U.S. Supreme Court decisions: Booker v. Bell
TRENTON – In two separate but similarly controversial decisions released earlier today, the U.S. Supreme voted definitively on issues of religious rights for corporations and union dues requirements for part-time state workers. Both rulings, unsurprisingly, have legislators and political onlookers in New Jersey and across the country riled. (Brush/PolitickerNJ)
https://www.politickernj.com/
Supreme Court rules against Obama in contraception case
Some corporations have religious rights, a deeply divided Supreme Court decided Monday in ruling that certain for-profit companies cannot be required to pay for specific types of contraceptives for their employees. The 5-4 decision on ideological lines ended the high court’s term with a legal and political setback for a controversial part of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law. (Mears, Cohen/CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2014/06/30/
What Does Harris Mean for New Jersey?
Jun. 30 Big Labor, U.S. Supreme Court
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Many New Jersey owners of closely-held businesses are breathing a sigh of relief after today’s “Hobby Lobby” decision, Save Jerseyans. Another decision, however, had the potential to generate vastly greater consequences for Garden State taxpayers.
Did it? Yes and no.
You can read the Harris v. Quinn opinion here. Both of Monday’s big U.S. Supreme Court decisions were authored by Justice Samuel Alito, one of the Court’s reliable conservative votes.
The super short version (I’ve only had a chance to skim the opinion, and I make no pretense of being a constitutional expert)….
The Roberts Court stopped far short of overturning Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, a 1977 decision wherein SCOTUS ruled that public employees needed to support the core bargaining activities of the union that represented them collectively by paying dues regardless of an individual’s membership status preference.
In this particular case, the Plaintiff was a mother serving as a home care giver for her son and being paid by Medicaid to do so. Hence, she wasn’t truly a “public employee” despite the fact that her son’s care was publicly funded. Illinois and the SEIU were nevertheless trying to make her pay dues like any other home nurses under the applicable federal program.
Ghoulish, yes, and also a position indicative of the union’s prevailing desire to hold onto power by way of their precious union dues.
– See more at: https://savejersey.com/2014/06/harris-supreme-court-union-dues/#sthash.xtak0WPp.dpuf
The Supreme Court Just Dealt a Devastating Blow to Public Unions
By Sam Baker andEmma Roller
June 30, 2014
The case, Harris v. Quinn, involves Pamela Harris, a home-caregiver in Illinois who takes care of her disabled son. Harris is among home caregivers who have decided not to unionize through the Service Employees International Union, opting instead to bargain directly with the Medicaid recipients who decide how much money to allocate to their caregivers.
The case posed a challenge to so-called “fair-play fees,” which allow unions to collect dues from employees who aren’t in the union but who still benefit from the bargains unions strike with employers.
In the case of public-sector unions, though, the employer is the government. And for that reason, the challengers in Harris argued, the unions’ collective bargaining is inherently a political activity—unions are essentially lobbying the government.
For 18 State House officials, pensions are a personal issue
Governor Christie has a deadline today to sign a budget for New Jersey’s upcoming fiscal year. When he does, he’s expected to strip out more than $1.57 billion worth of payments into the state pension system that Democrats included in the budget they sent to his desk last week. Christie has already cut $900 million in planned pension payments so he could balance the current year’s state budget, and more debate over keeping the pension system stable is expected in the months ahead. (Linhorst/The Bergen Record)
Bergen exec gains support in contract fight
What started as an intramural battle over the balance of power between two of Bergen County’s top elected officials has assumed statewide dimensions. Six other counties are supporting County Executive Kathleen Donovan in her plan to challenge a contract negotiated by Sheriff Michael Saudino for his officers. (Rimbach/Bergen Record)
https://www.northjersey.com/
Confusion over doctor lists is costly for Obamacare enrollees in state
Fustration and legal challenges over the network of doctors and hospitals for Obamacare patients have marred an otherwise successful rollout of the federal healthcare law in California.
Limiting the number of medical providers was part of an effort by insurers to hold down premiums. But confusion over the new plans has led to unforeseen medical bills for some patients and prompted a state investigation.
More complaints are surfacing as patients start to use their new coverage bought through Covered California, the state’s health insurance exchange.
“I thought I had done everything right, and it’s been awful,” said Jean Buchanan, 56. The Fullerton resident found herself stuck with an $8,000 bill for cancer treatment after receiving conflicting information on whether it was covered.
“How am I going to come up with that much money?”
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-obamacare-doctor-networks-20140629-story.html#page=1
Facebook conducted secret psychology experiment on users’ emotions
By Harriet Alexander
12:00PM BST 28 Jun 2014
Facebook has conducted a secret massive psychology experiment on its users to find out how they respond to positive and negative messages – without telling participants
Over 600,000 Facebook users have taken part in a psychological experiment organised by the social media company, without their knowledge.
Facebook altered the tone of the users’ news feed to highlight either positive or negative posts from their friends, which were seen on their news feed.
They then monitored the users’ response, to see whether their friends’ attitude had an impact on their own.
“The results show emotional contagion,” wrote a team of Facebook scientists, in a paper published by the PNAS journal – Proceedings of the National Academy of Scientists of the United States.
“When positive expressions were reduced, people produced fewer positive posts and more negative posts; when negative expressions were reduced, the opposite pattern occurred. These results indicate that emotions expressed by others on Facebook influence our own emotions, constituting experimental evidence for massive-scale contagion via social networks.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/10932534/Facebook-conducted-secret-psychology-experiment-on-users-emotions.html
Hillary Clinton’s money problem
Hillary Clinton is having a very hard time being rich. After two weeks of verbal gaffes and unflattering headlines, Democratic operatives, political historians and counselors to the nation’s wealthy agree that Clinton’s current strategy — acting like she’s not incredibly rich and made her money the old-fashioned way — is not working and needs to change. Fast. (White/Politico)
https://www.politico.com/story/
Central Bankers, Worried About Bubbles, Rebuke Markets
By JACK EWINGJUNE 29, 2014
Investors, desperate to earn returns when official interest rates are at or near record lows, have been driving up the prices of stocks and other assets with little regard for risk, the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, said in its annual report published on Sunday.
Recovery from the financial crisis that began in 2007 could take several more years, Jaime Caruana, the general manager of the B.I.S., said at the organization’s annual meeting in Basel on Sunday. The recovery could be especially slow in Europe, he said, because debt levels remain high.
“During the boom, resources were misallocated on a huge scale,” Mr. Caruana said, according to a text of his speech, “and it will take time to move them to new and more productive uses.”
The B.I.S. provides financial services to national central banks and also acts as a setting where central bankers can discuss monetary policy and other issues like financial stability or bank regulation. The board of directors includes Janet L. Yellen, chairwoman of the Federal Reserve; Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank; and the heads of central banks from Japan, China, India and many other countries.
The organization, which reflects a widespread view among central bankers that they are bearing more than their share of the burden of fixing the global economy, often uses its annual reports to send a message to political leaders, commercial bankers and investors. But the B.I.S.’s language in the 2014 edition was unusually direct, as was its warning that the world could be hurtling toward a new crisis.
“There is a disappointing element of déjà vu in all this,” Claudio Borio, head of the monetary and economic department at the B.I.S., said in an interview ahead of Sunday’s release of the report.
He described the report “as a call to action.”
The organization said governments should do more to improve the performance of their economies, such as reducing restrictions on hiring and firing. The report also urged banks to raise more capital as a cushion against risk and to speed efforts to deal with past problems. Countries that are growing quickly, like some emerging markets, must be alert to the danger of overheating, the group said.
“The signs of financial imbalances are there,” Mr. Borio said. “That’s why we are emphasizing it is important to take further action while the time is still there.”
The B.I.S. report said debt levels in many emerging markets, as well as Switzerland, “are well above the threshold that indicates potential trouble.”
Martin Armstrong Warns Civil Unrest Is Rising Everywhere: “This Won’t End Pretty”
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/29/2014 16:40 -0400
The greatest problem we have is misinformation. People simply do not comprehend why and how the economic policies of the post-war era are imploding. This whole agenda of socialism has sold a Utopian idea that the State is there for the people yet it is run by lawyers following their own self-interest. The pensions created for those in government drive the cost of government up exponentially with time. The political forces blame the rich and this merely creates a class warfare with no resolution for the future. Even confiscating all the wealth of the so-called rich will not sustain the system. Consequently, we just have to crash and burn and start all over again.
The Guardian reported that some 50,000 people marched in London to protest against austerity. They cried: “Who is really responsible for the mess this country is in? Is it the Polish fruit pickers or the Nigerian nurses? Or is it the bankers who plunged it into economic disaster – or the tax avoiders? It is selective anger.”
The exploitation by the bankers has been really a disaster. They have been their own worst enemy and in the end, they have become the symbol that inspires class warfare if not revolution. They are not the representatives of those who produce jobs. They are merely those who wanted to trade with other people’s money for free. When they win, it is their’s, but any losses are passed to the taxpayers. Bankers should be bankers – not hedge fund managers who keep 100% of the profits using other people’s savings.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-28/martin-armstrong-warns-civil-unrest-rising-everywhere-wont-end-pretty
Supply won’t meet growing demand for primary care
Kaitlyn Krasselt and Jayne O’Donnell, USA TODAY4:02 p.m. EDT June 29, 2014
Federally funded programs will add at least 2,300 new primary care practitioners by the end of 2015, but the funding for at least one of those programs is set to expire at the same time, contributing to a massive shortage of doctors available to treat patients — including those newly insured through the Affordable Care Act and Medicare.
The U.S. is expected to need 52,000 more primary care physicians by 2025, according to a study by the Robert Graham Center, which does family medicine policy research. But funding for teaching hospitals that could train thousands more of these doctors expires in late 2015.
Population growth will drive most of the need for family care doctors, accounting for 33,000 additional physicians, the study says. The aging population will require about 10,000 more. The Affordable Care Act is expected to increase the number of family doctors needed by more than 8,000, the study says.
Farzan Bharucha, a health care strategist with consulting firm Kurt Salmon, says the ACA should have focused more on the primary care shortage “because we already knew there was a problem — and we knew implementation of ACA would potentially make it worse.”
Health and Human Services spokeswoman Erin Shields Britt says continuing to build the primary care workforce will take time, but she notes President Obama’s budget working its way through Congress has several new ways to expand the primary care workforce, which includes nurse practitioners and pediatricians. The ACA, she says, significantly increases the number of primary care providers in underserved areas and increases Medicare and Medicaid payment for services delivered by primary care practitioners.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/06/29/primary-care-shortage-health/11101265/#
Reader says Valley should contribute PILOT ,with CLEAR understanding there is no relationship between a PILOT and Valley’s renewal.
They have nonprofit status in the tax code and pay no property taxes on their Linwood campus. Despite that, they spend millions on advertising billboards, glossy ads in high-end magazines, etc. Their CEO makes almost $3 million a year. And yet they don’t make any volunteer payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) to the Village of Ridgewood where they are based. They had over $102 million in surplus in 2012, but didn’t volunteer a PILOT to the Village to help cover the cost of snow removal, and repaving & maintenance of the roads around their buildings, or for police & fire services, etc, which apparently are quite extensive, i.e. every time a fire alarm gets pulled in the hospital, the RWFD has to reset it. They also have to understand that there is NO quid pro quo for a PILOT payment and their expansionary dreams. I’m not sure they understand that clearly, but they should understand it, and volunteer 10% of their annual surplus to Ridgewood, with no expectation of anything but a thanks for the service they receive from the municipality. The Village Manager and Council should propose this to the Valley with the CLEAR understanding there is no relationship between a PILOT and Valley’s renewal.
As I have mentioned before, perhaps its time to legislate the definition of a ‘non-profit’ with respect to their avoidance of municipal property taxes in NJ (no matter what the IRS recognizes)
1. If the CEO compensation is higher than XXX per year.
2. If the ‘profit’ is xxx per year.
3. If the physicians using the facility earn more than xxx per year.
4. And most importantly… if there is a deficiency in the amount covered by insurance, will the ‘non profit’ NOT require the patient to make up the difference…the TRUE definition of a non-profit. (rather than make the patient responsible…or worse…send the bill to a collection agency)
Councilwoman Gwenn Hauck will not be present at Village Hall for this week’s Village Council Reorganization Meeting.
However, Ms. Hauck will be permitted to cast her votes for Mayor and Deputy Mayor via some form of electronic communication.
Reportedly, in the event an electronic connection with Ms. Hauck can’t be made during the scheduled July 1 meeting, provisions have been made to hold meetings on Wednesday and Thursday to try a connection again.
If you read Ordinance #3-6, you can see why the 3 Amigos are so concerned about having Ms. Hauck vote.
§ 3-6. Mayor; Deputy Mayor; President Pro Tempore.
A. At 12:00 noon on the first day of July following each election of Councilmen, the Council shall assemble at Village Hall, organize and elect one of the Councilmen as Mayor. The Mayor shall be chosen by ballot by majority vote of all members of the Council. If the members shall be unable, within five ballots to be taken within two days of the organization meeting, to elect a Mayor, then the member who in the last election for members of the Municipal Council received the greatest number of votes shall be the Mayor. Should such person decline to accept the office, then the person receiving the next highest vote shall be the Mayor, and so on until the office is filled.
B. At the same time as a Mayor is elected, the Council shall elect one of its members as Deputy Mayor. The Deputy Mayor shall serve in place of the Mayor in the event of the temporary absence or disability of the Mayor. The Council shall elect a President Pro Tempore in the event of the absence or disability of both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
C. Vacancies in the office of Mayor or Deputy Mayor shall be filled by the Council for the remainder of the unexpired term.
That’s right ladies & gentlemen. If more than 48 hours goes by and Councilwoman Hauck can’t be reached, Susan Knudsen could become the Village’s next mayor.
