Bright Hall http://brighthall.aol.com Bright Hall http://brighthall.aol.com/media/feedlogo.gif Bright Hall http://brighthall.aol.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/U.S. Cabinet to Eliminate Dozens of Government Programshttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/19/u-s-cabinet-to-eliminate-dozens-of-government-programs/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/19/u-s-cabinet-to-eliminate-dozens-of-government-programs/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/19/u-s-cabinet-to-eliminate-dozens-of-government-programs/#commentsFiled under: , ,

President Barack Obama announced an initiative to reduce "wasteful" government spending in his weekly address on Saturday.

"Billions are squandered on programs that have outlived their usefulness, or exist solely because of the power of a lobbyist or interest group," Obama said.

An agenda topic at Monday's first full Cabinet meeting will be budget cut proposals from each federal department and agency.

In his Saturday address, Obama named two specific budget cuts recently made: firstly, the Department of Homeland Security is no longer spending $3 million on logo updates. The DHS was created less than 7 years ago and the reason that the logo needed a $3 million update so soon remains to be seen.

The second budget cut is the saving of an estimated "hundreds of billions of dollars in wasteful spending and cost overruns" in the Department of Defense. According to the DoD's FY 2008 Agency Financial Report, the Department's available resources were $1.1 trillion, which primarily consisted of $736.4 billion in appropriations. The net cost of operations was $676 billion. A possible budget cut is no longer appropriating $736.4 billion to tally $1.1 trillion in resources when net operating costs are only $676 billion.

Obama pledged to announce "the elimination of dozens of government programs shown to be wasteful or ineffective. In this effort, there will be no sacred cows, and no pet projects."

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-04-19T13:53:00+00:00Obama Announces $13 Billion Train Projecthttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/17/obama-announces-13-billion-train-project/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/17/obama-announces-13-billion-train-project/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/17/obama-announces-13-billion-train-project/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced a $13 billion high-speed American rail transit development project on Thursday.

The transportation project will be funded by an initial down payment of $8 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds and an additional $1 billion per year for five years, beginning with the 2010 budget.

Ten regional rail systems have been identified for the project: the California Corridor, the Pacific Northwest Corridor, the South Central Corridor, the Gulf Coast Corridor, the Chicago Hub Network, the Florida Corridor, the Southeast Corridor, the Keystone Corridor, the Empire Corridor and the Northern New England Corridor.

Amtrak, the passenger rail system founded in 1971, operates with revenue below expenses and receives an annually increasing federal subsidy reaching $6.3 million for fiscal year 2013, as mandated in the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008.

Additionally, Amtrak received $1.3 billion of the 2009 ARRA funds.

The difference between the existing rail transit system that operates at a $6.3 million annual deficit and the proposed rail transit system which will presumably operate at a staggering deficit, as well, is that the new rail transit system will have 150-mile-per-hour trains. Why have one underutilized, operationally inadequate transit system when American travelers can have two that are rarely used?

Of course, the new $13 billion high-speed train system is meant to serve as a disincentive for American travelers to drive the 100,000 automobiles that the Obama Administration encouraged them to buy three weeks ago.

Spend lots of money on more cars, while already spending lots of money to subsidize one underutilized rail transit system, then spend lots of money to build another rail transit system, then stop driving the cars that cost lots of money and ride the new underutilized rail transit system that cost lots of money to build and costs lots of money to operate, instead, while there already was an underutilized transit system?

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-04-17T00:11:00+00:00GM Recalls 1.5 Million Cars, Prepares for Bankruptcyhttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/14/gm-recalls-1-5-million-cars-prepares-for-bankruptcy/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/14/gm-recalls-1-5-million-cars-prepares-for-bankruptcy/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/14/gm-recalls-1-5-million-cars-prepares-for-bankruptcy/#commentsFiled under: ,

General Motors will conduct a massive recall of 1.5 million cars in May while preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Six models, among three makes under the GM brand, spanning seven years of manufacture are being recalled due to a risk of engine compartment fire, according to the National Highway Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation.

The models being recalled include the 1997-2003 Buick Regal, the 2000-2003 Chevrolet Impala, the 1998-1999 Chevrolet Lumina, the 1998-2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, the 1998-1999 Oldsmobile Intrigue and the 1997-2003 Pontiac Grand Prix.

The New York Times reported on Monday that the Treasury Department is urging GM to prepare to file for bankruptcy on June 1, rather than reorganizing out of court before its 60-day deadline extension on the provisional $13.4 billion federal loans granted in December.

In that Times article, former GM President and current GM CEO Fritz Henderson (pictured) has been giving "increasingly clear signals that bankruptcy is probable," since replacing former GM CEO Rick Wagoner, who was pressured out of office by the Obama Administration for failing to effectively restructure the company before the original March 31 deadline.

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-04-14T23:33:00+00:00Bank Failures in 2009 Outpace 2008 Five-Foldhttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/12/bank-failures-in-2009-outpace-2008-five-fold/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/12/bank-failures-in-2009-outpace-2008-five-fold/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/12/bank-failures-in-2009-outpace-2008-five-fold/#commentsFiled under: ,

Two bank closings announced on Friday bring the tally of bank failures in 2009 up to 23 in just 15 weeks.

New Frontier Bank of Greeley, Colorado closed with $2.0 billion in assets and $1.5 billion in deposits. Cape Fear Bank of Wilmington, North Carolina closed with $492 million in assets and its $403 million deposits were absorbed by First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Charleston, South Carolina, according to FDIC Bank Failures and Assistance records.

The announcement of bank failures early in the second quarter of 2009 outpace those in 2008 five-fold. From January through May, 2008, four banks had failed. Throughout 2008, 24 banks closed nationwide, just one more than 2009 to date. In 2007, only three banks failed, according to FDIC records. There were no bank failures in either 2006 or 2005.

The results of recent bank stress tests are expected to be released by the end of April.

The basic FDIC insurance coverage limit for depositors is $250,000 per account, raised from the previous limit of $100,000 through December 31, 2009.

The FDIC provides a tool to help depositors of failed banks determine if their accounts are fully insured.

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-04-12T22:26:00+00:00Obama Okays Purchase of 17,600 American Carshttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/11/bailout-update-the-neverending-spending-on-automakers/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/11/bailout-update-the-neverending-spending-on-automakers/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/11/bailout-update-the-neverending-spending-on-automakers/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

The Obama Administration pledged to buy thousands of cars from American automakers that have been practically insolvent for months, in a press release dated April 9.

"The General Services Administration will spend $285 million of Recovery Act Funds to purchase about 17,600 commercially available fuel efficient vehicles for the government fleet before June 1, 2009," the press release states. "All purchases will be made from manufacturers with an existing contract with the GSA, which are General Motors, Chrysler and Ford. This includes the purchase of 2,500 hybrid sedans that will be ordered by April 15. This is the largest one-time purchase of hybrid vehicles for the federal government fleet in history."

Chrysler and GM had already been collectively granted $17.4 billion worth of Troubled Asset Relief Program loans in December, with the obligation to present the Obama Administration with restructuring plans to avoid bankruptcy by March 31. Having missed the deadline, they were granted another 30 and 60 days, respectively.

In other automaker bailout news, "the IRS is launching a campaign to alert consumers of a new tax benefit for auto purchases made between February 16th and the end of this year: if you buy a car, you may be able to deduct the cost of any sales and excise taxes," president Obama said in his remarks on March 30 regarding the failure of Chrysler and GM to restructure before the deadline. "This provision could save families hundreds of dollars and lead to as many as 100,000 new car sales," he added.

What part of spending $17.4 billion and then another $285 million in public funds saves taxpaying families hundreds of dollars? Or is "saving" a euphemism for relatively less rampant government spending?

And is that 100,000 new car sales plus the 17,600 purchased by the government, or is that actually just 80,000 new car sales plus the 17,600 purchased by the government to total "as many as 100,000 new car sales"? Because that sounds like the administration will be responsible for about 20% of what it suggests the private sector will do.

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-04-11T15:31:00+00:00Predictions Begin for End of Recessionhttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/09/white-house-economic-advisor-predicts-end-of-freefall-despite/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/09/white-house-economic-advisor-predicts-end-of-freefall-despite/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/09/white-house-economic-advisor-predicts-end-of-freefall-despite/#commentsFiled under: ,

White House National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers predicted that the U.S. economy's "free fall" will end mid-year, speaking at an Economic Club of Washington event on Thursday.

Summers' statements are in complete contrast with data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics within the past week.

"Labor market conditions continued to deteriorate in March," Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Keith Hall announced to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress on April 3. "Total non-farm payroll employment decreased by 663,000, and the unemployment rate increased from 8.1 to 8.5 percent."

"Since the beginning of the recession in December 2007," Hall continued, "job losses have totaled 5.1 million, 3.3 million of which occurred in just the past 5 months. These declines have been widespread across industry sectors, but particularly sharp in manufacturing, construction, and temporary help services. Together, these industries have accounted for nearly two-thirds of the job loss during the recession."

In fact, the last time that unemployment did not increase, month-over-month, was a year ago when there were 145,000 fewer unemployment claims in April than there were in March. From April 2008's trough at 5.0 percent unemployment, the rate has risen to 8.5 percent. Hall added that the employment-to-population ratio in March reached the lowest point since July 1985.

Again, in spite of the BLS report, White House National Economic Director Lawrence Summer stated "I think we can be reasonably confident that [economic trends are] going to end within the next few months and you will no longer have that sense of free fall."

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-04-09T23:21:00+00:00Ex-Microsoft Programmer Becomes World's Most Frequent Space Touristhttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/08/ex-microsoft-programmer-becomes-worlds-most-frequent-space-tour/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/08/ex-microsoft-programmer-becomes-worlds-most-frequent-space-tour/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/08/ex-microsoft-programmer-becomes-worlds-most-frequent-space-tour/#commentsFiled under: ,

The world's most frequent intragalactic tourist returned to Earth on Wednesday.

Charles Simonyi (pictured, left), who became the fifth commercial passenger of a space flight in 2007, is the first commercial passenger to have taken two trips to the International Space Station.

Simonyi, 60, formerly a prominent software engineer who contributed to the development of Microsoft Word and Excel, paid $25 million for the roundtrip flights and 10 days he spent on the ISS in April of 2007 and $35 million for the roundtrip flights and his 11 days' visit this year from March 26 to April 8.

Simonyi, a native Hungarian who immigrated to the U.S. in 1968 at age 20, was a passenger on Russia's Roskosmos Soyuz spacecraft for both flights. Multimillion-dollar commercial passenger seats will be temporarily unavailable while flights will serve to increase the ISS's long-term crew from three to six astronauts and/or cosmonauts and/or other types of whatever-nauts.

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-04-08T23:32:00+00:00Blagojevich Indicted While Vacationing in Disney Worldhttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/02/blagojevich-indicted-while-vacationing-in-disney-world/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/02/blagojevich-indicted-while-vacationing-in-disney-world/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/04/02/blagojevich-indicted-while-vacationing-in-disney-world/#commentsFiled under: ,

A federal grand jury indicted former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and five co-defendants on 16 felony counts, 19 total on Thursday. The felony counts include racketeering, conspiracy, wire fraud, and extortion conspiracy. If convicted, Blagojevich faces more than 300 years in prison and $4 million in fines.

Blagojevich is accused of having attempted to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama upon his election as the 44th President of the United States.

Milorad "Rod" Blagojevich's co-defendants are his brother, Robert, two former chiefs of staff, Alonzo Monk and John Harris, fundraiser Christopher G. Kelly, and William F. Cellini, Sr., a former casino owner and Illinois' first Secretary of Transportation.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Blagojevich was vacationing in Disney World with his family at the time of his indictment. Also vacationing in Disney World was his co-defendant brother's lawyer, with his family. It's a small world, after all.

According to the criminal complaint against Blagojevich, on November 5, 2008, within 24 hours of Obama's electoral victory, he told a person named only as Adviser A "I've got this (vacant Senate seat to appoint) and it's f***ing golden, and, uh, uh, I'm just not giving it up for f***in' nothing. I'm not gonna do it. And, and I can always use it. I can always parachute me there." Always?

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-04-02T23:45:00+00:00North Korea Detains Two American Journalistshttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/31/north-korea-detains-two-american-journalists-for-diplomatic-bla/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/31/north-korea-detains-two-american-journalists-for-diplomatic-bla/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/31/north-korea-detains-two-american-journalists-for-diplomatic-bla/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Two American journalists face five to ten years' detention in a North Korean labor camp after being seized by border guards and charged with "illegal entry" and carrying out "hostile" activities, according to a Reporters Sans Frontièrs (Reporters Without Borders) report dated March 31.

RSF, an international organization advocating and monitoring freedom of the press, reports that the journalists were near the Chinese border with North Korea investigating the smuggling of North Korean women into China for sale. RSF cites multiple anonymous sources that suspect that the American journalists were on the Chinese side of the Tumen River when North Korean border guards crossed into China to capture them on March 17, which contradicts North Korea's assertion and refutes their jurisdiction.

Euna Lee (pictured, left) and Laura Ling (pictured, right), of the San Francisco-based Current TV Web site, a media outlet chaired by former Vice President Al Gore, are detained in North Korea while their guide, an ethnic Korean with Chinese citizenship, is detained in China. A fourth member of the group arrested in the incident, cameraman Mitch Koss, was detained in China then deported.

RSF calls the detention of the two American journalists by North Korea "diplomatic blackmail," timed conspicuously around the scheduled missile launch to send a satellite into orbit, which some -- including Japan and the United States -- are concerned will be a test of long-range missiles capable of carrying warheads.

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-03-31T23:39:00+00:00Former Airport Worker Arrested After Stealing 600 Bagshttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/29/former-airport-worker-arrested-after-stealing-600-bags/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/29/former-airport-worker-arrested-after-stealing-600-bags/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/29/former-airport-worker-arrested-after-stealing-600-bags/#commentsFiled under: ,

A Dallas man faces 20 years in prison after being arrested and charged with stealing more than 600 pieces of luggage from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport and Tulsa International Airport.

Patrick Brown, 39, a former worker at D/FW Airport, stole an average of three bags per day from baggage claims between July 2008 and January 2009, according to D/FW Airport Public Safety. Luggage theft at D/FW Airport has tripled in the past five years.

Brown kept the stolen luggage in a storage unit and sold the contents and bags separately at the Traders Village flea market in Grand Prairie, about 15 miles south of D/FW Airport, according to police in a story by Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA.

"This guy accounts for probably more than half of our baggage thefts we've had out here," D/FW Airport Public Safety Vice President Alan Black said in the WFAA report. "It's a mini-crime wave that's come to an end."

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-03-29T00:01:00+00:00Brits to Teach Twitter and Wikipedia In Schoolshttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/28/brits-to-teach-tots-twitter-and-wikipedia-instead-of-world-war-i/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/28/brits-to-teach-tots-twitter-and-wikipedia-instead-of-world-war-i/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/28/brits-to-teach-tots-twitter-and-wikipedia-instead-of-world-war-i/#commentsFiled under: , ,

An anticipated report announcing changes in elementary school curriculum in England will add the study of Wikipedia and Twitter while allowing schools to opt out of teaching the Victorian era or World War II, which are taught extensively in secondary education.

Former Office for Standards in Education chief Sir Jim Rose assessed the existing British primary education curriculum and prioritized the study of blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter as "sources of information and forms of communication," according to The Guardian, which the BBC cites as breaking the story.

In The Guardian's article, head of education of Britain's National Union of Teachers, John Bangs, comments that "computer skills and keyboard skills seem to be as important as handwriting in [Rose's report]. Traditional books and written texts are downplayed in response to web-based learning."

Ironically, Wikipedia cites a Guardian article published in the past five years which cites a librarian and Internet consultant, Philip Bradley, stating that "theoretically, [Wikipedia] is a lovely idea, but practically, I wouldn't use it and I'm not aware of a single librarian who would. The main problem is the lack of authority. With printed publications, the publishers have to ensure that their data is reliable, as their livelihood depends on it. But with something like [Wikipedia], all that goes out the window."

That is, Wikipedia cites the latter Guardian article until any given person on the entire planet omits (knowingly or not) the citation from the Wikipedia wiki page about itself, throwing the link to the quote about throwing credibility out the window, out the window.

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-03-28T01:03:00+00:00Cheney and Obama Debate Policies on TV, A Week Aparthttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/22/cheney-and-obama-debate-policies-on-tv-week-apart/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/22/cheney-and-obama-debate-policies-on-tv-week-apart/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/22/cheney-and-obama-debate-policies-on-tv-week-apart/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

President Barack Obama will respond to policy critiques from former Vice President Dick Cheney in televised interviews aired a week apart.

During Cheney's March 15 appearance on CNN's State of the Nation he stated that "When you go back to the law enforcement mode, which I sense is what [the Obama administration is] doing, closing Guantanamo and so forth... they are very much giving up that center of attention and focus that's required, that concept of military threat that is essential if you're going to successfully defend the nation against further attacks."

During Obama's Sunday night appearance on CBS' 60 Minutes he will respond to Cheney's criticism: "How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney? It hasn't made us safer. What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment," according to a CBS release from Saturday.

Regarding the changing of anti-American sentiment through policy, Hamas Chairman Khaled Mashal told Italy's La Repubblica newspaper that "a new language toward [the Middle East region] is coming from President Obama. The challenge for everybody is for this to be the prelude for a genuine change in U.S. and European policies. Regarding an official opening toward Hamas, it's a matter of time," as reported by Reuters on Sunday.

Mashal, a political leader of the Palestinian militant party that has governed Gaza since 2007, was referring to Obama's video message for Nowruz, the March 21 new year celebration observed in regions of the former Persian empire, including Iran and Afghanistan.

In Obama's message to Islamic nations, the president specifically addressed Iran: "The United States wants the Islamic Republic of Iran to take its rightful place in the community of nations. You have that right, but it comes with real responsibilities, and that place cannot be reached through terror or arms, but rather through peaceful actions that demonstrate the true greatness of the Iranian people and civilization. And the measure of that greatness is not the capacity to destroy, it is your demonstrated ability to build and create."

Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei publicly responded to Obama's Nowruz message with more reservation than Mashal, but he added that Iran wants the U.S. to "take concrete steps toward decreasing tension."

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-03-22T14:00:00+00:00U.S. Nuclear Sub Rammed Vessel, Caused Oil Spillhttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/22/u-s-nuclear-sub-rammed-vessel-caused-oil-spill/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/22/u-s-nuclear-sub-rammed-vessel-caused-oil-spill/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/22/u-s-nuclear-sub-rammed-vessel-caused-oil-spill/#commentsFiled under: ,

An American nuclear submarine collided with another U.S. Navy vessel which spilled 25,000 gallons of oil into a strait in the Persian Gulf before dawn on Friday.

Fifteen of the 110 sailors aboard the USS Hartford, the Los Angeles class attack submarine, were injured. The Hartford also made international headlines in 2003 when it ran aground near Italy. Aside from the ruptured fuel tank, no injuries were reported aboard the USS New Orleans (pictured), the transport vessel struck by the Hartford, which was submerged at the time of the collision.

This is the second collision in the Strait of Hormuz involving an American nuclear submarine in the past two years. In January of 2007, the USS Newport News, another Los Angeles class attack submarine, collided with a Japanese oil tanker, causing a hull breach. Although there were no injuries in that collision, the commander of the Newport News was relieved of duty.

The Strait of Hormuz is 34 miles wide at its narrowest point. The New Orleans, the larger of the two vessels involved in the recent collision, is only 684 feet long.

Friday's collision occurred just six weeks after British and French nuclear submarines collided in the Atlantic Ocean in early February.

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-03-22T00:01:00+00:00U.S. To Send "Civilian Surge" To Afghanistanhttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/19/u-s-to-send-civilian-surge-to-afghanistan/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/19/u-s-to-send-civilian-surge-to-afghanistan/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/19/u-s-to-send-civilian-surge-to-afghanistan/#commentsFiled under: , ,

The Obama administration is finalizing a new focus in the continuing war on terror in Afghanistan and Pakistan: civility.

While increasing the military personnel deployed in Afghanistan by 17,000 to 55,000 in 2009, the United States also plans to increase the staff of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and other provincial reconstruction teams, or PRTs, by nearly 300, a policy that the Washington Post has called a "civilian surge." Few of the 1,055 existing members of PRTs to date are civilians.

Rather than continuing simply to saturate Afghanistan with U.S. soldiers, the focus on its civil development will include policy reform and instruction from specialists in federal departments of Agriculture and Justice, among others, in effect utilizing the United States government as a public global consulting firm, nation-building the third world, one nation at a time, on U.S. taxpayers' dollars.

This is an attempt to stave off Afghanistan's digression toward the status of a "failed state," as the U.N. has warned in the last few years (pictured: U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, left, and Afghanistani President Hamid Karzai).

Afghanistan ranked seventh on 2008's failed state index, having continued to rise since coming in at 11th in 2005.

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-03-19T00:04:00+00:00Former Journalist Wins Presidency, Implicated in Liberal Media Conspiracyhttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/17/former-journalist-wins-presidency-implicated-in-liberal-media-c/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/17/former-journalist-wins-presidency-implicated-in-liberal-media-c/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/17/former-journalist-wins-presidency-implicated-in-liberal-media-c/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Former TV news journalist Mauricio Funes (pictured) of the Social-Democrat FMLN party defeated rival presidential candidate Rodrigo Ávila in the first ruling party change in El Salvador in nearly two decades during Sunday's election. Sitting Salvadoran president Antonia Saca of the rival conservative ARENA party was also a former journalist. Incumbent presidents may not run for re-election.

Note: one out of two former journalists to become president of El Salvador in the past decade is conservative.

Would "a rose by any other name still smell so" rebellious?

Fox News' syndicated AP story ran with the headline "Leftist Ex-CNN Reporter Wins El Salvador Presidency."

The Huffington Post's syndication of a Washington Post story ran with the headline "Mauricio Funes Wins El Salvador Election In A First For Leftist Ex-Rebels," while the original Washington Post story ran with the headline "Leftist Declares Victory In El Salvador Election.

Even the BBC ran their story with the headline "Left-Winger Wins El Salvador Poll."

Although Funes represented the FMLN party, which was founded by Marxist guerillas in the Salvadoran civil war that ended in 1991, the AP story states that he is "a moderate plucked from outside the ranks of the rebel-group-turned-political-party," who won with 51 to 49 percent of the votes. How left-of-center can a two percent popular vote victor in a country that hasn't had a non-conservative ruler in nearly two decades be?

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-03-17T00:02:00+00:00Federal Reserve Chairman Guessing About Economyhttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/15/federal-reserve-chairman-guessing-about-economy/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/15/federal-reserve-chairman-guessing-about-economy/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/15/federal-reserve-chairman-guessing-about-economy/#commentsFiled under: ,

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is still guessing about the economy.

In Bernanke's 60 Minutes interview on Sunday he sagely predicted that "we'll see the recession coming to an end probably this year. We'll see recovery beginning next year. And it will pick up steam over time."

Probably.

Probably, nine months or so from now the economy will stop declining. Probably some time next year the recovery will begin.

Probably next year. Maybe the year after next. Who knows?

He should! He's the Federal Reserve Chairman!

In other words, the Federal Reserve has no influence on daily, weekly or even monthly economic fluctuations. The soonest that they can speculate that their efforts might be productive is a year from now, and even then, it's not even certain.

Regarding the likelihood of a protracted depression, Bernanke commented "I think we've averted that risk. I think we've gotten past that."

He thinks; he doesn't know for certain. And if he doesn't, nobody does.

Let's just hope the economy's better than Bernanke's best guess.

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-03-15T19:43:00+00:00China Worried About Money U.S. Owes Themhttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/14/china-worried-about-money-u-s-owes-them/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/14/china-worried-about-money-u-s-owes-them/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/14/china-worried-about-money-u-s-owes-them/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao expressed concerns about the increasing U.S. debt and the lasting recession in a news conference on Friday.

Roughly 70 percent of China's $2 trillion foreign exchange reserves are U.S. government loans. China is the biggest holder of the $10.9 trillion U.S. government debt in the world, followed closely by Japan who, along with the United Kingdom share more than 50 percent of it.

"We have lent a massive amount of capital to the United States, and of course we are concerned about the security of our assets," a recent Reuters article quoted Wen as saying on Friday.

"To speak truthfully, I do indeed have some worries. I would like [...] to once again request America to maintain their creditworthiness, keep their promise and guarantee the safety of Chinese assets."

Wen also expressed concern for the key interest rate, which the Federal Reserve bank has held at virtually zero percent for the past three months, which is decreasing the value of China's U.S. bond holdings. The rate dropped from one percent to an unprecedented quarter of one percent on December 16.

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-03-14T16:53:00+00:00Madoff to Plead Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guiltyhttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/10/madoff-to-plead-guilty-guilty-guilty-guilty-guilty-guilty/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/10/madoff-to-plead-guilty-guilty-guilty-guilty-guilty-guilty/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/10/madoff-to-plead-guilty-guilty-guilty-guilty-guilty-guilty/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Bernard Madoff is expected to plead guilty to all 11 criminal charges at his plea proceeding scheduled for 10 a.m. on Thursday, according to the U.S Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York handling his trial. A plea arrangement has not been reached and therefore none of the charges Madoff faces will be waived.

The charges against Madoff, with their maximum penalties, are as follows:

Charge One: securities fraud; 20 years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Two: investment advisor fraud; five years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Three: mail fraud; 20 years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Four: wire fraud; 20 years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Five: international money laundering to promote fraud in the sale of securities, mail fraud, wire fraud, and theft from an employee benefit plan; 20 years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Six: international money laundering to conceal the proceeds of fraud in the sale of securities, mail fraud, wire fraud and theft from an employee benefit plan; 20 years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Seven: money laundering; 10 years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Eight: making false statements; five years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Nine: perjury; five years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Ten: making a false filing with the SEC; 20 years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Eleven: theft from an employee benefit plan; five years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

The total maximum term of imprisonment for the charges to which Madoff is expected to plead guilty is 150 years. He is 70.

Additionally, for the crimes Madoff has been committing since "at least" the 1980s, he must forfeit $170.8 billion in assets.

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-03-10T23:18:00+00:00U.S. Hospitals NEED Nurses, Educatorshttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/08/u-s-hospitals-need-nurses-educators/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/08/u-s-hospitals-need-nurses-educators/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/08/u-s-hospitals-need-nurses-educators/#commentsFiled under: ,

The United States needs a cure for two growing job market shortages, nursing and nursing educators.

A recent Reuters article estimates 116,000 registered nurse vacancies at hospitals nationwide and another 100,000 nursing home positions unstaffed as the 78 million Americans in the Baby Boomer generation reach retirement age and will increase the demand on the healthcare system.

In 2008, 50,000 qualified nursing students were turned away due to a lack of nursing educators, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

A cause of the educator deficit is that Master's nurses who are qualified to instruct nursing students can earn 20% more working at an already understaffed hospital rather than teaching, an estimated $82,000 compared to $68,000.

To address the nursing education problem, Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) resuscitated the Nurse Education, Expansion and Development (NEED, get it? eh...) Act last week, which he has been promoting since 2004.

With the increasing need and the shortage of existing educators, as well as the potential for an increase in federally-assisted funding, nursing educators could be the next growth trend throughout the next decade. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a 23% increase in most healthcare professions, overall, from 2006 through 2016, so scrub up and cash in.

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-03-08T17:07:00+00:00Senate Banking Chairman Sponsoring Half Trillion Dollar FDIC Billhttp://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/07/senate-banking-chairman-sponsoring-half-trillion-dollar-fdic-bil/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/07/senate-banking-chairman-sponsoring-half-trillion-dollar-fdic-bil/http://brighthall.aol.com/2009/03/07/senate-banking-chairman-sponsoring-half-trillion-dollar-fdic-bil/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) is cosponsoring a new congressional bill to increase the borrowing authority of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

S. 541, the Depositor Protection Act of 2009, was introduced on March 5 after the written request of FDIC Chair Sheila Bair, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

"This mechanism would allow the FDIC to respond expeditiously to emergency situations that may involve substantial risk to the financial system," Bernanke said in his Feb. 2 letter written to Dodd (pictured).

If passed, the Depositor Protection Act would grant the FDIC the authority to borrow $500 billion for the deposit insurance fund, preparing for continued bank failures and depositors who would withdraw their account funds in full. The deposit insurance fund balance dropped 64% in 2008 to $19 billion. Individual bank accounts are insured up to $250,000.

Throughout 2008, 25 American banks failed. During the first two months of 2009, 17 more banks failed.

As of March 6, four Republican and two Democrat Senators cosponsored the bill with Dodd.

 

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]]>Adam Kirchner2009-03-07T15:10:00+00:00