China to levy anti-dumping duties on U.S. chicken
China will levy heavy anti-dumping duties on U.S. chicken products, its Commerce Ministry said on Friday, a move likely to aggravate trade relations and antagonize one of the few U.S. industries that profitably exports to China.
Bank of America, Ex-Execs Indicted on Civil Fraud Charges
(ABOVE TOP SECRET) On Thursday, federal and state regulators filed civil fraud charges against Bank of America, as well as former chief executive officer Ken Lewis and chief financial officer Joseph Price. The bank is also accused of misleading government officials by threatening to abandon the Merrill Lynch deal without billions of additional bailout money.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread541344/pg1
US Treasury Official Openly Serves on Council of Rothschild-founded “Earth Bank”
February 4, 2010 by POPEYE
Filed under Featured Stories, One World Economy
(PRISON PLANET) Senior US Treasury Dept. Official William Pizer, the current Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environment and Energy is simultaneously a sitting council member on the Global Environment Facility ( www.thegef.org ), one of the largest funders of projects to “improve the global environment” (i.e. push through fraud-based carbon cap-and-trade programs).
This ‘Facility’, while not claiming to be a bank, at the same time calls it itself “An independent financial organization” (see http://www.thegef.org/interior_right.aspx?id=50#GEF%20History ).
Isn’t it illegal (or at the very least unethical) for a senior member of the Treasury Department to openly sit as a member of a huge foreign bank (oops – “facility)? illegal (or at the very least unethical) for a senior member of the Treasury Department to openly sit as a member of a huge foreign bank (oops – “facility)?
This is only one of dozens of questions that should be asked about this organization, but we as tax-paying Americans should find someone who can answer this question, because it seems to me that either:
1) We need a law passed to stop such a high official holding two such posts and potentially using their influence and position in the US Treasury to move untold millions into the coffers of what is effectively a foreign bank or . . .
2) There is a law and someone needs to file a federal lawsuit
Pizer’s name/contact info. appear on the GEF website here (just scroll down a bit):
http://www.thegef.org/interior.aspx?id=21670#PIZER
This is no small matter: I found this organization while researching information given by George Hunt on an Alex Jones Show interview last January (see http://www.infowars.com/the-inner-workings-of-a-one-world-new-age-government-alex-interviews-george-hunt/), and George Hunt claims this organzation was founded by Edmond de Rothschild and Maurice Strong (originally to be named the “World Conservation Bank”), and its purpose is to engulf all other banks.
In the interview, George played numerous audio clips proving Edmond De Rothschild, Maurice Strong, as well as former Treas. Sec. James A Baker III, and the then heads of the IMF and World Bank were involved in promoting this new bank at the Fourth World Wilderness Congress in 1987 in Colorado.
The very fact that you can’t find any information on who actually started this bank is suspicious in itself , given its size and massive UN backing: the Wikipedia entry on this organization merely parrots that which is on the ” thegef.org ” website, and also does not explain its origin:
The Wikipedia entry states “The Global Environment Facility was established in October 1991 as a $1 billion pilot program in the World Bank to assist in the protection of the global environment and to promote environmental sustainable development”.
Established by who?
The GEF’s verbose and acronymn-laden 2008 annual report brags of the millions of dollars ostensibly transferred from 1st world nations to poorer nations to help clean up their environment, but it offers zero details on where the money came from other than simple pie charts showing broad categories such as “government”, “NGO”, etc.:
http://www.gefweb.org/interior_right.aspx?id=26610
Everyone should contact their US senator or congressman, as well as the US Attorney General and demand an investigation into this obvious appearance of impropriety on the part of the US Treasury Department
Sincerely,
Jeff in Tx
Colorado Springs cuts into services considered basic by many
(DENVER POST) This tax-averse city is about to learn what it looks and feels like when budget cuts slash services most Americans consider part of the urban fabric.
More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled.
The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.
Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that.
Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by July; the flower and fertilizer budget is zero.
City recreation centers, indoor and outdoor pools, and a handful of museums will close for good March 31 unless they find private funding to stay open. Buses no longer run on evenings and weekends. The city won’t pay for any street paving, relying instead on a regional authority that can meet only about 10 percent of the need.
“I guess we’re going to find out what the tolerance level is for people,” said businessman Chuck Fowler, who is helping lead a private task force brainstorming for city budget fixes. “It’s a new day.”
Some residents are less sanguine, arguing that cuts to bus services, drug enforcement and treatment and job development are attacks on basic needs for the working class.
“How are people supposed to live? We’re not a ‘Mayberry R.F.D.’ anymore,” said Addy Hansen, a criminal justice student who has spoken out about safety cuts. “We’re the second-largest city, and growing, in Colorado. We’re in trouble. We’re in big trouble.”
Mayor flinches at revenue
Colorado Springs’ woes are more visceral versions of local and state cuts across the nation. Denver has cut salaries and human services workers, trimmed library hours and raised fees; Aurora shuttered four libraries; the state budget has seen round after round of wholesale cuts in education and personnel.
The deep recession bit into Colorado Springs sales-tax collections, while pension and health care costs for city employees continued to soar. Sales-tax updates have become a regular exercise in flinching for Mayor Lionel Rivera.
“Every month I open it up, and I look for a plus in front of the numbers instead of a minus,” he said. The 2010 sales-tax forecast is almost $22 million less than 2007.
Voters in November said an emphatic no to a tripling of property tax that would have restored $27.6 million to the city’s $212 million general fund budget. Fowler and many other residents say voters don’t trust city government to wisely spend a general tax increase and don’t believe the current cuts are the only way to balance a budget.
Dead grass, dark streets
But the 2010 spending choices are complete, and local residents and businesses are preparing for a slew of changes:
• The steep parks and recreation cuts mean a radical reshifting of resources from more than 100 neighborhood parks to a few popular regional parks.The city cut watering drastically in 2009 but “got lucky” with weekly summer rains, said parks maintenance manager Kurt Schroeder.
With even more watering cuts, “if we repeat the weather of 2008, we’re at risk of losing every bit of turf we have in our neighborhood parks,” Schroeder said. Six city greenhouses are shut down. The city spent $19.6 million on parks in 2007; this year it will spend $3.1 million.
“If a playground burns down, I can’t replace it,” Schroeder said. Park fans’ only hope is the possibility of a new ballot tax pledged to recreation spending that might win over skeptical voters.
• Community center and pool closures have parents worried about day-care costs, idle teenagers and shut-in grandparents with nowhere to go.
Hillside Community Center, on the southeastern edge of downtown Colorado Springs in a low- to moderate-income neighborhood, is scrambling to find private partners to stay open. Moms such as Kirsten Williams doubt they can replace Hillside’s dedicated staff and preschool rates of $200 for six-week sessions.
“It’s affordable, the program is phenomenal, and the staff all grew up here,” Williams said. “You can’t re-create that kind of magic.”
Shutting down youth services is shortsighted, she argues. “You’re going to pay now, or you’re going to pay later. There’s trouble if kids don’t have things to do.”
• Though officials and citizens put public safety above all in the budget, police and firefighting still lost more than $5.5 million this year.Positions that will go empty range from a domestic violence specialist to a deputy chief to juvenile offender officers. Fire squad 108 loses three firefighters. Putting the helicopters up for sale and eliminating the officers and a mechanic banked $877,000.
• Tourism outlets have attacked budget choices that hit them precisely as they’re struggling to draw choosy visitors to the West.
The city cut three economic-development positions, land-use planning, long-range strategic planning and zoning and neighborhood inspectors. It also repossessed a large portion of a dedicated lodgers and car rental tax rather than transfer it to the visitors’ bureau.
“It’s going to hurt. If they don’t at least market Colorado Springs, it doesn’t get the people here,” said Nancy Stovall, owner of Pine Creek Art Gallery on the tourism strip of Old Colorado City. Other states, such as New Mexico and Wyoming, will continue to market, and tourism losses will further erode city sales-tax revenue, merchants say.
• Turning out the lights, literally, is one of the high-profile trims aggravating some residents.The city-run Colorado Springs Utilities will shut down 8,000 to 10,000 of more than 24,000 streetlights, to save $1.2 million in energy and bulb replacement.
Hansen, the criminal-justice student, grows especially exasperated when recalling a scary incident a few years ago as she waited for a bus. She said a carload of drunken men approached her until the police helicopter that had been trailing them turned a spotlight on the men and chased them off. Now the helicopter is gone, and the streetlight she was waiting under is threatened as well.
“I don’t know a person in this city who doesn’t think that’s just the stupidest thing on the planet,” Hansen said. “Colorado Springs leaders put patches on problems and hope that will handle it.”
Employee pay criticized
Community business leaders have jumped into the budget debate, some questioning city spending on what they see as “Ferrari”-level benefits for employees and high salaries in middle management. Broadmoor luxury resort chief executive Steve Bartolin wrote an open letter asking why the city spends $89,000 per employee, when his enterprise has a similar number of workers and spends only $24,000 on each.
Businessman Fowler, saying he is now speaking for the task force Bartolin supports, said the city should study the Broadmoor’s use of seasonal employees and realistic manager pay.
“I don’t know if people are convinced that the water needed to be turned off in the parks, or the trash cans need to come out, or the lights need to go off,” Fowler said. “I think we’ll have a big turnover in City Council a year from April. Until we get a new group in there, people aren’t really going to believe much of anything.”
Mayor and council are part-time jobs in Colorado Springs, points out Mayor Rivera, that pay $6,250 a year ($250 extra for the mayor). “We have jobs, we pay taxes, we use services, just like they do,” Rivera said, acknowledging there is a “level of distrust” of public officials at many levels.
Rivera said he welcomes help from Bartolin, the private task force and any other source volunteering to rethink government. He is slightly encouraged, for now, that his monthly sales-tax reports are just ahead of budget predictions.
Officials across the city know their phone lines will light up as parks go brown, trash gathers in the weeds, and streets and alleys go dark.
“There’s a lot of anger, a lot of frustration about how governments spend their money,” Rivera said. “It’s not unique to Colorado Springs.”
Michael Booth: 303-954-1686 ormbooth@denverpost.com
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14303473
Inmate Released Early Arrested On Rape Charges
(CBS13) An inmate who was released early under a new law aimed to save the California state government money was arrested for attempted rape about 12 hours later, according to authorities.
The Sacramento Police Department said Kevin Eugene Peterson was released from prison at around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, but was back in cuffs hours later after allegedly attempting to rape a female counselor on the 1300 block of North C Street just after noon.
Peterson was booked into prison Tuesday afternoon on charges of attempted rape, sexual battery and violating probation.
Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness said Wednesday that it is “inevitable” that some suspects will reoffend and that the early release of inmates will strain law enforcement officers that are already facing budget cuts and a shortfall of resources.
“In this case, we’re only talking about a 16 day difference in terms of the time he would have been incarcerated; however, from the perspective of his victim… that 16 days would have made a huge difference,” Sheriff McGinness said. “The bottom line is: I don’t like this.”
The new state law requires “non-violent” misdemeanor offenders who are on good behavior to serve only 50 percent of their sentence, but Peterson was arrested in 2007 for assault with a deadly weapon after hitting someone with a broomstick.
McGinness said the new law doesn’t consider assault with a deadly weapon a violent crime unless it involves a firearm or results in “serious bodily injury.”
“Certainly, everyone would agree that to strike someone with a broomstick is a violent act, but under the specific provision set forth by this emergency declaration of law… it does not qualify,” McGinness said.
State Senator Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach) said Wednesday the arrest should prompt lawmakers to put the early release program on hold immediately.
“To release a criminal early to save the state money is one of the worst policies to ever come out of Sacramento,” Harman said. “This grand social experiment has created another victim and not saved the taxpayers a nickel. It will actually cost us more because we have to once more put this criminal through the system.”
One of the candidates for Sacramento County Sheriff released a statement Wednesday condemning the early releases and demanding the state allow local governments the option of refusing to release inmates early.
“The decimation of law enforcement resources due to budget cuts means that our worst fears are becoming reality,” Captain Jim Cooper said. “Response times to 911 calls have increased, Sheriff’s deputies have been laid off and now the State piles this on top of us. This is unacceptable and it must stop.”
As many as 500 inmates could go free by the end of this week in Sacramento County; as many as 6,000 could go free by the end of the year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im8XWG1tPEc
http://cbs13.com/local/early.release.inmate.2.1468598.html
Hank Paulson Gets Ripped Over AIG Coverup
January 31, 2010 by POPEYE
Filed under Economics, Featured Stories
Taxpayers pay $101,000 for Pelosi’s in-flight ‘food, booze’
Speaker’s trips ‘are more about partying than anything else’
Bloomberg: Maybe A Secret Banking Cabal Does Run The World After All
January 30, 2010 by POPEYE
Filed under Economics, Featured Stories
AIG cover-up proof that “conspiracy theorists” aren’t so crazy, writes columnist
Argentina’s central bank chief resigns amid debt row
January 29, 2010 by POPEYE
Filed under Latin America
(AFP) Argentina’s embattled central bank chief, Martin Redrado, announced his resignation Friday amid a row with President Cristina Kirchner over her bid to use reserves to pay down government debt.
“I feel that my term at the head of the Central Bank has concluded and I have decided definitively to leave the office of president of the Central Bank, satisfied with the duties I have performed,” Redrado told reporters.
Redrado had rejected Kirchner’s bid to set aside 6.5 billion dollars in central bank foreign currency reserves to pay government bonds maturing this year.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j1d8roed-Juu5_OBSJEYKhKGvVFw
Swiss halt deal with U.S. that IDs Americans with secret UBS bank accounts
January 28, 2010 by POPEYE
Filed under Economics, Featured Stories
(WASHINGTON POST) Americans who hid money from the Internal Revenue Service in secret Swiss bank accounts may escape exposure, at least for now.
An agreement between the U.S. and Swiss governments that was supposed to blow the cover on 4,450 accounts at Switzerland’s largest bank is in danger of collapse.
The Swiss government said Wednesday that it has suspended the disclosure of information to the United States under the agreement and may seek to renegotiate the deal.
The announcement came days after a Swiss court ruled that it would be illegal for Switzerland to comply with the August accord. The court essentially declared that long-standing secrecy protections trumped the agreement. The decision came in a test case involving a UBS account holder who was fighting to stay in the shadows.
Switzerland’s parliament may have the power to salvage the agreement by endorsing it and giving it greater legal force. But even as it noted that possibility, the Swiss government said it would begin by reopening talks with the United States.
The discussions could lead to “material changes” in the agreement, Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said at a news conference Wednesday in the Swiss capital, Bern, the Associated Press reported.
In a brief statement, the IRS offered no hint of a compromise.
“The United States has an agreement with the Swiss government to produce information on US account holders at UBS. We expect the Swiss government to continue to honor the terms of the agreement,” the IRS said.
Since the agreement was signed, Switzerland has turned over information in six cases. Those account holders consented, Swiss Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli said.
The latest developments reopen a long-running legal and diplomatic battle over UBS, which admitted last year that it defrauded the U.S. government by helping Americans dodge taxes. Under a February “deferred prosecution” agreement, UBS agreed to pay the United States $780 million, and the United States agreed to not pursue a potentially crippling criminal case against the bank — at least temporarily. The U.S. government later ratcheted up a civil suit against UBS, trying to force it to divulge details about 52,000 accounts that had not been declared to the IRS. The Swiss government said it would block UBS from complying with any such court order.
The two governments reached a compromise in August that called for the Swiss to review 4,450 accounts for potential disclosure. The agreement included no explicit guarantee that at the end of the process Switzerland would turn over the names, but the U.S. government seemed to take that for granted.
“I have every reason to trust the Swiss government and expect that we will get these accounts,” IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said at the time.
If Switzerland fails to deliver the information, the IRS could resume the civil suit against UBS. What’s more, following through on the criminal prosecution of the bank “cannot be excluded,” the Swiss Justice spokesman said.
In a statement Wednesday, UBS said it “welcomes the fact that the Swiss Federal Council is pursuing a dialog with the US authorities.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/27/AR2010012703556.html
