FINANCIAL TIMES: US authorities are demanding JPMorgan Chase pay more than $6bn to settle allegations it mis-sold securities to government-backed mortgage companies in the run-up to the financial crisis, according to people familiar with the discussions. The bank is resisting the payment, which would be its single biggest penalty in a catalogue of expensive run-ins […]
Month: August 2013
Why don’t whites have black friends?
CNN Column: …Recently, a Reuters poll came out showing that 40% of white Americans have zero nonwhite friends, and only 20% of white Americans have five or more nonwhite friends. People seemed shocked that the numbers were so bad… What you really want to know is not “How many black friends do I have?” but […]
Beware some Lancaster new car dealers’ latest gouging ploy
Having done business there before, he was not prepared for the ploy that recently occurred at what he had come to consider to be a reputable major local dealer.
For Harrisburg residents, the plusses and minuses of the debt relief deal
HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS Editorial: (++) Tens of millions of dollars in parking assets (garages, lots and street meters) stay in city ownership and produce millions in ongoing revenue for the city.
Pa. court gets new plan to fix Harrisburg finances
Part of the plan involves selling the city’s municipal trash incinerator, whose debt dragged the city to the brink of bankruptcy.
Corbett forces out 2nd education chief in 3 months
An administration statement on Harner’s resignation gave no reason for the move. But a Corbett spokeswoman, Lynn Lawson, said later that it involved a personnel matter that did not arise during Harner’s time in the Corbett administration…
CIA Files Prove America Helped Saddam as He Gassed Iran
… In 1988, during the waning days of Iraq’s war with Iran, the United States learned through satellite imagery that Iran was about to gain a major strategic advantage by exploiting a hole in Iraqi defenses. U.S. intelligence officials conveyed the location of the Iranian troops to Iraq, fully aware that Hussein’s military would attack with chemical weapons, including sarin, a lethal nerve agent.
Tesla outsells Porsche, Jaguar, others in Calif.
All that is impressive for a new model costing more than $60,000 and upwards of $100,000. Its even more impressive for a car that can only be fueled from an electric plug. Unlike the Chevrolet Volt, the Tesla has no backup gas engine, but has far greater range than other electric cars, rated at up to 265 miles…<
Bo Xilai trial may shake China’s economy for years
ALJAZEERA: …Corruption costs China some 10 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), according to estimates by Shanghai-based independent economist Andy Xie Guozhong. [economist Andy Xie Guozhong] told Al Jazeera that what he believes will be a protracted corruption campaign, which has already targeted other officials as well as international enterprises, will eventually take unnecessary […]
Kerry says Assad chemical attack ‘undeniable’
FINANCIAL TIMES: John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said Bashar al Assad’s responsibility for the use of chemical weapons was “undeniable”, lifting the likelihood of an imminent punitive military attack against the Syrian regime in response.
Does Tom Wolf have the right stuff?
PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS Column: He lives in a place named for his family, in an 1850s house built by his family, and runs a company started by his family in 1843. He has an Ivy League (Dartmouth) undergrad degree, a master’s from the University of London and a doctorate from MIT.
INTELLIGENCER JOURNAL NEW ERA
About a third of the front page is devoted to photographs of happy consumers of vapor from electronic cagarettes accompanying the leed article “Enjoying the Vapors”.
Transportation funding no crown jewel for Gov. Corbett
PA Gov. Tom Corbett could bull through a transportation funding bill when the General Assembly returns to Harrisburg in late September, but two outcomes are certain.
Zurich to open prostitution drive-ins
Zurichers are so fed up with streetwalkers they voted last year to ban them from the city center and build steamy shake shacks in a far-off industrial zone.