Ken Braun: Detroit-area bus subsidies need repairing as much as road funding does

Ken Braun: Detroit-area bus subsidies need repairing as much as road funding does | MLive.com
A $1 billion road-funding proposal to patch up Michigan’s pothole-infested pavement has been put on ice for the summer because state lawmakers won’t put up the votes to hike the gasoline tax.
Opponents argue politicians should clean up sloppy spending elsewhere in the state budget before hitting motorists up for more.
One place to start is to ask whether all Michigan mass transit riders are paying their fair share.
A big chunk of funding for Michigan’s big city bus systems comes from fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees paid by those of us who drive on the roads.
The Detroit Department of Transportation alone received $47.6 million from state taxpayers for operating revenue in 2012 (the last year of reporting in the Federal Transit Administration’s database.) 
Yet, DDOT bus riders actually benefiting from the service paid just $23 million in fares.

No Joke: Anti-Gun Leftist Takes Aim At Cartoons

No Joke: Anti-Gun Leftist Takes Aim At Cartoons:
"For Mark Joseph Stern, it is apparently not enough to enact strict gun control legislation in an effort to curb violence by making sure criminals are the only armed Americans.
In a recent Slate article, the writer lamented the ostensibly improper existence of exaggerated gun use in children’s entertainment of bygone eras."

Panera and Chili’s Turn to Tablets to Streamline Service

Panera and Chili’s Turn to Tablets to Streamline Service - NYTimes.com:
BRAINTREE, Mass. — An idea came to Ronald M. Shaich, the chief executive of Panera Bread, as he was driving his children to school about four years ago:
What if everyone could order lunch the way he did?
...They had to go to another line, and if they wanted any kind of espresso drink, we sent them to a fourth line.”
So, the corporate chieftain who once declared that “the food business is not a technology business” has spent $42 million to update Panera. 
“The goal is to eliminate friction points so that customers have a better experience,” Mr. Shaich said, “because if they have a better experience, it will help our business.”

TROOPATHON: Tune in to the LIVE Broadcast from the Reagan Library to Help Support the Troops

TROOPATHON: Tune in to the LIVE Broadcast from the Reagan Library to Help Support the Troops:
"Since its beginning 7 years ago, Troopathon has raised over $4.5 million for care packages for our brave men and women in harm’s way. These care packages are much appreciated by the troops and countless political pundits and celebrities have joined the efforts over the years to promote this day-long event.
 The event is broadcast at www.troopathon.org and is being hosted by Stephen K. Bannon, Executive Chairman of Breitbart News Network and joined by actor and dedicated patriot Gary Sinise."

VIDEO: Veteran Told to Pay Fine, Ditch Flag or Risk Losing His Home

VIDEO: Veteran Told to Pay Fine, Ditch Flag or Risk Losing His Home:
"A Florida veteran is at risk of losing his home. It’s not due to failure to pay his mortgage or because of any violation of the law by him. No, Larry Murphree is being threatened with foreclosure of his home by the Sweetwater HOA because of a small American flag that he displays in his flowerpot."

History for June 26

History for June 26 - On-This-Day.com: 

Birth anniversaries of Pearl Buck (1892-1973), Abner Doubleday (1819-1893) and Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1911-56).

 

Happy Birthday! Derek Jeter, Greg LeMond, Gretchen Wilson

 

1819 - The bicycle was patented by W.K. Clarkson, Jr. 


1942 - The Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter was flown for the first time. 




1959 - U.S. President Eisenhower joined Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in ceremonies officially opening the St. Lawrence Seaway. 


1963 - U.S. President John Kennedy announced "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner) at the Berlin Wall. 


1976 - The CN (Canadian National) Tower in Toronto, Canada, opened. 


1981 - In Mountain Home, Idaho, Virginia Campbell took her coupons and rebates and bought $26,460 worth of groceries. She only paid 67 cents after all the discounts. 



1997 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld state laws that allow for a ban on doctor-assisted suicides. 


1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employers are always potentially liable for supervisor's sexual misconduct toward an employee. 

http://libertyreview76.blogspot.com/2014/06/june-25-2014-all-sales-are-final-by.html

Puzzles are challenging.  When you get stuck do you give up and throw it back in the box?  Do you reshape the pieces and force them where you think they belong?  Do you study the picture for guidance?  America has had many un-American puzzle pieces forced into our picture.  The original design has been ignored.  What will it look like in the end?

Rep. Jim Jordan: 'At What Point Does It Become Obstruction of Justice?' | CNS News

Rep. Jim Jordan: 'At What Point Does It Become Obstruction of Justice?' | CNS News:
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told Congress Monday night that he doesn't remember who told him in April that Lois Lerner's emails had disappeared; he "didn't do anything" when he leaned about it from whomever; and "no," he did not talk to anyone outside the IRS about the vanished emails -- not even the Justice Department.

Epic Rant: It Took Just 82 Seconds For Megyn Kelly To Utterly Destroy Obama

Epic Rant: It Took Just 82 Seconds For Megyn Kelly To Utterly Destroy Obama:
“We have a president who lost the trust of the American people by repeatedly misleading them.”
The Obama administration has come to a point where one of the most respected liberal law professors in the country has called our president “the very danger the Constitution was designed to avoid.”

Our hard working "full-time" legislature taking on the tough issues-----Michigan 'Breastfeeding Anti-Discrimination Act' signed by Gov. Snyder protects nursing mothers

Michigan 'Breastfeeding Anti-Discrimination Act' signed by Gov. Snyder protects nursing mothers | MLive.com:

Soooo, just who IS guaranteeing these bonds?-------Detroit lighting debt illuminates bankruptcy stigma: Muni credit

Detroit lighting debt illuminates bankruptcy stigma: Muni credit | Crain's Detroit Business:
"A debt sale by an agency responsible for illuminating the streets of bankrupt Detroit will put a spotlight on bondholders and their willingness to lend after investors took an unprecedented cut on city general obligations.
On its face, the $186 million deal has no mention of Detroit: The Michigan Finance Authority will sell the bonds Wednesday for the Public Lighting Authority, an agency the state established. 
The debt has an A- grade from Standard & Poor’s, four steps above junk, and the utility taxes that repay the debt flow to the agency’s trustee before the city.
Detroit, which hasn’t had a rating that high in 15 years, can’t lower the levy over the life of the securities.
Yet even with those protections, bond investors say there’s no sure thing when it comes to Detroit.
Last year, the city defaulted on general obligations before agreeing in April to pay 74 cents on the dollar on some debt.
It may also push water and sewer bondholders into a distressed-debt exchange.
.....“You have to take into account how they treated the water bonds, the sewer bonds and the general-obligation bonds,” he said. 
“It’s hard to know what to trust and what not to trust.”"

National Archives Chief: IRS ‘Did Not Follow the Law’ by Failing to Report Lost Emails | TheBlaze.com

National Archives Chief: IRS ‘Did Not Follow the Law’ by Failing to Report Lost Emails | TheBlaze.com:
"The government’s top record-keeper said Tuesday that the IRS “did not follow the law” when it discovered it lost two years’ worth of Lois Lerner emails, but did not report that loss to the National Archives and Records Administration."

Waddya bet these guys win?------Minnesota Radicals Demand Mandatory Transgender Classes Because Of Colonialism OR ELSE

Minnesota Radicals Demand Mandatory Transgender Classes Because Of Colonialism OR ELSE | The Daily Caller:
"Members of a radical leftist group at the University of Minnesota have demanded that the school confess that it “exists as a product of” colonial evil and must therefore “fundamentally” restructure to conform to their organizing principles.
The group – which calls itself “Whose Diversity?” – has chosen to remain unrecognized by the administration, it says, to avoid becoming “complicit in reproducing a homogenized notion of diversity.”
The comically lengthy list of demands is over 1,000 words longer than the Declaration of Independence.
The leftist group opposes “color-blind racism” and demands “an acknowledgement that the university exists as a product of colonialistic processes,” according to Campus Reform.
The underground group also wants the taxpayer-funded school in the Twin Cities to require that every student, regardless of major, take a class covering “gender non-conforming issues.” Members want “substantially more” courses about “marginalized peoples,” too.
There’s so much more.....

The Flier That Got Thad Cochran Elected?

The Flier That Got Thad Cochran Elected? | National Review Online:

Outrageous Video: DHS Trashes Couple’s Home, Strips Woman Naked at Gunpoint, Offers No Explanation

Outrageous Video: DHS Trashes Couple’s Home, Strips Woman Naked at Gunpoint, Offers No Explanation:
 "One Florida couple found out the hard way that though these rights exist in theory, the modern federal government feels free to play fast-and-loose with these concepts.
 At approximately 6:16 am on June 10th, 2014, Kari Edwards and her live-in boyfriend were seized upon by a SWAT team who smashed in the door and using flashbangs and armed to the teeth, swarmed upon the couple and even stripped Ms. Edwards naked in the process."

VIDEO: WOW! Even MSNBC Admits Mainstream Media Bias in Coverage of Obama IRS Scandal

VIDEO: WOW! Even MSNBC Admits Mainstream Media Bias in Coverage of Obama IRS Scandal:
"In a rare act of professional journalism, the network only slightly to the right of Karl Marx, admitted that the mainstream media, specifically the New York Times, has been biased in favor of the Obama regime, for it’s lack of coverage of the Obama IRS scandal."

Hoki crapoli!!!!!-----Brutal: 1Q GDP revised downward to minus-2.9 percent

Politics: Brutal: 1Q GDP revised downward to minus-2.9 percent | Best of Cain:
"Horrendous.
First you heard that the economy was weak the first part of the year, when the government announced that GDP growth had been only 0.1 percent.
Then you heard there was actually no growth at all, as the government revised its estimate to minus-1.0 percent.
Yeah, it not only didn't grow.
It shrunk.
 But today we learn how truly horrendous the economy has become under the policies of Barack Obama, as the government admitted that the actual economic output of the nation shrank by an astounding 2.9 percent in the first quarter of 2014. 
How bad it that? 
It's the worst in five years, and it's way too bad for Obama to get away with blaming the weather, as he tried to do when the original sucktastic estimate came out. 
Everything is horrible, but especially exports:"

This is a despicable family----The Clintons Attempt to Dodge Estate Taxes They Support

The Clintons Attempt to Dodge Estate Taxes They Support | Mediaite:

In the midst of Hillary Clinton’s Campaign to Empathize with Poor People comes a damning report about her family’s finances: though she and her husband have both called to raise estate taxes on the wealthy, they’re actively attempting to shield their own estates from that same tax — using the same tactics they publicly denounce other millionaires for using.

Bloomberg dug through the Clinton’s finances and discovered that back in 2010, the Clintons split the ownership of their multimillion-dollar New York house in half, and placed both those shares into two residence trusts. In layman’s terms, this means that any increase in the house’s value cannot be taxed and could, according to one expert, save the Clintons “hundreds of thousands of dollars in estate taxes.” (They also created a life insurance trust to lower their tax liability.)

Thankfully, there's lots of extra pork.... er .... money floating around........5 Michigan airports get $8.8 million in U.S. grants

5 Michigan airports get $8.8 million in U.S. grants | Crain's Detroit Business:
"The U.S. Transportation Department has approved $8.8 million to upgrade five airports across Michigan.
Democratic U.S. Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow announced the funding Tuesday.

Muskegon County Airport in western Michigan's Norton Shores gets $2.2 million for research and runway work.
Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport gets $1.5 million for runway work and buying new land.
Sawyer International Airport in the Upper Peninsula will use $1.1 million to improve runway lighting and buy an aircraft rescue and fire fighting vehicle.
Flint's Bishop International Airport gets $1.8 million for runway lighting upgrades, an aircraft rescue and fire fighting vehicle and a deicing containment facility.
A $2.2 million grant will help the Capital Region International Airport in Ingham County's Lansing Township expand a building and fix a runway."

Detroit pension fund spends $30 million to fix $1-million building

Detroit pension fund spends $30 million to fix $1-million building | Detroit Free Press | freep.com
Steve Morris, assistant professor of real estate finance at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, says the deal doesn't add up.
"I can't fathom how they could have spent that amount of money," Morris said.
For what the pension fund paid, per square foot, to renovate the 1921 building, it could have built a "luxury marble high-rise with the latest technology."
The pension fund bought the building as an investment property, but operates its own offices out of City Hall.
The investment is among a slew of deals that have led Detroit's two public pensions to report losses of more than $480 million since 2008.

With time bomb ticking, city must act on pensions

With time bomb ticking, city must act on pensions - Chicago Sun-Times:

For anyone needing one more harbinger of dark days to come if Chicago doesn’t take on its public employee pension albatross, the Sun-Times served one up this week.

If the city’s already-low credit rating drops just one notch — highly likely if the city’s massive police and fire pension bills aren’t dealt with — the city could be on the immediate hook for $110 million, the Sun-Times’ Dan Mihalopoulos’ reported on Wednesday.

The bill could come due because of a financial arrangement, known as interest-rate swaps contracts, that the city has entered into with several banks to stabilize interest rates on about $3 billion of debt. The deals require the city to maintain a certain credit level. If Moody’s Investors Service drops Chicago a notch, the financial institutions involved could demand $110 million. Falling two more notches could add another $86 million for a grand total approaching $200 million.

Primary Musings from Oklahoma, Colorado, and Mississippi

Primary Musings from Oklahoma, Colorado, and Mississippi | The American Spectator:
"In an under-the-radar local election in Loveland, Colorado, voters rejected by 52 percent to 48 percent a moratorium on fracking, despite an onslaught of misleading ads from liberal opponents of energy development.
Voters may have noticed that Weld County, which Loveland borders, produces most of the oil in Colorado and, according to a pro-energy development group, “had the largest percentage increase in employment in the US in 2013.” Fracking bans, many disguised as measures supporting “local control”—the backing of which by Democrats should make anyone suspicious since liberals always want political power to be as far from the people as possible—may be on many other ballots across the state in November. Thus, Tuesday’s result is a welcome potential harbinger of sanity when it comes to one of Colorado’s most important industries."

It ain't over until it's over!
Chris McDaniel to Challenge Election Results:

Takeaways from a wild primary nighthttp://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/2014-primary-night-takeaways-108274.html

ISIS Says they Have Nuclear Weapons to Wipe-Out Israel

ISIS Says they Have Nuclear Weapons to Wipe-Out Israel:
"Obama announced a departure date for removing troops from Iraq, destabilized Libya and has stumbled into one foreign policy disaster after another making America appear weaker and weaker and in doing so, has emboldened America’s enemies.

If this administration was half as concerned as solving problems as avoiding blame, we might actually see some progress on the war on terror.  "

New EPA Regs Issued Under Obama Are 38 Times as Long as Bible

New EPA Regs Issued Under Obama Are 38 Times as Long as Bible | CNS New

History for June 25 - On-This-Day.com

History for June 25 - On-This-Day.com:

Summerfest, Milwaukee, WI (June 25-29; July 1-6). See www.summerfest.com

Birth anniversary of novelist/critic Eric Arthur Blair, whose penname was George Orwell (1903-1950). “Political language  . . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

Happy Birthday! June Lockhart, Carly Simon, Sonia Sotomayor

1867 - Lucien B. Smith patented the first barbed wire. 


1868 - The U.S. Congress enacted legislation granting an eight-hour day to workers employed by the Federal government. 


1876 - Lt. Col. Custer and the 210 men of U.S. 7th Cavalry were killed by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians at Little Big Horn in Montana. The event is known as "Custer's Last Stand." 



1917 - The first American fighting troops landed in France. 



1950 - North Korea invaded South Korea initiating the Korean War. 


1951 - In New York, the first regular commercial color TV transmissions were presented on CBS using the FCC-approved CBS Color System. The public did not own color TV's at the time. 


1970 - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission handed down a ruling (35 FR 7732), making it illegal for radio stations to put telephone calls on the air without the permission of the person being called. 


1985 - ABC’s "Monday Night Football" began with a new line-up. The trio was Frank Gifford, Joe Namath and O.J. Simpson. 


1990 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of an individual, whose wishes are clearly made, to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment. "The right to die" decision was made in the Curzan vs. Missouri case. 


1997 - The Soufriere Hills volcano in Montserrat erupted after 400 years of dormancy and destroyed two thirds of this Caribbean island.


1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the line-item veto thereby striking down presidential power to cancel specific items in tax and spending legislation. 



1998 - Microsoft's "Windows 98" was released to the public. 


2000 - A Florida judge approved a class-action lawsuit to be filed against American Online (AOL) on behalf of hourly subscribers who were forced to view "pop-up" advertisements.