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Monthly Archives: September 2011

Obama Urges Congress to Renew a Transportation Bill To Save Jobs and Continue Funding

“Allowing this bill to expire would be a disaster for our infrastructure and our economy,”…..”If it’s delayed for just 10 days, we will lose nearly $1 billion in highway funding that we can never get back. And if we wait even longer, almost 1 million workers could be in danger of losing their jobs over the next year,”

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Real Life “Sons of Anarchy” and “Breaking Bad” Rolled Into One

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — For nearly a decade Stephen Kinzey worked as a professor of kinesiology, the study of human movement, at California State University, San Bernardino. A few students complained online that he showed up late for class and could lose his focus. But that was about it.

Now, the police say, Mr. Kinzey, 43, is a man on the run, wanted on suspicion of being the ringleader of a circle of methamphetamine dealers and the president of the Devils Diciples, an outlaw motorcycle gang. (The group spells its name as such.)

Investigators from the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department said that they were unable to locate Mr. Kinzey, who they say supplied a ring of midlevel and street dealers with methamphetamine, a persistent scourge in the working-class cities east of Los Angeles.

“One side of him was a successful and productive member of society, but the other side of him is an outlaw motorcycle gang leader,” said Sgt. Paul Wynn, a lead investigator of the case. “He was the highest-ranking person in the group, without a doubt.”

Mr. Kinzey lived in an upper-middle-class enclave in an immaculate two-story Spanish-style home with his girlfriend, Holly Robinson, 33. When the police came to the home last Friday, Ms. Robinson was arrested along with half a dozen other members of the gang, who were there to pick up their share of a one-pound delivery of methamphetamine, police officials said. Mr. Kinzey was not there.

The police found several weapons in the home, including a shotgun, two rifles, two handguns and brass knuckles.

The department began the investigation six months ago as an undercover operation. Motorcycle gangs are common in this part of California; Hells Angels has its headquarters just a few miles away, and spotting a group of several dozen bikers cruising down the freeways on the weekend is hardly unusual.

“It’s not unheard of in the outlaw motorcycle gang world — a lot of people involved are lawyers and doctors and even kinesiology professors,” Sergeant Wynn said. “They like to give the image that they are doing good things and off on charity rides. That might be true for some.”

Sergeant Wynn said about a dozen members of outlaw motorcycle gangs had been arrested in the past year, mostly on drug charges. He said that officials were actively pursuing 15 other members of Devils Diciples.

Mr. Kinzey earned his doctorate from the University of Toledo and was apparently well liked by his students in California. On a Web site that allows students to rank professors, Mr. Kinzey had one of the top scores, with a reputation of being an easy grader and a tardy teacher. On his Twitter feed, he routinely posted updates about being late for class.

University officials were told of Mr. Kinzey’s involvement in drugs on Thursday.

“To our knowledge, this is the first notice that anyone on our campus has had regarding this situation,” said Albert Karnig, the president of the college. “If the allegations are indeed true, this is beyond disappointing.”

Several of Mr. Kinzey’s academic articles were on the department’s bulletin board. His clothing and style — a long goatee and a few visible tattoos — might have made him look different from other teachers. But Albert Cabrera, 21, a kinesiology major who was a student in two of Mr. Kinzey’s courses, said nothing about his professor stood out.

“He’s a good teacher, he’s smart,” Mr. Cabrera said. “I’ve seen his Diciples belt, but I never thought anything of it.”

Rebecca Fairley Raney reported from San Bernardino, and Jennifer Medina from Los Angeles.

SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES

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Here Comes The Sun, And There Goes Anthropogenic Warmism: The Truth About Global Warming

As Lawrence Solomon has reported, with little fanfare—certainly none from pseudo-scientific, apocalyptic, anthropogenic warmists and their uncritical (if witless) media and political champions—Jasper Kirkby et al. have just published a seminal paper in Nature (“Role of sulphuric acid, ammonia and galactic cosmic rays in atmospheric aerosol nucleation.” Nature Volume: 476, Pages: 429–433  (25 August 2011) DOI: doi:10.1038/nature10343).

Solomon’s pellucid lay description summarizes the key study findings and their devastating impact upon the so-called “settled science” of greenhouse gas- mediated, “anthropogenic warming”:

The research…comes from über-prestigious CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, one of the world’s largest centres for scientific research involving 60 countries and 8,000 scientists at more than 600 universities and national laboratories. CERN is the organization that invented the World Wide Web, that built the multi-billion dollar Large Hadron Collider, and that has now built a pristinely clean stainless steel chamber that precisely recreated the Earth’s atmosphere. In this chamber, 63 CERN scientists from 17 European and American institutes have done what global warming doomsayers said could never be done — demonstrate that cosmic rays promote the formation of molecules that in Earth’s atmosphere can grow and seed clouds, the cloudier and thus cooler it will be. Because the sun’s magnetic field controls how many cosmic rays reach Earth’s atmosphere (the stronger the sun’s magnetic field, the more it shields Earth from incoming cosmic rays from space), the sun determines the temperature on Earth.

Read the rest here.

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Feds to Drunk Truck Drivers: Keep On Truckin’!

The Old Dominion Freight Line trucking company, based in North Carolina but with 211 service centers across the country, found itself with a personnel problem back in June 2009.  An employee with an otherwise clean record approached management and confessed he had a drinking problem.  Following U.S. Department of Transportation regulations, the company suspended this employee from his driving position, and referred him for substance abuse counseling.

The company took one other action: they told the alcoholic that they would never let him drive trucks for them again, even after he finished his counseling program.  They have apparently told other alcoholic drivers the same thing in the past.

Unfortunately for the Old Dominion Freight Line, other trucking companies, and everyone who finds themselves driving in the shadow of an 18-wheeler with a drunk driver:

Alcoholism is a recognized  disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), and disability  discrimination violates this federal law.  The EEOC said that the company violated both the ADA and the Americans With Disabilities Act  Amendment Act of 2008 (ADAAA) by conditioning reassignment to non-driving  positions on the enrollment in an alcohol treatment program. In addition, the EEOC argued that Old  Dominion’s policy that bans any driver who self-reports alcohol abuse from ever  driving again also violates the ADA.

The EEOC filed suit after first  attempting to reach a voluntary settlement.  The suit seeks monetary relief in the form of reinstatement to a driving  position, back pay and compensatory and punitive damages, compensation for lost  benefits for two drivers, and an injunction against future discrimination.

“The ADA mandates that persons with disabilities have an  equal opportunity to achieve in the workplace.  Old Dominion’s policy and practice of never returning an employee who  self-reports an alcohol problem to a driving position violates that law,”  said Katharine Kores, director of the EEOC’s Memphis District Office, whose  jurisdiction includes Arkansas. “While the EEOC agrees that an employer’s  concern regarding safety on our highways is a legitimate issue, an employer can  both ensure safety and comply with the ADA.”

Read the rest here.

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We Are in ‘Worse Situation’ Than in 2008: Roubini

The world’s developed economies are trapped at the “stall speed” of low growth and need to have greater fiscal stimulus and less austerity to kick-start growth, leading economist Nouriel Roubini told CNBC Friday.

Speaking at the Ambrosetti Forum on the shores of Lake Como, near Milan, Roubini said in an interview: “We are in a worse situation than we were in 2008. This time around we have fiscal austerity and banks that are being cautious.”

Read the rest here.

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John Paulson’s Portfolio Was Demolished Today

The hits keep coming.

No. Ticker Institutional Holder % Change
1 FCH PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -8.15
2 SPMD PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -8.11
3 BAC PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -7.46
4 BZH PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -6.40
5 MGM PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -6.38
6 FHN PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -6.06
7 STI PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -5.58
8 BYD PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -5.53
9 COF PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -5.34
10 BEE PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -5.25
11 CNO PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -5.03
12 AHT PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -4.97
13 HIG PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -4.86
14 SHO PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -4.79
15 MTN PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -4.74
16 C PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -4.40
17 CBG PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -4.36
18 RKT PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -4.30
19 RF PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -4.29
20 XL PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -4.12
21 GGP PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -4.05
22 BLK PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -3.92
23 WHR PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -3.92
24 MNI PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -3.85
25 THC PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -3.83
26 LEA PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -3.76
27 RIG PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -3.67
28 BSX PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -3.50
29 VECO PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -3.40
30 WY PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -3.28
31 SNI PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -3.24
32 ACAS PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -3.17
33 SLXP PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -3.17
34 HHC PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -3.11
35 LIFE PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -3.08
36 ANR PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -3.06
37 APC PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -2.99
38 BPOP PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -2.94
39 BZ PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -2.86
40 AON PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -2.86
41 MYL PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -2.72
42 IP PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -2.66
43 ARG PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -2.25
44 LNG PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -2.19
45 RLJ PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -2.03
46 BAX PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -2.00
47 GEN PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -1.92
48 NVS PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -1.66
49 FDO PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -1.52
50 NG PAULSON & COMPANY, INC. -0.78

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