Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Sentenced to Die Behind Bars for What?
November 16th, 2013Profits. Via: ACLU: For 3,278 people, it was nonviolent offenses like stealing a $159 jacket or serving as a middleman in the sale of $10 of marijuana. An estimated 65% of them are Black. Many of them were struggling with mental illness, drug dependency or financial desperation when they committed their crimes. None of them […]
CIA Collecting Data on International Money Transfers
November 14th, 2013Via: New York Times: The Central Intelligence Agency is secretly collecting bulk records of international money transfers handled by companies like Western Union — including transactions into and out of the United States — under the same law that the National Security Agency uses for its huge database of Americans’ phone records, according to current […]
Obamacare Wreck
November 14th, 2013Wow. Via: Reuters: President Barack Obama on Thursday tried to ease the biggest crisis of his presidency, acknowledging missteps with his signature healthcare law and announcing a plan to help those seeing their current health plans canceled because of it. Obama, trying to limit the political damage to his presidency and fellow Democrats, said health […]
Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement
November 13th, 2013Via: WikiLeaks: Today, 13 November 2013, WikiLeaks released the secret negotiated draft text for the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. The TPP is the largest-ever economic treaty, encompassing nations representing more than 40 per cent of the world’s GDP. The WikiLeaks release of the text comes ahead of the decisive TPP Chief […]
Americans 34 Times More Interested In Buying Guns Than Obamacare
November 13th, 2013Via: Zerohedge:
Sweden Closes Four Prisons as Number of Inmates Plummets
November 12th, 2013Wikipedia: United States Incarceration Rate: The incarceration rate in the United States of America is the highest in the world today. As of 2009, the incarceration rate was 743 per 100,000 of national population (0.743%). In comparison, Russia had the second highest, at 577 per 100,000, Canada was 123rd in the world at 117 per […]
State Obamacare Exchanges Enroll Only 3 Percent of Target
November 12th, 2013Via: Reuters: President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform has reached only about 3 percent of its enrollment target for 2014 in 12 U.S. states where new online health insurance marketplaces are mostly working smoothly, a report released on Monday said. States with functioning exchanges have signed up 49,100 people compared with the 1.4 million people expected […]
NYC Food Bank Head: 40% of Veterans Need Food Assistance
November 11th, 2013Via: CBS: “On this Veterans Day, when we’re waving our flags — I need every New Yorker to know — 40 percent of New York City veterans are relying on soup kitchens and pantries,” Purvis said. That amounts to 95,000 people. “That is not a guesstimate; that is a fact,” she said.
Amazon and U.S. Postal Service Beginning Sunday Deliveries in Los Angeles and New York City
November 10th, 2013Compare and contrast: Most people in NZ will only receive mail three days per week starting in 2015. Via: Los Angeles Times: The postal service will deliver Amazon packages on Sundays in the L.A. and New York metropolitan areas at no extra charge starting this week. The service will expand to other cities next year. […]
International Construction Firm Balfour Beatty Considering Drone Workers
November 10th, 2013Via: Technology Advice: Most people associate drones with military and counter-terrorism programs, but Balfour Beatty CIO Danny Reeves wants to use them for a rather different purpose. Speaking at the Fujitsu Forum, he told Techworld that unmanned aerial vehicles could be used to build walls, and improve project efficiency. Balfour Beatty is a international construction […]
