House GOP takes step forward on Internet sales tax legislation

Republicans in the House are taking a step forward on Internet sales tax legislation despite potential opposition from the GOP base.

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va) is expected to release his own set of principles on the issue in the next week or two, according to sources who are closely watching the legislation.

The principles are a sign of fresh momentum for online sales tax legislation after Goodlatte and other top Republicans in the House — including Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) — voiced deep skepticism about the Senate-passed Marketplace Fairness Act.

Goodlatte could have chosen to bury the bill, but his decision to craft the principles shows he is serious about moving some version of the legislation forward.

The principles are expected to be broad policy statements with positions such as maintaining a simple system and not burdening businesses.

A Judiciary aide would only say that, “the House is currently examining all of the issues surrounding the collection of online sales taxes and working on alternatives to the bill passed by the Senate.”  Read more >>

Big insurers ditch Obamacare exchanges

When Americans start shopping on the state-based exchanges next month, a couple of big insurers will likely be MIA.

Several of the larger players, including Aetna, UnitedHealthcare and Cigna, are treading cautiously into Obamacare, waiting to see how the start of the massive health care reform pans out in 2014.

Among the concerns is the fear that unhealthy Americans who previously could not obtain coverage will flood the exchanges and run up large health care bills.

"There are a lot of unknowns of who will actually enroll and what their needs will be," said Christine Monahan, a former senior health policy analyst with Georgetown's Center on Health Insurance Reforms. "A lot of major, for-profit [insurers] have less tolerance for losses and risk."

Aetna has actually pulled out of at least five exchanges after submitting proposals in 14 states. Its policies will not be found on the exchanges in Maryland, New York, Georgia, Ohio or its home state of Connecticut. The insurer recently bought Coventry Health Plans, which had also filed to be on several state exchanges, so Aetna is now reviewing both companies' remaining fillings. Read more >>

Bank of America to lay off thousands in mortgage business

Layoffs at Bank of America Corp's mortgage business will amount to about 2,100 positions, a source told Reuters on Monday, in response to weak refinancing activity.

The downsizing reflects the second-largest US bank's "ongoing efforts to streamline our facilities and align our cost structure with market realities," Bank of America said in a statement in response to questions about the planned layoffs, the total number of which was first reported by Bloomberg on Monday.

Bank of America workers in states such as Ohio, Florida and Virginia received notice of planned layoffs in late August, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. About 1,000 of the workers to be laid off are based in the Cleveland, Ohio area, according to local filings. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday that about 2,100 jobs in total would be eliminated.

Large US banks including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo & Co have said they expect a decline in refinancing volume, driven by higher interest rates, to hit revenue in the near term. Applications to refinance mortgages have dropped 63 percent since a peak in early May, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association refinance index. Read more >>

Doc uses Google Glass to live-stream surgery

Google Glass is finding its way into operation rooms: A surgeon in Ohio recently became one of the first to livestream an operation and use the technology to consult with a colleague.

On Aug. 21, Dr. Christopher Kaeding, director of sports medicine at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, wore Google Glass a wearable computer that has a frame similar to traditional eyeglasses as he performed surgery on the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the knee of a 47-year-old woman.

The procedure was livestreamed to a group of medical students, who watched on laptops, and to Dr. Robert Magnussen, an assistant professor of clinical orthopedics at Ohio State, who watched from his office.

During the operation, Kaeding consulted with Magnussen about what he was seeing during the surgery.

Kaeding said he did not find wearing the device to be a distraction. "To be honest, once we got into the surgery, I often forgot the device was there. It just seemed very intuitive and fit seamlessly," Kaeding said in a statement. Read more >>

Hypocritical Lawmakers, aides may get Obamacare exemption

Congressional leaders in both parties are engaged in high-level, confidential talks about exempting lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides from the insurance exchanges they are mandated to join as part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, sources in both parties said.

The talks — which involve Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Obama administration and other top lawmakers — are extraordinarily sensitive, with both sides acutely aware of the potential for political fallout from giving carve-outs from the hugely controversial law to 535 lawmakers and thousands of their aides. Discussions have stretched out for months, sources said.

A source close to the talks says: “Everyone has to hold hands on this and jump, or nothing is going to get done.” Yet if Capitol Hill leaders move forward with the plan, they risk being dubbed hypocrites by their political rivals and the American public. By removing themselves from a key Obamacare component, lawmakers and aides would be held to a different standard than the people who put them in office. Read more >>

As economy flails, debtors' prisons thrive

Thousands of Americans are sent to jail not for committing a crime, but because they can't afford to pay for traffic tickets, medical bills and court fees.

If that sounds like a debtors' prison, a legal relic which was abolished in this country in the 1830s, that's because it is. And courts and judges in states across the land are violating the Constitution by incarcerating people for being unable to pay such debts.

Ask Jack Dawley, 55, an unemployed man in Ohio who between 2007 and 2012 spent a total of 16 days in jail in a Huron County lock-up for failing to pay roughly $1,500 in legal fines he'd incurred in the 1990s. The fines stemmed from Dawley's convictions for driving under the influence and other offenses. After his release from a Wisconsin correctional facility, Dawley, who admits he had struggled with drugs and alcohol, got clean. But if he put his substance problems behind him, Dawley's couldn't outrun his debts.

Struggling to find a job and dealing with the effects of a back injury, he fell behind on repayments to the municipal court in Norwalk, Ohio. He was arrested six years ago and sent to jail for not paying his original court fines. Although Dawley was put on a monthly payment plan, during his latest stint behind bars in 2012 the court ordered him to pay off his entire remaining debt. Read more >>

California manufacturing jobs tank

The shutdown of a 102-year-old California manufacturing company points to a major flaw in California's industrial development policy:

We don't have one.

The company is Pneumatic Scale Angelus, which turned out top-of-the-line machines for sealing lids on soda and beer cans from a factory in Vernon. That was a niche business but not a small one, since bottling companies the world over were Angelus customers.

As we reported just after Christmas, Angelus employees were told on Nov. 2 that its owner, privately held Barry-Wehmiller Cos., would shut down production at the plant Jan. 1 and move it to a factory in Ohio. That meant lost jobs for 111 members of the United Steelworkers in Vernon.

The company appears to have fulfilled its legal obligation to inform city and state officials of its plans; economic development agencies at all three levels of government got notices pursuant to the state WARN Act, which requires notifications of such layoffs 60 days in advance. Another copy went to the office of County Supervisor Gloria Molina, whose district covers Vernon. Her office didn't get back to me to explain how they responded to it, if at all. Read more >>

TSA Agent arrested for raping boy he mentored as a big brother

We've learned a Transportation Security Agent has been arrested on a warrant for the rape of a northeast Ohio boy he had been mentoring as a big brother.

The man had been a volunteer with the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Greater Cleveland.

Cleveland Sex Crimes investigators built a case against him, and he was arrested at the airport in Newark, NJ.

He had gone to work for the TSA in Germany.

We're not naming the man until he gets brought back to Cleveland and charged.

Source

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 >>

Collecting Unemployment Just Became Harder

Millions of jobless Americans now have another hurdle to pass before collecting federal unemployment benefits. New rules passed by Congress this year require that the jobless go to their local One-Stop Career Center for an in-person assessment if they want to receive federal unemployment checks.

This means the unemployed now have to trek to these centers, which has left some states scrambling to find space and personnel to handle all these one-on-one meetings. Some 9 million people are expected to go through these assessments by year's end. Plus, in order to comply with the new federal rules, some states are ramping up their requirements on documentation of the jobless' attempts to return to the workforce.

Previously some states, like Ohio for instance, did spot-checks, but are now requiring regular submission of job search efforts. Other states, such as New Hampshire, collected the information electronically but must now tell claimants to bring paper records to their assessment meeting. Read more >>

Economy Faces a Jolt as Benefit Checks Run Out

An extraordinary amount of personal income is coming directly from the government. Close to $2 of every $10 that went into Americans’ wallets last year were payments like jobless benefits, food stamps, Social Security and disability, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics. In states hit hard by the downturn, like Arizona, Florida, Michigan and Ohio, residents derived even more of their income from the government.

By the end of this year, however, many of those dollars are going to disappear, with the expiration of extended benefits intended to help people cope with the lingering effects of the recession. Moody’s Analytics estimates $37 billion will be drained from the nation’s pocketbooks this year. More...

31 states are short over 1 trillion on pensions

The upshot of a recently released study suggests that more than half of all states in America are short of funds for the retirement benefits they have promised to pensioners.

According to the Washington-based Pew Research Center, 31 states are short of USD 1.26 trillion on promises to the retirees and in just one year the funding gap has grown by 26 percent. The funding levels of ten additional states have also deteriorated, a press TV correspondent reported on Wednesday.

Pensions are deemed "underfunded" when states are unable to pay at least 80 percent of liabilities, according to results of the study by the nonprofit think tank. Such pensions affect everyone because they mean higher taxes or cuts in essential public services.

“If we promised more than what is there what do we do? Magic?” Economic analyst Rollin Amore asked.

Most states are legally bound to pay for the pensions; they may borrow from other states rather than the federal government, if they don't have the money in their treasury. Many Capitol Hill lawmakers have already backed legislations to prevent the federal government from bailing out states.

The gaps are already straining governments and stoking political fights over the workers' benefits in states such as New Jersey, Ohio and Wisconsin. More...

Girls aged 12 and 14 hold up bank in Ohio

The U.S. unemployment rate among those 16 to 19 years is almost thirty percent.

Telegraph
The young girls walked into a branch of 1st National Bank in Cincinnati, Ohio and handed a note to the cashier demanding money. According to police the note implied the girls would harm employees if the money was not given to them. They did not appear to have any weapons.

Staff complied and the girls walked out with a bag full of money. They then evaded an extensive police search which included a helicopter and sniffer dogs. One of the girls was described as heavy set, around 5 feet 4 inches tall, and was wearing a hooded top and blue jeans.

The other was said to be second thin, around 5 feet tall and wearing a baseball cap. Local police released a grainy black-and-white surveillance photograph of one of the alleged bank robbers.

The robbery took place at 3.20pm on Tuesday and the girls were seen leaving on foot and heading for a nearby housing estate.

Long-term jobless make up 38.3% of the unemployed population

msnbc
The number of long-term jobless — those out of work six months or longer — is growing...The data, buried in Friday's unemployment report, are stark: The number of Americans out of work for 27 weeks or more reached 5.9 million last month, the most on records dating from 1948. That's 18 percent more than just three months ago, when the total was just below 5 million...the long-term jobless now make up 38.3 percent of the unemployed population, not that far from the 41.1 percent accounted for by those out of work for 14 weeks or less.

One in Four Children on Food Stamps

Alex Spillius
One in eight people is now taking advantage of the nationwide subsidised scheme, with 20,000 more signing up each day, according to research by the New York Times.

It found that in 239 counties, at least 25 per cent of residents collected food stamps, which are plastic cards that can be used for a wide range of staple goods at supermarkets.

The scheme has existed for years, and was made easier to apply for by George W Bush, despite conservative opposition. Under Mr Bush, the scheme was also given a less pejorative formal title, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme.

But officials have put the rapid increase down to hard economic times, with demand rising most sharply in places blighted by collapsed housing markets. The newspaper's research showed there are about 60 counties where registration has doubled since the foreclosure crisis was unleashed in 2007.

One new recipient, an electrician in Ohio, said the monthly benefit of $300 (£180) was plugging the gap left by the collapse of his overtime payments and rising health insurance premiums.

"I always thought it was people trying to milk the system. But we just felt like we really needed the help right now," said Greg Dawson, a father of five.

Critics maintain that the system is widely abused, with beneficiaries piling up on steaks and soft drinks, but its defenders argue that genuine need for help with food is overwhelming.

"This is the most urgent time for our feeding programmes in our lifetime, with the exception of the Depression," Kevin Concannon, a senior agriculture department official, told the New York Times. "It's time for us to face up to the fact that in this country of plenty, there are hungry people.

Long-term Unemployed at Record Levels

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Olivera Perkins
The average length of unemployment for American workers in October was nearly 27 weeks -- more than six months, the longest since the Labor Department started to keep track in 1948. The last time the average was even remotely that high was during the last major recession in the early 1980s. In July 1983, the average length of unemployment was 21 weeks.

In October nearly 36 percent of all jobless workers were considered among the long-term unemployed, according to an analysis by the National Employment Law Project, or NELP, a research and advocacy group. The second highest on record was 26 percent in 1983.

The benefits of about 500,000 Ohioans are scheduled to expire in 2010, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. About 70,000 with benefits expiring by the 2009 deadline are expected to be eligible for the extension. More...

Biometric fingerprint scan required to buy school lunches

Image by Flick via Flickr

A new lunch system is being piloted at Elyria High school in Ohio that uses student fingerprints via a biometric scan instead of cards or personal identification numbers. Only the freshman class is using the fingerprint program now, but next week the entire student body and staff will have a scan of their index fingers on file.

“When it’s really up and running it will make things go a lot smoother and faster,” said Bill Jett, general manager of Sodexo, the district’s food service provider.

According to The Chronicle Telegram's Lisa Roberson, Sodexo will pick up the $91,000 tab to implement the program districtwide with the hope of recouping expenses over the next five years. Sodexo, a French multinational corporation and one of the largest food services and facilities management companies in the world, may soon have biometric data of every student and staff member in the entire state of Ohio if they can land the contracts. With 355,000 employees, representing 130 nationalities, present on 30,600 sites in 80 countries, Sodexo also provides services to the military and correctional facilities -- that means they work closely with federal and state officials.

“I’m just really glad I don’t have to remember a number every day or have a card or something,” said a 14-year-old student. “All you have to do is put your finger down and go.”

Teenagers are so accustomed to social web networks and invasive technology, docile submission into an Orwellian world seems natural, even after the release of ominous films like the Matrix, whose dire warning of future enslavement made such an impact, some of the film's dialogue (blue pill, red pill) became as much a part of American lexicon as "Catch 22".

When public schools begin collecting biometric data on our children via corporations with defense industry contracts, you know fascist tyranny is not far behind. Run your name through this for a glimpse into the future, where virtually every aspect of your life is recoded and documented for all to see.