Posts about California Budget Crisis as of October 29, 2009

The final forum of California’s Congressional District 10 Special Election race was held at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, and moderated by Lisa Vorderbruggen of the Contra Costa Times. The event was cosponsored by the League of Women Voters and St Mary’s College.The five candidates responded to a collection of questions from the general student body and then the audience as filtered through the League’s question cards.

1675 German mathematician Leibniz introduces the long s (∫) to denote an integral in calculus equations. 1878 Willigot T. Odhner is granted a patent for a calculating machine that performs multiplications with repeated additions. The patent is a modified and compact version of the Gottfried von Leibniz stepped wheel. 1945 The first mass-produced ballpoint pen available in the US, the Reynolds’ Rocket pen, goes on sale at Gimbels Department Stores in New York for US$12.95 almost fifty-seven years to the day after the first U.S.

Introduction: It’s been extremely difficult to bridge the gap that exists between those who know little about the issue and those who have a more comprehensive understanding of the workings of the electrical grid and the related technologies that supply it, like wind energy. For many, their only information comes from the local press, “green” promotions by so-called environmental organizations, and occasional visits to web sites dedicated to one side or the other.

Nativists blame it on ‘dirty illegal immigrants.’ Economists are quick to point out the crash as part of a larger recessionary period that the global economy is undergoing. Politicians groan that California’s budget crisis is really Prop 13, an anti-tax measure that not only put a cap on property taxes but also requires 66% of the legislature approval to pass a budget.

Many have tried and failed in this area, due to members going outside and negotiating their own agreements if they had a group that didn’t have as many high risk individuals.  That does somewhat defeat the purpose but in part this is what Massachusetts has done.  To cover everyone it’s down to biting the bullet and giving everyone coverage, low and high risk, as those who are high risk pay premiums too, their expenses are more than others, but again that’s what insurance is all about, spreading

One of the great things about our Federalist system is that it allows the states to become incubators of policy ideas, and gives the freedom of movement when those policy ideas fail or succeed.   The fate of the states is a good indicator of what kind of policies actually work, and what kind of policies don’t.  States don’t have the budget trickery to hide behind like the Federal Government does, so the consequences of policy become more apparent more quickly.

The dropout rate in the Los Angeles Unified School District declined almost 17%, according to figures the district released today. Those figures represent welcome news in a district beleaguered by budget cuts and ongoing battles over the future path of reforms. The numbers also raise questions about whether necessary budget reductions — and how the district achieved them — will undermine this apparent improvement in the nation’s second-largest school system.   The district dropout rate for the 2007-08 school year came in at 26.4%, trailing all other large urban school systems in California except Oakland Unified.

We’ve already seen a trend of national columnists using California’s budget woes to conveniently push whatever obsession they want.  Two more of these land on the nation’s most august op-ed pages today, both of them inaccurate and out of touch with the nature of the situation here in the Golden State.
First we have fiscal scold Robert Samuelson trying to use California’s budget crisis to make a larger point about a national “fiscal reckoning.”  He claims that California has “made more promises than its economy can easily support,” as has the nation, and only fiscal austerity can remedy the problem.
On paper, the state could solve its budget problems by raising taxes further.

How To Get the Best Real Estate Deal for You – condosphilippines.com 08/03/2009 If you plan on bidding at a foreclosed property auction then there are some tips you need to know in order to get the best deal and avoid making any potentially costly mistakes. This article will teach you some great tips for how to bid at a foreclosed property auction.

Bob Chapman | The International Forecaster On Wednesday the Treasury’s five-year auction yield was 2.69% with 21.15% allotted at the high and bid to cover was 1.92 to 1. The average of the past ten auctions has been 2.20%. Indirect, central bank participation was 35.7% versus an average of 36.8%. Overall that was weak demand. Do not forget the Treasury has to raise $2 trillion by 9/30/09. The result of these mediocre to poor auctions has to be more pressure on the dollar, as budget deficits continue to widen.

Jim Sinclair’s Commentary Here is a wise statement that those who feel they can trade for insurance should deeply consider: “We don’t want to rely too much on celebrity spokespeople,” Mr. Chow said. “Celebrities come and go. Their popularity, notoriety, fame can be nebulous. Gold, on the other hand, is solid — and eternal. “In hard times,” he said, “people cling to it.” A Hong Kong Gold Merchant Seeks Fortune in China By JOYCE HOR-CHUNG LAU Published: July 31, 2009 HONG KONG — When Chow Sang Sang opened its third jewelry megastore in Hong Kong in April, it was not a quiet affair.

Image by dutchamsterdam.nl via Flickr There is a lot of discussion going about the relative merits of legalizing marijuana in the United States. The implications of such a decision are far reaching, even into the workplace. Hiring practices for many US employers would be affected. Legal rights versus company policy would be tested. It makes for some interesting potential issues. One side argues that doing so would save billions of tax dollars that have been spent in the the war on drugs and provide a new tax revenue stream of federal and state taxes once pot was regulated.

It was a giddy time in DC for liberals back in January of this year. They had wiped the GOP off the political map and had control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. 15 years of pent up frustration, built up since the GOP takeover of Congress in 1994, had finally been released. The old guard liberals, who would finally take the gavels and pound their young inexperienced president into line, were going to change America! They were going to remake it to conform with the liberal myths and fantasies these 60’s rejects spent a lifetime naively believing in.

August 2nd, 2009 A horse has been put down after a jumps race in Victoria, becoming the 10th in the state to die this season.Rough Night fractured its leg in race two at Warrnambool, when it was brought down by another falling horse, Royal Laddie.Rough Night was put down on the track.Racing Victoria says a report will be prepared for the Jumps Review Panel meeting on Wednesday, and will then go to the Racing Victoria Board Meeting on Thursday.

Obama said today that our economy needs a “new spirit of innovation.”   That’s interesting coming from the man whose approach to economic rescue has been massive bailouts and government spending programs. The old saying has it that “necessity is the mother of invention.”  Well, it’s the mother of innovation too which is defined in the Meriam-Webster dictionary as “a new idea, method, or device.”  Now what incentives are there in the market right now to innovate?  To implement new ideas or methods or technology?

U.S. Recession Worst Since Great Depression, Revised Data Show – Bloomberg Companies on the verge of bankruptcy are finding it harder and more expensive than ever to get loans to help nurse them back to health. With corporate defaults at a six-year high, so-called debtor-in-possession financings dropped to about 23 percent of businesses failing to make debt payments so far this year, the lowest since at least 2003 – Bloomberg President Barack Obama said it will take “many more months” for the U.S.

Tags People Celebrities High Tech Sports Odd News Top Information Health Business Spoken News News Photos Slideshows 1/123Former Philippine leader Aquino dies (AFP) AFP – Former Philippines president Corazon Aquino, whose ‘People Power’ revolution toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos and restored democracy to the nation, died on Saturday after a battle with colon cancer. (AFP) Click on the image for the full size.Click here for more description.

The collapse in commercial property Towers of debt Concerns are switching from the residential to the commercial sector FROM a distance Potsdamer Platz looks a bit like its old self. Once the central hub of Berlin, before it was turned into a rubble-strewn no-man’s-land divided by the Wall, it is now surrounded by shiny new towers. Get a little closer, however, and it becomes clear that many buildings are just façades painted onto giant hoardings that rise ten stories high between actual office blocks.