Category Archives: U.S.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Idaho makes top ten foreclosure list, Bonneville County leads Eastern Idaho in foreclosures

“The big increase in new foreclosure actions may be a signal that lenders are starting to push through some of the foreclosures delayed by robo signing and other documentation problems.  It also foreshadows more bank repossessions in the coming months as these new foreclosures make their way through the process.”-James Saccacio, CEO RealtyTrac

The latest RealtyTrac survey put Idaho in the top ten for foreclosures.  One in every 348 Idaho homes were in foreclosure in August 2011. The report also says one in every 570 homes in the United States was facing foreclosure in August 2011.

The three most populous counties in eastern Idaho broke down like this; Bannock: 238 foreclosures.  Bingham: 132 foreclosures.  Bonneville: 320 foreclosures.

Nevada still holds onto the number one position for home foreclosures, for the 56th straight month!

California is number two with a 55% default rate, and one out of every 226 homes being foreclosed in August!

Arizona was number three for the second month in a row.

The rest of the top ten list is made up of Georgia, Idaho, Michigan, Florida, Illinois, Colorado and Utah.

 

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

United Police States of Corporate America: Big Republican supporter, CCA, about to settle lawsuits claiming prison violence, medical neglect, includes Idaho’s “Gladiator School”

Septmenber 14, a man who sued a corporate run Idaho prison, known as “Gladiator School”, for extreme violence and medical neglect, has reached a settlement with Corrections Corporation of America.

CCA is the largest corporate prison operation in the United States, and also has the worst reputation.

Dozens of other inmates across the U.S. are also suing the Nashville, Tennessee, based CCA.

Reports are that CCA wants to settle all cases as quietly as possible, and soon. CCA officials hope to have all cases settled by the end of the week.

The Idaho Correctional Center, run by CCA, is so violent that it’s called “Gladiator School”.  Lawsuits claim that guards used inmate on inmate violence as a management tool, and then denied injured prisoners adequate medical care.  In one case, security camera video was leaked, showing a prisoner being beaten for hours, while guards watched.  That’s your Idaho tax dollars at work folks!

By the way, CCA is a major supporter of the Idaho Republican party!!!

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Surprise Postal Service announcement, will close distribution centers not mentioned on public Post Office closing list. Poctello, Idaho, targeted

September 15, Pocatello, Idaho, to be hit by latest USPS closings.  Local postal workers told me that the Gateway distribution center, on Flandro Road in Pocatello, could be part of the surprise announcement made by U.S. Postal Service officials today.

This would mean all east Idaho mail would be shipped off to Salt Lake City, Utah, to be sorted.

I checked the USPS mail processing facilities list of closings, and the Pocatello distribution center is the only facility in Idaho on the list!

Postal officials say it will result in much slower delivery times.  That’s not all, the USPS is considering ending First Class letter service altogether!

Local postal workers told me they were notified yesterday, September 14.  This latest announcement of closings are for as many as 252 mail processing facilities (distribution centers), cutting 35,000 jobs, across the country.  They were not listed on the recent Post Office closing list!

Local postal workers also told me that they suspect the U.S. Congress is conspiring to fully privatize the Postal Service.  There is no reason for that, since the USPS does not get any taxpayer money!!!

The United States Postal Service does not make money off taxpayers, they are solely funded by the postage they charge.  The U.S. Congress controls what the USPS can charge, and, according to testimonies by the U.S. postmaster general, Patrick Donahoe, and Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, the U.S. Congress has forced the USPS to over pay into several federal funds.

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Government Incompetence: Once again, Idaho property values down, yet government raises the property tax, blame those damn levys people keep voting for!

“Even if the budget stays the same, the levy is going to go up to compensate for the decline in value of your property.”– Chris Rich, Ada County Clerk

Ada County, Idaho, just raised their property tax rates, even though property values are down.

In fact property values dropped 42% since 2006.  But county officials say the rates are going up because people keep passing levys.  The levys are paid for by increasing property taxes, despite what many of those who trick you into passing those levys say.

Some good news for property owners; under Idaho law levys can only affect your taxes so much, until they ‘max out’. As a sign of our bad economy, many officials say the levys are very close to being maxed out.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Drug companies pay Idaho doctors big bucks

A ProPublica report shows more than 1,000 Idaho doctors were paid by 12 drug companies, to the tune of more than $2 million within the last year.  The Idaho Board of Medicine sees no harm in it.

Some of those payments were in the form of free meals (a Boise doctor got $607 worth) in exchange for attending seminars that pushed new drugs.  Others made money giving the talks at those seminars.  A Sun Valley psychiatrist made more than $100,000 for giving such talks.

The ProPublica.org report is part of their ongoing investigation into how Corporate America, and possibly your doctor, are ripping everyone off. Many people, who’ve left comments on the ProPublica story, expressed surprise to learn their personal doctor was on the list.

Beginning in 2013, drug companies are supposed to publicly report who they gave money to.

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Corporate Incompetence: Netflix says internet speeds in the United States sucks!

Earlier this year Netflix tested internet connection speeds in several countries, the United States sucked!

Apparently Netflix ranked the U.S. at 32.  Countries like Canada did much better.

The thing is that much faster connection speeds are available in the United States, it’s just that most people can’t pay the outrageous fees.  Also, most internet service providers don’t guarantee a faster connection rate, their fine print misleadingly says “speeds up to”.  This means they aren’t able to consistently provide faster connection speeds.

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, Technology, U.S.

Corporate Incompetence: Idaho Internet providers blame the weather and animals for slow internet service, thank Allstate & Education reforms for a much needed upgrade

“We have a guy here who was dropped into remote, isolated areas of Iraq to set up their telecommunications systems. He told me, ‘We had better communications in Iraq than you have in Central Idaho.’ ”-Christine L. Frei, Clearwater Economic Development Association

A recent survey listed Idaho with the slowest internet service.  Now a new survey lists the Pocatello area (in southeastern Idaho) as the place with the slowest internet service in the whole state.

Some internet service providers use only line of sight broadcasts, which is extremely slow.  They blame snow, rain, clouds, fog and even bears rubbing on their transmission towers for internet disruptions.

The Federal government is spending $25 million to upgrade Idaho’s internet services. Part of the reason is that Allstate is building a big call center in Chubbuck, within the extremely slow Pocatello internet service area.

The other reason for the Federally funded upgrades is that Idaho has been pushing an at home internet school program for its High Schools: “Without broadband, especially in rural areas, kids might not reach their full potential. And we can’t expect to be competitive in a global economy.”-Jonathan Adelstein, Rural Utilities Service

One of the reasons Idaho has such slow internet service is also one of the reasons people like living in Idaho; only 19 people per square mile!

This makes it difficult for companies to make money providing internet service: “It’s not the lack of availability. It’s the lack of demand and what people are willing to pay.”-Bibiana Nertney, Idaho Department of Commerce

Most big businesses in Idaho actually get high speed internet service, but only because they can afford the outrageous fees.  Even Idaho’s public schools have high speed internet on campus.

 

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: Venezuela, and 9 other countries, join Syria, take stand against the ‘west’

“We came to Syria to express our support and solidarity with the Syrian people, and to express our resentment of the media war against Syria.”– Temir Porras, Deputy Foreign Minister of Venezuela

The South American country, who is a major oil supplier to the east coast of the U.S., said they support the current government of Syria.  It’s not just Venezuela, but nine other South American and Caribbean countries who’re expressing support for Syria.

The organization is called ALBA, or Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América.  It’s members are Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela.

Business/Economics, U.S.

Corporate Incompetence: Eldery woman loses home after selling everything to pay it off, a 101 year old woman gets foreclosed on, despite getting a reverse mortgage

“I had one year left on my mortgage, and it would have been paid off, I wanted to live here for as long as possible.”-Linda Hatchel

Linda Hatchel spent decades, and tens of thousands of dollars renovating her Chicago home.

What makes it all the more terrible is that more than twenty years ago she paid about one dollar for the home.  It was a demolition sale.  She took out loans to renovate the house, but her cancer treatment, and the loss of her job left her unable to make the final payment (she had one payment left), now she’s about to become homeless.

In Texas, 101 year old Texana Hollis was evicted from her home this week. In 2003, her son asked her to sign it over to a reverse mortgage company for $32,000 to help with home repairs.  Despite claims that reverse mortgages can keep you in your home, the bank kicked her to the curb.

 

 

U.S.

Government Incompetence: California politicians hire their own ‘news agency’, with taxpayer money

The Los Angeles Times reports that the Central Basin Municipal Water District, a taxpayer funded operation, with elected officials at the helm, essentially created their own ‘news agency’ to make them look good.

Coghlan Consulting Group is being paid $11,000 per month to write ‘news’ stories that make the elected officials look good, in the hopes of getting re-elected: “This is a serious breach of the public trust. If it was known and approved by the board, it could be interpreted as the use of $200,000 of taxpayer funds as a self-promotion to help them stay in office.”-Terry Francke, Californians Aware

The idea of a ‘news agency’ for the water district came from the consulting firm: “All of us know that getting positive news coverage about the agency is a very difficult challenge. The solution? How about our own news outlet.”-Ed Coghlan, Coghlan Consulting Group

The Central Basin Municipal Water District is already being investigated by Los Angeles County prosecutors for possible fraudulent travel expenses.