Read
below: Appeals Court Deals Blow to Obama care, More Fed Subpoenas in Hartford
Charter School Probe, Clinton Earns $12 Million speaking, US Appeals Court
Rules Against Travelers in $500 Million Asbestos Case, Detroit Retirees Approve
Pension Cuts, US Debt Now at $18 Billion, State Delays Collection of Union
Dues, The Ongoing Rot in the Economy, Bridgeport Open to Taking Immigrants
Children, Anti-immigration rallies, Corruption and Drugs Fuel Border Crisis
July 22, 2014
From: The Federation of
Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep, President
Website:
http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone:
860-841-8032
BREAKING
Appeals court panel deals blow
to Obamacare - USA Today
Richard Wolf, USA TODAY 11:32 a.m. EDT July 22, 2014
EXCERPTS below are from the article which can
be accessed at
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/07/22/obama-health-care-court-ruling/12482127/
· WASHINGTON -- A
federal appeals court dealt a potentially major blow to President Obama's
health care law Tuesday, ruling that participants in health exchanges run by
the federal government in 34 states are not eligible for tax subsidies.
· The decision is
the second in less than a month to go against Obama administration
implementation of the health care law. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that
closely-held corporations that object on religious grounds to offering
insurance coverage for contraceptives can sidestep that rule.
· Other challenges
to the law remain pending in federal courts -- including a long-shot effort to
derail the entire law by contesting the way in which the Senate amended the House
bill back in 2010.
· The only states
not affected by the ruling are those that created their own health exchanges:
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island,
Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia.
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More Federal Subpoenas In
Hartford Charter School Probe
By EDMUND H. MAHONY and JON LENDER,emahony@courant.com
The Hartford
Courant 9:38 p.m. EDT, July 21,
2014
Read Entire Article at …..http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-fuse-0722-20140721,0,3308874.story
EXCERPT: HARTFORD —
City and state educators said Monday that they had been served with subpoenas
by a federal grand jury examining the expenditure of millions of dollars in
public money by the troubled charter school management company FUSE.
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U.S. Appeals Court Rules
Against Travelers In $500 Million Asbestos Case
By JONATHAN STEMPEL, Reuters
The Hartford
Courant 12:29 p.m. EDT, July 22,
2014
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Detroit Retirees Take Crucial
Step In Bankruptcy Case
Detroit Retirees Approve
Pension Cuts, A Crucial Step In Bankruptcy Case
Hugginton Post - | By ED WHITE -
Posted: 07/21/2014 11:31 pm EDT Updated: 59 minutes ago Print Article
Read entire article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/22/detroit--retirees-bankruptcy-pension_n_5608086.html
EXCERPTS - Pension cuts were approved in a landslide,
according to results filed shortly before midnight Monday. The tally from 60
days of voting gives the city a boost as Judge Steven Rhodes determines whether
Detroit's
overall strategy to eliminate or reduce $18 billion in long-term debt is fair
and feasible to all creditors. Trial starts Aug. 14.
"I want to thank city retirees and active employees who
voted for casting aside the rhetoric and making an informed, positive decision
about their future and the future of the city," said Kevyn Orr, the
state-appointed emergency manager who has been handling Detroit's finances since March 2013.
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Easier to
add debt than make choices
By Judd
Gregg, a former governor and three-term senator from New Hampshire who served
as chairman and ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and as ranking
member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Foreign Operations.
OPINION | The United
States debt now stands at $18 trillion.
EXCERPTS:
This is double what it was just a few years ago. The trend, under the
presently proposed budgets of President Obama, is that it will triple in
another five to seven years. People point facts like this out all the time. But
the response from the president and the Congress is to add more spending that
has not been paid for, thus increasing the debt problem. The two most recent cases are the supposed
‘fix’ of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the highway bill. Read the entire article at ….. http://thehill.com/opinion/judd-gregg/212789-gregg-easier-to-add-debt-than-make-choices
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State Delays Collection of
Union Fees
by Hugh McQuaid, Jul
21, 2014, CTNewsJunkie.com
Read entire article at …. http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/archives/entry/state_delays_collection_of_union_dues/
EXCERPTS: Plans to
begin collecting representation fees for a recently-formed home health care
workers union have been put on ice while state officials grapple with a Supreme
Court ruling that may have made those fees illegal.
“The union requested that the state not collect agency fees
given the uncertainty created by the recent Supreme Court decision, Harris v.
Quinn,” Andrew Doba, a spokesman for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Friday. “We
agreed with the union’s request and no agency fees will be collected from
individuals covered by the collective bargaining agreement.”
The high court’s decision in Harris v. Quinn in late June
found that home health care workers in Illinois
paid through Medicaid can not be forced to pay fees to the union representing
them.
State officials, including Malloy and Attorney General
George Jepsen, are reviewing the case to determine what impact it will have on Connecticut’s
recently-formed home health care workers union.
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The ongoing rot in the economy
Past the headline figures, disposable income
is stagnant and consumers are spending above their means
By Eric Sprott
Jul 22, 2014 @ 12:01 am (Updated 7:08 am) EST
Read entire article at http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20140722/BLOG09/140729979
EXCERPT: Those in the
top 20% have seen their incomes increase while those in the bottom 40% have
stagnated or even decreased. In 2012 for the lowest 20% (Quintile 1) of U.S.
households, the average annual after-tax income was $10,171 (up from $9,220 in
2005). Similarly, the next 20% is not much better off, with incomes averaging
$27,743 (up from $25,200 in 2005). By contrast, during the same period, the
average household income for the top earning quintile (Quintile 5) increased
14% to $158,024. From our calculations, the bottom 40% of the U.S. population
receives approximately 12% of the nation's after-tax income, while the highest
20% receives more than 50%. So, because of the wide disparity between U.S. households, it is grossly misleading to
consider aggregate measures to assess the health of the U.S. consumer.
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Bridgeport open to taking in
immigrant kids
By: ANA RADELAT | July 21, 2014 CTMirror.org
Read entire article at : http://ctmirror.org/bridgeport-open-to-taking-in-immigrant-kids/
EXCERPT: WASHINGTON – Bridgeport
is exploring whether it has the facilities that would meet federal requirements
to host some of the Central American migrant children who are in overcrowded
federal holding centers along the borders, a city spokesman said.
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The Wall
Street Journal: Crossings trigger anti-immigration rallies
Activists
Stage Protests Across Southern California and
Throughout the Nation, Drawing New Support in Call for Crackdown
By Miriam Jordan Wall St Journal July 20, 2014
Since October, about 57,000 unaccompanied minors have
entered the country illegally, many fleeing poverty and violence or hoping to
reunite with family in the U.S.
The flow slowed this week, but reports of migrants swarming the border and
being transported to towns in the country's interior have attracted new
supporters of grass-roots organizations that fight illegal immigration. Read entire article at ….. http://online.wsj.com/articles/crossings-trigger-anti-immigration-rallies-1405900396
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Corruption,
drugs fuel border crisis
Jacksonville Daily News By Bruce Knipp July 21, 2014
To the Editor: As
thousands of children stream across our southern border from Honduras, Guatemala
and El Salvador,
many of our citizens are asking why is this happening? The short answer is that those three
countries are not really countries anymore; they’re just criminal enterprises
masquerading as governments who are in competition with gangs like mara-18,
MS-13, drug cartels and human traffickers.
Continue reading at …. http://www.jdnews.com/opinion/letters/corruption-drugs-fuel-border-crisis-1.348714
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Bloomberg:
Clinton earns $12 million speaking, writing after service
By Lisa Lerer and Lauren Streib July 21, 2014
Hillary Clinton has earned at least $12
million in 16 months since leaving the State Department, a windfall at odds
with her party’s call to shrink the gap between the rich and the poor. Continue reading at ….. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-21/clinton-earns-12-million-speaking-writing-after-service.html
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Courts Pummel Public Sector Unions
|
Court ruling
that Personal Care Attendants in Illinois
Cannot Be Forced to Join Union could Impact Connecticut. Review Other Court
Rulings.
The Federation of - CT Taxpayer Organizations - June 30 2014
|