Pontiac residents to pay $141 sanitation fee

Pontiac residents to pay $141 sanitation fee | Crain's Detroit Business
" A city official says Pontiac is issuing a $141.59-per-household sanitation fee on winter tax bills.
Finance Director John Naglick told The Oakland Press that the fee is necessary because of a shortfall in the sanitation fund and the city's shrinking tax base.
He said it's "really indicative of the fact that our taxable value has fallen so greatly in Pontiac, so we're not bringing in enough from the sanitation millage to cover the $4.4 million in expenses.""

Sheriff David Clarke PSA for Milwaukee County

World is right to worry about US debt

World is right to worry about US debt - FT.com
"For example, as its share of global gross domestic product shrinks from about 20 per cent today to as little as 10 per cent in five decades, should it try to continue to play the role of global policeman?
The US spends more than 4 per cent of GDP a year on defence, roughly twice the global average."

Big Labor is in big trouble

Big Labor is in big trouble | NetRight Daily
"The stunning drop in private sector labor union membership over the past ten years parallels organized labor’s decision to engage in massive political expenditures designed to elect supposed pro-labor candidates to office."

Fannie To Allow Walkaways by On-Time Borrowers: Mortgages

Fannie To Allow Walkaways by On-Time Borrowers: Mortgages - Bloomberg

Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac will let some borrowers who kept up payments as their homes lost value erase their debts by giving up the properties, helping Americans escape underwater loans while adding to losses at the mortgage giants bailed out with $190 billion of taxpayer money.

Non-delinquent borrowers with illness, job changes or other reasons they need to move will become eligible in March to apply for a so-called deed-in-lieu transaction that erases the shortfall between a property’s value and the size of its mortgage.

FLPD Uses High-Tech Water To Catch Thieves

FLPD Uses High-Tech Water To Catch Thieves « CBS Miami

Beatles Tribute Band Invades Muskegon

Beatles Tribute Band Invades Muskegon
"The American Red Cross is pleased to welcome 1964: The Tribute to Muskegon on Friday, February 15, 2013.
The world’s best Beatles tribute band will take their audience on a fantastic trip back to the era of the rock legends who will live in our hearts forever.
This trip down memory lane (or is it Penny Lane?) will start at 8:00 p.m. at the Frauenthal Theater in downtown Muskegon.
Tickets are available at the Frauenthal Box Office or by telephone at 1-800-585-3737 or any Star Tickets Outlet or online at www.startickets.com. Tickets are $29.50."

Right-To-Work Income Claims Proven Wrong

Right-To-Work Income Claims Proven Wrong [Michigan Capitol Confidential]
Scores of right-to-work critics ranging from politicians to economists have cited lower per-capita incomes in right-to-work states as why the new law is not good for Michigan.
However, not factoring in cost-of-living exposes a flaw in that analysis, said Mackinac Center for Public Policy Fiscal Analyst James Hohman.
Once that is considered, Hohman said the per-capita income is higher in right-to-work states than non-right-to-work states

Pakistani fertilizer firm to expand in U.S., but balks on controlling bomb materials

Pakistani fertilizer firm to expand in U.S., but balks on controlling bomb materials - Washington Times
"The Indiana Finance Authority has approved $1.27 billion in tax-exempt bonds for Midwest Fertilizer Corp. to build a nitrogenous fertilizer manufacturing plant in Posey County.
Midwest is a new startup company of the Fatima Group, a conglomerate headquartered in Lahore, Pakistan.
Fatima’s fertilizer components are used by terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan to build homemade bombs — the No. 1 killer of American service members in Afghanistan."

Illinois to offer driver's licenses to illegal immigrants

Illinois to offer driver's licenses to illegal immigrants | TBO.com

If Hillary does not run, liberals will stage a massive draft movement for Elizabeth Warren

If Hillary does not run, liberals will stage a massive draft movement for Elizabeth Warren - The Hill's Pundits Blog
"In my last column I suggested that if she runs for president, which I believe is an 80 percent probability, Hillary Clinton would have a great chance to carry Texas and could well trigger a historical political realignment of Rooseveltian magnitude.
I now predict that if Hillary choses not to run in 2016, which is certainly possible, liberals will begin a gigantic movement to draft Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to run for president on a platform that will offer a reformist program of the magnitude that Franklin Roosevelt proposed and implemented."

Global Warming Updates:

COMMON CENTS: Global Warming Updates:
"These Global Warming Updates or Global Warming Alerts are not for the faint of heart. "

Rick Haglund: Pressure to enact right-to-work laws mounting in almost every Great Lakes state

Rick Haglund: Pressure to enact right-to-work laws mounting in almost every Great Lakes state | MLive.com
"Even Ontario is engaged in a noisy debate over right to work, which outlaws labor contracts that require workers to pay union dues as a condition of employment."

Panel discusses how to handle fiscal crisis

Panel discusses how to handle fiscal crisis | Washington Free Beacon
"Norquist blasted the illusion of economic growth created by Keynesian economics, comparing it to moving a bucket of water from one end of a pond to another.
He said liberals must know that these policies do not work.
“They’re not stupid. They’re lying,” he said.
“They may also be stupid,” Furchtgott-Roth retorted."

Obama: Tough call on letting a son play football

Obama: Tough call on letting a son play football - Yahoo! News:
" President Barack Obama is a big football fan with two daughters, but if he had a son, he says he'd "have to think long and hard" before letting him play because of the physical toll the game takes.
"I think that those of us who love the sport are going to have to wrestle with the fact that it will probably change gradually to try to reduce some of the violence," Obama tells The New Republic.
"In some cases, that may make it a little bit less exciting, but it will be a whole lot better for the players, and those of us who are fans maybe won't have to examine our consciences quite as much.""

Boomtown: Lamborghini Moves North American HQ to D.C. Region

Boomtown: Lamborghini Moves North American HQ to D.C. Region
"n a disturbing indicator of how wealthy the D.C. political class is becoming by extracting taxpayer money from the rest of the country, Lamborghini moved its North American headquarters to the D.C. region because it saw the city as having the most potential for growth."

U.S. Postal Service rate hikes take effect as agency flirts with insolvency

U.S. Postal Service rate hikes take effect as agency flirts with insolvency | MLive.com
"Starting Sunday, the following types are mail are rising in cost by one cent:

• A one-ounce letter sent with a first-class stamp is going from 45 cents to 46 cents.
• Postcard postage will rise from 32 cents to 33 cents.
• One-ounce letters to international destination are rising to $1.10, which is up from 85 cents to send a letter to Canada and Mexico, and $1.05 to other places."

EyeOnMuskegon 1-27-2013

Progressive Democratic Women's Caucus hosting forum on health care legislation

Progressive Democratic Women's Caucus hosting forum on health care legislation | MLive.com
"The forum will begin at 7 p.m. at the Louis A. McMurray Conference Center, located at 2624 Sixth St. in Muskegon Heights."

After Mike Bloomberg's rule for hospitals, FDA panel votes to restrict use of painkillers

After Mike Bloomberg's rule for hospitals, FDA panel votes to restrict use of painkillers | WashingtonExaminer.com

Federal Drug Administration advisers voted today to restrict access to certain kinds of prescription drugs  in an effort to fight drug abuse
The vote had experts divided over the risk of drug abuse as weighed against the risk of increased pain or difficulty for patients on the medication.
“It will have an impact on a lot of patients who have been receiving them for some time for legitimate purposes,” Dr. Lynn Webster, president-elect of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, said perHealth Day News ahead of the vote.
The FDA rule change is designed to implement a policy that the Senate passed last year, but the U.S. House of Representatives killed.
“Under the new rules, refills without a new prescription would be forbidden, as would faxed prescriptions and those called in by phone,”The New York Times explains in reporting that the new rules passed by 19-10 vote.
“Only written prescriptions from a doctor would be allowed, and pharmacists and distributors would be required to store the drugs in special vaults . . . advocates for nursing home patients, who said older, frail residents needing pain medication would now be required to make the arduous trip to a doctor’s office to continue using hydrocodone products.”
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who moved to restrict access to certain painkillers in city hospital emergency rooms in order to fight drug abuse, argued that it wouldn’t harm patients.
“Number one, there’s no evidence of that,” Bloomberg said.
“Number two, supposing it is really true, so you didn’t get enough painkillers and you did have to suffer a little bit. 
The other side of the coin is people are dying and there’s nothing perfect.”

Sierra Club, union: Right-to-work laws threaten the environment, working families

Sierra Club, union: Right-to-work laws threaten the environment, working families (Guest column) | MLive.com
"States with right-to-work laws have lower wages — for both union and nonunion workers alike — by an average of $1,500 per year.
Right-to-work laws decrease the likelihood that employees get either health insurance or pensions through their jobs, for everyone.
Also there’s no correlation that shows right-to-work laws bring businesses and economic activity to the state.
Better jobs mean a safer, cleaner environment.
Union workers serve as the front line of defense against harmful pollution, chemical spills and other accidents that can devastate communities.
Union workers are generally better trained to know about the health and safety risks of dangerous chemicals and have greater protections if they blow the whistle on hazardous practices in the workplace.
They have that training and enjoy those protections because of strong collective bargaining rights.
Michigan’s history is as rich with major events from the conservation movement as it is with regard to advances with regard to workers’ rights."

Communists Cheer On Obama’s Gun Grab

Communists Cheer On Obama’s Gun Grab Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!
"In a January 18 article, People’s World, an official publication of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), declared that “the ability to live free from the fear or threat of gun violence is a fundamental democratic right — one that far supercedes any so-called personal gun rights allegedly contained in the Second Amendment.”"

Cultural Defense Accepted as to Nonconsensual Sex in New Jersey Trial Court, Rejected on Appeal

The Volokh Conspiracy » Cultural Defense Accepted as to Nonconsensual Sex in New Jersey Trial Court, Rejected on Appeal
"While recognizing that defendant had engaged in sexual relations with plaintiff against her expressed wishes in November 2008 and on the night of January 15 to 16, 2009, the judge did not find sexual assault or criminal sexual conduct to have been proven.
He stated:
This court does not feel that, under the circumstances, that this defendant had a criminal desire to or intent to sexually assault or to sexually contact the plaintiff when he did.
The court believes that he was operating under his belief that it is, as the husband, his desire to have sex when and whether he wanted to, was something that was consistent with his practices and it was something that was not prohibited.
After acknowledging that this was a case in which religious custom clashed with the law, and that under the law, plaintiff had a right to refuse defendant’s advances, the judge found that defendant did not act with a criminal intent when he repeatedly insisted upon intercourse, despite plaintiff’s contrary wishes."

Did Government Meddling Cripple The Dodge Dart?

Did Government Meddling Cripple The Dodge Dart? | The Truth About Cars
"Just over a year ago, UAW members at the plant had just authorized a strike at the Dundee plant over a change in shift schedules – despite an apparent agreement not to strike, as another condition of the bailout. The FIRE engine, widely panned in the Dart, seems to exist solely to satisfy the requirement that Fiat build a 40 MPG car in America – a requirement that TTAC summarily exposed as bogus, since the agreement stated that the car must get 40 MPG “unadjusted”, or roughly 30 MPG combined in the “real world” fuel economy figures that everyone is familiar with.
But without the 40 MPG Dart, the diminutive FIRE engine and U.S. production of the FIRE engine, Fiat would not have received their 20 percent stake in Chrysler, along with the option to increase their share in 5 percent increments once these milestones (the third being Fiat recording $1.5 billion in revenue outside the NAFTA Zone)."

The Crisis of the Black Middle Class

The Crisis of the Black Middle Class | Via Meadia

...factors that systematically prevented Blacks from building up and passing on wealth: exclusion from social security and GI bill benefits, challenges in getting market-rate mortgages, and marginalization in neighborhoods with depreciating housing values.

The Clinton and Bush administrations set policies to encourage Black home ownership, but these made things worse:

But around the turn of the twenty-first century, there also grew up a huge new industry of predatory lenders that targeted members of minority groups, including those who already owned their homes and were persuaded to refinance on what turned out to be usurious terms.

So when the real estate bubble burst, it hurt Blacks much more than whites: 25 percent of African-Americans who purchased or refinanced homes from 2004 to 2008 have lost or are losing them, compared to 11.9 percent of white Americans. According to Sugrue, “the median black family today holds only $4,955 in assets.”

Insightful as it is, the piece underestimates the crisis. Government jobs have historically been an important source of security for the Black middle class, and many of those jobs are disappearing. Neither party is addressing this urgent issue. It isn’t even on the GOP’s radar, and the blue policies of the past 30 years, which the Obama administration would like to perpetuate, are no longer working.

Mayor George Heartwell at State of the City: Grand Rapids gets federal grant for solar array

Mayor George Heartwell at State of the City: Grand Rapids gets federal grant for solar array | MLive.com
: "“It’s exactly because we have the other challenges (with police and fire finances) that we do projects like this,” Heartwell told MLive this week.
“It’s a long-term investment, there’s no question about it. But it’s about creating efficiencies.”"

Want a good paying job in Muskegon? Simply get a college degree, labor statistics show

Want a good paying job in Muskegon? Simply get a college degree, labor statistics show | MLive.com
"From 2011 statistics, those in Muskegon County without a high school education had a 52 percent unemployment rate compared to 17 percent for high school graduates, 14 percent for those with some college, 10 percent for those with an associate’s degree and 5 percent for those with bachelor’s and graduate degrees."

Credit Card Swipe Fees Begin Sunday In USA

Credit Card Swipe Fees Begin Sunday In USA - Slashdot
"An anonymous reader writes
"A speedbump on the road to a cash-free economy will go into effect Sunday in the USA, as retailers in 40 states will have the option of passing along a surcharge to customers who pay with credit cards.
The so-called swipe fees arose from the settlement of a seven-year lawsuit filed by retailers against Visa, Mastercard, and big banks, who collect an electronic processing fee averaging 1.5 to 3 percent on transactions involving credit cards. 
The banks naturally have opposed the consumer surcharges, preferring that the extra costs to be passed along in the form of higher prices.
onsumers in ten states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, Texas) won't be affected, since laws in those states forbid the practice (it seems that gasoline station owners here in Massachusetts got a different memo, though).
Also, the surcharges won't be collected for debit or prepaid cards.""

Auditors: $230 million in Labor Dept. grants had no criteria for success

Auditors: $230 million in Labor Dept. grants had no criteria for success | WashingtonGuardian
"You'd expect a program to help train workers in new skills would have grades to measure how well the students learned.
And you'd expect the program itself to be graded on whether it actually helped those students find employment after they graduated.
But that's precisely what a Labor Department jobs program failed to measure for grants it made in 2010 and 2011, auditors say.
Facing rising unemployment nationwide, the Labor Department Employment and Training Administration (ETA) used a discretionary grant program to support schools and businesses that were training workers and helping them find jobs.
But an internal investigation revealed that there were few benchmarks for measuring whether the grants were actually helping people find work or achieving their other goals -- and sometimes results were simply not documented.
In fact, investigators think more than one-third of the programs -- more than 200 grants out of 560 that were handed out -- might have failed, at a total cost approaching $230 million.

Ballot Integrity In the State of Washington

Ballot Integrity In the State of Washington | Power Line

My wife is a Canadian citizen, has her green card, and just received her voter registration card in the mail. Not sure what’s up with that, she did not do anything to actively register to vote. We have no idea how she became a registered voter, unless they’re simply registering all residents here in Washington State automatically.

The card says, “You are registered to vote.” It adds, “Your ballot will arrive by mail.” Here is the card, with identifying information deleted:

This woman is probably too honest to vote, but the automatic mailing of a ballot to someone who is not a citizen strikes me as rather diabolical. The recipient doesn’t even need to show up in person to represent, at least implicitly, that she is an eligible voter. All she has to do is return the ballot she receives in the mail. How many ineligible voters are honest enough to resist that temptation? Not many, I suspect.

Why do Democrat-run states like Washington go out of their way to undermine the integrity of the ballot? The obvious answer is that they think they will benefit, in the immediate term, if more ineligible people cast ballots. But I wonder whether the rationale goes deeper. The many measures taken by Democrats that eat away at the integrity of our elections have the effect, cumulatively, of discrediting electoral results and thereby undermining our democracy. Which, in turn, makes it easier for government to seize more and more powers from demoralized citizens. Polls suggest that a large majority of Americans support measures to protect ballot integrity, but so far, at least, that consensus has not been very effective in political terms.