actually working to correct the real problem.
What number could be so intractable that businesses won't consider the state? The illiteracy rate. The rate for the state is 18.9 percent. Here in Berkeley County it's 16 percent. Just as a reference, that puts us on par with Iran and Libya. Jefferson County is 15 percent and Morgan County is 18 percent. Many more residents are struggling to read simple instructions on medicine bottles or this letter to the editor. That 16 percent is as close to criminal neglect by the BOE and public officials as you can get without a hotshot lawyer on your side.
Why is this bad? Because the new, attractive jobs require the combined skills of reading and comprehension....
US Department of Labor statistics on Mining jobs in West Virginia. (click here) The graph below is from 2006 to present. If one went all the way back to the 1900s and before child labor laws the drop off to present day would look like the cliffs of Acapulco.
The people of West Virginia don't understand coal production and how labor is minimized by the industry. I don't know if anyone talks to them about the truth or they like to be scared for their own economic life, but, they are always scared for their jobs.
It is no big deal if there is coal dust covering the local elementary school, but, the most important thing is that coal jobs remain and regulation is putting the industry out of business.
It is an age old paradigm and the people in West Virginia still believe it.
West Virginia's rate far exceeds the US rate of 14 percent. I also found very interesting the illiteracy rate of prisoners in the USA at 70 percent.
20% of West Virginians struggle with low literacy levels. (click here)
December 20, 2010
By Jay B. Tabor
You regularly read columns (click here) that state businesses are poised on the state line, only needing the author's expressed cause celebre to be enacted and they will relocate here. Sometimes it's taxes, or it's lawsuits or other reasons. I suspect these are agendas driven by specific groups, already here in the state, trying to loosen their responsibilities to the community.
This is also part chimera. Downstate, the problem, outside of the larger communities, is road access. Hundreds of small towns are located on winding; narrow two-lane roads that traverse mountain after mountain. Unless someone develops a distribution model to tackle that, business in West Virginia will be confined to the cities....
...You continue to hear though, "If it were not for (some pet peeve), we'd be rich beyond our wildest dreams." But for all the benefits, there is a number they dare not speak, do not address and do not want revealed. "Just make my pet peeve go away," is their mantra, not actually working to correct the real problem.
What number could be so intractable that businesses won't consider the state? The illiteracy rate. The rate for the state is 18.9 percent. Here in Berkeley County it's 16 percent. Just as a reference, that puts us on par with Iran and Libya. Jefferson County is 15 percent and Morgan County is 18 percent. Many more residents are struggling to read simple instructions on medicine bottles or this letter to the editor. That 16 percent is as close to criminal neglect by the BOE and public officials as you can get without a hotshot lawyer on your side.
Why is this bad? Because the new, attractive jobs require the combined skills of reading and comprehension....
US Department of Labor statistics on Mining jobs in West Virginia. (click here) The graph below is from 2006 to present. If one went all the way back to the 1900s and before child labor laws the drop off to present day would look like the cliffs of Acapulco.
Really?
I suppose the F-35 project has a job training upside. Is there a need for sophisticated jet repair persons in the private sector? I am not sure of that. How many former US Air Force mechanics work for Boeing?
I know, I know; it will be a great aircraft once perfected. By the time the F35 is perfected it will be obsolete. Time to start all over again. Who knew the Russians already had already perfected it.
The F-35 looks good in a garage.
May 9, 2016
I know, I know; it will be a great aircraft once perfected. By the time the F35 is perfected it will be obsolete. Time to start all over again. Who knew the Russians already had already perfected it.
The F-35 looks good in a garage.
By NYT Editorial Board
...While increased funding (click here) for some programs may be needed, total military
spending, at nearly $600 billion annually, is not too low. The trouble
is, the investment has often yielded poor results, with the Pentagon,
Congress and the White House all making bad judgments, playing budget
games and falling under the sway of defense industry lobbyists. Current
military spending is 50 percent higher in real terms than it was before 9/11, yet the number of active duty and reserve troops is 6 percent smaller.
For
nearly a decade after 9/11, the Pentagon had a virtual blank check; the
base defense budget rose, in adjusted dollars, from $378 billion in
1998 to $600 billion in 2010. As the military fought Al Qaeda and the
Taliban, billions of dollars were squandered on unnecessary items,
including new weapons that ran late and over budget like the troubled
F-35 jet fighter.
The
waste and the budget games continue with the House Armed Services
Committee approving a $583 billion total defense authorization bill for
2017 last month that skirts the across-the-board caps imposed by
Congress in 2011 on discretionary federal spending....
Congress is irresponsible in handling the taxpayers monies. Having a majority of Republicans in the US House and Senate is not only a mistake, it is consenting to unethical practices in federal spending.
...The move will underwrite the purchase of more ships, jet fighters, helicopters and other big-ticket weapons that the Pentagon didn’t request....
The USA Congress will spend monies on unwanted military munitions and hardware for the military, but, not American infrastructure. THAT IS POLITICAL SPENDING. That is illegal. Spending on politics out of the federal budget is grossly unethical.
Domestic militarized police forces is simply changing personnel.
The militarized USA domestic police was possible because of irresponsible military spending. The USA military is giving away armored vehicles. Giving them away. There should be a law stating, "While the USA military is not allowed to attack Americans domestically, that includes the distribution of military munitions and equipment to civilian law enforcement.
The defined responsibility of the USA military is a defense force. The USA military cannot attack citizens. That constitutional reality enters into the deaths of radicalized Americans no longer living in the USA. But, that isn't the point. The point is, "Why is it domestic police forces are militarized?" That is simply changing personnel. The programs providing military equipment to domestic police forces is unconstitutional.
August 19, 2014
By Amy Swanson
My hometown is an idyllic place, (click here) a sleepy town of 3,500 set among the cornfields of Story County, Iowa. When I recently drove through it on a hot summer day, the only noises were insects buzzing above cornfields, and distant splashes and screams of delight from the public pool. Kids still ride their bikes by themselves to the pool in the summer and carry their skates down to the pond in the winter. They dress up in little Scandinavian outfits and dance in the street at our yearly town festival....
It’s hard to imagine what kind of dystopian turn of events would have to occur in sleepy Story County in order to make use of such a vehicle. “We should be protected from anything that would be thrown against it,” Story County Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald commented about his MRAP, apparently without irony. He did not bring up its efficacy in the event of a zombie apocalypse. The police chief of Keene, a small town in New Hampshire, gave a similarly unimpressive explanation for his department’s purchase of a $286,000 BearCat armored personnel-carrier. He said it would be used to patrol Keene’s “Pumpkin Festival and other dangerous situations,” according to The Economist....
The New Zealand government is reporting budget surpluses.
The New Zealand government practices economic investment that has tax returns producing a surplus. People are working and paying taxes. This model works. It secures the economic engine of the middle class.
The government also practices sound economic budgets. That is not necessarily a conservative achievement.
May 10, 2016
...The operating balance (click here) before gains and losses (obegal) was a surplus $167 million in the nine months ended March 31, compared with a forecast deficit of exactly the same amount, $167 million, in the half-year economic and fiscal update, the government's financial statements show.
Finance Minister Bill English is scheduled to release his eighth budget on May 26 and based on the Treasury's forecasts back in December, is facing an obegal deficit of $400 million in the year ending June 30.
The Treasury had previously projected a surplus of $200 million, but with little inflation, income tax, GST and resident withholding tax are down against historical trends. Still the better-than-forecast nine-month figures mark the third straight month that the cumulative data has exceeded expectations.
"Budget 2016 will reflect this government's continued commitment to responsible fiscal management," said English in a statement accompanying the Crown accounts release. "At the same time, it will build on the good progress we've made over the previous seven Budgets, with further investment in a growing economy and public services."...
Fiscal responsibility is about moral spending, but, with enough income to provide the economic governance to match.
The government also practices sound economic budgets. That is not necessarily a conservative achievement.
May 10, 2016
...The operating balance (click here) before gains and losses (obegal) was a surplus $167 million in the nine months ended March 31, compared with a forecast deficit of exactly the same amount, $167 million, in the half-year economic and fiscal update, the government's financial statements show.
Finance Minister Bill English is scheduled to release his eighth budget on May 26 and based on the Treasury's forecasts back in December, is facing an obegal deficit of $400 million in the year ending June 30.
The Treasury had previously projected a surplus of $200 million, but with little inflation, income tax, GST and resident withholding tax are down against historical trends. Still the better-than-forecast nine-month figures mark the third straight month that the cumulative data has exceeded expectations.
"Budget 2016 will reflect this government's continued commitment to responsible fiscal management," said English in a statement accompanying the Crown accounts release. "At the same time, it will build on the good progress we've made over the previous seven Budgets, with further investment in a growing economy and public services."...
Fiscal responsibility is about moral spending, but, with enough income to provide the economic governance to match.
The climate crisis is creating refugees that will last a very long time.
By AFP, Debra Killalea
They are the tiny islands that have literally disappeared. (click here)
Five islands in the Pacific Ocean existed as late as 2014; fast forward two years and they are nowhere to be seen.
A further six reef islands are also facing the same fate, in a disturbing warning to the world's scientists and other low-lying nations.
An alarming new study, published in Environmental Research Letters,reveals rising sea levels and coastal erosion are to blame for the predicament.
Scientists warn the findings could provide valuable insights for future research.
"At least 11 islands across the northern Solomon Islands have either totally disappeared over recent decades or are currently experiencing severe erosion," the study confirms....
Earth is flooding. Maps are changing.
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