Economic
harassment and the Ferguson crisis - LA Times - (www.latimes.com)
According to the group's recent report on the municipal
court system in
St. Louis County, the Ferguson court is a "chronic offender" in legal
and economic harassment of its residents. There's not much of a secret why: the
municipality collects some $2.6 million a year in fines and court fees,
typically from small-scale infractions like traffic violations. This is the
second-largest source of income for that small, fiscally-strapped municipality.
For a low-income community--and for a black community subjected to the racial
profiling, as the report documents--these fines can gather force like a boulder
rolling downhill. And racial profiling appears to be the rule. In
Ferguson, "86% of vehicle stops involved a black motorist, although blacks
make up just 67% of the population," the report states. "After being
stopped in Ferguson, blacks are almost twice as likely as whites to be searched
(12.1% vs. 7.9%) and twice as likely to be arrested." But those searches
result in the discovery of contraband at a much lower rate than searches of
whites. "You don't get $321 in fines and fees and 3 warrants per household
from an about-average crime rate," he notes. "You get numbers like
this from [B.S.] arrests for jaywalking" and what the report calls
"low level harassment involving traffic stops, court appearances, high
fines, and the threat of jail for failure to pay without a meaningful inquiry
into whether an individual has the means to pay."
Revolving door: Washington to
Wall Street - (money.cnn.com) Rahm Emanuel: Government Gigs: Mayor of Chicago;
Chief of Staff to President Obama; Illinois Congressman; Senior Advisor to Bill
Clinton. Wall Street Career: Investment banker at Wasserstein Perella.
There's
no question that Rahm Emanuel has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in
public service, but it was his short stint in the private sector that proved
most fruitful on the financial front.
Between
government jobs, the often-feisty politician worked as an investment banker at
Wasserstein Perella, reportedly earning a whopping $18 million in only two and
a half years on the job despite having no prior experience in finance.
Ex-FBI
agent airs Wall Street's dirty laundry - (money.cnn.com) When
hedge funds and pensions are looking for dirty laundry, they often call people
like Ken Springer. The former FBI agent runs a firm that sophisticated
investors hire to conduct background investigations on companies they want to
invest in. Sometimes Springer's research reveals the secrets of company
founders -- like allegations of fraud or even felonies -- that causes investors
to walk away from a deal. "We're the people who do the due diligence: Are
they who they say they are?" said Springer, founder and president of New
York-based Corporate Resolutions. Springer, 60, believes one of the biggest
problems in the financial world is that too many big investors, pension funds
and venture capital firms simply don't know who they are betting on. He's got
plenty of stories to back up his case.
Putin
breaks ground on Russia-China gas pipeline, world's biggest – (www.rt.com) Russian
President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli have launched the
construction of the first part of Gazprom’s Power of Siberia pipeline - which
will deliver 4 trillion cubic meters of gas to China over 30 years. “The new
gas branch will significantly strengthen the economic cooperation with
countries in the Asia-Pacific region and above all - our key partner China,”
Putin said at the ceremony outside the city of Yakutsk - the capital of
Russia's Republic of Yakutia on Monday. Both President Putin and Vice Premier
Zhang Gaoli signed the freshly-welded pipeline in a time-honored Russian
tradition. The 'Power of Siberia' was welded together by workers from Chayanda
gas field, overseen by CEO Aleksey Miller.
"Gazprom is always a reliable supplier of gas to its customers -
which also applies to the ‘Power of Siberia," Miller said. The 3,968
km pipeline linking gas fields in eastern Siberia to China will be the world's
largest fuel network in the world. Both Putin and Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli have
called the project the world’s largest construction project, as investment from
both countries will be more than $70 billion. “The gas pipeline ‘Power of
Siberia’ will increase energy security and ensure Russia’s ability to fulfill
export obligations,” Putin said in the opening remarks.
GOP
Senator Rips Media 'Shield Law' to 'License' Journalists - (www.antiwar.com) Senate
Minority Whip John Cornyn (R – TX) today blasted the
“Free Flow of Information Act,” a media “shield law” which is being pushed by
Senate Democrats, saying it is fatally flawed and contrary to the First
Amendment’s freedom of the press. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D – NY), the main backer
of the bill, claims that he already has a filibuster-proof majority that can pass the
bill, and insists it will protect the rights of certain journalists to gather
information. In theory, the bill protects journalists from having to reveal
confidential sources. Yet the bill only affords this protection to “covered
journalists,” while being extremely vague over what that means and giving
judges considerable latitude to decide who is or isn’t sufficiently a
journalist to have protection under the law.
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