Friday, January 31, 2014
Mint The Coin
Resignation Time
The former Port Authority official who personally oversaw the lane closings on the George Washington Bridge in the scandal now swirling around Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said on Friday that the governor knew about the lane closings when they were happening, and that he had the evidence to prove it.
Blogs Still Have Magic Powers
Go Away
Classy
The Poors And The Blahs
Rural poverty is largely invisible from our media, giving the rural poor a bit of reason to maybe feel like they're a ignored. It doesn't matter how much government aid they actually get, their invisibility gives them reason to believe that they're somehow missing out on the secret welfare system that the urban blahs get.
There's some tiny bit of truth in that in many cities there's a bit more of a comprehensive social service system than one finds in rural areas, but it isn't really as if anyone's getting big checks sent to them.
Are There No Prisons?
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Not Trade
For some reason including labor standards in such agreements is communist, but including absurd intellectual property protections is Freedom Reagan Squared. Because.
If It's Sunday...
They'd probably get half of the way there if every time they thought "hey, how about we invite John McCain on" they would call a woman instead.
ME
Dead Hamster
Think Of The Children
But cafeteria workers weren’t able to see which children owed money until they had already received lunches, Olsen explained.
The workers then took those lunches from the students and threw them away, he said, because once food is served to one student it can’t be served to another.
The Right To Not Be Deported Ever
It's repugnant, but so is the current system.
It's Kind Of A Weird System
Housing is expensive for two reasons. One, demand is high so implicit land prices are high. Two, construction costs are high. The latter is going to be more true if they are building "luxury" units, if they are building only large units, if various amenities like parking are bundled with the units, etc.
Anyway, the point I'm getting at is that one way to force developers to build more affordable housing is to force them to build more "worse" housing. Smaller units, no hot tubs, fewer bundled amenities, etc. Or, in some cases, simply *let* them build worse housing.
Capitalism
From a slideshow summarizing the argument (pdf):
(h/t Digby)
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
MyRA
Bi-Level
The local train map.
Not Covered By The Gas Tax
Not saying it's bad expenditures, just saying it's expensive.
Rescue Me Big Daddy
I'm not sure what exactly prompted that CNN chyron, but the mayor's getting completely grilled on how he failed to wave his magic wand and clear the streets. I have no idea if there's anything that could have realistically been done to improve the situation, but it's amusing that when things go wrong suddenly Big Government is supposed to fix everything. Right after they cut your taxes.
Think Small
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
The Unemployed Are Stupid Fucking Losers
"My Fellow Americans, Shit Is Fucked Up And Bullshit"
Baby Stepping
WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to sign an executive order requiring that janitors, construction workers and others working for federal contractors be paid at least $10.10 an hour, using his own power to enact a more limited version of a policy that he has yet to push through Congress.
Oh Ricky
Since he dropped out in 2012, Santorum has been laying the groundwork for another run. His advocacy group provides him a platform to raise money, gather email addresses and promote conservative policy causes. He visits Iowa frequently. The exposure from his last campaign allows Santorum to charge a premium for speeches to organizations that aides say has been lucrative. He temporarily penned a weekly column for the conservative website World Net Daily, which ended when he was brought on to lead a production company called EchoLight Studios in June 2013 that produces family-friendly movies.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Oh Crap I Thought I Was Kidding
But Mr. Obama’s promise zones, which are part of the larger agenda to fight inequality and poverty that he plans to unveil Tuesday night during his State of the Union speech, are just the latest version of an old idea: the politically popular enterprise zone.
I really thought I was just making a joke.
Go See A Sitcom Taping
Anyway, the point isn't that sitcoms are awesome, the point is that seeing one being filmed live is actually pretty fascinating. It probably takes 3 hours plus to get 22 minutes in the can. The filming session I saw ran too long and they eventually kicked us out. There's an emcee/comedian and a house band to try to keep the audience energy level up. They do want you to laugh. It is a live theater production, but they do multiple takes for various reasons (including casts flubs of course). If a joke falls flat, the writers try to come up with a new one and they see how well that works. Just an interesting process.
Powerless
Transfer Fees Are Evil
The Eternal Suffering Of The Not Quite Rich Enough
Connections
Like Mayor Nutter in his 2007 campaign, Johnson emphasized in an interview that he is a public-school parent. But the school he refers to is the K-8 Penn Alexander School, one of the district's most prestigious schools. It is also supposed to serve only students who live in West Philadelphia's Spruce Hill section.
The pastor lives in Overbrook, about four miles outside Penn Alexander's catchment area.
Stop Shoving Things Down The Throats Of Christians
Because they oppose it because (?????)
Think Of The Women And Children
As I've said several times, never listen to people who only talk about "humanitarian interventions" when those interventions only ever involve blowing people up. Blowing people up is actually quite expensive, and oddly unlikely to to help them all that much. There are lots of "humanitarian interventions" that we could think about which don't involve blowing people up, but we don't often talk about those.
CoT: Galactic Ridiculousness
Also McJoan and RJ Eskow
From the translation:
Gregory: welcome Mr Chertoff –
how can we get Ed Snowden back to America?
Chertoff: how the hell should I know Fluffy?
Gregory: is it irresponsible to call him a spy?
Chertoff: well now that depends
on if he is a spy
Gregory: hmmm interesting point
Gregory: some people like Snowden
and some don't
Chertoff: I don't like him and I don't like you
Gregory: his lawyers say he's
been punished enough
Chertoff: he's free in Russia and
regaling the world – he's not being punished
Gregory: can he get a fair trial?
Chertoff: of course he can
Gregory: I suppose so
Chertoff: but he would be found guilty
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Please Come Near My Property So I Can Kill You
(via)
Other People Have Funny Traditions
What's It All About Then
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Free Slut Pills
Your Family
Friday, January 24, 2014
This Won't End Well
Boondoggle
At best it's just a colossal waste of money. At best.
Duh
Heckuva Job
A year after an embarrassing trading blowup led to millions of dollars being docked from Jamie Dimon’s paycheck, the chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase is getting a raise.
Open Presser
The "exile" thing doesn't work so well here in the future.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Information Is Cheap
Increasing frequency costs a lot of money, money I would of course spend if I were your benevolent transit overlord. Transit apps are cheap.
How To Run The Secret Surveillance State
The company that conducted a background investigation on the contractor Edward J. Snowden fraudulently signed off on hundreds of thousands of incomplete security checks in recent years, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
The government said the company, U.S. Investigations Services, defrauded the government of millions of dollars by submitting more than 650,000 investigations that had not been completed. The government uses those reports to help make hiring decisions and decide who gets access to national security secrets.
But, you know, trust them!
Concerns And The Great Moderation
By doing all of this the party ushered in the great Glorious Age of Democrats, otherwise known as the election of Bill Clinton, which was followed by a Republican takeover of the House, their frequent control of the Senate, the destruction of the welfare system, the election of George W. Bush, some lovely little wars, and out of control banksters that destroyed the economy and got rich doing it. Yay great moderation.
Obviously that isn't quite the story they like to tell themselves, but hopefully you get the point. Anyway the real point is that while the narrative is always about how the Dems turned their backs on the white working class, during the grand "rescue the party from the hippies" period, it isn't as if they suddenly did a bunch of stuff to help these people. They mostly just tried to convince them that they love guns and war and don't much like those abortion sluts either. Also, too, don't worry white working class, we aren't going to do anything to help you but we aren't going to help the blah people either.
If you want to argue that this was a tremendously successful electoral strategy, the only success you can really point to is President Bill Clinton.
But, yes, the way to win the hearts of voters is to actually do stuff that helps them. Populism is a bad word which suggests that government exists to help people other than the 1%, who have the money spigot aimed right at their gobs constantly, but yay populism.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Possible Baby Steps
Don't Worry DOT, We'll Still Have Plenty Of Roads To Spend Money On
How About 3 Responses?
If ever there is a Republican president again, they'll probably carry on that tradition, and leave out the Democratic response entirely.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Anthropology
For any new restaurant in Philly, Kulp says the trick is creating "something that isn't going to intimidate people or make them feel like they're risking their money because it's so out of touch with what they might anticipate."
But he says there's still a bigger mental divide between New York and Philadelphia than there is an actual geographical divide: "People in New York just don't go to Philadelphia," he says. "But if it didn't work out down here, I figure I'd take the hour-and-fifteen-minute train ride. Once I realized how close Philadelphia is, it's not like you can never go back."
Because They Want To
Grand Old Police Blotter
Former Va. [governor] Bob McDonnell, his wife Maureen, both indicted on federal corruption charges in Richmond.
2.9 Cheers For Earmarks
Probation
Our criminal justice system is a bit like that
A former Halliburton manager was sentenced Tuesday to one year of probation for destroying evidence in the aftermath of BP's massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Snow 2
What Now For Cuomo
SNOW
CoT: Targets of Suspicion
Also, KagroX and Allison Kilkenny on Moral Mondays and the West Virginia chemical spill.
Monday, January 20, 2014
If You Want To Rent One Half Of Your Side Of The Block It Will Cost You $260 Per Year
And Inflation
I'm sure the typical Eschaton reader can see the problem with this.
(ht. r. porrofatto)
Your Hatred Of Women And Belief In Their Inferiority Makes You So Very Attractive
Sure plenty of dudes who don't regularly express that attitude actually hold it, including some self-described liberal dudes, but most have the sense enough not to broadcast it. I suppose I can appreciate the honesty of the vocal haters, but am still unclear on what they're trying to achieve.
Sarah Palin Said Something Stupid On The Internets Again
Our Village press, always wrong about everything.
It Has To Have A Bit Of Stupid
Derailed
A CSX train carrying crude oil and sand derailed on a bridge over the Schuylkill River in University City overnight.
...
The two-locomotive, 101-freight-car train was traveling from Chicago to Philadelphia, according to CSX. Seven freight cars -- six containing crude oil and one containing sand -- derailed, the company said.
What Would Martin Luther King Have Thought Of Richard Sherman
Morning Thread
Most of the time, national news happens out loud: at news conferences, on the floor of Congress, in splashy indictments or court rulings. But sometimes, the most important news starts somewhere more interesting, and it has to be dug up. Our democracy depends on local journalism, whether it’s a beat reporter slogging through yet another underattended local commission meeting, or a state political reporter with enough of an ear to the ground to know where the governor might be when he isn’t where he says he is, or a traffic columnist who’s nobody’s fool.
It’s annoying to pay for information — I know. But if you don’t subscribe to your local paper or pony up to get behind its online paywall, who’s going to pay reporters to cover the news where you live? A free press isn’t that kind of “free.” An accountable democracy doesn’t work without real information, gathered from the ground up, about people in power, everywhere. Be inspired by the beleaguered but unintimidated reporters of Chris Christie’s New Jersey: Whatever your partisan affiliation, or lack thereof, subscribe to your local paper today. It’s an act of civic virtue.
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Affirmative Action For Rich People
Your Buddy In The White House
51
Sen. Dianne Feinstein: "We cannot let Israel determine when and where the United States goes to war."
and asks whether any of the opponents have read their sanctions bill.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
We Did Offer To Bomb The Shit Out Of Them
Britain must accept its “shared responsibility” for Syria’s refugees and join a UN scheme to welcome those fleeing the conflict, a coalition of 25 aid agencies and charities tells David Cameron.
There are people who are genuinely interested in humanitarian intervention, it's just that those interventions involve actually helping people. The others just want to blow people up. Yes it would be immensely complicated and expensive to relocate large numbers of refugees. It would also be immensely complicated and expensive to blow people up in the name of helping them. Also, too, not help them.
Hook
Two senior members of Gov. Chris Christie’s administration warned a New Jersey mayor earlier this year that her town would be starved of hurricane relief money unless she approved a lucrative redevelopment plan favored by the governor, according to the mayor and emails and personal notes she shared with msnbc.
The mayor, Dawn Zimmer, hasn’t approved the project, but she did request $127 million in hurricane relief for her city of Hoboken – 80% of which was underwater after Sandy hit in October 2012. What she got was $142,000 to defray the cost of a single back-up generator plus an additional $200,000 in recovery grants.
Representative government
Today I Briefed Congress on the NSAThis morning I spent an hour in a closed room with six Members of Congress: Rep. Lofgren, Rep. Sensenbrenner, Rep. Scott, Rep. Goodlate, Rep Thompson, and Rep. Amash. No staffers, no public: just them. Lofgren asked me to brief her and a few Representatives on the NSA. She said that the NSA wasn't forthcoming about their activities, and they wanted me -- as someone with access to the Snowden documents -- to explain to them what the NSA was doing. Of course I'm not going to give details on the meeting, except to say that it was candid and interesting. And that it's extremely freaky that Congress has such a difficult time getting information out of the NSA that they have to ask me. I really want oversight to work better in this country.
Trust us
NYT:
“The most interesting part of this speech was not how the president weighed individual privacy against the N.S.A.,” said Fred H. Cate, the director of the Center of Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University, “but that he said little about what to do about the agency’s practice of vacuuming up everything it can get its hands on.”emptywheel:
(O)ur overreach is one thing that is contributing to the weakening of our credibility and therefore our hegemonic position.
It's hard to talk to people who aren't following this.
Friday, January 17, 2014
City Gone Mad
That's changed.
Stupid Rich Guy Is Really Clueless About Politics
Everybody Thinks They Rule The World
Not quite sure who really does run the country, but it probably isn't quite the democracy it's supposed to be.
The REAL ISSUE and the REAL SOLUTION
Probably should just cut taxes on rich people and hope for the best.
Some Good News
HARRISBURG, Pa. - January 17, 2014 (WPVI) -- A state judge has struck down the law requiring Pennsylvania's voters to show photo identification at the polls
Thursday, January 16, 2014
The Fine Whine
Area People Really Upset About Having To Pay 10 Cents Per Day To Park
It's The Onion, But...
In a Gallup poll conducted this month, 72 percent of respondents agreed that even though the health care system had consistently screwed them over in the old days, at least they had known exactly where they stood. In addition, 65 percent said that while the most expensive illnesses were effectively a death sentence back then, there had been a certain peace of mind in knowing that if you ever got that sick, you would soon be gone and not have to worry about the hospital bills.
Furthermore, 89 percent of Americans confirmed they had taken some small solace in the fact that if they needed money for a life-saving operation, they could always tape a photocopied image of themselves to a collection jar, place it in a local supermarket checkout line, and hope for the best.
Nice Work
But It's Fine For Everybody Else
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- State health officials late Wednesday advised pregnant women who get their water from West Virginia American Water's Charleston-based system to drink only bottled water until levels of the chemical "Crude MCHM" are not detected at any level.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Up
A Company From Philadelphia Can't Possibly Buy A Company From New York
Five world-renowned architects competed and Lord Norman Foster, who designed the 1,214-feet long London Millennium Footbridge, prevailed.
Roberts says, the 1.5 million-square-foot mixed-use property will aim for LEED Platinum certification - an ambitious undertaking for such a large building.
Stop Killing Pedestrians
Yes, like cyclists, pedestrians sometimes behave badly, but they don't have a ton+ of metal surrounding them. Try not to kill them.
If Only There Were Some Shovel Ready Projects
The water main broke near Fifth Avenue and 13th Street around 12:15 a.m., the city said. It took hours to shut off the right pipes, find the pipe that had burst and bring the flooding under control.
The source of the problem was a section of 36-inch cast iron pipe dating back to 1877, said a spokesman for the city Department of Environmental Protection.
The Most Hilarious Sentence Ever Written
Henry is one of the wisest old men of Washington, a Villager in good standing.
Cajole
GMO
First off there's nothing inherently dangerous or unnatural about genetic modification. Several people pointed out, correctly, that it's just a faster way to practice husbandry than traditional methods. There's nothing more unnatural than a seedless orange or a turkey that is too fat to fuck. But it's also reasonable for people to be concerned that this sort of rapid change might have unforeseen health consequences. Gimlet and ql noted dairy farmers use of bovine hormones, which studies indicate may have unexpected health effects.
Second, there's confusion over labeling and FDA regulation. The current (thanks, O!) FDA position is that it is generally misleading to label a product GMO-free, and that ignorant consumers are easily confused:
The FDA doesn't generally permit GMO labeling. Most people unhappy about the absence of labels want producers to be allowed to label, not be required to do so. ql referred to a similar battle fought in New York over bovine hormone labeling. Same argument--stupid consumers need to be protected from themselves, so must be left uninformed.
Most, if not all, cultivated food crops have been genetically modified. Data indicate that consumers do not have a good understanding that essentially all food crops have been genetically modified and that bioengineering technology is only one of a number of technologies used to genetically modify crops. Thus, while it is accurate to say that a bioengineered food was "genetically modified," it likely would be inaccurate to state that a food that had not been produced using biotechnology was "not genetically modified" without clearly providing a context so that the consumer can understand that the statement applies to bioengineering.
My (parenthetical) point yesterday was that many people prefer to avoid GMO products even if they do not have safety concerns, and these people would like to know what they're buying. GMO labeling is not solely about safety. And, in any case, you'd expect free market advocates to oppose this kind of restrictive policy (as several people remarked).
But I'm still irked that I've never seem a headline regarding climate. "A Global Race Against Time Threatened By Ignorance." "Echoing the Tobacco Wars, Energy Industry Impedes Climate Progress." Those you don't see.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
How Do These Things Happen
And then we'll wonder why all these people didn't take "personal responsibility" and save for their retirement.
And Oklahoma
I sort of get anti-choice people. Not that I agree with them, and I think movement anti-choice leaders aren't just anti-choice but anti-women and anti-contraception and generally anti-unapproved fucking by women, but I get that people can be against abortion. But the anti-same sex marriage thing...just give it up already. Why are people fighting it? It's just so weird.
You'll Be Sure To Get a Job When You're Homeless And Starving
Boondoggle
That isn't the only issue, of course, but it serves to highlight that we're lighting a bunch of money on fire to spy on ourselves for no good reason. There are, probably, some bad reasons.
Na Ga Ha Pen
Paranoia
NYT: A Lonely Quest for Facts on Genetically Modified Crops
BezoPo: General Mills bows to consumer paranoia, makes GMO-free Cheerios
I've never seen an equivalent climate change headline, or, FTM, story.
(Leaving aside all the reasons other than demonstrable danger to your health for not wanting to buy GMO products. Also leaving aside that people who don't want to buy GMOs are asking for bans because they've been unable to get fucking labels.)
Monday, January 13, 2014
Spanglish
Moderates
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Just What Will The Consequences Be
I know I've already asked this today, but it's going to scary fun to find out!
Feminized
And The Man Wrote The Book On It!
Promise Not To Be A HOOOOAAAAARRR
Gwendolyn Boyd, the new president of Alabama State University, signed a contract with the school’s trustees that forbids her from allowing a lover to “cohabitate” with her in the presidential home being provided to her by the historically black university in Montgomery.
Consequences
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Frustration is mounting for many of the 300,000 West Virginia residents who've gone three days without clean tap water.
Can't mess with their Freedom after all.
Too Many Gun Nuts
Gun Nut Logic
WICHITA, Kan. — Reasoning that more guns mean greater safety, Kansas lawmakers voted last year to require cities and counties to make public buildings accessible to people legally carrying concealed weapons.
But for communities that remained wary of such open access to city halls, libraries, museums and courthouses, the Legislature provided an exemption: Guns can be banned as long as local governments pay for protections like metal detectors and security guards, ensuring the safety of those they have disarmed.
TPP
The biggest news of the week wasn't the discovery that Christie has a staff populated by vindictive bullies. It was the introduction of fast track for the TransPacific Partnership agreement. It's not clear whether Congress or their staffs will be allowed to read the agreement (no reason to; they can't amend it under the legislation.), but they are nonetheless expected to vote for it.
The bi-partisan consensus among the citizenry should be pretty strong opposition, from what's leaked out of the classified negotiations. Tea partyists should object to turning domestic policy over to unelected foreign officials. The Democratic wing should object to the internationalization of US intellectual property law, as well as losing control of energy and environmental regulation.
(video via Gaius Publius)
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Overdue thread
3 Billion Here...
Saturday Crass Commercialism
And Hopefully Spend An Eternity In Hell
Years after he took money to send them to privately run juvenile detention centers, a former Luzerne County Court judge must now pay former detainees back for violating their civil rights, a federal judge in Wilkes-Barre has ruled.
In an opinion released Thursday, U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo cleared the way for about 2,500 plaintiffs to collect damages from Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., one of two former judges convicted in the "kids for cash" corruption scandal.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Everybody Knows
And In More Important News
Fee Fees
Governor Shouts At Teachers
Do Not Wash Clothes
Morning Thread
Thursday, January 09, 2014
Thursday Evening
Prediction: decent, but not nearly good enough. And on and on.
Sweet Land Of Liberty
Brown also proposed spending $500 million to build more prisons and local jails, and said he’d ask a panel of federal judges to grant a two-year extension to their deadline for California to reduce its inmate overcrowding.
Or, maybe, just let some people go.
Um, Good?
What Else Did They Do
What struck me about the emails was the obvious culture of retribution. It was just understood what had to be done.
Wednesday, January 08, 2014
New York Laughs At Your Puny Transit System
Unless I missed it no one came through with my request yesterday (I tried to find it myself and failed, I wouldn't have asked otherwise).
So, in pieces...we have... the LIRR.
The Metro North.
The mostly New York serving NJT:
The PATH trains:
And, of course, the subway system itself.
That doesn't include the regional amtrak stations or the Staten Island railway.
Overground
Petty Vindictive People
Would it be irresponsible to speculate? It would be irresponsible not to.
Ergo Was He Ere He Saw Argo
Vindictive
- There was no doubt Christie would win this race.
- This was revenge against the mayor of Fort Lee for failing to endorse Christie.
- The mayor of Fort Lee is a Democrat.
- Christie won a majority of votes in Fort Lee.
- Traffic jams impact first responders
Monsters
In one exchange of text messages on the second day of the lane closures, Wildstein alludes to messages the Fort Lee mayor had left complaining that school buses were having trouble getting through the traffic.
“Is it wrong that I’m smiling,” the recipient of the text message responded to Wildstein. The person’s identity is not clear because the documents are partially redacted for unknown reasons.
“No,” Wildstein wrote in response.
“I feel badly about the kids,” the person replied to Wildstein. “I guess.”
“They are the children of Buono voters,” Wildstein wrote, making a reference to Barbara Buono, the Democratic candidate for governor, who lost to Christie in a landslide in November.
Governor Fucks With People's Lives For Petty Political Revenge
“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Bridget Anne Kelly, one of three deputies on Christie’s senior staff, wrote to David Wildstein, a top Christie executive at the Port Authority, on Aug. 13, about three weeks before the closures. Wildstein, the official who ordered the closures and who resigned last month amid the escalating scandal, wrote back: “Got it.”
Cats is Weird
Morning Thread
In an interview published by The Daily Camera on Monday, Roni revealed for the first time that her disagreement with the school was over a practice of stamping children’s hands if they did not have enough money in their account to pay for lunch or even if they were eligible for free lunches.
Tuesday, January 07, 2014
If Only We'd Had Infinite Money, Lives, And Time
When Urban Hellholes Are No longer Hellholes
Governor Yells At People
Politico Stupid Person Spouts Offensive Gibberish
So the suggestion that she's America's foremost public intellectual is so ridiculous that it undermines the intellectual credibility of the person suggesting it. In fact, she is the America's foremost public intellectual which proves we live in Idiocracy. But, also, too, she's a great scholar and great host.
I actually have no real opinions about Melissa Harris-Perry. My cable news diet has been severely reduced, I have no knowledge of or opinion about her scholarship, and only have a vague idea what her CV is. But she's a Princeton professor with a cable news hosting job, which probably covers both "intellectual" and "public" pretty damn well. I tend to put some emphasis on the public part of public intellectual, as there are lots of smartypants professor types out there, but just not many who manage to create a public platform for themselves so that they can actually reach the public.
Obviously it's a prize no one can really one as there's no set criteria, but it certainly isn't a ridiculous suggestion.
Still Too Many, But...
PHILADELPHIA With Philadelphia on a pace to record a modern low for homicides in 2013, city officials pleaded with New Year's revelers to ring in 2014 without the celebratory gunfire that has marred previous holidays and changed lives.
With the countdown to the new year in its final hours, the homicide total was 246, lower than any annual total since 1967.
Vendor
MIAMI — Three months after the disastrous rollout of a new $63 million website for unemployment claims, Florida is hiring hundreds of employees to deal with technical problems that left tens of thousands of people without their checks while penalties mount against the vendor who set up the site.
Monday, January 06, 2014
Job Bank
A public sector job program should be the least controversial; there is always something productive that can be done, from replacing water mains to refitting high school science labs. Or, my favorite, pulling optical fiber into post offices. Right now, such a program would (still) be a no brainer--converting cheap money into useful physical social capital while putting people and idle private capital to work can only move the economy to a higher long run growth path.
Which we all agree is a good thing, right?
Makers And Takers
The nearly bankrupt Yankee Stadium garage company could receive new taxpayer subsidies of more than $200 million if a financial bailout plan approved last month by the Bloomberg administration goes through, the Daily News has learned.
Pedestrian Crush
Anecdotes
Criminal Justice Thread
And since I've been having an Everly Brothers festival in my room, here's one for Phil.
Water
Really Don't Get It
Do The Wrong Thing
Sunday, January 05, 2014
Sunday, Sunday
Who Paid The Piper
In 2013, the State Department, which has more than 400,000 likes and was recently most popular in Cairo, said it would stop buying Facebook fans after its inspector general criticized the agency for spending $630,000 to boost the numbers.
In one case, its fan tally rose from about 10,000 to more than 2.5 million.