A near riot of women and children cause police to fire rubber bullets and release an attack dog into the crowd. Police officers offered to purchase bystander video of the incident.
Comments »US Poverty on Track to Rise to Highest Since 1960s
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The ranks of America’s poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net.
Census figures for 2011 will be released this fall in the critical weeks ahead of the November elections.
The Associated Press surveyed more than a dozen economists, think tanks and academics, both nonpartisan and those with known liberal or conservative leanings, and found a broad consensus: The official poverty rate will rise from 15.1 percent in 2010, climbing as high as 15.7 percent. Several predicted a more modest gain, but even a 0.1 percentage point increase would put poverty at the highest level since 1965.”
Comments »Valencia Spain Increases Investor Fear and Speculation That More Regional Governments Will Need Bailout Funds
“The prospect of more Spanish regional governments following Valencia in asking for aid sent the cost of insuring the nation’s debt to a record.
Credit-default swaps on Spain jumped as much as 31 basis points to 636, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and were at 632 at 1:30 p.m. in London. A basis point on a swap protecting 10 million euros ($12.1 million) of debt from default for five years is equivalent to 1,000 euros a year.”
Comments »Bomb Squads Disarm Traps at Colo. Suspect’s apt
FBI Special agent James Yacone said that while most of the explosives had been rendered safe in Holmes’ apartment, “the threat has not been completely eliminated.”
“It was an extremely dangerous environment,” Yacone said.
Read the rest here.
Comments »CO. Theater Shooting Wounds 50 and Kills 12, Cell Phone Video of Shooting
Just after midnight a gunman decided to open fire inside a movie theater. The maniac also released a canister that emitted some sort of gas. Thankfully, the suspect was found and taken into custody. Condolences to the families.
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7sIiqq66rk 450 300]Comments »
Russia, China Veto Syria UN Resolution
UNITED NATIONS – Russia and China again vetoed a Western-backed U.N. resolution Thursday aimed at pressuring President Bashar Assad’s government to end the escalating 16-month conflict in Syria.
The 11-2 vote, with two abstentions from South Africa and Pakistan, was the third double veto of a resolution addressing the Syria crisis by Damascus’ most important allies.
The defeat leaves in limbo the future of the 300-strong U.N. observer mission in Syria, which was forced to suspend operations because of the intensified fighting. Its mandate, to monitor a cease-fire and implementation of international envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan, expires Friday.
Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, who sponsored the Western-backed draft, said he was “appalled” at the third double veto of a resolution aimed at bringing an end to the bloodshed in Syria and creating conditions for political talks. The resolution had threatened sanctions if the Syrian regime didn’t quickly stop using heavy weapons.
“The consequence of their decision is obvious,” he said. “Further bloodshed, and the likelihood of descent into all-out civil war.” Activists say more than 17,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March 2011, most of them civilians.
“The consequence of today’s action is the situation will continue to deteriorate,” U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters.
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Comments »U.S. Drought to Create a “Cowpocalypse”
$MS says the USDA is too conservative with estimates relating to corn and wheat. In addition the lack of grain harvest will have a serious impact on cow herds.
Eat up before prices sky rocket.
Comments »Pay Day Loans on the Rise for Poorest Americans Keeping Up With Basic Bills
No keeping up with the Joneses here; Americans areturning to pay day loans just ot pay for basics like food and energy.
Comments »PETER SCHIFF: Our Children May Have To Lead A Violent Revolution To Bring Back Capitalism
“Some people fear public speaking. Others fear spiders.
Peter Schiff’s single greatest fear is that over-regulation, too much Fed intervention, and anti-business sentiment will eventually cause capitalism to come to an end.
Schiff spoke to King World News about it.
My biggest worry is that capitalism and the free markets will get the blame when it really hits the fan. When we get the real crash and everything implodes, and it’s really Armageddon style collapse, my fear (again) is that capitalism and free markets take the blame for problems that were created by government.”
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Derivatives Continue to Plague Already Cash Strapped Cities
“Sicily, Italy’s poorest region, faces increasing losses on about 860 million euros ($1.1 billion) of derivatives that are weighing on its debt as the local administration faces a liquidity crisis.
Contracts with six banks led by Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) andNomura Holdings Inc. (8604) have lost money for the local government since 2008 and future losses will wipe out earlier gains, Italy’s state auditor warned in a June 29 report. The regulator urged Sicily to “seek protection” against losses on the contracts.”
Comments »Syria May Collapse Overnight
U.S. policymakers are bracing for a potential “collapse” of the power structure inside Syria, as the Obama administration closely monitors the intensifying violence in the capital.
Following a bomb attack that left several Syrian regime officials dead, a State Department source forwarded to Fox News an assessment from an independent Middle East analyst who monitors social media in the region and provides occasional guidance to the department.
“Tweet trends on #Damascus indicate something will collapse in #Syria next 36 hours,” the message said. “Looks a lot like Tripoli did a year ago.”
The note was a reference to the atmosphere in Libya’s capital before Muammar Qaddafi’s regime was overthrown, and Qaddafi was captured and killed.
It’s unclear whether Damascus has entered such a period, but the capital saw an unprecedented attack Wednesday on Bashar Assad’s regime, when a bomb ripped through a high-level security meeting and killed at least three officials.
Syrian TV confirmed the deaths of Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha, 65, a former army general and the most senior government official to be killed in the rebels’ battle to oust Assad; Gen. Assef Shawkat, the deputy defense minister who is married to Assad’s elder sister; and Hassan Turkmani, a former defense minister who died of wounds suffered in the attack.
Also wounded were Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar and Maj. Gen. Hisham Ikhtiar, who heads the National Security Department. State TV said both were in stable condition.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, speaking alongside British Defense Minister Philip Hammond on Wednesday, said the escalating violence indicates that the rebels feel emboldened and that the government of Assad is suffering “probably some fragmentation around the edges” as it struggles to keep a grip on power.
The bombing was the harshest blow to the government’s inner circle in the 16-month uprising.
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Comments »Public Pensions are Some $4.6 Trillion Under Funded
“U.S. public pensions are $4.6 trillion short of the amount of assets needed to cover projected liabilities, an advocacy group said, more than twice what Moody’s Investors Service estimated this month.
The average plan is 41 percent funded, State Budget Solutions said in a report today. The Alexandria, Virginia, group’s partners include the American Legislative Exchange Council, which advocates “conservative public policy solutions,” the Freedom Foundation and the State Policy Network, which is composed of “free-market think tanks.”
Comments »Fun With the FDA
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-KQ4bJjn6k 450 300]
Comments »Your Tax Dollars at Work
Retirement Savings Raided by 35% of Laid-Off Workers
Compton May Face Bankruptcy Next in CA
“(Reuters) – The City of Compton, a city of 93,000 people located on the outskirts of Los Angeles, must decide by September 1 whether to seek bankruptcy, according to its two most senior financial officials.
Such a move would see it join a growing number of deficit-hobbled California cities that have used the filing to restructure onerous debt loads.”
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MrQtOoQRpc 450 300] Comments »Peregrines’ CEO Says He Spent All the Money
“Reuters) – BlackRock Inc, the world’s largest money manager, said on Wednesday its second-quarter profit fell 11 percent as tumultuous market conditions cut into fee income.
Net income at New York-based BlackRock dropped to $554 million, or $3.08 per share, from $619 million, or $3.21 per share, a year earlier.
Investor interest in BlackRock’s iShares unit, the top manager of U.S. exchange-traded funds, saved the firm from an even deeper profit decline. Investors added a net $6.1 billion into iShares funds in the quarter, while withdrawing $2.3 billion combined from BlackRock’s other long-term funds.”
Comments »S&P Study: Despite Record Cash on the the Books Corporate Pension Under Funding Continues
“The public pension and retirement ‘schemes’ are in considerable trouble (as we noted here and here) and now, according to a recent S&P study,private companies are at record levels of pension under-funding. Fiscal 2011 shows that the under-funded level for S&P 500 companies’ defined pensions reached an epic $354.7 billion – an increase of over $100 billion from 2010 and surpassing the 2008 record of $308.4 billion – and OPEB under-funding reached $223.4 billion.”
Comments »Sharp Cheddar or Needles With Your Turkey Samich ?
” Delta Air Lines Inc. and the FBI are trying to figure out how needles got intoturkey sandwiches served aboard four flights from Amsterdam. One passenger was injured.”
Comments »Detroit-Canadian Crossing Shut Down After Bomb Threat
A bomb threat has shut down the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor tonight, the second time in a week an international crossing between the two cities has been threatened.
The threat came in at 7:22 p.m. to Detroit police and triggered the shutdown, as well as a 1,000-yard security zone around the bridge, said U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Justin Westmiller and Detroit police.
It is unclear when the bridge would reopen.
“The Ambassador Bridge does have information that there was some kind of a threat called in, and it came from the American side,” Alan Upchurch, spokesman for the Detroit International Bridge Company told the Free Press tonight.
Read here:
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