Month: May 2012

US data show loss of momentum

From the FINANCIAL TIMES: First-quarter growth for the US was revised down from an annualised rate of 2.2 per cent to 1.9 per cent on a day of gloomy data for the world’s largest economy. The downward revision to gross domestic product came alongside a weak jobs report from ADP, the payrolls processing company, and a rise in new claims for unemployment insurance.

DOMA Ruled Unconstitutional By Federal Appeals Court

HUFFINGTON POST:   A federal appeals court Thursday declared that the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally denies federal benefits to married gay couples, a groundbreaking ruling all but certain to wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court. In its unanimous decision, the three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston said the […]

The Guv’s “Make-a-Wish”Appointment

PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS:  And in the category of, hey, in politics ya can’t do nuthin’ without tickin’ somebody off, Gov. Corbett is catching flak for nominating his chief of staff to be an Allegheny County judge. First, fellow-Republican and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ron Castille says he had a deal with Corbett not to […]

Incinerator vs Convention Center

Well Bill, this sounds like the future of the Lancaster County convention center. But I digress. The incinerator has been a problem for years and should have been addressed by Rendell and perhaps those before him. We don’t need a criminal investigation to know malfeasance was rampant. It almost always is. If Mr. Unkovic has […]

Senate Dems not with Warren on reinstating Glass-Steagall bank act

THE HILL:   Senate Democratic leaders have shown little appetite for taking on Wall Street before Election Day, despite urging by one of their star recruits, Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren. Warren has called on Congress to resurrect the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, which established a firewall between investment banks, which traditionally specialized in speculative trades, and […]

Too Much Power for a President

From the NEW YORK TIMES Editorial: ….Mr. Obama has demonstrated that he can be thoughtful and farsighted, but, like all occupants of the Oval Office, he is a politician, subject to the pressures of re-election. No one in that position should be able to unilaterally order the killing of American citizens or foreigners located far from a battlefield — depriving Americans of their due-process rights — without the consent of someone outside his political inner circle…

The death of the newspaper?

ALJAZEERA:  THE US NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY: The internet surpassed newspapers as the main news source in 2010 Print ads account for 86% of the newspaper industry’s revenue Daily newspapers still have about 45 million paying customers in the US Vocus report: 152 newspapers stopped operating in 2011 State of the Media report: 151 newspapers stopped operating in […]

Rush for havens as euro fears rise

FINANCIAL TIMES:   ….US benchmark borrowing costs plunged to levels last seen in 1946 and those for Germany and the UK hit all-time lows as investors took fright at what they see as a disjointed policy response to the debt crisis in Spain and Italy. In a striking sign of the flight to haven assets, German […]

Receiver: Gov. Tom Corbett obstacle to Harrisburg debt criminal investigation- Part Eight of the Watershed Series

In a court hearing held on May 22, 2012, the former receiver of Harrisburg suggested that Gov. Tom Corbett and his top staffers are the main obstacles in preventing a criminal investigation of Harrisburg’s growing debt scandal. The former receiver went on to suggest that the governor is in cahoots with bad actors in the debt crisis.

Reducing Transnational Organized Crime

DRUG WAR FACTS NEWSLETTER: If this term sounds like a new twist to an age-old peril, it is. Although TOC is a fairly recent invention, it reflects an approach that is evolving with its times. The National Institute of Justice charted TOC’s brief history, “Starting in the 1970s, but accelerating in the early 1990s, a new form of organized crime took hold. The combination of a new geopolitical climate, a globalized world economy and resulting softer borders, and a revolution in information technology available to crime groups hastened a shift.

GOP groups plan record $1 billion blitz

From POLITICO: Republican super PACs and other outside groups shaped by a loose network of prominent conservatives – including Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and Tom Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – plan to spend roughly $1 billion on November’s elections for the White House and control of Congress, according to officials familiar with the groups’ internal operations.

Poles miffed over Obama “death camp” comment

THE ECONOMISTS:  FEW things annoy Poles more than being blamed for the crimes committed by the Nazi occupiers of their homeland. For many years, Polish media, diplomats and politicians have tried to persuade outsiders to stop using the phrase “Polish death camps” as a shorthand description of Auschwitz and other exemplars of Nazi brutality and […]

Romney: Obama’s ‘Paralysis’ Allowed Syria Slaughter

NEWSMAX:  Mitt Romney supported removing Syrian diplomats from the United States on Tuesday and called President Barack Obama weak in his dealings with the nation. “I welcome the expulsion of Syrian diplomats by the United States and other partner nations,” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said in a statement posted on CNN.com. “But it only […]