More Demands on Cell Carriers in Surveillance
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON — In the first public accounting of its kind, cellphone carriers reported that they responded to a startling 1.3 million demands for subscriber information last year from law enforcement agencies seeking text messages, caller locations and other information in the course of investigations.
The cellphone carriers’ reports, which come in response to a Congressional inquiry, document an explosion in cellphone surveillance in the last five years, with the companies turning over records thousands of times a day in response to police emergencies, court orders, law enforcement subpoenas and other requests.
The reports also reveal a sometimes uneasy partnership with law enforcement agencies, with the carriers frequently rejecting demands that they considered legally questionable or unjustified. At least one carrier even referred some inappropriate requests to the F.B.I.
The information represents the first time data have been collected nationally on the frequency of cell surveillance by law enforcement. The volume of the requests reported by the carriers — which most likely involve several million subscribers — surprised even some officials who have closely followed the growth of cell surveillance.
The Labor Department said the U.S. economy created just 80,000 jobs in June, less than the 90,000 economists had been forecasting. And private-sector job growth was just 84,000, down sharply from 105,000 in May. Not doing fine.
The unemployment rate stayed at a lofty 8.2%.
As a research note from RDQ economics put it: “The good news is that employment growth is not slowing further but there is no sign of it picking up either. At this pace, job creation is not fast enough to lower the unemployment rate with the labor force growing at close to 150,000 per month on average.”
Shorter: Stagnation Nation
This continues to be the longest streak — 41 months — of unemployment of 8% or higher since the Great Depression. And recall that back in 2009, Team Obama predicted that if Congress passed its $800 billion stimulus plan, the unemployment rate would be around 5.6% today.
Just 75,000 jobs were created, on average, per month in the second quarter vs. 226,000 in the first quarter. And for the year, monthly job creation has averaged just 150,000 vs. 153,000 last year. Both numbers are extremely weak.
But those top-line numbers actually overstate the health of the labor market.
– If the size of the U.S. labor force as a share of the total population was the same as it was when Barack Obama took office—65.7% then vs. 63.8% today—the U-3 unemployment rate would be 10.9%. Even if you take into account that the LFP should be declining as America ages, the unemployment rate would be 10.5%.
– The broader U-6 unemployment rate, which includes “all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons,” is 14.9%, up a bit from May.
– The average duration of unemployment ticked up to 39.9 weeks.
– It will take 219,000 net new jobs a month for unemployment rate to be below 8% on Election Day if current participation rate holds steady.
– Job growth during the three-year Obama recovery has averaged just 75,000 a month for a total of 2.7 million. During the first three years of the Reagan Recovery, job growth averaged 273,000 a month for a total of 9.8 million. If you adjust for the larger U.S. population today, the Reagan Recovery averaged 360,000 jobs a month for a three-year total of 13 million jobs.
– The U.S. work force remains shrunken with just 58.6% employed.
But just ask the White House their opinion of today’s report and you’ll get a completely different reply:
The economy has now added private sector jobs for 28 straight months, for a total of 4.4 million payroll jobs during that period,” Alan Krueger, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, wrote in a statement. “Employment is growing but it is not growing fast enough given the jobs deficit caused by the deep recession.”
SENATOR JOE KYRILLOS’ STATEMENT ON JUNE JOBS NUMBERS
“The unemployment figures released today are further proof that the job killing policies enacted by Senator Bob Menendez and others in Washington are resulting in anemic economic growth,” said Senator Kyrillos.
Middletown, July 6… State Senator and Candidate for the U.S. Senate Joe Kyrillos (R-Monmouth) released the following statement regarding the June jobs figures released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics citing that 80,000 jobs were added while the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.2 percent in June.
“The unemployment figures released today are further proof that the job killing policies enacted by Senator Bob Menendez and others in Washington are resulting in anemic economic growth,” said Senator Kyrillos.
“New Jerseyans are concerned about their future, and they are making the tough choices necessary to make ends meet. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about Bob Menendez. He continues to push for more and bigger government, resulting in more spending, more debt, and more entitlements that we cannot afford. These policies are hindering our recovery, encroaching on our economic freedom, and threatening the American spirit.
“New Jerseyans simply cannot afford more of the same. In New Jersey, I have been proud to work with Governor Chris Christie and like-minded reformers to cap property taxes, balance budgets, and reform the pension system all without raising taxes. I look forward to bringing this same results-oriented leadership to Washington, DC.”
The Police State Grows: The tax man cometh to police you on health care
Jul 7, 8:09 AM (ET)
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold most of President Barack Obama’s health care law will come home to roost for most taxpayers in about 2 1/2 years, when they’ll have to start providing proof on their tax returns that they have health insurance.
That scenario puts the Internal Revenue Service at the center of the debate, renewing questions about whether the agency is capable of policing the health care decisions of millions of people in the United States while also collecting the taxes needed to run the federal government.
Under the law, the IRS will provide tax breaks and incentives to help pay for health insurance and impose penalties on some people who don’t buy coverage and on some businesses that don’t offer it to employees.
The changes will require new regulations, forms and publications, new computer programs and a big new outreach program to explain it all to taxpayers and tax professionals. Businesses that don’t claim an exemption will have to prove they offer health insurance to employees.
The health care law “includes the largest set of tax law changes in more than 20 years,” according to the Treasury inspector general who oversees the IRS. The agency will have to hire thousands of workers to manage it, requiring significant budget increases that already are being targeted by congressional Republicans determined to dismantle the president’s signature initiative.
Reader Says the Village of Ridgewood is more than just and upscale suburb of New York City
Ridgewood isn’t made up of only those people who work in NYC and just happen to live in Ridgewood. If that were the case, everything that makes The Village an upscale location to live in wouldn’t exist.
The Village of Ridgewood today is a testament to the hard work and dedication of all the people who have lived, worked, worshipped and volunteered in the Village to provide the lifestyle enjoyed by the residents.
Some of these residents still have ties going back to the original settlers. Others have ties going back just a few generations. Their bond with the Village of Ridgewood has nothing to do with NYC.
DNS Changer Malware a real treat or more Y2K madness
July 8,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Internet users world over should take extra precautions and check their computer for malware this evening .
While for most it may be no more than another Y2K hype. Reports are that thousands of internet users around the country whose computers were infected with malicious software a DNS Changer Malware over a year ago face the possibility of not being able to get online after midnight EDT – Eastern Daylight Time.
The issue arose when hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of more than 570,000 infected computers around the world. When the FBI took down the hackers late last year, agents realized that if they turned off the malicious servers being used to control the computers, all the victims would lose their Internet service.
Like most malware victims often do not even know their computers were infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more even vulnerable to other problems.
The FBI has arranged for a private company to run a website ( https://www.dcwg.org ) as a place for computer who suspect issues to go and see if their computer was infected and then download fixes to solve the problem.
Further problems arise because so many people simply don’t trust the government, and believe that federal authorities (the FEDS) are only trying to spy on them or take over the Internet.The FBI and other “cybersecurity experts” familiar with the malware have quickly denounced this charge as being ridiculous.I suggest you run and updated malware remover program first.
Though we don’t dispute suspicions of the FEDS malware can permanently damage your machine ,cause significant disruptions, keep you off the internet , corrupt your data ,even your backed up data .
Jobs data has Bernanke back in spotlight
By Peter Schroeder – 07/08/12 06:00 AM ET
Another disappointing jobs report has intensified speculation that the Federal Reserve may take further steps to boost a staggering economic recovery.
The politics of such an election-year move, however, would be volatile, and would surely attract criticism from Republicans who are seeking to deny President Obama a second term.
On Friday, the Labor Department reported that the U.S. added just 80,000 jobs, as the unemployment rate remained stuck at 8.2 percent. The figure came in below expectations, and is too low to keep up with population growth, let alone cut into a jobless rate that hampers Obama’s re-election bid.
The report, combined with a number of other gloomy economic reports, suggests that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke may have little choice but to try and do more to fulfill the Fed’s legal obligation to maximize employment, whether it be a third round of massive bond purchases known as “quantitative easing” or another novel step.
Outside groups switch election tactics to keep their donors secret
By Alexander Bolton – 07/08/12 06:00 AM ET
Outside groups are going to extra lengths to keep their donors secret, worrying that public disclosure could open up their supporters to harassment.
Bob Biersack, senior fellow at the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks outside group spending in federal elections, says that groups will change their election strategy to keep donor names protected.
“There’s been very little electioneering communication since that Van Hollen decision came out,” Biersack said in reference to a recent court decision that may require groups funding issue ads to disclose their donors.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has been a dominant force in Senate battleground states, has signaled it will switch from issue ads to independent expenditures to keep its donors secret.
ITS GREEK TO ME – WAIT – OR IS IT GERMAN !
Posted by svazarkar on November 3, 2011
Over the past year the European debt crisis has been under constant focus and has been driving market volatility around the world. Recently, on Oct 27th 2011 the major EU powers came up with a package of over 130 billion Euros only to find that the government in Greece went weak at its knees making it almost certain that the deal will not survive and Greece may not continue to be part of the EU.
What lead to this collapse? Below is an attempt to translate this Greek problem in layman’s english.
Lets start with the formation of the Euro itself:
In 1848 a famous French writer named Victor Hugo said these words: “A day will come when all nations on our continent will form a European brotherhood… A day will come when we shall see … the United States ofAmerica and the United States of Europe, face to face, reaching out for each other across the seas.”
While the idea dates back to early 1920′s and the end of the second world war, it was not until late 1960′s that a firm ambition to form the Euro zone was accepted by the major European powers
The key drivers behind the formation were simple:
Create a strong political and economic bloc
Ensure countries work together instead of against each other and avoid the great wars that had affected the continent
Creation of a common currency that would help prevent devaluation of the EU currencies and provide an alternative to the growing significance of the US dollar
There were some though conditions set to enter the Euro monetary system:
Abolish individual currency and monetary system -Basically give up control of monetary policy allowing the ECB (European Central Bank) to set interest rates
Budget deficit of less that 3% of GDP
Debt ratio of less than 60% of GDP
However, even with these strict conditions there are inherent flaws. The main one being the economic characteristics. Even if one meets the overall criteria (which in case of Greece was fudged to start with), the economies of developed countries like Germany and France are very different than those of the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain). The German’s are highly productive with strong private enterprise and a highly educated workforce. The PIGS on the other hand are public sector dominated socialist economies. These economies have inherently different economic cycles and abilities to compete.
This is not to say that there were no benefits at all of creating a common currency. The issue is that these benefits are skewed in favor of the stronger more developed countries or let me state it this way, certain countries (e.g. Germany) were significantly better positioned to benefit from the common currency than others (e.g. PIGS) and they did this with impunity,
So in addition to the financial mismanagement on part of the poorer countries of the EU we also had a case of excessive and rampant lending to people who could not afford those loans. Sounds familiar to what happened in the US housing market ? Yes, because it is.
So lest take a closer look at how a country like Germany benefited and to some extent contributed to the problem.
The German’s were the biggest beneficiaries of the formation of the Euro, now let me highlight that it does not make them guilty by any means. They were just better prepared to benefit from a common currency and as a result were able to enjoy the full benefits of the Euro while shifting the costs to others. Here’s how:
1. STOP CURRENCY APPRECIATION:
German’s which constitute about 1% of the world population are producing 9% of the worlds export, to put this in perspective from an economic stand point that would mean significant trade surpluses with almost all its major trading partners. Now, in absence of the Euro, these trade surpluses would have meant a significant strengthening of the German Deutsche Mark (DM), which, would have made German produce expensive and non-competitive in the export market i.e. that BMW would have cost a lot more to produce and would price itself out of the market.
However, if you co mingle Germany with other poorly performing countries in the Euro zone this increase in the value of the Euro is significantly tapered.This is because any gains made in the Euro by German productivity is offset by lack of productivity in other Euro zone countries. So the German products continue to remain competitive in the export markets.
(Note: A good example of this is to see how the Swiss Franc has appreciated over the last 1 year, leading to significant action by the Swiss government to control this rise)
2. PROVIDE A STABLE MARKET:
Now if you are one of the most prolific exporters it helps to get a free market. The formation of the Euro zone provided a large, free and most importantly a very stable market to German products. Now imagine you are able to trade with all these other rich and poor countries in the Euro zone and not worry about fluctuating regulations or exchange rates. So within the Euro zone the german exports were never impacted by strengthening of the Deutsche Mark (DM) or the devaluation of its trading partners currency. Stable and uniform benchmark interest rates and regulations also helped its cause.
3. MAKE OTHER COUNTRIES NONCOMPETITIVE:
The single currency not only benefited germany, it actually harmed the other countries. In an ideal world these countries would have devalued their currency to promote exports. This was no longer possible, in fact any appreciation in the value of the Euro (primarily caused by stellar growth of German exports) actually made exports of poorer Euro zone countries noncompetitive since they had no ability to compete with the German economy on productivity. This impact was not just restricted to their exports but also affected their internal domestic market where it was easier for German exports to compete.
4. THE LENDING SPREE:
It never helps if your trading partners are suffering and are running out of cash. So to help them you lend some money! Remember what China is doing to the USA ? The Germans did exactly the same to their poorer neighbors. With all this strong growth in the German economy they have the worlds second largest current account surplus (net foreign assets) after China. German banks lent this out to the EU countries who borrowed beyond their means. Most of this was spent on German exports and to build infrastructure which they could not afford. The common currency helped by eliminating foreign exchange risks and a stable interest rate regime. For the banks it was like drinking water, they thought it could never harm them since there is no threat of devaluation of assets. Similar to the implicit guarantee that existed in the US housing market that the government would come to the rescue, the German banks assumed that they are lending to Euro zone member countries with no chance of default. The single currency also made it easier to borrow as the poorer countries got loans at much lower interest rates than they would have if they were not part of the Euro.
As it turned out, the cycle had to stop somewhere. With the collapse of the Irish economy and the revelations of unsustainable debts of Greece the European crisis is coming to a head. The PIGS should never have joined the single currency regime without first ensuring their economies were competitive enough to deal with it. The German and French banks should have been more cautious lending money to countries who could not afford it. While the German’s and the French may not have created the problem, they have benefited from the inconsistencies prevalent over the last decade since the formation of the single currency. They will be the biggest losers if the Euro collapses which means they will do what it takes to prevent it from collapsing.
As part of the deal, the banks have now agreed to write-off 50% of the Greek debt i.e. they will assume that this money is not going to comeback. But of course this is real money and needs to be made up. To help the banks deal with this write-off they will have to raise some capital equivalent to the money they are writing-off. The banks have 2 options to do this:
1. Sell some of their assets to raise money
2. Borrow this money
Guess what the banks are choosing to do, yes they will borrow and guess who is most likely to lend them? The country with the largest current account surplus in the world China !
Why would China do this ? We will leave that for some other time!
Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.
Report: Countrywide won influence with discounts
Associated PressBy LARRY MARGASAK | Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The former Countrywide Financial Corp., whose subprime loans helped start the nation’s foreclosure crisis, made hundreds of discount loans to buy influence with members of Congress, congressional staff, top government officials and executives of troubled mortgage giant Fannie Mae, according to a House report.
The report, obtained by The Associated Press, said that the discounts — from January 1996 to June 2008, were not only aimed at gaining influence for the company but to help mortgage giant Fannie Mae. Countrywide’s business depended largely on Fannie, which at the time was trying to fend off more government regulation but eventually had to come under government control.
Outdoor Watercolor Workshop; Central Park, NYC
August 15 – August 17 2012
Instructor: Joel Popadics [email protected]
(973) 706-7759
Tuition $240
Shelburne Art Center Watercolor Workshop; Shelburne, Vermont
August 20 – August 24, 2012
Instructor: Joel Popadics [email protected]
(973) 706-7759
Tuition $470
Workshops for Young People
August 6 – August 10: Weeklong Young People’s Session
West Studio, 2:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Instructor: Charlotte Sullivan
(201) 747-1633 [email protected]
Tuition: $185
Membership Required
August 20 – August 24: Weeklong Young People’s Session
West Studio, 2:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Instructor: Laura Paray
(201) 857-8891 [email protected]
Tuition: $185
Membership Required
Ridgewood Art Institute
12 East Glen Avenue Ridgewood, NJ 07450 (201) 652-9615
Memorial Park at Van Neste Square – E. Ridgewood Avenue
Pack a picnic basket, throw down a blanket, unfold a beach chair and enjoy a “Movie in the Park” Movie will start after dark, about 9PM. Come enjoy this free film in the park!
Jaws is a 1975 American horror/thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley’s novel of the same name. The prototypical summer blockbuster, its release is regarded as a watershed moment in motion picture history. In the story, a giant man-eating great white shark attacks beachgoers on Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, prompting the local police chief to hunt it with the help of a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter. The film stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as oceanographer Matt Hooper, Robert Shaw as shark hunter Quint, Murray Hamilton as the mayor of Amity Island, and Lorraine Gary as Brody’s wife, Ellen.
Shot mostly on location on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, the film had a troubled production, going over budget and past schedule. As the art department’s mechanical sharks suffered many malfunctions, Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the animal’s presence, employing an ominous, minimalistic theme created by composer John Williams to indicate the shark’s impending appearance.
Generally well received by critics, Jaws became the highest-grossing film in history at the time. It won several awards for its soundtrack and editing, and it is often cited as one of the greatest films of all time.
The Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce presents Shakespeare in the Park
Shakespeare in the Park Memorial Park at Van Neste Square Saturday, July 21 at 11:00am & Sunday, July 22 at 12:30pm The Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce presents the 1st annual Shakespeare in the Park series, sponsored by the Valley Hospital.
Professional actors from Porch Light Productions and musicians at From the Top Music Studio will present three abridged versions of Shakespeare’s classic works. Come join us (rain or shine!) for this FREE event as we bring live theatre right to the center of Ridgewood’s downtown shopping district! Performances include some of Shakespeare’s favorite works : Romeo & Juliet, Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth.
Each play is approximately thirty minutes and perfect for families and audiences of all ages. Audience members are encouraged to bring a lawn chair and/or blanket. For more information contact the Chamber office at 201-445-2600, [email protected], or www.experienceridgewood.com.
