Archive for the 'Economy' Category
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 […]
U.S. Banks to Send Checks for $3.6 Billion in Foreclosure Settlement
May 2nd, 2013Via: AP: The nation’s largest banks will begin sending payments this week to millions of Americans who may have been wrongfully foreclosed on during the housing crisis. A total of $3.6 billion in cash will be distributed to 4.2 million borrowers who lost their homes or were at risk of foreclosure, the Federal Reserve and […]
Fed Will Maintain $85 Billion a Month Asset Purchasing Program
May 2nd, 2013In other news: Foreigners now hold more than $13 trillion in American securities, a record set as the U.S. seeks to assert itself as the safest port in troubled global waters. China and Japan combined owned more than $3.4 trillion, including $2.4 trillion in debt, a number that has grown since the data set was […]
‘Obamacare’ Poll Finds 42% of Americans Unaware It’s Law
May 1st, 2013Via: ABC: A new poll finds that many Americans are confused about the health care overhaul legislation commonly called “Obamacare.” The Kaiser Family Foundation released results of a non-partisan study today finding more than 40 percent did not even know the law was in place. “Four in ten Americans (42%) are unaware that the ACA […]
