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01 Nov 2011 23:04

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Politics: BREAKING NEWS: Utah politician purchases residence in Utah

  • Stories like this are an indicator that it’s a slow news day. Our favorite part is the bombshell Huntsman quote after the fold, “It’s my residence.” source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Nov 2011 22:34

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Politics: Democrats seek to overturn Citizens United via constitutional amendment

  • Fighting back against “Citizens United:” Senate Democrats, led by Tom Udall, have introduced a constitutional amendment meant to blunt the effects of Citizen’s United, the Supreme Court decision that paved the way for unlimited, undisclosed campaign contributions by corporations. The amendment wouldn’t directly overturn CU, but rather give congresses–both federal and state–the authority to regulate campaign contributions and expenditures. Like most proposed constitutional amendments, it probably won’t get anywhere close to ratification, but hey, it rallies the base, right? source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Nov 2011 22:06

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Politics: Cain’s accuser received one years’ pay in exchange for silence

  • $35k paid by the NRA to one of Cain’s accusers source
  • » That’s the National Restaurant Association, by the way, not the National Rifle Association. The amount was one years’ worth of pay for the woman in question (who, you’ll recall, is one of two women who received severance agreements from the NRA in exchange for silence regarding sexual harassment claims against Cain).
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Nov 2011 20:34

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U.S.: NYC woman critically hurt after being hit by falling shopping cart

  • cause A couple of twelve-year-old kids at an East Harlem shopping center were horsing around in a parking garage on Sunday afternoon when they decided to push a Target shopping cart off of a walkway. Four stories below, Marion Salmon Hedges was directly in the path of the cart, which fell to the sidewalk. And she got hurt. Badly.
  • effect Hedges is currently in a medically-induced coma, in critical condition. “She’s going to be, in the best of all cases, in rehabilitation for months,” said her husband, Michael. “She’s under sedation. She’s intubated. She has a thousand machines hooked up to her. It’s very disturbing.” The two boys have been charged in the incident. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Nov 2011 15:09

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Politics: Herman Cain’s campaign finances come under fire

  • Trouble mounts for Cain campaign: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel released a report yesterday that Herman Cain’s presidential campaign, while in its nascent phase earlier this year, accepted $40,000 in good and services from a tax-exempt charity, a violation of campaign finance law. Making matters look even worse, the charity in question was Prosperity USA, founded by none other than Cain’s chief-of-staff (and now America’s most visible smoker) Mark Block. Said Cain, when confronted with this report on Fox News yesterday: “I didn’t even know about the report until you brought it up on the show.” For a candidate being broadly accused of poor preparation and of “winging it,” this probably wasn’t the best admission to make. (Photo by Gage Skidmore) source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Nov 2011 14:30

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Biz: Bank of America terminates their debit card fee plan

  • $5 Bank of America debit fee to end over consumer outrage source
  • » Nickel and diming: You may remember that last month, Bank of America indicated they were going to start charging a $5/month fee for all their banking customers with debit cards. The ostensible justification for this was new regulation imposed by the Dodd/Frank financial reform bill, which some banks warned would result in hidden fees moving out into the open. This upset a great deal of people, though (the massive profits BofA continues to reap in a bad economy does make it seem questionable whether these are fees of necessity), and now the fee plan has been eliminated. Other banks considered following suit, then backed down, leaving BofA out in the cold.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Nov 2011 14:13

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World: Syria says they’ve agreed to Arab League plan to end upheaval

  • Peace can’t come fast enough: Syrian state media have claimed that Bashar al-Assad, still at the helm of a great deal of violence and death committed against the citizens of his nation, has agreed to a plan with the Arab League to quell the calamity. Specifics on the plan weren’t given, and are expected tomorrow. Syrian state media can’t really be taken at face value, however, so it’ll be very instructive to see what if anything comes from this agreement; the United Nations estimates over 3,000 people have been killed by the Assad government’s crackdown on protest and dissent. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

01 Nov 2011 11:30

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Biz: MF Global mixes its customers’ assets with its own sucky balance sheet

  • Reports of short falls of client money … if true would be a disaster for all the smaller brokers and banks as nobody will trust them anymore.
  • A trader based out of London • Discussing the situation with MF Global, a financial firm hard hit by the Euro debt crisis, which apparently failed to keep customer money separate from the firm’s own accounts. The company, led by former Goldman Sachs leader and ex-New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (great combination), is raising the spectre of some if the 2008 financial crisis gunk — remember Lehmann Bros.? Let’s hope they can get this settled and — most importantly — customers can get their money out. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Nov 2011 10:25

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World: Stocks hate democracy: Greek PM puts aid package up for referendum

  • cause In a surprising move that threw off the entire world market, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said that he would put the country’s aid package up to a public referendum.
  • reaction Stocks worldwide reacted to the news poorly, including the U.S., which fell by more than two percent. The markets were already volatile; the danger of Greek default made things even worse. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Nov 2011 00:16

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U.S.: We just hope “Breaking Bad” doesn’t end the way this drug cartel did.

  • 76 arrested in a major drug ring which ran from Mexico into Arizona
  • $2B in profits over the past five years collected from the ring
  • 3M number of pounds of marijuana the drug ring brought to the U.S. source
  • » Their leader “El Chapo,” or “Shorty,” is still at large. Officials admit that it took them a long time to bust this particular ring, which also sent tens of thousands of pounds of cocaine and heroin into the United States. The drug ring, linked to the Sinaloa cartel, reportedly operated right under the noses of authorities by staying on rugged terrain. There are still plenty of holes in the U.S./Mexican border, but this is a very big win in the Drug War, regardless.
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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