Fake IRS Agents Target More than 360,000, Make Off With $15.5M in Scam
Thursday, 12 Mar 2015 10:33 AM
A federal investigator says fake IRS agents have targeted more than 366,000 people with harassing phone calls demanding payments and threatening jail time as part of a huge nationwide scam.
A deputy inspector general for the agency says more than 3,000 people have fallen for the ruse since October 2013. He says they have been duped out of a total of $15.5 million.
Major survey finds record low confidence in government
By EMILY SWANSON
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans’ confidence in all three branches of government is at or near record lows, according to a major survey that has measured attitudes on the subject for 40 years.
The 2014 General Social Survey finds only 23 percent of Americans have a great deal of confidence in the Supreme Court, 11 percent in the executive branch and 5 percent in Congress. By contrast, half have a great deal of confidence in the military.
The survey is conducted by the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago. Because of its long-running and comprehensive set of questions about the public, it is a highly regarded source of data about social trends. Data from the 2014 survey was released last week, and an analysis of its findings on confidence in institutions was conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the General Social Survey.
Menendez and Kerry spar over context of war resolution
By Max Pizarro | 03/11/15 10:00am
Against the backdrop of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-N.J.) squiring Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu into the U.S. Capitol to slap at President Barack Obama and a subsequent leaking of an alleged corruption indictment against Menendez, New Jersey’s senior senator and Obama’s chief diplomat this morning sparred over the President’s request for a Congressional authorization for use of force.
Appearing in his role as ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez told Secretary of State John Kerry that he wants hard answers on the conditions of an Authorization for use of Military Force to combat the ISIS terrorist group.
“I look forward to getting some answers from our witnesses that will allow us to move forward in writing and passing an authorization,” said Menendez. “But, we need to know what combat operations may be undertaken by U.S. troops on the ground in Syria and Iraq. We need to know whether associated forces that come under this agreement could include forces affiliated with ISIL in Libya, Nigeria or elsewhere. We need to know whether a new Administration could revert to relying on 2001 AUMF in three years if this AUMF, if passed, were to expire and we need to know how long we expect to be there and what our exit strategy will be. What metrics will indicate success or tell us it’s time to bring troops home?”
Menendez pointedly noted his opposition in the House of Representatives to the 2001 war resolution that mired the United States in Iraq. Kerry, then a U.S. Senator, backed that war resolution 14 years ago.
NJ Transit chief: Will try to hold hikes to single digits
MARCH 11, 2015, 11:03 AM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015, 4:38 PM
BY DAVID PORTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEWARK — Rail and bus commuters facing potential fare hikes likely won’t see increases as high as they did in 2010 when fares rose an average of more than 20 percent, the head of the North Jersey Transportation Authority said Wednesday.
Executive Director Ronnie Hakim told board members that a looming $80 million budget gap is forcing her to look at all options, including fare increases. She said that if increases become necessary, her goal is to make them less burdensome for commuters.
The last fare hikes averaged 22 percent across the system and were accompanied by service cuts and the elimination of off-peak discounts.
What happened in 2010 “was very harsh for our customers and we’re doing everything to significantly avoid any recommendation remotely like that,” she said. “So I would like to stay in the single digits.”
In an accident of timing, Hakim’s comments came on a day when four of NJ Transit’s rail lines were suspended temporarily, with two of the suspensions occurring during the morning commute — one due to police and fire activity and another due to a trespasser fatality on the tracks.
New Jersey’s Supremes direct trial courts to manage affordable housing
Posted by Matt Rooney On March 10, 2015
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Assemblyman Greg McGuckin voiced frustration on Tuesday afternoon, Save Jerseyans, after our state Supreme Court gave trial courts jurisdiction over affordable housing in the Garden State.
Click here to read the Opinion of Justice LaVecchia.
“Once again, our Supreme Court has decided that the elected branch of government will not set housing policy in our state, but instead it will be done by the courts,” said McGuckin, R-Ocean. “I urge my Assembly colleagues to immediately pass A-4124, introduced last month by Assemblyman (Dave) Rible and myself. The measure protects municipalities, which have not historically discriminated against low and moderate income residents, from the oncoming barrage of builder’s remedy lawsuits. Towns that have not committed a constitutional violation should not be forced to provide a constitutional remedy.”
New Jersey’s affordable housing guidelines expired in 1999. Litigation commenced last year when COAHfailed to issue new rules by November 2014 as mandated by the Supreme Court. Gov. Christie continues to run into court-imposed roadblocks on this issue and others, too, notably on the pension front (and most recently on the eve of his FY 2016 budget address).
Americans between the ages of 16 and 34 fared poorly on tests designed to measure their grasp of the literacy, numeracy, and computer-age problem-solving skills needed to compete in the international labor market. Even the youngest of U.S. millenials lag behind peers in other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries.
U.S. Millennials Come Up Short in Global Skills Study
Shortfalls affect all segments of American society
By Sarah D. Sparks
America’s wealthiest and best-educated young adults still lag behind their peers in other countries in the literacy, numeracy, and computer-age problem-solving skills needed to compete in the global labor market.
That, coupled with yawning racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps and even grimmer skills levels for students with less than a college degree, could lead to long-term difficulty for the country, according to a new study by the Education Testing ServiceCenter for Research on Human Capital and Education in Lawrenceville, N.J.
It’s far from the first study to suggest American students are falling behind their international peers. But the analysis of U.S. millennials—those born after 1980, ages 16 to 34 during the study—specifically highlights that the skills gap goes beyond young people who are typically seen as more “at-risk,” like immigrants and high school dropouts.
“We’ve often looked at these as disconnected, only looking at the problems of individual parts,” said Martha J. Kanter, a visiting professor of higher education at New York University and former assistant education secretary under President Barack Obama. She was not associated with the study.
Composer and musician Darryl Kubian, whose work will be performed by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Photo courtesy of NJSO/Dan Dutcher.
Ridgewood Composer in NJSO Spotlight
March 09, 2015 05:00 AM ET | Gregory Moomjy
Darryl Kubian is a rarity. The New Jersey native, who lives in Pompton Lakes, is both composer and working musician. His work as a composer will be highlighted in March, when the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra premieres O for a Muse of Fire, Kubian’s concert overture based on Shakespeare’s Henry V.
This is the second of Kubian’s compositions to be premiered by the NJSO. The concert will also feature Tchaikovsky’s swan song, Symphony No. 6, Pathétiqueand Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. O for a Muse of Fire is the last installment in this season’s New Jersey Roots Project, a program, now in its fifth season, that spotlights talented musical voices from New Jersey’s past and present.
Larger than life questions and ideas attract Kubian to composition. His first piece for the NJSO, 3-2-1, which the orchestra debuted in the 2007-2008 season, is a vision of the universe expanding and contracting as discussed in an article inScientific American. Both works tackle large questions, whether it is our place in the universe or the extent of a king’s power. The new work dramatizes the Battle of Agincourt, which cemented Henry V as the king of England and France. A king’s ability to send people to their death lies at the center of the work and according to Kubian, what relates the piece to the concert as a whole, “it’s a relationship about death [King] Henry has to make the decision to send people to die.”
Iran’s foreign minister and chief negotiator in nuclear talks with the West declared victory for his country, stating that no matter how the negotiations end, Tehran has come out “the winner,” according to remarks made on Tuesday and presented in the country’s state-run press.
Javad Zarif, the Islamic Republic’s foreign minister, stated in remarks before the country’s powerful Assembly of Experts, which recently installed a hardline new cleric as its leader, that the nuclear negotiations have established Tehran as a global power broker.
“We are the winner whether the [nuclear] negotiations yield results or not,” Zarif was quoted as saying before the assembly by the Tasnim News Agency. “The capital we have obtained over the years is dignity and self-esteem, a capital that could not be retaken.”
Zarif’s comments were accompanied by a host of bold military displays by Tehran in recent weeks, including the announcement of one new weapon that Iranian military leaders have described as a “very special” missile.
Governor Scott Walker (R., Wis.) wasted no time in mocking President Obama’s performance with respect to the economy after the president picked a fight with him for signing a right-to-work bill into law.
“On the heels of vetoing Keystone Pipeline legislation, which would have paved the way to create thousands of quality, middle-class jobs, the President should be looking to states, like Wisconsin, as an example for how to grow our economy,” Walker said in a statement to National Review Online. “Despite a stagnant national economy and a lack of leadership in Washington, since we took office, Wisconsin’s unemployment rate is down to 5.0 percent, and more than 100,000 jobs and 30,000 businesses have been created.”
Hillary Clinton Says She Used One Phone and Private Email While Secretary of State for ‘Convenience’
Yet just a few weeks ago, she said she used two different phones.
Peter Suderman|Mar. 10, 2015 4:38
In a press conference at the United Nations today, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded for the first time to questions about her decision to conduct all of her email business from a single, privately run account during her tenure at State. The heated session, which lasted roughly twenty minutes before coming to an abrupt end, left more questions than answers.
First, Clinton claimed that her decision to rely on a single email account was so that she could carry a single phone. This, she said repeatedly, was for “convenience.” Many of her emails, she noted, were sent to government employees at government addresses and recorded that way. At the time the decision was made, it “didn’t seem like an issue.”
At best this excuse suggests that Clinton is willing to prioritize personal convenience over transparency and accountability, which is probably not a great look for someone who is expected to announce a presidential campaign in the near future.
March 9, 2015 Last updated: Monday, March 9, 2015, 5:32 PM
By HUGH R. MORLEY
Tesla Motors moved a step closer Monday to resuming selling its electric cars in New Jersey when a Senate committee backed a bill that would allow the car company to operate four outlets in the state.
Tesla’s three existing showrooms, at Garden State Plaza and on Route 17 West in Paramus, and in Short Hills, have been prohibited from selling cars directly to consumers since last spring, when the state motor vehicle commission enacted rules requiring all new vehicle sales to be completed through a franchise dealership.
Tesla has no franchises, and so customers can see the vehicles in the New Jersey outlets – called “galleries” – but purchase them only either online or in another state.
The bill approved by the Senate committee does not mention Tesla by name, but would allow a maker of so called “zero emissions vehicles” to open four outlets and a retail service center in the state.
In December, the company opened a 25,000-square-foot Paramus center, in a former Sixth Avenue Electronics store, with room to display about a half-dozen cars, and operate a service center.
The committee voted unanimously for the bill after a brief hearing with no opposition.
Once again she is the ‘inevitable nominee’, with the inflated expectations that brings
For a while — four years in fact — it looked as though Hillary Clinton had put the past behind her. As America’s top diplomat, she enjoyed by far the highest ratings of any US figure. Her popularity abroad was matched by appreciation at home for the grace with which she buried the hatchet with Barack Obama. Americans most admire politicians who seem to be above politics. Mrs Clinton had a taste of that. Then she quit as secretary of state (to prepare for her second White House bid). She has been losing altitude ever since. The worry among Democrats is her woes are only a foretaste of what is to come. They are probably right.
Like almost every Clinton “scandal”, there is less than meets the eye to revelations that Mrs Clinton used a private account for her official emails. The discovery that she routed her government correspondence through a “homebrew” server is the kind of exposé that sends Washington into a tailspin but barely registers beyond. From the Whitewater investigations during Bill Clinton’s presidency in the 1990s to the ructions over the 2012 Benghazi murders of four US diplomats, the smoking gun is always just beyond reach. Failure to find one is why Whitewater prosecutors were sidetracked into Mr Clinton’s dalliance with Monica Lewinsky. It is also the path by which the Benghazi probes stumbled on Mrs Clinton’s home server.
James Sherk / @JamesBSherk / Alex Belica / March 09, 2015
Today Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed legislation making Wisconsin the nation’s 25th right-to-work state.
The victory is a historic moment for the growing right-to-work movement. Workers in half the country are now free to stop paying dues to a union they feel is not representing their interests.
Despite vehement pushback from union officials, Walker stood with the majority of voters nationwide and in Wisconsin who support workplace freedom. Without right-to-work, workers have little protection from their own union, which can seize part of their paycheck without their consent. Right-to-work lets workers decide whether or not their union has earned their support.
Even some union officials recognize this makes sense. Gary Casteel, now the secretary-treasurer for the United Auto Workers, told the press last year:
This is something I’ve never understood, that people think right to work hurts unions. To me, it helps them. You don’t have to belong if you don’t want to. So if I go to an organizing drive, I can tell these workers, ‘If you don’t like this arrangement, you don’t have to belong’ versus ‘If we get 50 percent of you, then all of you have to belong, whether you like to or not.’ I don’t even like the way that sounds, because it’s a voluntary system, and if you don’t think the system’s earning its keep, then you don’t have to pay.
Perhaps unsurprisingly union officials pay themselves less in states with right-to-work laws.
The new law will also mean more jobs for Wisconsinites. Unions organize aggressively in non-right-to-work states. Convincing 51 percent of employees to unionize means all of them must pay dues in perpetuity (unions do not generally have to run for re-election). Right-to-work reduces the financial incentive for unions to target companies with satisfied workers, which makes businesses more likely to locate there.
Wisconsin joins its Midwestern neighbors Indiana and Michigan, which both passed right-to-work in 2012. Many counties across Kentucky have enacted similar provisions at the local level.
Unions protested vehemently against right-to-work in all these jurisdictions. One high-profile union supporter in Michigan even vowed “there will be blood.” It never happened. Instead many workers opted out, while many more kept paying dues for union representation they liked. And almost every politician who supported the policy got re-elected.
In face of protests from the left Walker did the right thing. Unions do not like voluntary dues, but workers and voters do.
A quick history lesson from my friend Janice Gilmore Ponds.
by Michael Harris
One of the participants in the anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” stated today that he “Has to understand the past to know what to do in the future.” On this day in 1965, state police under the command of the Democrat Governor, George Wallace, attacked black Americans who were demonstrating for voting rights in Selma, Alabama.
Their voting rights had been stripped by the Democrats repealing almost two dozen civil rights bills put in place by the Republican Party during Reconstruction. The rampaging Democrats used billy clubs and tear gas and dogs in their “Bloody Sunday” assault, subsequent to over 90 years of racial suppression by the Democratic Party. This lines up with the Democrats starting the KKK with the expressed purpose of intimidating, flogging, and lynching black Americans who were former slaves; and had become voting citizens which was granted through efforts of the Republican Party.
A Republican-appointed federal judge, Frank Johnson, soon ruled in favor of the demonstrators, enabling them to complete their march two weeks later in Selma in 1965. When the legislation came up for a vote that the marchers were taking a stand for, President Johnson could not garner sufficient votes from within his own party to pass the bill. Johnson needed 269 votes from his own party to achieve the passage, but could only garner 198 of the 315 of the Democrats in Congress to vote for the bill. Johnson therefore worked with the Republicans to achieve the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill, followed by the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
This lines right up with the historical pattern established in 1870 where not one single Democrat voted for the right of blacks to vote through the 15th Amendment. In 1870, 1964, and 1965 we can thank the Republican Party for their hard work to pass the Civil Rights legislation that gave black Americans the right to vote. For the record Mr. Obama; the march in Selma was about the right of black Americans to vote and NOTHING ELSE.
How to Free-Range Your Kids (And Not Get Arrested)
Flood the streets with kids.
Lenore Skenazy|Mar. 9, 2015 3:47 pm
How do we fight back against cops and child protection workers who think parents that let their kids walk outside are negligent?
By flooding the streets with kids.
Busybodies who dial 911 the instant they see an unsupervised child are not going to do that when they pass a park filled with 15 kids. (Well, most aren’t.) And when masses of moppets take to the sidewalks after school, no one is going to call the cops to report, “Tons of children are walking home!”
But how do we get to that point? Today, only about 13 percent of children walk to school. One report I read found that only 6 percent of kids 9-13 play outside on their own. Part of the problem is that parents are scared of predators. But compounding that problem is the fear of the police. The Meitiv family in Maryland faced that fear firsthand when they were investigated for letting their kids, 10 and 6, walk a mile home alone.
But you know what Danielle Meitiv wrote to me, just after CPS declared her and her husband “responsible for unsubstantiated neglect”?
“Allowing kids to be Free-Range is critical for their development. We will continue to let our kids roam. Thankfully, CPS harassment like this is NOT common. The best way to make sure it doesn’t happen is to make Free-Ranging as common as it was when we were kids.”
If you’re ready to give it a try would like a little push, watch this video. Then, do what I do help this nervous family do: Give your kids one little errand that they feel they are ready for that you haven’t let them do yet.
