Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Former U.S. Official Arrested on Cocaine Smuggling Charges
September 6th, 2009Via: AP: A former high-ranking US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who was stationed in Mexico before retiring in 2007 has been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. … Authorities say Cramer helped a large-scale drug trafficking organisation move cocaine into the United States, according to a criminal complaint made […]
FDIC Friday: Five More Banks Go Down
September 5th, 2009Via: Bloomberg: Lenders in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Arizona collapsed, pushing the number of bank failures to 89 this year amid continuing fallout from the worst economic slump since the Great Depression. Illinois lenders InBank of Oak Forest and Platinum Community Bank of Rolling Meadows; Vantus Bank of Sioux City, Iowa; First Bank of Kansas […]
China: Six-Year-Old Aspires to Become a Corrupt Communist Party Official
September 4th, 2009She’ll go far. Via: Independent Online: A six-year-old girl has become a media darling in China on her first day of school by expressing her aspiration to become a “corrupt official” when she grows up, state media said on Friday. The young student stated her aspirations in a televised interview that was posted on a […]
Natural Gas Dips to Lowest Since March 2002 on Inventory Gain
September 4th, 2009Via: Bloomberg: Natural gas futures fell in New York to the lowest level since March 2002 after a government report showed stockpiles expanded more than average to a record for this time of year. Supplies rose 65 billion cubic feet in the week ended Aug. 28 to 3.323 trillion cubic feet, the Energy Department said. […]
Pot Pirates
September 4th, 2009Via: CNN: Drug traffickers are planting millions of marijuana plants on U.S. public lands ever closer to tourist sites, guarding their plots with heavy weaponry, federal authorities say. … Though traffickers have been planting on public lands for years, figures from the U.S. Forest Service indicate the sheer volume of marijuana plants on public land […]
One in Nine Americans Receiving Food Stamps
September 4th, 2009Via: Reuters: More than 35 million Americans received food stamps in June, up 22 percent from June 2008 and a new record as the country continued to grapple with the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The food stamp program, which helps cover the cost of groceries for one in nine Americans, […]
Pfizer Directed Doctors to Use Drugs at Eight Times the Recommended Dosage and for Conditions Different to Those for Which They Were Approved
September 4th, 2009Via: BBC: A whistle-blower in the Pfizer healthcare fraud scandal has said he felt he was “swimming upstream” when the firm was illegally promoting drugs. “It’s hard to do what’s right when everyone else around you is following management sales directive,” John Kopchinski told the BBC’s World Today. Mr Kopchinski was awarded $50m (£31m) for […]
H1N1: MAINE DECLARES CIVIL EMERGENCY
September 3rd, 2009Via: Bangor Daily News: Gov. John Baldacci on Tuesday declared a statewide civil emergency because of the H1N1 influenza virus, paving the way for mass immunization of Maine schoolchildren and other residents. The emergency designation protects schools and health care providers against liability claims related to their participation in school-based vaccine clinics this fall for […]
Low-Wage Workers Are Often Cheated, Study Says
September 3rd, 2009Via: New York Times: Low-wage workers are routinely denied proper overtime pay and are often paid less than the minimum wage, according to a new study based on a survey of workers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The study, the most comprehensive examination of wage-law violations in a decade, also found that 68 […]
Microsoft Pushes for Single Global Patent System
September 3rd, 2009Via: Cnet: A senior lawyer at Microsoft is calling for the creation of a global patent system to make it easier and faster for corporations to enforce their intellectual property rights around the world. In a blog posting on Tuesday, Microsoft’s Deputy General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez said that a backlog of patent applications internationally was […]
