Category: Money, Class, and Poverty,

The Banking Bill Could Hurt Black Homeowners

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

Today—50 years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act, 40 years after the passage of the Community Reinvestment Act, and a decade after the subprime-loan crisis—that black family would be 5.6 times more likely to be denied a conventional mortgage than that white family, a damning report released last month by the Center for Investigative Reporting found.

…Redlining and other forms of discriminatory lending practices remain a defining feature of the American housing market, and they have profound consequences in terms of wealth-building, equality, and equity.

…The legislation in process includes a number of technical changes that stand to put borrowers of color, mobile-home owners, and rural residents at risk. Chief among these is a change letting banks that make fewer than 500 mortgage loans a year report less data to the government on who they lend to and at what rates—data meant to help show whether financial institutions are discriminating against families of color.

…The Trump administration, for instance, has hollowed out the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development is removing its mandates for inclusion and consumer protection from its mission statement.

The Banking Bill Could Hurt Black Homeowners – The Atlantic

Sigh…

EPA drops rule requiring mining companies to have money to clean up pollution

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Trump’s administration announced Friday that it won’t require mining companies to prove they have the financial wherewithal to clean up their pollution, despite an industry legacy of abandoned mines that have fouled waterways across the U.S.

The move came after mining groups and Western-state Republicans pushed back against a proposal under former President Barack Obama to make companies set aside money for future cleanup costs.

…The U.S. mining industry has a long history of abandoning contaminated sites and leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for cleanups. Thousands of shuttered mines leak contaminated water into rivers, streams and other waterways, including hundreds of cases in which the EPA has intervened, sometimes at huge expense.

The EPA spent $1.1 billion on cleanup work at abandoned hard-rock mining and processing sites across the U.S. from 2010 to 2014.

EPA drops rule requiring mining companies to have money to clean up pollution – Chicago Tribune

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

State Police pay higher than reported, data hidden for years

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Boston,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Revelations about an alleged overtime scam, a wave of suspensions, and hefty pay for Massachusetts State Police troopers have sparked scrutiny of the state’s largest law enforcement agency.

…Payroll records for an entire 140-trooper State Police division — including some of the department’s highest earners — have been hidden from public view and weren’t filed with the state comptroller for several years, the Globe has found.

…The records also show that 393 troopers normally assigned to other State Police divisions worked detail and fill-in shifts for Troop F, collecting another $6.4 million.

In the entire department, at least 299 troopers — about 14 percent — made more than $200,000 last year.

…On Tuesday, Colonel Kerry A. Gilpin revealed that 20 active troopers and one retiree face sanctions in an overtime abuse scandal in Troop E. The troopers allegedly logged hours they did not work, with some alleged violators putting in for as many as 100 no-show shifts.

On Friday, State Police said nine of those troopers were suspended without pay, nine more retired, and one was kept on active duty.

…There has also been infighting within the State Police, with unionized troopers arguing that higher-ranked nonunion workers should not be assigned to work overtime shifts.

…At least 79 percent of Troop F made more last year than Governor Charlie Baker, who earned $151,800. The percentage would be even higher if you included the pay that some workers received in 2017 for time spent in other State Police divisions.

Fourteen Troop F members earned more in overtime than in base pay.

State Police pay higher than reported, data hidden for years – The Boston Globe

Oi…..

Gun maker Remington files for bankruptcy protection

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Remington, among the nation’s oldest gun manufacturers, said last month it had reached a deal with lenders that would grant them ownership of the 200-year-old company. Remington would continue operating and making guns while in bankruptcy.

The Journal says Remington’s bankruptcy filing comes “in the face of a heavy debt load, falling sales and lawsuits tied to the Sandy Hook school shooting.”

…”Remington makes the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle that was used in the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut that left 20 first-graders and six educators dead in 2012. The company was cleared of wrongdoing in the shooting, but investors distanced themselves from the company’s owner, investor Cerberus Capital Management.”

Gun sales overall have slowed since the election of President Trump, the thinking being that gun control regulations would be less likely. Gun sales had risen during President Obama’s presidency and in anticipation of a win by Hillary Clinton.

American Outdoor Brands’ (AOBC), up until 2016 known as Smith & Wesson, saw its profits slide 90 percent in 2017, Mr. Trump’s first year in office. Sturm Ruger (RGR) in October reported a 35 percent decline in quarterly profits.

Gun maker Remington files for bankruptcy protection – CBS News

hmmmm

Escaping Kakuma: How women find freedom through soccer in a refugee camp

On By peanutgallerynhIn Africa,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Schools,Leave a comment

The refugee camp is the third largest in the world, but it has been around for so long that it has lost any pretense it is supposed to be temporary.

…The refugees that reside there come from nations with prominently conservative cultures — primarily South Sudan and Somalia — where women are expected to stay in their homes and handle traditional household duties, like cooking, cleaning, and child-raising. The women you do see in the market are often carrying heavy loads of firewood. Every duty related to maintaining a homestead almost exclusively fall on women, while men — people who in a better world would be working — talk away their days.

…Unless you seek them out, refugee women are largely invisible in Kakuma. To be a refugee man is to feel ignored by the world. To be a refugee woman, then, is to be erased from it.

…There were still many more stories to tell within the world’s third-largest refugee camp, however, a place where sports have greater meaning as a way to combat idleness within an oft-forgotten population. This is a story about the women of Kakuma.

…Angelina Jolie Primary School stands apart from Kakuma’s hatchet-shaped cartography. It was opened in 2005 — funded by the actress and special envoy to the UNHCR — as a boarding school for bright or at-risk girls. There, they can be nurtured in a safer environment, away from the problems within Kakuma’s traditional borders. The girls are given a more focused education — the classrooms are much smaller than in the coed schools that pack upwards of a 100 students in one room — and they perform, on average, much better than the rest of Kakuma on Kenya’s standardized testing for secondary schools.

Escaping Kakuma: How women find freedom through soccer in a refugee camp – SBNation.com

hmmm

Georgia Gilmore: The Fearless Cook Who Secretly Fed — And Funded — The Civil Rights Movement

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

Georgia Gilmore, the Montgomery cook, midwife and activist whose secret kitchen fed the civil rights movement

When King and others held meetings of the Montgomery Improvement Association at the Holt Street Baptist Church, Gilmore was there, selling fried chicken sandwiches and other foods to the African-American men and women gathered there who’d pledged not to use the city’s buses until they were desegregated. Gilmore poured those profits back into the movement.

…Gilmore organized black women to sell pound cakes and sweet potato pies, fried fish and stewed greens, pork chops and rice at beauty salons, cab stands and churches. “She offered these women, many of whose grandmothers were born into slavery, a way to contribute to the cause that would not raise suspicions of white employers who might fire them from their jobs, or white landowners who might evict them from the houses they rented,” Edge says.

The money they raised helped pay for the alternative transportation system that arose in Montgomery during the 381-day bus boycott: hundreds of cars, trucks and wagons that ferried black workers to and from their jobs across town each day. Gilmore’s cooking helped pay for the insurance, gas, wagons and vehicle repairs that kept that system going.

She called the group of women who worked with her in this project “The Club from Nowhere” because, as Betty Gilmore, Georgia’s sister, told Edge years later, “It was like, ‘Where did this money come from? It came from nowhere.”

Meet The Fearless Cook Who Secretly Fed — And Funded — The Civil Rights Movement : The Salt : NPR

cool!

Eric Geller on Twitter: “If I had to guess, I’d say this will be indictments of some state-backed hackers.”

On By peanutgallerynhIn Local Interest,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Eric Geller on Twitter: “The assistant AG for national security and Treasury’s top intelligence official will be at this event. If I had to guess, I’d say this will be indictments of some state-backed hackers.”

huh

Amtrak funding, including for long-distance trains, to be preserved

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Infrastructure and Transportation,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

“There is an urgent need to improve the safety of our railways and this federal funding will help implement positive train control, grade crossing improvements, and other critical railway safety updates,” said U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. “I was proud to have fought for these funds to be included in the omnibus language.”

Positive train control is an automated system to prevent train-to-train collisions, derailments due to excessive speed and other accidents. Lack of positive train control has been blamed for numerous deadly mishaps.

The budget will provide $592 million for the federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program, which makes competitive grants to railroads and government agencies for safety and capacity improvements.

Schumer’s office said it was the first time the program received substantial funding.

Amtrak funding, including for long-distance trains, to be preserved

hmmm

Citigroup Becomes First Major Bank to Restrict Some Gun Sales

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Citigroup Inc. plans to prohibit retailers that are customers of the bank from offering bump stocks or selling guns to people who haven’t passed a background check or are younger than 21.

The bank is imposing the restrictions on companies that use it to issue store credit-cards or for lending and other services, according to a memo Thursday. The lender also barred the sale of high-capacity magazines.

Citigroup Becomes First Major Bank to Restrict Some Gun Sales – Bloomberg

hmmm

Saudi Crown Prince Boasted That Jared Kushner Was “In His Pocket”

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Middle East,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

In late October, Jared Kushner made an unannounced trip to Riyadh, catching some intelligence officials off guard. “The two princes are said to have stayed up until nearly 4 a.m. several nights, swapping stories and planning strategy,” the Washington Post’s David Ignatius reported at the time.

…One of the people MBS told about the discussion with Kushner was UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, according to a source who talks frequently to confidants of the Saudi and Emirati rulers. MBS bragged to the Emirati crown prince and others that Kushner was “in his pocket,” the source told The Intercept.

…Kushner’s support for Saudi Arabia and the UAE over Qatar in the Gulf crisis has raised questions about a possible conflict of interest. Kushner backed the blockade a month after Qatar’s ministry of finance rebuffed an attempt by Kushner’s real estate firm, Kushner Companies, to extract financing for the firm’s troubled flagship property at 666 Fifth Avenue.

Saudi Crown Prince Boasted That Jared Kushner Was “In His Pocket”

hmmm

Paul Ryan sold shares on same day as private briefing of banking crisis

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s vice-presidential running mate, sold stock in US banks on the same day he attended a confidential meeting where top level officials disclosed the sector was heading for a deep crisis.

…Public records show that on the same day as the meeting, Ryan sold stock in troubled banks including Wachovia and Citigroup and bought shares in Goldman Sachs, Paulson’s old employer and a bank that had been disclosed to be stronger than many of its rivals. The sale was not illegal at the time.

Paul Ryan sold shares on same day as private briefing of banking crisis | US news | The Guardian

hmmmm

Kimmel’s shopping spree at Trump’s store turns up potential violations and zero American-made goods

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Kimmel revealed he’d gone on a shopping spree at the Trump Organization’s online store. …Kimmel pulled one piece of merchandise after the other from the box and read each label and surprise! Not one single item was made in the U.SA. More than that, he found two items were missing the federally required country of origin designation.

 

Kimmel’s shopping spree at Trump’s store turns up potential violations and zero American-made goods

hmmmm

Sessions Says to Courts: Go Ahead, Jail People Because They’re Poor

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

Last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions retracted an Obama-era guidance to state courts that was meant to end debtors’ prisons, where people who are too poor to pay fines are sent. This practice is blatantly unconstitutional, and the guidance had helped jump-start reform around the country. Its withdrawal is the latest sign that the federal government is retreating from protecting civil rights for the most vulnerable among us.

The Justice Department helped shine a light on the harms of fine and fees when it investigated Ferguson, Mo., three years ago after the killing of the teenager Michael Brown by a police officer.

…Ferguson used its criminal justice system as a for-profit enterprise, extracting millions from its poorest citizens. Internal emails revealed the head of finance directing policing strategy to maximize revenue rather than ensure public safety. Officers told us they were pressured to issue as many tickets as possible.

Even the local judge was in on it, imposing penalties of $302 for jaywalking and $531 for allowing weeds to grow in one’s yard. He issued arrest warrants for residents who fell behind on payments — including a 67-year-old woman who had been fined for a trash-removal violation — without inquiring whether they even had the ability to pay the exorbitant amounts. The arrests resulted in new charges, more fees and the suspension of driver’s licenses. These burdens fell disproportionately on African-Americans.

At the time of our investigation, over 16,000 people had outstanding arrest warrants from Ferguson, a city of 21,000. Untold numbers found themselves perpetually in debt to the city and periodically confined to its jail.

These problems were not unique to Ferguson.

…Sessions pulled 25 guidance documents last week. Sixteen of those involved civil rights protections — including 10 related to the Americans With Disabilities Act and one on the special harms that unlawful fine and fee practices can have for young people. Withdrawing these documents is consistent with the Trump administration’s hostility to civil rights in a host of other areas: abandoning oversight of police departments, reinterpreting anti-discrimination statutes to deny protection to L.G.B.T. individuals and switching sides in key voting rights cases.

Opinion | Sessions Says to Courts: Go Ahead, Jail People Because They’re Poor – The New York Times

Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Martina Navratilova gets paid a tenth of John McEnroe’s salary for tennis commentating

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Europe,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Tennis star Martina Navratilova has claimed she gets paid a mere tenth of John McEnroe’s salary for her work as a commentator at Wimbledon.

Speaking on BBC Panorama, the Czech tennis champion—who’s considered among the best female tennis players of all time— revealed that she gets paid about £15K ($21K) for her role as a Wimbledon commentator, while John McEnroe earns £150K ($209K) for the same work.

…”Gender isn’t a factor,” the BBC concluded.

Martina Navratilova gets paid a tenth of John McEnroe’s salary for tennis commentating

Of course it’s a factor.

…And fuck you BBC for being such dinosaurs.

Trump had senior staff sign nondisclosure agreements. They’re supposed to last beyond his presidency.

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

In the early months of the administration, at the behest of now-President Trump, who was furious over leaks from within the White House, senior White House staff members were asked to, and did, sign nondisclosure agreements vowing not to reveal confidential information and exposing them to damages for any violation. Some balked at first but, pressed by then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and the White House Counsel’s Office, ultimately complied, concluding that the agreements would likely not be enforceable in any event.

…Moreover, said the source, this confidentiality pledge would extend not only after an aide’s White House service but also beyond the Trump presidency. “It’s not meant to be constrained by the four years or eight years he’s president — or the four months or eight months somebody works there. It is meant to survive that.”

This is extraordinary. Every president inveighs against leakers and bemoans the kiss-and-tell books; no president, to my knowledge, has attempted to impose such a pledge. And while White House staffers have various confidentiality obligations — maintaining the secrecy of classified information or attorney-client privilege, for instance — the notion of imposing a side agreement, supposedly enforceable even after the president leaves office, is not only oppressive but constitutionally repugnant.

…I haven’t been able to lay hands on the final agreement, but I do have a copy of a draft, and it is a doozy. It would expose violators to penalties of $10 million, payable to the federal government, for each and any unauthorized revelation of “confidential” information, defined as “all nonpublic information I learn of or gain access to in the course of my official duties in the service of the United States Government on White House staff,” including “communications . . . with members of the press” and “with employees of federal, state, and local governments.” The $10 million figure, I suspect, was watered down in the final version, because the people to whom I have spoken do not remember that jaw-dropping sum.

It would prohibit revelation of this confidential information in any form — including, get this, “the publication of works of fiction that contain any mention of the operations of the White House, federal agencies, foreign governments, or other entities interacting with the United States Government that is based on confidential information.”

Trump had senior staff sign nondisclosure agreements. They’re supposed to last beyond his presidency. – The Washington Post

It’s hard to say which is more staggering, the absolute ignorance about how the job and the White House work or the crass hubris-fed arrogance.