1
N.Y. / Region
New Jersey Transit Expects Big Bills for Offering Alternatives During Delays
The beleaguered state agency, already facing financial problems, allowed tens of thousands of commuters to use their tickets on other transit providers.Standard oil and G.M. are still costing New Jersey money.
Trying to kill the railroads is not a good idea.
2
U.S.
Training Officers to Shoot First, and He Will Answer Questions Later
When police officers shoot people under questionable circumstances, William J. Lewinski often appears as an expert witness who says they had no choice but to fire.I would rather a few dead police than many dead civilians.
The police are paid to take the risks.
Mercenary troops do not run these governments.
3
Sports
American Pharoah Steers Clear of Route of Past Triple Crown Winners
American Pharoah’s post-Belmont campaign hardly follows the pattern of past Triple Crown winners, who went on to win 92 races in 162 more starts. Pharoah may race two or three more times.Every time he races his stud fees are at risk.
4
Sports
Video: American Pharoah Arrives in New Jersey
American Pharoah, the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, received a warm welcome upon arriving at Monmouth Park in New Jersey. He is preparing to race on Aug. 2 in the Haskell Invitational.Not enough pictures of the horse.
5
Science
Chilly at Work? A Decades-Old Formula May Be to Blame
A study by Dutch scientists says most office buildings set temperatures based on a model developed in the 1960s that uses the metabolic rates of men.Office design is done by rote from a handbook.
http://sustainabilityworkshop.autodesk.com/buildings/human-thermal-comfort
The designer pushes the Autodesk HVAC button and the manager with the sunny office sets the thermostat for comfort.
There is no human thought involved.
6
Opinion
Is New Orleans Safe?
The state’s master plan could avert a watery demise. But it would cost many billions.A bullshit puff piece.
New Orleans has never been safe.
What it achieves is acceptable risk for insurance purposes.
The Army Corps of engineers built the best flood protection the politicians would pay for.
The army corps obeys orders.
Safe is the wrong question.
7
U.S.
Crews in California Fight to Contain 21 Wildfires
The largest of the wildfires is the Rocky Fire, which has burned 60,000 acres and spread to three counties in Northern California.In drought conditions California burns.
8
Business Day
Former Citigroup and UBS Trader Convicted in Libor Case
A jury in London found Tom Hayes guilty of conspiring to manipulate the global benchmark interest rate.A guilty fall guy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_guy
2."A guilty scapegoat takes the blame for the actions of a group."
My guess is the fall is the drop at a hanging.
Taking a fall is execution.
9
World
Finland Unnerved by Trial of Police Detective on Drug Charges
The case of the head of Helsinki’s police antidrug squad accused of running his own drug cartel has shocked a nation that prides itself on its moral uprightness.Everyone likes money.
A short 144 killos. Not a big quantity of a soft drug.
Heroin would come from the Russia.
10
Business Day
Details Revealed in Relativity’s Bankruptcy Case
In a Bankruptcy Court papers, Brian Kushner, the chief restructuring officer for Relativity, listed the secured debt that pushed the company toward the voluntary filing.http://relativitymedia.com/
Low budget production house refused working capital.
The perception of risk is rising.
11
Your Money
In Delta’s Frequent-Flier Magic Trick, Not Just Rabbits Disappear
Over the last 18 months, the airline has been engaged in some sleight of hand, no longer posting a chart explaining how many miles a free ticket will require.Another form of inflation.
12
N.Y. / Region
Garbage Collection, Without the Noise or the Smell
With a pneumatic tube system on Roosevelt Island, there are no big trucks or smelly piles on the streets. Once residents dump their trash down chutes, a vacuum pulls it through underground tubes.A big central vacuum cleaner.
13
N.Y. / Region
Police Officer and Several Others Are Struck by Speeding Vehicle in Jersey City
The officer was taken to Jersey City Medical Center, along with 11 other people, who were in stable condition, officials said.There are no details.
14
Business Day
New York Reaches Accords With Sellers of Toy Guns
The agreement includes civil penalties and stricter state standards on how toy guns look, which are intended to make them distinguishable from real guns.The NRA will not approve. No loss.
15
Travel
A Late Summer Night’s Dream on Michigan’s Mackinac Island
The island’s Mission Point Resort is offering a Shakespearean-themed package from Aug. 27 to 31.A late season cheap date. Bring a jacket if you go.
Give me two days notice. One day would leave me exhausted.
It is about a 14 hour drive.
16
World
India Orders Blocking of 857 Pornography Websites Targeted by Activist
Without warning, the government acted just weeks after the nation’s Supreme Court declined an activist’s request to block access to online pornography."The activist, Kamlesh Vaswani, a lawyer who failed to persuade the Supreme Court to block online pornography, gave thanks on Monday to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking a step that the Supreme Court would not."
The BJP is not liberal.
17
Business Day
The Challenges of Fighting Money Laundering
Criminals are always seeking ways to hide their profits, and recent cases highlight the difficulty of keeping up with their latest tactics.Ask a banker or other financial expert.
I would have to do so.
18
Sports
A Struggling City Renovates Its Golf Course, Envisioning More Green
One of the best assets of East Orange, N.J., was shaggy and operating in the red, but leaders recognized its business potential given its proximity to Short Hills, a lush suburb.If the designed public is departed there may be another waiting for an invitation.
19
U.S.
Health Providers Brace for More Cuts to Medicare in Puerto Rico
More than 60 percent of Puerto Ricans receive Medicare or Medicaid, but cuts to a popular Medicare program highlight the disparity in federal funding for the island compared with the mainland.Texas is insane.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/03/opinion/paul-krugman-americas-un-greek-tragedies-in-puerto-rico-and-appalachia.html
America’s Un-Greek Tragedies in Puerto Rico and Appalachia
"On
Friday the government of Puerto Rico announced that it was about to
miss a bond payment. It claimed that for technical legal reasons this
wouldn’t be a default, but that’s a distinction without a difference.
So is Puerto Rico America’s Greece? No, it isn’t, and it’s important to understand why.
Puerto
Rico’s fiscal crisis is basically the byproduct of a severe economic
downturn. The commonwealth’s government was slow to adjust to the
worsening fundamentals, papering over the problem with borrowing. And
now it has hit the wall.
What
went wrong? There was a time when the island did quite well as a
manufacturing center, boosted in part by a special federal tax break.
But that tax break expired in 2006, and in any case changes in the world
economy have worked against Puerto Rico.
These
days manufacturing favors either very-low-wage nations, or locations
close to markets that can take advantage of short logistic chains to
respond quickly to changing conditions. But Puerto Rico’s wages aren’t
low by global standards. And its island location puts it at a
disadvantage compared not just with the U.S. mainland but with places
like the north of Mexico, from which goods can be quickly shipped by
truck.
The
situation is, unfortunately, exacerbated by the Jones Act, which
requires that goods traveling between Puerto Rico and the mainland use
U.S. ships, raising transportation costs even further.
Puerto
Rico, then, is in the wrong place at the wrong time. But here’s the
thing: while the island’s economy has declined sharply, its population,
while hurting, hasn’t suffered anything like the catastrophes we see in
Europe. Look, for example, at consumption per capita, which has fallen
30 percent in Greece but has actually continued to rise in Puerto Rico.
Why have the human consequences of economic troubles been muted?
The
main answer is that Puerto Rico is part of the U.S. fiscal union. When
its economy faltered, its payments to Washington fell, but its receipts
from Washington — Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and more —
actually rose. So Puerto Rico automatically received aid on a scale beyond anything conceivable in Europe.
Is Puerto Rico’s status as part of the U.S. all good? A recent report
commissioned by the commonwealth’s government argues that its economy
is hurt by sharing the U.S. minimum wage, which raises costs, and also
by federal benefits that encourage adults to drop out of the work force.
In principle these complaints could be right. In particular, even
economists who support a higher U.S. minimum wage, myself included,
generally agree that it could be a problem if set too high relative to
productivity — and Puerto Rican productivity is far below mainland
levels.
But the evidence that minimum wages or social benefits are really a problem is, as one careful if older study put it, “surprisingly fragile.”
Notably, Puerto Rico’s low rate of labor force participation probably
has more to do with outmigration than with welfare: when job
opportunities dry up, young, able-bodied workers move elsewhere, while
the least employable stay in place. You see the same phenomenon in Appalachia,
where the disappearance of coal-mining jobs has induced many workers to
leave, while the remaining population makes heavy use of the social
safety net.
And
how terrible is that, really? The safety net is there to protect
people, not places. If a regional economy is left stranded by the
shifting tides of globalization, well, that’s going to happen now and
then. What’s important is that workers be able to find opportunities
somewhere, and that those unable for whatever reason to take advantage
of these opportunities be protected from extreme hardship.
There
is, of course, the problem of maintaining public services for those who
remain. Compared with Europe, America benefits hugely from having an
integrated national budget – but it’s not integrated enough to deal with
really big regional shocks. And Puerto Rico faces some risk of a death
spiral in which the emigration of working-age residents undermines the
tax base for those who are left, and deteriorating public services then
lead to even more emigration.
What
this tells us, in turn, is that even for a part of the United States,
too much austerity can be self-defeating. It would, in particular, be a
terrible idea to give the hedge funds that have scooped up much of Puerto Rico’s debt what they want — basically to destroy the island’s education system in the name of fiscal responsibility.
Overall,
however, the Puerto Rican story is one of bad times that fall well
short of utter disaster. And the saving grace in this situation is big
government — a federal system that provides a crucial safety net for
American citizens in times of need, wherever they happen to live."
20
Opinion
India’s Inverted Abortion Politics
The government wants broader access. Doctors don’t. The poor suffer.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mifepristone
Mifepristone is available over the counter at small cost in India.
The knowledge to use it is not easily available.
Poor women have been misusing the drug.
Physicians see an opportunity to increase their practices by supervising first trimester abortions.
The government sees an opportunity to reduce their costs by removing first trimester abortions from billable health care.
Remove the fee from chemical abortion supervision. The physicians will let it go.
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