Monthly Archives: March 2014

Police Chief, Citing Joke Site: ‘Legal Pot Killed 37 People On First Day’

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“Testifying against marijuana legalization before the Maryland legislature today, Annapolis Police Chief Michael Pristoop warned of the potentially lethal consequences. ‘The first day of legalization, that’s when Colorado experienced 37 deaths that day from overdose on marijuana,’ Pristoop told the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. ‘I remember the first day it was decriminalized there were 37 deaths.’  As Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-Montgomery) quickly pointed out, what Pristoop actually remembered was a joke story at The Daily Currant.”

http://reason.com/blog/2014/02/25/citing-joke-annapolis-police-chief-testi

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Scranton Residents Plead for Bankruptcy vs. Higher Taxes

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“City officials in Scranton Pennsylvania have ignored pleas from residents pleading for bankruptcy.  Instead, the city raised property taxes and trash fees nearly 60% and tripled rental registration fees. The city’s school district, which faced a $4-million deficit, raised taxes 2.4%. The City Council, which in 2012 passed a 5% amusement tax on live entertainment, is now discussing a 10% drink tax.  As a result, taxpayers who can are fleeing the city.  The taxes are especially egregious to some because so many of the city’s residents are elderly and living on fixed incomes. The median household income in Scranton is $37,000, and nearly one-fifth of residents live below the poverty line.”

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/01/scranton-residents-plead-for-bankruptcy.html

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US Towns Declaring Bankruptcy Are The Lucky Ones

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“Bankruptcy is attractive to taxpayers because it offers a partial exit strategy by reducing public sector pensions and other benefits. But public sector unions have a death grip on the power politics of many, if not most, American cities.  What happened in Scranton should be a cautionary tale. Similar battles are erupting across the continent – from Stockton, California in the West to Heartland cities like Pittsburgh and to Trenton, New Jersey in the East. The reason is the same. The enormous unfunded liability of public sector wages and benefits makes taxes and fees soar even as government ‘services’, like garbage collection and street lights, decline.”

http://dollarvigilante.com/blog/2014/2/5/us-towns-declaring-bankruptcy-are-the-lucky-ones.html

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Supreme Court hands police more warrantless home search powers

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“The US Supreme Court has ruled that police may search a home without obtaining a warrant despite the objection of one occupant if that occupant has been removed from the premises.  With its 6 to 3 decision in Fernandez v. California on Tuesday, the Court sided with law enforcement’s ability to conduct warrantless searches after restricting police powers with its 2006 decision on a similar case.  Prior to Randolph and Fernandez, the Court ruled in the 1974 case United States v. Matlock that any one of the co-tenants in a home can consent to a police search of the premises.”

http://rt.com/usa/police-warrantless-search-permission-744/

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Should it be illegal to criticize a Congressman?

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“A political committee called the Susan B. Anthony List (SBA) wanted to erect billboards criticizing an incumbent congressman.  The congressman complained to the Ohio Elections Commission (OEC).  The OEC found probable cause that the SBA billboards violated the law!  Fearing prosecution, the billboard company refused the ads.  So much for free expression. But it gets worse…   The congressman lost re-election. He then strategically withdrew his complaint.  Two federal courts declined to hear the case, since no one was currently being prosecuted. But the Supreme Court disagreed. They’re taking the case.”

https://secure.downsizedc.org/blog/should-it-be-illegal-to-criticize-a-congressman

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California town’s police chief, officers arrested in impound racket

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“The acting police chief and two officers in a rural California town were removed from duty after being arrested on suspicion of selling or giving away the impounded cars of poor residents, authorities said.  The former police chief also was taken into custody Tuesday in the scheme in King City, an agricultural town of 13,000 people about 150 miles southeast of San Francisco.  Prosecutors said an undetermined number of vehicles were sold or given away for free when the owners couldn’t pay fees to reclaim them.  Investigators said the scheme focused on poor Hispanic residents.  In some cases, authorities said, officers simply kept the cars for their own use.”

http://www.dailybreeze.com/general-news/20140226/one-third-of-california-towns-police-on-leave-or-arrested-in-connection-with-scheme-to-take-impounded-cars

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Hundreds of nonsense articles found in peer-reviewed science journals

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“Two major science publishers, Springer and IEEE, are in the process of removing more than 120 published studies from their databases after they were discovered to be SCIgen-generated nonsense.  Eric Merkel-Sobotta at Springer Science and Business Media told the Star the company had been alerted to 16 allegedly fake articles two weeks ago, and has been working ever since to confirm the claims. Springer publishes over 2,000 journals.  All the papers appeared in peer-reviewed conference proceedings, Merkel-Sobotta said. All the supposed authors had Chinese names, but it’s still not clear whether any or all of them are fake.”

http://www.thestar.com/news/the_world_daily/2014/02/nonsense_articles_discovered_in_reputable_science_journals__peer_review_saga_continues.html

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Weather seems to blame for U.S. slowdown, Fed’s Yellen says

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“Unusually harsh winter weather appears to be behind recent signs of weakness in the U.S. economy, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday, suggesting the central bank was poised to press forward in ratcheting back its stimulus.  Testifying to the Senate Banking Committee, Yellen said the Fed would watch carefully to ensure weather was indeed the culprit, but she reiterated that it would take a ‘significant change’ to the economy’s prospects for the Fed to put plans to wind down its bond-buying program on hold.  The world’s largest economy added fewer than 200,000 jobs combined in December and January, well below expectations.”

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/yellen-nods-cold-weather-says-unclear-impact-economy-153623205–sector.html

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Janet Yellen: Fed Has No Authority To Regulate Bitcoin

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“‘Bitcoin is a payment innovation that’s taking place outside the banking industry. To the best of my knowledge there’s no intersection at all, in any way, between Bitcoin and banks that the Federal Reserve has the ability to supervise and regulate. So the fed doesn’t have authority to supervise or regulate Bitcoin in anyway.  [..]  One concern with Bitcoin is the potential for money laundering. [FinCen] has indicated their money laundering statutes are adequate to meet enforcement needs. [..]  It’s not so easy to regulate Bitcoin because there’s no central issuer or network operator. This is a decentralized, global [entity].  [..] We’re looking at this,’ she concluded.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/yellen-on-bitcoin-2014-2

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Vietnam says bitcoin transactions are illegal

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“Vietnam’s communist government said trading in bitcoin and other electronic currencies is illegal, and warned its citizens not to use or invest in them. Currencies like bitcoin are unnerving financial regulators in Asia and elsewhere because they are outside of their control. Established banks don’t like them because people can send the money around the world with any fees.  There are a few websites that claim to offer bitcoin in exchange for Vietnamese dong, but it’s unclear whether they have done any trading so far. Aside from an investment and buying goods and services online, bitcoin could be used by Vietnam’s diaspora to sends home remittances.”

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2014-02-27/vietnam-says-bitcoin-transactions-are-illegal

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