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07 Apr 2010 11:05

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U.S.: Debt-ridden California owes a lot of money in pensions

  • $500
    billion
    amount the state owes in
    pensions, according to a Stanford
    University study
  • 2,000%
    increase
    the amount California’s
    pension burden increased between 1999 and 2009 source
  • » Why is this bad for California? David Crane of the L.A. Times notes that this pension burden is what’s really holding the state back. Because they have this huge albatross on their back, they’re forced to cut other, arguably more important things, like education.

07 Feb 2010 09:35

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U.S.: Final totals: How much snow did D.C., Baltimore and Philly get?

  • 17.8″ snowfall total at Reagan National Airport, just outside of D.C. – the airport’s second-highest-ever total
  • 24.8″ snowfall total at Baltimore Washington International Airport, its highest total ever in a two-day span
  • 28.5″ snowfall total in Philadelphia, the second-highest total ever in the region; start shoveling source
  • Is more coming? Because Mother Nature hates us personally and wants ShortFormBlog to apparently shut down, she plans on bringing more snow to the Mid-Atlantic region later this week. This time it’s only reportedly going to be six inches, but come on, what did we do to you, Mom?

16 Nov 2009 09:57

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Biz, U.S.: General Motors has much less debt than it did before

  • July 9 General Motors, just before they came out of the other end of bankruptcy, had $94.7 billion in debt owed,
  • Nov. 16 After its first full quarter out of bankruptcy, GM had $17 billion in debt – $6.7 billion owed to the U.S. government. source

22 Sep 2009 20:18

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U.S.: The financial toll from the flooding is nothing short of massive

  • $250 million in estimated damages; many are uninsured source