Paul Ryan’s Office Locks the Door on Unemployed Constituents
Submitted by Brendan Fischer on August 25, 2011 – 8:10am

Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan’s focus on cutting federal social programs apparently leaves little time to deal with the unemployed in his district, according to constituents who have been staging a sit-in at his Kenosha, Wisconsin office since last week, and who were barred from Ryan’s office by police on Wednesday.

National Aspirations Crowd-Out Local Obligations

Since Thursday, August 18, several of Rep. Ryan’s unemployed constituents, frustrated at their inability to get in touch with their congressman to express concern about jobs, have been occupying their representative’s Kenosha office. Others have been protesting outside.

“Ryan has been long on plans for cutting Social Security and Medicaid, and short on plans for job creation,” said Kelly Gallaher, community organizer and coordinator of Kenosha-based Community for Change. Gallaher, who has been attending the protesting in support of those sitting-in, points out that Racine has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state. Racine’s unemployment levels often surpass those of Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city and the fourth-poorest in the United States.

According to Gallaher, “the toll the economy has taken on people in Racine is being ignored by Congressman Ryan.”

Read more.

I missed this a month ago.

MCM

Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Corn Fields
Anthony Gucciardi
NaturalSociety
July 26, 2011

Hungary has taken a bold stand against biotech giant Monsanto and genetic modification by destroying 1000 acres of maize found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds, according to Hungary deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar. Unlike many European Union countries, genetically modified (GM) seeds are banned in Hungary. In a similar stance against GM ingredients, Peru has also passed a 10-year ban on GM foods.

Planetsave reports:

Almost 1000 acres of maize found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds have been destroyed throughout Hungary deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar said. The GMO maize has been ploughed under, said Lajos Bognar, but pollen has not spread from the maize, he added.

Read more.

Capitol Report: State looks to save millions by cutting child care subsidies
JESSICA VANEGEREN |The Capital Times | jvanegeren@madison.com |
State Journal archives

The state is changing its method of reimbursing in-home day care providers who accept children in the Wisconsin Shares program for low-income families.

For the past 20 years, Verona resident Joan Mrkvicka has watched as the number of low-income families in need of quality child-care services has increased in her community.

The recent hit to the economy is part of the problem, she says, and has caused a noticeable spike in the number of calls she is receiving from parents in search of a provider who accepts state child-care subsidies.

She admits there are difficulties in caring for children from low-income families: frequent scheduling changes, parents running behind with their co-payments, and an endless mound of required paperwork for the state.

Read more.

Market crash ‘could hit within weeks’, warn bankers
A more severe crash than the one triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers could be on the way, according to alarm signals in the credit markets.
By Harry Wilson, and Philip Aldrick
9:50PM BST 24 Aug 2011

Insurance on the debt of several major European banks has now hit historic levels, higher even than those recorded during financial crisis caused by the US financial group’s implosion nearly three years ago.

Credit default swaps on the bonds of Royal Bank of Scotland, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Intesa Sanpaolo, among others, flashed warning signals on Wednesday. Credit default swaps (CDS) on RBS were trading at 343.54 basis points, meaning the annual cost to insure £10m of the state-backed lender’s bonds against default is now £343,540.

The cost of insuring RBS bonds is now higher than before the taxpayer was forced to step in and rescue the bank in October 2008, and shows the recent dramatic downturn in sentiment among credit investors towards banks.

Read more.

Let’s hope that’s all they do to him.

MCM

Army Reservist Told He’s Barred From Re-Enlistment for Speaking to Truthout About Guantanamo
Thursday 25 August 2011
by: Jason Leopold, Truthout | Report

The US Army has told a reservist who has spent half his life in the military that he is barred from re-enlisting, asserting he “leaked” classified information to this reporter during an interview in which he spoke candidly about his experiences working as a guard at Guantanamo Bay eight years ago.

“In accordance with your security clearance agreement during 2003-2004, you are not authorized to freely talk to the press about your duties at GITMO or what you might think have occurred there to the press,” states an April 2 “developmental counseling form” presented to Pfc. Albert Melise that was signed by Alphonso Holt, a lieutenant colonel in the US Army reserves and the battalion commander of Melise’s reserve unit. “I have reported your actions to the security manager and I am initiating a bar to re-enlist.”

It’s unknown whether Holt’s recommendation to bar Melise from re-enlisting was approved by the Department of the Army. Melise said he still has not received a copy of his administrative file despite being honorably discharged June 27. An Army Reserve spokesman, who declined to confirm or deny whether the re-enlistment bar was accepted, told Truthout to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in order to obtain additional information about Melise’s status.

Read more.

This is carrying “balance” just about a far as it can go.

MCM

Special prosecutor: No charges for Prosser, Bradley in fracas
By The Associated Press and Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel
Updated: Aug. 25, 2011 11:34 a.m. |
David Prosser
Ann Walsh Bradley

Madison – Neither Supreme Court Justice David Prosser nor fellow Justice Anne Walsh Bradley will face criminal charges for an altercation this summer involving the two, a special prosecutor has determined.

“After a complete review . . . I have determined that no criminal charges will be filed against either Justice Bradley or Justice Prosser for the incident on June 13, 2011,” Sauk County District Attorney Patricia Barrett wrote in a fax sent Thursday morning to a Dane County judge.

Bradley has said Prosser put her in a “chokehold” during a June argument over a case in her chambers. Others have said Bradley came at Prosser with fists raised and he put up his hands to block her or push her back.

Read more.

Millions at Risk After Shift in Track for Hurricane Irene – NYTimes.com
August 25, 2011, 10:15 am
Millions at Risk After Shift in Track for Hurricane Irene
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
10:35 a.m. | Updated

Millions of residents of the East Coast for whom a hurricane strike is, at best, a dim memory now face a serious threat from Hurricane Irene. For days computer simulations of the long-term trajectory of the storm had been shifting a bit to the east day by day.

But the latest analysis by the National Hurricane Center has shifted the zone for the storm location five days from now to the west. You can see the shift in the video below, which is an animation of the sequence of forecasts by the center:

Trend is not destiny, of course, and the spaghetti charts of model runs remain mixed. But emergency planners in New York City are surely examining the maps of the city’s hurricane evacuation zones and, while hoping for the best, preparing for the worst (as should everyone in the region).

Read more.

1) New York AG under White House pressure on mortgage settlement
By Peter Schroeder – 08/22/11 12:48 PM ET
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/1091-housing/177741-new-york-ag-under-white-house-pressure-on-mortgage-settlement

2) NYAG Eric Schneiderman Pushes Back After Being Kicked Off Mortgage Abuse Investigation
BY CELESTE KATZ
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2011/08/nyag-eric-schneiderman-pushes-back-after-being-kicked-off-mortgage-abuse-inves

3) PETITION – http://action.citizenactionny.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4656

Could Blankfein Face Prison?
Aug 23, 2011 12:34 AM EDT

The Goldman Sachs CEO didn’t get a big-time criminal-defense lawyer because he’s worried about an SEC wrist slap—there’s a real possibility of doing time, says former Goldman managing director Nomi Prins.

There’s a saying that loose lips sink ships. So can dead weight.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who just got himself a lawyer, may be facing the possibility of sinking, either because of his own words in April 2010 before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) or because his shipmates are distancing themselves in a legal version of every man for himself. Or both.

Recall that Blankfein emphatically told the subcommittee, “We didn’t have a massive short against the housing market, and we certainly did not bet against our clients.” The 650-page subcommittee report (PDF) presented on April 13, 2011, which cites Blankfein 79 times, begs to differ.

Read more.