September 5, 2012

Naomi Klein: Unacceptable risks in pipeline expansion to Vancouver

Published on Sep 3, 2012 by digitalmonkblog

Author Naomi Klein speaks out against plans to expand the Kinder Morgan pipeline to the Port of Vancouver. She presents a case to 'stop this outrageous plan to turn Vancouver into a major port for dirty oil'. Klein says that opposition to dirty oil pipelines is growing all over the North American continent. Naomi Klein was one of many speakers at the Salish Sea Festival in North Vancouver on September 2, 2012.

September 5, 2012

Keiser Report: War, Whores & Welfare

Published on Sep 4, 2012 by RussiaToday

In this episode, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss boom boom sticks and squeaky wheels and ask whether spending on the military is more libertarian than spending on teaching prostitutes to drink responsibly. And they envision a post leveraged buyout America in which we open up Fort Knox and find only a printer. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to Karl Denninger of Market-Ticker.org and the Florida Libertarian Party about jack-booted statists in libertarian clothing.

September 5, 2012

Hurricane Isaac left the Gulf Coast ankle-deep in dead swamp rats

http://grist.org/list/hurricane-isaac-left-the-gulf-coast-ankle-deep-in-dead-swamp-rats/


Hurricane Isaac left the Gulf Coast ankle-deep in dead swamp rats
By Sarah Laskow


Fur farmers brought nutria, the South American rodent, into the United States more than a century ago in order to raise the little buggers and harvest their coats. Like anyone destined to become a fur coat would do, many of them escaped into the wilds of the New World and spread far and wide. Now there are droves of them across the country, including along the Gulf Coast, where they escaped from Louisiana fur farms and went feral in the 1930s. And unlike some invasive species, eating them won’t clear them out; Louisiana tried to encourage it in the ‘90s, but everyone found the concept way too gross.

Nutria are still all over the Gulf Coast today. But there are at least 5,000 fewer of them than there were before Hurricane Isaac.



There is a sort of divine justice at work here. Nutria are terrible for wetlands: they scurry around and eat up entire swaths of plants, lessening the protection against hurricanes that these ecosystems offer. Nutria destroy wetlands, hurricanes destroy nutria — it’s like the circle of life, but with more damp rodents.

September 5, 2012

Samsung Dominates Western European Phone Market In Q2, Apple Impacted By iPhone 5 Rumors: IDC

from International Business Times:



On the heels of a positive first quarter, the Western European mobile phone market failed to maintain a positive trend due to a weaker economic environment and the new product launches expected in the third quarter, said a new report by market research firm IDC. The total shipments of devices dropped 1.9 percent year on year to 42.1 million units.

According to the report, the feature phone segment continued to decline, with shipments down 30 percent to 14.7 million units, compared with 21.1 million during the same quarter last year.

However, the feature phone segment continues to be supported by the lowest price bands - 58 percent of total feature phone shipments were under €60 ($75.2) and the highest growth in the segment came from the €20 - €40 ($25 - $50) price band.

Although the total smartphone shipments increased 26 percent year on year to 27.4 million units in Q2, 2012, it was not enough to offset the decline in feature phones. Smartphones accounted for 65 percent of total shipments. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/380791/20120905/samsung-western-european-phone-market-iphone-5.htm

September 5, 2012

Detroit News: LaHood reports progress on regional transit

LaHood reports progress on regional transit

By David Shepardson
Detroit News Washington Bureau


Ann Arbor — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood met with Gov. Rick Snyder and the state Senate Republican leader Tuesday and said progress is being made on the long-stalled regional transit authority.

LaHood praised the meeting with Sen. Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, and said he planned to meet with House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, early next month.

"I believe within the next month or so we will be able to make some announcements and we're making a lot of progress and I things are moving in the right direction," LaHood said.

In February 2010, the Transportation Department awarded $25 million for Detroit light rail as part of a 9.3-mile, $500 million project that was to travel up Woodward to Eight Mile. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120822/METRO05/208220340#ixzz25bS9x2pL

September 5, 2012

Anti-tax and anti-spelling

September 5, 2012

Metro Detroit: LaHood reports progress on regional transit

LaHood reports progress on regional transit

By David Shepardson
Detroit News Washington Bureau


Ann Arbor — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood met with Gov. Rick Snyder and the state Senate Republican leader Tuesday and said progress is being made on the long-stalled regional transit authority.

LaHood praised the meeting with Sen. Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, and said he planned to meet with House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, early next month.

"I believe within the next month or so we will be able to make some announcements and we're making a lot of progress and I things are moving in the right direction," LaHood said.

In February 2010, the Transportation Department awarded $25 million for Detroit light rail as part of a 9.3-mile, $500 million project that was to travel up Woodward to Eight Mile. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120822/METRO05/208220340#ixzz25bS9x2pL

September 5, 2012

Chicago: Riders Blast CTA 'De-Crowding' Plan at Hearing

Source: Chicago Tribune
Created: September 5, 2012


Sept. 05 -- More than 100 CTA riders attended a public hearing Tuesday on a proposal billed as enhancing bus and train service. But most people who testified denounced the crowding-reduction strategy as a trick by transit officials to slash much-needed bus routes.

Senior citizens, disabled riders, people who work late-night shifts and 9-to-5 commuters said the CTA should be focused on increasing service, not cutting it back.

They criticized the CTA for basing its service-restructuring proposals on an analysis conducted by transportation experts at Northwestern University rather than going to riders via neighborhood surveys.

"The process smells of a sham. One meeting in an overcrowded room," Uptown resident Michael Dannhauser complained to CTA President Forrest Claypool and the six CTA board members in attendance. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.masstransitmag.com/news/10773901/il-riders-blast-cta-de-crowding-plan-at-hearing

September 5, 2012

Drug-war booty

from the Detroit Metro Times:


Drug-war booty

By Larry Gabriel
Published: September 5, 2012


There are reasons why police smile when they trot out the booty from a drug bust. And it's not just because they got a bunch of drugs off the street. In addition to drugs, they usually confiscate money, computers, jewelry, guns, cars, bank accounts, homes and more. What makes the police officers' smiles so big is that, other than the drugs, they get to keep everything they took.

Asset forfeiture is the confiscation by police or governments of the alleged ill-gotten gains of crime. If the police deem you to be a drug dealer, or even user, they can pretty much take whatever you have up to $100,000 without having to get anyone's permission. If the amount is more than $100,000, law enforcement must institute a court proceeding in order to keep the asset.

The intent of the law is to take the profit out of crime and financially hamper the criminal element. The problem is that they can keep anybody's stuff even if they are never convicted of a crime. Hell, they don't even have to charge you with a crime to take your stuff. And police are taking plenty in Michigan.

"If you total everything together, in 2009 forfeitures totaled a net of $33,941,000," says state Rep. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor). "It's a big number." ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://metrotimes.com/mmj/drug-war-booty-1.1368275

September 5, 2012

Students, Beware: Private Student-Loan Companies Are Not Your Friends

from The Nation:


Students, Beware: Private Student-Loan Companies Are Not Your Friends

Kay Steiger
September 4, 2012


Once again, student-loan season is upon us. As a new class of freshmen ships off for a hopeful first year of college or trade school, many are as busy figuring out financial arrangements as lining up classes. It wasn’t always this way, but as education has become both more costly and more necessary, many students feel they don’t have any other choice. And so they borrow $10,000, $25,000, as much as $100,000, often unaware of the unforgiving nature of the debt they’re taking on.

This year, as these students prepare to sign away their futures, they would do well to consider a report released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). On July 20, the agency designed by Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren released “Private Student Loans,” a devastating expose of the $150 billion private student loan industry, one of the banking world’s Goliaths. The report is both an official account of private lenders’ underhanded “subprime-style” tactics as well as a sharp warning against taking out private loans that put students at risk of financial ruin.

As described in the report, the student-loan industry is a villainous enterprise, set on scamming some of the country’s most eager and vulnerable citizens. Anchored by lending giants like Sallie Mae and bolstered by some for-profit colleges that lend to their own students, it bears all the hallmarks of some of the last decade’s other most predatory industries. Much like the mortgage industry, it used cheap-credit tactics to prey on low-information borrowers, typically students of color, effectively quadrupling in size between 2001 and 2008. And like the mortgage industry, it collapsed in the recession, leaving many students drowning in debt. Today, more than $8.1 billion worth of private student loans are in default.

Here’s one way the industry goes about its business: though private student loans typically come to students through a menu of lending options from a college or university’s financial aid office, along with federal options like Pell grants and subsidized Stafford loans, the CFPB report explains that many of these loans are offered directly to students without input from a financial aid office. This tactic, called “direct to consumer” lending, results in “significant over-borrowing.” This is problematic because “over-borrowing increases the likelihood of default, to the detriment of both borrower and lender.” ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/article/169728/students-beware-private-student-loan-companies-are-not-your-friends