March 2, 2012
From The Federation of Connecticut
Taxpayer Organizations, Inc.
Contact Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
Listen To The Voicemail That Led To A
High-Ranking Official’s Resignation
By Jon Lender Hartford
Courant February
29, 2012 Here is a link to the phone message that led to the forced resignation Wednesday of Jonathan Schrag as deputy commissioner of the state Department of Energy
and Environmental protection. Here’s a link to Courant columnist Kevin Rennie’s original
disclosure Read complete report at l http://courantblogs.com/capitol-watch/listen-to-the-voicemail-that-led-to-a-high-ranking-officials-resignation/
Federal employee union pushes back on GOP By Bernie Becker - 03/01/12 07:14 PM ET Trying to stave off
further pay and benefit cuts, a federal employee union have unleashed a new
website designed to correct what as they say are misconceptions about the
government workforce. ….. Republicans have also pointed to a recent
Congressional Budget Office analysis that said that, including benefits
government workers are compensated 16 percent more on average than their
private-sector equivalents. Read complete report at http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/213749-federal-employee-union-pushes-back-on-gop
Feds Subpoena Anti-Poverty Agency's Records February 26,
2012 Jon Lender Government Watch Hartford Courant The U.S. attorney's office in Connecticut has
subpoenaed records from Hartford's regional anti-poverty agency, the Community Renewal Team, which
already had been under investigation by the state's attorney general, The
Courant has learned. Several sources
said the subpoena from the office of U.S. Attorney David B. Fein, the top
federal prosecutor in this state, was served days after a Feb. 12 Government
Watch column was published in The Courant. The column reported that Paul Puzzo, CEO of the Community Renewal Team until 2005, has
been receiving at least $85,000 a year as the agency's vice president — but he
rarely appears at the office, doesn't have a desk there, and now spends
significant time at a waterfront condominium unit he and his wife own in
Florida. Read complete report at http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-lender-column-crt-probe-0226-20120226,0,5108273.column
Fort Hood soldiers fight to make ends meet Large families, low pay, injuries and predatory loans mean
some military families depend on food pantries. By Jeremy Schwartz AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012 KILLEEN — As the sun rises on a chilly winter
morning, the line grows longer outside the Killeen Food Care Center next to the
railroad tracks on the eastern edge of downtown. Sprinkled throughout the expanding
crowd of more than 100 are what some might consider a
surprising sight: uniformed soldiers from nearby Fort Hood,
waiting to fill bags with about 10 days' worth of canned meats, cereal and
fresh vegetables. "I got the
information from two other soldiers," said Sgt. Sandy Cornet, 28, who
recently returned from Iraq
and was waiting in the line with her husband and two of their five children.
"It's a lot of them that come here, but they change their clothes because
I guess it's embarrassing. A lot don't like to ask for help." Continued at ….. http://www.statesman.com/news/statesman-investigates/fort-hood-soldiers-fight-to-make-ends-meet-2199994.html?cxtype=rss_news_36716
REAL
ID Implementation Annual Report
Major Progress Made in Securing Driver’s License Issuance
Against Identity Theft and Fraud By Janice Kephart This report is an attempt to provide a
comprehensive assessment of how well states are doing in improving driver’s
license issuance standards of the REAL ID Act. The Act was designed to protect
identities and driver’s license and identification cards while eliminating
fraud and improving the customer experience. http://cis.org/real-id-implementation-report
US MINT Wasting Money By Making
Money
Greenhut: If Stockton Is Broke, Then Why Isn’t San Diego ... Blaming past
councils, Deis pointed to a
health-care plan that pays the entire cost of care for every city employee and
spouse for life, after only one month on the job. “In my 32 years of managing
finances for various local governments, I have never heard of a situation like
this,” he added. As Bloomberg News
reported, the city “granted employees some of the state’s most generous
benefits, and now has 94 retirees with pensions of at least $100,000 a year --
more than twice as many as some comparably sized California cities.” Read complete report at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-02/if-stockton-is-broke-then-why-isn-t-san-diego-steven-greenhut.html
How Three Germans Are Cloning the Web http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-02-29/the-germany-website-copy-machine?_industries+channel_features
Introducing "Breakdown: Americans on the Edge"
Timothy
L. O'Brien, 03/01/12 Executive
Editor, The Huffington Post The Huffington Post
is launching a year-long exploration and examination of the lives of middle
class and poor Americans in a series called "Breakdown: Americans on the Edge." Continued at
….. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-l-obrien/breakdown-americans-on-the-edge_b_1312182.html
Fed Shrugged Off Warnings, Let Banks
Pay Shareholders Billions by
Jesse Eisinger | @eisingerj In early November 2010, as the Federal
Reserve began to weigh whether the nation’s biggest financial firms were
healthy enough to return money to their shareholders, a top regulator bluntly
warned: Don’t let them. “We remain
concerned over their ability to withstand stress in an uncertain economic
environment,” wrote Sheila Bair, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corp., in a previously unreported letter obtained by ProPublica. The letter came as the Fed was launching a
“stress test” to decide whether the biggest U.S. financial firms could pay out
dividends and buy back their shares instead of putting aside that money as
capital. It was one of the central bank’s most critical oversight decisions in
the wake of the financial crisis. “We
strongly encourage” that the Fed “delay any dividends or compensation increases
until they can show” that their earnings are strong and their assets sound, she
wrote. Given the continued uncertainty in the markets, “we do not believe it is
the right time to allow transactions that will weaken their capital and
liquidity positions.” Four months later,
the Federal Reserve rejected Bair’s appeal.
In late 2010, a major regulator warned the Federal Reserve: Banks are
not healthy enough to increase dividends, and the economy could implode again.
But in its biggest decision since the financial crisis, the Fed overrode that
advice and let banks return more than $30 billion to shareholders. Here's the
inside story. Continued at ….. http://www.propublica.org/article/fed-shrugged-off-warning-let-banks-pay-shareholders-billions
Average Wall Street Bonus Dips to $120k After
Bad 2011
http://business.time.com/2012/03/01/average-wall-street-bonus-dips-to-120k-after-bad-2011/?iid=biz-article-mostpop1
Our failure to teach math and the sciences is hurting the
U.S. By Neena Satija
, Diane Orson and Harriet Jones “They’re very lacking in basic math.
They’re lacking in problem solving, they’re lacking in … the only way I can
describe it is, they don’t know how to go to work,” said Judi Spreda, human resources manager at Peter Paul Electronics
in New Britain. She is referring to many of the high
school graduates who come to her looking for a job. Read complete article at http://ctmirror.org/story/15589/broken-stem-our-failure-teach-science-technology-engineering-and-math-hurting-us
ProPublica Redistricting Series Wins
Honorable Mention by Minhee Cho | @mintymin by Minhee Cho
ProPublica, March 2, 2012, 12:35 p.m. The Toner Prize
for Excellence in Political Reporting [1] has awarded ProPublica's Olga Pierce, Jeff Larson and Lois Beckett an
honorable mention for their investigative series on redistricting [2].
The reporters took a close look at how powerful interests were manipulating the
process, particularly in California,
where the Democratic party set out to surreptitiously
influence the lines that were drawn. This is the second consecutive year ProPublica has been honored
[3] by the Toner judges for fact-based reporting. Continued at ….. http://www.propublica.org/atpropublica/item/propublica-redistricting-series-wins-honorable-mention
More coverage: Redistricting: How Powerful Interests
Are Drawing You Out of a Vote
OP-ED | Hey, It’s Only The Law & They’re Only The Supreme Court
by Jonathan Pelto Posted: Mar 1,
2012 General Assembly leaders are expected to press ahead Thursday to try to
circumvent the Supreme Court’s rejection of the state takeover of the
Bridgeport Board of Education.” Senate President Pro Tempore Donald Williams
said yesterday that the legislature should support the Mayor of Bridgeport’s request to retroactively change the law so
that the state can continue to run the Bridgeport
School System rather than allow the
elected members of the Bridgeport
Board of Education to fulfill their duties. Yes, you are reading that comment
right. The President of the State Senate is saying that rather than
follow the law the legislature should simply go back in time and remove the
provisions that made the state’s actions illegal. Read complete article at http://jonathanpelto.com/2012/03/01/hey-its-only-the-law-and-they-are-only-the-supreme-court/
State Employee Charged With Larceny By SAMAIA HERNANDEZ, smhernandez@courant.com The Hartford Courant 6:32 p.m. EST, March 1, 2012
WESTBROOK— A state employee was taken into custody for
allegedly submitting false time sheets for overtime he never worked, police said.Benjamin Quinones, of 45 Meetinghouse Lane,
surrendered to state police in Westbrook Thursday. He was charged with
first-degree larceny.Addiction Services filed a
complaint with state police in February 2011 alleging that Quinones filed
paperwork claiming he worked overtime he did not work. Read complete report at
http://www.courant.com/community/westbrook/hc-westbrook-larceny-arrest-0302-20120301,0,2812123.story
Comptroller Projects Budget Deficit At
$20.7 Million; GAAP Gap At $96 Million By Christopher
Keating On March 1, 2012 · Despite the tax increases, Lembo’s office calculated the state tax collections are
nearly $95 million below the initial projections. That total
includes $22 million in additional tax refunds, which means that
the tax shortfall is $116.7 million, he said. The state comptroller
is projecting the state’s budget deficit at $20.7 million as the state teeters
between a surplus and a deficit. Read complete report at http://courantblogs.com/capitol-watch/comptroller-projects-budget-deficit-at-20-7-million-gaap-at-96-million/
has
been
Court allows warrantless cellphone search By Brendan Sasso - 03/01/12 03:52
PM ET A federal
appeals court in Chicago
ruled on Wednesday that police did not violate a suspect's constitutional
rights when they searched his cellphone without a
warrant. In the decision, Judge Richard Posner noted that the
case has implications for whether police can search computers without a warrant
because modern cellphones essentially are computers.
Read complete report at http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/213693-court-allows-warrantless-cellphone-search
Obama asks Congress to vote down oil industry tax breaks
Andrew Restuccia 03/01/12 01:36 PM ET By Andrew Restuccia
- 03/01/12 01:36 PM ET President Obama urged Congress Thursday to vote in the coming weeks
to repeal billions in oil industry tax breaks in an attempt to parry growing
Republican attacks on the White House over high gas prices. “I am asking
Congress to eliminate this oil industry giveaway right away,” Obama said during a speech at Nashua
Community College in swing-state New Hampshire. “I want them to vote on this in the next few
weeks. Let’s put every single member of Congress on record” Read complete
report at http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/213651-obama-challenges-congress-to-nix-oil-industry-tax-breaks
Look who pays less in taxes than Buffett and Romney By Scott
Klinger, tax policy director, Business for Shared Prosperity - 03/01/12 03:12
PM ET
Corporations pay a lower effective tax rate than Warren Buffett and Mitt Romney, but you wouldn’t know it from all
the complaints that our corporate tax rate puts our country at a competitive
disadvantage. Last year, U.S.
corporations paid just 12.1 percent of their earnings in federal corporate
income taxes. Buffett’s tax rate is 17.4 percent;
Romney’s reported 2010 tax rate was 13.9 percent. The corporate tax system is
riddled with loopholes and subsidies that do create competitive problems, but
not the ones CEOs are talking about. Our broken tax system blesses U.S.
multinational corporations with lots of loopholes that enable them to pay less
in taxes than Main Street
businesses. It allows large companies, even those in the same industry, to pay
vastly different tax rates. It has starved our government of revenue, adding to
the pressure for deep budget cutbacks rather than the investments needed to
rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, educate our children and support the
innovation needed for economic success. Read complete report at
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-a-budget/213689-look-who-pays-less-in-taxes-than-buffett-and-romney
