BLOOMBERG: Wal-Mart Stores’ Doug McMillon, a home-grown chief executive who got his start as a store employee, has made his most radical change yet at the world’s biggest retailer. He’s raising wages for 500,000 employees—both full-time and part-time. They’ll get at least $9 an hour starting this April, and at least $10 an hour starting […]
Pennsylvania governor’s execution moratorium is challenged
PHILLY.COM / AP: The top prosecutor in Philadelphia filed a legal challenge Wednesday to Gov. Tom Wolf’s death penalty moratorium, telling Pennsylvania’s highest court that the action was illegal and unconstitutional… The case raised in the filing involves Terrance Williams, who was convicted of the 1984 robbing and fatal tire-iron beating of another man in […]
Vladimir Putin needs war in Ukraine to stay in power
In a Letter to the Editor entitled “How would the U. S. react to a Russian sponsor coup in Canada?,” the contributor sets forth legitimate Russian concerns about NATO’s long term aggressively building influence and often alliances along Russian borders.
“Putin nyet! Europe yes!”
Around three thousand protesters demonstrated their opposition to Vladimir Putin on the eve of the Russian President’s arrival in Budapest for meetings with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and President János Áder.
Another leak in Kane case
PHILLY.COM: …The high court has asked the agency that oversees lawyers to consider disciplining Lanny J. Davis, one of state Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s lawyers, for making public a sealed order from the high court last month. “This is some definition of leak,” Davis said. “I did it on the record, during a press conference, […]
Tim Holden, former congressman, named liquor control board chair by Gov. Tom Wolf
PENN LIVE: Gov. Tom Wolf has appointed former U.S. Rep. Tim Holden to chair the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, which oversees alcohol sales in the commonwealth. The board’s chairs are often named by incoming governors. The most recent chairman, Joseph “Skip” Brion, was appointed by Gov. Tom Corbett in 2011. He will remain a board […]
Part 2: Pennsylvania judges make million dollar pay grab
Nowhere did Segal use the word senile. Instead, the mandatory retirement age of 70 was part of a sweeping proposal to make our courts modern and impartial, and youthfully efficient, without political entanglements and chicanery.
Obama Immigration Policy Halted by Federal Judge in Texas
NEW YORK TIMES: …In an order filed on Monday, the judge, Andrew S. Hanen of Federal District Court in Brownsville, prohibited the Obama administration from carrying out programs the president announced in November that would offer protection from deportation and work permits to as many as five million undocumented immigrants. The first of those programs […]
Larry Summers on global threats
USA TODAY Column: Q: Greece has been pushing back on all of the austerity measures that European leaders are putting in place. What’s your sense of what’s happening in Europe and how serious this is for the global economy? A: The larger question is, is Europe in danger of becoming the new Japan — with […]
LETTER: How would the U. S. react to a Russian sponsor coup in Canada?
If Russia had sponsored a coup in Canada, got a pro-Russia regime installed in Ottawa with a government wanting to join in military alliance with them, just what does anyone suppose the U.S. response would be?
U.S. Embedded Spyware Overseas, Report Claims
NEW YORK TIMES: The United States has found a way to permanently embed surveillance and sabotage tools in computers and networks it has targeted in Iran, Russia, Pakistan, China, Afghanistan and other countries closely watched by American intelligence agencies, according to a Russian cybersecurity firm. In a presentation of its findings at a conference in […]
The truth behind Russian polls
They conducted a psychological test. They asked respondents to compare the Russian president with any animal of their choice. A year ago respondents were choosing mainly large animals, such as bear, lion, tiger. By the end of the year these animals were gradually replaced by the less impressive ones, for example, someone had chosen hedgehog, people were choosing a dove or even smaller bird in place of an eagle.
Colleges’ Use of Adjuncts Comes Under Union Pressure
WALL STREET JOURNAL: …The move comes amid growing frustration from students and parents paying tens of thousands of dollars a year in tuition for an education taught mostly by itinerant faculty, sometimes nicknamed “road scholars” because of all the time they spend driving between schools to teach. Since last Thanksgiving, adjuncts have won unionization votes […]
3% down payments lure first-time homebuyers
USATODAY: … • In December, mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced they would reduce the minimum down payment on certain mortgages from 5% to 3%. For someone buying a $150,000 home, the change means the difference between a down payment of $7,500 and $4,500. • In January, the Federal Housing Administration announced it […]