Mayor George Heartwell at State of the City: Grand Rapids gets federal grant for solar array | MLive.com
: "“It’s exactly because we have the other challenges (with police and fire finances) that we do projects like this,” Heartwell told MLive this week.
“It’s a long-term investment, there’s no question about it. But it’s about creating efficiencies.”"
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Want a good paying job in Muskegon? Simply get a college degree, labor statistics show
Want a good paying job in Muskegon? Simply get a college degree, labor statistics show | MLive.com
"From 2011 statistics, those in Muskegon County without a high school education had a 52 percent unemployment rate compared to 17 percent for high school graduates, 14 percent for those with some college, 10 percent for those with an associate’s degree and 5 percent for those with bachelor’s and graduate degrees."
"From 2011 statistics, those in Muskegon County without a high school education had a 52 percent unemployment rate compared to 17 percent for high school graduates, 14 percent for those with some college, 10 percent for those with an associate’s degree and 5 percent for those with bachelor’s and graduate degrees."
Credit Card Swipe Fees Begin Sunday In USA
Credit Card Swipe Fees Begin Sunday In USA - Slashdot
"An anonymous reader writes
"A speedbump on the road to a cash-free economy will go into effect Sunday in the USA, as retailers in 40 states will have the option of passing along a surcharge to customers who pay with credit cards.
The so-called swipe fees arose from the settlement of a seven-year lawsuit filed by retailers against Visa, Mastercard, and big banks, who collect an electronic processing fee averaging 1.5 to 3 percent on transactions involving credit cards.
The banks naturally have opposed the consumer surcharges, preferring that the extra costs to be passed along in the form of higher prices.
onsumers in ten states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, Texas) won't be affected, since laws in those states forbid the practice (it seems that gasoline station owners here in Massachusetts got a different memo, though).
Also, the surcharges won't be collected for debit or prepaid cards.""
"An anonymous reader writes
"A speedbump on the road to a cash-free economy will go into effect Sunday in the USA, as retailers in 40 states will have the option of passing along a surcharge to customers who pay with credit cards.
The so-called swipe fees arose from the settlement of a seven-year lawsuit filed by retailers against Visa, Mastercard, and big banks, who collect an electronic processing fee averaging 1.5 to 3 percent on transactions involving credit cards.
The banks naturally have opposed the consumer surcharges, preferring that the extra costs to be passed along in the form of higher prices.
onsumers in ten states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, Texas) won't be affected, since laws in those states forbid the practice (it seems that gasoline station owners here in Massachusetts got a different memo, though).
Also, the surcharges won't be collected for debit or prepaid cards.""
Auditors: $230 million in Labor Dept. grants had no criteria for success
Auditors: $230 million in Labor Dept. grants had no criteria for success | WashingtonGuardian
"You'd expect a program to help train workers in new skills would have grades to measure how well the students learned.
And you'd expect the program itself to be graded on whether it actually helped those students find employment after they graduated.
But that's precisely what a Labor Department jobs program failed to measure for grants it made in 2010 and 2011, auditors say.
Facing rising unemployment nationwide, the Labor Department Employment and Training Administration (ETA) used a discretionary grant program to support schools and businesses that were training workers and helping them find jobs.
But an internal investigation revealed that there were few benchmarks for measuring whether the grants were actually helping people find work or achieving their other goals -- and sometimes results were simply not documented.
In fact, investigators think more than one-third of the programs -- more than 200 grants out of 560 that were handed out -- might have failed, at a total cost approaching $230 million.
"You'd expect a program to help train workers in new skills would have grades to measure how well the students learned.
And you'd expect the program itself to be graded on whether it actually helped those students find employment after they graduated.
But that's precisely what a Labor Department jobs program failed to measure for grants it made in 2010 and 2011, auditors say.
Facing rising unemployment nationwide, the Labor Department Employment and Training Administration (ETA) used a discretionary grant program to support schools and businesses that were training workers and helping them find jobs.
But an internal investigation revealed that there were few benchmarks for measuring whether the grants were actually helping people find work or achieving their other goals -- and sometimes results were simply not documented.
In fact, investigators think more than one-third of the programs -- more than 200 grants out of 560 that were handed out -- might have failed, at a total cost approaching $230 million.
Ballot Integrity In the State of Washington
Ballot Integrity In the State of Washington | Power Line
My wife is a Canadian citizen, has her green card, and just received her voter registration card in the mail. Not sure what’s up with that, she did not do anything to actively register to vote. We have no idea how she became a registered voter, unless they’re simply registering all residents here in Washington State automatically.
The card says, “You are registered to vote.” It adds, “Your ballot will arrive by mail.” Here is the card, with identifying information deleted:
This woman is probably too honest to vote, but the automatic mailing of a ballot to someone who is not a citizen strikes me as rather diabolical. The recipient doesn’t even need to show up in person to represent, at least implicitly, that she is an eligible voter. All she has to do is return the ballot she receives in the mail. How many ineligible voters are honest enough to resist that temptation? Not many, I suspect.
Why do Democrat-run states like Washington go out of their way to undermine the integrity of the ballot? The obvious answer is that they think they will benefit, in the immediate term, if more ineligible people cast ballots. But I wonder whether the rationale goes deeper. The many measures taken by Democrats that eat away at the integrity of our elections have the effect, cumulatively, of discrediting electoral results and thereby undermining our democracy. Which, in turn, makes it easier for government to seize more and more powers from demoralized citizens. Polls suggest that a large majority of Americans support measures to protect ballot integrity, but so far, at least, that consensus has not been very effective in political terms.
2013 Muskegon County Board of Commissioners
DISTRICT NO. 1
Rillastine R. Wilkins (D)
2305 5th Street
Muskegon Heights., MI 49444
wilkinsri@co.muskegon.mi.us
(H) (231) 733-1581
City of Muskegon (precincts 8 & 9),
All of the City of Muskegon Heights (precincts 1 - 4),
City of Norton Shores (precinct 1)
DISTRICT NO. 2
Benjamin E. Cross (D)
2115 Sampson Avenue
Muskegon, MI 49441
crossbe@co.muskegon.mi.us
(C) (231) 670-6047
City of Muskegon (precincts 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, & 14),
City of Norton Shores (precinct 9) ,
All of the City of Roosevelt Park (precincts 1 & 2)
DISTRICT NO. 3
Susie Hughes (D)
2425 Safari Lane
Muskegon, MI 49442
hughessu@co.muskegon.mi.us
(231) 343-4092
All of Muskegon Charter Twp (precincts 1 - 7)
DISTRICT NO. 4
Robert Scolnik (R)
4460 Cherrywood Court
Muskegon, MI 49441
scolnikro@co.muskegon.mi.us
(H) (231) 798-2828
City of Norton Shores
(precincts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, & 10)
DISTRICT NO. 5
Marvin Engle (R)
5054 S. Sheridan Drive
Muskegon, MI 49444
englema@co.muskegon.mi.us
(H) (231) 865-6116
All of Fruitport Charter Twp (precincts 1 - 4),
All of Ravenna Township (precinct 1),
and All of Sullivan Township (precinct 1)
DISTRICT NO. 6
CHARLES NASH, Vice-Chairman (D)
819 Amity Avenue
Muskegon, MI 49442
nashch@co.muskegon.mi.us
(H) (231) 767-2345
City of Muskegon (precincts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7)
DISTRICT NO. 7
James Derezinski (D)
11 Wolf Lake Road
Muskegon, MI 49442
derezinskija@co.muskegon.mi.us
(H) (231) 788-4849
All of Casnovia Twp (precinct 1),
All of Cedar Creek Twp (precinct 1),
All of Egelston Twp (precincts 1 - 3),
All of Holton Twp (precinct 1), and
All of Moorland Township (precinct 1)
DISTRICT NO. 8
Terry Sabo (D)
1188 N. Robinhood Drive
Muskegon, MI 49445
sabote@co.muskegon.mi.us
(H) (231) 740-2724
Dalton Twp (Precinct 3),
All of Fruitland Twp (precincts 1 & 2),
All of Laketon Twp (precincts 1 - 3), and
All of the City of North Muskegon (precincts 1 & 2)
DISTRICT NO. 9
Kenneth Mahoney (D)
8008 Old Channel Trail
Montague, MI 49437
mahoneyke@co.muskegon.mi.us
(H) (231) 894-8608
All of Blue Lake Twp (precinct 1),
Dalton Twp (precincts 1, 2, & 4),
All of Montague Twp (precinct 1),
All of White River Twp (precinct 1),
All of Whitehall Twp (precinct 1),
All of the City of Montague (precinct 1), and
All of the City of Whitehall (precinct 1
DO PENALTIES FOR SMOKERS AND THE OBESE MAKE SENSE?
News from The Associated Press
DO PENALTIES FOR SMOKERS AND THE OBESE MAKE SENSE?
""If I'm obese, the health care costs are not totally borne by me.
They're borne by other people in my health insurance plan and - when I'm older - by Medicare," Cawley said.
From an economist's perspective, there would be less reason to grouse about unhealthy behaviors by smokers, obese people, motorcycle riders who eschew helmets and other health sinners if they agreed to pay the financial price for their choices.
That's the rationale for a provision in the Affordable Care Act - "Obamacare" to its detractors - that starting next year allows health insurers to charge smokers buying individual policies up to 50 percent higher premiums.
A 60-year-old could wind up paying nearly $5,100 on top of premiums.
The new law doesn't allow insurers to charge more for people who are overweight, however."
DO PENALTIES FOR SMOKERS AND THE OBESE MAKE SENSE?
""If I'm obese, the health care costs are not totally borne by me.
They're borne by other people in my health insurance plan and - when I'm older - by Medicare," Cawley said.
From an economist's perspective, there would be less reason to grouse about unhealthy behaviors by smokers, obese people, motorcycle riders who eschew helmets and other health sinners if they agreed to pay the financial price for their choices.
That's the rationale for a provision in the Affordable Care Act - "Obamacare" to its detractors - that starting next year allows health insurers to charge smokers buying individual policies up to 50 percent higher premiums.
A 60-year-old could wind up paying nearly $5,100 on top of premiums.
The new law doesn't allow insurers to charge more for people who are overweight, however."
Climate shocker: Carry on as we are until 2050, planet will be FINE
Climate shocker: Carry on as we are until 2050, planet will be FINE • The Register
"New research produced by a Norwegian government project, described as "truly sensational" by independent experts, indicates that humanity's carbon emissions produce far less global warming than had been thought: so much so that there is no danger of producing warming beyond the IPCC upper safe limit of 2°C for many decades.
“In our project we have worked on finding out the overall effect of all known feedback mechanisms,” says project manager Terje Berntsen, who is a professor at the University of Oslo’s Department of Geosciences and a senior research fellow at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research – Oslo (CICERO)."
"New research produced by a Norwegian government project, described as "truly sensational" by independent experts, indicates that humanity's carbon emissions produce far less global warming than had been thought: so much so that there is no danger of producing warming beyond the IPCC upper safe limit of 2°C for many decades.
“In our project we have worked on finding out the overall effect of all known feedback mechanisms,” says project manager Terje Berntsen, who is a professor at the University of Oslo’s Department of Geosciences and a senior research fellow at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research – Oslo (CICERO)."
Judge rules EPA can’t mandate use of nonexistent biofuels
Judge rules EPA can’t mandate use of nonexistent biofuels | The Daily Caller
"The court sided with the country’s chief oil and gas lobby, the American Petroleum Institute, in striking down the 2012 EPA mandate that would have forced refineries to purchase more than $8 million in credits for 8.65 million of gallons of the cellulosic biofuel.
However, none of the biofuel is commercially available."
"The court sided with the country’s chief oil and gas lobby, the American Petroleum Institute, in striking down the 2012 EPA mandate that would have forced refineries to purchase more than $8 million in credits for 8.65 million of gallons of the cellulosic biofuel.
However, none of the biofuel is commercially available."
GOP threatens formal action against EPA for not disclosing emails
GOP threatens formal action against EPA for not disclosing emails | Washington Free Beacon
"The EPA redacted names in the email. However, Vitter says the FOIA exemption used by EPA does not apply to the released documents.
“This strikes me as incredibly fishy and begs a number of important questions,” Vitter said in a statement.
“The EPA needs to honor the president’s pledge of transparency and release these documents without redaction of the administrator’s email address a big first step toward removing the blanket of secrecy in this agency.”
“EPA’s supposed reliance on ‘precedent’ is especially misleading because they’re clearly using a separate and distinct practice than previous administrations,” Vitter said.
“And if ‘Richard Windsor’ is no more than a standard work email account, why not share the unredacted versions and prove it to the American public?”"
"The EPA redacted names in the email. However, Vitter says the FOIA exemption used by EPA does not apply to the released documents.
“This strikes me as incredibly fishy and begs a number of important questions,” Vitter said in a statement.
“The EPA needs to honor the president’s pledge of transparency and release these documents without redaction of the administrator’s email address a big first step toward removing the blanket of secrecy in this agency.”
“EPA’s supposed reliance on ‘precedent’ is especially misleading because they’re clearly using a separate and distinct practice than previous administrations,” Vitter said.
“And if ‘Richard Windsor’ is no more than a standard work email account, why not share the unredacted versions and prove it to the American public?”"
Who's Right On Climate? A Single NASA Scientist Vs. More Than 20
Who's Right On Climate? A Single NASA Scientist Vs. More Than 20 - Investors.com
"We live in a society where dissent from the left-wing narrative is not tolerated.
So it's no surprise that more than 20 retired NASA scientists and engineers are not getting the same media treatment that a single doomsayer whose quarter-of-a-century-old prediction has not come to pass.
The opinion of that one man will outweigh that of more than 20 because it fits the script."
"We live in a society where dissent from the left-wing narrative is not tolerated.
So it's no surprise that more than 20 retired NASA scientists and engineers are not getting the same media treatment that a single doomsayer whose quarter-of-a-century-old prediction has not come to pass.
The opinion of that one man will outweigh that of more than 20 because it fits the script."
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)