With the GOP presidential candidates vying to be the rightest-of-the-right at yesterday’s Freedom Forum in South Carolina, Mitt Romney kept focused on the general election, where wooing moderates is key, reports Politico . For example, he defended the need for federal regulations. “Regulation is necessary to make a free market work….
Continue reading …They’re down but not out. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was already back on the air last night just three weeks after Taylor Armstrong’s estranged husband, Russell, committed suicide . The wives (not including Taylor), had a heart-to-heart about the tragedy right at the start of the season premiere. They…
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The slow-moving remnants of Tropical Storm Lee dumped rain across the South and whipped up twisters that damaged dozens of Georgia homes as the system pushed farther inland on Monday. (Sept. 6)
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The slow-moving remnants of Tropical Storm Lee dumped rain across the South and whipped up twisters that damaged dozens of Georgia homes as the system pushed farther inland on Monday. (Sept. 6)
Continue reading …New York Times Blames Workers for Postal Service Woes, Glosses Over Real Cause of Problems
September 6, 2011 No CommentNALC President Fredric Rolando testifies before Congress (beginning at minute 40). In an article that ran the day before the Labor Day holiday, the New York Times took the opportunity to fear monger about the current financial problems at the United States Postal Service and blame workers for the financial shortfalls the agency faces. According to reporter Steven Greenhouse : The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances. … In recent weeks, Mr. Donahoe has been pushing a series of painful cost-cutting measures to erase the agency’s deficit, which will reach $9.2 billion this fiscal year. They include eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing up to 3,700 postal locations and laying off 120,000 workers — nearly one-fifth of the agency’s work force — despite a no-layoffs clause in the unions’ contracts. … As any computer user knows, the Internet revolution has led to people and businesses sending far less conventional mail. At the same time, decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office’s costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees. … Meanwhile, the agency has had a tough time cutting its costs to match the revenue drop, with a history of labor contracts offering good health and pension benefits, underused post offices, and laws that restrict its ability to make basic business decisions, like reducing the frequency of deliveries. Crooks and Liars previously reported on this situation, noting that the entire problem could be based on a unparalleled requirement that the USPS fund retirement benefits 75 years in advance. Without this cost, the Postal Service is profitable and none of the other explanations offered by the Times is relevant. The Times briefly mentioned the real problem and the real solution, but they were mere asides in the story while the focus was on declining mail volume and worker benefits as the problems and the perceived near impossibility of a solution being found that could work. The newspaper ignored the fact that the National Association of Letter Carriers (see testimony above) previously shot down all of these arguments and the Times failed to mention any of the greater problems — including job losses and harm done to small businesses that rely upon weekend mail service — that the draconian proposals being floated by Congress would create. Congress is considering numerous emergency proposals — most notably, allowing the post office to recover billions of dollars that management says it overpaid to its employees’ pension funds. That fix would help the agency get through the short-term crisis, but would delay the day of reckoning on bigger issues. … They add that a major factor for the post office’s $20 billion in losses over the past four years is a 2006 law requiring the postal service to pay an average of $5.5 billion annually for 10 years to finance retiree health costs for the next 75 years. These two throwaway lines explain the problem and the solution, yet Greenhouse barely notes their importance.
Continue reading …New York Times Blames Workers for Postal Service Woes, Glosses Over Real Cause of Problems
September 6, 2011 No CommentNALC President Fredric Rolando testifies before Congress (beginning at minute 40). In an article that ran the day before the Labor Day holiday, the New York Times took the opportunity to fear monger about the current financial problems at the United States Postal Service and blame workers for the financial shortfalls the agency faces. According to reporter Steven Greenhouse : The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances. … In recent weeks, Mr. Donahoe has been pushing a series of painful cost-cutting measures to erase the agency’s deficit, which will reach $9.2 billion this fiscal year. They include eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing up to 3,700 postal locations and laying off 120,000 workers — nearly one-fifth of the agency’s work force — despite a no-layoffs clause in the unions’ contracts. … As any computer user knows, the Internet revolution has led to people and businesses sending far less conventional mail. At the same time, decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office’s costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees. … Meanwhile, the agency has had a tough time cutting its costs to match the revenue drop, with a history of labor contracts offering good health and pension benefits, underused post offices, and laws that restrict its ability to make basic business decisions, like reducing the frequency of deliveries. Crooks and Liars previously reported on this situation, noting that the entire problem could be based on a unparalleled requirement that the USPS fund retirement benefits 75 years in advance. Without this cost, the Postal Service is profitable and none of the other explanations offered by the Times is relevant. The Times briefly mentioned the real problem and the real solution, but they were mere asides in the story while the focus was on declining mail volume and worker benefits as the problems and the perceived near impossibility of a solution being found that could work. The newspaper ignored the fact that the National Association of Letter Carriers (see testimony above) previously shot down all of these arguments and the Times failed to mention any of the greater problems — including job losses and harm done to small businesses that rely upon weekend mail service — that the draconian proposals being floated by Congress would create. Congress is considering numerous emergency proposals — most notably, allowing the post office to recover billions of dollars that management says it overpaid to its employees’ pension funds. That fix would help the agency get through the short-term crisis, but would delay the day of reckoning on bigger issues. … They add that a major factor for the post office’s $20 billion in losses over the past four years is a 2006 law requiring the postal service to pay an average of $5.5 billion annually for 10 years to finance retiree health costs for the next 75 years. These two throwaway lines explain the problem and the solution, yet Greenhouse barely notes their importance.
Continue reading …New York Times Blames Workers for Postal Service Woes, Glosses Over Real Cause of Problems
September 6, 2011 No CommentNALC President Fredric Rolando testifies before Congress (beginning at minute 40). In an article that ran the day before the Labor Day holiday, the New York Times took the opportunity to fear monger about the current financial problems at the United States Postal Service and blame workers for the financial shortfalls the agency faces. According to reporter Steven Greenhouse : The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances. … In recent weeks, Mr. Donahoe has been pushing a series of painful cost-cutting measures to erase the agency’s deficit, which will reach $9.2 billion this fiscal year. They include eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing up to 3,700 postal locations and laying off 120,000 workers — nearly one-fifth of the agency’s work force — despite a no-layoffs clause in the unions’ contracts. … As any computer user knows, the Internet revolution has led to people and businesses sending far less conventional mail. At the same time, decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office’s costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees. … Meanwhile, the agency has had a tough time cutting its costs to match the revenue drop, with a history of labor contracts offering good health and pension benefits, underused post offices, and laws that restrict its ability to make basic business decisions, like reducing the frequency of deliveries. Crooks and Liars previously reported on this situation, noting that the entire problem could be based on a unparalleled requirement that the USPS fund retirement benefits 75 years in advance. Without this cost, the Postal Service is profitable and none of the other explanations offered by the Times is relevant. The Times briefly mentioned the real problem and the real solution, but they were mere asides in the story while the focus was on declining mail volume and worker benefits as the problems and the perceived near impossibility of a solution being found that could work. The newspaper ignored the fact that the National Association of Letter Carriers (see testimony above) previously shot down all of these arguments and the Times failed to mention any of the greater problems — including job losses and harm done to small businesses that rely upon weekend mail service — that the draconian proposals being floated by Congress would create. Congress is considering numerous emergency proposals — most notably, allowing the post office to recover billions of dollars that management says it overpaid to its employees’ pension funds. That fix would help the agency get through the short-term crisis, but would delay the day of reckoning on bigger issues. … They add that a major factor for the post office’s $20 billion in losses over the past four years is a 2006 law requiring the postal service to pay an average of $5.5 billion annually for 10 years to finance retiree health costs for the next 75 years. These two throwaway lines explain the problem and the solution, yet Greenhouse barely notes their importance.
Continue reading …Furious Tea Partiers are demanding that President Obama call Teamster union boss James Hoffa to hell after he urged workers at a Labor Day rally to “take out” party members. “They’ve got a war. We’re going to win that war,” Hoffa said in Detroit before Obama’s appearance. “President Obama, this…
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Italian tenor hailed as heir to Luciano Pavarotti fails to recover from crash injuries in Sicily The opera world was on Tuesday mourning the premature death of an Italian tenor regarded by many as the heir to Luciano Pavarotti. The announcement that Salvatore Licitra had died came nine days after the 43-year-old suffered severe head and chest injuries after a scooter accident in Sicily. As is common in southern Italy, he was not wearing a helmet. Licitra’s voice turned him into an overnight sensation when he made his international debut in 2002, standing in for Pavarotti at short notice at the New York Met. Pavarotti, who had been booked for two performances of Tosca, pulled out citing illness and Licitra was rushed across the Atlantic to take his place. Licitra’s powerful top notes brought him a prolonged standing ovation and comparisons with Pavarotti. Anthony Tommasini, a New York Times critic, described his performance that night as the “starry anointing of a potential successor”. The American soprano Deborah Voigt said on Monday: “This is just heartbreaking. Salvatore was a great singer, but he was also just a really lovely guy. Always ready for a laugh, always light in spirit.” In an email to Associated Press she recalled that when they sang together in Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West at the San Francisco Opera last year he “held my hand every moment as I stumbled along, slaughtering his language!” Born in Switzerland to Sicilian parents, Licitra grew up in Milan and initially worked as a graphic artist. He studied at the music academy in Parma and with the tenor, Carlo Bergonzi, who passed on to the young singer an appreciation of the works of Verdi. After gaining experience in choirs, it was in a Verdi opera, Un Ballo in Maschera, that Licitra made his stage debut in 1998 at the Teatro Regio in Parma. His first real break came later that year when the same work was put on at the Arena in Verona and the then 29 year-old tenor stood in on the opening night. The following year Riccardo Muti brought him to the revered Teatro alla Scala in Milan, for a production of another Verdi work, La Forza del Destino. He went on to perform at many of the world’s great houses including the Vienna State Opera, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Royal Opera in London, the Opera Bastille in Paris as well as most of the leading venues in Italy. In 2000 Licitra sang on the soundtrack of The Man Who Cried, a film starring Christina Ricci, Johnny Depp and Cate Blanchett. Doubts emerged in recent years about whether he would fulfil his early promise. A review by MusicalCriticism.com of his performance with Voigt in San Francisco in 2010 found Licitra “lacks the sheer puissance (power) of Voigt. He showed some uncertainties at the top of his voice and his portamenti (the slides from one note to another) were at times too exaggerated”. However, one of his last notices, in the Chicago Tribune on 1 August, found his voice still ringing “with clarion focus”. At the time of the fatal accident, the tenor was on his way to a restaurant with his girlfriend. A message posted to his website said his doctor had “previously indicated that Salvatore Licitra may have had a bleeding inside the brain, [a] cerebral haemorrhage, immediately before the accident. This could have caused him to lose control of the vehicle.” The scooter he was riding careered off the road and into a wall at Donnalucata, near Ragusa. His girlfriend was unhurt. Licitra was flown to hospital in Catania where he underwent surgery. But he never emerged from a coma. He died on Monday morning. Italy Europe Opera John Hooper guardian.co.uk
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Bill for policing and compensation for businesses hit by violence emerges as home affairs select committee investigates riots The riots in England will cost the taxpayer more than £133m in policing and compensation for businesses hit by the violence, the home affairs select committee has been told. In evidence from Boris Johnson, the London mayor, the acting Metropolitan police commissioner, Tim Godwin, and Sir Hugh Orde, the chairman of the Association of Chief Police Officers, the scale and cost of the August rioting has begun to emerge. To date 100 individuals have applied for compensation to the Metropolitan Police Authority under the Riot Damages Act, totalling £9.3m in claims, a figure that is likely to increase. In addition, the policing costs for the Metropolitan force for mutual aid, overtime and staffing are £74m for the four days of disorder, Godwin told the committee, which was taking its first evidence session on the English riots. Orde in his evidence said the final amount for police forces across the country had not yet been finalised but so far the estimated cost of the riots for forces outside London was £50m – which was spent on mutual aid to provide support as the disorder spread on an unprecedented scale. Triggered by the fatal shooting by police of Mark Duggan in Tottenham, north London, the riots are now the subject of several inquiries, including internal assessments at the Met. The costs include the bill for the ongoing police investigation, which has resulted in nearly 2,000 arrests. Assistant commissioner Lynne Owens told the committee that 500 officers were working on the inquiry and there was still 20,000 hours of CCTV footage to view. The committee was told that Owens is evaluating the local management response to the events in the immediate aftermath of Duggan’s death, particularly the events outside the police station on Saturday night when the dead man’s family gathered in the hope of speaking to a senior officer. They had already been left to find out about his death from a national news report rather than hearing of it from the police. Godwin told the committee the Met had apologised to the family for the failure to inform them about Duggan’s death, and the Owens review would investigate these and other issues further. But Godwin said there were issues about the relationship between the Metropolitan police and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) that needed to be examined – referring to an apparent blurring of roles as to who has the duty to inform a family in a police fatal shooting. But in written evidence to the committee, the IPCC said it was “never the responsibility of the IPCC” to inform the next of kin of a death of a relation. Deborah Glass, deputy commissioner for the IPCC, told the committee the watchdog was considering a separate investigation into why the Duggan family only heard about the death of their son when the news was broadcast on national television. But a decision on that had yet to be finalised. Glass was pressed as to whether her investigators had interviewed the CO19 officers involved in the fatal shooting. After refusing to give a clear answer she was reprimanded by the chairman, Keith Vaz. Glass would only say that her investigators now had “accounts” from the officers about the events of the shooting. She told the committee it would take four to six months before the IPCC inquiry into the death was completed. UK riots Police Metropolitan police Crime London Sandra Laville guardian.co.uk
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