• 05Jun

  US: States slimming down inmate meals

  Economics, Prison State 1 Comment

  With budgets in the red in almost every state, prisoners’ food has been put on the chopping block.  In some states they already let sheriffs who run jails feed the prisoners the least amount possible and pocket the extra cash (some going too far for even the capitalist courts like Sheriff Greg Bartlett).  But now the phenomenon of feeding inmates less to save money is appearing all across the country.  How does this not meat the criteria for cruel and inhumane punishment?!?!  Then again, if locking humans in cages like animals doesn’t fit the criteria I guess I shouldn’t be suprised.

  Prison blues: States slimming down inmate meals

  

  Nutraloaf.... yummy!

  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iuiMA5jtXxR5zuz9uMoG5uG4D0SwD98KCH2G0

  ATLANTA (AP) — The recession is hitting home for inmates, too: Some cash-strapped states are taking aim at prison menus.

  Georgia prisoners already didn’t get lunch on the weekends, and the Department of Corrections recently eliminated the midday meal on Fridays, too. Ohio may drop weekend breakfasts and offer brunch instead. Other states are cutting back on milk and fresh fruit.

  Officials say prisoners are still getting enough calories, but family members and critics say the changes could make prisoners irritable and food a valuable commodity, increasing the possibility of violence.

  In Georgia, inmates are still getting the same number of daily calories: 2,800 for men and 2,300 for women. The portions at breakfast and dinner are bigger on days only two meals are served.

  Almost 5 percent of the state’s 58,295 prisoners still get three meals every day because they are diabetic, pregnant or have other special health needs.

  Barbara Helie, whose 25-year-old son Nicholas is serving time for armed robbery in Valdosta State Prison, said he would go hungry without the roughly $60 a week she puts into his account to buy instant soups, cheese, beef sticks and other snacks at the prison commissary.

  “I don’t know how the guys who don’t have someone on the outside helping out handle it,” Helie said. “Food has been an ongoing issue for him … He’s hungry a lot.”

  Georgia’s fast-growing prison system — the fifth-largest in the nation — has been hit hard by the same budget woes plaguing other states. For the current fiscal year, the state has slashed almost 10 percent from the state Department of Corrections’ $1.1 billion budget.

  Friday lunches were a casualty of the department’s decision to save money on gas and other costs by scaling back the prisoner work week from five eight-hour days to four 10-hour days, said Calvin Brown, Georgia Department of Corrections Deputy Director of Facility Operations. He couldn’t say how much the state is saving.

  For years now, Georgia prisoners have received only two meals a day on weekends because they don’t work, so now the same holds true on Fridays. They get three meals on work days because they are exerting themselves on road crews and litter pick up.

  There are no federal minimum caloric standards for state prison systems, though they are encouraged to adhere to guidelines established by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies Food and Nutrition Board. Georgia officials say they follow those guidelines, and Brown said there have been some complaints from inmates and family members but no lawsuits.

  In Ohio, prisons director Terry Collins said eliminating breakfast on the weekends and replacing it with brunch “could save us some real dollars when it comes to staffing and food costs.”

  He said the move would not upset prisoners because it would not sacrifice quality.

  “I don’t expect them to be as good as mom’s home cooking, but the food should be cooked and presented properly,” Collins said.

  Other states have kept three meals but are scaling back menus. Earlier this month, Alabama reduced the milk and fresh fruit it serves to save $700,000. Alabama inmates now receive an apple or an orange once a week, down from twice a week. Milk has been reduced from seven servings per week to three. Tennessee has also cut back on milk portions for men — from two servings a day to one — to save $600,000.

  Gordon Crews, a professor at Marshall University in West Virginia, wrote a book looking at correctional violence and said historically there have been links between food and problems behind bars. He pointed to a February riot at the Reeves County Detention Center in Texas caused in part by poor food quality.

  “A lot of prisoners will see something like that as some kind of retribution against them or some kind of mistreatment,” Crews said. “It’ll be something that the correctional staff will pay the price for … another reason (for inmates) to argue and fight back.”

  In Georgia, reports of inmate assaults — on both staff and other inmates — are up substantially for fiscal year 2009 over the year before, according to data obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request.

  Prison officials deny the increase has anything to do with the shrinking menu but didn’t provide an explanation.

  Sara Totonchi, of the Southern Center for Human Rights, called the elimination of Friday lunch part of a troubling trend of budget cuts in Georgia’s correctional system.

  “We don’t think this is a good idea,” she said. “It destabilizes things inside the prison and that is not good for any of the inmates or staff.”

  Associated Press writers Phillip Rawls in Montgomery, Ala., and Erik Schelzig in Nashville, Tenn., contributed to this report.

  On the Net:

  • Georgia Department of Corrections: http://www.dcor.state.ga.us
  • American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project: http://www.aclu.org/prison
  • National Institute of Corrections: http://www.nicic.org

  Tags: Prison State

• 28Apr

  Africa - South Africa: The Zuma Presidency - New Era or Business as Usual?

  Africa, Economics No Comments

  South Africa: The Zuma Presidency - New Era or Business as Usual?

  

  http://allafrica.com/stories/200904280632.html

  Election 2009 has turned out to be a landmark event for the ANC. The party faced some of its stiffest competition and still came out tops, despite a dismal 15-year delivery record.

  In an ironic twist, the people whom the ANC has failed most turned out en masse to keep it in power, while those that it’s been bending over backwards for appear to have voted for the opposition.

  The actions of both groups defy belief, but in a world where perception trumps reality, perhaps one shouldn’t be surprised that it is the estimation of the ANC’s perceived worth that seems to have motivated voters’ behaviour. Despite being sold down the river by the elite politics of their party, the poor still see the ANC as their saviour. While the party’s detractors smell the “rooi gevaar” around every corner.

  Zuma ascends South Africa’s presidency at an interesting time in world history.

  Conservative governments have swung to hard line positions, as evidenced by the political landscape in Israel. While centrist governments like America’s Obama administration are dithering more than ever.  As one commentator put it, either Obama can’t do anything seriously wrong; or he can’t do anything seriously right. At the other end of the spectrum, progressive governments from Latin America are openly nailing their socialist colours to the mast.

  What path, in the midst of all these, will Zuma and his new ANC carve out for South Africa’s future? Who will their role models be? Under Zuma’s stewardship, will the ANC finally right the wrongs of our apartheid past?

  Early signs are worrying. Zuma has not said anything that indicates a break from the past, which would put South Africa firmly on the road to dealing with structural poverty. For the time being it looks pretty much as though the poor are still going to get screwed.

  South Africa’s economy is still firmly rooted in the legacy of apartheid and the pressure to maintain the status quo is strong. Over the years, the economic policies of the ANC, rather than transforming the economic landscape, have divided our economy and we are led to believe that this dualism between the first and second economy is a necessary evil.

  So while the ANC has always promised “a better life for all,” high-level research reveals that it is their obsession with neo-liberal economics that perpetuates the apartheid status quo in post-apartheid South Africa.

  To coincide with our first decade as a democracy in 2004, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released a report assessing South Africa’s human development. The report stated that  “The current strategy and policies for achieving (economic) growth are objectively anti-poor as, on the one hand, the gap between economic growth and employment growth is widening and, on the other, given their capabilities, the poor are not able to integrate into the current processes of economic expansion.”

  In other commentary, it has also been argued that income inequality is one of South Africa’s biggest challenges and that this inequality in income distribution is the result of a growth path that ensures high earnings for the owners of capital and employees with skills.

  The main conclusion reached by the UNDP report was that “South Africa’s sustainable development prospects depend on a successful re-orientation of the economic structure and policies – such that the economy becomes inclusive (broad-based), equitable and sustainable over time.”

  In the five years since this report was released, this has not happened and in the aftermath of this landslide victory for the ANC, it is still doubtful whether South Africa will finally be put on a trajectory to achieve this goal. Two problems, among others, come to mind.

  Firstly, Zuma has gone on record assuring corporate South Africa that there will be no major changes to economic policy. The financial media have assured their readers that Zuma will be “business friendly.”

  Secondly, what impact will the global financial crisis have on the policies of the new ANC government? Are the poor in South Africa doomed to join the estimated 53 million people around the world who will fall deeper into poverty in 2009 as a result of the global recession?

  Rather than looking to the North for advice from experts that didn’t foresee the financial crisis, one hopes that Zuma will look for inspiration in other parts of the world.

  If it’s jobs and decent pay that his constituency is after, then it would certainly be worth Zuma’s while to look at what’s happening in Latin America, the only region in the world where inequality has declined. Bucking global trends, nine countries in this region are experiencing declining poverty rates, notably from 2002-2007. To date, the trend is only marginally affected by the global economic meltdown.

  How did they do it? They raised the wages of their poorest and reduced the earnings of their richest; we are informed by this excerpt from a briefing paper released by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean:

  “Changes in the structure of income distribution between 2002 and 2007 reveal three clearly distinct situations. Nine countries (Argentina, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and Paraguay) have significantly narrowed the gap between the groups at the extreme ends of the spectrum, both by increasing the poorer groups’ share of total income and by lowering that of the highest income households. The most notable reductions in the two aforementioned indicators (36% and 41%, respectively) were recorded in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Significant improvements were also observed in Bolivia, Brazil and Nicaragua, where both indicators fell by about 30%.”

  Just a few days ago, some of these Latin leaders vetoed a declaration that came out of the Summit of the Americas, also attended by bankers’-best-buddy Obama. Progressive Latin leaders pointed out that the role played by capitalism in bringing about the global financial crisis, was not addressed by the declaration.

  These issues are important for Zuma to consider because political leaders who are genuinely interested in pro-poor development and social justice - with track records to boot - are challenging the abuses of big capital. They are taking on the rich and powerful. Something that Zuma shows no sign of doing, regardless of the fact that he was carried to victory on the shoulders of the ANC’s Alliance partners, whose thinking one assumes would be more in line with the Latin American leaders.

  Many are waiting with baited breath to see how long Zuma’s honeymoon with the Alliance partners will last. His cabinet appointments will reveal his true intentions. Is he just a power hungry career politician willing to exploit any relationship to get to the top or does his proximity to the Alliance partners indicate a genuine willingness to break with the recent tradition of the ANC, which has been to consistently betray its strongest supporters.

  South Africa’s poor want jobs and houses. They deserve these and more.

  Tags: Africa, South Africa

• 19Apr

  Black male unemployment highest since WWII

  Class Struggle, Economics, Racism No Comments

  

  http://www.flcourier.com/news/2009/0417/front_page/004.html

  A recent study indicates that of the major ethnic groups impacted by unemployment during the current U.S. recession, Black men have experienced the greatest job losses since the crisis officially began in November 2007.

  “What’s missing from national media coverage of this recession is plainly a great deal of [honesty] about who’s losing their jobs. This is overwhelmingly a blue-collar, retail sales, low-level recession,” said Andrew Sum, professor of economics and director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, Mass., which published the study.

  “The Impacts of the 2007-2009 National Recession on Male Employment in the U.S. through January 2009; The Massive Concentration of Job Losses Among Males Especially Black Men and Blue Collar Workers” tracked employment losses in the recession across gender groups of workers overall, and in the four major ethnicities— Asian, Black, Hispanic and White. Thestudy found that:

  • Males are 80 percent (3.1 million) of all people who have lost their jobs in America;

  • Black male unemployment rose by 6.4 percent. Between 2007 and January 2009, 482,000 Black men lost their jobs;

  • The unemployment gap between Black men and women is historically unprecedented, with Blacks the only group where the gap favors women. This gap stems from differences in job types and fields, such as health care, education, social services - and wellpaying jobs, which are saturated with women.

  If you are a Black man working in trucking, manufacturing, construction or warehousing, you are getting clobbered, the document’s lead author said. Through Febru- ary 2009, Black men who were employed a month before the recession started have lost their jobs at a rate five times greater than everybody combined.

  “Here we are as a country that was priding itself on the fact that it elected a Black American president of the United States, and rightfully so. At the same time, this is the greatest recession loss of jobs by Black men since the end of World War II. Thishas never happened before, yet nobody on national TV has stood up and said this recession has been catastrophic for Black men,” Sum said.

  Entrepreneurship is way out

  “This means we’re in trouble,” said Lavar Young, director of the Newark (N.J.) Comprehensive Center for Fathers, which helps men transition who have lost their jobs, homes, or are re-entering the work force after incarceration. Known as the Fatherhood Center, it provides mentoring, life skills, legal assistance, education and counseling classes.

  According to Young, self-help and entrepreneurship is a sure route out of joblessness for Black men. “It’s a low-cost investment and many times a high reward. In Newark, we have a thriving market when it comes to folks selling things, especially when stores are going up on their prices. We just encourage the men who attend our programs to turn their skills when they were out doing negative things into something positive,” he told The Final Call.

  For instance, he added, “One of our guys came to class selling socks for $4-$5 a pack. It won’t ease all your pains and it’s not a lot of money, but it will help you over that hump,” at least through about six to eight months of training for a new skill.

  Implications for stimulus

  According to the study, the demographics of job loss in the U.S. have important implications for the design and implementation of the programs to be funded under the economic stimulus package and work force development policies at the national, state and local levels.

  For Sum, one way to reduce joblessness is to try to get all of the stimulus money distributed as soon as possible to get people back to work, and specifically target projects toward infrastructure, manufacturing, transportation and training money for youth jobs.

  In addition, the Obama administration, and recipients of stimulus funds must guarantee public postings of all job openings generated by federal stimulus dollars on web sites of one-stop centers.

  ‘Do for self’

  Cedric Muhammad, CEO of CM Cap and the Eclectic Economist Blog at www.cedricmuhammad. com, also advocates self-help to reduce unemployment among Black men. He believes that finding a niche and doing something for themselves is critically important for Black men because they practically have no other option.

  “In some states they must employ themselves in cases where they have felony convictions, and are not able to obtain jobs in certain professions and industries. Those jobs where they may qualify for employment - construction or manufacturing for instance - are disappearing rapidly,” he said.

  Whenever Black men can, they should pool their financial resources because what a struggling individual cannot do, a struggling group can do, whether it is friend-to-friend, family-tofamily, or neighbor-to-neighbor, Muhammad continued. This can apply from so-called gangs to fraternities.

  Unemployment underestimated

  Algernon Austin, director of the Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy for the Economic Policy Institute, argued that looking at the unemployment rate does not capture the true picture of joblessness. For example, he said, the numbers are suppressed by various factors, such as the high Black male incarceration rate.

  His goal is to get Black men and other disadvantaged racial minorities incorporated into the mainstream economy through programs and investments, and to promote success of small Black owned businesses to help men overcome obstacles to hiring.

  But solving the problem of putting Black men to work requires a sincere, national commitment on various levels. The government has to help invest in and develop Black communities, address discrimination in the labor market, address educational disadvantages, and be sure job creation reaches the Black community, Austin said. “The good news is that people are highly adaptable and the Black family has already transformed itself significantly,” he added.

  Anger, frustration

  Abdul Muhammad, a lead instructor at the Fatherhood Center, told TheFinal Call that people should be concerned about the joblessness among Black men because it lends to the large number of single Black mothers who are head of households.

  “Black men suffer the worst when it comes to health and nutrition and they’re the first fired and last hired … with our national program. What I’m finding outside of Newark is that Black men in all these cities are going through the same issues, which is the lack of employment, financial empowerment, and not being able to provide for themselves and live a conducive lifestyle,” he said.

  As a result, Abdul Muhammad continued, the men feel frustrated and denigrated to a point where they give up, and children suffer when a man, unable to provide for his family, turns away from being a responsible parent.

  NOI program works

  Ultimately, Abdul Muhammad said, society must allow Black men to become engaged through civic participation and economic opportunity.

  Otherwise, it will continue to produce anger, animosity and the horrific numbers of Black men entering the prison system, advocates warn.

  “I can speak personally for myself because as most of these guys that enter our organization or Black men in general, I’ve sat where they’re sitting because I’ve done time in state prison myself. I understand their pain and their frustration but I was just thankful and blessed due to the teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad (of the Nation of Islam) to have the opportunity to learn how to utilize the self-improvement program that he and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan have provided for us as a people,” Abdul Muhammad said.

   

  Tags: Class Struggle, Economics, Racism, unemployment

• 19Mar

  Some say Escondido police union’s flier crosses the line

  Economics, Gangs, Racism No Comments

  What purpose do gangs AKA street organization play within our social system?  Well, for one, they serve as the boogeyman that police can use to build fear in people and justify asking for more funds.  Think I’m lying?!  Check this racist flyer used below by Escondido, California police to try to scare people into supporting them in their fight against the city council for funds.   In hard economic times the most powerful gang - the police - wants to make sure it gets its piece of the pie, and they will always use fear-mongering to justify their existence.  But even the president of the police officers association said this:  ”When crime continues to rise (in bad economic times), to cut public safety while sitting on a pile of money is not the best choice.”  He admits that poor people are feeling the tough economic times and will resort to crime, but he uses that reasoning to justify a capitalist police force that needs to be ready to beat poor peoples’ heads in when they get unruly.  How about we help these people who are turning to crime rather than punish them for trying to live?!

  Some say Escondido police union’s flier crosses the line

  

  This image of heavily tattooed gang members flashing signs was sent to about 17,000 residents in Escondido on a flier from the Escondido police officers’ union, which is embroiled with the city in a contract dispute. However, these aren’t Escondido gang members and city officials dispute many of the crime statistics used in the flier. The police are also being accused of race-baiting and invoking racial stereotypes.

  http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/mar/16/bn16esco-controversial-flier/?zIndex=68053

  ESCONDIDO — Some residents and politicians say a flier sent by the city’s police officers’ union crosses the line, peddling fear and deepening racial wounds in its effort to win a labor battle.

  About 17,000 Escondido residents woke up over the weekend to a full-color four-page flier in their mailboxes with five heavily tattooed gang members flashing gang signs on the cover.

  Above and below them a message in large type says: “On the streets, gang members now outnumber Escondido police officers by almost 6 to 1 … Why isn’t the City Council putting your safety first?”

  Inside, the flier contends that violent crime and theft is “sharply on the rise,” threatening levels “not seen in a decade” and cites the number of gang members, “gang associates,” sex offenders and parolees in the city. It says the base pay of the city’s 158 police officers is the second lowest in the county, and that officers are leaving for other departments.

  It asks residents to attend Wednesday afternoon’s council meeting to “tell your council members and city manager exactly how you feel about their putting your community at risk.”

  The meeting is a council hearing to break an impasse in labor negotiations between the police officers’ union and the city. The council can impose the city’s offer or side with the union. The city wants the union to agree to a suspension of city contribution to 401(k) plans, a suspension of automatic pay raises and pay increases for additional training, all of which the union rejects, as part of citywide budget-cutting.

  One problem that critics have with the flier is that the gang members on the cover are not from Escondido. The same picture appears on various Web sites, one of which describes those in the picture as Los Angeles gang members from El Salvador.

  It was purchased by the union’s Orange County-based public relations firm, said Mike Guerrero, president of the Escondido Police Officers Association. “We didn’t use local gang members for a reason – I do not want to embolden local gang members,” Guerrero said.

  City officials say the flier is deceptive and inflammatory.

  “The appearance they left is that they are willing to scare residents so they will side on behalf of the police for the money,” Councilwoman Olga Diaz said.

  “The tactics they used raised an element of race baiting. They have intertwined the issue of race into a discussion that should only have included money.”

  Guerrero defended the statistics in the flier, saying they were collected from the police department, parole agencies and Megan’s Law sex offender registries.

  But some are contradicted by other statistics. The FBI’s annual crime report released in January, for example, said violent crime in Escondido dropped 24.5 percent in the first six months of 2008 and and property crime decreased 4 percent.

  Police Chief Jim Maher declined to comment Monday, saying he will answer questions after labor negotiations are over. City Manager Clay Phillips disputed some of the information in the flier.

  “The crime statistics are inaccurate. Some of the comparisons with salaries are not accurate,” he said. “I haven’t gone through it line by line. I can’t give it that kind of recognition.”

  Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler also said in this year’s state of the city speech that Escondido’s crime rate dropped 30 percent last year.

  “It’s fear-mongering,” Councilman Dick Daniels said. “This city continues to be safely policed.

  “I’m not totally surprised, but disappointed. I wonder where that central casting (gang members) came from.”

  In addition, the city did not eliminate 12 officers’ positions, Daniels said. The positions were frozen to cope with the widening budget deficit.

  The police union contends the city should use $19 million reserved for a proposed Marriott Hotel that has been abandoned, and more money in various funds, that could be used to maintain police pay and benefits. City officials have said that all that money has been committed to other uses.

  The labor dispute arose from Escondido’s budget deficit. Last fall, the city projected a $7.4 million shortfall in its $82 million general fund budget, and made service and employee benefit cuts early this year to narrow the gap to $1.7 million.

  But sales tax revenue, the mainstay of the city’s income, has continued to decline, and the gap has widened to $3.8 million.

  Throughout the budget cut discussions, the city negotiated with its seven labor unions to reduce benefits and salaries. Six have accepted the terms, either voluntarily, or under threat of layoffs, or were forced by a council vote to do so. The police officers association is the last in line.

  Bill Flores, a member of El Grupo, a Latino advocacy group, said he found the gang picture on the Internet. In a new release, El Grupo denounced the police union.

  “The flier is replete with fear-mongering, falsehoods, innuendo and misinterpretations,” the statement said, and demanded an apology.

  Guerrero said Latino gang members were used because the city’s gangs are predominantly Latino.

  “It seems Mr. Flores is continuing his effort to cause a racial issue that does not exist,” he said. “When crime continues to rise (in bad economic times), to cut public safety while sitting on a pile of money is not the best choice.”

  Tags: California, Economics, Gangs, Racism, Street Organizations

• 16Mar

  US black rights group sues banks for racist lending

  Economics, Racism No Comments

  US black rights group sues banks for racist lending

  http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iNmBjPhrUlMKwFAKf0ACKBWJR_wg

  WASHINGTON (AFP) — The NAACP African-American civil rights group on Friday filed lawsuits against US lending titan Wells Fargo and the US branch of Britain’s HSBC, accusing them of “institutionalized racism.”

  “African-American homeowners who received subprime mortgage loans from these lenders were more than 30 percent more likely to be issued a higher rate loan than Caucasian borrowers with the same qualifications,” the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said in a statement.

  The lawsuits were filed in California, the group said.

  Wells Fargo was quick to respond, denying the allegations, which it called “totally unfounded and reckless.”

  “We have never tolerated, and will never tolerate, discrimination in any way, shape or form in any of our business practices, products or services,” Wells Fargo said in a statement.

  “We have been working with the NAACP for the past two years to develop a partnership that would benefit the NAACP, its constituents and our communities, so we are dismayed that the NAACP has chosen to abandon that constructive dialogue in order to pursue this litigation.”

  Subprime mortgages were awarded to borrowers with poor credit.

  A wave of defaults on mortgage payments by this high-risk group of borrowers was a catalyst in the collapse of the US financial market, starting in August 2007.

  The NAACP claimed that US lenders were still engaging in discriminatory lending.

  “These banks are getting billions in bailout money, yet think that they can get away with business as usual,” said NAACP lawyer Austin Tighe.

  “Predatory lending policies and practices are legally actionable, morally reprehensible and fiscally irresponsible.”

  Earlier this year, a federal court denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against other lenders sued by the NAACP for racially discriminatory lending practices.

  The federal court said the NAACP had standing to bring the lawsuit, and ordered the lenders, which included Bear Sterns Residential Mortgage Corporation, Chase Bank USA and Citimortgage, to turn over information and documents about their lending policies and practices.

  “Lenders named in the suits on average made high cost subprime loans to higher qualified African Americans 54 percent of the time, compared to 23 percent of the time for Caucasians,” said NAACP interim general counsel Angela Ciccolo in a statement.

  “Our lawsuit aims to change the policies and practices which lead to those results.”

  Tags: Economics, Racism

• 07Mar

  Mayor Bloomberg: “We Love The Rich People”

  Economics No Comments

  Surprise, surprise….  the bourgeoisie loves itself.  Ultra-wealthy NYC Mayor Bloomberg doesn’t want the rich to have to pay for the economic recovery of this nation (or of NYC itself).  He feels that more of the Reaganomics trickle-down economic theory is what is in order, as opposed to a new approach.  You know what we say here at Malcolm-Che:  make the rich pay, and we don’t ask for it, we don’t beg for scraps, we take back what is ours!!

  Mayor Bloomberg: “We Love The Rich People”

  

  Michael R. Bloomberg, himself a very wealthy man, has defended others with golden pockets.

  http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Mayor-Bloomberg-Says-Not-To-Soak-Rich.html

  Mayor Michael Bloomberg shot down union-backed protesters who have called for soaking the rich with higher taxes by saying such a move would hurt everyone. 

  “We can tax the rich, except that, if you haven’t looked at the stock market lately, they aren’t making any money,” Bloomberg said on his radio show on WOR on Friday, the New York Post reported. 

  Later he said: “You know, the yelling and screaming about the rich - we want rich from around this country to move here. We love the rich people.” 

  Bloomberg’s comments came in response to an organized protest of thousands outside City Hall two days ago. To avoid cutting city services, the protesters had called for the Mayor to raise taxes for those who make $250,000 and above, according to the Post.   

  The Mayor did not acquiesce. Instead, he delivered a vociferous defense of the city’s economic elite, noting that wealthy New Yorkers were responsible for sustaining jobs at high-end restaurants and stores.

  “I hear the protesters, you know,” Bloomberg said, during the radio show according to the Post. ”I think that deep down inside, I assume, they understand that we live in a different world.”

  It remains to be seen how people will respond to the billionaire Mayor’s impassioned defense of his fellow well-heeled.

  At least one union official involved in the protest told the Post that Bloomberg appeared “tone-deaf.”

  Tags: Bloomberg, Economics, New York

• 07Mar

  Obama hails new officers

  Crime, Economics, Obama No Comments

  How is Obama gonna save all those jobs?!   By making sure to maintain the police state.  Oh you think its too soon to criticize Obama?!  We here at Malcolm-Che are revolutionaries.  Obama is specifically giving money to police for “fighting crime,” which we all know really means holding down poor people trying to get a piece of the pie.  We need jobs, healthcare, housing, education…. not more police!! 

  Obama hails new officers

   http://dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/03/07/ObamaCops.ART_ART_03-07-09_A1_BPD577O.html?sid=101

  In his first visit to central Ohio since last fall’s campaign, President Barack Obama brought $4.9 million with him.

   

  Speaking to Columbus police recruits whose jobs were spared by the city’s first share of economic-stimulus money, Obama announced that the Justice Department will begin sending more cash to central Ohio for local governments facing similar problems paying for police and anti-crime programs.

  It’s part of $61.6 million targeted for law enforcement in Ohio and $2 billion nationwide. The money will begin flowing within 15 days, he said, as federal officials approve plans submitted by states, counties, cities, villages and townships.

  The money “will help communities throughout America keep their neighborhoods safer with more cops, more prosecutors, more probation officers, more radios and equipment, more help for crime victims and more crime-prevention programs for youth,” Obama said.

  The president spoke to about 1,000 people at the Aladdin Shrine Center near Port Columbus.

  Part of Columbus’ $4 million already has been set aside to pay the new officers’ salaries. Community Crime Patrol, which lost more than half its city funding this year, also is likely to get help, said Deputy Safety Director Dan Giangardella.

  Mayor Michael B. Coleman has said he will seek federal help to continue police strike forces in high-crime neighborhoods, an initiative that was eliminated from this year’s city budget. Giangardella said that money would come from other sources, though.

  The president received a standing ovation from yesterday’s audience — recruits’ families, police officers and safety officials, neighborhood leaders, officeholders and political supporters — for helping save the Columbus police jobs.

  Obama stood and applauded, though, after the 25 recruits received their diplomas and took their oaths. The group, down from 27 after one injury and one resignation, entered the police academy last summer but received layoff notices three days before completing their training in January.

  The president called the officers an example of the spirit needed during the nation’s economic turmoil.

  “If we can show even a fraction of the courage and selflessness that these cadets have already demonstrated, then I have no doubt that we will emerge from this crisis stronger than before,” he said.

  He also held them up as an example to opponents of his stimulus plan, some of whom stood along Stelzer Road as he came and left.

  “I look at these young men and women — I look into their eyes and I see their badges today — and I know we did the right thing,” Obama said.

  None of Ohio’s top Republicans came to hear Obama. A spokesman said Sen. George V. Voinovich declined the invitation. A spokeswoman for Rep. Pat Tiberi said he had other commitments.

  House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, pointed out in a statement that the federal money coming to Columbus will keep the officers on the payroll only through Dec. 31. City officials have said they’ll figure out later how to pay them in 2010.

  “Instead of developing long-term strategies to put Ohioans back to work and get our economy moving, some leaders are throwing buckets of tax dollars into special-interest projects and other programs that will not create jobs,” Boehner said.

  The city’s plans also include improving fingerprinting of suspects and beefing up domestic-violence investigations. Local requests are being coordinated through Franklin County, which plans to post law-enforcement spending requests on its Web site.

  “These aren’t frills,” said county Commissioner Paula Brooks.

  Kathleen Herdman is siding with Obama, too, in the stimulus debate. Her son, James, earned his bachelor’s degree in three years, served seven years in the U.S. Marines and began training at the Columbus police academy last summer.

  His goal of becoming an officer was left in limbo when he was told in January that he’d lose his job.

  “He worked so hard to attain that,” Herdman said. “We are very lucky.”

  In other parts of central Ohio, though, some local governments were dismayed at being left off a federal list of money available across the state.

  In Madison County, the sheriff already has cut all work for eight part-time deputies. The London Police Department is considering layoffs.

  Neither was on the Justice Department list yesterday.

  “If there was an application process, we sure didn’t know about it,” said Steve Hume, London’s safety-services director.

  Tags: Obama, police state, stimulus

• 06Mar

  Payrolls sink 651,000; jobless rate soars to 8.1%

  Economics No Comments
  “2.5 million jobs lost in last four months “

  -

  Payrolls sink 651,000; jobless rate soars to 8.1%

  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/payrolls-down-651000-feb–/story.aspx?guid=%7B3C16959C-FFFD-45BF-848F-9B36B187AB24%7D&dist=msr_12

  WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The weakness in U.S. labor markets has gathered extraordinary momentum, wiping away millions of jobs over the past four months alone, the Labor Department reported Friday.

  The U.S. economy lost 651,000 jobs in February, the fourth month in a row where job losses were near or above 600,000.

   

  The unemployment rate soared to 8.1% in February, the highest rate in over 25 years.

  The economy has lost 4.4 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, with more than half coming in the last four months. Read full report.

   

  “This is what falling off a cliff looks like,” said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute.

  President Barack Obama called the losses “astounding” and said the figures proved that Washington “did the right thing” by passing the historic $787 billion economic stimulus plan last month.

   

  Obama spoke at a police trainee graduation ceremony in Columbus, Ohio, where the class of recruits had been threatened with layoffs until the stimulus provided the funds to keep them in uniform.

   

  House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said the job report proved that Washington had done too much. “Even as Americans’ job prospects grow dimmer, their savings evaporate, and their budgets tighten, Washington Democrats seem more determined than ever to continue pursuing tax hikes and pork-barrel spending increases that are only proving to make matters worse,” he said.

   

  The stock market moved higher in opening trading on relief that the report was not worse. Treasurys fell pushing yields up for the same reason, traders said. Read Bond Report.

   

  Job losses in February were close to expectations, while the unemployment rate was above forecasts of 8.0%. See Economic Calendar.

   

  Previous estimates for payrolls were revised lower by a total of 161,000. Payrolls fell by 655,000 in January and by 681,000 in December.

   

  The job losses in December were the biggest monthly decline in jobs since October 1949, when half a million steelworkers went on strike for higher pay.

   

  The consensus of private forecasters is for the unemployment rate to get close to 9% next year, with some forecasters looking for a 10% rate. The Federal Reserve doesn’t expect the unemployment rate to fall below 7% until 2011.

   

  The report raised doubt about expectations that the economy would recover sometime this year.

  “Combing the details of the employment report offers little hope of improvement any time soon,” wrote Richard Moody, chief economist at Mission Residential, in a note to clients.

   

  Job losses were widespread across industries. Only education and health services reported job gains.

  According to the survey of business establishments, 660,000 jobs were lost in the private-sector in February. Goods-producing industries shed 276,000 jobs, while services lost 375,000.

   

  Construction employment fell by 104,000 in February and the industry has shed 904.000 jobs since the recession began.

   

  A leading indicator of labor market conditions - temporary-help services — saw 78,000 jobs lost in February.

  Other large job losses in February occurred in transportation, financial services, and retail and wholesale trade.

  A separate survey of households showed that employment fell by 351,000 in February. Unemployment rose by 851,000 to 12.4 million.

   

  Unemployment has risen by 6.9 million since the recession began.

   

  An alternative measure of unemployment that includes discouraged jobseekers and those whose hours have been cut back to part-time rose to a record 14.8%. Those data go back only to 1994.

   

  The unemployment rate for African Americans rose to 13.4% in February, the highest rate since December 1993. Teenage unemployment rose to 21.6%.

   

  Average hourly earnings rose by 3 cents, or 0.2%, to $18.47 an hour. Average wages have risen 3.6% in the past year.

   

  The average workweek held steady at 33.3 hours for the third straight month.

   

  The index for hours worked fell by 0.7%, consistent with gross domestic product falling at a 7% pace this quarter, said economists for Goldman Sachs. Hours in the factory sector dropped by 2% over the month.

   

  The number of workers experiencing long spells of joblessness, defined by the government as 27 weeks without work, has risen to 2.9 million in February, up 1.6 million since the start of the recession.

   

  The number of persons working part time who would prefer to be working full time jumped 787,000 in February to 8.6 million. This category has risen by nearly 4 million since the recession began.

   

  About 2.1 million other workers are classified as only marginally attached to the labor force.

   

   

   

  Tags: Economics

• 27Feb

  New Mexico Schools Adopt ‘Cheese Sandwich Policy’ for Children Without Lunch Money

  Economics, Education 1 Comment

  This is a real sad article.  In this shameful policy children who have parents who are delinquent on paying their lunch bills at school are openly degraded and singled out.  Surely this happens in many ways throughout our entire society; poor people are disrespected and shamed, but to do this to children like this is truly an abomination.  Now there are three other states who have followed suit, so this is bigger than just a school in New Mexico.  Can anyone think of a better way to make the pursuit of educaion more difficult than shaming a child for being poor in front of their classmates? 

  New Mexico Schools Adopt ‘Cheese Sandwich Policy’ for Children Without Lunch Money

  

  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,499909,00.html

  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —  A cold cheese sandwich, fruit and a milk carton might not seem like much of a meal — but that’s what’s on the menu for students in New Mexico’s largest school district without their lunch money.

  Faced with mounting unpaid lunch charges in the economic downturn, Albuquerque Public Schools last month instituted a “cheese sandwich policy,” serving the alternative meals to children whose parents fail to pick up their lunch tab.

  Such policies have become a necessity for schools seeking to keep budgets in the black while ensuring children don’t go hungry. School districts including those in Chula Vista, Calif., Hillsborough County, Fla., and Lynnwood, Wash., have also taken to serving cheese sandwiches to lunch debtors.

  Critics argue the cold meals are a form of punishment for children whose parents can’t afford to pay.

  “We’ve heard stories from moms coming in saying their child was pulled out of the lunch line and given a cheese sandwich,” said Nancy Pope, director of the New Mexico Collaborative to End Hunger. “One woman said her daughter never wants to go back to school.”

  Some Albuquerque parents have tearfully pleaded with school board members to stop singling out their children because they’re poor, while others have flooded talk radio shows thanking the district for imposing a policy that commands parental responsibility.

  Second-grader Danessa Vigil said she will never eat sliced cheese again. She had to eat cheese sandwiches because her mother couldn’t afford to give her lunch money while her application for free lunch was being processed.

  “Every time I eat it, it makes me feel like I want to throw up,” the 7-year-old said.

  Her mother, Darlene Vigil, said there are days she can’t spare lunch money for her two daughters.

  “Some parents don’t have even $1 sometimes,” the 27-year-old single mother said. “If they do, it’s for something else, like milk at home. There are some families that just don’t have it and that’s the reason they’re not paying.”

  The School Nutrition Association recently surveyed nutrition directors from 38 states and found more than half of school districts have seen an increase in the number of students charging meals, while 79 percent saw an increase in the number of free lunches served over the last year.

  In New Mexico, nearly 204,000 low-income students — about three-fifths of public school students — received free or reduced-price lunches at the beginning of the school year, according to the state Public Education Department.

  “What you are seeing is families struggling and having a really hard time, and school districts are struggling as well,” said Crystal FitzSimons of the national Food Research and Action Center.

  In Albuquerque, unpaid lunch charges hovered around $55,000 in 2006. That jumped to $130,000 at the end of the 2007-08 school year. It was $140,000 through the first five months of this school year.

  Charges were on pace to reach $300,000 by the end of the year. Mary Swift, director of Albuquerque’s food and nutrition services, said her department had no way to absorb that debt as it had in the past.

  “We can’t use any federal lunch program money to pay what they call bad debt. It has to come out of the general budget and of course that takes it from some other department,” Swift said.

  With the new policy, the school district has collected just over $50,000 from parents since the beginning of the year. It also identified 2,000 students eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunches, and more children in the lunch program means more federal dollars for the district.

  School officials said the policy was under consideration for some time and parents were notified last fall. Families with unpaid charges are reminded with an automated phone call each night and notes are sent home with children once a week.

  Swift added that the cheese sandwiches — about 80 of the 46,000 meals the district serves daily — can be considered a “courtesy meal,” rather than an alternate meal.

  Some districts, she noted, don’t allow children without money to eat anything.

  Albuquerque Public Schools “has historically gone above and beyond as far as treating children with dignity and respect and trying to do what’s best with for the child and I think this is just another example,” Swift said.

   

  Other States Look To Albuquerque’s Cheese Sandwich Policy

  http://www.koat.com/news/18790892/detail.html

  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Officials for Albuquerque Public Schools say their controversial cheese sandwich policy is paying off.

  Since starting the alternative lunch program, which serves a cold cheese sandwich to students whose parents fail to pay their lunch bill, APS has collected $91,000.

  Now other states are following the Duke City’s lead. In fact, school districts in three other states have begun serving cheese sandwiches to lunch debtors.

  Critics argue the policy is a form of punishment for children whose parents can’t afford to pay.

  APS officals hope the program would not only help pay off the $140,000 that had accumulated in lunch debts, but also encourage parents to apply for the free or reduced lunch program.

  Tags: Economics, Education, New Mexico

• 13Jan

  New Haven’s “No Freeze” Policy For Homeless In Jeopardy

  Economics 1 Comment

  Here we have a story that is going to be replayed all across America as city administrations face major cuts during the recession.  The bottom layers of society will be hit the hardest, as is typical under capitalism.   Those who can afford to give the least will still be robbed of the meager scraps they have.

   

  NEW HAVEN, Conn. - New Haven

  cannot reinstate its no-freeze policy at emergency shelters this winter because of uncertainty over funding to back it up, according to officials.

  New Haven cut more than $340,000 from homeless services in its 2008-09 budget, although community fundraising efforts have helped fill the gap.

  City officials say no one has been turned away from a warm emergency shelter this winter.

  However, they are unsure whether enough money will be available to operate overflow shelters needed to handle high volumes of guests if last year’s no-freeze policy is reinstated.

   

  “I did not feel it was a responsible thing for the city to do, to reinstate the no-freeze policy when we can’t guarantee we will be able to act the same way we have in the past when we have reached capacity at the shelters,” said Community Services Administrator Kica Matos.

  New Haven’s no-freeze policy barred shelters last winter from turning away anyone in need on cold nights.

  While the no-freeze policy remains suspended, the city has lifted its 90-day limit on shelter stays until the weather improves.

  The city cut $340,500 from homeless services in its 2008-09 budget, leaving only $60,000 to run the overflow facility. Advocates for the homeless have raised tens of thousands of dollars in donations in an attempt to help cover the shortfall.

  The donations enabled an overflow shelter to open Nov. 5. However, advocates say they do not know if enough will be available to pay for an annex overflow shelter, which was needed last year due to high demand.

  “The city can’t have a no-freeze policy,” said former city alderman Edward Mattison, a member of the Inside at Night local committee on homelessness. “The no-freeze policy depended on the willingness on the part of the city, as it did last year, to find extra money to pay for whatever extra sheltering was needed.”

  Last February, the city opened a 31-bed overflow annex at Truman School during a school vacation to alleviate shelter crowding. The city later opened a second winter overflow.

  The effort cost the city $41,000, money not available in this year’s budget.

  Mattison said that, like the city, advocates for the homeless are unsure where the money would come from to run an overflow annex if it is needed this winter.

  “To a certain extent, the organizations would like to be able to have a no-freeze policy by providing enough shelter for everybody who needs it, but we can’t swear we can do it either, for obvious reasons. We need to raise the money,” he said.

  Emergency Shelter Management Services, formerly known as the Immanuel Baptist Shelter, laid off two employees after sustaining a 9 percent budget cut, and will not accept more than 75 men per night this year.

  While Immanuel Baptist has yet to reach capacity, the overflow on Cedar Street, run by Columbus House, has been as many as 20 men beyond its 75-bed capacity, despite the lack of a no-freeze policy.

  “We will continue to take people in,” said Columbus House Executive Director Alison Cunningham. “It’s very difficult to turn someone away when it’s 10 degrees out.”

   

   

  http://www.courant.com/news/local/statewire/hc-ap-ct-emergencysheltersjan10,0,366128.story

  Tags: budget cuts, Economics, homeless

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