Monthly Archives: July 2014

PA police fear loss of federal funding for DUI checkpoints

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“Officers say they’re worried about grant funding that pays for the extra enforcement.  Police drunken driving task forces are paid from federal funds doled out by PennDOT annually.  PennDOT officials said they don’t know how much money will be available statewide in the coming fiscal year but $5.4 million was handed out in each of the past two years.   Cathy Tress, the Western Pennsylvania liaison for the Pennsylvania DUI Association, said the grant money pays for police overtime and equipment.  PennDOT data show that last year, there were 2,759 crashes from June 30 through July 9, of which 256 were alcohol-related.”

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/6376814-74/million-police-checkpoints

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U.S. Implements 4th of July ‘No Refusal’ Blood-Draw DUI Checkpoints

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“Some alarming new Independence Day traditions have emerged in the contemporary United States. State and local police across the country are preparing ‘no refusal’ DUI and DWI checkpoints at which citizens will be investigated for suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, not on the basis of their driving, but simply due to their geographic location.  Judicial officials will be on hand all throughout the holiday weekend to approve warrants, in some cases over the phone, that allow officers to take blood from citizens by force, which will then be examined for intoxicants. The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security has publicized its checkpoint locations.”

http://benswann.com/police-planning-4th-of-july-no-refusal-blood-draw-dui-checkpoints/

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Happy “No Refusal Day” 2014

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“Over the ‘Independence Day’ weekend citizens across the nation will celebrate the fourth day of July with a ‘blitz’ of ‘no-refusal’ blood-draw checkpoints. State troopers have renamed the weekend as ‘No Refusal Weekend.’  Drivers stopped by police who refuse to take an alcohol breath test will undergo a mandatory blood test either at the scene, at a medical facility or at the nearest jail. Anyone who even questions the breath test could also automatically lose their permission to drive for a year.  For those cities not officially implementing the ‘No Refusal Weekend’ they will likely be implementing a ‘Maximum Enforcement Weekend.’ Look for your region on the list.”

http://dollarvigilante.com/blog/2014/7/4/happy-no-refusal-day-2014.html

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Americans’ sense of freedom drops below Paraguay, Rwanda

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“This Independence Day, Americans will celebrate the nation’s core values, especially freedom. But according to a new international poll, Americans have become significantly ‘less satisfied with the freedom to choose what they want to do with their lives.’  Seventy-nine percent of US residents are satisfied with their level of freedom, down from 91 percent in 2006, according to the Gallup survey, released Tuesday.  That 12-point drop pushes the United States from among the highest in the world in terms of perceived freedom to 36th place, outside the top quartile of the 120 countries sampled, trailing Paraguay, Rwanda, and the autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2014/0701/Land-of-the-free-Not-so-much.-Americans-sense-of-freedom-drops-poll-finds

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Mobile Apps Bringing a Taste of the Free Market to China

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“With DiDi Dache, you simply list where you are and where you want to go, leave a voice message for prospective drivers, and in my experience, within 5 minutes you have a taxi.  Some have reported that they were able to take rides for just 2 yuan, approximately 33 cents. This is possible due to the company’s revenue model, where revenue comes not from taxi fares themselves, but instead from ‘location-based advertising,’ which uses geo-tagging to target riders with advertisements related to their location.  A unique feature of the app is that people seeking taxis are able to bid for rides if demand spikes and/or they want a faster response.”

http://isil.org/mobile-apps-bringing-a-taste-of-the-free-market-to-china/

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Under the Microscope: The Real Costs of a Dollar

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“Once upon a time, most paper currency in the world was backed by gold and directly exchangeable for it.  On August 15, 1971, US President Richard Nixon ended the Bretton Woods System (Ghizoni, 1971), in what is now known as ‘The Nixon Shock’, allowing all currencies to float freely, with only the backing of the faith and credit of their issuing sovereign state. This type of currency is known as ‘fiat currency’, i.e., currency that is given value by government decree (Keynes, et al., 1978). This report will not discuss the relative merits and drawbacks of gold-backed currency and fiat-money, only the triple-bottom-line impacts of each.”

http://www.coindesk.com/microscope-real-costs-dollar/

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Video shows California cop punching woman on L.A. freeway

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“In the incident, which happened in Los Angeles on Tuesday at an on-ramp to the Santa Monica Freeway, a California Highway Patrol officer appears to be attempting to stop a woman walking on the shoulder of the road and cutting across traffic. The video shows the officer pinning the woman on the ground and hitting her in the face and head until a second man — later identified by police as an off-duty plainclothes officer — arrives and helps the first officer handcuff the woman.  The woman ignored the officer’s command to stop and became ‘physically combative,’ according to a CHP statement Saturday.”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/07/05/la-police-assault-woman/12241601/

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Companies ‘work around’ U.S. oil export ban

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“Companies and federal officials are finding a way around a 1970s-era U.S. ban on crude oil exports by slightly processing some of the rising amounts of oil extracted from the nation’s shale deposits.  Texas-based Pioneer Natural Resources said Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Commerce has approved its plan to export an ultralight oil known as condensate produced in the state’s Eagle Ford Shale.  The U.S. government, since the 1970s Arab oil embargo, has largely banned the export of crude oil — except to Canada — as a way to keep the nation’s oil at home and protect American consumers from price shocks.”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/06/25/companies-work-around-crude-oil-export-ban/11349287/

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Hospitals profiling patients using their credit card purchase data

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“If this story didn’t have a Bloomberg byline, I would swear it was from last night’s edition of The Daily Show. Hospitals are now buying consumer purchasing data to figure out who smokes, who has a car, and who shops at Walmart or Whole Foods. The idea is to identify high-risk patients and help them choose a different path before it’s too late.  Does anyone remember Snowden? Does anyone still think big institutions can manage enormous sets of data carefully and ethically? What are the chances that the bottom line will win out over individuals?”

http://medcitynews.com/2014/06/patient-profiling-plan-unbelievable-naieve-doomed-faileure/

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Yellen Sees Little Threat to Financial Stability

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“Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Wednesday that she doesn’t see a need for the Fed to start raising interest rates to defuse the risk that extremely low rates could destabilize the financial system.  Yellen said she does see ‘pockets’ of increased risk-taking. But she said those threats could be addressed through greater use of regulatory tools, such as higher capital standards for banks.  Some critics of Fed policies have warned that the central bank could be setting the stage for another dangerous bubble by keeping rates so low for so long.  In her speech, Yellen said she didn’t see dangerous excesses in the financial system.”

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/yellen-sees-threat-financial-stability-24396872

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