State Rep Requests National Guard Help to Stop Chicago Violence

Gun violence in Chicago is so severe that a state lawmaker wants state police and the National Guard to assist the local cops. State Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) is making the request.

“I am requesting with this press conference that Gov. Patrick Quinn order the Illinois National Guard (and) the Illinois State Police (to) come to Chicago and work with our mayor Ron (sic) Emanuel to provide safety for the children, especially,” she said at a news conference in Springfield.

Other state lawmakers accompanied Davis to recognize the severity of the problem, and the extent to which it carries beyond Chicago’s troubled neighborhoods to the entire city and other parts of the state, but not necessarily to concur with her solution.

Over the holiday weekend, 74 people were shot and 12 killed in Chicago, and Davis says the police don’t have the manpower to make arrests. Read more >>

Gold Coin Worth $500 Wrapped In $100 Bill Found In Salvation Army Kettle

A gold coin worth $500 wrapped in a $100 bill has been found in a Salvation Army red kettle set up at an upstate New York shopping plaza.

The American Eagle coin was wrapped in a C-note and a memo that read: "This coin is solid gold and worth around $500. God Bless."

Salvation Army officials say about 400 gold coins have been found in red kettles over the past 30 years. Gold coins have found recently in kettles in Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, North Carolina and Florida.

Source

Monster energy drinks cited in the deaths of five people

Monster Beverage Corp. energy drinks have been cited in the deaths of five people in the past year, according to incident reports that doctors and companies submit to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The five reports received by the agency said the victims consumed Monster drinks prior to their deaths, Shelly Burgess, an FDA spokeswoman, said today in a telephone interview. The agency said the incidents, which are voluntarily reported, are considered to be allegations, and no conclusion is drawn until a full investigation is completed. Monster shares tumbled by as much as 10 percent.

The FDA reports are being used by parents who sued Corona, California-based Monster last week, claiming the drinks led to caffeine toxicity that killed their 14-year-old daughter. Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, is asking the FDA to consider caffeine limits on energy drinks after emergency room visits involving such products jumped 10-fold from 2005 through 2009.
“FDA continues to evaluate the emerging science on a variety of ingredients, including caffeine,” Burgess said in an earlier e-mail.

The five deaths, and a sixth in 2009 in which a person died of a heart attack, were among 37 adverse reaction reports since 2004 that mentioned Monster drinks, according to a log of incidents that health professionals and other people voluntarily recorded with the FDA. The agency has said it is working on draft guidelines that would ensure energy drinks are safe. Read more >>

U.S. drought: Half of all counties disaster areas

Nearly 220 counties in a dozen drought-stricken states were added Wednesday to the U.S. government's list of natural disaster areas as the nation's agriculture chief unveiled new help for frustrated, cash-strapped farmers and ranchers grappling with extreme dryness and heat.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's addition of the 218 counties means that more than half of all U.S. counties - 1,584 in 32 states - have been designated primary disaster areas this growing season, the vast majority of them mired in a drought that's considered the worst in decades.

Counties in Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming were included in Wednesday's announcement. The USDA uses the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor to help decide which counties to deem disaster areas, which makes farmers and ranchers eligible for federal aid, including low-interest emergency loans. Read more >>

Beef prices could reach record levels and stay into 2015

A government report says the drought gripping much of the U.S. is the largest since 1956, with more than half the nation experiencing moderate to extreme drought. With no relief in sight, the arid conditions may soon start having a noticeable effect on the prices of everything from food to gasoline.

The biggest drought in more than half a century is leaving fields from Ohio to California dried up and desperate for rain. "We've never seen a drought like this," Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn told reporters. "You can see firsthand how depleted, how serious this matter is," Quinn continued, holding up an ear of dried-out corn.

The Department of Agriculture estimates that nearly 40 percent of the nation's corn crop is in poor condition, and Purdue University economist Chris Hurt says that's bound to have a ripple effect on the economy. "There's no question that this is a major drought and it's going to cost us tens of billions of dollars," he observes.

Here's why: According to the USDA, corn accounts for more than 90 percent of feed grain production, so as the price of corn goes up, so does the cost of feeding and maintaining cattle. That could lead to higher prices for meat and dairy products in the grocery store, hitting consumers at an already tough economic time. Read more >>

Potential Disaster For U.S. Corn Supply

Corn supplies in the U.S., the world’s biggest exporter, are declining at the fastest pace since 1996 just as a Midwest heat wave damages the world’s largest harvest for a third consecutive year. Stockpiles were probably 3.168 billion bushels (80.47 million metric tons) on June 1, 47 percent less than on March 1, the average of 22 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg shows.

The worst Midwest drought in more than a decade is wilting a harvest that the U.S. Department of Agriculture says will be the biggest ever. The agency updates its inventory estimate June 29 and its production forecast two weeks later. Futures surged 28 percent since reaching a 20-month low June 15, and Morgan Stanley expects prices to advance an additional 7.9 percent to $7 a bushel in two months if the drought persists.

The rally is boosting global food costs that the United Nations estimates dropped 14 percent from a record in February 2011 and widening losses for ethanol producers including Decatur, Illinois-based Archer Daniels Midland Co. “We have a potential disaster developing for the U.S. corn supply,” said Peter Meyer, the senior director for agricultural commodities at PIRA Energy Group in New York who cut his corn- crop forecast after surveying fields in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio last week. “This year may be the worst yet.” Read more >>

Half of Detroit’s Streetlights May Go Out

Detroit, whose 139 square miles contain 60 percent fewer residents than in 1950, will try to nudge them into a smaller living space by eliminating nearly half its streetlights.

As it is, 40 percent of the 88,000 streetlights are broken and the city, whose finances are to be overseen by an appointed board, can’t afford to fix them. Mayor Dave Bing’s plan would create an authority to borrow $160 million to upgrade and reduce the number of streetlights to 46,000. Maintenance would be contracted out, saving the city $10 million a year. 

Other U.S. cities have gone partially dark to save money, among them Colorado Springs; Santa Rosa, California; and Rockford, Illinois. Detroit’s plan goes further: It would leave sparsely populated swaths unlit in a community of 713,000 that covers more area than Boston, Buffalo and San Francisco combined. Vacant property and parks account for 37 square miles (96 square kilometers), according to city planners. Detroit’s dwindling income and property-tax revenue have required residents to endure unreliable buses and strained police services throughout the city. More...

More Than 200,000 Long-Term Jobless Lose Unemployment Checks

More than 200,000 long-term jobless Americans will lose their unemployment checks this week, when eight states roll off the federal extended benefits program. Nearly half of them live in California, and the rest reside in Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Colorado, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Texas.

 The federal extended benefits program has provided the jobless with up to 20 weeks of unemployment checks after they've run through their state and their federal emergency benefits, which together last up to 79 weeks.

But the extended benefits program is expiring throughout the country as the economy improves. To be eligible for these benefits, a state must show that its unemployment rate is at least 10% higher than it was in at least one of the past three years. More...

5 States That Tax The Poor The Most

MSNBC
In an effort to help families work their way out of poverty, most of the United States do not tax the incomes of working-poor families. A handful of states do, however.

1. Alabama

Alabama is one of the country’s poorest states, and it taxes its poor residents’ incomes the most. The state has a poverty rate of 17.4 percent, which is among the nation’s highest. It also has the fifth-lowest median household income. A family of four at the poverty line must pay $548 in income taxes. This amount has consistently increased since 1994. Additionally, Alabama has the second-lowest tax threshold in the country. A single-parent family of three making $9,800 -- or 55 percent of the group’s poverty level of $17,922 -- remains subject to income tax.

2. Illinois

Illinois taxes families of four making 57 percent of the poverty level. This means that a family earning $13,100 a year must pay income tax. Due to state fiscal issues, Illinois raised its flat income tax rate from 3 percent to 5 percent in 2011. This caused income taxes for a family of four at the poverty line to increase by $322. However, the state plans to fully implement tax credits for low-income families by 2013, which “will almost completely offset the impact of the income tax increase for poor families,” according to CBPP.

3. Hawaii

Hawaii has a particularly low poverty rate of 10 percent. It also has one of the highest median household incomes in the country. The state continues to tax families at the poverty line at one of the highest rates in the country. However, the amount a family of four at the poverty line pays in income tax has decreased since 1994. That year, the amount was $406. Today, it is $331. The state also taxes families making 77 percent of the poverty line or more.

4. Oregon

A family of four in Oregon living at the poverty line pays the fourth-most taxes in the country at $274. For a family that size making 125 percent of the poverty line, the amount of tax owed jumps to $869 -- the third most in the country. State lawmakers have considered extending tax breaks for low-income households in recent years, but significant action has not yet taken place.

5. Georgia

Georgia has among the highest rates of residents living below the poverty line in the country. It also has the fourth-lowest tax threshold in the county. Families making just 69 percent of the poverty line or more are taxed. For those low-income families, taxes are generally getting worse. The amount that a family of four living on the poverty line must pay in income tax has more than doubled since 1994, from $116 to $273. More...

The Return of Debtors' Prisons

Yahoo Finance
Although the U.S. abolished debtors' prisons in the 1830s, more than a third of U.S. states allow the police to haul people in who don't pay all manner of debts, from bills for health care services to credit card and auto loans. In parts of Illinois, debt collectors commonly use publicly funded courts, sheriff's deputies, and country jails to pressure people who owe even small amounts to pay up, according to the AP.

Under the law, debtors aren't arrested for nonpayment, but rather for failing to respond to court hearings, pay legal fines, or otherwise showing "contempt of court" in connection with a creditor lawsuit. That loophole has lawmakers in the Illinois House of Representatives concerned enough to pass a bill in March that would make it illegal to send residents of the state to jail if they can't pay a debt. The measure awaits action in the senate.

"Creditors have been manipulating the court system to extract money from the unemployed, veterans, even seniors who rely solely on their benefits to get by each month," Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said last month in a statement voicing support for the legislation. "Too many people have been thrown in jail simply because they're too poor to pay their debts. We cannot allow these illegal abuses to continue." More...

Illinois wants to tax retirement income

llinois Senate President John Cullerton today suggested the state should start taxing the retirement income of senior citizens who are able to afford it. The state does not currently tax pensions or retirement funds such as 401(k) plans, but Cullerton told a City Club of Chicago luncheon that should take place as part of an overall look at what he said was Illinois' "outdated" tax system.

"It would just be a matter of fairness," said Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat. Details are still being worked out, but Cullerton said the state could bring in could bring in upward of $1.6 billion a year. Cullerton said the money could be used to provide tax relief elsewhere, whether that be lowering the corporate income tax rate, reworking sales tax rates or some other idea. Cullerton also suggested a means-test to avoid taxing low-income seniors. More...

1 million homes repossessed in 2010

Image via WikipediaForeclosures were at a record high in 2010, and more than 1 million people lost their homes, even as notices started leveling off during the end year.

In total, there were nearly 2.9 million foreclosure notices filed during the year, according to report released Thursday by RealtyTrac. That was a record high, but just 1.7% above 2009. It most certainly would have been higher had notices not plunged in November and December as banks halted tens of thousands of foreclosures in the face of the robo-signing scandal. More...

Thousands Losing Unemployment Benefits Daily

by Adam Doster on October 16, 2009 - 10:27am

According to an analysis from the National Employment Law Project, 400,000 workers exhausted their federally-funded jobless benefits in September and another 200,000 will do so by the end of this month, resulting in an average of 7,000 workers a day seeing their benefits end. By year’s end, 1.3 million workers will exhaust their jobless benefits, reflecting today’s record rates of long-term unemployment.