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The U.S. Department of Education (ED) intends to purchase twenty-seven (27) REMINGTON BRAND MODEL 870 POLICE 12/14P MOD GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14″ – PARKERIZED CHOKE: MODIFIED SIGHTS: GHOST RING REAR WILSON COMBAT; FRONT – XS CONTOUR BEAD SIGHT STOCK: KNOXX REDUCE RECOIL ADJUSTABLE STOCK FORE-END: SPEEDFEED SPORT-SOLID – 14″ LOP are designated as the only shotguns authorized for ED based on compatibility with ED existing shotgun inventory, certified armor and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.

The required date of delivery is March 22, 2010.

Source/Full Story: Federal Business Opportunities

European countries are blocking Wall Street banks from lucrative deals to sell government debt worth hundreds of billions of euros in retaliation for their role in the credit crunch.

For the first time in five years, no big US investment bank appears among the top nine sovereign bond bookrunners in Europe, according to Dealogic data compiled for the Guardian. Only Morgan Stanley ranks at number 10.

Goldman Sachs doesn’t make the table. Goldman made it to number five last year and in 2006, and number eight in 2007, the data shows. JP Morgan was in the top ten last year and in 2007 and 2006 but doesn’t appear this year.

“Governments do not have the confidence that the excessive risk-taking culture of the big Wall Street banks has changed and they still cannot be trusted to put the stability of the financial system before profit,” said Arlene McCarthy, vice chair of the European parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee. “It is no surprise therefore that governments are reluctant to do business with banks that have failed to learn the lesson of the crisis. The banks need to acknowledge the mistakes that were made and behave in an ethical way to regain the trust and confidence of governments.”

Source/Full Story: guardian.co.uk

Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois is near the point of fiscal disintegration. “The state is in utter crisis,” said Representative Suzie Bassi. “We are next to bankruptcy. We have a $13bn hole in a $28bn budget.”

The state has been paying bills with unfunded vouchers since October. A fifth of buses have stopped. Libraries, owed $400m (£263m), are closing one day a week. Schools are owed $725m. Unable to pay teachers, they are preparing mass lay-offs. “It’s a catastrophe”, said the Schools Superintedent.

In Alexander County, the sheriff’s patrol cars have been repossessed; three-quarters of his officers are laid off; the local prison has refused to take county inmates until debts are paid.

Florida, Arizona, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York are all facing crises. California has cut teachers salaries by 5pc, and imposed a 5pc levy on pension fees.

The Economic Policy Institute says states face a shortfall of $156bn in fiscal 2010. Most are banned by law from running deficits, so they must retrench. Washington has provided $68bn in federal aid, but that depletes the Obama stimulus package.

Source/Full Story: Don’t go wobbly on us now, Ben Bernanke – Telegraph

Via: Jalopnik

The FBI just confirmed to us they raided the offices of Yazaki North America, Denso International and Tokai Rika (TRAM). Though all are Toyota supplies they’ve yet to confirm if this is a part of an ongoing probe into Toyota’s 1.4 million unit recall, and a larger antitrust action confirmed by Toyota to MSNBC.

According to Denso spokesperson Bridgette Gollinger “this is not related to the Toyota Recall investigation,” though she was unable to comment on what this was related to.

This announcement comes at the same time as Toyota Motor Corp. CEO Akio Toyoda takes the stand in Washington, DC and follows a report that the SEC was looking into the embattled automakers.

Source/Full Story: Jalopnik

The unemployment rate dropped unexpectedly in January to 9.7
percent, while employers shed 20,000 jobs, according to a report that
offered hope the economy will add jobs soon.

The unemployment rate dropped from 10 percent because a survey of
households found the number of employed Americans rose by 541,000, the
Labor Department said Friday. The job losses are calculated from a
separate survey of employers.

The department also revised its past employment estimates to show
that job losses from the Great Recession have been much worse than
previously stated. The economy has shed 8.4 million jobs since the
downturn began in December 2007, up from a previous figure of 7.2
million.

That’s the most jobs lost in any recession, as a percent of total employment, since World War II.

The figure for November was revised higher, however, to show a gain
of 64,000 jobs. That was initially reported as a gain of 4,000.

Source/Full Story: FOXNews.com

H1N1 influenza kills Native Americans and Alaskan Natives at four times the rate of the rest of the population, making immunizations critical for native people, say national health experts.

“The virus has hit Indian Country especially hard,” said Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Health and Human Services secretary.

Sebelius joined Dr. Yvette Roubideaux, director of Indian Health Services, and Dr. Ralph Bryan of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a teleconference Tuesday to introduce HHS’s new public service announcements. The announcements, starring Cherokee actor Wes Studi, focus on promoting H1N1 immunization in Native populations.

Sebelius said more Native Americans die from H1N1 complications because the population has a higher rate of underlying health issues, such as asthma, diabetes and heart disease.

Source/Full Story: rapidcityjournal.com

Europe’s unemployment rate unexpectedly increased to the highest in more than 11 years in November as companies cut costs in the wake of the worst recession in more than six decades.

Unemployment in the euro area rose to 10 percent from a revised 9.9 percent in October, the European Union statistics office in Luxembourg said today. That’s the highest since August 1998. Economists forecast a November rate of 9.9 percent after the 9.8 percent initially reported for October, a Bloomberg survey showed. The euro-area economy expanded 0.4 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months, according to a separate report.

European companies are cutting jobs and paring wages to shore up earnings battered by the global slump. While economic confidence has risen to a level last seen before the 2008 demise of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., a surge in energy costs and a stronger euro threaten to damp the recovery.

“We’ll probably see further gains in unemployment over the coming months, with the jobless rate peaking at 10.7 percent in the second half,” said Juergen Michels, chief euro-region economist at Citigroup Inc. in London. “That’s obviously bad news to consumers, which will be hurt by job cuts, lower wage growth and rising energy costs.”

The euro pared its gains against the dollar after the data and traded at $1.4317 at 10:31 a.m. in London, up less than 0.1 percent on the day. The yield on the German 10-year benchmark bond rose 0.2 basis point to 3.38 percent.

Source/Full Story: BusinessWeek

The question is asked, “who is at fault?”  What the hell kind of idiotic question is that?  At fault for what exactly? 
For children being educated by the people who care for and nurture them?  Or, how about the State, for manstealing, and taking the parents away from the children? 

See who actually owns your children?  That’s right, the State.  The State owns you too, and has very specific guidelines for you as to the how, what, who, where and when of raising their children, which you do for them.  Simply follow their rules and you won’t have to go to jail.

The parents of four Montgomery County children are under arrest for failing to register their home-schooled kids with the school district seven years ago. How was this allowed to happen and who should be held accountable?

Fonda-Fultonville schools superintendent didn’t become aware of the situation until mid-December. “School districts as a rule do not have detectives out to see who is or who isn’t in school,” he said. “We count on parents to follow the law, which is all kids between six and 16 are educated.”

Under state law, a superintendent must approve a home schooling curriculum, but according to investigators, the Cresseys never submitted one in the seven years they lived in the district.

Police began investigating the Cressys after they received an anonymous tip, and the Cresseys were arrested on charges of child endangerment.

So who is at fault? Montgomery County Undersheriff, Jeffery Smith says, “The parents. It’s not the school’s fault. The schools are doing the right thing, trying to get the schools, parents to file the right paperwork, which they have now.”

According to Hoffman, the Cresseys have now submitted a homeschooling curriculum and he has approved it.

Source/Full Story: WRGB

… a growing number of new shoplifters are outwardly reputable, middle-class people who are walking off with French cheeses, quality meats, cosmetics, mobile phones, clothing and other goodies that they feel they need to maintain a quality of life they can no longer afford.

Source/Full Story: Recession Retail Theft: Middle-Class Shoplifters on Rise – TIME

A giant web of video-surveillance cameras has spread across Chicago, aiding police in the pursuit of criminals but raising fears that the City of Big Shoulders is becoming the City of Big Brother.

Source/Full Story: Chicago’s Camera Network Is Everywhere – WSJ.com

What the hell is wrong with people over there???! 

“Hello Nigel, wasn’t your son attending Little Ted’s nursery in Plymouth where the pedophile ring was operating?”
“Yes, he was”
“Well, hopefully he was not harmed in any way.”
“I do not know nor do I care to know!”

A judge has given parents whose children attended the nursery where paedophile Vanessa George worked the choice of knowing if she has named their children among her victims.

Mr Justice John Royce confirmed that George, 39, had provided the names of some of the children she said she had abused at Little Ted’s nursery in Plymouth, Devon.

“I take the view that if parents want to find out whether their child has been abused and if that information has been given then they should be in a position to do so,” the judge told Bristol crown court.

“If they do not want to know, and I fully understand why some parents should not want to know, then the information should not be thrust upon them, it should be a parental choice.”

George and her co-defendants, Colin Blanchard, 38, and Angela Allen, 39, pleaded guilty to a string of offences of sexually abusing children, photographing the abuse and exchanging the images with each other via the internet.

George’s barrister, Nicolas Gerasimidis, successfully applied for the trio’s sentencing to be delayed to give more time to prepare. He said George intended to claim that Blanchard “used” her to access indecent images. “It will be Vanessa George’s case that she was used by Colin Blanchard, who is a principle mover in the contacting of women of a certain age so that the type of material this court is concerned with is disseminated back to him.”

Some parents have made it clear they do not want to know if George has named their children.

Sentencing has been adjourned to the week beginning 14 December.

Source/Full Story: guardian.co.uk

A must-read piece from Mail Online.

A secret court is seizing the assets of thousands of elderly and mentally impaired people and turning control of their lives over to the State – against the wishes of their relatives.

The draconian measures are being imposed by the little-known Court of Protection, set up two years ago to act in the interests of people suffering from Alzheimer’s or other mental incapacity.

The court hears about 23,000 cases a year – always in private – involving people deemed unable to take their own decisions. Using far-reaching powers, the court has so far taken control of more than £3.2billion of assets.

The cases involve civil servants from the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), which last year took £23million in fees directly from the bank accounts of those struck down by mental illness, involved in accidents or suffering from dementia.

The officials are legally required to act in cases where people do not have a ‘living will’, or lasting power of attorney, which hands control of their assets over to family or friends.

But the system elicited an extraordinary 3,000 complaints in its first 18 months of operation. Among them were allegations that officials failed to consult relatives, imposed huge fees and even ‘raided’ elderly people’s homes searching for documents.

Carers trying to cope with a mentally impaired loved one, forced to apply for a court order to access money, said they felt the system put them under suspicion as it assumed at the outset that they were out to defraud their relatives.

Source/Full Story: Mail Online

Source: Reuters

U.S. industrial output fell to its lowest level in almost seven years in February and manufacturing in New York state slumped further this month, according to data on Monday that pointed to a worsening economy.

Adding to economy’s problems, the U.S. Treasury said foreigners were net sellers of U.S. securities in January, a worrying development at a time when the government is rolling out a massive spending plan to break a 14-month recession.

The Federal Reserve said industrial production fell 1.4 percent, following a drop of 1.9 percent the prior month and worse than market expectations for a 1.1 percent decline.

Compared to the same period a year ago, output declined 11.2 percent with the index now at 99.7, the lowest level since April 2002, the central bank said.

Despite the poor data, U.S. stocks were on a firm footing as they extended their recovery from 12-year lows hit earlier this month, boosted by optimism that some stability might be returning to the financial sector.

Government bond prices fell, losing some of their safe-haven allure as equities rebounded, and the U.S. dollar dropped against the euro as investors took a dim view of the capital outflows in January.

“The stock market is looking for an end to this credit meltdown and recession and it is going to see it presumably well in advance of the data actually turning,” said Jay Mueller, senior portfolio manager at Wells Capital Management in Menominee Falls, Wisconsin.

“I continue to expect to see some unpleasant economic numbers going forward.”

Industrial capacity utilization dropped to 70.9 February, matching a December 1982 record low for the series which dates back to 1967, from 71.9 in January, the Fed said.

Manufacturing eased 0.7 percent in February after sliding 2.7 percent in January. The pace of decline slowed thanks to an increase in the production of motor vehicles and parts after extended plant shutdowns in January, the Fed said.

Source: Bloomberg.com

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet approved a draft bill allowing the state to seize control of property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, paving the way for the first German bank nationalization since the 1930s.

The bill allows the government to carry out compulsory purchases of shares held in “systemically relevant” banks. To assuage lawmakers leery of scaring off foreign investors, the bill includes caveats to ensure such a step can be taken only as a last resort.

Merkel’s government “has done its utmost to avoid the label of nationalization, shuddering at being accused of seizing private property,” Wolfgang Gerke, president of the Bavarian Center of Finance in Munich, said in an interview. “The legislation reflects the facts: the bank is only being kept alive with taxpayers’ cash, truckloads of it, and even if it’s small consolation to Hypo’s shareholders, this one-off step may be necessary.”

Merkel’s Christian Democrats have bowed to their Social Democrat coalition partners’ plan to allow a forced takeover of Hypo after shareholders including J.C. Flowers & Co. LLC failed to agree on a price for selling their stock. Munich-based Hypo’s stock plunged 92 percent since Sept. 25 as it has received 102 billion euros ($128 billion) in public guarantees and credit.

Full Story

Technorati Tags: Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, bank nationalization

Source: FT.com

Investors are buying record amounts of gold bars and coins, shunning risky assets for the relative safety of bullion amid renewed fears about the health of the global financial system.

The US Mint sold 92,000 ounces of its popular American Eagle coin last month, almost four times that which it sold a year ago and more than it shipped during the whole of the first half of 2007.

Other countries’ mints have also reported strong sales. “Large purchases of coins are perhaps the ultimate sign of safe-haven gold buying,” said John Reade, a precious metals strategist at UBS.

Inflows into gold-backed exchange traded funds surged in January, pushing their bullion holdings to an all-time high of 1,317 tonnes. Last month’s flows of 105 tonnes were above September’s previous record of 104 tonnes, and absorbed about half the world’s gold mine output for January, said Barclays Capital.

“We estimate that investment demand [into gold] could double in 2009 compared to 2007,” said Mr Reade. “Purchases of physical gold have jumped over the past six months as investors’ fears about the current financial crisis … have intensified.”

The move into gold is being driven by the very rich, with bankers saying that some clients are hoarding gold in their vaults. UBS and Goldman Sachs said last week that investor hoarding would drive prices back above $1,000 an ounce. On Monday gold was trading at $892 an ounce.

Full Story

Technorati Tags: gold

Source: CNN.com

As President Obama warned of “catastrophe” if the government doesn’t spend more than $800 billion to recharge the failing economy, some lawmakers equated the measure to “theft.”

“This is more money that’s ever been contemplated in the history of our country,” said Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan.

Republican John McCain calls the bailout “generational theft,” a transfer of wealth from future generations to today’s leaders.

“We are robbing future generations of Americans of their hard-earned dollars because we are laying on them a debt of incredible proportions,” he said.

The numbers are staggering. Obama’s package is more than $800 billion. President Bush’s bailout plan was $700 billion. Add to trillions promised by the government in loans and potential spending to soothe the financial crisis. It all equals a mind-boggling sum, not including the interest on all that money.

Full Story

Technorati Tags: bailout, stimulus