Month: December 2013

LA Times Publishes Info on Faulty Sheriff’s Department Hiring; Officers’ Union Tried to Stop Report

A
Los Angeles Times investigation
revealed December 2 that the Los
Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD) hired
numerous problem officers in 2010, including individuals who had
histories of misconduct at other law enforcement agencies, had
solicited prostitutes, falsified police records and unlawfully
discharged firearms.

The leaked information reviewed by the Times included taped
interviews with applicants as well as hiring investigation files
and provide an inside look at the hiring practices at the nation’s
largest sheriff’s department. From the Times:

David McDonald was hired despite admitting to sheriff’s
investigators he had a relationship with a 14-year-old girl whom he
kissed and
groped. He was 28 at the time.

“I was in love,” he said in an interview with
The Times. “I wasn’t being a bad guy.”

In another case, Linda Bonner was given a job after
revealing that she used her department-issued weapon to shoot at
her husband as he ran away from her during an argument.
He wasn’t hit; he was lucky he was running in a zigzag
pattern, she told investigators, because if not the end result
“would have been a whole lot different.”

The Association for Los Angeles
Deputy Sheriffs (ALADS), the union that represents
LASD deputies,tried
in September 2013 to stop the records from being
unveiled, going after the Times and the reporter who had
acquired the records, Robert Faturechi, saying he
unlawfully possessed background investigation files containing
personal information of deputies.

“What part of ‘stolen property’ is
such a mystery to the L.A. Times?” ALADS
President Floyd Hayhurst said in a statement on the
ALADS website. “If any harm comes to
deputy sheriffs or their families because of the stolen files, we
will hold the Los Angeles Times
responsible for their complete lack of journalistic integrity,”
Hayhurst said.


From the Times in September:

The Times’ lawyers contended deputies’
privacy rights or speculation about threats to their safety could
not justify a violation of free-speech rights.

The newspaper’s attorneys also wrote that the union had no basis
for seeking an emergency order, noting that The Times has published
other stories based on information from employment records in the
past.

The Times reported in
October on the department’s hiring of employees who had personal
ties to top officials or Sheriff
Lee Baca himself despite histories of
violence and brushes with the law.

In August, the Sheriff’s Department announced in a press release
that it launched a criminal investigation into the leak of personal
information to a Times reporter.

For more on the LASD and misconduct in the
department, read and watch LA
County Sheriff’s Hassle Photographer, Trample Constitution, Get
Lauded by Bosses:

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/12/01/la-times-publishes-leaked-information-on
via IFTTT

LA Times Publishes Info on Faulty Sheriff's Department Hiring; Officers' Union Tried to Stop Report

A
Los Angeles Times investigation
revealed December 2 that the Los
Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD) hired
numerous problem officers in 2010, including individuals who had
histories of misconduct at other law enforcement agencies, had
solicited prostitutes, falsified police records and unlawfully
discharged firearms.

The leaked information reviewed by the Times included taped
interviews with applicants as well as hiring investigation files
and provide an inside look at the hiring practices at the nation’s
largest sheriff’s department. From the Times:

David McDonald was hired despite admitting to sheriff’s
investigators he had a relationship with a 14-year-old girl whom he
kissed and
groped. He was 28 at the time.

“I was in love,” he said in an interview with
The Times. “I wasn’t being a bad guy.”

In another case, Linda Bonner was given a job after
revealing that she used her department-issued weapon to shoot at
her husband as he ran away from her during an argument.
He wasn’t hit; he was lucky he was running in a zigzag
pattern, she told investigators, because if not the end result
“would have been a whole lot different.”

The Association for Los Angeles
Deputy Sheriffs (ALADS), the union that represents
LASD deputies,tried
in September 2013 to stop the records from being
unveiled, going after the Times and the reporter who had
acquired the records, Robert Faturechi, saying he
unlawfully possessed background investigation files containing
personal information of deputies.

“What part of ‘stolen property’ is
such a mystery to the L.A. Times?” ALADS
President Floyd Hayhurst said in a statement on the
ALADS website. “If any harm comes to
deputy sheriffs or their families because of the stolen files, we
will hold the Los Angeles Times
responsible for their complete lack of journalistic integrity,”
Hayhurst said.


From the Times in September:

The Times’ lawyers contended deputies’
privacy rights or speculation about threats to their safety could
not justify a violation of free-speech rights.

The newspaper’s attorneys also wrote that the union had no basis
for seeking an emergency order, noting that The Times has published
other stories based on information from employment records in the
past.

The Times reported in
October on the department’s hiring of employees who had personal
ties to top officials or Sheriff
Lee Baca himself despite histories of
violence and brushes with the law.

In August, the Sheriff’s Department announced in a press release
that it launched a criminal investigation into the leak of personal
information to a Times reporter.

For more on the LASD and misconduct in the
department, read and watch LA
County Sheriff’s Hassle Photographer, Trample Constitution, Get
Lauded by Bosses:

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/12/01/la-times-publishes-leaked-information-on
via IFTTT

UK Royal Mint Working On Plans To Issue Gold-Backed Physical Bitcoins

The implicit, and ever more explicit, institutional acceptance of the dominant cryptocurrency Bitcoin (we say dominant because as we pointed out last week, there has been an unprecedented spike of digital currencies one can pick and choose from) continues when following the surge in vendors willing to transact in BTC over Thanksgiving, the latest news comes from the birthplace of the modern central bank, the UK, where we learn that none other than the UK Royal Mint has been working on plans since this summer to issue physical Bitcoins in collaboration with the Channel Island of Alderney.

But where the story gets downright surreal is that as the FT reports, the same symbolic Bitcoin token issued by the Royal Mint “would have a gold content – a figure of £500-worth has been proposed – so that holders could conceivably melt and sell the metal if the exchange value of the currency were to collapse.” In brief: a perfect, and utterly incomprehensible, fusion of (opposing) hard, soft and digital currencies all rolled into one…

From the FT:

The tiny Channel Island of Alderney is launching an audacious bid to become the first jurisdiction to mint physical Bitcoins, amid a global race to capitalise on the booming virtual currency.

 

The three-mile long British crown dependency has been working on plans to issue physical Bitcoins in partnership with the UK’s Royal Mint since the summer, according to documents seen by the Financial Times.

 

It wants to launch itself as the first international centre for Bitcoin transactions by setting up a cluster of services that are compliant with anti-money laundering rules, including exchanges, payment services and a Bitcoin storage vault.

So, convert a digital currency into fiat, issue plastic (or some other material) tokens (appropriately covered in some goldish color) representing “value” because suddenly the currency (supposedly) has the blessing of central banks, and then store them in some basement? Brilliant.

Just how is the UK Royal Mint involved?

The special Bitcoin would be part of the Royal Mint’s commemorative collection, which includes limited edition coins and stamps that are normally bought by collectors. It would have a gold content – a figure of £500-worth has been proposed – so that holders could conceivably melt and sell the metal if the exchange value of the currency were to collapse.

Wait, what: gold-backed Bitcoins? If so, that would be truly revolutionary because for the first time central banks are effectively hinting that not only are they willing to fiat-ize Bitcoin, but also have the symbolic BTC token (after all Bitcoin is a digital currency by definition) serve as a commodity trap. Because once enough gold-backed physical Bitcoins are locked up in some basement in the UK, who has the master key? That’s a rhetorical question by the way.

Naturally, the UK Mint is not quite eager to disclose full details while the plan is still being finalized:

David Janczewski, head of new business at the Royal Mint confirmed it had been approached by the finance minister of Alderney to “explore the possibility of manufacturing a physical commemorative coin with a Bitcoin theme”.

 

“Discussions have not progressed further and at this stage it remains nothing more than a concept,” he added.

 

But the controversy around Bitcoin has made the Alderney plan a sensitive subject. The Treasury, which owns the Royal Mint, declined to comment on the plans. George Osborne, the British chancellor, also holds the title of Master of the Mint.

Since there is understandably much confusion over what the minting process of a physical gold-backed token representing a digital currency, with the backing of an entity that does the bidding of an issuer that only believes in fiat currencies, here is the FT with the blow by blow.

An independent company will provide the Bitcoins. If the price plunged, neither Alderney nor the Royal Mint would lose anything.

 

The company would put the Bitcoins in an escrow account at an agreed price.

 

Meanwhile, the Royal Mint would take customers’ orders for its minted Bitcoins and receive money from those coin sales.

 

The virtual Bitcoins backing the physical coins would be held in digital storage facilities by Alderney.

 

The Mint would issue the commemorative Bitcoin, paying for the value of the gold content itself. Alderney would receive royalties from sales of the coins.

 

Coins could be redeemed for sterling at any point in Alderney for the price of a Bitcoin on that day.

All we can do at this point is sit back in wonder and amusement as we hit the pinnacle of monetary confusion, whereby the UK Royal Mint, willing to take full advantage of retail confusion, will mix hard, soft and digital currency, and produce a product… that is locked away on an island that belongs to the UK.

And all we can say is “brilliant”, because if there is a better plan to meld the sentiment of both hard and digital-currency (and hence, anti-fiat) advocates, and to redirect it in a “fiat” pathway, we have yet to hear it.


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/cSpY4EpoGk0/story01.htm Tyler Durden

CNN Tests “Fixed” Obamacare Website And… It Crashes

 ‘If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.’

       –  P.J. O’Rourke

If CNN was doing its best this morning to prove that the second coming of healthcare.gov is fixed, it… failed.

Transcript:

GEORGE HOWELL, HOST: We know the first thing you have to do when you go to this website you have to select your state. Is that working?

 

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And what’s funny is I was talking with Matt, and, yeah, that seemed to work, right, when you logged on. But then came the road blocks. So tell me about what happened, because we’re getting another error message here, and it’s supposed to be running smoothly. We’re just not seeing that.

 

MATT SLOANE, CNN MEDICAL PRODUCER: Yeah, so, you know, we’ve been trying to get into the site since October 1 on and off again. I have to say it did work a lot more smoothly this morning. I got through. I picked my state. I put in all of my information and I got through the whole process in eight minutes. And then it said my status was in progress. So I went to refresh it and I got the error message.

But fear not. According to David Plouffe, 2008 campaign manager for Barack Obama, Obamacare “will work reall well”… by 2017. To wit:

This program was designed to be implemented by the states. And in most of the states it is going quite well. You talked about Medicaid expansion. I think it’s just a fact, and it may take until 2017 when this president leaves office, you’re going to see almost every state in this country running their own exchanges eventually and expanding Medicaid. And I think it’ll work really well, then.


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/vig5SkL432c/story01.htm Tyler Durden

CNN Tests "Fixed" Obamacare Website And… It Crashes

 ‘If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.’

       –  P.J. O’Rourke

If CNN was doing its best this morning to prove that the second coming of healthcare.gov is fixed, it… failed.

Transcript:

GEORGE HOWELL, HOST: We know the first thing you have to do when you go to this website you have to select your state. Is that working?

 

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And what’s funny is I was talking with Matt, and, yeah, that seemed to work, right, when you logged on. But then came the road blocks. So tell me about what happened, because we’re getting another error message here, and it’s supposed to be running smoothly. We’re just not seeing that.

 

MATT SLOANE, CNN MEDICAL PRODUCER: Yeah, so, you know, we’ve been trying to get into the site since October 1 on and off again. I have to say it did work a lot more smoothly this morning. I got through. I picked my state. I put in all of my information and I got through the whole process in eight minutes. And then it said my status was in progress. So I went to refresh it and I got the error message.

But fear not. According to David Plouffe, 2008 campaign manager for Barack Obama, Obamacare “will work reall well”… by 2017. To wit:

This program was designed to be implemented by the states. And in most of the states it is going quite well. You talked about Medicaid expansion. I think it’s just a fact, and it may take until 2017 when this president leaves office, you’re going to see almost every state in this country running their own exchanges eventually and expanding Medicaid. And I think it’ll work really well, then.


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/vig5SkL432c/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Why It’s Going To Be A Whole Lot Worse Than In The 1930s

As Mike Maloney forecast in the mid-2000s, the roller-coaster ride continues in world markets and economies. His – so far – spot on projection that “first the threat of deflation (1), followed by a helicopter drop (2), followed by big reflation (3), followed by a real deflation (4), and then followed by hyperinflation (5),” appears to be rotating from stage 3 to stage 4 (as we noted here). However, as Maloney explains in this brief clip, while we have seen great deflations before, in the ’30s one-third of the monetary base was backed by gold, now we virtually nothing as “people do not understand the scale of the emergency that’s going on right now.”

 

Five brief minutes on a Sunday… watch!

 


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/bQLOKX6WWPk/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Why It's Going To Be A Whole Lot Worse Than In The 1930s

As Mike Maloney forecast in the mid-2000s, the roller-coaster ride continues in world markets and economies. His – so far – spot on projection that “first the threat of deflation (1), followed by a helicopter drop (2), followed by big reflation (3), followed by a real deflation (4), and then followed by hyperinflation (5),” appears to be rotating from stage 3 to stage 4 (as we noted here). However, as Maloney explains in this brief clip, while we have seen great deflations before, in the ’30s one-third of the monetary base was backed by gold, now we virtually nothing as “people do not understand the scale of the emergency that’s going on right now.”

 

Five brief minutes on a Sunday… watch!

 


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/bQLOKX6WWPk/story01.htm Tyler Durden

The Good News: Congress Has Enacted Record-Low 52 Laws This Year. The Bad News? Congress Has Enacted 52 Laws This Year.


USA Today
reports that

Congress is on track to beat its own low record of productivity,
enacting fewer laws this year than at any point in the past 66
years.

It’s a continuing slide of productivity that began in 2011,
after Republicans recaptured the House majority in the 2010
elections, and the ability to find common ground has eluded the two
parties while the legislative to-do list piles up.

The 112th Congress, covering 2011-12, emerged as the least
productive two-year legislating period on record, while 2013 is on
track to become the least productive single year in modern
history.

The horror, the horror! Rarely does a news story unmask the
problem with simplistic tallies of efficiency or productivity.
Given the thousands of laws and hundreds of thousands of
regulations on the books already, why exactly should we egging
Congress on further? There’s certainly been no shortage of landmark
legislation that has passed this century, almost all of it awful
from virtually any perspective. The PATRIOT Act, Sarbanes-Oxley,
Medicare Part D, TARP, Obama’s stimulus (as distinct from Bush’s
smaller yet equally awful 2008 legislation), Dodd-Frank, The
Affordable Care Act – these are ginormous laws whose lasting
effects seem to be bankrupting the country and eviscerating all
remnants of limited government.

The USAT story quotes an analyst who doesn’t see much hope for
gridlock to dissipate anytime in the next few years. Which is, I
guess, some small crumb for which to be thankful.

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/12/01/the-good-news-congress-has-enacted-recor
via IFTTT