San Francisco plans to ticket more people to cover budget in red A ticket is an arrest without being taken into custody. And the City of San Francisco plans to arrest many more residents via more tickets in order to cover its projected deficit. more San Francisco residents arrested to cover deficit
The new fiscal year doesn’t even begin until July 1, but the Municipal Transportation Agency’s budget for the next two years is already in the red. And the city plans to issue more parking tickets to help close that deficit.
The agency, which controls Muni, parking and traffic, faces a $19.8 million deficit over the next two years.
The deficit is due in large part to labor negotiations that failed to yield the concessions that had been projected when the budget was passed in April.
Instead of wringing $14.6 million in savings out of five unions representing maintenance, clerical and management workers, the agency will spend about $3 million over two years.
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If it’s too expensive then penalize the people.
Get mad people. JAJ48@aol.com
Rubio’s Dream Act imitated by Obama is highest form of flattery & now’s the time to implement immigration reform through LAW not temporary executive order
Let’s tell Rubio that it’s time to ‘strike while the iron is hot’. America does not need another Obama temporary fix. We need long term solutions.
Go forward, Rubio, with your proposed Dream Act legislation. America needs long term solutions on immigration — not another temporary fix.
Now is the time for conservative voters and Rubio to briefly THANK Obama for imitating the proposed Dream Act legislation.
After all, imitation is one of the highest forms of flattery. And Obama has flattered Rubio and the Republicans through his end-run implementing the proposed law before it becomes law.
Now is the time also for Rubio and Romney to remind Obama that it’s the President’s job to implement the laws made by congress. Mr. President — do your job and stay withing the confines of your job. And let congress do their job — which is to make the laws.
It’s also a fine time to remind Obama that all of his TEMPORARY FIXES [temporary pay roll taxes, dollars for clunkers, first time home owners get one time cash] cause uncertainty as the rules can always be changed.
We need long term solutions not one temporary fix after another. Certainty comes through the Rule of Law not by executive fiat.
Why California is broke: California government does not ‘shop’ for best price for i-Pads for senior workers. www.nbcsandiego.com/
Gov. Jerry Brown made a big deal of taking cell phones and cars away from most state workers last year, but over at the state Department of Insurance 31 senior staffers are getting iPads – for about $1,000 per device.
The iPad 2s were handed out as part of a pilot program to “increase efficiency” and enhance the department’s “paperless/green initiatives,” according to department spokesman Byron Tucker.
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They forgot about the excess “green” it costs when they buy with other people’s money.
Obama part of the 1% who don't use cash or credit cards to pay for lunch
Obama is part of the 1% who go to lunch without cash or credit cards.
Amid the bustle of President Obama’s surprise stop for barbecue Wednesday the White House apparently overlooked one key detail: the bill.
Celebrating Father’s Day early, the president had lunch with two service members and two local barbers at Kenny’s BBQ on Capitol Hill.
As the group chatted about fatherhood, the president enjoyed a steaming plate of pork ribs with hot sauce, collard greens, red beans and rice and cornbread.
The bill for the president and his four guests was $55.58, but was left unpaid at the point of sale, according to pool reports.
The White House corrected the oversight and settled up the tab by the end of the business day.
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This from the president who just finished some tortured metaphor about unpaid dinners. [Obama at a community college that day blames Republicans for 8 years of big steak diners who left the bill unpaid]
JAJ48@aol.com http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/109312
Police in Dorchester County, S.C., used a Taser on a nude 80-year-old woman after she allegedly attempted to attack police with her walking stick.
WCSC reports that when police answered a complaint of someone making loud noises in the area, they were met by an elderly woman wearing no clothes on her porch, reportedly hitting the steps of her porch with her cane.
According to police, the woman, who spoke “confusingly,†began to swing her cane at the officers when police tried to take it away from the nude woman. As police continued to talk the woman out of swinging her cane at them, another officer used his Taser on the woman’s back. The woman was immediately transported to a nearby medical facility for treatment.
When police investigated the area, they discovered that the woman, a former tenant, had broken three windows at the property after the owner attempted to give the deposit back to the woman.
Behar co-host of The View hopes Romney's house burns supposed to be funny
Thus speaks Joy Behar: “I mean, I’d like to see his house burn, one of his millions of houses burning down. Who’s he going to call, the Mormon fire patrol?”
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yellow haze in China A thick green and yellowish haze in China caused by straw? Young and old residents of the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan were advised to stay indoors on Monday after a thick haze blanketed the city of nine million people, official media said.thick haze covers Chinese city of 9 million supposedly caused by straw
Described by residents as opaque with yellowish and greenish tinges, the fug descended suddenly in the morning, prompting people to rush to put on face masks, witnesses told AFP.
The official Xinhua news agency quoted the environmental protection department of Hubei province saying in a statement: “Children, the elderly and people with heart or respiratory diseases are advised to stay indoors.”
Xinhua said straw burning was the cause and denied there had been any industrial accidents in or near Wuhan, after Internet rumours suggested there had been an explosion at a chemical complex northeast of the city.
Obama out of touch with Secretary of Commerce Bryson
Obama out of touch with his Commerce Secretary John Bryson.
On Monday morning, Washington awoke to learn that Commerce Secretary John Bryson had been involved in a series of auto accidents in southern California on Saturday evening, and cited with a felony hit-and-run by responding police. This news was of course shocking.
For several hours, the White House and the Commerce Department declined comment. In this vacuum, the rumors took a life of their own. Some speculated there was alcohol involved, despite initial police accounts that this was not the case. After official statements reported the cause of the accidents on seizures, the ire turned on that initial speculation, blaming the sardonic culture of Twitter.
Part of the blame surely lay at the feet of an inept White House communications operation, unable to provide the general public with any answers to the health and well-being of a cabinet secretary. This media stonewall continued in Press Secretary Jay Carney’s daily briefing.
In Carney’s first answer, we learned that President Obama had not spoken with Secretary Bryson. This seemed odd. A cabinet secretary is hospitalized following serious traffic incidents and a police citation and the president does not pick up the phone to check on his welfare?
Pressed for details, Carney continually directed questions to the Commerce Department. As if this matter had nothing to do with the White House. On the fifth question, Carney was asked: “So as the matter stands right now, is the Secretary healthy and fit to serve?†Carney referred the question to the Commerce Department.
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C’mon big guy pick up the phone. Or is this a preview of Obama-Care?
Maine gives real HOPE that damage of ObamaCare can be reversed
Maine has reversed the damage of ObamaCare. So maybe the rest of the states can avoid going down the ObamaCare path? Romney promises to get rid of ObamaCare on the first day of office. Below article is from the Wall Street Journal.
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“One tragedy of the Affordable Care Act is that we already know what its regulations will do to insurance markets, because the states have been conducting policy experiments since the 1990s. But we also know from the states that the damage is reversible, as shown by Maine’s emerging insurance turnaround.
In 1993, Augusta passed coverage laws that resemble those that ObamaCare is about to impose nationwide: Insurers could only vary premiums within narrow bands regardless of age or health status, a regulation known as community rating. Four of Maine’s five insurers in the individual market stopped offering coverage and fled, and the state entered an insurance “death spiral” in which premiums don’t cover underlying medical costs. That leads to higher premiums, consumers dropping coverage as a result, and still higher premiums in turn.
Then the 2010 electoral wave carried in Republican Governor Paul LePage and a GOP legislature, and they took modest steps to deregulate the insurance market. Insurers are now allowed to sell policies for premiums that range from 3 to 1 on the basis of age, rather than the prior 1.5 to 1, and to offer incentives or discounts for consumers to choose high-value providers.
The state also created a reinsurance fund that taxes all health plans by $4 a month. If someone ends up requiring extremely expensive care, the fund picks up some of the costs, which means insurers can better manage their future liabilities and pass the savings on to individuals.
The returns are now rolling in for the new coverage that can be offered starting on July 1, and premiums are falling by as much as 69% for Maine’s dominant insurer, Anthem.
According to the Maine Bureau of Insurance, a married couple age 40 to 44 with one child will pay $1,919 a month for a policy with a $2,250 deductible in 2013 if they choose to re-up their current policy. If the same family switches to the new health plan, or buys the plan for the first time, their premium will fall to $920, a 52% decrease. A couple over 60 could buy the same policy for $1,290, down from $2,466 under the old system. Or a young adult 25 to 29 could buy a high $10,000 deductible plan for catastrophic expenses for $232, previously $665.
The old and new products are not identical, so the comparison isn’t perfect. On top of the rule changes, the benefits are slightly different, such as separate deductibles for in- and out-of-network services. And many of the year-over-year reductions are less dramatic, in the range of 10% to 20%, while a few older consumers will see rate increases.
Still, any premium decrease is remarkable on the U.S. health cost escalator, which is being accelerated by ObamaCare. Maine consumers who choose to stay with their current policy (same benefits, old rules) will see an average premium rate increase of just 1.7% from 2012 to 2013—compared to an historical trend of about 10%. Some 46% of the existing book of business will see a rate decrease.
The major irony is that Maine’s reform merely brings its community rating rules into compliance with ObamaCare, which is actually less restrictive than the rules the state passed in 1993. The new national health law will block a further Maine liberalization that is due for 2016.
Maine learned the hard way that the most heavily regulated insurance markets are the most expensive. But the more ominous lesson out of Vacationland is for the 33 states that had the wit never to make the Maine-ObamaCare mistake. They’re the ones that are about to see premiums spike under the Affordable Care Act—perhaps by as much as 69%, and likely by far more.
A version of this article appeared May 31, 2012, on page A16 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: ObamaCare in Reverse.
