iftttwall – Page 26140

Dam park is boondoogle

I opposed the recent county-wide infrastructure SPLOST in part because I did not want to give the Fayette County Board of Commissioners a slush fund with which to pay off political debts and buy votes, and in part because the so-called “plan” for spending that money had more holes than the board’s collective heads.

More recently, I called the board to task for spending nearly $1 million of water system customers’ money on a park, including $5,000 for a monument to memorialize themselves and other politicians.

via The Citizen http://ift.tt/1m3YSJf

Insurance agent Obama & the law

To paraphrase, insurance contracts disclaimers state that oral agreements are not legal or enforceable. Only that which is in writing for that specific type of policy may be enforced.

Since most of our legislators hadn’t read the policy, but signed it prior to its rollout, they really can’t claim verbal foul after the fact.

via The Citizen http://ift.tt/1m3YURe

Insurance agent Obama & the law

To paraphrase, insurance contracts disclaimers state that oral agreements are not legal or enforceable. Only that which is in writing for that specific type of policy may be enforced.

Since most of our legislators hadn’t read the policy, but signed it prior to its rollout, they really can’t claim verbal foul after the fact.

via The Citizen http://ift.tt/1m3YURe

Things to do-Feb.12-March 22

February

February 12

via The Citizen http://ift.tt/1m3YRVA

Placing blame does not solve the problem

Where were you when the snow starting falling and the roads began to be covered with ice? I was at a pastor’s lunch. When I entered the restaurant at noon, some flakes were beginning to fall. When I left shortly after one o’clock, Whoa!

You know the story. People were caught unprepared. Even though a winter storm warning was issued early that morning, the initial models showed the bulk of the storm would hit south of Atlanta. But Mother Nature had a different idea. She hit Atlanta with a vengeance, and everybody left for home at the same time.

via The Citizen http://ift.tt/1lxfDJ6

What Does Bill Ackman Know About The Future Of Commercial Real Estate?

Bill Ackman helped rescue General Growth Properties (GGP) – the US 2nd largest shopping mall operator – from bankruptcy in 2009/10 as the company collapsed in the financial crisis. Ackman “turned $60 million into $1.6 billion” in the process but, according to Bloomberg, has now exited his entire position, dumping his final 28 million share back to the company via a buyback.

The spin, of course, is that it’s right to take profits and that GGP is now ‘a much different company than it was then.”

However, given Ackman’s knowledge of JCP (and perhaps RSH), we can’t help but wonder, given all the exuberance about Fed tapering must mean the recovery is here and sustainable – just why Ackman would unload it all at such a pivotal time in the US economy…?

Via Bloomberg,

Bill Ackman sold all of his shares in General Growth Properties Inc. (GGP), the second-largest U.S. shopping-mall owner, marking the end of one of the hedge-fund manager’s most profitable investments.

General Growth bought back about 28 million shares from Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management LP for $556 million, the Chicago-based real estate investment trust said yesterday in a statement. The hedge-fund firm, which in September sold 25 million shares for $500 million, no longer holds any common stock, the company said.

Ackman, 47, helped rescue General Growth from near-collapse by pushing it to file for bankruptcy in 2009, and was part of an investor group in its subsequent reorganization. The effort “turned $60 million into $1.6 billion,” the hedge-fund manager told Bloomberg News in 2011, and contributed to his flagship fund’s net return of 29 percent in 2010.

…

General Growth shares have climbed 3.2 percent in the past 12 months and are up about 60 percent since the company’s exit from bankruptcy.

The company used “available liquidity” to fund the purchase of Pershing Square’s shares, according to yesterday’s statement.

“It’s a good thing,” Alexander Goldfarb, an analyst with Sandler O’Neill & Partners LP in New York, said in an interview. “This settles up and neatly separates the turnaround from where the company is today.”

Yellen is confident of economic growth; Economists are confident of economic growth; so what does Ackman potentially know about ‘anchor tenants’ in malls that means commercial real estate exposure is not for him…

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1iYBtDM Tyler Durden

CopBlock Activist Has His Felony Wiretapping (of Police, Among Others) Conviction Overturned

Good news
from the Union Leader in New
Hampshire regarding an activist with the group Cop Block,
dedicated to exposing and blocking bad police practicies:

The New Hampshire Supreme Court threw out the felony wiretapping
convictions of the founder of CopBlock.org, a group that claims it
polices the police, saying the judge made a mistake in instructing
the jury, an error serious enough the jury could have found Adam
Mueller innocent.

Mueller, 31….was convicted of secretly recording telephone
conversations he had with a Manchester police captain, the
Manchester West High School principal and her assistant in 2011 and
spent three months in jail.

He was seeking their comments on a video he posted on YouTube
that showed a confrontation between West High student Frank
Harrington III, 17, and police detective Darren Murphy in the
school’s cafeteria. Harrington was charged with disorderly conduct
and resisting arrest…

Mueller, a Free Stater who goes by the name “Ademo Freeman,”
posted the telephone recordings online….

The Supreme Court, in its decision released Tuesday, said
Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Kenneth C. Brown erred
when he instructed the jury that a violation of the felony
wiretapping statute requires a mental state of “purposely,” when
the statute specifically identifies “wilfully” as the applicable
mental state.

Under state law, “wilful” means the defendant must act with an
intentional or reckless disregard for the lawfulness of his
conduct. In other words, the defendant has not violated the law if
he has a “good faith” belief his conduct was lawful, according to
the unanimous decision written by Justice Robert J. Lynn.

The court said the erroneous instruction likely affected the
outcome of the proceedings and to allow the convictions to stand
“would seriously affect the fairness and integrity of judicial
proceedings.”

Mueller calls himself “Ademo Freeman” and writes about the matter on
CopBlock’s blog.

Past Reason writings on CopBlock.

Reason classic feature on the dangers
of recording cops.

from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1lx81Gz
via IFTTT

Why Teaching How to Beat Polygraphs Can Land You in Jail

Last September,
Chad Dixon was sentenced to 8 months in a federal
prison for teaching clients counter-measures for polygraph
tests.

What is it about polygraphs the feds are trying to keep
secret?

Find out by watching Reason TV’s latest video Why Teaching
How to Beat Polygraphs Can Land You in Jail above or click the
link below for more information and downloadable links.

View this article.

from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1lx7ZP1
via IFTTT

Shikha Dalmia on the GOP's Border Follies

Border Fence No sooner did House Speaker Boehner release
his reform “principles” than Ann Coulter went on the attack
bandying surveys showing that immigrants will “wreck the country.”
“It’s not their [Republicans’] position on amnesty that immigrants
don’t like,” she harrumphed. “It’s Republicans’ support for small
government, gun rights, patriotism, the Constitution and
capitalism.”