High school class president says she is barred from giving speech due to Occupy ties [CT]

A girl who worked hard for four years to get to the head of the class and claim her spot as class president has been told she won’t be allowed to address her class.

North Haven High School student Molly Gambardella tells News 8 she’s barred from giving the commencement speech.

School officials say it was a deadline issue, but Molly says it’s a decision made by the school because of her involvement with Occupy. She became so involved with the group, she decided to learn in a different environment.

http://tinyurl.com/bs26tw2

Police shut down demonstration, Occupy Providence protesters banned from mall for one year

Occupy Providence protesters took their message to the mall Saturday — but not for long.

Occupy demonstrators rallied inside the Providence Place Mall. In a statement to Eyewitness News, the group says it was there calling for higher taxes on the rich.

However, mall security and Providence police moved in and removed the activists from the building. According to Occupy Providence, several protesters were handcuffed and detained. They were later released after accepting a one year ban from the mall.

http://tinyurl.com/bnmdhk4

House Republicans Try to Create the World’s Worst Criminogenic Environment

In the context of crimes of the street (other than Wall Street), there is normally no lobby trying to allow the typically lower class criminals to commit their crimes with impunity. In crimes of the business suites, however, it is the norm that there are well-funded, powerful, and seemingly legitimate lobbyists for the elite criminals who seek to allow them to commit their crimes with impunity. Similarly, it is rare for street criminals to consult a lawyer before they commit their crimes. Elite white-collar criminals often consult with expert legal counsel before, during, and after they commit their crimes in order to try to minimize the risk of being sanctioned.

One of the most obvious ways to produce a criminogenic environment is to create systems incapacity to detect and sanction crime. House Republicans are doing that in the context of elite white-collar crime. That context also happens to be the leading campaign donors for both parties.

http://tinyurl.com/c5upuhn

Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 6/14/12” »

States Stay in Austerity Mode Even as Revenue Rises 

Even though tax revenues are finally rising faster than expenses, governors across the nation are recommending more austerity in the budgets they’re presenting to state legislatures this year, the latest survey from the National Governors Association shows.

For the fiscal year beginning July 1, governors are recommending a 2.2 percent increase to $683 billion in general revenue fund spending. That’s down from the 3.3 percent increase in state spending in 2012. Revenue, meanwhile, is projected to rise four percent during the coming fiscal year.

http://tinyurl.com/8a9mps8

Health Care Costs Causing More Americans To Go Without Needed Care: Survey

Americans skipped doctor and dentist visits, didn’t receive diagnostic tests, didn’t take their medicines, cut pills in half or took other steps to save money that could make them less healthy, the survey found. Twenty-six percent of Americans reported they or a family member had difficulty paying medical bills, the same percentage as last August.

http://tinyurl.com/bn9m99r

GOP attacks student aid

There’s a conservative talking point that opposes federal aid for college because, they claim, the aid just gets absorbed into higher tuitions.  Careful research does find such linkages when it comes to for-profit schools, but much less so when it comes to publics and non-profits, which is where about 90% of undergrads get their higher ed (see figure).*

A column in today’s WSJ reports evidence of this sort of transfer, but the results apply exclusively to private, for-profit schools:

The study’s authors warned their findings don’t apply to public colleges and private nonprofit schools, which they say are different because they aren’t motivated by profits and because their prices are largely determined by state funding and donations.

Research shows that tuitions at the public universities, where 75% of students enroll, are very much a function of revenue flows.  Thus, when they hit recession – and remember, states must balance their budgets – a couple of unfortunate things tend to happen at the same time.  First, tuitions tend to rise, and second, with the increase in unemployment, more young adults decide that given the weak job market, this would be a good time to get some more education.  (Another interesting strain of research finds that increased state Medicaid costs has also led to higher tuition at public universities.)

http://tinyurl.com/87vjh4o

Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 6/13/12” »

Fed survey: ‘Young middle age families’ hardest hit by recession

The fall came with the collapse in the housing market and massive layoffs that slashed people’s incomes, and the pain was felt by families across the board — young and old, well-educated and less so, with children or not.

But the biggest impact was felt by young middle-age families, those headed by people ages 35 to 44. For this group, the median net worth — total assets minus debts — fell a whopping 54% in the three-year period to $42,100 in 2010. Such was their financial hardships that only 47.6% of these families said they had saved money in 2010; that was the lowest among all age groups, where an overall average of 52% of families saved some money that year.

http://tinyurl.com/cpl3k4p