‘No Immediate Solution’ As New Mexico Town Has Only 50 Days Of Drinking Water Left
The city of Las Vegas, New Mexico, has less than two months of drinking water after a massive wildfire contaminated a river the town pulls from, according to local news KOAT 7.
Not to be confused with Las Vegas, Nevada, the 13,000-person city in San Miguel County relies solely on the now contaminated Gallinas River, which is full of ash and debris after the Calf Canyon-Hermits Peak Fire.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Grisham declared “a state of emergency in Las Vegas” on Friday after the town’s drinking water storage had only 50 days of stored water left.
I’ve declared a state of emergency in Las Vegas due to burn scar flooding threatening the area’s drinking water supply.
We’ve made $2.25 million in state funding available to support the city’s work to ensure Las Vegas residents continue to have a safe supply of drinking water. pic.twitter.com/qpiSqJykUu
— Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (@GovMLG) July 29, 2022
Las Vegas Mayor Louie Trujillo said the municipal water treatment facility could not treat the contaminated water. The town is running out of options and has implemented Stage 6 water restrictions.
The new measures include no watering outside, no refilling pools, restaurants are prohibited from serving water to customers except when asked, fire departments use foam to fight fires rather than water, and large commercial customers delay consuming large quantities of water.
There’s no immediate solution for a secondary water source for the town nor a timeframe when parts of Gallinas River will be suitable for water treatment.
A recession is hitting California. The only question is how hard it will be.
The July Finance Bulletin by Keely Bosler, director of the California Department of Finance, calculated for the personal income tax (PIT), “Cash receipts for June were $3.345 billion below the forecast of $16.939 billion.” The actual receipts were $13.594 billion.
Receipts vary month to month because of when people file their tax reports. So it’s best to compare a particular month to the same month in the previous year. According to the July 2021 report, “Cash receipts for June were also $1.783 billion above the month’s forecast of $15.312 billion.” So the actual receipts were $17.095 billion a year ago June.
Put them together. June 2021 actual receipts were $17.095 billion and for June 2022, $13.594 billion. That was a drop of $3.501 billion, or 20 percent. If that continues, the yearly loss for fiscal year 2021-22, which began on July 1, would be $42 billion.
The expected $97 billion surplus would be only $55 billion. All that surplus money Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature promised to spend in June would have to be cut by $42 billion.
And this recession is only starting, its depth unknown. If the PIT receipts drop another $42 billion, the surplus is slashed to $13 billion.
Do it again, and it’s a deficit of $29 billion.
Fortunately, the Enacted Budget report says it “includes $37.2 billion in budgetary reserves.” If a $29 billion deficit were deducted from that, only $8.2 billion in reserves would be left.
I’ll haul up there with the numbers, because we’re getting into too much speculation.
But the point is the state’s $97 billion surplus could evaporate faster than a 7-Eleven 32-ounce Big Gulp poured on the concrete at noon in July in Needles, Calif.
This has been the spastic pattern for decades, especially since the state became a high-tech center. Good years bring record profits, dividends, and spending by the wealthy tech titans. Bad years bring slowdowns and even bankruptcies.
Yet the state never uses the surpluses sensibly as a bridge for tax reform that would even out the ups and downs.
The Washington Post headlined on July 23: “Big Tech lay-offs and hiring freezes prompt recession fears.” The story: “News of layoffs and hiring slowdowns have become commonplace across Silicon Valley. Start-ups are saying capital is drying up.”
One reason the tech companies go in big cycles is purchases of their products can be postponed. People have to eat, but the new iPhone purchase can be postponed, and the Netflix subscription can be suspended.
The July 2022 Department of Finance Bulletin also calculated, “California real GDP contracted by 1 percent in the first quarter of 2022 on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) basis, following 9.5-percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2021 and annual growth of 7.8 percent in 2021.”
A negative second quarter would indicate a recession.
June inflation hit 9.1 percent, the highest in four decades. Some analysts think it will subside. But even if it goes down to, say, 6 percent, that’s still a big problem.
There’s also the question of the real inflation rate. The calculations were changed three decades ago by the Clinton administration to make itself look better. The site ShadowStats, which calculates using the old formula, pegs the “corrected” number at 17.3 percent, the highest in 75 years.
If you’ve filled up your car lately, or bought hamburger, you know the ShadowStats figure is more accurate than the official government number.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, July 27, the Federal Reserve Board raised interest rates again by 0.75 percent to a range of 2.25 percent to 2.50 percent. It’s supposed to dampen inflation. If it doesn’t, then more rate hikes will be coming down the pike.
Which will mean an even worse recession. I hope you’re ready. The state of California is not.
Family Of Six Moves Into Toolshed To Escape Inflation Storm
A family of six downsized from a single-family home into a 500-square-foot toolshed in northwest Arkansas after government-enforced COVID lockdowns of the 2020s paralyzed the economy and led to job loss and evaporation of personal savings.
“One of the things people find really weird about us living in a shed is that we use a composting bathroom rather than a traditional toilet,” Jessica Taylor, 30, told NYPost, who lives in the shed with her husband Lath, and four children.
Taylor said the shed has the basics, such as electricity, running water, a heat/cooling system, a kitchen, and an entertainment space. One thing she noted is the toilet has a “bucket system … and [when] you [urinate or defecate], you cover it with wood chips each time. After two days, whether the bucket is full or not, we dump [the waste] into a composting bin in the woods, and then after a couple of years, [the waste] turns into the soil for ornamental plants.”
A combination of tax returns, stimulus checks, and unemployment distributions, plus $17,000 in savings, funded their housing project.
“More and more people are breaking free from the mindset that you have to have the big expensive, fancy house to feel like they’re making it,” said Taylor, adding, “there’s value in living modestly. We can spend more time together gardening and enjoying nature rather than working to afford lavish accommodations.”
Taylor explained that when she and her husband lost their jobs during the pandemic — renting a $1,100 single-family home became unaffordable. The couple has reduced monthly expenses from $2,000 to $400.
“Since we moved into the shed, we’ve become really financially stable, and we’re getting close to being debt-free,” Taylor added. Their excess savings allowed them to expand the shed’s footprint.
The timing of the so-called ‘shed life’ comes as the worst inflation in decades decimates lower-tier consumers, depleting their savings and purchasing power. People want to break free from the corporate system that has imprisoned them with insurmountable debts.
Tiny homes are only gaining more popularity as a tidal wave of evictions could be nearing, with 8.4 million Americans, or about 15% of all renters, behind rent payments in June.
Protests have erupted in Buenos Aires over the past 90 days and continue to build inside the capital as residents battle with their center-left government over sizeable amendments to social programs.
Cuts to subsidies in the energy sector based on household income already began in June.
Other subsidies, including the country’s notorious welfare program, are also on the chopping block, triggering thousands of angry residents to take to the streets.
State-sponsored aid for civilians has soared in the past 20 years, leaving 22 million Argentinians dependent on some form of government assistance.
In the first quarter of 2022, the national employment rate was 43 percent, according to government figures.
The country’s state funded programs extend to nearly every aspect of the economy, from wages to utilities, education, and health care.
Argentina already spends an estimated 800 million pesos per day—a sum of more than US$6 million—on state benefit programs.
Concurrently, inflation in the South American nation hit 58 percent in May and soared above 60 percent in July. By comparison, national inflation was just over 14 percent in 2015.
Harry Lorenzo, chief finance officer of Income Based Research, told The Epoch Times the spending habits of Argentina’s government are at the root of the escalating problem.
“The Argentine government has been grappling with a collapsing economy for some time now. The main reason for this is the government’s unsustainable spending, which has been funded in part by generous welfare programs,” Lorenzo explained.
Deeper Into Economic Chaos
Cries for more state money, freedom from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and for President Alberto Fernandez to step down echoed within the angry crowds gathered near the president’s office—Casa Rosada —during the nation’s independence day celebration on July 9.
Since then, scheduled demonstrations have continued, led by professional protest organizers or “piqueteros” demanding the abolition of the proposed subsidy cuts and a wage increase.
“This is madness. What the piqueteros are asking for is madness,” Alvaro Gomez told The Epoch Times.
Gomez has lived and worked in Buenos Aires for more than 15 years and currently is a taxi driver. As the years have passed, he’s watched his country dive deeper into economic chaos.
“I’ve seen five presidents come and go in that time; nothing has improved. Half of our country doesn’t want a job, and the ones that do, don’t want to pay the taxes for the others,” he said.
Mystery Surrounds Man’s Death After Exiting Cargo Plane Without Parachute 4,000 Feet Above North Carolina
A person without a parachute exited a twin-engine cargo plane before an emergency landing Friday afternoon at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) in North Carolina.
Local media ABC 11 reported the CASA C-212 Aviocar medium cargo plane experienced landing-gear issues ahead of landing at RDU. The story took a dramatic turn and a weird one when a person exited the plane thousands of feet in the air.
Darshan Patel, the Operations Manager for Wake County Emergency Management, said law enforcement found the missing plane passenger hours after the emergency landing, around 1915 ET.
According to Patel, “There was no indication” that the 23yo man, Charles Hew Crooks, had a parachute as he exited the plane. His body was found near Sunset Lake Road and Hilltop Needmore Road in Fuquay-Varina, about 17 miles from RDU.
“We had officers that were responding in the area for the search and were flagged down by a resident. They had heard something in their backyard which led to us finding this individual,” Patel said.
Before Crooks exited the aircraft (the reason remains a mystery), there was only one other passenger: the pilot.
“At this time, what we know is that the passenger was wearing tan pants and a logo-branded shirt,” Patel said. “We don’t have the color, but that’s all the description we have at this time. We are working with RDU and the FAA and the pilot.”
A video of the emergency landing was posted by ABC 11.
Internet sleuths tracked the C-212 (tail number “N497CA” that took off from nearby Raeford West Airport, where the pilot reported landing gear issues.
Rampart Avn CASA 212 (N497CA, built 1983) was damaged in an emergency landing on runway 23L at Raleigh-Durham Intl (KRDU), NC. Pilots reported gear issues after take-off at Raeford West and diverted to RDU. No injuries reported.https://t.co/xeFZsB8jtipic.twitter.com/hLlRqw6vtp
Flight tracking service Flightradar24 shows the cargo plane was at an altitude of 4,000 feet when the man fell or jumped out.
ABC 11 pointed out the plane is registered to Spore LTD LLC in Colorado Springs, which is connected with Rampart Aviation, a special-forces veteran-owned business that conducts aviation support operations across the U.S. and internationally.
FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are searching for answers to why the young man exited the plane without a parachute.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich says that he’s suing the Biden administration over rules imposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) that would treat firearm parts as finished guns.
“The ATF is attempting to overshoot the authority granted to it by Congress,” Brnovich said in a July 27 statement about the lawsuit.
“The rulemakings are unconstitutional, impractical, and would likely put a large number of parts manufacturers out of business.”
The Arizona Republican was joined by 16 other attorneys general, the Gun Owners of America, and other groups in the lawsuit over the ATF rule that attempts to regulate unfinished parts as if they were complete firearms, which, according to the suit, will imperil “the American tradition of private firearms manufacturing that predates the Revolution.”
The suit was filed against the ATF, the acting head of that agency, and the Department of Justice.
The new ATF rules would lead to the “illegal creation” of a federal firearms registry that would require gun retailers to keep sales records beyond a 20-year requirement and turn them over to the ATF instead of destroying them, according to the suit.
“The final rule unconstitutionally subverts Congress’ authority, exercising quintessentially legislative powers in a manner that could never pass either (let alone both) houses of Congress today, which is precisely why defendants have no intent whatsoever to ask for legislative authorization to take such unprecedented actions,’’ the lawsuit states.
“Yet under our Constitution, the president (much less unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats within the executive branch) is not a king who can exercise this sort of unbridled power unilaterally.’’
Ghost Guns
In April, the Biden administration announced it would crack down on what it calls “ghost guns,” privately made firearms that don’t have a serial number.
“Because ghost guns lack the serial numbers marked on other firearms, law enforcement has an exceedingly difficult time tracing a ghost gun found at a crime scene back to an individual purchaser,’’ the White House said in a statement at the time.
The lawsuit revolves around a North Dakota resident, Eliezer Jimenez, who manufactures his own firearms from spare parts.
The price of Bitcoin has crashed drastically since around the beginning of April, accelerating its loses from the November 2021 peak. Many other cryptocurrencies – including stablecoins – have also been caught up in the turmoil.
According to the report, 18 percent of those own investments also have cryptocurrencies. 15 percent of the total of just over 1,000 respondents intend to invest money in coins in the next two years.
As Statista’s Martin Armstrong notes, the comparison with the previous survey shows that investors in the US now take cryptocurrencies much more seriously than they did in 2020.
The increase in popularity is likely spurred on by the profits made in the recent past. According to an estimate by Chainalysis, total profits from cryptocurrencies amounted to around $163 billion in 2021.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, revealed on July 28 that “three hostile foreign actors” carried out an “incredibly significant and sophisticated” cyberattack against the federal courts’ document management system in early 2020.
The cyber breach “has since had lingering impacts on the department and other agencies,” Nadler said during a congressional hearing on Thursday.
“Perhaps even more concerning is the disturbing impact the security breach had on pending civil and criminal litigation, as well as ongoing national security or intelligence matters,” Nadler added.
Judiciary
The U.S. Judiciary issued a statement about the breach on Jan 6, 2021, saying that its Case Management/Electronic Case Files system (CM/ECF) had become a victim of “an apparent compromise.” The system allows attorneys to file case documents, such as pleadings, motions, and petitions, with the court online.
The Judiciary added the breach happened because of vulnerabilities in its system that greatly risked compromising highly sensitive non-public documents, particularly sealed filings.
“Due to the nature of the attacks, the review of this matter and its impact is ongoing,” the statement concluded, adding that the Judiciary was working with the Department of Homeland Security on a “security audit.”
Nadler added that the committee learned in March of the “startling breadth and scope” of the system’s security failure. The cyberattack was unrelated to the massive SolarWinds hack that was exposed in December 2020, Nadler added.
The congressman from New York then asked Matt Olsen, assistant attorney general for the National Security Division (NSD) at the Department of Justice, what types of cases, investigations, or U.S. attorneys’ offices were “impacted most” by the breach.
In response, Olsen said he couldn’t speak directly to the nature of the ongoing investigation regarding the effort to compromise the public judicial dockets.
However, He did say his division was focused generally on cyber threats from China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
“This is, of course, a significant concern for us, given the nature of the information as often held by the courts,” Olsen added.
Olsen also said he couldn’t “think of anything in particular” when asked if the break had impacted any NSD investigations.
“I can assure you, based on my own personal experience, that we are working very closely with the judicial conference and judges around the country to address this issue,” Olsen said.
FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the fiscal year 2023 budget for the FBI at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 25, 2022. (Bonnie Cash/Pool via Getty Images)
China
While neither Nadler nor Olsen named any country responsible for the breach, the Chinese communist regime is likely at the top of the list.
In January, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the Chinese regime has unleashed “a massive, sophisticated hacking program that’s bigger than those of every other major country combined.”
“The Chinese government steals staggering volumes of information and causes deep, job-destroying damage across a wide range of industries—so much so that, as you heard, we’re constantly opening new cases to counter their intelligence operations, about every 12 hours or so,” Wray added.
Wray pointed to the 2021 Microsoft Exchange Server hack as an example of recent Chinese cyberattacks, saying China “compromised the networks of more than 10,000 American companies in a single campaign alone.”
In March, cybersecurity firm Mandiant reported that a hacker group backed by Beijing successfully compromised at least six U.S. state government networks between May 2021 and February 2022.
“I would say that the challenge, when it comes to the sophisticated nation-state type activity that we see in cyber, the challenge is significant,” Olsen said. “And it’s very difficult to ever be in a position to say that any system is 100 percent safe when it comes to sophisticated nation-states that seek to obtain persistent access to these systems.”
What has happened to San Francisco, often thought of in the past as the most beautiful city in the country, if not the entire world? The transition from beloved by almost all to profoundly repellant to many is the sad story of a great city being toppled from within.
The “Paris of the West” has been tarnished by rampant homelessness, rough and dirty streets much like those of its Barbary Coast past, and crime as ugly as it appears on all those videos we’ve seen.
Of course, those are the more well-known sores. Though mostly unseen, there are others just as troublesome.
Once a city of opportunity, San Francisco has become a millstone that crushes entrepreneurs’ dreams. In a study of 20 large U.S. cities, the Institute for Justice found that the cost to start a restaurant in San Francisco, at $22,648, is higher than the cost in New York, Seattle, Philadelphia, Boston and Atlanta. In fact, no other city in the study came close to San Francisco’s cost. At $13,973, Minneapolis is the only other city where costs reached five digits.
San Francisco also “has the highest average cost to start up across all five business types” — restaurants, retail bookstore, food truck, barbershop, home-based tutoring — “at $10,474,” which turns out to be “much more expensive than the already-high $2,555 average for all cities studied,” the Institute for Justice report says.
One of the factors is not a local policy but a state law, the California Environmental Quality Act, which “can easily add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of starting up,” and often delays projects for years.
But the existence of CEQA does not mean that San Francisco deserves none of the blame. The city “has 212 business license categories — the highest number of all cities studied, forcing entrepreneurs there to navigate complex lists of licenses to figure out which apply to their business.” Zoning rules effectively bar home-based tutoring businesses, and the overall complexity of navigating the process is frequently overwhelming.
What else should be expected, though, from the second-worst run city in the country?
According to WalletHub, the government of Washington, D.C., is the only one of the 150 city governments studied that is operated worse than San Francisco. (Oakland, Calif., is the 143rd-worst run city — there must be something in the waters of the Bay.)
While city officials argue the point, WalletHub has the evidence: San Francisco’s outstanding per capita long-term debt is tied for the highest with Washington, the streets are poor (tied for last with the California cities of Oakland, San Jose and Fremont), and “safety” is rather middling.
At least the kids are apparently getting schooled. WalletHub ranks the city 11th in education.
But then, there aren’t many children in San Francisco to be educated. It might be the most childless city in the nation and continues to trend downward.
Could it be that it’s simply too expensive to raise kids in the city where it takes an average net worth of $5.1 million to be considered wealthy, $1.3 million more than in 2021, and to be “financially comfortable” requires a net worth of $1.7 million?
Yes, it could, and it probably is.
Each of these wounds results from the friendly fire of decades of poor public policy choices (and corruption), and while serious, they’re not deadly — at least not yet.
The optimistic view is that city officials have a chance to reverse the damaging policies before the stream of people leaving becomes a rushing river.
The reality-based view is that they don’t have long.
Nine Sri Lankan Navy sailors who’d participated in a massive joint naval exercise in the Pacific Ocean have jumped ship in a bid to stay in the United States.
Sri Lanka has been gripped by an economic crisis that led then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign and flee the country on July 13, after hordes of protestors stormed the official presidential residence. On Wednesday, the Sri Lankan parliament ratified a state of emergency declared by new President Ranil Wickremesinghe, as he seeks to quell demonstrations and unrest.
According to Economy Next. the sailors left Sri Lanka on June 4 as part of a 50-person contingent that was taking part in the massive, 26-country Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) joint naval exercise between Hawaii and Southern California.
Following the training, the sailors were slated to return to their country on a Sri Lankan ship that was a gift from the United States. The vessel — which was previously the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Douglas Munro and for now is identified only as “P627” — was officially transferred to the Sri Lankan Navy in October, but has been undergoing restoration in the United States.
“A big crew went to the USA to bring in a ship that was donated to the Sri Lanka Navy,” an official Sri Lankan source told Economy Next. “From that crew, nine people have gone missing.”
While reporting does not indicate where they slipped away from their crewmates, earlier coverage of the transfer of the vessel said it was expected to depart for Sri Lanka from Seattle in May. The sailors represent a variety of ranks and ages between 27 and 36.
“We understand that several sailors have absconded from the training, a matter that has been referred to U.S. law enforcement,” a U.S. embassy spokesman told Economy Next. “Individuals who break U.S. immigration laws can be subject to arrest, detention, and deportation, and those who accrue unlawful presence in the United States can be prevented from returning to the U.S. for up to 10 years.”
The sailors are among many Sri Lankans trying to start new lives somewhere else, with boats venturing not only to India but as far away as Australia, which is some 3,500 miles away.
The Sri Lankan navy previously aided one particularly notable emigre…
🇱🇰 BREAKING NEWS🇱🇰
Footage emerges said to be of President Rajapakse fleeing Sri Lanka aboard a Navy Vessel. pic.twitter.com/yvaYv5uGvB
Sri Lankans storm Presidential Palace due to economic shutdown. And President Gotabaya has fled the country. The people raided the bedroom, swimming pool and kitchen. Sri Lanka has experienced months long of high inflation, shortage of drugs, fuel and high commodity prices 😳. pic.twitter.com/uOaw5tN2Aj
