Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Nordstrom Using Smart Phones To Track Customer Movements
May 8th, 2013WiFi Auto Turn Off Via: CBS: Nordstrom says it wants to serve you better, so it’s tracking your movements through their stores. The CBS 11 I-Team has learned the retailer is using software to track how much time you spend in specific departments within the store. The technology is being used in 17 Nordstrom and […]
Your Body Is a Corporate Test Tube
May 8th, 2013Via: Tom Dispatch: A hidden epidemic is poisoning America. The toxins are in the air we breathe and the water we drink, in the walls of our homes and the furniture within them. We can’t escape it in our cars. It’s in cities and suburbs. It afflicts rich and poor, young and old. And there’s […]
Government Accessing Data on Individuals Stored by Corporations
May 8th, 2013Via: The Atlantic: Our government collects a lot of information about us. Tax records, legal records, license records, records of government services received– it’s all in databases that are increasingly linked and correlated. Still, there’s a lot of personal information the government can’t collect. Either they’re prohibited by law from asking without probable cause and […]
Alabama School to Jail Program
May 8th, 2013Via: Courthouse News Service: After a diabetic high school student fell asleep in study hall, the school police officer slammed her face into a filing cabinet, arrested her and took her to jail, she claims in court. Tieshka Avery claims she was so violently abused that she vomited in the police car. And all because […]
Alex Rovt, The Fertilizer Baron Of Manhattan
May 6th, 2013This is from 2012, but it’s a keeper. Would someone out there please email this story to Joel and Ethan Coen? This could make Miller’s Crossing look like Sunday School. Via: Bloomberg: Everyone looking to unload overleveraged or overpriced property, another broker who dealt with Rovt told me, is now chasing a stereotype: the Ukrainian […]
German Euro Founder Calls For ‘Catastrophic’ Currency To Be Broken Up
May 6th, 2013Imagine what would happen if a neo-Deutsche Mark suddenly appeared on the scene. The value of that thing vs. every other currency would balloon, making German exports unaffordable in most other places. No matter how you slice it, the situation is a shit sandwich. Via: Telegraph: Oskar Lafontaine, the German finance minister who launched the […]
U.S. Judge Receives 28-Year Jail Term for His Role in Private Prison Kids-for-Cash Scheme
May 5th, 2013Via: Independent: An American judge known for his harsh and autocratic courtroom manner was jailed for 28 years for conspiring with private prisons to hand young offenders maximum sentences in return for kickbacks amounting to millions of dollars. Mark Ciavarella Jnr was ordered to pay $1.2m (£770,000) in restitution after he was found to be […]
Banana Republic: Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Husband Wins CA Rail Contract
May 5th, 2013Via: California Political Review: U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein’s husband Richard Blum won the first-phase construction contract for California’s high-speed rail. I’m shocked, shocked I tell you. If I didn’t witness the insanity and corruption in politics every day, I wouldn’t have believed this. “The Perini-Zachary-Parsons bid was the lowest received from the five consortia participating […]
Texas: Company Collects Half Billion Dollars in Bogus Taxes from Customers
May 5th, 2013Via: CBS: CBS 11’s I-Team has obtained a study that says Oncor, the giant electric utility company in North Texas, is collecting hundreds of millions of dollars from customers for federal taxes that don’t exist. “Since 2008, they have collected $500 million for the purpose of paying taxes on their income,” said Randy Moravec, executive […]
‘Counterinsurgency Methods Used to Fight Gang Crime’
May 3rd, 2013Via: CBS: Massachusetts State Trooper Mike Cutone realized that the methods of the insurgents he combated as a Green Beret in Iraq were similar to those used by the Springfield gangs. “Insurgents and gang members both want to operate in a failed area,” he tells Stahl, referring to the breakdown in cooperation between the citizens […]
