Supreme Court Rejects Contraceptives Mandate for Some Corporations

By Adam Liptak  |  New York Times  |  June 30, 2014

Justices Rule in Favor of Hobby Lobby

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that requiring family-owned corporations to pay for insurance coverage for contraception under the Affordable Care Act violated a federal law protecting religious freedom. It was, the dissent said, “a decision of startling breadth.”

The 5-to-4 ruling, which applied to two companies owned by Christian families, opened the door to challenges from other corporations over laws that they claim violate their religious liberty.

The decision, along with another closely divided one that dealt a blow to public-sector unions, ended the term with a bang. But the rulings could have had an even broader immediate impact.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the court’s five more conservative justices, said a federal religious-freedom law applied to “closely held” for-profit corporations run on religious principles.

Supreme Court narrowly limits reach of labor unions

By Michael Pearson and Bill Mears  |  CNN  |  June 30, 2014

In a decision that sidesteps a major shift in labor policy, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that Illinois can't force home health care workers to pay dues to unions.

The narrow 5-4 ruling applies most directly to the Illinois home care providers who challenged a state decision to classify them as public employees and require them to pay fees to a union.

But it also deals a blow to union efforts nationwide to extend their reach in an era of declining membership and political influence.

"These home workers share a lot of attributes of the new emerging work force, and for unions, it's a big blow because that was their growth area," George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley said. "And it's going to be very difficult now to extend these contracts to get those types of dues."

Judge Rules US 'No-Fly' List Is Unconstitutional

By Agence France Presse  |  Business Insider  |  June 25, 2014

Current handling of the "no-fly list" of terrorist suspects barred from commercial flights over US airspace was ruled unconstitutional Tuesday by a federal judge in Oregon.

In a 65-page ruling, published on the web site of the federal courts, Judge Anna Brown handed a major victory to 13 Muslim plaintiffs, including the imam of a Portland, Oregon mosque.

Importantly, Brown said the system as it exists does not give people a meaningful way to challenge their status on the list.

"The right to travel is a part of the 'liberty' of which the citizen cannot be deprived without due process of law under the Fifth Amendment," she said.

Supreme Court limits cellphone searches after arrests

By Associated Press  |  Fox News  |  June 25, 2014

In a strong defense of digital age privacy, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that police may not generally search the cellphones of people they arrest without first getting search warrants.

Cellphones are powerful devices unlike anything else police may find on someone they arrest, Chief Justice John Roberts said for the court. Because the phones contain so much information, police must get a warrant before looking through them, Roberts said.

"Modern cellphones are not just another technological convenience. With all they contain and all they may reveal, they hold for many Americans the privacies of life," Roberts said.

The court chose not to extend earlier rulings that allow police to empty a suspect's pockets and examine whatever they find to ensure officers' safety and prevent the destruction of evidence.

The Obama administration and the state of California, defending the cellphone searches, said cellphones should have no greater protection from a search than anything else police find.

Another Unanimous Supreme Court Decision Against Obama

Supreme Court rebukes Obama on recess appointments

By Robert Barnes  | Washington Post  |  June 26,2014

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that President Obama exceeded his constitutional authority in making high-level government appointments in 2012 when he declared the Senate to be in recess and unable to act on the nominations.

Obama made appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) at a time when the Senate was holding pro forma sessions every three days precisely to thwart the president’s ability to exercise the power.

“The Senate is in session when it says it is,” Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote for the court, stressing that if the Senate is able to conduct business, that is enough to keep the president from making recess appointments.

But the court stepped back from handing Obama — and those who will follow him in the Oval Office — a more substantial loss. A bare majority of the justices upheld, in theory at least, the president’s ability to make recess appointments when the Senate is indeed on extended break, saying history weighs in favor of a broad power.

Start Saving as Early as Possible

By Alaina Tweddale  |  WiseBread  |  June 19, 2014

The data below is an excerpt from This Is Why You Can't Postpone Planning for Your Retirement (And How to Start)
Link

Treat your retirement savings like you would any other bill: Budget for it and put the dough away each month, as if it were a necessary expense (because really, it is). The earlier you start, the more you can take advantage of compound earnings and, ultimately, the less you'll have to sock away in the long run. Here's a look at what you'd need to save, starting at different ages, to retire with $2 million (assuming an average annual increase of 7% per year and retirement at age 65).

• Start at age 20 and you'll have to save $510 per month.
• Start at age 30 and you'll have to save $1,050 per month.
• Start at age 40 and you'll have to save $2,270 per month.
• Start at age 50 and you'll have to save $5,600 per month.

The saver who started at 20 saved only $245,000 (the rest of the balance is a result of compound investment earnings). The saver who starts at age 50, on the other hand, will save $1,008,000 to get to $2 million at retirement.

The Justice Department Unleashes A Godzilla On Business

By IBD Editorials  |  June 26, 2014

Politics: After she destroyed Arthur Andersen in a flawed and subsequently overturned prosecution, the Senate has confirmed Leslie Caldwell to lead the DOJ's criminal division, giving her a mandate for even more mayhem.

You'd think someone who had thrown 85,000 people out of work, as this former Enron task force chief prosecutor did in her indictment of Arthur Andersen, before the whole thing was thrown out by a 9-0

Supreme Court, would go quietly from the public spotlight. Not so with Caldwell, a notoriously anti-business activist who in concert with the Obama White House is instead failing upward.

Her appointment over 700 Justice Department lawyers is bad news for an already beleaguered private sector, given her "wise guys" view of Wall Street.

Sidney Powell, former Justice Department counsel, sounded the alarm first. "Americans should brace themselves for an unprecedented assault on businesses, banks and political opponents of this administration — regardless of law or facts," he says in the New York Observer.

"Expect increasing use of the Department of Justice as an instrument of 'terror' to extort large civil penalties or fines from businesses under the threat of criminal prosecution and the death penalty that Ms. Caldwell and her cronies dealt Arthur Andersen."

The 18 Books That Changed My Life

By Noah Kagan, Okdork  |  Business Insider  |  June 25, 2014

A few months ago, I was drinking a Noah's Mill whiskey with my good buddy Brian Balfour and talking about life.

During the conversation we got on the topic of books that changed our lives.

I want to share them with you.

I judge a book's success if a year later I am still using at least one thing from the book.

My takeaways are what I still remember from the books; you may get even more out of these:

Google unveils products, updates that tie everything together

By Chris O'Brien and Paresh Dave  |  LA Times  |  June 25, 2014

Google wants to be everywhere in your life, all the time.

In a marathon keynote address Wednesday at Google I/O 2014, its annual developers conference, the Mountain View, Calif., company rolled out a mix of new products and updates to older ones.

But the pile of details added up to a basic message: The company now offers a breadth of products and services that will (Google hopes) work in harmony whether you're working, playing or in transit between the two.

Whether it's smartwatches, smartphones, tablets, connected cars, laptops or interactive TV, Google said its Internet services and a new version of its Android mobile operating system would increasingly tie everything together.

"I see this as an evolutionary move," said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. "There weren't things that made you say that this is new and unique. It's about making the things that Google does work better."

Broadly, it's similar to the message offered earlier this month by Apple at its own annual developers conference. No single eye-catching product was rolled out. Instead, in a world where smartphones and tablets are woven through the fabric of everyday life, companies are trying to figure out how to help consumers get more out of what they have.

Boehner Planning House Lawsuit Against Obama Executive Actions

By Daniel Newhauser  |  Roll Call  |  June 24, 2014

Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, told Republicans Tuesday he could have an announcement within days on whether the House will file a lawsuit against President Barack Obama, challenging the executive actions that have become the keystone of the administration.

The lawsuit could set up a significant test of constitutional checks and balances, with the legislative branch suing the executive branch for ignoring its mandates, and the judiciary branch deciding the outcome.
Boehner told the House Republican Conference during a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning that he has been consulting with legal scholars and plans to unveil his next steps this week or next, according to sources in the room.

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said further action is necessary because the Senate has not taken up bills passed by the House targeting executive actions. The House has passed a bill expediting court consideration of House resolutions starting lawsuits targeting executive overreach and another mandating that the attorney general notify Congress when the administration decides to take executive action outside of what has been authorized by Congress.

“The president has a clear record of ignoring the American people’s elected representatives and exceeding his constitutional authority, which has dangerous implications for both our system of government and our economy,” Steel said. “The House has passed legislation to address this, but it has gone nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate, so we are examining other options.”

Hillary Clinton's income inequality problem starts with her own income

By Ann Marie Cox  |  theguardian.com  |  June 24, 2014

American politicians have long sought to identify with the working class, but it's rare that they've claimed actual bankruptcy. When Hillary Clinton told Diane Sawyer this month that her family – the Clinton family – was "dead broke" upon leaving the White House, that giant sucking sound you heard was the Democratic party holding its breath.

The gaffe probably comes too early in the cycle to truly damn Clinton's presidential aspirations, but her stiff recovery – she amended the assessment to "not truly well off" in an interview with the Guardian published over the weekend – is a stark reminder that Hillary, whatever her qualifications and accomplishments, is not the campaigner her husband was. She is hobbled by a tendency to think that her own crystalline analysis should overwhelm criticism. Hillary's a lot like Mitt Romney in her lack of self-awareness – except she pays her taxes. (Though even that distinction is shrinking; last week brought the news that the Clintons have used trusts to shimmy out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in estate taxes, and Chelsea isn't helping anything.)
By refusing to acknowledge her wealth, Clinton continues in an American tradition of defining "middle class" as whatever one's family is worth, regardless of the country's actual average or median income. But whereas that misidentification has usually been aspirational – 40% of Americans making under $20,000 a year still say they're middle class – Hillary's denial only reminds the less well-off of their delusion. She has always been willing to use her resumé as a reason to vote for her, so why won't she brandish the family bank account as yet more proof of the Clintons' intelligence and hard work?

Police trashed innocent business owner's truck while searching for drugs... then left a NOTE to explain

By Daily Mail Reporter  |  The Daily Mail  |  June 8, 2014

• Matthew Heller attended a concert in Tampa Florida in February and left his truck parked in the venue's parking lot
• When he returned, Heller found that his truck had been ransacked and damage had been done in the process
• In addition to the damage, Heller found a note from the Tampa Police Department explaining that they searched his car for marijuana while he was in the concert
• No marijuana was found in his vehicle

A Florida business owner left his vehicle in an amphitheater parking lot as he attended a hip-hop concert earlier this year. When he returned to the vehicle after the show, he found that his truck had been broken into and vandalized.

It wasn't until Matthew Heller found a note in his trashed vehicle outside the Ybor Amphitheater in Tampa that he discovered that it wasn't your typical thief who'd broken into and damaged his truck - it was the police.

'Sir, your car was checked by TPD K-9,' the note left by police states. 'The vehicle was searched for marijuana due to a strong odor coming from the passenger side of the vehicle. Any questions call Cpl Fanning.'

15 Emerging Neurotechnologies That Will Change The World

By Andres Agostini  |  LinkedIn  |  June 6, 2014

The Human Connectome Project has led to new, faster, better ways to map the brain.

Below are technologies related to neuro and cognitive under three key areas of accelerating change: Neural Network Computing, Extended Cognition and Neural Interfaces. Neural network computing will lead to improvements in computer vision and analysis, such as detecting emotions and moods, which may have safety and security applications. Extended cognition involves more direct connection to people's brains, allowing mood, thought patterns and information to be altered in the brain. Neural interfaces get information out of people's brains more efficiently, ultimately allowing a machine-enabled form of telepathy.

We have included predictions based on consultation with experts of when each technology will be scientifically viable (the kind of stuff that Google, governments, and universities develop), mainstream (when VCs and startups widely invest in it), and financially viable (when the technology is generally available on Kickstarter).

Washington Wants To Regulate ... Everything

By IBD Editorials  |  June 18, 2014

Regulatory Excess: How much more control does the EPA want over an ostensibly free America? Given that it's set its sights on rain-swelled ditches and soggy gullies, it seems there are no limits to its confiscatory ambition.

Under the Clean Water Act, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency have authority over the navigable waters of the U.S. But apparently that isn't enough for this administration. It wants more private land to fall under federal control.

Both the EPA, which has launched the Obama administration's war on coal, and the Army Corps of Engineers want to expand the definition of waters that would be under their regulatory boot. It looks like a scheme that will give them dominion over anything that's already wet — and anything that might become so. We don't exaggerate the plan's potential intrusiveness.

"The EPA is proposing that puddles, ponds, ditches, ephemerals and isolated wetlands fall under the Clean Water Act and expand the regulatory authority to the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers," the Journal Gazette & Times Courier, which serves an agricultural community in Illinois, reported last week.
On Friday, Iowa Farmer Today noted that under the agencies' proposal, "any area of your field or yard that may see standing water, even if it's for a short period, could be considered navigable waters subject to federal jurisdiction."

9 financial risks everyone should understand

By Chuck Jaffe  |  MarketWatch  |  June 16, 2014

My friend Mike grabbed my arm as he barged into the conversation I was having with some other guys.

“What I really want to know, is where do you think I should invest now?”

I could have given him the usual answer — that I’m not a financial adviser and that I don’t pick investments for people — but instead I answered his question this way:

“That may be what you want to know, but what you need to know first is ‘What’s your greatest financial fear?’”

Mike, a pilot, immediately answered that he’s worried about another layoff. Chris, to his right, is scared of the market having a repeat of the meltdowns he saw in 2000 and 2008. Bob said he worries about outliving his money or needing long-term care.

And so it went for a few minutes, each guy coming up with a few legitimate things to fear, or nodding in agreement with the concerns cited by someone else, as the worries ran from current socio-economic events to providing for a special-needs child, to fear of missing out on the market’s gains, to not being able to pay to put the kids through college and more.

Finally, Mike said, “Maybe you just say that what I fear the most is losing money or mismanaging money.”
The problem with all of these concerns is that even if you work to solve your biggest fear, you may still feel vulnerable to other worries.

How long does the 'cool kid' effect last?

A University of Virginia study tracked teenagers for one decade and found that teenagers who were considered "cool" at a young age had more problems as adults. University of Virginia psychology professor Joseph Allen, who led the study, discusses the research on Lunch Break with Tanya Rivero.

If losing money in the market is your biggest fear and you go to all cash in response, you assuage the big worry, but over time you will have a growing scare that your money isn’t keeping pace with inflation or, perhaps, that you will outlive your nest egg.

Moreover, if you take that kind of all-or-nothing position, having everything in cash could leave you afraid that if the market doesn’t have a comeuppance soon, you’ve lost real opportunities to grow your savings.
While an individual’s financial fears morph and evolve, risks don’t. Certain dangers may be more or less present based on current events and conditions, but the underlying risks don’t change.

As a result, it’s important for investors to see how their worries align with the various types of risk.

Now IRS claims Lois Lerner emails lost to computer crashl

By Washington Examiner  |  Examiner Editorial  |  June 14, 2014

Just when it might appear that the IRS scandal cannot descend any lower, it has taken on the distinct odor of the Watergate cover-up with the most politically convenient computer crash in history. Naturally, the Obama administration waited to release the damaging news on Friday afternoon to minimize its impact. The alleged crash means the federal tax agency can only produce copies of emails to and from Lois Lerner and other IRS employees for the period January 2009 to April 2011. So all emails Lerner sent during that period from her official IRS account to anybody outside the agency -- like the White House, the Justice Department, the Federal Election Commission, Democrats in Congress or political activists in liberal nonprofits -- have vanished into a digital black hole.

The period involved just happens to be when Lerner and others in the Obama administration and key Senate Democrats hatched and began carrying out the targeting and harassment of Tea Party and conservative nonprofit applicants during the 2010 and 2012 campaigns. Included in the targeting and harassment was the illegal sharing of confidential tax information with individuals outside of the IRS. It also involved an attempt to gin up a political prosecution of doubtful merit by the Department of Justice against selected critics of President Obama.

WH to honor young illegal immigrants

By Rebecca Room  |  The Hill  |  June 16, 2014

The White House will honor 10 young adults on Tuesday who came to the United States illegally and qualified for the president’s program to defer deportation actions.

Each person has qualified for the government’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program, which delays removal proceedings against them as long as they meet certain guidelines.

They will be honored as “Champions of Change,” the White House said in a statement Monday because they “serve as success stories and role models in their academic and professional spheres.”

They emigrated from Mexico, Colombia, Morocco, India, Taiwan and the Philippines and many of them work in professions related to immigration policy or have helped launch initiatives that promote reform. 

In 2012, President Obama created DACA through an executive order, which defers any action on the status of people who came to the U.S. illegally as children for two years and can be renewed. DACA doesn’t provide any legal status.

People who qualify include those who came to the U.S. before turning 16, resided in the U.S. continuously since 2007 and people who are either currently in school, have graduated or received a certificate of completion for high school or were honorably discharged from the military.

In Texas' Rio Grande Valley, a seemingly endless surge of immigrants

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Cindy Carcamo  Los Angeles Times  |  June 13, 2014

The call went out on Border Patrol radios just before sundown one day this week: 31 immigrants spotted illegally crossing the Rio Grande on a raft.

No sooner had the migrants been found hiding in the mesquite brush than another report came in: A woman and boy were walking up the riverbank.

The Rio Grande Valley has become ground zero for an unprecedented surge in families and unaccompanied children flooding across the Southwest border, creating what the Obama administration is calling a humanitarian crisis as border officials struggle to accommodate new detainees. Largely from Central America, they are now arriving at a rate of more than 35,000 a month.

Anzalduas Park, a 96-acre expanse of close-cropped fields and woodland that sits on the southern bend of the river, has turned from an idyllic family recreation area into a high-traffic zone for illegal migration.
The number of children and teenagers traveling alone from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador is expected to reach up to 90,000 across the Southwest border by the end of the year, along with a surge of families with children seeking safe passage into the U.S.

"This is the hottest spot in the nation for crossings," said Hidalgo County Precinct 3 Constable Lazaro "Larry" Gallardo, a valley native who said he had never seen a migration wave of such a scale during his 14 years in office. "Something's got to be done because the numbers are just too high."

'Our Future Rests' on the Success of the DREAMers

By Joel Gehrke  |  National Review  |  June 11, 2014

President Obama reminded Democratic donors that “our future rests” on the success of people brought to the United States illegally as children, who would qualify for citizenship if Congress had passed the DREAM Act.

“About 30 to 40 percent of the kids in this school, by the way, are DREAM kids,” Obama said Wednesday evening. “You wouldn’t know it looking at them, because they are as American as apple pie.  But every single one of these kids, you might not be able to tell the difference, but a whole bunch of them — they’re worried about whether or not they’re going to be able to finance their college education of their immigrant status.  They’re worried about whether, in fact, this country that they love so deeply loves them back and understands that our future rests on their success.  Why wouldn’t we want to give them that certainty that you are part of the fabric of this nation, we’re counting on you, and we’re going to make sure you succeed?  Why wouldn’t we want to do that?”

Obama made the comments at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser in Massachusetts, in reference to students at Worcester Tech. “So these young people are graduating, ready to go to college, but also certified nurses, EMT folks.  Many of them are choosing to join the military and will contribute to our country in this way,” he said.  “And looking out as I was speaking to them and then shaking their hands, and giving them hugs and high-fives and all the things that kids do on a graduation, I thought to myself: How could we not want to invest in these kids?”

Iraq A Preview Of A World Without America

By Investors.com  |  June 13, 2014

National Security: That Islamists chose now to make their move against Iraq's fragile representative government is no coincidence. American impotency, in word and deed, has been more and more obvious.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the less-than-satisfactory 2008 Republican presidential nominee, may be wrong a lot. But on Friday he couldn't have been more right.

"The fact is, we had the conflict won" in Iraq, he told MSNBC. "The surge had succeeded," but "then the decision was made by the Obama administration to not have a residual force in Iraq."

Led by Gen. David Petraeus and his innovative counterterrorist methods, U.S. forces turned things around in Iraq in 2007. At the time, we strongly supported that much-criticized effort, arguing the consequences of the U.S. losing another war after spending so much time, effort, blood and fortune would be catastrophic, extending far beyond the Middle East.

Now the surge might as well have not happened. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, an al-Qaida associate, has taken Mosul, Iraq's second-biggest city, and threatens Baghdad and the U.S.-backed government. The U.S.-trained Iraqi army seems largely ineffective.

In the Crosshairs: The Business Community’s Free Speech Rights

By David Kinkade  |  U.S. Chamber of Commerce  |  April 7, 2014

On her recent visit to China, First Lady Michelle Obama spoke movingly in defense of free expression, noting that in the United States, she and President Obama are frequent targets of criticism—and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It's not always easy, but we wouldn't trade it for anything in the world,” the first lady said in a speech that won plaudits. “Because time and again, we have seen that countries are stronger and more prosperous when the voices of and opinions of all their citizens can be heard.”

It was a powerful endorsement of one of the foundational values of the American political system. And it should serve as a reminder to those in the United States who seek to undermine that rich tradition by clamping down on the free speech rights of business leaders in public debates.

Among the key offenders: the federal government. In recent years, the business community has found itself on the receiving end of a campaign to silence political speech—a campaign misleadingly packaged as “reform.”

EPA’s Attempt to “Set the Record Straight” on Our Carbon Report

By Matt Latourneau  |  U.S. Chamber of Commerce  |  May 28, 2014

Apparently, the Energy Institute’s report detailing the economic impacts of potential carbon regulations has gotten the Administration’s attention.  Considering EPA is about to propose the largest, most costly and most significant rule in its history, we consider that a good thing.

So let’s take a look at EPA’s response, from Associate Administrator for External Affairs Tom Reynolds:

First, before EPA even put pen to paper to draft the proposed standards, we gathered an unprecedented amount of input and advice through hundreds of meetings with hundreds of groups—including many members of the Chamber.  That input fed into the draft proposal we’ll release on June 2, and we plan to kick off a second phase of engagement as we work through the draft and get to a reasonable, meaningful final rule.

Indeed, the U.S. Chamber and our members have been engaged with EPA for years in an attempt to improve EPA’s regulations.  However, it should be noted that EPA’s much heralded “listening sessions” to receive input on potential carbon regulations completely avoided the ten states that are most dependent on coal for electricity.  As the leaders of 13 state chambers of commerce noted to EPA last fall, the public engagement tour included cities such as San Francisco, New York, and Boston while avoiding areas of the country that will be most affected.

We take EPA at its word that they want input from industry on their rules, and that was part of the reason why we decided months ago to embark on a project to produce a comprehensive, transparent analysis of how potential regulations could impact the economy.

Double Whammy: EPA Carbon Regulations Will Mean Higher Electricity Costs, Fewer Jobs

By Sean Hackbarth  |  U.S. Chamber of Commerce  |  May 28, 2014

Next week, it’s expected that President Obama will personally announce EPA’s latest effort to transform how America generates electricity. Remember in 2008, when Candidate Barack Obama said, electricity prices would “skyrocket?” This is what he meant, and it will affect every element of economic activity.

What is EPA about to do?

Next week, EPA will release carbon emission regulations for already-existing power plants. It’s a follow-up to last-year’s proposed regulations on new power plants.

How damaging could these regulations be on our economy?

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy released a report, “Assessing the Impact of Proposed New Carbon Regulations in the United States,” prepared with the assistance of the global energy and economics firm IHS. The analysis found that by 2030 potential new carbon regulations could:

• Cost as many as 442,000 jobs in 2022 and put 224,000 Americans out of work, on average, annually
• Cost $51 billion in GDP loss annually
• Lower disposable household income by 586 billion
• Increase electricity costs by more than $289 billion.

The report is based on an existing plan developed by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Obama administration's previously-announced goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 42% of 2005 levels by 2030. “We considered it as close as we could get to what the administration would be unveiling next week,” Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the Energy Institute said at a press conference.

Harbert added, “Americans deserve to have an accurate picture of the costs and benefits associated with the administration's plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions through unprecedented and aggressive EPA regulations.”

Father Gets Probation For Making Son Walk Home From School

The Daily Caller  |  May 30, 2014

A Hawaii man has been sentenced to a year of probation after making his son walk a mile home from school.

Robert Demond was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of second-degree endangering the welfare of a minor.

Demond explained that his son had been involved in some sort of rule-breaking at school. When Demond picked him up, he asked about it, but his son refused to respond. Demond then stopped the car and told his son to walk to rest of the way home to think about what he had done, reports the Garden Island.

The judge, Kathleen Watanabe, ruled that the punishment was “old-fashioned” and inappropriate. She said that it is dangerous for children to walk alongside the road due to potential pedophiles. It was a form of punishment no longer supported by the community.

Demond was sentenced to a $200 fine and a year of probation. His son’s age was never revealed in court documents.

Utilities Size Up Emission Cap for Power Plants

• "New federal limits on greenhouse-gas emissions would force sweeping changes in the U.S. electric system but wouldn't deliver the knockout blow to coal that mining companies and some power producers had feared."

• "The overall costs of the plan remain hotly debated. The administration estimates that utilities would spend as much as $8.8 billion a year to comply with the rule, based on complex assumptions including using more natural gas as a baseload fuel. "

• "The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says the rule would cost the economy $50 billion a year."

Utilities Size Up Emission Cap for Power Plants

By Amy Harder and Cassandra Sweet  |  The Wall Street Journal  |  June 2, 2014

New federal limits on greenhouse-gas emissions would force sweeping changes in the U.S. electric system but wouldn't deliver the knockout blow to coal that mining companies and some power producers had feared.

The proposed caps on carbon emissions, unveiled by the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday, give both states and utilities credit for reductions they already have made, including moving from coal to more natural gas and deploying renewable energy. Burning gas produces less carbon than coal, and natural gas has become cheap and plentiful during the past few years because of the U.S. energy boom.

The EPA's plan, part of President Barack Obama's broader effort to combat climate change, also allows states to count measures like energy-efficiency programs to meet a nationwide goal of reducing 2005 greenhouse-gas emission levels by an average of 25% by 2020 and 30% by 2030.

Scott Segal of Bracewell & Giuliani LLP in Washington, D.C., who lobbies on behalf of coal-fired power plants, said he opposes the carbon plan but said the rule "could have been a whole lot worse."

The 645-page proposal is so complex that companies said they were trying to sort out the potential impacts, which are likely to vary widely by region. Coal consumption is highest in the Midwest, the Ohio Valley and the Southeast, including Florida and Georgia, and coal-burning states tend to have lower electricity prices.

EPA's plan to cut carbon emissions could shift energy mix

• "The Environmental Protection Agency calls for a 30% national cut in power-plant emissions by 2030."

• "The EPA projects annual compliance costs of $7.3 billion to $8.8 billion by 2030, but since the proposal is expected to reduce air pollution, it says annual public health benefits will total $55 billion to $93 billion by avoiding up to 100,000 asthma attacks and 2,100 heart attacks each year."

EPA's plan to cut carbon emissions could shift energy mix

By Wendy Koch  |  USA Today  |  June 2, 2014

The Obama administration's historic plan to reduce carbon emissions from existing power plants, unveiled Monday, could hasten the nation's shift from coal toward natural gas, energy efficiency and renewable sources such as wind and solar.

The controversial proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency calls for a 30% national cut in power-plant emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide — below 2005 levels — by 2030, but it gives states varying reduction goals, depending on their power mix.

The 645-page plan, a key pillar of President Obama's climate initiative, requires states to develop and implement plans for meeting their targets. Recognizing that coal-fired facilities emit more carbon than other power plants, the administration plan sets lower 2030 targets for some states that rely heavily on coal, such as West Virginia, than those such as New York, with a more diversified energy mix.

"The U.S. energy sector is in transition, anyway," and the plan's rollout over the next 15 years will help to "shape" that shift in a low-carbon direction that addresses climate concerns, says Tim Profeta, director of Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environment Policy Solutions.

The nation's energy industry has dramatically shifted toward natural gas in recent years as new drilling techniques have lowered its production costs. Power plants fueled by natural gas produced 30% of U.S. electricity in 2012 — up from 16% in 2000. Plunging prices for solar panels and wind turbines have also prompted a surge in renewable energy.

Illinois Legislative Recap

Legislative Recap: What Lawmakers Did & Didn't Do

By Bill Wheelhouse & Associated Press  |  WUIS.org  |  June 2, 2014

The Illinois Legislature adjourned its spring session having passed a new state budget and other key measures, but leaving some business undone. Here's a look at what passed and what didn't:
    
BILLS SENT TO GOV. PAT QUINN:

Budget: A roughly $35.7 billion budget for 2015 keeps funding flat for schools and most state agencies. Majority Democrats acknowledged the budget is ``incomplete'' because it postpones tough votes about whether to slash spending or find new revenue until after November's election.

Capital construction: The bill to provide $1 billion for road and bridge projects surfaced in the final days of the session and passed with bipartisan support. It will use money from a prior capital plan.

Ballot measures: Looking to drive voter turnout, majority Democrats approved multiple nonbinding referendums for the November ballot. Among them: Asking voters whether Illinois' minimum wage should be increased, an extra tax on millionaires should be imposed and prescription drug coverage plans should be required to include birth control.

7 Reasons You’ll Retire Poor

1. You’re too busy keeping up with the Joneses

2. You’re not saving enough money

3. Your savings priorities are all wrong

4. You save your money in the wrong accounts

5. You finance everything

6. You’ve let your credit score go

7. You’re a chicken when it comes to investments


7 Reasons You’ll Retire Poor

By MaryaleneLaPonsie  |  MoneyTalksNews  |  May 28, 2014

How’s that retirement fund going?

If you’re like nearly half of workers, you may have doubts about whether you’ll have enough tucked away to avoid spending your final years living off ramen noodles.

According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute 2014 Retirement Confidence Survey, 43 percent of respondents say they are not too or not at all confident they’ll have enough money for their golden years.

The reasons can vary considerably, but if you make the following seven mistakes, you’re virtually guaranteed to retire poor.

1. You’re too busy keeping up with the Joneses

You can’t spend your whole life pretending to be rich and then think you’ll retire rich too.

Living within your means isn’t glamorous, but it is smart. And being smart is what will make you a wealthy retiree.

Rather than upgrading your smartphone every two years and your car every three, try being content with what you have. It doesn’t matter if all your friends are remodeling their kitchens, if yours works perfectly fine, leave it be.

Having a realistic budget is the first step toward living within your means. If you don’t already have one, read Stacy Johnson’s advice on how to create an effortless budget you’ll stick to.

Report Finds V.A. Hid Waiting Lists at Hospitals

• The Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general reported "that 1,700 patients at the veterans medical center in Phoenix were not placed on the official waiting list for doctors’ appointments and may never have received care.

• "The scathing report by Richard J. Griffin, the acting inspector general, validates allegations raised by whistle-blowers and others that Veterans Affairs officials in Phoenix employed artifices to cloak long waiting times for veterans seeking medical care."

• "Mr. Griffin said the average waiting time in Phoenix for initial primary care appointments, 115 days, was nearly five times as long as what the hospital’s administrators had reported."

• "He suggested that the falsified data may have led to more favorable performance reviews for hospital personnel, and he indicated that some instances of potentially manipulated data had been turned over to the Justice Department."

Severe Report Finds V.A. Hid Waiting Lists at Hospitals

By Richard A. Oppel, Jr. and Michael D. Shear  |  New York Times  |  May 28, 2014

In the first confirmation that Department of Veterans Affairs administrators manipulated medical waiting lists at one and possibly more hospitals, the department’s inspector general reported on Wednesday that 1,700 patients at the veterans medical center in Phoenix were not placed on the official waiting list for doctors’ appointments and may never have received care.

The scathing report by Richard J. Griffin, the acting inspector general, validates allegations raised by whistle-blowers and others that Veterans Affairs officials in Phoenix employed artifices to cloak long waiting times for veterans seeking medical care. Mr. Griffin said the average waiting time in Phoenix for initial primary care appointments, 115 days, was nearly five times as long as what the hospital’s administrators had reported.

He suggested that the falsified data may have led to more favorable performance reviews for hospital personnel, and he indicated that some instances of potentially manipulated data had been turned over to the Justice Department.

Mr. Griffin said that similar kinds of manipulation to hide long and possibly growing waiting times were “systemic throughout” the sprawling Veterans Affairs health care system, with its 150 medical centers serving eight million veterans each year. The inspector general’s office is reviewing practices at 42 Veterans Affairs medical facilities.

State Dept. apologizes for promoting Muslim cleric who backed killing of US soldiers

• Ugh!  Does any  pay attention to details?

State Dept. apologizes for promoting Muslim cleric who backed killing of US soldiers

By Adam Kredo  |  Washington Free Beacon  |  May 27, 2014

The State Department’s Counter Terrorism (CT) Bureau apologized on Tuesday for promoting a controversial Muslim scholar whose organization has reportedly backed Hamas and endorsed a fatwa authorizing the murder of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

The apology came on the heels of a Friday Washington Free Beacon report detailing the CT Bureau’s promotion of Sheik Abdallah Bin Bayyah, the vice president of a radical Muslim scholars group that was founded by a radical Muslim Brotherhood leader who has called “for the death of Jews and Americans.”

Bin Bayyah himself is one of several clerics who endorsed a 2004 fatwa, or religious order, endorsing the killing of U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq.

The CT Bureau apologized multiple times on Tuesday for tweeting in favor of Bin Bayyah and promoting an article on his website.

“This should not have been tweeted and has since been deleted,” the CT Bureau tweeted at users who expressed anger over the original message.