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CINDY WALSH FOR MAYOR OF BALTIMORE----SOCIAL DEMOCRAT
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May 31st, 2014

5/31/2014

0 Comments

 
IF LABOR AND JUSTICE DO NOT SHAKE THE CORPORATE LEADERSHIP OUT OF THESE ORGANIZATIONS TASKED WITH WORKING FOR THEM----WE WILL LOSE OUR RIGHTS AS CITIZENS AND HEAD TOWARDS THIRD WORLD SOCIETY.

SEE YOU MONDAY!!!!


Weekends during this primary  will be my election violation rantings as I work to rebuild free and fair elections in Maryland.  As any Marylander knows------only the global corporate pols will get any airtime.  This is why Brown, Gansler, and Mizeur are only seen in media-----

THEY PLAY THE GAME OF SOUNDBITES AND PROGRESSIVE BONES WHILE PUSHING FOR MORE PRIVATIZATION OF ALL THAT IS PUBLIC, MORE WALL STREET CREDIT AND LEVERAGE, AND NOT A WORD ABOUT REBUILDING OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY.

When I heard wealthy republican businessman Hogan make my platform on oversight and accountability his in the recent forum====


PLEASE, IF A CANDIDATE SAYS NOTHING FOR YEARS ABOUT A PROBLEM AND IS ENRICHED BY IT AND THEN MAKES ROOM FOR THAT PROBLEM ON HIS PLATFORM-----HE/SHE IS LYING ABOUT THAT ISSUE.


I'm sharing the obstacles I am having with everyone so you can see what is not working and how we can fix it.  Censuring a candidate is indeed illegal especially for 501c3/4.  WE CAN FIX THIS!!!

My name has not been mentioned in the City of Baltimore-----where I live.  Not one forum----debate----not a mention on even the Democratic Party websites.  WHY?  My platform is Rule of Law and oversight and accountability and saying NO to global corporations.  That does not fit with Maryland Democratic Party and indeed the National Democratic Party because these political machines are controlled by neo-liberals and not you and I.  JUST CHANGE THAT!

I discussed last week the problems in Baltimore with BUILD and Baltimore Education Coalition as 501c3 organizations leaving Cindy Walsh out of a city forum.  The Baltimore NAACP and public universities as well.  Remember, my entire campaign platform is protecting civil rights, civil liberties, labor rights, and public justice.  It is about oversight and accountability that takes billions from the Maryland and Baltimore coffers.  It's about small and regional businesses instead of a global economy.

ALMOST ALL VOTERS IN MARYLAND WHETHER DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN SUPPORT MY CAMPAIGN AND I HAVE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE VISITING MY CAMPAIGN WEBSITE EACH DAY.  I'M NOT ONLY VIABLE------THE CARROLL COUNTY TIMES DECLARED CINDY WALSH----GOVERNOR-ELECT.

The only people keeping me at bay-----labor and justice leaders.  LABOR AND JUSTICE LEADERS KEEPING THE LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATE AT BAY.
  I understand how repressive Maryland has been for labor and justice so alliances are formed that are not the most desired.


IF LABOR AND JUSTICE LEADERS DO NOT STOP SUPPORTING THESE CORPORATE POLS KILLING THE PEOPLE THEY REPRESENT----AND ALLOWING ALL CITIZENS TO HAVE A VOICE---NO ONE WILL WIN.


IT'S NOT BLACK, WHITE, OR BROWN----OR LOW-WAGE VS MIDDLE-CLASS----IT'S NOT REPUBLICAN VS DEMOCRAT------NO ONE WILL WIN.  STOP SUPPORTING THE SAME POLS THAT ARE LEADING THE US TO GLOBAL CORPORATE RULE.


Below you see what is typical in Maryland.  Whereas Baltimore simply does not invite all candidates----Prince Georges County and most other counties follow the election laws for 501c3s and invite all.  As I said earlier-----the breakdown of the public sector in Maryland and the sending of public funds to private non-profits and corporations to do public services and programs creates the environment where receiving those funds takes precedence to advocating to the membership's best interest.  When a group of black pastors deliberately walk me out of this forum telling me I cannot participate and leaves the candidates on stage who are dismantling Rule of Law, public justice, and bringing on global corporate rule that will be third world poverty------you see how democracy in America has been allowed to be dismantled. 

These pastors were video-taping this event which had the same characters-----Brown, Mizeur, Lollar as the only candidates these pastors will share with their church membership.  Lollar is a republican that is so infatuated with global corporations and markets that he said-----CORPORATIONS WANT TO TAKE CARE OF THE PEOPLE....THEY CARE ABOUT THE PEOPLE.  OMG


I was escorted out of the forum---the only labor and justice candidate in the race.

This is what the pastor told me and I know they will tell others as the reason------YOU CANNOT PARTICIPATE BECAUSE YOU DID NOT RESPOND TO OUR INVITATION.....JUST LIKE THE WASHINGTON GAZETTE ABOVE.  Only, as you see below----I did respond.  This pastor was lying just to keep me from speaking and he did this because the candidates on the stage did not want me in the debate among other reasons.  When I offered to go to the computer to show the email sent and the date he told me------WE DID NOT RECEIVE A RESPONSE.  IF YOU FIND OTHERWISE WHEN YOU GET HOME----I WILL WRITE AN OFFICIAL APOLOGY.  I said-----what will that official apology do for my campaign.  I then said that rather than wait for his written apology that I would take he and the church to
Federal Court for election violations.  THIS IS ELECTION RIGGING FOLKS.  A police officer then escorted me out of the mega-church.


This is the same issue as in Baltimore where 'the black  ministers' are the ones deciding who they will support and that supposedly decides how others will vote and these ministers always back the worst of candidates as far as their membership go.  Again, it is the privatization of public services and distribution of public benefits that creates this REALLY, REALLY, REALLY BAD AND CAPTURED ELECTION PROCESS.


I made sure these folks knew they were breaking the law and violating election law and free and fair elections.


They do it of course because they feel there will be no recourse.


From a friend:

'This historic church with a declining aging congregation on Druid Hill Ave rakes in a cool million give or take a few every year from Balto City. The money is supposed to support the day care & community Ctr operating under different entities from the church. While the congregation places money from their fixed incomes in the collection plate in faith hoping that the blessings will return 3 fold "turn to your neighbor and say 3 fold" The church is a client of a Lobbyist. The church has faith in a lobbyist & the members have faith in God. This is a spiritual conflict of interest. The lobbyist is the Mayor's best friends Harris Jones and Malone. Ck the website it's the only church listed. The Pastor has been talking about getting jobs for people in that church's community for many years. No jobs yet, but we still praying that the State Ctr project will deliver jobs other than black men sweeping up a construction site. So far, in all these years and all that money the only person that has come out on top is the pastor'.

Collective Empowerment Group


To CWals99@yahoo.com Apr 23 Good afternoon,

Ms. Walsh: 
On behalf of the President, Rev. Anthony G. Maclin and the Board of Directors of the Collective Empowerment Group, Inc., we extend a cordial invitation to participate in a forum for candidates seeking the office of Maryland Governor.   The forum will be held on Thursday, May 29, 20`14, at 7:00 p.m., at Church of the Great Commission, 5055 Allentown Road, Camp Springs, MD. Rev. Joshua Kevin White is Host Pastor.  More than 150 clergy and guests are expected to attend.
All gubernatorial candidates have been invited to participate.  A copy of the invitation letter is attached.
Established in 1995, the Collective Empowerment Group (formerly the Collective Banking Group) is a Christian ministry dedicated to the economic empowerment of minority and other underserved communities.  The CEG has a membership of over 150 churches representing more than 200,000 parishioners and 70,000 households primarily in Prince George's County and vicinity. 

Thank you for your consideration.  We look forward to seeing you on May 29.  Should you have questions in the meantime, please call our office at 301-699-8449. 


--
 
Collective Empowerment Group, Inc. 301-699-8449 www.CollectiveEmpowermentGroup.org


From a friend:

'It's taboo to be Black and a Christian and speak the truth about the Black Church. We all know that the Black Church is no longer the cornerstone of the Black Community as it was during the Civil Rights Movement. The churches are getting wealthier,ministers individual wealth is increasing while the congregation and community remains poor.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake wants the Faith Based Community/Churches to be her connection to communities. The Jewish community has their own personal liaison in City Hall, but the Black Community needs a buffer. This is not new. Previous Mayor Dixon increased communication with the Faith Based Community but for a different reason. It was a way to open communication. I believe that was the responsibility of Ms Wanda Watts, if I'm wrong I stand corrected. Rawlings Blake wants to control what the Black Community knows, the city can not continue to be built up and her so called "Brand" developed without stealing Federal and State aid from the Black Community. As long as they feed the churches and line the pockets of the ministers, they know black people will not go against the church. We have become informed of many things since the current administration and that's a threat.
I will continue to post individual wealth of certain churches. As a member of a congregation you are an investor/shareholder. You have a right to request Trustee Board documents and Steward board records. If you are an A.M.E. you can request documentation from the A.M.E. Conference. I believe Rev. Frank Reed is still over that organization.

Reject the churches control in your community, when the church is not involved in the issues unless money is involved. Reject churches that do not have a Missionary Ministry. A church must take care of the body within before it reaches outside. Reaching outside first, usually means Politics'.




__________________________________________
To the Pastor that had me removed from the governor's forum-----

As I said-----I not only responded once----but twice, the first time on April 24, 2014.  So, you deliberately took a stance that I did not respond as a defense for keeping me from participating in an election forum.  This is illegal as 501c3/4 organizations are not allowed to participate in elections in ways that damage a candidate's campaign.  Would you agree that denying me an opportunity to participate damages my campaign?

It is the Pastors in Baltimore who do the same thing in selecting who will speak at events and what is said-----absolutely killing free and fair elections and rigging elections for the very corporate politicians dismantling public justice, civil rights, and equal protection......harming most the very people Pastors serve.  The citizens of Maryland are finished with rigged elections; we are tired of watching the abuse and injustice that is hitting everyone but people of color the most.  We will have free and fair elections in Maryland as we educate citizens as to how Rule of Law works and who fails to follow Rule of Law.

I will be adding your church and Collective Empowerment Group to a Federal Court lawsuit addressing election violations in Maryland.

Cindy Walsh

***************************************

My email:

Me To Collective Empowerment Group

Hello,
Thank you for the invitation to this public forum-----Cindy Walsh for Governor of Maryland on the democratic ticket will be attending.  Please send a format for this event------how will the candidates be allowed to share their platforms?
Thank you,
Cindy Walsh

On Thursday, April 24, 2014 7:53 AM, Yahoo! <cwals99@yahoo.com> wrote:


Thank you for the invitation to this Governor's forum.  Cindy Walsh for Governor of Maryland will be attending.  Please send any event information.

Cindy Walsh




__________________________________________________
Below you see a Washington DC area news journal that did the right thing and sent an invitation to all candidates to complete a questionnaire with the promise it would be posted on their election page.  As you see below------they simply decided to pretend Cindy Walsh for Governor did not return this questionnaire......when below you see through email I in fact did.  I followed up and asked that it be posted and was ignored-----and I will send this blog today saying I want the information posted.

The point is this for private media outlets.  Private media does not have to give equal time to candidates in a race but they cannot deliberately misrepresent the race or in this case openly lie about a candidate's participation in a general questionnaire.  They may not mention my name once-----but do not lie about my participation in your election posts.

I did succeed in getting FOX NEWS and WYPR from saying there was no candidate from Baltimore in the governor's race-----now, FOX NEWS simply tells people they are inviting the 3 democrats in the governor's race never in the media....except, Cindy Walsh for Governor has yet to get that invitation.  Telling the public you are inviting and open to candidates on your programming when you are not doing so makes that candidate seem unresponsive and not in the race....

WHICH IS WHY THEY DO IT!  IT DOES INDEED DAMAGE MY CAMPAIGN AND WE WILL SEE IN FEDERAL COURT IF PRIVATE MEDIA MUST REFRAIN FROM DELIBERATE MISINFORMATION IN AN ELECTION.



Monday, April 28, 2014
Copyright © 2014 Post Community Media, LLC/Gazette.Net

Cindy A. Walsh Governor 2014 elections
  Did not return questionnaire.




Tallman, Doug To Tallman, Doug Mar 19

Dear candidate –

 

As part of its 2014 election coverage, The Gazette is asking all candidates for some basic information about themselves and to fill out a questionnaire. We will post this information on an election page on our website, www.gazette.net. Responses will not be edited, except for possible libel. We need the following information about you and the answers to the questionnaire below by 5 p.m. on March 21.

If you run into any problems as the deadline approaches, please let us know.

 

1)      Please acknowledge that you have received this email.

 

2)      Please tell us the following (do not omit the labels):

Name:
Address:
Neighborhood of residence:
Date of birth:
Occupation:
Education (for college degrees, including area of study and the year you received each degree):
Marital status, children:
Number of years at your current home:

Political party:
Previous elected/campaign experience:
Committee/board memberships:
Campaign website:
Campaign email address:
Campaign pages on Facebook/Twitter/other social media:

 

3)      Please send us a recent high-resolution headshot (head and shoulders portrait) if you haven’t yet. This might be used on our election website and with a campaign profile. Prints should be at least 5x7. For electronic photos, color JPEG files are preferred.

 

4)      Please answer these questions (do not omit the questions). Again, responses will not be edited, except for possible libel.

 

1.       What would your top priorities be as an elected official?

2.       Why should people vote for you instead of your opponents?

3.       What do you think of Maryland’s state budget? If you think there should be cuts, where should they be? If spending should increase, where is it needed?

4.       What changes, if any, would you make to Maryland’s tax structure?

5.       What should the state’s transportation priorities be?

6.       What is government’s role in trying to help Montgomery workers who are struggling to pay their bills?

7.       Should marijuana be legal in Maryland for medicinal or recreational use?

8.       What is the most pressing environmental issue in Maryland? How would you address it?

 
Thank you,
doug

 

---

Douglas Tallman, editor

The Gazette

9030 Comprint Court

Gaithersburg, Md. 20877

Office: 301-670-2040; Cell: 301-305-1834




To Tallman, Doug May 21
Doug,
This is Cindy Walsh for Governor of Maryland on the democratic ticket------I still see you say my campaign is non-responsive when you know I responded in full.
I am taking this to Federal court as part of a systemic election violation/election rigging that allows selective damage to candidate's campaigns through these kinds of election violations.  You cannot solicit responses from all candidates and then pretend you did not receive the responses.  I have the email date of response.
Please change my status and post my responses to your questionnaire.
Thank you,
Cindy Walsh




GAZETTE NEWSPAPER IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY


On Sunday, May 11, 2014 12:52 PM, Yahoo! <cwals99@yahoo.com> wrote:


Hello Doug,
This is Cindy Walsh for Governor of Maryland asking for a response as to why my questionnaire responses are not included and a "Did not Reply" is by my name?
Please correct this ----you are not allowed to damage a candidate's campaign.
Cindy


Monday, April 28, 2014
Copyright © 2014 Post Community Media, LLC/Gazette.Net

Cindy A. Walsh Governor 2014 elections
  Did not return questionnaire.







On Wednesday, May 7, 2014 12:41 PM, Yahoo! <cwals99@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hello Doug,

This is Cindy Walsh for Governor of Maryland.  I see on you Governor questionnaire response page you have me as 'not responding'.  Everyone knows I responded as I posted the response on my campaign webpage and blog.  So, please post my response sent well before the deadline.  I am making an FEC complaint on election violations and irregularities in Maryland elections and we do not want Maryland media providing unfair advantage......you did the right thing in issuing a general request for responses-----now, do the right thing and post all responses.  I will check back soon to see the updated post for my campaign!  I'm including my original responses to questionnaire below.

Thank you,

Cindy Walsh
Citizens Oversight Maryland.com


RESPONSE TO THE GAZETTE NEWSPAPER IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY


Cindy Walsh for Governor of Maryland would love to answer your questions.  I sent a copy of my campaign platform and personal information and now will answer questions:

Please answer these questions (do not omit the questions). Again, responses will not be edited, except for possible libel.  

1.       What would your top priorities be as an elected official?

2.       Why should people vote for you instead of your opponents?

3.       What do you think of Maryland’s state budget? If you think there should be cuts, where should they be? If spending should increase, where is it needed?

4.       What changes, if any, would you make to Maryland’s tax structure?

5.       What should the state’s transportation priorities be?

6.       What is government’s role in trying to help Montgomery workers who are struggling to pay their bills?

7.       Should marijuana be legal in Maryland for medicinal or recreational use?

8.       What is the most pressing environmental issue in Maryland? How would you address it?



1.  My private non-profit speaks to my priorities in this election.  I am a labor and justice democrat working first and foremost to rebuild the public justice and public oversight agencies at the state and local levels.  Maryland has dismantled most of these structures over the years and citizens of Maryland are struggling with fraud and corruption and obtaining justice from these criminal actions.  As people lose their personal wealth from malfeasance the government coffers at state and local level are feeling the same level of fraud and corruption.  This means that the revenue Maryland taxpayers pay goes into the wrong pockets and this has led to a very bad public services and public works sector.  It is also the reason for both O'Malley and his republican counterpart to successively add more fees, fines, and taxes on the working/middle-class to make up for lost revenue.

2.  I am the only candidate who would address the issues above as the other candidates in the democratic primary come from the system that is allowing the public dismantling to happen.  You see, it is a difference of social democrat vs neo-liberal.  Social democrats don't mind capitalism when it is held accountable and regulated and encouraged to be good corporate citizens.  Neo-liberals on the other hand work to maximize corporate profit at the expense of all other issues so labor and justice suffer.  This is the current state of affairs in Maryland and Maryland citizens are saying 'enough is enough'.  I work for them.

3.  First, I do not believe we have an environmental policy here in Maryland.  Most policies involve environmental policy passed as single issues with no over-riding emphasis on what provides strong, long-term environmental stability in the state.  We also have moved away from strong, public higher education and transportation.  So, I would move away from all of the Wall Street leveraging and credit bond deals that mortgage Maryland's future and have plenty of money coming back to state coffers from my first priority, oversight and accountability.  End Wall Street's hold on Maryland's financial investments means hundreds of millions of dollars in fees saved each year.  To summarize, I would move back to an environment when corporate accountability brought the needed revenue and not deals with Wall Street.

Second, our Transportation Trust is being used as an open account that is so fungible that it is impossible to assess progress and failure in every project the state becomes involved.  We know that the recent gas tax to replenish this Trust left the 'lock box' policy lacking.  Transportation policy in Maryland has not been in the public interest.  Port of Baltimore brought a few billion dollars to the state each year and now the public private partnership with HighStar investment firm has the state receiving a few hundreds of million in leasing revenue for example.  We have far too many of these government leasing deals that we all know are not in the public's interest.  We lose billions of dollars in revenue each year.  I am strong on the PUBLIC in public transportation so would make the buses, trains, and planes all strongly public, well-financed to provide good public service, and promote the theme of getting people out of their cars with this realistic approach to the MTA.

As you see, my plan comes with added revenue and realignment of expenditures but the goals contained in the budget would be similar in my administration.

4.  I am a progressive so I would look to building a tax structure with brackets that allow the richest citizens and corporations pay their fair share in taxes to support the public sector.  In this age of billions we need tax brackets that address higher income.  The idea that the rich or corporations would leave Maryland if taxed too much is a false one.  We want to rebuild small and regional businesses more accountable to the citizens of Maryland and we want a public policy development centered on public comment and engaged public forums at all levels of government.  If the rich and corporations want to leave, then the room to rebuild these structures opens.  Staying in a great state and contributing a fair share is rewarding for the rich and corporations.

Ehrlich and O'Malley have swung the pendulum far the the side of working and middle-class families having the burden of most tax revenue payment.  We need to move that pendulum back to including corporations and the rich and then find a good balance that allows the Maryland budget to be readily able to accommodate a strong, first world quality of life for all citizens of Maryland.

5.  Maryland's bus system has been deliberately defunded to the point of being abysmal and this was done to move forward with plans to privatize MTA.  The strategy of starving a system of funding to make people frustrated with service is a pervasive strategy in Maryland.  If we are going to be true to getting people out of their cars and into public transportation which I highly support, strong bus service with routes having the benefit of industrial engineering, and staff paid a Living Wage is critical.  The light-rail lines are important, so both Purple and Red Lines as public transportation is good.  I do not support toll roads or the increases on bridge tolls because with income generated from accountability and progressive taxation, none of this would be needed.  I support moving to electric/natural gas public vehicles.  I do want to change how we fund the Transportation Trust because we know gas tax is no longer giving equal opportunity to contribute to our infrastructure upkeep.  So, going to a vehicular registration fee or a mechanism that tracks mileage may be the answer.  Finally, at a time when we are trying to recover from financial collapse, I would not move forward with high-speed rail.  I am not against it, I simply feel we have other priorities first.

6.  People are struggling to pay bills because they are not being paid enough, their wealth keeps being attacked with losses they have little way to avoid.  So, Living Wage of $15 an hour and the protections of rebuilding accountability of oversight will protect the average person's wealth.  I intend to move Maryland back to first world quality of life and $15 is just that.  We can start with a $10.10 but need to move aggressively higher.  Remember, when you fuel the domestic economy with US citizens' consumption, you have a thriving domestic economy.  That's where we are going.

The next issue is inflation and control of costs for people for basic human needs.  My Expanded and Improved Medicare for All takes the cost of health care down and access to care up.  No medical bankruptcies and no business or corporate health plans needed.  My dismantling of corporatized universities that simply serve as corporate welfare making our universities more about corporate R and D and Human Resources then education that gives graduates a broad, lifelong career opportunity is the goal.  This corporate partnership with universities is what has driven student tuition to unacceptable levels and dismantling this will bring public university tuition back to being affordable to all citizens.  I would make sure that state service commissions had appointees that worked for the public and not for corporate profits as is the case now.  Rate increases that have the public paying the costs of doing business is not acceptable.  My preference is that all energy services be public, but at least regulated so corporate profits are kept in line with reasonable consumer rates.

7.  Marijuana is just like alcohol and needs to be treated as such.

8.  People will be surprised when I say that replacing aging water and sewage infrastructure is the most pressing environmental issue in Maryland.  Baltimore needs a few billion to replace its entire system and just implementing my accountability and oversight statewide would bring all the money needed to do just that.  This needs to happen all over the state.  This is why revenue collection and protection is so important.  Each citizen pays enough in taxes to expect basic services like infrastructure, waste collection, and green management be integrated at little cost.  That would be my priority statewide. 

Second, fracking is a major assault on our environment and even though Maryland has not allowed it to operate in this state, it has not been aggressive in shouting to the overly fracked states of WVA and PA that Maryland citizens will hold all fracking corporations accountable for contaminating our Marcellus Aquifer, which will happen if these corporations are not made to think twice about how and where they drill.  The Maryland Assembly has failed time and again to fund a baseline study for data needed by the public to prove fracking chemicals were not there originally.  Without these data a court will say the public cannot prove fracking chemicals were not there already.  A few million dollars does this baseline study and Cindy Walsh as governor will be shouting at fracking corporations that Maryland will hold them accountable for contaminating our only aquifer providing fresh water.  This is critical.  We do not want to be left shipping in fresh water.

As you see, I am a labor and justice democrat who will turn policy away from the corporate control and benefit to one that benefits all Maryland citizens.

Thank you,

Cindy Walsh


On Thursday, April 24, 2014 9:49 AM, "Tallman, Doug" <dtallman@gazette.net> wrote:
I'll be out of the office from Monday, April 21, through Thursday, April 24, as well as Monday, April 28. Though I'll be in the office on Friday, April 25, I'm unlikely to be able to respond to phone or email messages.

If you have a concern that needs immediate attention, please contact Managing Editor Krista Brick at 301-280-3006, or kbrick@gazette.net.

Thank you,

doug

0 Comments

May 30th, 2014

5/30/2014

0 Comments

 
PLEASE REMEMBER NONE OF WHAT I SPEAK WOULD BE HAPPENING IF WE HAD STRONG PUBLIC OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY -----IT IS THE DISMANTLING OF OUR PUBLIC SECTOR THAT HAS ENDED ALL SEMBLANCE OF DEMOCRACY AND PUBLIC JUSTICE IN MARYLAND AND MANY STATES IN AMERICA.  DEMAND THE PUBLIC SECTOR BE REBUILT AND NOT REPLACED BY CORPORATE NON-PROFITS.

NEO-CONS AND NEO-LIBERALS ARE DOING THIS.  A DEMOCRATIC POLITICIAN WOULD NOT DO THIS!


I'd like to end for now the discussion of privatizing all that is public with public schools and public transportation.  I go to great extent to fight the current education reform but I will talk today about handing actual school buildings over to private charter chains/investment firms.

Why would politicians go to the same Wall Street banks and investment firms to build schools that just defrauded government coffers and individuals of trillions of dollars?  The answer is-----they would not unless they are working for those banks.  We have all the funds we need to rebuild all public schools----it is simply being lost to fraud and corruption.

In Baltimore as in many cities across America the policy of attaching new school building to Wall Street financial instruments is the new Wall Street scheme to grab real estate and business.  Think about it......if you know anything about today's economy you know that Wall Street has pushed the US economy to near collapse yet again-----doing the same things except this time the crash will be far worse than in 2008.  The market targeted by Wall Street and neo-liberals is the bond market-----especially municipal bond market and sovereign debt.  Remember, when Wall Street targeted the Federal Housing Agency FHA and Freddie and Fanny with those subprime mortgage frauds it was meant to implode and kill the FHA as a public agency.  Wall Street did not like government competition in financing housing.  They took a perfectly efficient and effective low-income housing agency and killed it with massive fraud and corruption.  Well, now its the municipal bond market.  The bond market has always been the safest investment for everyday investors and public funds like pensions and US Treasury funds.  If Wall Street wants everyone back into the stock market it needs to implode the bond market and give people no where to go.  Remember, the FED has manipulated interest rates to near zero so people cannot even place their money in savings accounts and have that money keep up with inflation.  THIS IMPLOSION OF THE BOND MARKET IS DRIVEN BY CONGRESSIONAL POLICY THAT CREATED INCENTIVES FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD TO FLOOD THE US BOND MARKETS.  That is exactly what they did with subprime loans.  Now, the bond market has reached its peak and is ready to crash meaning all the wealthy investors are covering their assets and leaving the public and government bond market to take the massive losses when the crash comes----probably by year's end.

States like Maryland which have neo-liberals committed to wealth and profit have leveraged the state and localities in so much Wall Street credit bonds and financial instrument debt that when the crash comes----there will be nothing to do but default on all these leveraged debt deals. 

THIS IS WHY O'MALLEY, RAWLINGS-BLAKE AND THE MARYLAND ASSEMBLY AND BALTIMORE CITY HALL ARE ALLOWING ALL OF THIS WALL STREET LEVERAGE AT A TIME WHEN THE ECONOMY IS STAGNANT AND GOVERNMENT COFFERS STRESSED.

The idea is that all these projects connected to these leverage bond deals will fall into the hands of the investors partnered to these deals.  Everyone knows this is happening-----you politicians are deliberately setting this up.  Think of all these development deals that have state and city tied to financing with credit bonds and leverage.  I am told when I talk with people involved that 'these are vanilla financial deals that cannot create harm'.......OH REALLY????????  Then why is there an entire Wall Street market on Credit Default Swaps aimed specifically at bond and municipal bond investments----just as the credit default swaps at AIG that protected banks from the fraud in subprime loans. 

THEY ARE DOING THE SAME THING----ONLY THIS TIME THEY ARE TARGETING PUBLIC ASSETS TO BE HANDED TO INVESTMENT FIRMS INSTEAD OF OUR HOUSES IN FORECLOSURE.

There is so much fraud and corruption in this latest scheme that I cannot address it here.....just no that when this next crash comes, the national debt will keep the Federal government from helping states this time and state economies will not be able to survive without eliminating all kinds of public assets and services/programs.  Bye-bye public sector pensions and benefits!  This is the plan for getting rid of almost all of public services, programs, and property assets in the state and Baltimore is the most tied to these bond schemes.

I just focus on these public school building bonds because this is the tie to taking public schools private.  If you finance public school construction with these financial instruments----when the crash comes and the state and city defaults----VOILA----THE INVESTMENT FIRMS ARE HANDED OUR PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDINGS.  That won't happen I'm told----DO NOT BELIEVE IT.  We know Baltimore has eliminated almost all property tax for corporations -----we know what are corporations are allowed to be called private non-profits to avoid taxes, and we know that Baltimore City Hall plans steep cuts in property taxes all of which funds our city public schools.  So, it is clear that they are moving towards ending public financing of schools-----all that is left is handing these corporations the physical buildings and that is why we are financing our way to building schools rather than simply using the billions of public money available for development.  Meanwhile, while the public in defaulting----the investment firms have their Credit Default Swaps just as they did with the subprime mortgage fraud. 

BYE-BYE PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDINGS------ANOTHER BAD INVESTMENT HAS WALL STREET OWNING YOUR SCHOOLS!


THIS IS ALL PUBLIC MALFEASANCE FOLKS AND ALL CITY LEADERS-----POLITICIANS KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING NOT LEAST BECAUSE I HAVE SHOUTED TO ALL OF THEM FOR THESE FEW YEARS!
______________________________________
It appears that this PRAG is going to be the AIG of this municipal bond fraud as when the economy collapses this corporation will be bailed out no doubt with Credit Default Swaps but all the public projects handled by this New York based company will default and be handed to private investors.  No doubt Johns Hopkins is the major shareholder in PRAG as it was in AIG and as with all the subprime loan foreclosures in the city coming into Hopkins development----so too will these public schools come into Hopkins investment.

Don't forget, School Superintendent Alonzo is the right hand of NYC Mayor Bloomberg and Wall Street and was brought to Baltimore to privatize all public schools.  As you hear over and over----how can we afford these financial instruments?  The point is ------WE CANNOT.

Baltimore has all the money needed to build all public schools with public money....it''s just all the public money goes to building Johns Hopkins global corporate campus and Harbor East.


ALL OF THIS IS FRAUD AND PUBLIC MALFEASANCE BECAUSE ALL INVOLVED KNOW THE ECONOMY WILL COLLAPSE AND THE STATE AND CITY CANNOT BEAR THIS DEBT!


'The Baltimore school system’s financial advisor is Public Resources Advisory Group (PRAG), a 28-year-old, New York-based company that prides itself on working exclusively for government entities so as to avoid conflicts of interest. PRAG, which also counts the Maryland Stadium Authority among its many clients, has consistently ranked among the top financial advisors in the country.

In 2010, PRAG managed 172 municipal bond issues totaling over $42 billion'.



The Money Pit The city’s half-baked $2.4 billion plan to save Baltimore’s schools may be doomed to fail before it begins
Photographs by J.M. Giordano


By Edward Ericson Jr.

Published: March 13, 2013

The Feb. 26 rally on Lawyers Mall in Annapolis made the TV news. Del. Curtis “Curt” Anderson (D-Baltimore), Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Andres Alonso, and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake were among the officials making the case for guaranteed funding to rebuild the city’s public schools.

“We’ve come up with an innovative way to try to raise money to build schools in Baltimore,” Anderson said. “This is exactly what people in Annapolis have been telling us to do for years and years.”

Andres Alonso told the crowd, “This is about you. This is about the kids. This is about the buildings they deserve—better buildings now.”

“We will not take no for an answer,” added Rawlings-Blake.

Viewers of WBAL’s nightly news broadcast saw all this, and readers of The Baltimore Sun, The Daily Record, and Patch.com got much the same story. But the details of the city’s audacious plan to replace or rebuild 136 public school buildings have garnered scant coverage during the nearly two years the plan has been in motion. And questions remain even as the legislature nears a decision on the matter.

The stakes are huge. For more than a decade Baltimore schools could hardly be mentioned without the prefix “crumbling.” Studies of the system’s facilities needs have estimated the price tag at between $2.4 billion and $2.8 billion.

That’s as much as the whole city budget, or two to three years of the school system’s operating budget. It’s also 50 times the amount of money the school system typically gets for capital improvements in a typical year.

The plan on the table would obligate the state to hand over at least $32 million to the city’s schools in each of the next 30 years as a “block grant.” Combined with money raised from the city’s controversial 5 cent bottle tax, plus several other sources, an estimated annual total of about $68 million would be amassed.

Those dollars would then be handed over to a nonprofit corporation which has not yet been chartered. That corporation, called the School Construction Authority, would then issue bonds, pledging the $68 million to pay them off.

The amount of bonds that could be raised this way: $1.1 billion.

Having a billion dollars available to renovate and build new city schools would be huge. In the words of the Jan. 8 report by the state Interagency Committee on School Construction (IAC), Baltimore City would be “implementing a construction program on a scale that is unprecedented in Maryland and would be one of the largest single-jurisdiction programs in the United States.”

But here’s the kicker: $1.1 billion is less than half of what the city says it actually needs. Within three years of receiving its unprecedented allotment of guaranteed state money, the Baltimore school system would again have to return to the legislature and other potential funders—this time with an even bigger funding request.

“It’s a huge lift, technically—and in terms of the financial thinking. . . and in public education and in the political process,” says Michael Sarbanes, executive director of the school system’s Engagement Office.

The fact that this enormous, creative, risky push for school financing would deliver just 44 percent of the school system’s minimum identified need is obvious to anyone who reads the school system’s plan or the IAC report. But it has not been featured in the media coverage of the funding drive.

Nor have these other details:

1. The latest $2.4 billion school building estimate does not include more than $100 million in furniture and fixtures that would be needed.

2. Maintenance of existing buildings during the proposed 10-year new-school build-out is predicated on doubling the school system’s bond cap from $100 million to $200 million. It is as yet unclear where the money to service those bonds would come from.

3. Given the 10-year build-out proposed, the 30-year payoff plan under discussion would actually be closer to 40 years.

“I’m not going to give you this as a definite,” Sarbanes says when asked how long the total bond payback time would be. “But if the last [bond issue] is eight years out, then. . . the point about it is, this is a long-term commitment.”

Sarbanes’ reticence is understandable. City and school officials have said little publicly about these challenges. Instead, the focus of the school board, the school superintendent, and the consortium of nonprofits called TransForm Baltimore that has been driving this policy since 2011 has been on the city school stakeholders—parents, students, teachers, and administrators—themselves.

“We asked them what should be taken into account. They told us,” says Sarbanes. “So that’s what drove it.”

This makes sense. Without presenting a united front, the city stands little chance of getting the state legislature to agree to the plan. With the school system’s users on board, hundreds of children can be bused to the capital for photo ops; those who oppose the plan can be painted as anti-kid.

And the need is undeniable. The report released last June by Jacobs Project Management, the consultant hired by the city schools to assess the damage, tells a familiar story (familiar because it is the third or fourth comprehensive study of Baltimore school facilities undertaken in the past decade or so):

Nearly a quarter of the city’s schools were built before 1946; 69 percent of the system’s 182 schools are in “very poor” condition, according to an industry-standard assessment system. Fifty schools should be replaced or scrapped altogether.

When assessed in terms of “educational adequacy,” the average city school received a grade of 55 out of 100. Fail.

More than one-third of the district’s school space was found to be unused or underutilized. As the IAC review concludes, “In every assessment conducted, City School[s] did not compare favorably with other urban districts or any of the national averages.”

As Alonso says, “This is for the kids.” And it is.

Given the obvious need to close some schools, Sarbanes says Alonso has taken special care to develop the plan around the people who are here now: “One of the principles that went into the plan, with the guidance of the school board, was that if a community was going to be experiencing the closing of their school—and that’s one of the most painful things that can happen, because schools have enormous emotional resonance—then those children would be among the first to experience a new school.”

The school system’s plan is detailed to the level of each student, and how far he or she would have to walk to school if the plan is implemented. It is a case study in the art of managing tens of thousands of diverse constituents into a broad consensus.

But the parents of city public schoolchildren, upwards of 90 percent of whom receive free or reduced-price lunches, are mostly not the people whose taxes will be tapped to pay for the plan. Those taxpayers live in the counties, where, according to the IAC report, another $12 billion or $13 billion in school building projects are awaiting funding.

Here’s what the city is asking for right now:

The “block grant” concept is derived from annual capital improvement funds the state doles out to every jurisdiction each year as the budget allows. Over the past five years, the city’s average has been less than $32 million. The legislation—HB 860 and SB 743—would lock in the city’s take at $32 million, at least. That would give the buyers of any bonds backed by the grants the assurances they need that the bonds would be paid off.

But, as the IAC notes, the state budget fluctuates with the larger economy. Dedicating $32 million to Baltimore for the next three decades might cause a squeeze if there is another recession. “Within recent memory. . . the capital budget was set at $116.5 million in FY 2004 and at $125.9 million in FY 2005 as a result of severe State fiscal constraints. During those fiscal years, annual funding for even the largest jurisdictions was reduced to well below $15 million and State approvals of planning, which represent a commitment of future funding for approved projects, were also significantly curtailed.”

Even the act of dedicating $32 million to Baltimore might cause bond rating agencies to lower the state’s own bond rating, the report says.

That brings up the question: If Baltimore’s needs are so great, why does the state not simply bond the construction directly? The answer goes to the heart of the city plan’s creativity, which is more political than economic. “It doesn’t require voter approval,” said Frank Patinella, an advocate with the ACLU of Maryland Education Reform Project, which has led the charge for the plan. “It doesn’t count against the debt limit.”

In effect, the structure of the proposed financing system is designed to mask the size and effect of the borrowing, not from government bond raters but from the taxpayers who would foot the bill.

Besides the $32 million block grant, the city is counting on no less than $8 million annually from the bottle tax, plus its own general fund contribution of $15 million, which is also styled as a block grant. Gambling funds are included at $4 million, even though the casino in question is as yet unbuilt and the existing Hollywood casino in Perryville, citing market conditions, just won the right to reduce the number of slot machines by 23 percent. The final $7 million would come from an accounting change involving city retiree health benefits. The details of this are unclear in the documents City Paper has reviewed. Sarbanes was not able to explain it, except to say that the change will result in an additional $7 million in funding at first, and that will probably increase over time to $11 million.

As late as June of last year, the bottle tax and other city revenue were going to be combined to float a $300 million bond by the city itself to fund school construction. That plan, unveiled in November 2011 by Mayor Rawlings-Blake, was overtaken by the more ambitious—and four-times-more expensive—plan on the table today.

Under the current plan, $66 to $69 million a year would be handed over to the Construction Authority, an entity which does not yet exist. The authority—like the Stadium Authority—would be quasi-governmental, run by political appointees and accountable to the government via annual internal audits and a state legislative audit every six years.

The Authority would implement the school system’s 10-year-plan, says Sarbanes, and school system officials would “act as an agent to the Authority.” When disputes arise between what the school system wants and what the Authority’s bosses think best, someone—it has not yet been decided who—would get to make the decision. “The details have to get worked out,” Sarbanes says.

 

The Construction Authority is part of the system needed to remove these bonds from the state’s balance sheet. It would also, in theory, remove direct control of billions of borrowed dollars from the school system itself, which has over decades developed a reputation for incompetence and corruption.

Between 2004 and 2008, 11 city school maintenance and facilities employees were criminally convicted in a corruption scheme that had operated since at least 1991. One contractor, Gilbert Sapperstein of Allstate Boiler Service, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his part in a bribery and kickback scheme involving Rajiv Dixit, then-head of the school system’s facilities maintenance program. Millions of dollars were stolen.

Sapperstein—a longtime vending machine operator and generous political donor—served only one month in prison. The heating and air conditioning systems AllState never fixed have all along been cited as evidence of underfunding and the need for hundreds of millions in repairs and upgrades.

Sarbanes prefers not to dwell on this history. “I don’t have a 10-year perspective,” he says, stressing the improvements to the city’s facilities maintenance section that have been made in recent years. “They do good work and at a high quality. . . the big problem for years and years and years was that we didn’t have a strategy that would address the real underlying problem, which was that the buildings were deteriorating.”

In its 2006 audit of the city school system, the Office of Legislative Audits made “23 recommendations covering virtually every financial management area reviewed,” according to that 109-page document’s introduction. “The areas where more significant problems were identified included procurement, facilities, inventory control, transportation services and payroll/human resources,” the audit said, adding that the city school system’s “management must develop a plan and related strategies for addressing these audit issues, including mechanisms to monitor the progress of implementing corrective actions.”

The next audit, released just six months ago, found “Competitive Procurement Policies Were Not Always Followed,” continuing problems with procurement procedures on “two large contracts,” overpayment for overtime and leave, missing computers, and said the district “Did Not Ensure Contractors Had Properly Completed Maintenance Projects Prior to Payment,” among the 26 findings it reported.

And this: “A Long-Term Facilities Master Plan Was Not Prepared.”

David G. Lever, executive director of the Interagency Committee on School Construction, says he is confident in the school system’s abilities today. “As you know, the school system has improved very much in facilities management since 2005,” he says in a phone interview. “With new management—particularly Mr. [J. Keith] Scroggins and his crew—we have seen a significant improvement in the way the facilities are managed.”

Lever’s confidence had better be well-placed. Under the proposal on the table now, Baltimore City Public Schools would increase its staff of building professionals from the current 14 to about 34. “An additional 5 FTE’s [that’s full-time employees] would work directly for the Authority,” the IAC report says.

Even with all those extra bodies, Baltimore City’s staff would number 10 fewer than that of the Montgomery County school system, which manages about $250 million worth of capital projects each year—$20 million less than Baltimore would be handling annually if its plan is approved.

Under the plan, then, Baltimore projects itself to be significantly more competent and efficient than Montgomery County.

“They don’t have the breadth or the depth in the system yet,” Lever acknowledges. “It will take some time to build up to that level.”

 

Baltimore’s plan is modeled on a school building frenzy undertaken last decade by Greenville, S.C., a county of 461,000 souls that in 1993 was blessed by the arrival of a $450 million BMW factory. Tire giant Michelin also expanded there after buying out rival BF Goodrich in 1989. And General Electric, the area’s largest employer, builds turbines and aviation equipment there. The well-paying jobs have attracted thousands of young families and the county did not see how its school system could keep up with the demand.

In 1999 the Greenville school board developed a plan to take about $60 million and borrow about $800 million to build or renovate 86 schools in four years. The plan ended up taking about six years and finished 70 schools to serve its 70,000 students—at a cost of $1.06 billion. Despite the overruns, it has been touted as a huge success by the consultants involved —even though the state of South Carolina has, in the words of the IAC report, “modified the conditions for the further use of this method.”

Greenville and Baltimore City could hardly have less in common. Greenville is 77 percent white; Baltimore City is 32 percent white. Greenville’s household income is 7 percent above the state average; Baltimore City’s is 45 percent below. Greenville is a growing county with an expanding industrial base (in 2012, Michelin announced it would build a new $750 million factory nearby); Baltimore is losing population and industrial jobs.

Where Greenville built its schools to keep up with demand, Baltimore wants to build its schools in order to create demand—the construction jobs standing in for the tire and car-making jobs Greenville has. “There would also be a significant impact on these neighborhoods where this construction is going on which will be very helpful to the goal of growing the city,” Sarbanes says.

One thing Baltimore does have in common with Greenville is the desire to get around existing laws limiting debt. Greenville’s bonding authority had been capped to 8 percent of its tax base by the South Carolina constitution. As one of the Greenville school board members wrote: “The constitutional debt limit does not apply because the nonprofit is an independent legal entity.” The structure also sidestepped a law forbidding lease-purchase arrangements.

Brent Jeffcoat, then bond counsel to the Greenville school board, blessed the structure as “legal.” Last summer, officials with TransForm Baltimore, the consortium of nonprofits that is nominally driving this process, flew Jeffcoat to Baltimore to solicit his advice. Jeffcoat is one of several consultants that the Baltimore is counting on to help structure the deal.

The Baltimore school system’s financial advisor is Public Resources Advisory Group (PRAG), a 28-year-old, New York-based company that prides itself on working exclusively for government entities so as to avoid conflicts of interest. PRAG, which also counts the Maryland Stadium Authority among its many clients, has consistently ranked among the top financial advisors in the country.

In 2010, PRAG managed 172 municipal bond issues totaling over $42 billion.


Every deal PRAG structures is different, but the school bond concept bears similarity to a much smaller deal the company facilitated in 2006—right down to the concern about political fallout.

In 2006, as the facts of the 1990s utility deregulation fad came clear, Baltimore Gas and Electric demanded—and the Public Service Commission approved—a 72 percent rate increase. Collecting it all at once would have caused an electoral revolt, so government and utility officials called on PRAG founders William W. Cobbs and Wesley C. Hough to stamp their approval on some structured finance magic.

Testifying before the PSC, Cobbs and Hough’s expertise allowed the PSC to approve the scheme in which BGE would issue the bonds through a shell corporation so as to “insulate the bond investor from the credit risk of the company.”

In that deal, BGE “sold” its right to collect the huge rate increase to a new corporate entity—RSB BondCo LLC—which then took the ratepayers’ money as collateral for long-term bonds it issued. BondCo then forked over the borrowed cash upfront to the utility.

This way, ratepayers had only to pay a 15 percent increase up front, and BGE still got its windfall. Bond investors got a steady stream of income, and Governor Martin O’Malley was able to claim that he reduced the impact of the unavoidable rate increase.

All this was done and all true, despite the fact that the scheme increased overall costs from about $600 million to more than $800 million, including $11 million paid in “bond issuance fees.”

In 2012 Baltimore County called upon PRAG to bless a scheme to finance with bonds a projected $250 million pension shortfall by borrowing that sum at 4.25 to 4.5 percent interest and investing it elsewhere. This is supposedly going to save big money down the line, as the money raised earns a bigger return for years before it is disbursed to retirees.

It’s rather like a homeowner taking out a second mortgage to play the stock market: It might get him a big boat or it might put him into foreclosure.

As Keith Dorsey, Baltimore County’s director of budget and finance, writes on Baltimore County’s website (with Cobbs as a co-author): “In the opinion of the County’s financial advisor, Public Resources Advisory Group, based upon preliminary discussions with credit analysts, the POBs [pension obligation bonds] will not negatively impact the County’s Triple AAA bond ratings although there has been no formal confirmation from the rating agencies.”

PRAG has fewer than 50 people on staff and wears its white hat with pride. As the company boasts on its website: “We are not, and have never been, the subject of an investigation.”

 

About the TransForm Baltimore plan, the first $1.1 billion round of funding still awaits a vote. Much is still to be determined—from the makeup of the proposed Construction Authority, to who makes the decisions when budget and philosophy clash, to the big question of where the second round of financing—at least $1.4 billion—would be found.

“We’re gonna have to figure out where does the rest of the money come from,” Sarbanes says. “But at that point, we’re going to have more experience, we’re going to have momentum, and we’re going to have a proof that doing [it] this way is good for the kids and good for the city.”

“Throughout the construction phase, we’re going to see cost escalation,” Frank Patinella acknowledges. “We don’t know what the bond market is going to look like. But we know that if we wait, it is going to cost more.”

“At this point, I would have to say that I don’t have a full grasp of the details of how this would be financed,” David Lever says. “Stage two is not completely clear to us either.”

UPDATE:
In a previous version of this story, the 13th paragraph quoted Michael Sarbanes saying "“It’s a huge risk, technically..." Mr. Sarbanes claims the reporter mis-heard him and that he said "It’s a huge lift, technically..." The story has been changed to reflect that.






________________________________________


Remember, round two of the massive movement of money to the top by fraud and corruption involves the next massive economic collapse coming probably by the end of this year.  I have shouted about this for years and all politicians know this collapse is coming.  Neo-liberals are loading their states with so much leveraged credit bond deals-----the US Treasury is loaded with  connections to leveraged bond deals----that when this collapse occurs it will take the entire public sector down.  So, states like Maryland that have a governor O'Malley and General Assembly tying the state to a maxed credit bond and leverage amount----even having to get special permission to max leverage even more........and Baltimore that is built on nothing but credit bond and leverage deals......will see massive public defaults with the private investors in these deals taking all the public assets tied to these deals.  In Baltimore, that is the public school building for one with all those public schools handed to private investment firms.  This is deliberate folks----it is simply round two of -----moving all wealth to the top in the US!



The Coming Epic Collapse of the Bond Bubble

Submitted by Phoenix Capital Research on 01/08/2014 00:25 -0400



inShare2   In the 1960s every new $1 in debt bought nearly $1 in GDP growth. In the 70s it began to fall as the debt climbed. By the time we hit the ‘80s and ‘90s, each new $1 in debt bought only $0.30-$0.50 in GDP growth. And today, each new $1 in debt buys only $0.10 in GDP growth at best.

Put another way, the growth of the last three decades, but especially of the last 5-10 years, has been driven by a greater and greater amount of debt. This is why the Fed has been so concerned about interest rates.

You can see this in the chart below. It shows the total credit market outstanding divided by GDP. As you can see starting in the early ‘80s, the amount of debt (credit) in the system has soared. We’ve only experienced one brief period of deleveraging, which came during the 2007-2009 era.



Bernanke's Fed couldn’t stomach this kind of deleveraging. The reason is simple: those who have accumulated great wealth as a result of this system are highly incentivized to keep it going.

The Fed doesn’t talk to you or me about these things. It calls Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan. And most of the Wall Street wealth of the last 30 years has been the result of leverage (credit growth). Take away credit and easy monetary policy and a lot of very “wealthy” people suddenly are not so wealthy.

Let me put this in terms of real job growth (created by startups) vs the “job growth” of the last five years.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, startups account for nearly all of the US’s net job creation (total job gains minus total job losses). And smaller startups have a very different perspective of debt than larger more established firms.

The reason is quite simple. When a small business owner takes out a loan he or she is usually posting personal assets as collateral (a home, car or some other item). As a result, the debt burden comes with the very real possibility of losing something of great value. And so debt is less likely to be incurred.

This stands in sharp contrast to a larger firm, which can post collateral owned by the business itself (not the owners’ personal assets) and so feels less threatened by leveraging up. Thus, in this manner, QE and other loose monetary policies maintained by the Fed favor those larger firms rather than the real drivers of job creation: smaller firms and startups.

For this reason, the Fed’s policies, no matter what rhetoric the Fed uses, are more in favor of the stock market than the real economy. That is to say, they are more in favor of those firms that can easily access the Fed’s near zero interest rate lending windows than those firms that are most likely to generate jobs: smaller firms and start-ups.

This is why job growth remains anemic while the stock market has rallied to new all-time highs. This is why large investors like Bill Gross have applauded the Fed’s policies at first (when the deleveraging was about to wipe him out in 2008), but then turned against them in the last few years as a political move. This is why QE is so dangerous, because it increases concentration of wealth and eviscerates the middle class.

Guys like Warren Buffett or Larry Ellison of Oracle can take advantage of low interest rates to leverage up, acquiring more assets (that can produce income) by posting their current assets as collateral (Ellison commonly “lends” shares in Oracle to banks in exchange for bank loans).

Cheap debt is useful to them because the marginal risk of taking it on is small relative to that of a normal individual investor who would have to post a needed asset (his or her home) as collateral on a loan to leverage up.

This system works as long as debt continues to stay cheap. However, in the last 12 months the Fed has definitively crossed the point of no return with its policies. It is not just a matter of timing before this debt bubble bursts.
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Keep in mind that the Moody's giving this AAA rating is the same Moody's at the center of the subprime mortgage fraud guilty of fraud for rating those loans AAA while knowing they were junk.  Nothing happened to Moody's =====it is still operating as it did......giving businesses the rating they want.

So, Maryland is maxed to the gills in bond sales and leverage and here we are-----even as almost all financial analysts and government watchdogs are saying a crash WILL HAPPEN -----O'Malley getting the state debt into a crashing bond market.

Remember, it was O'Malley that was center to the subprime mortgage fraud in Baltimore and it was O'Malley along with Kopp involved in throwing public sector pensions from the then safety of the bond market into the stock market in 2007 just before that market crashed------public malfeasance causing public pensions to lose 1/2 of their value.  They knew then the stock market was going to crash just as they know now the bond market is going to crash.  These Wall Street pols are openly throwing the public under the bus because they think

NO POLITICIAN WILL BE ELECTED TO HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE.  WITH THE LEVEL OF CORRUPTION IN MARYLAND ELECTIONS----


Ask yourself-----how can Moody's project fiscal security when most analysts are predicting this massive econom


Md. Retains Triple AAA Bond Rating, To Sell $750 Million of General Obligation Bonds
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Posted on February 26, 2014

ANNAPOLIS (February 19, 2014) -- Maryland State Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp announced today that all three bond rating agencies have re-affirmed the State's strong AAA bond rating in preparation for the upcoming competitive sale of State Bonds on Wednesday, March 5, 2014.

Maryland is one of now ten states* to hold the coveted AAA rating, the highest possible rating, from all three major bond rating agencies. Standard and Poor’s has rated the bonds AAA since 1961. Moody’s Investors has assigned the bonds a rating of Aaa since 1973, and Fitch Ratings has rated the bonds AAA since 1993.

Treasurer Kopp said, “Today’s news of Maryland receiving AAA ratings from the three major bond rating agencies is an acknowledgement of Maryland’s strong, stable and prudent financial management and overall fiscal strength. We are pleased the rating analysts recognize the contribution of Maryland’s diverse economy, our well-educated workforce, and above-average wealth and income levels to the overall quality of an investment in Maryland.”

“Retention of the Triple AAA ratings allows us to continue to save millions of taxpayer dollars resulting from the lower interest rates achieved because of these ratings,” Treasurer Kopp said.

Fitch, in assigning its AAA rating and stable outlook, said: “Debt oversight is strong and centralized, and the debt burden is moderate. The state has policies to maintain debt affordability, and the constitution requires GO [General Obligation] and transportation bonds to amortize within 15 years.”

Fitch Ratings further said: “Financial operations are conservative, with the state consistently demonstrating a strong commitment to budgetary balance through the downturn, including through repeated spending cuts, fund balance transfers and revenue increases. The state has also maintained flexibility in the form of its rainy day fund (RDF), which remained funded at or near 5% of general fund revenues through the downturn.”

Moody’s, in explaining its Aaa rating and stable outlook said: “The highest quality rating reflects Maryland’s strong financial management policies and stable economy with high personal income levels. The rating also acknowledges the state’s above average debt burden and large unfunded pension liabilities relative to the size of its economy.” Moody’s also noted that “Consistent with its history of strong financial management, the state has been appropriately addressing its structural budget gap and pension funding concerns even under pressure from federal budget reductions.”

In assigning its ‘AAA’ long-term rating and stable outlook, Standard & Poor’s said: “The rating reflects what we view as the state’s: Broad and diverse economy, which has experienced tepid recovery due to sequestration and federal fiscal policy uncertainty; we expect growth to accelerate due to resolution of certain federal budget and fiscal issues; High wealth and income levels; Long history of proactive financial and budget management, including implementation of frequent and timely budget adjustments to align revenues and expenditures; Well-developed financial and debt management policies including long-term financial planning that should be helpful in addressing future budget challenges; and Moderate debt burden, which we expect to continue due to a clearly defined debt affordability process that limits annual issuance, coupled with a constitutional 15-year debt maturity schedule.”

Standard and Poor’s further stated: “The stable outlook on Maryland reflects our view of the state’s proactive budget management in recent years and the economic recovery underway, which has stabilized revenues.”

All three rating agencies praised Maryland’s history of strong, sound financial management. Standard & Poor’s assigned a rating of “strong” to Maryland’s management practices, noting that “…Maryland has made continuing efforts to institutionalize sound financial management practices. …the state’s use of a five-year financial plan, which is updated annually with the adopted budget, provides the basis for future fiscal decisions and recognizes future fiscal year gaps. Monthly monitoring and reporting of key revenues allows the state to make midyear financial adjustments, if necessary, to maintain balance. Maryland has consistently maintained its statutory RSF (Revenue Stabilization Fund) at or above its legal minimum of 5% of revenues.”

Each rating agency recognized Maryland’s ability to manage despite serious federal budget cuts. S&P noted “While federal fiscal policy remains a challenge to the state’s budget and long-term financial plan, we believe that Maryland continues to actively monitor developments and has options to mitigate this risk based on its well-developed budget policies and financial reserves.” Fitch indicated “Sound fiscal management practices and the consistent maintenance of fiscal flexibility, including in the form of budgetary reserves, provide the state with significant ability to respond to near-term economic or fiscal conditions, such as federal budget reductions, in a manner consistent with the ‘AAA’ rating.”

Each of the rating agencies recognized significant pension funding challenges as well as reforms enacted over the past three years. Moody’s indicated “[l]ow retirement system funded levels” represent a credit challenge for the state and “[f]ailure to adhere to plans to address low pension funded ratios” could make the rating go down. Fitch Ratings noted “Despite pensions being a comparative credit weakness, the state has taken multiple steps to reduce the burden of pensions.” While acknowledging that “[b]ased on the reforms…, the state’s actuary projects that the system will be 80% funded by 2024 and full funding will be achieved by 2039”, S&P indicated “[t]he state’s below-average pension funded ratios continue to represent downside risk to the rating.”

The bond sale will include three competitive bids which are expected to be sold to institutions. The sale will include $450 million of tax-exempt bonds, $50 million of taxable bonds, and approximately $250 million of tax-exempt refunding bonds. This offering will not include the direct retail sale of bonds given the market’s low interest rates and the commensurate lack of demand by the public for this type of investment.

As has always been the case with the issuance of Maryland’s tax-exempt General Obligation Bonds, the State uses the proceeds to finance necessary capital projects, such as schools, community colleges, university projects and hospitals.

The Maryland Board of Public Works, composed of Governor Martin O’Malley, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Kopp, will preside over the competitive bond sale on Wednesday, March 5, 2014 in the Assembly Room in the Goldstein Treasury Building in Annapolis.

The Maryland State Treasurer’s Office expects to conduct another bond sale in July or August 2014.

* The other nine states with AAA ratings from all three rating agencies are Alaska, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.

Source: Maryland State Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp

GOVERNOR O'MALLEY RELEASES STATEMENT ON MARYLAND'S TRIPLE AAA BOND RATING RETENTION

ANNAPOLIS (February 20, 2014) -- Governor O'Malley today issued the following statement in response to Maryland's Triple AAA bond rating retention from all three major ratings agencies:

“The top bond rating agencies reaffirmed Maryland’s AAA bond rating, once again showing that our fiscally-responsible approach to governing is working."

"Since 2007, together we’ve cut over $9 billion in spending, shrank the executive branch to the smallest per capita levels since the 1970s, and put our state on the verge of eliminating the $1.7 billion structural deficit we inherited."

"We’ve done all this while investing record amounts in schools, which has led to the #1 rated public schools in America. We’ve invested in college affordability, and the College Board says we’ve done more than any other state to hold down the cost of college tuition. We’ve invested in public safety, and, together with law enforcement, we’ve driven down violent crime to 30 year lows."

"Our better choices have led to better results. And today, Maryland has secured its position as one of only ten states to hold the Triple AAA rating from all three rating agencies, and one of only seven states to maintain that rating through the Great Recession.” Headline News Main Page
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May 29th, 2014

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PRIVATIZING ALL THAT IS PUBLIC IS THE NEXT PHASE OF THE 21ST CENTURY OR NEW ECONOMY------NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS WORKING TO GIVE GLOBAL CORPORATIONS COMPLETE CONTROL OF ALL ASPECTS OF GOVERNMENT AND ECONOMY.  WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THAT?  MASSIVE CORPORATE FRAUD AND GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION AND LOSSES TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE OF TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CORPORATE FRAUD AND FLEECING OF GOVERNMENT COFFERS.

Today I want to look at the privatization of the Port of Baltimore and two pay-to-play that will be an environmental nightmare for the citizens of Maryland but moves forward because it earns billions of dollars and advances political careers for corporate pols.  Let's look at why the Port of Baltimore has been given an 'F' in environmental stewardship ------BECAUSE, AS WE KNOW, NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS COULD CARE LESS ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT. 

REMEMBER, TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT (TPP) IS ALL ABOUT ALLOWING GLOBAL CORPORATIONS WORKING IN THE US TO IGNORE ALL ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS IN THE PURSUIT OF PROFIT.  Do you hear your environmental or justice organizations shouting this?

All states have a Port Authority that is controlled by State and Federal governments.  So, when a decision to privatize these ports comes with public private partnerships----IT IS CORPORATE DEMOCRATS MAKING THIS DECISION.  Republican Erhlich and Democrat O'Malley pushed to hand the Port of Baltimore to a private investment firm HighStar-----yes, the same investment firm behind Water, Waste, and Sewage privatization-----behind bringing VEOLA and transportation privatization.  All of this is tied with HighStar shareholder Johns Hopkins earning billions in these privatization deals.  See why O'Malley and neo-liberals are working hard to privatize all that is public?  So, neo-liberals decided that instead of a few billion coming to the State Treasury from state business at the port------it should LEASE the port for a few hundred million and then give the billions of dollars earned from the port to HighStar.  NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS MAKING THE PUBLIC RENTERS IN ALL WAYS!!!!

This is not only a loss for the state financially------it is an environmental disaster for the bay.  Expanding the port to bring global cargo ships brings invasive species that choke native species and fill the bay with species that are generally of no value ----killing the bay.  This does not even take into consideration the level of chemical and waste pollution coming from these ships.  THE PUBLIC LOSES BILLIONS IN STATE AND LOCAL REVENUE AND ITS BAY IS KILLED.....THAT'S A NEO-LIBERAL FOR YOU!  Meanwhile, there is no appreciable job creation as the port goes robotic and trains simply pass right through the city ------only the cost of infrastructure development for HighStar's port operations all paid for by taxpayers.  We have communities fighting what will be cargo train terminals that will kill their communities shouting THERE IS NO BENEFIT TO THE COMMUNITY OF CITIZENS OF BALTIMORE-----AND THEY ARE RIGHT.

REMEMBER, SUSTAINABILITY IS ABOUT GROWING DOMESTIC AND LOCAL ECONOMIES ------FOR A HEALTHY FUTURE.  THIS IS THE OPPOSITE.


Sparrows Mill Steel plant has been slated for closure for decades but recently a pay-to-play sent millions of Federal, State, and local taxes for a deal supposedly to restart this steel mill------and yet, the deal included nothing that required the mill owners to upgrade mill equipment that was a must to make the mill competitive and able to survive.  It handed this mill to corporate players who then took charge of dismantling and deciding who would own this huge and valuable property on the bay.  So, as would be expected, the new mill owners closed this mill two years after receiving all that tax money to open and went into bankruptcy to shed all the costs of labor contracts, pensions, and bills owned to venders and the city.  What the state and Baltimore County could have done is take this property into the hands of the state and dismantle this mill in a way that protected labor contracts and vendors and handed all the profits from salvage to public coffers-----instead, all the profits from salvage went to a Chicago corporation known to be connected to Obama's campaign.  THIS WAS A PAY-TO-PLAY.  Besides having the state and county lose control of valuable waterfront property-----the deals never included that the costs of environmental cleanup from decades of industry and a sewage problem that makes this area an environmental nightmare.  WE HAVE SOME MILLIONS GIVEN TO STUDY THE PROBLEM.  This mill was constructed in a way that Baltimore's waste water drains right into this mill and openly floods the Port of Baltimore. 

THE STATE COULD HAVE USED THE PROCEEDS FROM THE STATE OWNERSHIP OF THIS MILL TO CLEAN UP AND FIX WASTE WATER AND CHEMICAL CONTAMINATION----BUT DID NOT.


Now, guess who will be made to pay for all of this as part of a taxpayer subsidized waste water infrastructure upgrade and development of this former steel mill------TAXPAYERS. 


MORE CORPORATE SUBSIDY AND THE EXECUTIVES BROUGHT IN TO HANDLE THIS MASS MOVEMENT OF ASSETS OUT OF BALTIMORE COUNTY/ THE PORT-----MADE MILLIONS FOR THEIR TROUBLE.  The Steel workers lost pensions and health care as the mill was allowed to go into bankruptcy instead of being taken by the state for assets.

ALL OF THIS LAND NOW IN THE HANDS OF INVESTMENT FIRMS WILL NO DOUBT BE DESIGNATED 'TAX FREE'.


One more quick mention of the next environmental catastrophe for Port of Baltimore-----Harbor Point and the development of a toxic waste landfill right on the water's edge.  Even as the citizens are assured that none of the toxic waste will blow in the air and into people's lives and none of it will seep into the bay-----EVERYONE KNOWS TOXIC WASTE WILL INDEED DO BOTH.  This development is on land that could have simply been left natural as a public green space-----but NO-----we must maximize profits say neo-cons and neo-liberals.  All of this brings hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate tax breaks and the public building SEA WALLS around these Harbor East properties built right on waters edge because everyone knows global warming will have sea level rise 12-20 inches in just 20 years.  THE PUBLIC WILL PAY FOR SEA WALLS TO PROTECT DEVELOPMENT THAT SHOULD NOT EVEN BE THERE.

THIS IS WHEN YOU KNOW YOU HAVE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS MAKING ALL THESE DECISIONS.  THEY COULD CARE LESS ABOUT PUBLIC INTEREST OR JUSTICE.
 

THIS IS WHAT TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT LOOKS LIKE.

Maryland was once again ranked with an 'F' in environmental stewardship as the Port of Baltimore is filled with trash, sewage, chemicals, and invasive species.....all while O'Malley and the neo-liberals in Maryland Assembly claim to be environmental and a Blue State.  Neo-liberals dismantle all oversight and accountability in government and that includes environment----so as they pass laws that make them look progressive, they then simply ignore these laws.  When O'Malley runs for President he will use all kinds of Maryland media making him sound environmental.

Keep in mind that it was the Maryland Assembly and Governor O'Malley that signed off on this so the idea that the Maryland Department of Environment comes in after all the deals are made to say these things are wrong is ridiculous.  Hilgo is the Chicago-based firm connected to Obama's campaign.

Sparrows Point owners warned on environmental allegationsAsbestos, sludge issues cited by state

March 13, 2014|By Alison Knezevich,

The Baltimore SunState environmental officials and the owners of the Sparrows Point peninsula are moving toward a settlement to correct alleged regulatory violations at the former steelmaking site.

Regulators say an array of problems have occurred over the past year on the 2,300-acre peninsula, including illegal open dumping of industrial sludge, improper handling of hazardous materials and the running of an unlicensed scrap tire operation.


"We are drafting a settlement in the form of a consent order which will provide terms and a schedule for corrective actions — and which will include a financial penalty," Maryland Department of the Environment spokesman Jay Apperson said in a statement. Apperson said the penalty amount has not been determined.

The steel mill at Sparrows Point, which employed tens of thousands in its heyday, closed in 2012. Officials are now eyeing the property, which has a decades-old history of environmental problems, for future economic development.

Baltimore County formed a partnership to explore ways to bring jobs to the peninsula. Last year, County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said county officials want to capitalize on the expansion of the port of Baltimore, with hopes of bringing a new marine terminal to the peninsula's Coke Point area. County leaders have said environmental contamination should not deter redevelopment of the land, contending much of the peninsula can be cleaned up in the near future.

In a December letter to owners Sparrows Point LLC and Hilco Industrial and to site contractor MCM Industrial Services LLC, Maryland Secretary of the Environment Robert Summers wrote that over the past year, inspections had revealed "a pattern of significant and ongoing violations of Maryland environmental laws" by the companies.

"Most troubling, however, is that many of these violations have been brought repeatedly to your attention and have been largely unaddressed," he wrote.

Since the letter was sent, representatives of the companies have met with state officials, Apperson said.

Randall Jostes, CEO of ELT, of which Sparrows Point LLC is an affiliate, said the company is working closely with the state agency to address the allegations.

The peninsula is a huge site "that has 100 years of history of steelmaking activity," he said.

"We're in the process of bringing down the legacy to reach the vibrant, redevelopment future," he said. "The process itself uncovers a lot of historical site issues and we are working with MDE on each and every issue discovered."

A spokesman for Hilco declined to comment. A spokeswoman for MCM said officials familiar with the matter were traveling and not available to comment.

Russell Donnelly, an Edgemere resident and environmental activist, said the community has dealt for years with polluted water in the area but has seen improvements in recent years. He said he doesn't want to see that progress reversed.

"I applaud MDE for at least keeping an eye out," Donnelly said. "I'm glad to see they're on the job."

The letter from Summers says the firms could have to pay substantial penalties.

Asbestos violations — which dealt with alleged failure to comply with regulations on packaging and processing asbestos-containing waste material — were initially corrected within 10 days, but then officials found other alleged violations, Apperson said.

The site has sparked environmental concerns for decades. In 1997, a consent decree was issued as part of a settlement between then-owner Bethlehem Steel and state and federal environmental regulators. The decree ordered Bethlehem Steel and any subsequent owner to investigate the existence of contamination and determine how best to remediate it.

Thus far, the current owners have not fully investigated the extent of contamination, said Jon Mueller, vice president for litigation at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Mueller contends the new owners have tried to buy time and spread blame around about environmental problems on the peninsula.

"I think the government agencies are rightly concerned that the new owners are kind of playing the shell game," Mueller said, adding he was pleased that the state appears to be taking action.

The foundation, as well as Blue Water Baltimore and local citizens, sued the then-owner RG Steel in 2010, seeking an investigation and complete cleanup of the site. The lawsuit was dismissed in February through an agreement by all parties after they reached a plan to investigate off-site contamination, Mueller said.


The quick succession of owners has made it difficult to hold someone accountable and has "allowed this contamination to continue for years," Mueller said.

"There've been multiple owners since then, and the full investigation of the property hasn't even occurred, let alone full corrective measures," he said. "With all these different owners, it's made it really hard to pin somebody down to get this work done so these problems have lingered for a decade."

John Long, of the Dundalk-based environmental group, Clean Bread and Cheese Creek, said it's hard for residents to know what's happening on the peninsula.

"Nobody's communicated any type of oversight that's taken place on the dismantling process,"
Long said. "I think everyone would like to see the site become something that's useful and beneficial to the community, that's healthy."

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Below you see what was the biggest Baltimore City racketeering deal done completely out in the open.  If you look at the photos of development plans you see this massive complex built right on the water's edge-----PURE VANITY DEVELOPMENT.....and besides all of the corporate tax breaks they are going to get LEED certification for this building......more tax breaks from a LEED program rife with fraud and corruption.  LEED is about green construction given to this environmental boondoggle.

The racketeering charges come from the fact that Exelon----just handed BGE----was required by this merger to keep its headquarters in Baltimore so, there was no need to give Exelon $100 million tax break to 'keep this business in the city'----IT WAS ALREADY IN THE CITY.  So, this deal involves fraud and public malfeasance galore.  What is worse is the building on a toxic waste dump and the need to build sea walls all distorting all environmental issues in the area. 


THIS WAS OBSCENE DEVELOPMENT AND IT IS DRIVEN BY BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT AND JOHNS HOPKINS------NEO-CONS WHO COULD NOT CARE LESS ABOUT ENVIRONMENT AND NEO-LIBERAL POLS.


Yet, when election time comes------labor unions and city justice organizations-----church leaders all tell there members to vote for the same neo-liberal pols doing all this damage. 

AS WE CLEAN UP THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY BY GETTING RID OF NEO-LIBERALS DO THE SAME WITH YOUR LABOR AND JUSTICE LEADERS.  None of this development means good jobs or help for the underserved communities and citizens.
  It is pure profiteering.

How do you mitigate these injustices?  You take away all the tax breaks as illegal and public malfeasance and you slap this corporation with the costs of the environmental damage and cleanup.


Why Exelon chose Harbor Point over downtown – more like suburbia

Baltimore Brew Stirring up News and Views in Baltimore Maryland

Thursday, May, 29th, 2014 29
Fern Shen


Reporters were given a bundle of new details yesterday about the planned $120 million Exelon Corp. building – including the developer’s hope it will be 22 stories high and get a crunchy-green “platinum” LEED certification – but something subtler was being delivered as well.

It was a tutorial on the development realpolitik of Baltimore from the chief emissary of the man who’s mastered the process, bakery magnate John S. Paterakis Sr.

“We are all connected. This project is downtown,” said Michael S. Beatty, president of Paterakis’ Harbor East Development Group.

As he spoke, Beatty gestured to the place where he was standing: the 24th floor of Legg Mason’s headquarters in Harbor East, adjacent to Paterakis’ Harbor Point, the site of the proposed Exelon tower that is about a mile – a very long mile – from the city’s “central business district.”

“Where’s My Office Park?”


In light of the civic fuss that arose because Exelon passed over four sites in the traditional – and ailing – downtown core, Beatty was offering a mollifying message, that Harbor Point is “growing the downtown of Baltimore” and “will help all of Baltimore.”

Calvin Butler, of Exelon, and Michael Beatty, of Harbor East Development Group, speak to reporters about Exelon’s new building. (Photo by Fern Shen).

But his presentation was also a treatise on why Beatty and Paterakis think downtown has been foundering over the last decade, while Harbor East has been booming.

“We’re going to go after those tenants that are leaving downtown Baltimore because they’re looking for this suburban dream of ‘Where’s my office park? Where’s my big floor-plated office building?’” Beatty said, as the panorama of Baltimore’s waterfront sparkled on the other side of floor-to-ceiling windows.

“The reality was, downtown Baltimore didn’t have the large floor-plated building,” he declared. No one piped up to note that there are three or four vacant sites in the “old” downtown where such a building could be constructed.

Branding Safety in the City

A feeling of safety, Beatty said, was another suburban feature they have marketed as part of their “brand.”

“Tenants were looking out to the suburbs and saying it was safer out in the suburbs, and the reality was there was an impression downtown Baltimore wasn’t a safe environment,” Beatty said, as a representative for their latest trophy, the energy giant Exelon, stood by smiling.

Nodding in agreement, Calvin G. Butler Jr., senior vice president for corporate affairs for Exelon, nevertheless insisted that the company’s site selection did represent its commitment to downtown Baltimore.

Artist’s rendering of how the Exelon building at Harbor Point might look. (Credit: Harbor East Development)

But the two downtown finalists – the Baltimore City Community College site on Lombard St. and the former McCormick spice plant site on Light St. – didn’t cut it with the company.

“We wanted to create a presence and make a statement,” Butler said of the Harbor Point site. Exelon is committed to paying $125 million for a 15- to 20-year lease on the building, he said.

Moving to the new building will be the 2,000 employees from Constellation’s current buildings on Pratt Street and Market Place (on the eastern edge of downtown), as well as employees from Exelon’s energy marketing operation in Kennett Square, Pa., and its corporate headquarters in Chicago, Butler said.

Cubicle Workers and a Lacrosse Field

An artist’s rendering of the Exelon building released yesterday shows a glassy tower very similar to the Legg Mason building. Construction is planned to commence upon completion of Exelon’s $7.9 billion acquisition of Constellation, likely to take place at the end of March.

“We are looking at occupancy by the end of 2014,” Butler said.

Also on display behind Beatty and Butler were sketches of the 70,000 square-foot trading floor and schematics of the entire $250-million Harbor Point development.

Harbor Point layout with new streets and waterfront park. (Harbor East Development Group)

The mixed-use project (which already includes Thames Street Wharf and the Morgan Stanley building) is rising from a 27-acre brownfield site where the former Allied Chemical chromium plant once stood.

When fully built out, the developers said, Harbor Point will include a million square feet of office space, 150,000 square feet of retail, 600 residential units, 250 hotel rooms and 3,000 parking spaces.

Double Tax Breaks

The Exelon relocation stirred up another hot-button issue in town along with the fate of the central business district – tax breaks.


A key factor in developing Harbor Point will be the $155-million tax increment financing (TIF) subsidy approved by the City Council in December 2010. Moreover, the site is located in a state enterprise zone, entitling the developer to an 80% cut in property taxes for five years.

Beatty answered some of the criticism by suggesting the subsidy was a good use of public funds in part because some of it was going to be used for open public spaces.

What’s that back behind the Marriott? Oh yes, the Inner Harbor and central business district. (Photo by Fern Shen)

The TIF financing, according to material the company released yesterday, would cover 2/3 of a mile of new roads and one mile of new sidewalks. The TIF also would also help finance 11 acres of open space, including a park and half-mile waterfront promenade, a central plaza, and a lacrosse field associated with a new U.S. Lacrosse complex on the site.

Finally, the TIF would help pay for a new bridge that would connect Central Avenue to Harbor Point. The bridge would run past the west side of a current Living Classrooms building, said Marco E. Greenberg, Harbor East’s vice president for development, standing on an open terrace and pointing the spot out to reporters.

Embry and Others Question Tax Breaks


Harbor Point’s designation as a state enterprise zone would reduce the amount of property taxes going to the city of Baltimore to virtually nothing.

That’s because the state’s partial reimbursement to the city for the enterprise zone break would go to pay off interest on the TIF bonds, not to the city’s coffers.

The prospect of this double tax break at Harbor Point was the subject of some pointed words today at a meeting by a task force on tax breaks appointed by City Councilman Carl Stokes.

Detailed layout of the former site of an Allied chemical plant. (Developer drawing)


Robert C. Embry, a former city housing commissioner and president of the Abell Foundation, expressed surprise that Harbor Point was part of a state enterprise zone.


Wondering how “one of the most affluent areas of the city” got this designation, he speculated that it qualified as a disadvantaged area because it is located near one-time public-housing projects, long since razed, along Lombard Street.

Embry asked “whether the city can get out of the enterprise zone” or when the designation expires. (The zones are enacted for a ten-year period.) Whenever that happens, Embry recommended that the city review the zone’s boundaries and economic justification.

How the Harbor Point site looks now, from Legg Mason’s 24th-floor terrace.
The site is capped over to contain hazardous wastes from the old chemical plant. (Photo by Fern Shen)

City Councilman James B. Kraft, whose 1st District encompasses Harbor Point, also expressed dismay about the tax breaks. He complained that Exelon “does not need to be subsidized by the city of Baltimore.”

Noting that the energy giant reported profits of $600 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, Kraft said the company “ought to be saying, ‘We don’t need it,’” and should voluntarily agree not to apply for the enterprise tax incentives.

Transit-Friendly or Car-Oriented?

Another question raised about the Harbor Point project is whether it will essentially be a car-oriented development, much like Harbor East.

“Definitely not,” Beatty told reporters yesterday.

He noted that many of the occupants of Harbor East’s residential units don’t commute. He cited city bus service and the Charm City Circulator, and pointed to a stop on the proposed $2.2 billion East-West Red Line light rail as possible mass transit options.

“Here’s the Red Line,” he said, “that’s probably seven years away.” (That’s a prediction that even state transportation officials aren’t comfortable making.)

As for cars, he noted that Central Ave. is due for a $24-million makeover designed to relieve congestion that already plagues the area.

Asked how many parking spaces the two developments will have, Beatty added up Harbor East’s current 4,000 spaces to Harbor Point’s proposed 3,000 and agreed that the development will feature 7,000 spaces.

That makes for a very big office park.


____________________________________________
Keep in mind that it is the same investment firm------HighStar that has been handed the private contract for most of these East Coast ports and is behind all of the global corporate cargo ships killing the environment.  In our case this is Johns Hopkins.  Everyone knew these invasive species would follow this port expansion and everyone knew it would cost the public taxpayers billions of dollars fighting to eradicate these species.  Note, HighStar does not pay to eradicate these invasive species-----the taxpayers do.  So, first you end these public private partnerships and you tax these corporations to pay for the cleanup.  Neo-liberals instead have eliminated all taxes paid by these investment firms and actually give copious amounts of corporate subsidy making profits soar.

NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS KNOW THESE DECISIONS WILL COST TAXPAYERS BILLIONS AND KNOW THE PUBLIC WILL LOSE CONTROL OF ALL PUBLIC POLICY AT THE PORTS.





Friday, May 17, 2013

More invasive species detected at US ports in the Mid Atlantic

               Insect as well as plant and animal species from around the world can hitch a ride in a manner of speaking, on cargo shipments, moving from their native lands to exotic foreign destinations, and sometimes stay and establish a new home. Ports of entry like Baltimore and Norfolk are doorways to establishment of species that may impact livelihoods by altering the characteristic services of ecological systems.
               The front-line of defense is the U. S. CBP, "one of the Department of Homeland Security’s largest and most complex components, with a priority mission of keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the U.S. It also has a responsibility for securing the border and facilitating lawful international trade and travel while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws and regulations, including immigration and drug laws. Amopng other tasks," CBP performs two crucial roles in facilitating trade to and from the U.S. and around the globe: securing it from acts of terrorism and assuring that goods arriving in the U.S. are legitimate and that appropriate duties and fees are paid."[1]
Working with USDA ARS Systematic Entomology Laboratory and USDA APHIS Plant Inspection Stations, and APHIS Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ). the organizations work to protect American jobs, businesses and the ecosystems that support them. Recent interceptions of non-native and potentially harmful insect species provide  highlights of the impossible nature of their underfunded mission. USDA APHIS PPQ reported at the Maryland Invasive Species Council's May 2013 meeting the following interceptions.
Macroglossum stellatarum
tpittaway.tripod.com
               At the port in Norfolk, Virginia CBP intercepted for the first time, Macroglossum stellatarum  Linnaeus (1758), the hummingbird hawk-moth. The moth is found though out most of Europe, Asia and Northern Africa. While the species is unable to survive cold winters, the adults are strong enough fliers that they seasonally migrate from the Mediterranean region North to Sweden & Iceland. The Encyclopedia of Life notes that "The hummingbird hawk-moth is named for its long proboscis (straw like mouth) and its hovering behavior, which, accompanied by an audible humming noise, give it remarkable resemblance to a hummingbird as it visits flowers to feed on nectar."[2] Humans see various shades of dull brown or grey in the forewings of the moth. On the other hand, they reveal characteristic fluorescent yellow, violet, purple and green patterns under ultraviolet light . Thus to birds and other insects the moth is most likely brightly patterned.[3]
Coreus marginatus
www.britishbugs.org.uk                The Port of Norfolk also saw for the first time the arrival and discovery of Coreus marginatus Linnaeus (1758). The uninvited accidental visitor was found in a shipment of tile from Italy. This species if found throughout most of Europe where it feeds on plants in the genus Rumex. In addition inspectors also discovered at the Norfolk facility an adult moth hiding out amongst military cargo. The moth was identified as Autophila ligaminosa Eversmann (1851). This is the first time this species found in the sub-alpine region from the Balkans west to Afghanistan has been identified entering the US.   Autophila ligaminosa 
www.ppis.moag.gov.il -

               In the historic rivalry between Virginia and Maryland, the Port of Baltimore was not without its own early detection of non native visitors taking advantage of the enormous flow of global trade. And to make matters even worse one of the interception was yet another stink bug. Baltimore CBP found a moderate sized stinkbug in a shipment of tile that was later identified to be Sciocoris sideritidis Wollaston (1858). This is the first time this species has been identified entering the US. Just wait until an undetected mating pair of this new species to the shores of the United States sets up shop and works with the two existing invasive stink bugs already sucking their way through vegetables, fruits, and soya beans. Reducing USDA funding through political mismanagement and grand standing in Congress is a sure way to encourage this opportunity. 
Sciocoris sideritidis
www.naturedugard.org 

             And last but not least, remembering that airports are ports too, a baggage interception in Baltimore was confirmed to be Tetraleurodes andropogoni Dozier (1934), a type of white fly. This is the first time this species have been intercepted entering the US.  According to CPB "the insects were discovered on fresh leaves being carried by a passenger originating from Nigeria and arriving from the United Kingdom."[4]  


___________________________________________

Below you see an article that has the State of Maryland and O'Malley selling this idea of privatization as a boon for the citizens of Maryland.  More jobs, more businesses connected to the port.  In Red you see what actually happens.  Just as our BWI airport was privatized to great loss -----now the Port of Baltimore is seeing ever greater losses to the citizens of Maryland.  Lease revenue of a few hundred million replaces the few billion the state and local government collected in revenue from the port businesses.  Labor is immediately under attack for wage concessions to maximize profits.....as always.  Federal and state money is dredging in soil known to be filled with toxic waste from chemical plants.  Don't worry they say.  The costs of Homeland Security now worried about dirty bombs coming from world ports-----the costs of invasive species eradication-----

ALL COSTS BORN BY THE TAXPAYERS.  THE NET LOSSES TO MARYLAND AND FEDERAL TAXPAYERS WILL BE BILLIONS AS THE INVESTMENT FIRM HIGHSTAR POCKETS BILLIONS IN PROFIT.


THIS IS PUBLIC MALFEASANCE AND EVERYONE INVOLVES KNOWS IT!


As we see in red......the first thing that happened was a request to lower public lease amounts 'to make the port more competitive'.  So starts the chipping away of the little the state makes in leasing.


'An item before the Oct. 31 state Board of Public Works would give the Port permission to lower rates for “the lease and use of marine terminals or facilities owned by the MPA.”  '
*********************************************************

As we see in red------more and more Federal money coming to open this global port.....remember, the port was earning the state and local economy billions before this all started.  Look below and see rather than create jobs the investment firm is outsourcing jobs, automating much work and as expected----jobs are not created but destroyed.

'Last week, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski announced $21 million in federal Department of Homeland Security funds to support shipbuilding and repair jobs at the U.S. Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay'.

116 Port of Baltimore workers to lose jobs

Wed, 05/12/2010 - 6:16am The Associated Press

Amports Inc. will lay off 116 workers at two auto terminals at the Port of Baltimore this summer.




Longshoreman Strike Shuts Down Port of Baltimore
Port of Baltimore Shutdown: Longshoremen in solidarity with nationwide labor struggle -   October 17, 2013

*****************************************************
Here is an assessment of the Port of Baltimore before all these privatization deals took hold.  The port was healthy-----workers earning good wages, lots of smaller and regional businesses creating a broad economic base.....and now----one great big global corporation starting to strangle-hold the port economy.

NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS----WORKING TO STRANGLE THE LIFE OUT OF THE US ECONOMY!

Because of all this, the Maryland Port Administration says that the Port is a major source of personal and business revenue in the state, shown by these statistics:

  • The Port was responsible for $3.6 billion in personal wage and salary income in 2006.
  • The Port generated $1.9 billion in business revenues in 2006.
  • Local purchases by businesses directly dependent on port activity amounted to $1.3 billion.
  • Activities of the Port generated state, county and municipal taxes of $388 million.
  • The U.S. Customs Service collected $507 million in duties in 2005.

Published: June 2007      
Baltimore switch Ports America Inc, the port operating arm of AIG Global Investment Group, has entered into an agreement with Universal Maritime Services Corporation (UMS) to take over operations at the Dundalk Marine Terminal at the Port of Baltimore.



This is the standard hype given by neo-liberals as they know they are selling the citizens of Maryland to global corporations and profits.


STOP ALLOWING NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS TO PRIVATIZE ALL THAT IS PUBLIC!!

Ports America Chesapeake Successfully Closes 50-Year Lease and Concession Agreement To Operate and Upgrade The Seagirt Marine Terminal In The Port of Baltimore
BALTIMORE, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ --

Ports America Group ("Ports America") today announced that its subsidiary Ports America Chesapeake ("PAC") has successfully closed on a 50-year lease and concession agreement to operate the Seagirt Marine Terminal ("Seagirt") in the Port of Baltimore.  The concession was approved by the Maryland Board of Public Works on December 16, 2009.

The agreement provides more than $1.3 billion in value to the State of Maryland, creates 5,700 jobs, and delivers more than $15 million annually in new tax revenues.  Importantly, PAC will provide 100% of the funding to implement the Maryland Port Administration's ("MPA") long-standing vision and commitment to make Baltimore one of only two eastern ports capable of handling the large "Super Post Panamax" container ships that will begin calling the East Coast upon the completion of the Panama Canal widening project in 2014.  

"I share Governor Martin O'Malley's passion for the Port of Baltimore, and creating high quality jobs so critical to the Port's future and Maryland's competitiveness on the Atlantic seaboard," said Christopher Lee, Founder and Managing Partner of Highstar Capital.

"Baltimore is one of the best, most efficient ports in the country" Lee said. "I'm very proud to be a partner with the State of Maryland and look forward to our long association in making sure Baltimore maintains its great maritime heritage."

Commenting on the Baltimore Concession, Ports America Chesapeake CEO Mark Montgomery said: "We're proud and excited to work with the Maryland Port Administration, the International Longshoremen's Association, and all our ocean carrier customers, including Mediterranean Shipping Company and Evergreen, to help make this historic American port the most competitive facility on the East Coast."

Ports America is the largest independent American terminal operator and stevedore, with operations in 44 ports and 84 terminals. Ports America and its predecessor companies have served in the Port of Baltimore for over 88 years and have operated Seagirt since it was opened in 1990.

Ports America is owned by Highstar Capital, a leading independent operationally focused and value-added infrastructure investor that has directly invested over $5.2 billion of capital in infrastructure investments to date, primarily in the United States.  Ports America Chesapeake is the newly formed affiliate of Ports America that will be the day-to-day operator of Seagirt.

Goldman Sachs and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP served as financial advisor and legal advisor, respectively, to Ports America Chesapeake.  

About Ports America

Ports America, headquartered in Iselin, N.J., is the largest independent port terminal operator in North America, providing terminal management and a full suite of stevedoring and related services.  Ports America, including its predecessor companies, has almost 90 years experience operating American seaports. Its current business includes 44 ports and 84 terminals in North America, handling containers, roll on/roll off cargo, general cargo and cruise ship passengers and luggage.

For more information please visit Ports America's website at www.portsamerica.com

About Highstar Capital

Highstar Capital is an independent, owner-operated infrastructure investment fund manager with an operationally focused, value-added investment strategy.  Since it closed its first fund in 2000, Highstar has directly invested $5.2 billion for its limited partners and co-investors across its core infrastructure sectors of energy, environmental services and transportation.

For more information please visit Highstar Capital's website at www.highstarcapital.com

0 Comments

May 28th, 2014

5/28/2014

0 Comments

 
THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES HAVE US NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS COME IN TO ACT AS A GOVERNING STRUCTURE BECAUSE NO WESTERN-STYLE GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE IS THERE.  IN THE US------A FIRST WORLD COUNTRY BEING TAKEN THIRD WORLD, ALL OF OUR EXISTING GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE THAT MAKES THE PUBLIC KING IS BEING REPLACED BY THE SAME NON-GOVERNMENTAL STRUCTURES FOUND IN THE THIRD WORLD.  THIS IS HOW YOU BRING A FIRST WORLD TO THIRD WORLD.....ELIMINATE THE PUBLIC IN ALL AVENUES OF GOVERNMENT.

In Baltimore, this was preceded by a complete dismantlement of all public agencies of oversight and accountability back in the 1980s.  Right now, we have Baltimore Development Corporation and Johns Hopkins with their private non-profits running all public sector activities with absolutely no public oversight or accountability----JUST AS IS DONE IN A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY.  Just as in a third world country-----the entire system if rife with fraud and corruption.

SEE WHY CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND MUST NOT BE MENTIONED IN A GOVERNOR'S RACE -----ESPECIALLY IN BALTIMORE????

Continuing on the second phase of social reconstruction now that the few have all the money -----THE NEW ECONOMY OR 21ST CENTURY ECONOMY------means they are coming back for the rest of public property and assets.  I want to continue with the taking of public property to benefit the same corporations that owe trillions of dollars in corporate fraud.

You don't have to be living in a city to experience this----rural areas are seeing the same thing happen and it spurs from the State of Maryland allowing these billions stolen in fraud and billions in corporate subsidy to empty government coffers and force privatization of all that is public.

Across the state O'Malley and the Maryland Assembly are working to make government offices and taxpayers 'renters' because we wouldn't want the public actually owning government office buildings----not when we have a corporate government!!!!!  The ridiculous policy of having the Federal, state, and local government pay rent to private building developers further deteriorates any ability of the people to have revenue OR public assets and services.  With so many vacant buildings downtown Baltimore and across Maryland corporate pols----whether Erhlich as a republican or O'Malley as democrat and this ultra-corporate Maryland Assembly instead make renters of the citizens of Maryland.

That's not all folks.  All of that prime real estate attached to public housing that is no longer public housing------plant a affluent residential highrise on public land and VOILA----that developer is not paying any property taxes and gets all kinds of tax subsidy for decades just for making millions in profit.  So, we have M and T Stadium, Hyatt, and Hilton all with these public land with billion dollar corporations keeping any tax base from entering Baltimore City coffers.  tHE CITY RIGHT NOW IS STARVED FOR DECADES BECAUSE OF BAD DEALS THAT ARE SIMPLY PUBLIC MALFEASANCE AND HURTS THE ECONOMY OF THE CITY -----NOT HELP IT.


THE CITY IS GOING BANKRUPT SAYS MAYOR RAWLINGS-BLAKE----WE MUST SLASH PUBLIC SECTOR WAGES AND BENEFITS BECAUSE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PENSIONS LOST 1/2 THE VALUE FROM PENSION FRAUD THAT WE ARE NOT GOING TO SEEK JUSTICE TO RECOVER!!!!


Malfeasance in office
From Wikipedia
The court then went on to use yet another definition, "malfeasance is the doing of an act which an officer had no legal right to do at all and that when an officer, through ignorance, inattention, or malice, does that which they have no legal right to do at all, or acts without any authority whatsoever, or exceeds, ignores, or abuses their powers, they are guilty of malfeasance."

Nevertheless a few "elements" can be distilled from those cases. First, malfeasance in office requires an affirmative act or omission. Second, the act must have been done in an official capacity—under the color of office. Finally, that that act somehow interferes with the performance of official duties—though some debate remains about "whose official" duties.



People need to remember, the economy is being held hostage by global corporations and their pols who want the economy stagnant and unemployment high-----it makes them rich.  All we need is to rebuild a DOMESTIC ECONOMY with small and regional businesses where Maryland citizens own the businesses and Maryland citizens are employed by these businesses----gaining wealth and spending to drive the economy and -----VOILA-----A HEALTHY ECONOMY.  So, all of this poverty is created deliberately to create the conditions of moving all public wealth to the top.

THAT'S A NEO-LIBERAL AND NEO-CON FOR YOU-----WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT.  SEE WHY ONLY BROWN, GANSLER, AND MIZEUR ARE ALLOWED MEDIA AIR TIME IN MARYLAND----THEY ARE ALL AIDING AND ABETTING THESE POLICIES.  WHAT MASSIVE FRAUD AND CORRUPTION SAY BROWN, GANSLER, AND MIZEUR.


  It is especially important in Baltimore that my campaign is unknown because heaven forbid a candidate running on rebuilding oversight and accountability and public justice actually get elected!!!

Let's take a look at how they are fleecing our public coffers with fraud and corruption and outright bad public policy:



Baltimore has completely mortgaged its future with these corporate tax breaks that are proven to do nothing useful for the public good.  It is public malfeasance by politicians using policy that everyone knows harms the public-----and these corporate tax breaks do just that.
 

Rethinking Property Tax Incentives for Business
(Policy Focus Report) Author(s): Kenyon, Daphne A., Adam H. Langley, and Bethany P. Paquin
Publication Date: June 2012

$15.00; 76 pages; Inventory ID PF030; English; Paperback; ISBN 978-1-55844-233-7

FREE DOWNLOADS BELOW PURCHASE PRINT EDITION Rethinking Property Tax Incentives for Business PDF 3.66 MB
Abstract The use of property tax incentives for business by local governments throughout the United States has escalated over the last 50 years. While there is little evidence that these tax incentives are an effective instrument to promote economic development, they cost state and local governments $5 to $10 billion each year in forgone revenue.

Three major obstacles can impede the success of property tax incentives as an economic development tool. First, incentives are unlikely to have a significant impact on a firm’s profitability since property taxes are a small part of the total costs for most businesses—averaging much less than 1 percent of total costs for the U.S. manufacturing sector. Second, tax breaks are sometimes given to businesses that would have chosen the same location even without the incentives. When this happens, property tax incentives merely deplete the tax base without promoting economic development. Third, widespread use of incentives within a metropolitan area reduces their effectiveness, because when firms can obtain similar tax breaks in most jurisdictions, incentives are less likely to affect business location decisions.

This report reviews five types of property tax incentives and examines their characteristics, costs, and effectiveness: property tax abatement programs; tax increment finance; enterprise zones; firm-specific property tax incentives; and property tax exemptions in connection with issuance of industrial development bonds.


____________________________________________
If you haven't heard about the states who have been renting space for their Veterans Administration buildings now being told they will not receive some Federal funding because these agencies are no longer recognized after 50 years of renting space and outsourcing VA operations......AS IF THESE POLS ARE SURPRISED BY THIS ACTION......it is happening all across America.  The amount of taxpayer money lost to government renting private property is tremendous.  Maryland has placed this practice on steroids with Erhlich and O'Malley racing to hand all of government into corporate hands.

Do we really need a Baltimore City Hall if Baltimore Development Corporation and Johns Hopkins runs the city?  Why not have the City Council meet in an auditorium at the Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health? 


    When this article says these behaviors are not illegal------we need to ask-----if we know these decisions are not in the public interest and a politician takes an oath to protect and work in the public interest-----it becomes public malfeasance.

Below you see Baltimore's State Center being handed to private developers who get the benefit of building on public land, tax breaks for being there, and have the citizens of Maryland paying leases for government space to this developer.  Remember, the State of Maryland has dismantled all oversight and accountability and this is why the State Center has been emptied of agencies and employees.  The Department of Labor and Licensing DLLR is a shell of itself in this State Center facility.

NEO-LIBERALISM MEANS NO GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY AND ALL PROFIT GOES TO CORPORATIONS WHICH IN TURN WRITE ALL PUBLIC POLICY.  CITIZENS ARE ONLY NEEDED TO PAY EVER HIGHER TAXES TO SUPPORT ALL THIS CORPORATE SUBSIDY!!!! 



GOV. O'MALLEY ANNOUNCES BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS APPROVAL OF STATE CENTER LEASES

US Fed News Service, Including US State News July 29, 2010

ANNAPOLIS, Md., July 28 -- Gov. Martin O'Malley, D-Md., issued the following news release:

Governor Martin O'Malley announced today that by a unanimous, 3-0 vote the Board of Public Works approved long-term leases at two new office buildings to be built as part of the redevelopment of State Center in Baltimore City. The state commitment to lease office in the redevelopment provides the private sector development team with the ability to seek the private financing necessary to build the first phase of the project.

"The Board of Public works took a big step today in shaping Maryland's future and bringing thousands of jobs to the heart of Baltimore City," said Governor O'Malley. …



NOTHING BETTER THAN USING TAX PAYER MONEY TO FILL OFFICE SPACE FOR PRIVATE DEVELOPERS AND HAVE PUBLIC PROPERTY ASSURE NO TAXES, PHYSICAL UPGRADES TO LEASED PROPERTY, AND PUBLIC MAINTENANCE OF INFRASTRUCTURE!  AND AFTER 50 YEARS----THE PUBLIC IS HANDED A TEE SHIRT AND TOLD TO LEAVE.

End Of Lease Cleaning O'Malley 2606




“Why waste time and effort cleaning your rental property when End Of Lease Cleaning O'Malley can do it spotlessly and efficiently?  And, best of all affordably?”

The professionally trained and fully equipped cleaning team at End Of Lease Cleaning O'Malley will take your rental property from its current condition and return it to you spotlessly clean in no time.  You won’t need to worry about a thing. 

Landlords can be fussy when it comes to final inspections – after all they are only protected their asset.  But, with the expert cleaning services of End Of Lease Cleaning O'Malley, you will have the peace of mind knowing that professionals are taking care of returned your rental back to its cleanest condition.

End Of Lease Cleaning O'Malley Perform The Following End Of Lease Cleaning Jobs –

Vacuum Carpets, Vacuum & Mop Flooring, Dust & Wipe Ceiling Fans & Light Fittings

Remove Cobwebs, Dust & Wash Cupboards, Wardrobes, Drawers, Wipe Down Doors

Clean Skirting Boards, Spot Clean Walls, Clean Windows & Window Frames, Dust Blinds

Scrub Tiled Areas, Shower, Bath, Shower Screen, Bath, Remove Soap & Mould (Light) Residue

Clean Drawers, Vanity, Tapware, Sanitise Toilet, Degrease Exhaust Fans, Clean Sink

Clean Oven, Stove Top & Grill

End Of Lease Cleaning O'Malley Perform the Following Optional End Of Lease Cleans –

Clean Decking Areas, Driveways, Garage, Remove Cobwebs, Clean Windows, Carpet Steam Cleaning

Using the expert services of an end of lease cleaning service is a reliable way of ensuring your rental is returned to its owner in its cleanest possible condition.  Call End Of Lease Cleaning O'Malley when you’re looking for an end of lease cleaning service that ticks all the boxes when it comes to reliability, price and quality of cleaning services.




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Social Security office to move to downtown Towson next spring High-rise at 28 Allegheny Avenue will be new home



The Social Security Administration is moving its Towson office from the West Road Corporate Center at 110 West Road to the Penthouse Condominium high-rise at 28 Allegheny Avenue in downtown Towson next spring, and the move is being seen by some as a boon for the downtown area.

"All those people who work for or visit Social Security will be having breakfast or lunch or doing a little shopping," said Nancy Hafford, executive director of the Towson Chamber of Commerce.

Some residents of the 28-floor Penthouse, though, are concerned that the presence of SSA could be problematic — depending on how many people the office draws to the building.

"There has been some discussion about bringing strangers into the building and people tying up the elevators," said Julio Gonzales. "And parking might be a big problem."


SSA spokesman Aidan Diviny said the new location will offer "the same service" as what's offered on West Road, but could not provide information about how many employees would be making the move and how many visitors come to that site routinely.

Gina Blyther Gilliam, a spokeswoman for the General Services Administration, said in an email that the Social Security Administration currently occupies 11,365 square feet of office space at West Road, and has been there since June 2003.


She said the GSA awarded a lease for 11,618 square feet of office space with 45 parking spaces in May 2010 to Ravens Penthouse. The annual rent will be about $322,400, she said.

Towson resident Joe Werner, who owns the 300-space mid-rise garage adjoining the Penthouse, said he believes parking won't be a problem. Ravens Penthouse is providing free parking for the SSA, thanks to fifth- and sixth-floor parking spaces they will lease from him.

The Social Security offices will be on the fourth floor of the Penthouse, which is at street level on Joppa Road. It will feature an entrance for employees and delivery people.

Since street level is different in the front of the building, SSA clients will use the main entrance on Allegheny and be directed to walk up one flight of stairs to SSA on the fourth floor, Werner said. Most won't be using the elevators.

Those who are driving to the SSA office will park on the designated levels of his garage and take an elevator to the entrance to the Penthouse's fourth floor.

County Council member David Marks, who represents the 5th District, which includes Towson, said he's anxious for the Social Security move as a means of adding people to downtown Towson.

"Every little project produces more foot traffic," he said.

"There's a tremendous amount of action going on in the core," Marks said. "Allegheny Avenue will just be hopping. I hope we can spread that down York Road."




_________________________________________
This list looks the same in Baltimore City.  Public schools are being closed and often leased to charter schools and/or a private non-profit.  Now, Montgomery County residents are shouting about a shortage of public schools just as Baltimore residents are, yet all these schools are closed and are now rental property.
Can we use these schools for government business if indeed there is no need for them in these districts?  Many of these private non-profits look as though they are replacing the public sector health and social services.  Why does that matter?  There is no public transparency or oversight to assure equal protection and efficacy of programs.  This is why Maryland is having a rise in reports from the low-income community that they are not able to access many services, or the services received were poor.




OF COURSE WE CAN....YET, WE LEASE GOVERNMENT OFFICE SPACE.


Saturday, November 27, 2010

Montgomery Co. Leases for Closed School Sites

For your information, here is the list of leases for public school sites in Montgomery County for properties that are held in the name of the County.  (This list does not include properties that are held in the name of MCPS.)


How many of these leases include an option to buy? 


How many of these leases are standard Montgomery County lease forms signed by Montgomery County staff and how many of these leases have a unique arrangement and are signed by the County Executive. 


Post your results. A quick review of these documents shows that one of these leases stands out from all the rest. 

Closed Schools




1.Peary High School 
13300 Arctic Avenue
Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy
Lease

2. Aspen Hill Elementary School
4915 Aspen Hill Road
Sheppard Pratt Health Systems, Inc.
Lease

3. Alta Vista Elementary School
5615 Beech Avenue
Beth Country Day School
Lease

4. English Manor Elementary School
4511 Bestor Avenue
The Children's Learning Center
Lease
1st Amendment

5. Lower Parkside Elementary School
9504 Burnett Avenue
Acorn Hill School, Inc.
Lease

6. Forest Grove Elementary School
9805 Dameron Drive
Holy Cross Hospital
Lease

7. Dennis Avenue Health Center
2000 Dennis Avenue
Spanish Catholic Center, Inc.
Lease

8. Holiday Park Senior Center
3950 Ferrara Drive
Mental Health Association
Lease
1st Amendment

Holiday Park Senior Center
3950 Ferrara Drive
Interages
Lease 
9. Lone Oak Center
1010 Grandin Avenue
Centers For The Handicapped Inc
Lease
1st Amendment

10. Fernwood Elementary School
6801 Greentree Road
The Woods Academy
Lease

11. Gude Drive Shelter
600 E Gude Drive
Mobile Medical Care, Inc.
Lease

12. Randolph Junior High School
11710 Hunters Lane
Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School
Lease

13. Hillandale Elementary School
10501 New Hampshire Avenue
Centers For The Handicapped Inc
Lease

14. Colesville Elementary School
14015 New Hampshire Avenue
Maryland Child Services
Lease
1st Amendment 
Colesville Elementary School
14015 New Hampshire Avenue
Casa de Montessori
Lease 
Colesville Elementary School
14015 New Hampshire Avenue
Kappa Alpha Psi
Lease 
Colesville Elementary School
14015 New Hampshire Avenue
Colesville Council of Community Congregations, Inc.
Lease
1st Amendment 
Colesville Elementary School
14015 New Hampshire Avenue
Montgomery Volunteer Dental Clinic, Inc.
Lease
1st Amendment

Colesville Elementary School
14015 New Hampshire Avenue
Raising Hispanic Academic Achievement, Inc.
Lease

Colesville Elementary School
14015 New Hampshire Avenue
Bethah Associates
Lease

15. Clara Barton Community Center
7425 MacArthur Boulevard
Clara Barton Day Care Inc.
License
1st Amendment
2nd Amendment

16. Arylawn Elementary School
5650 Oakmont Avenue
YMCA
Lease
1st Amendment
2nd Amendment

17. Georgetown Hills Elementary School
11614 Seven Locks Road
The Ivymount School
Lease
1st Amendment

18. MacDonald Knolls Elementary School
10611 Tenbrook Drive
Centers For The Handicapped Inc
Lease
1st Amendment 
19. Broome School
751 Twinbrook Parkway
Threshold Services, Inc.
Lease


The lease for the Montgomery Hills Junior High School Closed School site is missing from this list.

That Closed School site is leased to the Yeshiva High School.

______________________________________________





To Rent Or Buy? For The Federal Government, It's Complicated

  By Laura Sullivan
Originally published on Wed February 12, 2014 3:25 pm

  • Listen 4:41


STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is supposed to manage federal relations with many Indian nations across the country. But the bureau is accused of doing a bad job managing its own affairs.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

It faces questions about leases it's signed for many of its offices. A recent government report found the agency violated multiple rules that will cost taxpayers millions.

INSKEEP: Experts say it's just the latest in a long list of problems when it comes to federal property management. They say the federal government has lost track of what it rents, what it uses and what it owns.

NPR's Laura Sullivan reports.

LAURA SULLIVAN, BYLINE: The interior department's inspector general's office took look at 14 of the BIA's leases and found problems with all of them. The agency was overpaying for space or renting too much of it. In some cases, the agency didn't have the authority to lease space at all, all of which cost taxpayers an extra $32 million last year.

Leslie Paige with Citizens Against Government Waste says when it comes to federal property, that sounds about right.

LESLIE PAIGE: This is not illegal. It's just simply bad management practices that there are no incentives to fix.

SULLIVAN: Every year the federal government spends $4.2 billion renting office space. Some agencies rent instead of own because they're in critical locations with specific security or workplace needs. But others are more curious. Take Health and Human Services in Rockville, Maryland. When its lease expires, it will have paid rent on a private building for 60 years. Leslie Paige says that's crazy.

PAIGE: The truth is, some of this stuff is the big-ticket items. These are very expensive boondoggles that are going on.

SULLIVAN: Recent government reports have found many others. The Environmental Protection Agency in Seattle is renewing a lease that will put it in its building for 50 years. And these rents aren't cheap. The Department of Commerce in Alexandria, Virginia pays $60 million year in rent. But Kurt Stout of Colliers International, who represents companies that lease to the government, says leasing gives agencies flexibility to grow, shrink, upgrade or move.

KURT STOUT: It's kind of like buying a car. Over time, the annual cost of repairs and maintenance and upgrades to your space, and even things like furniture and telecom, far outweigh the actual cost of the real estate itself.

SULLIVAN: But if you're going to own that car for 30, 40 or 60 years, at some point you're doing better when you just flat out own it.

STOUT: I would agree with that. The thing is, is that ultimately in the federal government, capital is scarce, so a dollar spent on real estate is a dollar not spent on something else that maybe is more fundamental to the federal government's mission. And with private capital so plentiful in the commercial real estate world, why not take advantage of it?


BUT WAIT----THAT PRIVATE CAPITAL IN THE REAL ESTATE WORLD IS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S MONEY STOLEN IN MASSIVE CORPORATE FRAUD OF TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS....SO THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT DEPLETE OF CAPITAL.....IT IS DEPLETE OF JUSTICE.

SULLIVAN: Capital is a huge problem. The government's watchdog group, the General Accountability Office, found in its reports that the government rarely has the money to cover the upfront costs of buying land and building, even if that means agencies will end up paying 10 times more than that in rent.

And then the situation gets more complicated. Once vested in a place, agencies start renovating space they don't even own. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in D.C. recently told Congress it plans to spend $95 million to renovate a building it's renting. The State Department, it just spent $80 million renovating office space for a lease that's up in five years.

It has an option to buy, but if it can't come up with the money, chances are the landlord will think about that when it's time to renegotiate the rent.

REPRESENTATIVE JASON CHAFFETZ: That's just is counterintuitive.

SULLIVAN: Congressman Jason Chaffetz from Utah sits on the Committee on Government Oversight and Reform. He's introduced legislation to help get rid of thousands of empty government buildings.

CHAFFETZ: When you see these departments and agencies leasing a building and then investing millions and millions of dollars to retrofit them for their specific needs, it just sort of drives you nuts. At the same time that we've got 77,000-plus buildings that are under-utilized.

SULLIVAN: Chaffetz says federal agencies like the General Services Administration have been unable to account for all the buildings the government owns so it's hard to know if they can be of use. General Services told Congress they're working on it. Laura Sullivan, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that what is happening below is happening in the US.  All of it involves fraud and malfeasance and can be reversed if we elect pols who want to do that.  This is why elections in the US are so controlled and orchestrated to make sure that the only people getting publicity are those that will keep the status quo.

WE NEED THE CITIZENS OF MARYLAND TO WAKE UP------


Wake-up Call Resist the Corporate State

World Bank and aid donors accused of enabling land grabs




by Ellie Violet Bramley    Guardian   May 21, 2014

Aid donors and international institutions including the World Bank and World Economic Forum (WEF) have been accused of promoting an environment that fuels land grabs through policies and initiatives that pave the way for large-scale private investment.

In a report published on Tuesday, the NGO ActionAid says public money and policy incentives such as tax breaks and cut-price loans are facilitating land deals that threaten the lives and livelihoods of small-scale farmers in poor countries.

ActionAid warns that the consequences of such deals, which are too often happening behind closed doors and with little or no consultation with local communities, include “forced evictions, human rights violations, lost livelihoods, divided communities … rising food insecurity and, ultimately, increased poverty”.


THAT SOUNDS FAMILIAR!!!!!!

A spokesman for the World Bank said it was also concerned about the risks of large-scale land deals and stressed that it did not support investments that took advantage of weak institutions in developing countries.

ActionAid’s report says weak governance and regulation of land use and agricultural investments have left millions of smallholder farmers and indigenous people in vulnerable situations “lack[ing] recognition over their land rights, even if they have resided in or used the area for generations”.

ActionAid’s campaign manager, Antoine Bouhey, said a “nexus of different policies” at the global level, which encourage private investment as a route to development, were also to blame.

“Governments are turning to private capital to fill the massive shortfall in public spending but too often this blind rush for investment is leading to land grabs which are leaving communities landless, homeless and hungry. Growth cannot be achieved at the expense of the poorest and most vulnerable,” he said.

The NGO’s report points to the G8′s New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition as one of the international initiatives “via which taxpayer money and public policies are fuelling land grabs” and failing to ensure strong safeguards to protect the poorest.

The New Alliance was condemned as a new form of colonialism this year, after African governments agreed to change seed, land and tax laws to encourage private investment.

Last month, World Development Movement, the anti-poverty group, said the New Alliance was in effect carving up Africa in the interests of big business.

ActionAid’s report also looks at how governments of developing countries are facilitating large-scale land deals through direct intervention in sales and lease agreements, and by introducing public policy incentives such as tax holidays for agribusiness investors.

It says such deals, often justified on the basis of attracting increased investment into food and farming, have come at great human cost.

Public and private investment should be redirected towards supporting sustainable agricultural practices suited to the needs of smallholder farmers, particularly women, says ActionAid. A “zero-tolerance approach” must be taken by governments over land grabs and the incentives that fuel them.

Most of the 1.4 billion people worldwide who live on less than $1.25 a day reside in rural areas and depend largely on agriculture for their livelihoods. Globally, an estimated 2.5 billion people are involved in small-scale agriculture.

A World Bank spokesman said the organisation provided roughly a third of all aid to support countries in improving governance of land tenure. “Securing access to land is critical for millions of poor people. Modern, efficient, and transparent policies on land rights are vital to reducing poverty and promoting growth, agriculture production, better nutrition, and sustainable development,” he said. “Our role is to be a leader in assisting countries to improve land governance and the behaviour of private investors.”

Lisa Dreier, a senior director working on food security and development at the WEF, said its New Vision for Agriculture helped found the Grow Africa initiative, which created 33,000 jobs and gave 2.6 million small farmers in Africa access to technology, financing and new markets.

“Smallholder farmers are key to the future success of Africa’s agriculture and governments can support them by implementing clear rules on land ownership that protect smallholder rights and encourage investment,” she added.
What is a land grab?

“Many land deals are, in fact, land grabs carried out without proper consultation, consent and compensation,” says ActionAid.

The NGO uses a definition of land grabs that draws on the Tirana declaration, agreed at a 2011 international conference. The declaration defines land grabs as deals that are “in violation of human rights, particularly the equal rights of women, not based on principles of free, prior and informed consent, or are in disregard or fail to thoroughly assess social, economic and environmental impacts, not based on transparent contracts … ” or are not based on “effective democratic planning, independent oversight and meaningful participation”.

Conclusive, independent data on the scale of land grabs worldwide is hard to come by. ActionAid’s report looks at data from the international Land Matrix project, which suggests that the vast majority of large-scale deals have been struck in sub-Saharan Africa (41%), south-east Asia (32%), and the Americas and Caribbean (19%).
- See more info at: http://farmlandgrab.org/


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May 27th, 2014

5/27/2014

0 Comments

 
STEALING THE WORKING-CLASS HOMES THROUGH FRAUD AND THEN FORCING THEM OUT OF THE CITY IN POVERTY----WOW.

PUBLIC LAND IN BALTIMORE IS DISAPPEARING AS OUR PUBLIC SPACES ARE NOW SIMPLY EXTENSIONS OF CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS AND THEIR LANDSCAPING.


WE DON'T NEED PUBLIC HOUSING------WE NEED PEOPLE OWNING THEIR OWN HOMES AS REHABS IN BLIGHTED COMMUNITIES.
  NO ONE IN THE CITY BENEFITS FROM THE FRAUD AND CORRUPTION IN BALTIMORE'S HOUSING DEVELOPMENT.

WHEN I WATCH AS BALTIMORE JUSTICE LEADERS SUPPORT ANTHONY BROWN OR DOUG GANSLER----KNOWING BOTH ARE THE FACE OF THE INJUSTICE IN BALTIMORE HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT----


We all know that the subprime mortgage fraud was designed to move massive amounts of public money to the top and to place much of the nation's real estate into the hands of the few.  We all know trillions of dollars in subprime mortgage fraud occurred and we have received no justice.  For those continually saying people bought houses that were too expensive---most people caught in this fraudulent scheme did nothing wrong.  The house flippers and working class buying McMansions was rare.  The people caught in this fraud were working/middle class people simply taking that second mortgage knowing they would pay it off years down the line. They were couples who bought a house a little more than they could handle with the idea of climbing the income ladder to afford what would be their life's investment.  THEY DID THIS BECAUSE THEY DID NOT KNOW MASSIVE FRAUD WAS OCCURRING AND WAS SCHEDULED TO TAKE DOWN THE ECONOMY.  So, the average person is not the cause of this housing crisis.  Let's look at Baltimore to see how all of this was a long-range plan that said

'TO HECK WITH GENTRIFICATION----WE ARE SIMPLY GOING TO LIE, CHEAT, AND STEAL THIS REAL ESTATE FROM THE CITIZENS OF BALTIMORE AND MARYLAND'.

It is Baltimore Development Corporation run through Johns Hopkins who contrived and enriched themselves on targeted housing fraud.  I showed the connection to the AIG spin-off HighStar that allowed all the fraud to occur and then had the US taxpayers pay 100% on the dollar for bets AIG made on loans they knew were fraudulent.  Maryland is still seeing huge foreclosures from these frauds as more and more real estate falls back into he hands of the people perpetrating the frauds.

SECOND PHASE OF THE MASSIVE CAPTURE OF WEALTH IN EUROPE AND THE US-----RECONSTRUCTING SOCIETY TO THE NORM OF 99% OF PEOPLE LIVING IN POVERTY.

This is called THE NEW ECONOMY------neo-liberals like to call it THE 21ST CENTURY ECONOMY.  It is a continuation of moving all that is public to the top through public private partnerships but it extends to the remaining public property and assets.  So, public parks, public gardens, public housing property, government buildings, government facilities are now all being taken private.  Know that $1 billion in public school construction connected to the same Wall Street that committed massive fraud and owes billions to the State of Maryland?  It is designed to send all those school buildings to private hands----national charter chains-----when the economy crashes and that will happen very soon.

THE SECOND PHASE OF SOCIAL TRANSITION IS PRIVATIZATION OF ALL PUBLIC PROPERTY AS WELL AS SERVICES.

Here in Baltimore that means housing and property is being handed over to connected people for nothing----well, not for nothing.  They are being paid for loyalty as this whole takeover happens.  This mirrors what US development and military do overseas when they hand a war lord a billion dollars to distribute buying people to work against the interests of the people they serve.  SAME THING HAPPENING IN AMERICAN CITIES -----THIRD WORLD FRAUD AND CORRUPTION.  Buying loyalty to protect against the majority of people getting mad as heck. 

We have an organization that calls for land banks---they are saying this private non-profit is working to help the public keep land that the Baltimore City Hall is handing away as fast as it can.  What it is doing is taking what is not privatized and placing it into a Land Trust supposedly for the people in these communities.  It is simply going to be held from public use until the powers that be are ready to use it.  It's being sold as helping to protect public land while it takes it private in these private Land Trusts.   WE ARE UNDER ATTACK BY NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGOs) that have worked overseas doing the same thing and now they are in the US in the real estate grab of the century.  For those that think urban areas and blight need this kind of action consider this----simply using the subprime mortgage fraud settlement of $1 billion would have rehabbed entire communities with more settlement from banks to come.  Instead---all this land is being given to the banks.  The working class and poor pushed out----are the ones who paid the taxes for decades supporting this city before Johns Hopkins made employment impossible for most in the city through public policy like outsourcing and importing labor from out of state. 

THIS IS WHAT JUSTICE FROM MASSIVE FRAUD LOOKS LIKE AND IT KEEPS HOME-OWNERSHIP IN THE HANDS OF WORKING/MIDDLE CLASS.

Instead, these people are being forced out of lifelong communities by landlords that fleeced them and now are charging too much rent and are being allowed to be slum landlords.



Land banking


From Wikipedia,

Land banking is the practice of aggregating parcels of land for future sale or development.

While in many countries land banking may refer to various private real-estate investment schemes, in the United States it refers to the establishment of quasi-governmental county or municipal authorities purposed with managing an inventory of surplus land.

Definition

Blighted Land in Philadelphia Land Banks are quasi-governmental entities created by counties or municipalities to effectively manage and repurpose an inventory of underused, abandoned, or foreclosed property. They are often chartered to have powers that allow them to accomplish these goals in ways that existing government agencies can not. While the land bank "model" has gained broad support and has been implemented in a number of cities, they are implemented differently so as to best address both municipal needs and the state and local legal context in which they were created.[1]


____________________________________________


People in Baltimore are being told that consolidating this land into parcels will allow them to maintain control from those predatory government officials sucking huge tracts of land and handing them out in pay-to-play schemes.  What you see company store scenarios where people who used to work for a public space now work for these quasi-governmental spaces.  IT IS VERY CREEPY PEOPLE.  Instead of having a public community garden that stays in public hands and is managed by public employees the people work on land that is not theirs, policy controlled by the private non-profit that is simply making use of the land until future development and in all cases-----the same people making away with all the land now, will be the same people coming back for these Land Trusts later with the people never having title.  Imagine if citizens of Baltimore were made the landowners of these gardens and could actually build a business of their own?

  WE NEED TO STOP THIS RIDICULOUS INSISTENCE THAT LAND NOT BE OWNED BY EVERYONE.  CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT HANDING PARCELS OF PROPERTY IN BLIGHTED NEIGHBORHOODS TO THE PEOPLE LIVING IN THOSE NEIGHBORHOODS-----PERHAPS FARMING IN THE CITY ON THEIR OWN LAND ARE BUILDING A BUSINESS THEY ACTUALLY OWNED? 

Land Trusts work to keep people from owning their own land and developing it the way they want to.  Look out 4 decades from now when Baltimore development has expanded and that land will be extremely valuable and it will to handed to the same people lying, cheating, and stealing everything in sight.....Baltimore Development, Johns Hopkins, and their crony corporate pols.


Look below how this neo-liberal approach to maximizing profits while keeping your hands on the real estate.  They have been doing this in China for these few decades.  This is from a Chinese real estate developer.


Neo-Liberalism land market in China, a case study of development of Mo'ganshan District, Shanghai

Neo Liberalismeverything's priced, everything's commodity, no government intervention
sooo…optimize the value of everything? at least two parties r both happy
(they also assume, land market will put the best function in its best-fit location, such as the offices in the middle of the city, then the residential further aways, bcoz location is so important that u need to occupy the most accessible center of the city with the functions generates the most money)


This policy is not democratic----it is not equal protection-----no Bill of Rights----it is not a healthy social structure as we are hearing all across the country.  It places most people in the position of never gaining wealth---of always being marginalized and we are talking of 70% of Americans now at poverty and those numbers growing.  So, WAKE UP MIDDLE-CLASS-----THIS IS THE FUTURE BEING BUILT FOR YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN.  You may think its fine for the poor but we are all being made poor as neo-liberalism creates third world !





Richard Roman: Use mortgage settlement money for victims

By / Guest columnist | January 26, 2014

Attorney fees in indigent defense cases prompted the question: "What's the price of justice?"

Unilaterally increasing the fees is not the answer. The Texas Constitution does not empower judges to burden taxpayers with increases in indigent defense expenditures.

Taking money from innocent homeowners victimized by the subprime mortgage crisis to pay for indigent defense is not justice.


El Paso families have been impacted by unexpected medical bills, layoffs and the government shutdown. Many fell behind on their mortgages. Dealing with less-than-compassionate banks was no help. Some banks were guilty of questionable practices.

Recently, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office settled mortgage lawsuits filed in E1Paso courts. Millions of dollars of relief were obtained for homeowners. Yet in December 2013, Abbott explained how settlement funds were used to fund Texas Indigent Defense Programs. Documents obtained through open records requests verified that foreclosure settlement funds were deposited into the Texas Judiciary Fund.



The U.S. Department of Justice and a group of state attorneys general recently settled with mortgage servicers to assist struggling homeowners.

Last November a $13 billion settlement that JP Morgan Chase reached with government regulators was touted as the "largest settlement with a single entity in American history."

The Los Angeles Times said that of the $13 billion, $7 billion was tax deductible and $4 billion was from a "separate" settlement (the Federal Housing Finance Agency). The remaining $2 billion was for promoting "lending in low-income communities." Eligible borrowers should begin receiving calls in March.


As for Texas, state Sen. Jose Rodriguez recently stated, "In the best of all possible worlds, the state ought to raise taxes to adequately fund civil legal services and indigent defense, but we all know that the state is not willing to do that at this time."

This funding debate is not limited to Texas.

New York Gov. Cuomo is in a dispute with the Working Families Party and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman over who gets $600 million from a foreclosure settlement Schneiderman negotiated with JP Morgan Chase. He argues his office has sole discretion over the money and it should go to homeowners. Cuomo said he and the Legislature should decide.

"This money should go where it's needed most - to underwater homeowners victimized by Wall Street's subprime crisis," said Working Families Party National Director Dan Cantor.

Critics argued that putting it in the state's general fund short-changes those who lost their homes in the mortgage crisis because the funds could be used for any purpose. They said that "similar settlements in the past, including those entered into by Cuomo when he was attorney general, stayed within the AG's office. None were this size, however".

An El Paso task force was created to look at indigent defense issues. Perhaps a task force should be formed to study "innocent" homeowner relief.

There was an unjustified $2 million increase in private reimbursements for indigent defense this year. An additional $500,000 is being sought for the remainder of the fiscal year. County Judge Veronica Escobar said the county will "pull the money from our contingencies if we are forced to do it."

The Council of Judges has been asked to reconsider their vote to raise attorney fees. Attorneys should be fairly compensated for their indigent defense work. However, money secured from mortgage litigation should go where it's needed most - to innocent homeowners victimized by the subprime mortgage crisis, not towards funding indigent defense.

Gov. Cuomo and Attorney General Schneiderman appear to have settled their dispute over how New York will use mortgage settlement funds.

Perhaps Texas and El Paso County can do the same.


_______________________________________
What we are seeing outside Baltimore and Maryland is an increase of public space and public gardens.  Expanding these designations into blighted areas allows for a feeling by citizens that they are invested in these properties.  Add to this dimension the use of subprime mortgage fraud to rehab tons of blighted homes for the people living in the community and VOILA-----YOU HAVE URBAN RENEWAL THAT BRINGS EVERYONE INTO THE PICTURE.

What Baltimore is doing is opposite of this.  It is clawing back public space----re-designating public space for these activities as Land Trusts under non-profits or handing them to private individuals who simply sit on the property until they are ready to develop all the while having a community garden with sweat equity having to leave at a moments notice.

THIS IS THE THIRD WORLD-----THIS IS A COMPANY TOWN APPROACH THAT JOHNS HOPKINS PUSHES BECAUSE IT WANTS TO CONTROL ALL LAND AND POLICY IN THE CITY.



Public Harvest: Expanding the use of public land for urban agriculture in San Francisco
Linked by Michael Levenston




SPUR offers 11 recommendations to expand and coordinate the city’s institutional support, increase funding and provide more access to public land.

By SPUR – San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association
April 2012, 36 pages

Excerpt – Executive Summary:

Urban agriculture has captured the imagination of many San Franciscans in recent years. Two dozen gardens and farms have sprouted across the city since 2008, and in 2011 the city changed its zoning code to permit urban agriculture in all neighborhoods. Interest in urban agriculture stems from its numerous benefits. City farming and gardening provides San Franciscans with vibrant greenspaces and recreation, education about fresh food and the effort it takes to produce it, cost savings and ecological benefits for the city, sites that help build community, and a potential source of modest economic development. But the city will not fully capture these benefits unless it responds to the growing interest and energy behind the issue.



The demand for more space to grow food is strong. Surveys since 2005 have consistently demonstrated long waiting lists at many of the city’s community gardens. In most cases, residents must wait more than two years to get access to a plot. The launch of more than 20 new urban agriculture projects in the past four years, some of which are communally managed and involve greater numbers of people than traditional plot-based gardens, is another indication that the current amount of land dedicated to urban agriculture is insufficient.

The challenge ahead is matching residents’ interest with public resources. Private land and private funding alone are not sufficient to meet the demands for urban agriculture space in our dense city. Instead, the city must improve its existing programs and expand the availability of public land, funding and institutional support.

Currently, at least seven city agencies provide monetary support and 11 agencies provide land to city gardeners and farmers. Though well-intentioned, their support is largely uncoordinated, understaffed and, as a result, inefficient. While city funding for urban agriculture has increased during the past five years, it has decreased from a peak a decade earlier and is in the middle range when compared to other large American cities.

For San Francisco to reap the many benefits of urban agriculture, SPUR recommends that the city expand and coordinate its institutional support, increase funding and improve funding efficiency, and provide more access to public land.


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This is what we know is happening.  The very people committing the frauds are now getting the Federal money to buy and build the land vacated be residents victimized by these mortgage frauds and the economic collapse caused from the massive fraud.  We all want development in Baltimore but we want Rule of Law and Equal Protection driving that development. 

THIS IS NOT A THIRD WORLD PROPERTY GRAB.

Baltimore has hundreds of millions owed from the postage stamp mortgage settlement and billions more when the rest of justice in these frauds are gained.  It has $700 million owed just from the court award for the state underfunding Baltimore City schools which needs to go into this rehabbing process.  The Federal and State money sent to Enterprise Zone development that never met the requirement of low-income housing has hundreds of millions of dollars coming to these communities. 

THERE IS PLENTY OF MONEY TO HAND HOME-OWNERSHIP TO LARGE NUMBERS OF WORKING CLASS AND POOR IN BALTIMORE.  THERE IS PLENTY OF PROPERTY TO BE HANDED TO THESE SAME COMMUNITIES IN PUBLIC PARKS AND GARDENS.

It is to no one's benefit other than the few connected to this massive fraud and corruption in Baltimore City land grab to allow a few to amass control of large parcels of land.  Having huge development corporations owning entire communities-----REALLY????? 

WAKE UP PEOPLE----THIS IS THIRD WORLD DEVELOPMENT BY PEOPLE ENRICHED FROM THIRD WORLD MASSIVE FRAUD!


The Chicago Reporter / By Angela Caputo 13 COMMENTS

Federal Dollars Help Gentrifying Neighborhoods, Not Most Distressed Communities The federal program designed to help blighted communities recover from the foreclosure crisis, helps gentrifying communities more than those that need financial support.


May 24, 2014  |           The following was originally published in  The Chicago Reporter. 

The house at 4419 N. Kimball doesn’t have much curb appeal. It’s an aluminum-sided, American foursquare on a narrow lot with a patch of grass for a front yard that’s barely big enough for a folding chair.

Two years ago, it sat empty — a casualty of the foreclosure crisis, one of thousands of single-family houses and apartment buildings left vacant across Chicago. But the building’s prospects started looking up in 2011 when it was acquired through the federally-backed Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

Money poured into the Albany Park house. New hardwood floors were hammered into place and granite countertops were installed in the kitchen. The private developer was contracted to rehab the house by a nonprofit organization. That nonprofit was hired by the city to oversee the program. When it hit the market, the three-bed, two-bath home — with stainless-steel appliances, two-car garage, small backyard and a bonus room in the basement —  sold for $187,000. And the public was handed a $594,359 bill.

Chicago began receiving program money in 2009, roughly a year after the housing market crashed. In the six years since, the city has collected $169 million — of which $140 million went to rehabbing and demolishing homes. Phil Ashton, an urban planning professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, says the federal aid “was never enough money to put a dent in the foreclosure problem.” It was, however, the first big chunk of federal money sent to Chicago to address the vacant properties left in the wake of the foreclosure crisis. And in the city’s poorest neighborhoods, where vacant homes can be bought for the price of a car, the hope was that it would go a long way.

But records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show the city spent money on buildings with luxury finishes in gentrifying areas while distressed properties in some of the city’s hardest hit neighborhoods were left to languish. In their grant proposal to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, city officials pledged to rehab 2,800 units, a combination of apartments, condos and single-family homes. Less than one-third were completed.

Darlene Dugo, a regional vice president for Mercy Housing Portfolio Services, the nonprofit hired by the city to manage the program, chalks up the shortcoming to unforeseen circumstances. “We thought that you’d only need to put in $60,000 per unit but when we got into the properties, we found that they were gut rehabs,” she said.

Gut rehabs that, in many cases, were finished off with “condominium-grade finishes” like stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops, luxuries that Dugo says are standard in some of the neighborhoods her organization was tasked with targeting.

“We want to make sure we’re putting out a product that has sustainability,”Dugo added. “We want to give them the finishes they deserve.”

A tale of two neighborhoods

If ever there was a place in need of foreclosure relief, it’s Roseland, a beat up corner of Chicago’s Far South Side where the owners of tidy, single family homes are losing the battle over blight.

Roseland ranks third in the city for likely vacant residential properties, according to our analysis of foreclosure-related vacancies dating back to 2008. There are nearly 700 empty houses and apartment buildings sprinkled along blocks filled with tiny homes on wide lots. Central Roseland is the  hardest hit corner of the community, and no matter how hard neighbors try to maintain a semblance of order — potting plants and manicuring their lawns — their attempts are overshadowed by boarded up houses and weed-strewn lawns.


0 Comments

May 26th, 2014

5/26/2014

0 Comments

 
HELLO EVERYONE,

I AM ON HOLIDAY AND WILL SIMPLY POST AN OLD BLOG-----IT IS CRITICAL ON THIS MEMORIAL DAY THAT WE REMEMBER WE AS A SOCIETY HAVE A DUTY TO OUR PUBLIC SERVICE PEOPLE AND TROOPS TO FIGHT FOR THEIR RIGHTS AND PROMISED BENEFITS.  VETS ARE BEING REDUCED TO CHARITY AS THE VETERANS ADMINISTRATION IS DISMANTLED.....OUR MILITARY IS BEING PRIVATIZED TO A MERCENARY GLOBAL CORPORATE MILITARY, AND OUR POLICE AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS ARE  BEING PRIVATIZED SO THE POLICE NO LONGER FEEL THEY ARE PUBLIC SERVANTS BUT AN EXTENSION OF THIS GLOBAL MILITIA.

I WILL BE BACK TUESDAY WITH A NEW BLOG!!!!!

Neo-cons and neo-liberals are working hard to privatize the US military.  Clinton started it and now Obama and Hillary have this on steroids.  Last count it appears that over 70% of US military is private military contractors.  The Defense Department was given the green light by neo-liberals in Congress and Obama to recruit troops overseas who are not citizens but will work as a US military contractor employee in nations around the world.

Remember, a public military is sworn to protect WE THE PEOPLE AND OUR NATION.  A private military contractor employee simply works for that global corporation and falls under no US Rule of Law.  This means that these troops will not look at US citizens as those to be protected but will act in defense of corporations and their profits.

THIS IS WHAT TOTALITARIANISM LOOKS LIKE FOLKS!


An extension of this is the fact that these private military employees are now coming back to the US to work as police and special forces in states across America.   People living in Baltimore know that Baltimore police have gotten brutal in their approach to people they encounter.  People are dying from simple infractions and are jailed as 'resisting arrest' when people pull away from what we know are illegal acts by police.  Cities across the US have as a goal of privatizing police and fire departments as an extension of these military contracting corporations.  We already see in Charles Village ---Baltimore----Bank of America guarded by a global security force.

THIS IS WHAT TOTALITARIANISM LOOKS LIKE FOLKS!!!


Remember, the US has a Constitution that provides Equal Protection under law and that provides a Bill of Rights that protects our civil rights and liberties.  When a rogue government comes in and suspends Rule of Law they are acting illegally.  The Supreme Court is impeachable for rulings that seek to take away the rights of US citizens.  So, all of these policies and rulings CAN BE REVERSED. 

STOP ALLOWING A NEO-LIBERAL DNC CHOOSE YOUR CANDIDATES----RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES.



Below is my blog on the privatization of military and police:




Regarding VoteVets.org as a political PAC for 21st Century Patriots:

Raise your hand if you understand that dismantling the entire public structure of the Veterans Administration and handing it to corporate private non-profits to make veterans beg for charity rather than receive the promised support being a member of the US military awards!!!!!! EVERYONE.

WE NOW HAVE TV COMMERCIALS ASKING AMERICANS TO DONATE TO VETERANS NON-PROFITS BECAUSE THE VETERANS ADMINISTRATION IS BEING DISMANTLED.

At the same time we are hearing vets tell us they are getting no help from this private non-profit structure and the public VA has been gutted of staff.

Below you see how far neo-liberals have gone into third world politics. Today, the Maryland people had to listen to what should be public media------but is corporate and captured media-----go so far as to pretend that the group below actually works for veterans. This is an example of a private non-profit pretending to be progressive that is a great big neo-liberal private military contractor group. When you hear the words 21st Century Patriots you know you are listening to the private military complex and no doubt there are veterans of private military corporations. The US military is over 70% mercenary thanks to Bush, Obama, and Hillary. So, do corporate veterans care about the US military public troops? WELL, IT LOOKS NOT!

What this PAC represents is the killing of public sector unions or in this case public sector military and its benefits. Blackwater retirees would be the 21st Century Patriots for example.

Knowing this------it would be understandable that VOTEVETS would be backing Anthony Brown because O'Malley/Brown has been 100% behind privatization of the Veterans Administration in Maryland. See how it sounds different when you know what a private non-profit group is about? Indeed, this PAC is backing the most privatizing of Wall Street candidates because it is heavily invested in this private military complex. The absurdity of Maryland campaign of Brown, Gansler, and Mizeur is that they are all neo-liberals who will work to privatize the VA as well. So, Gansler bashing Brown is like Bush bashing Cheney.

PLEASE KNOW WHAT THESE CAMPAIGN PACs REPRESENT----THEY WILL ALL PRETEND TO BE PROGRESSIVE!

If a PAC supports the most Wall Street global corporation in the race for Governor of Maryland------it is a private mercenary patriot group.


O'MALLEY/BROWN HAS PLACED PRIVATIZATION OF VETERANS ADMINISTRATION ON STEROIDS IN MARYLAND SO WHY WOULD A VET GROUP SUPPORT BROWN?  GANSLER WOULD BE JUST AS BAD.

VOTEVETS DEMANDS APOLOGY FROM GANSLER FOR SLUR AGAINST VETERANS


By VoteVets.org | Press Release
PUBLISHED: April 21, 2014

Annapolis, MD – The largest progressive group of veterans in America, with over 400,000 supporters, VoteVets.org PAC, is demanding an apology from Attorney General Doug Gansler for saying that those troops who served in Iraq didn’t have “real jobs.”

At a forum this morning, Gansler said, “You know I’m running against somebody [Iraq War Veteran, Lt. Gov Anthony Brown] who has never managed anybody, never run anything, you know his ads are about how he was a lawyer in Iraq, and that’s all fine and good but this is a real job.”

In response, Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org said, “Doug Gansler needs to stop smearing those of us who served in Iraq as not having had a ‘real job.’ It’s a horrible insult to all those men and women who put their lives on the line, and especially those who died, in service to this country. Additionally, Mr. Gansler, if he chooses to attack an Iraq War Veteran, ought to at least admit that the person he is attacking has been serving as Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor. This kind of slime ball politics is what turns people off to our democratic process, so Mr. Gansler is doing no favors for Maryland or our democratic electoral system by playing in the gutter like this.”

VoteVets.org PAC endorsed Brown’s campaign.

Founded in 2006, the mission of VoteVets.org Political Action Committee is to elect Veterans to public office, with a focus on Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, and hold public officials accountable for their words and actions that impact America's 21st century troops and veterans. Though VoteVets.org PAC is non-partisan, candidates it backs must support VoteVets.org's core mission and beliefs.

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Maryland is ground zero for surveillance industries.  This is no doubt why our election process is captured because you need to be selective as to who would support this road to totalitarianism.

Johns Hopkins built their own surveillance corporations all from taxpayer money funneled to them by Mikulski, Cardin, and Cummings.  SAIC is one such corporation headquartered in VA and MD now building surveillance systems in cities across America.  Believe me-----this is not about keeping people in poor communities safe or keeping the middle-class safe from crimes of poverty.....it will be used as a tool against citizens living in a first world taken to a second world and now moving to a third world society.  THEY KNOW WE THE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE ANGRY.




Combatting the Surveillance Industrial Complex


August 9, 2004

THE PRIVATIZATION OF SURVEILLANCE
The U.S. security establishment is rapidly increasing its ability to monitor average Americans by hiring or compelling private-sector corporations to provide billions of customer records. The explosive growth in surveillance by government and business is creating a "Surveillance-Industrial Complex" (PDF) that threatens all of our privacy.
 

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ABOUT THE REPORT
This report makes the case that, across a broad variety of areas, the same dynamic of the "privatization of surveillance" is underway. Different dimensions of this trend are examined in depth in four separate sections of the report:

"Recruiting Individuals."
Documents how individuals are being recruited to serve as "eyes and ears" for the authorities even after Congress rejected the infamous TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System) program that would have recruited workers like cable repairmen to spy on their customers.

"Recruiting Companies." Examines how companies are pressured to voluntarily provide consumer information to the government; the many ways security agencies can force companies to turn over sensitive information under federal laws such as the Patriot Act; how the government is forcing companies to participate in watchlist programs and in systems for the automatic scrutiny of individuals' financial transactions.

"Mass Data Use, Public and Private." Focuses on the government's use of private data on a mass scale, either through data mining programs like the MATRIX state information-sharing program, or the purchase of information from private-sector data aggregators.

"Pro-Surveillance Lobbying." Looks at the flip side of the issue: how some companies are pushing the government to adopt surveillance technologies and programs based on private-sector data.


_____________________________

Keep in mind that Egypt has a state structure with the military as the most powerful branch of government and that there are large numbers of 'generals' in Egypt that are billionaires everyone knows are simply extensions of Wall Street.  It is this military structure that is being built in the US now and we must stop it.

Do not sit and allow police brutality to occur in your city or community because it is the canary in the cage.  Baltimore has over 20 citizens killed unjustly with no accountability in just a few years.  This is unheard of in a democracy.  Placing City Hall and police and fire departments with separate benefit plans and wages from other public sector employees is a sign of creating a tiered class surrounding corporate governance.  You see with the dictators toppled this decade it is always this small group of administrative class that fights for the dictator.

These are the things we need to watch for and stop in their tracks.  It is happening in small increments so do not allow it to expand!


A Capitalist System Gone Awry

The Military Industrial Complex has solidified its ties and deeply inserted his long horns into the arteries of the American taxpayers.

By Rev. Richard Skaff

December 10, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -  Creating wars to feed the blood-thirsty and greedy beast of the military industry complex has been a common practice in an allegedly democratic nation. Taxpayers’ have flipped this bill for decades under the guise of self-preservation and protection. As always government has used fear to fashion people’s consent and obedience. Meanwhile, corruption is prevalent, our national debt is skyrocketing, and our parasitic superpower is broke. Parasitic it is, because you can’t become super-rich or super-powerful unless you suck the blood and the life out of someone else. In this case, it is the taxpayers (the proles).

Under the guise of the Private-Public Partnership (PPP) phenomenon, the Military Industrial Complex has solidified its ties and deeply inserted his long horns into the arteries of the American taxpayers. Citizens for responsibility and ethics in Washington (CREW) has recently issued a scathing and disturbing report exposing this unethical and frightening phenomenon where high-ranking generals and admirals earn their stars, their stripes, and then, they earn their the big cash.

The CREW report found that 70 percent (or 76) of the 108 three-and-four star generals and Admirals who retired between 2009 and 2011 took jobs with defense contractors or consultants. In at least a few cases, the retirees have continued to advise the Department of Defense while on the payroll of defense contractors, suggesting the Pentagon may not always be receiving unbiased counsel.

The retired generals and admirals moving into the private sector in general do not appear to be breaking any rules. Nonetheless, their heavily traveled path through the military-industrial complex continues to raise important questions about the intersection of national security and the interests of private companies that stand to make billions of dollars. [1].

A 2010 Boston Globe investigation revealed that the number of retired three-and-four star Generals and admirals moving into lucrative defense industry jobs rose from less than 50 percent between 1994 and 1998 to a stratospheric 80 percent between 2004 and 2008, findings that brought new scrutiny to this unethical revolving door. [2], [1]

CREW’s research shows the number of high-level retirees taking those jobs has since ticked down, though the vast majority of retiring generals and admirals continue to sign on with defense contractors vying for their services.

Every year, the Pentagon awards hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts to the
defense industry. [3], [1] Retired generals, with their strong relationships, robust contact lists, and insider knowledge, are valuable assets in the competition for contracts and can easily make more than their base pay – currently $164,221 per year for a three-star general and $179,700 for a four-star general – by serving on a single corporate board. [4], [1]

A recent study found that when a defense company announced the hiring of a former defense department political appointee, on average, the company’s stock price increased. [5], [1] The relationship was statistically weak but positive, suggesting investors believe such hires bring benefits. [5], [1]

In 2011 alone, the Department of Defense committed to spending nearly $100 billion
with the five largest defense contractors – Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman. [3], [1] At least nine of the top-level generals and admirals who retired between 2009 and 2011 took positions with those five companies.
In addition, 12 generals who retired during that period have gone on to work for Burdeshaw Associates, a “renta-general” consulting firm specializing in helping companies obtain defense contracts. [2], [1]

Burdeshaw’s clients have included Northrop Grumman. [2], [1]

Further, CREW found some retired generals and admirals work for defense contractors
while they continue to advise the Pentagon. Per example, both Gen. James Cartwright, who retired from the U. S. Marine Corps on September 1, 2011 after serving as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Gary Roughead, who retired from the Navy in 20119 after serving as the chief of naval operations, were appointed to the Defense Policy Board on October 4, 2011. [6]. [1] The board’s charter mandates that it provide the secretary of defense “with independent, informed advice and opinion concerning major matters of defense policy.” [7], [1]

Gen. Cartwright, shortly after his retirement, was elected to the Raytheon Co. board of
directors. [8], [1]

Raytheon, a public company that reports director compensation, disclosed paying
each of its non-employee directors an $85,000 annual cash retainer in 2011, as well as a $1,500 meeting fee for each board or committee meeting attended in person or by teleconference.[9], [1]

In addition, directors received $120,000 worth of restricted stock grants in 2011. [9], [1] Gen. Cartwright is also on the board of advisors of TASC, Inc., [10], [1] a former subsidiary of Northrop Grumman that advises military agencies, [11], [1] and a member of the U.S. federal advisory board of Accenture Federal Services.[12], [1].

Less than four months after his retirement, Adm. Roughead joined Northrop Grumman’s
board, for which he is paid $115,000 per year. [13], [1] Northrop Grumman, a public company that reports director compensation, will also pay him an additional $10,000 per year for serving on the board’s audit committee, and he receives an annual grant of $130,000 in deferred stock.[13], [1] Adm. Roughead also sits on the strategic advisory council of The SI Organization, [14], [1] a systems engineering and integration company previously owned by Lockheed Martin. [15], [1].

In some cases the revolving door spun quickly, with senior military officers retiring and
almost immediately taking industry jobs related to their military work. The examples are numerous (see CREW report for more details about our generals). In addition, the revolving door doesn’t stop at the generals’ doors but expands its horns to the lobbyists.

CREW’s research shows defense companies also covet lobbyists with backgrounds in appropriations and strong connections on the Hill. CREW analyzed the employment history of in-house lobbyists registered on behalf of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and General Dynamics as of the first quarter of 2012 and found at least 68 percent had prior public sector experience. Nearly half of the 84 lobbyists had worked for Congress. In addition, 21 percent, or 18 lobbyists had worked for a federal agency. Of those lobbyists with experience on the Hill, roughly a third – 14 lobbyists – had worked for either the House or Senate Appropriations Committees, the powerful panels responsible for directing billions of dollars in government spending. There were also other connections to the appropriations committees: of the 16 lobbyists who worked directly for members of Congress, seven had worked for members of the appropriations committees. [1]

The five companies spend millions of dollars on federal lobbying every year, and receive
billions of dollars in federal contracts. Lobbying records show their collective spending on lobbying increased by nearly 40 percent between 2007 and 2011, skyrocketing from $44.6 million to $62.3 million. Over the same period, the total amount of dollars committed to them in federal contracts increased by roughly 13 percent, growing from $100.61 billion in fiscal year 2007 to $113.28 billion in fiscal year 2011.[48]

The five companies spent roughly $33 million lobbying during the first half of this year,
indicating a likely overall increase for 2012 as well. As defense contractors step up the fight against planned budget cuts, well-connected lobbyists and senior military personnel are likely to become even more valuable. [1]

Boeing

  • Registered lobbyists as of first quarter 2012: 25

  • Revolving door lobbyists: 21

  • Amount spent on lobbying since 2007: $86.93 million

  • Campaign contributions since 2008 cycle: $7.58 million [2]

  • Top congressional recipients of campaign contributions during the 2012 election cycle:

  • Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA), Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)

  • Total dollars obligated to Boeing for Defense Department contracts in 2011: $20.49 billion. [1]

General Dynamics

  • Registered lobbyists as of first quarter of 2012: 10

  • Revolving door lobbyists: 2

  • Amount spent on lobbying since 2007: $53.08 million

  • Campaign contributions since 2008 cycle: $4.79 million [2]

  • Top congressional recipients of campaign contributions during the 2012 election cycle: Rep.

  • Buck McKeon (R-CA), Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI)

  • Total dollars obligated to General Dynamics for Defense Department contracts in 2011:

  • $17.98 billion. [1]

Lockheed Martin

  • Registered lobbyists as of first quarter 2012: 26

  • Revolving door lobbyists: 18

  • Amount spent on lobbying since 2007: $74.23 million

  • Campaign contributions since 2008 cycle: $ 8.03 million [2]

  • Top congressional recipients of campaign contributions during the 2012 election cycle: Rep.

  • Buck McKeon (R-CA), Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL)

  • Total dollars obligated to Lockheed Martin for Defense Department contracts in 2011:

  • $35.76 billion. [1]

Northrop Grumman

  • Registered lobbyists as of first quarter 2012: 10

  • Revolving door lobbyists: 7

  • Amount spent on lobbying since 2007: $83.85 million

  • Campaign contributions since 2008 cycle: $6.19 million [2]

  • Top congressional recipients of campaign contributions during the 2012 election cycle: Rep.

  • Buck McKeon (R-CA), Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD)

  • Total dollars obligated to Northrop Grumman for Defense Department contracts in 2011:

  • $11.88 billion. [1]

Raytheon

  • Registered lobbyists as of first quarter 2012: 13

  • Revolving door lobbyists: 9

  • Amount spent on lobbying since 2007: $36.84 million

  • Campaign contributions since 2008 cycle: $5.85 million [2]

  • Top congressional recipients of campaign contributions during the 2012 election cycle: Sen.

  • Scott Brown (R-MA), Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA), Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI)

  • Total dollars obligated to Raytheon for Defense Department contracts in 2011: $13.57

  • Billion. [1]

Conclusion
Finally, The CREW report titled “Strategic maneuvers, the Revolving Door from the Pentagon to the Private Sector” is a stunning report of immense importance because it clearly exposes a capitalist system that has gone awry. The Defense Industry as well as other global corporations have co-opted and owned everyone in the Federal government under the guise of Public-Private Partnership. All of the watchdogs have been transformed into lap-dogs and sacrificed their integrity and country for few dollars and for ephemeral power. Meanwhile, the public continues its unconscious path by empowering the ten horned beast that has devoured everyone in its path.

The final solution would be to kill this beast by ceasing the cash nexus that perpetuates its strength, and to dethrone the harlot (our public leaders and elected officials) who is riding him and driving the American people and the nation into the abyss.


______________________________________________





Monday, May 25, 2009

Privatizing the Police: A Developing Model in the U.S.A.


By Jody Ray Bennett

Three months after 9/11, The New York Times ran a quiet story that highlighted a developing trend concerning a sudden increase in the number of police officers retiring from their jobs for careers with private security companies (PSCs). “The heightened hunger for private protection in the aftermath of history's worst terrorist attacks is fueling the potentially destabilizing exodus,” the story claimed.

The daily suspected that police officers were being lured by the lucrative salaries and benefits offered by the private sector, finding that within the New York Police Department, a “supervisor who plays matchmaker between retired officers and security firms [was] asked to provide hundreds of names to industry executives.”

Indeed, the article identified what at the time was thought of as a marginal development, but is now almost commonplace:

“In the Sept. 11 disaster that never seems to stop exacting its toll, one of the subtler but more serious losses is a consequence of the booming private security industry, which is draining the [NYPD] of some of its most desirable workers: the serious, smart and experienced senior officers the city needs most in a crisis.”

Fast forward nine years later and one finds a young industry built almost entirely on the backs of former military and police personnel who have provided everything from diplomatic, convoy, embassy, weapon storage and energy infrastructural security to gathering intelligence, conducting interrogations, patrolling borders on land, fighting pirates at sea and transporting goods and personnel by air. It would seem there is nothing these forces cannot do.

On private patrol

Policing some of the most dangerous US cities has quickly become the newest line of business for many of these companies, which have already replaced police officers in cities from Portland to Baltimore.

The phenomenon runs deeper than the normal shopping center or bank security guard. While in many cases private security personnel act more as city cleanup, organization or local ambassadors, some cities are pushing for armed private security personnel to patrol the streets, perform arrests and transport civilians. This is somewhat of a cause for concern, especially because of the more controversial issues surrounding the role of private military and security companies abroad in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Cities are turning to the private sector for a variety of reasons. Some local and state governments are under pressure from budget deficits and are often convinced that privatized industries are more cost-effective than state agencies and bureaucracies. Other cities have an already overstretched force that cannot respond to increases in crime, so private contractors are seen as a quick fix and an easy force multiplier.
 
From Oakland to New Orleans

Oakland, California is the latest city looking to hire private companies to patrol some of its rougher neighborhoods in the wake of record municipal budget deficits. Last April, according to the Wall Street Journal, the city successfully voted to outsource part of its police patrol to International Services Inc, but later retracted after “two of its vice presidents were accused […] by the Los Angeles District Attorney's office of defrauding the state of California out of more thanUS$9 million in workers compensation.”

According to the daily Portland Mercury newspaper, Portland, Oregon’s downtown area is patrolled by armed personnel with arrest powers that are supplied by Portland Patrol, Inc, a company which, according to local media, has repeatedly evaded requests to appear before the city’s oversight committee.

Over 2,000 miles away, Chicago has turned to a company that currently operates in police-like automobiles marked “special patrol,” according to CBS News, and are expected to have their powers expanded as the city combats increased crime rates with an overstretched police force.

Down south in New Orleans, Louisiana, armed private guards patrol wealthy neighborhoods and private schools. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, “Some areas of New Orleans have used armed private patrols since 1997, when residents in an east New Orleans community petitioned Louisiana's legislature to create a tax on property owners to pay for a private force. About 20 residential tax districts have been established, employing an estimated 100 private guards. This month, seven more neighborhoods voted to create such districts.”

During the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was patrolled by approximately 150 heavily armed Blackwater personnel alongside several other big contractor companies like Dyncorp, Wackenhut and most interestingly, ISI, an Israeli company that flew in former Israeli Special Forces commandos.

Most notably of all of these companies is Capital Special Police, which not only supplies guards and corporate escorts, but also offers “real police officers [that] arrest for felonies and misdemeanors; issue citations for infractions; and enforce local ordinances.”

In January 2007, the Washington Post reported that the company was “one of dozens of private security companies given police powers by the state of North Carolina.”

“The more than 1 million contract security officers, and an equal number of guards estimated to work directly for U.S. corporations, dwarf the nearly 700,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the United States,” the daily wrote.


A 2000 report from American University in Washington, DC, concluded that “The great contemporary challenge confronting public safety in the United States is not primarily about whether privatization and civilianization are good things. It is about how best to serve the public’s need for protection against crime generally and, in particular, how to shape and coordinate our resources and energies to secure the safety of those quarters of society that are least able to afford effective security, public or private.”

Beginning of the boom


To this end, American cities might soon find a large surplus of job-seeking private security personnel when and if President Barack Obama pulls troops and contractors out of Iraq. Indeed, several US cities have already created public-private police associations in an attempt to bridge cooperation between the two forces. Suffice to say, the private policing boom is only just beginning.

The phenomenon transcends the public-private goods debate and indicates a new shift in how security is allocated by the state. Where the monopoly of force once consisted of exclusively state-owned functions, these have now been outsourced, in part or whole, to private entities.

In a post-Cold War age that heralds neoliberalism as a part of an “End of History,” privatization of police and military force should not come as a terribly big surprise. On the other hand, the transfer of security to private power (or the penetration of private power into a state’s monopoly of force) should hold serious implications over how the provision of security is conceptualized, as well as for the forces that create state power.


—————————--

Jody Ray Bennett is a freelance writer and academic researcher.  His areas of analysis include the private military and security industries, the materialization of non-state forces, and the transformation of modern warfare.

This article was originally published at ISN Security Watch (05/18/09).  The International Relations and Security Network (ISN) is a free public service that provides a wide range of high-quality and comprehensive products and resources to encourage the exchange of information among international relations and security professionals worldwide.





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This is the best assessment of the state of affairs regarding the world banking cartel and the capture of world governments.  It also shows the intent of private military buildup in the Western nations and it is indeed what is happening as local governments 'reform' police departments.  You can see once public police and fire union leaders being selected to move this privatization forward and the pay structures have the heads of public agencies paid as corporate executives-----because that is what they are intended to be.

The time is now to stop and reverse this process.  IT IS NOT A DONE DEAL WE SIMPLY HAVE TO ENGAGE AS CITIZENS IN POLITICS AND TAKE BACK OUR GOVERNMENT.  IF YOU ARE SILENT AND APATHETIC YOU WILL BE LIVING IN A THIRD WORLD IN A FEW DECADES.


Remember, the US economy is stagnant because global corporations want it stagnant with high unemployment.  IT IS DELIBERATE.  This is why trillions of dollars in job stimulus these several years have only gone towards overseas expansion with no job creation.  All we need to do is return to a domestic economy driven by small and regional businesses and workers paid enough to fuel the economy with consumption and ----VOILA, WE HAVE A HEALTHY ECONOMY.  So, reinstating Rule of Law bringing back tens of trillions of dollars in corporate fraud and ending government corruption is the first step to returning to a democratic first world society.  NEO-CONS AND NEO-LIBERALS ARE WORKING HARD TO MAKE SURE THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN......

ALL OF MARYLAND'S DEMOCRATS ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND IN BALTIMORE---NEO-CONS.



The Road to World War III – The Global Banking Cartel Has One Card Left to Play
September 23rd, 2010 |

Editor’s Note: The following is Part I to David DeGraw’s new book, “The Road Through 2012: Revolution or World War III.” This is the second installment to a new seven-part series that we will be posting throughout the next few weeks. You can read the introduction to the book here. To be notified via email of new postings from this series, subscribe here.


Part One I: Economic Imperial Operations
II: Violence on the Horizon
III: The IMF Riot, Step 3.5
IV: Bang the Drums of War
V: The Chinese Scapegoat: Trade &
—-Currency Wars

VI: Moves Upon the Grand Chessboard
VII: Resource Wars
VIII: Private Military Complex
IX: History Repeats Itself




I: Economic Imperial Operations

When we analyze our current crisis, focusing on the past few years of economic activity blinds us to the history and context that are vital to understanding the root cause. What we have been experiencing is not the result of an unforeseen economic crash that appeared out of the blue with the collapse of the housing market. It was certainly not brought on by people who bought homes they couldn’t afford. To frame this crisis around a debate on economic theory misses the point entirely. To even blame it on greedy bankers, while essentially accurate, also misses the most vital point.

This crisis is the direct result of a strategic economic attack on the existence of a middle class and democracy worldwide. The stock market and economy have become weapons of mass oppression manipulated by an imperial banking cartel to impose order and exploit the masses. This crisis boldly represents the manifest evolution of the fascist spirit reasserting itself as the dominant ideology.

Any fairytale notions of the United States being a democratic republic built on the rule of law have been utterly dispelled. As a nation we have been bred and conditioned to be dangerously naïve to the darker forces which operate beyond the spotlight of the mainstream media. We have been blinded to what has been developing throughout the world.

The economic imperialism that has now blown-back to the United States and Europe has been evolving for decades and can be directly traced back to the end of World War II, to the birth of the CIA, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

For those of us who have been paying attention to economic imperial operations that have been carried out against countries throughout the world, this looks all too familiar. The IMF and global bankers have conquered the second and third world, and they have now moved on to countries within the first world. Western European and American working classes are in the cross-hairs now.

Economic and societal indicators, along with recent G-20 policy decisions, clearly demonstrate that they are carrying out and escalating systemic economic attacks throughout Europe and the US.

To put it in technical terms, the United States government has been taken over by a financial terrorism network. They have bought off leaders of both the Republican and Democratic parties, and have established a dominant role in all three branches of government and throughout the mainstream media. They have complete control of the economy, stock market, US Treasury, Federal Reserve, World Bank, IMF and global banking system. Free market capitalism has collapsed; it’s now a rigged global market. This is an organized criminal operation, an imperial fascist movement that is determined to destroy our very way of life.

A war has already been launched against us.

In just the past three years we have lost an unprecedented amount of national wealth, trillions upon trillions of our tax dollars have been looted by Wall Street, endless wars, enormous subsidies for the most profitable global corporations and tax cuts for the richest one percent of the population. Never before, in the history of civilization, has a nation been so thoroughly and systematically fleeced.

This is all the result of a coordinated economic attack by a global banking cartel against 99 percent of the US population.

Until we can become politically intelligent enough to see this as the reality and root cause of our current crisis, we will not be able to overcome it, our living standards will continue to decline and we will all be sentenced to a slow death in a neo-feudal system built on debt slavery.

The average American is horribly naïve to just how depraved, corrupt and addicted to power this banking cartel is. Through their control and domination of the mass media, they have kept their crimes against humanity out of public consciousness. We have been shielded from the global devastation and death toll that they have already wrought. The result is an unsuspecting population of confused and passive people having their future ripped out from under them, right before their eyes, without any organized defense or resistance.

II: Violence on the Horizon

As the entrenched global banking cartel continues to control domestic political policy, the next phase of this crisis will inevitably feature an escalation into mass violence. As the Army War College stated, the Pentagon is preparing for “violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States” and “widespread civil violence” due to “purposeful domestic resistance.”

In clear signs of what is to come, rioting and violence as a result of economic turmoil has already been experienced in many countries throughout the world. However, civil unrest has not yet occurred within the United States. There are many theories as to why there has been so little resistance from the US population thus far, and several factors play into it. The most significant factor is that social safety net programs have been vital in preventing people from resorting to extreme measures. Currently, a stunning number of Americans, 52 million, are receiving life-sustaining assistance from government “anti-poverty” programs, such as food stamps, unemployment benefits, Medicaid and Medicare. This has already stretched a social safety net system that is designed to handle significantly less people to its limit. This safety net system has now been drained of all reserve resources over the past two years, and is obviously not sustainable under current economic and political conditions.

As social safety net programs have been drained of reserves, many US citizens have also been burning through their personal savings. Over the past few years the percentage of Americans living paycheck to paycheck has dramatically increased. In 2007, 43 percent of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck. In 2008, the percentage increased to 49 percent. In 2009, the number skyrocketed up to 61 percent. The most recent number for 2010 has exploded to a shocking 77 percent. This means in our nation of 310 million citizens, 239 million Americans are one setback away from economic ruin and millions more are in danger of having to rely on government assistance for survival.

So as this prolonged economic crisis continues, these safety nets, that are already overwhelmed, will have to support more and more people and will inevitably break down. As we have just begun to see, budget cuts to vital social programs on the state and federal levels will become increasingly severe right at the point when many more Americans will need them. As the 52 million Americans currently surviving in “anti-poverty” programs are gradually cutoff from life-sustaining government assistance – and as the 239 million people now living paycheck to paycheck, buried in debt, stressing out and working their asses off just to make ends meet realize that things are not going to be getting any better — and are only going to get worse — social unrest and outbursts of violence will eventually start to bubble up to the surface and the ruling elite will no longer be able to maintain power by simply deceiving the masses via mainstream media propaganda.

When an overwhelming majority of the population directly feels negative effects upon their own living standards, the propaganda system collapses. The illusion comes crashing down and people will finally start to get wise to the horrific scam that is being played on them.
When they wake from their media-induced American dream state and realize that they are now living in a nightmare, as crazy as it may sound, people will actually stop voting against their own interests. The apathetic majority, that doesn’t vote, will become active in the interests of self-preservation as their survival instincts kick in.

The handwriting is on the wall and the ruling class has to realize that by the time 2012 rolls around, their puppet politicians will be voted out of office, or their heads will roll, quite literally.

Looking at this from a purely technocratic sociological viewpoint, avoiding mass riots and violence while this many desperate people lose life-sustaining programs appears to be an impossible task, and given our current economic and political environment this seems inevitable.

In an article titled “A Planet at the Brink: Will Economic Brushfires Prove Too Virulent to Contain?” Michael T. Klare explained:

“As people lose confidence in the ability of markets and governments to solve the global crisis, they are likely to erupt into violent protests or to assault others they deem responsible for their plight, including government officials, plant managers, landlords, immigrants, and ethnic minorities. (The list could, in the future, prove long and unnerving.) If the present economic disaster turns into what President Obama has referred to as a ‘lost decade,’ the result could be a global landscape filled with economically-fueled upheavals.”

Former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski expressed his fears:

“I was worrying about it because we’re going to have millions and millions of unemployed, people really facing dire straits. And we’re going to be having that for some period of time before things hopefully improve. And at the same time there is public awareness of this extraordinary wealth that was transferred to a few individuals at levels without historical precedent in America….

And you sort of say to yourself: what’s going to happen in this society when these people are without jobs, when their families hurt, when they lose their homes, and so forth?”

Outbreaks of civil unrest are something that the US government and Pentagon have been expecting, and preparing for. Former US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee stating that the greatest threat facing the US is not terrorism, it’s the current economic crisis:

“The primary near-term security concern of the United States is the global economic crisis and its geopolitical implications. The crisis has been ongoing…. Of course, all of us recall the dramatic political consequences wrought by the economic turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe, the instability, and high levels of violent extremism.”

Intelligence Committee Vice-Chair Christopher Bond said the economic crisis is now “the primary focus of the intelligence community.” As the Army War College has warned, the response to this coming phase of the economic crisis “might include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States. Further, DoD [the Department of Defense] would be, by necessity, an essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance.”

Journalist Chris Hedges summed up this report:

“The specter of social unrest was raised at the US Army War College in November in a monograph titled ‘Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense Strategy Development.’ …

The ‘widespread civil violence,’ the document said, ‘would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.’

‘An American government and defense establishment lulled into complacency by a long-secure domestic order would be forced to rapidly divest some or most external security commitments in order to address rapidly expanding human insecurity at home,’ it went on….

In plain English, something bureaucrats and the military seem incapable of employing, this translates into the imposition of martial law and a de facto government being run out of the Department of Defense. They are considering it. So should you.”

III: The IMF Riot, Step 3.5

The International Monetary Fund is predicting a “social explosion” due to this crisis. The IMF and World Bank have a long history of creating social upheaval. Leaked documents from within the World Bank refer to the next phase of the crisis as the “IMF riot.”

Journalist Greg Palast obtained classified planning documents, which shed light on the covert economic imperial operations, Structural Adjustment Programs, that the IMF, World Bank and US Treasury have used in the past as a playbook for destabilizing and conquering foreign nations. In the UK newspaper The Observer, Palast interviewed Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who was a former World Bank Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, turned whistleblower. They revealed the four-step IMF plan. Though the strategy is slightly modified based on the nation being attacked, here in the United States we are currently about to enter a variation of step-three, which is currently being phased in throughout Europe. This step inevitably leads to a significant portion of the population losing the ability to obtain basic necessities essential for survival. Once this happens, riots inevitably occur, or as they put it: step 3.5 is executed.

Here is how Palast and Stiglitz summed it up:

“At this point, according to Stiglitz, the IMF drags the gasping nation to Step Three: market-based pricing – a fancy term for raising prices on food, water and… gas.

This leads, predictably, to Step-Three-and-a-Half: what Stiglitz calls ‘the IMF riot’.

The IMF riot is painfully predictable. When a nation is, ‘down and out, [the IMF] squeezes the last drop of blood out of them. They turn up the heat until, finally, the whole cauldron blows up,’…

What Stiglitz did not know is that Newsnight obtained several documents from inside the World Bank. In one, last year’s Interim Country Assistance Strategy for Ecuador, the Bank several times suggests – with cold accuracy – that the plans could be expected to spark ‘social unrest’.”

To sum up, the interlocked IMF and World Bank set the conditions for ‘social unrest’ and then once it occurs they move to step-four, which is the ultimate in disaster capitalism – they profit off the misery and the civilian population is then buried in a neo-feudal system of severe debt and poverty.


So what is the IMF saying right now about our situation in Europe and the US? A recent Telegraph report reads:

“IMF fears ‘social explosion’ from world jobs crisis


America and Europe face the worst jobs crisis since the 1930s and risk ‘an explosion of social unrest’ unless they tread carefully, the International Monetary Fund has warned….

Olivier Blanchard, the IMF’s chief economist, said the percentage of workers laid off for long stints has been rising with each downturn for decades but the figures have surged this time. ‘Long-term unemployment is alarmingly high: in the US, half the unemployed have been out of work for over six months, something we have not seen since the Great Depression,” he said….

The IMF said there may be a link between rising inequality within Western economies and deflating demand. Historians say the last time that the wealth gap reached such skewed extremes was in 1928-1929…”

To show you how insidious the IMF is, they have recently launched a propaganda campaign to publicly decry deficit budget cuts and austerity measures. However, behind the scenes they have been forcing implementation of them and making their usual demands for cuts in vital social services and public spending, once those cuts are in place, the riots obviously follow.

A recent Washington Post report states:

“IMF issues broad call for US financial prudence
Cut Social Security. Ditch the deduction for interest on home mortgages. Tax gasoline.
The United States recently opened itself to the most intense scrutiny yet by the International Monetary Fund, and on Thursday was offered a bitter pill when the agency criticized some well-defended aspects of American culture — cheap fuel, subsidized housing, and a government retirement check…. “

Economist Dean Baker writes:

“The central bankers and their accomplices at the IMF are dictating policies to democratically elected governments. Their agenda seems to be the same everywhere, cut back retirement benefits, reduce public support for health care, weaken unions and make ordinary workers take pay cuts.”


In another report Baker adds:

“The IMF program calls for cutbacks in government support for healthcare, pensions, and a wide range of other public services. It also calls for weakening labor market regulations that provide workers with job security.

These recommendations are being given in a context where the world economy is suffering from a massive shortfall of demand. In other words, tens of millions of people are unemployed right now because there is not enough spending to keep them employed. The IMF’s program is almost certain to reduce spending further leading to even larger shortfalls in demand and more unemployment….

The IMF’s track record gives us reason not only to question the institution’s competence but also its motivations…. It is possible to see a similar pattern in the IMF’s latest set of policy recommendations to deal with the economic crisis.”

In an article entitled, “The Attack of the Real Black Helicopter Gang: The IMF Is Coming for Your Social Security,” Baker continues:

“Last week, the IMF told the United States that it needs to start getting its budget deficit down. It put cutting Social Security at the top of the steps that the country should take to achieve deficit reduction. This one is more than a bit outrageous for two reasons…

While the IMF has no problem warning about retired workers getting too much in Social Security benefits, it apparently could not find its voice when the issue was the junk securities from Goldman Sachs or Citigroup that helped to fuel the housing bubble.

The collapse of this bubble has not only sank the world economy, it also destroyed most of the savings of the near retirees for whom the IMF wants to cut Social Security. The vast majority of middle-income retirees have most of their wealth in their home equity. This home equity largely disappeared when the bubble burst.”

So the IMF and global banking cartel are setting the conditions for social unrest and pushing for policies that will provoke it, and the Pentagon is preparing for a military response. As scary and unbelievable as all this may sound, we are on a fast track to this scenario.


To Sum Up

The American and global economy have already been looted and destroyed beyond repair. Most serious economists will admit that governments have already exhausted their capital by bailing out the banks and taking on unprecedented amounts of debt. The bailouts and recent return to high profits were just the final phase of the looting and a further consolidation of wealth on an unprecedented scale. There are still tens of trillions of dollars in debt hidden off-the-books and hundreds of trillions of dollars in dark pools of derivative liability. As the downturn continues, there is nothing left to revive the economy, the reserves and safety nets have already been stretched to their limits.

We have a political and economic system that has been overrun by organized corruption and theft.
Along with a mass media system that does not inform the populace and has effectively marginalized and isolated the majority of the population. Meanwhile, bubbling just under the surface is a very heavily armed population with a militia movement that has doubled in size over the past year, and their memberships continue to rapidly grow. Without the necessary general political intelligence or infrastructure to organize an effective mass non-violent movement, we are steamrolling toward spontaneous riots and outbursts of armed insurrection.

In other words, as this economic downturn continues, what is now a passive and confused population will eventually devolve into an explosion of violence. Without a coherent non-violent movement to provide a viable alternative, without an outlet for severe and legitimate grievances that provides any chance for urgently affecting necessary political change, people will resort to violence as a last desperate act of vengeance and frustration. As time passes, these forgotten and isolated people, tens of millions of them, are quickly running out of options, and they will act out just as exploited people throughout the world always have.

A man who sparked a revolution against the same banking cartel that has caused our crisis described the general attitude among a population that successfully rebelled through armed insurrection:

“The people are weary of being oppressed, persecuted, exploited to the maximum. They are weary of the wretched selling of their labor-power day after day — faced with the fear of joining the enormous mass of unemployed — so that the greatest profit can be wrung from each human body, profit later squandered in the orgies of the masters of capital….

The feeling of revolt will grow stronger every day among the peoples subjected to various degrees of exploitation, and they will take up arms to gain by force the rights which reason alone has not won them.”

Whatever your preconceptions of the man who said this may be, the voice of Che Guevara can now be clearly understood and related to by the overwhelming majority of people throughout the United States.

Already, despite intensive propaganda, a stunning 80 percent of the US population believes that the government has failed them.
The health care and financial reform bills have proven that our politicians are much more concerned about the short-sighted necessity to please the Economic Elite and raise campaign funds, than they are to understand the consequences of millions of Americans being forced into situations where their very survival is threatened. In a system where most elected officials are millionaires, this lack of perspective and understanding is ultimately what will lead to violence. Whether it is by arrogance or ignorance, perhaps both, it appears that our ruling class has suicidal tendencies. Unless they quickly recognize the growing threat posed by the dispossessed masses, our puppet politicians will themselves be in harm’s way.

To show you how incredibly out of touch our current elected officials are, and to give you a clear indication of the prevailing attitude on Capitol Hill, a recent report from the Washington Post summed up their response to the recent news that a record number of Americans are now living in poverty:

“The reluctance of political leaders on both sides of the aisle to directly confront the fact that growing numbers of Americans are slipping into poverty reflects a stubborn reality about the poor: They are not much of a political constituency.

‘We talk to many people on Capitol Hill who do believe poverty is important and is a blight on our nation, but we are also up against a general recognition that poor people don’t vote in great numbers. And they certainly aren’t going to be making campaign contributions. That definitely puts them behind many other people and interests when decisions are being made around here.’”

And that sums up our current crisis, doesn’t it? The “poor people don’t vote” and they don’t make “campaign contributions.”

As the Rage Against the Machine song goes, “The riot be the rhyme of the unheard.”

IV: Bang the Drums of War

How will this imperial fascist banking cartel respond to revolt? How will they maintain their power over an increasingly radicalized and hostile US population?

In an attempt to stave off organized rebellion, they are already escalating their propaganda efforts in attempts to divide and distract the population. The tactics of their divide and conquer strategy are already on full display. Their mainstream media outlets have drastically increased coverage and focused attention on the rhetoric of division – using divisive issues like immigration, racism, religious bigotry, the “lazy unemployed,” “entitlement welfare” and gay marriage to divide and distract the population and prevent the masses from organizing against their true oppressors.

This propaganda effort is only a temporary measure and will not suffice over the long-term. As the economy continues to collapse, the banking elite risk being overthrown as a result of their own greed. So they will then turn to physical, military-based violence to suppress populations that can no longer be controlled through propaganda and economic coercion.

To paraphrase policy analyst Anatol Lieven, the classic strategy of an endangered oligarchy is to divert discontent among the population into nationalistic militarism. It is time, once again, to bang the drums of war and “whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor.” The source of the following quote is unknown, but the evident wisdom of it is something that we have already experienced firsthand in the recent past:

“Beware the leader who bangs the drum of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so.”

An increased external threat will lead to an increased internal crackdown, which creates the pretext and conditions for a police state. As we have already seen in the first phase of the crackdown on civil liberties since the “War on Terror” began, when rioting and outbursts of armed insurrection begin within the US, external threats, real or imagined, will again be presented to justify extreme measures to suppress American citizens, and to further repress and divert internal dissent. Without an external enemy to rally the population against, the population will rally against the pre-existing internal powers.

To put a slight twist on what Guy DeBord insightfully said back in 1988: the banking cartel “constructs its own inconceivable foe, terrorism. Its wish is to be judged by its enemies rather than by its results. The story of terrorism is written by the state and it is therefore highly instructive. But they must always know enough to convince them that, compared with terrorism, everything else must be acceptable, or in any case more rational and democratic.”

V:The Chinese Scapegoat: Trade & Currency Wars

As millions of Americans and the majority of the global population look for vengeance on those responsible for severely declining living standards, the global banking cartel are not going to blame themselves, so they will deflect blame to China, a most convenient target.

As a result of the crisis, national currencies are reeling, and the dollar, although currently one of the strongest paper currencies, is losing power as the crisis escalates. The IMF is working to replace the dollar as the world reserve currency and have begun discussing the possibility of making their Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) the new world reserve currency. A plummeting dollar will obviously put the American population in a severely desperate situation and the US-based banking cartel needs an excuse to divert political backlash. In China, the nation poised to replace the US as the preeminent global superpower, they have the perfect scapegoat.

US-based global corporations have been shifting their business to China and off-shoring millions of jobs to the region due to their extremely low worker wages. So the American population is already pre-disposed to blaming China, as opposed to the companies who are exploiting the cheap labor. US politicians have been conveniently shifting blame for unemployment from themselves to China. Meanwhile, China also owns a significant portion of US national debt. US Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has recently declared that the national debt is the number one security threat. As Mullen stated, “Tax payers will be paying around $600 billion in interest on the national debt by 2012.” A significant portion of this interest will be going to China.

As national governments attempt to survive in an increasingly hostile global economy, trade and currency wars will flare up and escalate. China is in perhaps the strongest position to win these conflicts. China and Japan have just engaged in a fierce currency battle. This currency battle is not to be underestimated. We are talking about the world’s second and third largest economies, after the United States. China has just overtaken Japan for the number two position. The militant rhetoric between these two nations is escalating. US politicians were quick to jump on the situation with calls to classify China as a “currency manipulator” and impose trade tariffs and penalties against them.

International economic reporter Barry Grey recently summed up the situation in an article entitled, “Economic crisis threatens to unleash global currency wars:”

“The eruption of currency exchange conflicts is bound up with mounting signs that the global economic crisis is systemic, rather than merely conjunctural, and growing fears that a genuine recovery is not in the offing. The European sovereign debt crisis and the weakening of US economic growth have led governments around the world to seek to secure a greater share of export markets. Under conditions of slowing growth and stagnant markets, this inevitably heightens trade conflicts between competing capitalist nations.

In particular, the US and the European Union, spearheaded by the export power Germany, have aggressively pursued a cheap currency policy in order to gain a trade advantage against their rivals. Of the major economic powers, Japan has suffered the greatest damage from these policies, as investors and speculators have shifted from dollar- and euro-denominated investments to the yen, driving up the currency’s exchange rate.

This has embittered relations between Japan and both the US and the EU. Japan has also denounced China for artificially keeping its currency low while bidding up the yen by increasing its purchases of Japanese government securities.”

The global banking cartel’s leading puppets on Capitol Hill, Senators Chris Dodd, Chuck Schumer and Richard Shelby were all quick to attack China. Barry Grey continued:

“In opening the Senate Banking Committee hearing, Chairman Christopher Dodd declared China a currency manipulator and said its ‘economic and trade policies’ present ‘roadblocks to our recovery.’ He went on to accuse China of stealing intellectual property, violating international trade agreements and dumping goods. He also denounced China for acquiring national resources in developing countries and building up its military.


In his opening statement, the ranking Republican on the committee, Richard Shelby of Alabama, declared, ‘There is no question that China manipulates its currency in order to subsidize Chinese exports. The only question is: Why is the administration protecting China by refusing to designate it as a currency manipulator?’

Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said, ‘China’s currency manipulation is like a boot on the throat of our recovery and this administration refuses to try to get China to remove that boot.’”

On top of all this, China has now overtaken the US as the world’s top energy consumer. Michael T. Klare reports on China’s new position of power:

“The main point: by becoming the world’s leading energy consumer, China will also become an ever more dominant international actor and so set the pace in shaping our global future.

Because energy is tied to so many aspects of the global economy, and because doubts are growing about the future availability of oil and other vital fuels, the decisions China makes regarding its energy portfolio will have far-reaching consequences. As the leading player in the global energy market, China will significantly determine not only the prices we will be paying for critical fuels but also the type of energy systems we will come to rely on. More importantly, China’s decisions on energy preferences will largely determine whether China and the United States can avoid becoming embroiled in a global struggle over imported oil and whether the world will escape catastrophic climate change.”

China’s rise in power, mixed with the decline of western economies and the need for an external scapegoat sets up a global collision and inevitable confrontation between vying superpowers. Currency and trade wars will likely be a prelude to military confrontation.

VI: Moves Upon the Grand Chessboard

Based on early maneuvering it is evident that the masters of war have already drawn up sides. You may have missed it, but the US, Israel and the NATO Alliance have already put Iran, Lebanon, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, Russia and China on notice. And the “withdrawals” from Iraq and the Af-Pak region are over-hyped. The occupation of these countries continues with no end in sight. In fact, they aren’t withdrawing as much as they are repositioning and shifting their forces, preparing for an escalation. In many ways the wars in Iraq and Af-Pak have only been the initial phase of a global attack, positioning forces and building massive military bases in pivotal geo-strategic locations. The operations in this region have essentially been a warm-up for much wider-ranging attacks against much stronger countries. While most of the US population is playing checkers, seeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as one-off battles, the global banking cartel is playing chess, using these wars as only initial geo-strategic moves in a grand strategy toward total world domination.

The intensity of military maneuvering presently occurring is alarming. Read through these recent news reports pulled from the AmpedStatus database, all from just the past few weeks, and let me know if you think I’m being extreme in foreseeing World War III:

- See more at: http://ampedstatus.com/the-road-to-world-war-iii-the-global-banking-cartel-has-one-card-left-to-play/#sthash.U9ibA1cf.dpuf
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May 24th, 2014

5/24/2014

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This is not a done deal-----we can reverse this but people must become engaged in politics and stop voting the same global corporate pols into office!!!


ANTHONY BROWN, DOUG GANSLER, AND HEATHER MIZEUR WILL ALL CONTINUE THIS PRIVATIZATION AS WILL THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES.


Folks, do not allow neo-liberals play on this----'we have to teach evolution in the classroom' as an excuse for standardization of all information. This is not about bringing education quality up----it is about controlling all information students receive. So, republican states will be the first to reject this-----but remember, Common Core was started in the Bush Administration and is a very neo-con policy.

Remember, in Maryland simply reinstating Rule of Law and oversight and accountability will have State Treasury flush with revenue to fully fund all public schools.


Published Online: May 23, 2014
Okla. House Votes to Repeal Common Core Standards

By The Associated Press

Oklahoma City The Oklahoma House has voted overwhelmingly to repeal standards for math and English instruction that more than 40 states have adopted and to replace them with standards developed by the state.

The House voted 71-18 Friday to reject the Common Core standards. The bill now goes to the Senate.

Supporters say it gives the state control over its education system and prohibits the federal government from having authority over state education standards. Rep. Jason Nelson of Oklahoma City says state educators want to control Oklahoma education standards regardless of whether it makes sense to the federal government.

But opponents say the standards were developed by a group of states, not the federal government. Rep. Ed Cannaday of Porum says the measure politicizes education.


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As citizens of Baltimore know, our schools are already eliminating these critical courses under the guise of integration into English Language.  We see time and again media questioning the average person on the street who doesn't know very basic history, geography, and civics. 

THIS IS HOW THIRD WORLD EDUCATION WORKS.  YOU DO NOT WANT 90% OF CITIZENS KNOWING HISTORY OR CIVICS......THAT IS FOR THE FEW SELECTED TO LEAD.

The Age of Enlightenment is a period in European history after the citizens of nations across Europe sent an aristocracy packing through revolution declaring that all people are citizens and would be educated in humanities and liberal arts so as to be well-rounded citizens.  YOU CANNOT LEAD IF YOU DO NOT HAVE PERSPECTIVE.  What neo-liberals and neo-cons are doing is trying to take the US back to the days that had 99% of people with access to only vocationally tracked education.

THIS HURTS ALL US  CITIZENS

BUT IT ESPECIALLY HURTS WOMEN AND PEOPLE OF COLOR.  Do not think this will happen to someone else----it will take all public schools.

Remember, Boston is Harvard which is Wall Street.  Baltimore is Bloomberg which is Wall Street.  We are ground zero for this Wall Street capture and we must stop it NOW.


Network H-High-S

Boston Public Schools to Eliminate History & Social Science Departments

Joseph J Ferreira, Jr.Wednesday, May 21, 2014

It was announced today that the Boston Public School department is "reorganizing" by eliminating all Departments of History & Social Sciences in all schools and folding the departments into the Department of English Language Arts as a "Humanities Department" with the currciculum determined by the ELA Common Core Standards.  Certified history department heads/chairs are being laid off and, apaprently, no certified history specialist will be hired to replace any of these teachers. This essentially eliminates history and the social sciences as one of the core academic departments in the Boston Public Schools and subordinates HSS to ELA.  This appears to be the first major metropolitan school district to reduce history and the social sciences to merely a supporting role in the education of students.

As it might appear to be a political issue, I will leave it to H-High-S network members to research this issue and the various petitions, political issues, etc. that are circulating about this matter, but as this addresses a core element of our network's raison d'etre, history education, I hope this will generate both interest and discussion.



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Baltimore and across the nation are seeing Catholic churches taking the lead in charter schools and often in urban areas where they have historically played an expanded roll.  They are doing it so their religious schools can be funded with public money.  Now, I am not against private religious schools---they often provide strong education.  I want these Catholic leaders to know that Wall Street will not be allowing religious charters-----there will be no homeschooling----everyone will be forced into this autocratic school system being built by Wall Street and pushed upon us by neo-liberals. 

REMEMBER----NEO-LIBERALS ARE NOT DEMOCRATS---THEY HAVE SIMPLY TAKEN CONTROL OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.  GET RID OF THEM.


There is nothing wrong with parents of children having high learning skills wanting their children in classrooms that offer stronger learning environments.  We can have that in each school in all communities----that is how it worked for decades.  You do not have to send your child across town to find a good school because equal protection, opportunity, and access will have advanced placement classes right in your community.

So, why are these privatizers creating separate facilities?  Because they say education is wasted on 90% of students and those will only have access to vocational K-community college tracking.  You know what?  I may have fallen into this category growing up as my family was working class.  Instead, I had access to as much education I needed everywhere I moved in the country.  When the rich and corporations are not paying taxes then education must be cheapened.



THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRATIC AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EDUCATION LOOKS LIKE.


Catholic Churches need to stop supporting this charter movement you know will end badly for all.

Cash-Strapped Catholic Schools Resurrect as Charters To combat declines in enrollment and tuition revenue, they close and rent properties to charters. Many Catholic schools are transforming into charters during times of financial distress.


By Allie Bidwell May 1, 2014


Niya White began her teaching career as a member of AmeriCorps – a national community service organization that in 2003 brought her to what used to be known as Assumption Catholic School in Washington, D.C. 

After serving as a fourth-grade teacher, a fifth-grade teacher and a middle school English teacher for several years, she says the school's staff – along with those from six other inner-city Catholic schools – were told a hard story about the dire financial situation of the schools. 

"We were losing families because of the economy," White says. 

[READ: Common Core: A Divisive Issue for Catholic School Parents, Too]

At that time, the executive director of what was known as the Center City Consortium suggested that rather than closing their doors for good, the schools would submit an application to transform into charter schools as a way to remain as a school choice for the same families and communities they had begun to lose. 

Now known as the Congress Heights campus of the Center City Public Charter Schools, the school is just one example of a growing trend: Catholic schools are dropping their religious affiliations and becoming charters to have a chance of survival.

Private school enrollment has been on the decline for years, and is projected to continue to do so, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. In the last 10 years alone, there have been almost 600,000 fewer students in Catholic schools, according to Christian Dallavis, senior director of leadership programs at the University of Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education. 

In the same time, more than 1,800 Catholic schools have closed their doors, he says. 

"Most of those are in urban areas and serving low-income communities," Dallavis says. "It's a real challenge our schools are facing, as the cost to educate rises and our ability to collect tuition, especially in communities that serve low-income families, doesn't rise with the cost."



"We really struggle to find ways to sustain our schools," he adds. 

In a report released Monday, Andrew Kelly and Michael McShane of the American Enterprise Institute found the schools that do choose to make the switch generally see increases in enrollment and growth in the percentage of minority students served. 

While it's good for the communities, it can be a blow for the Catholic schools. Charter schools offer for no cost some of the same benefits – uniforms, discipline and a strong focus on character development – for which parents once turned to Catholic schools. 

White says she chose to stay in the same school – regardless of its secular affiliation – because she didn't want to lose the community she had built over several years. 

"No one ever wants to lose the students and parents and families they fall in love with," White says. "You don't want to look at a building that has helped you grow developmentally [as an educator] and watch the doors get closed."

White says that since she took over as principal in 2012, the students have thrived. Student test scores have risen by double-digit percentages in one year, she says. 

[ALSO: AFT, Advocacy Group Want More Accountability for Charter Schools]

"It's the best offer in education I've ever been given, as the Congress Heights campus has been able to rock and roll," White says. 

Although more schools are making the switch (there are just 18 noted in Kelly and McShane's report) the decision is often met with strong opposition among Catholic leaders, Dallavis says. 

"There's a sense in some ways that closing your school to make it a charter is … sacrificing your core identity for money," Dallavis says. "That's something that really challenges a lot of Catholic school leaders who find themselves in a difficult financial situation."


But it's not all bad news for the Catholic schools. They may lose students to the charters that take their place, but the schools that do not make the switch in dioceses where others do change over have seen a large revenue stream, Kelly and McShane write. The properties for Catholic schools are typically owned by parishes or dioceses. When Catholic schools close and charters open in their places, they rent the property to the charter operators. In the 2011 fiscal year, the Center City Public Charter Schools paid more than $3.2 million in rent, according to the AEI report. And a large portion of that money goes to fund scholarships and tuition assistance for low-income students at the remaining Catholic schools.

And in Indianapolis, where two Catholic schools closed and reopened in 2010 as Andrew Academy and Padua Academy, $1 million of annual funding from the archdiocese is split between four schools rather than six, Kelly and McShane write. 

Catholic schools are also attempting to combat declines in enrollment and revenue by supporting policies that provide incentives for families to be able to choose the schools their children attend. That can come in the form of tax credits or voucher systems, which are championed by Republicans but criticized by Democrats and teachers' unions who say they siphon money from traditional public schools.



Dallavis says his organization works with three Catholic schools on the south side of Tucson, Arizona, that were on the verge of closing a few years ago. During the last four years, he says, the schools have seen enrollment growth of more than 25 percent, largely by mobilizing the resources the tax credits make available but also focusing on the academic quality of the schools.

He says policies that allow parents, especially those below certain income thresholds, to receive funding to send their children to the school of their choice, is a continuation of the Catholic schools' legacy to serve the poor. 

"We see those policies as essential to our families' ability to choose the best school for their children," Dallavis says. "There's clearly a lot of demand among parents for their kids to be in Catholic schools. It's just a matter of whether they can afford it and whether there are policies that make it possible for them."


Charter Schools' Expulsion Rate Vastly Higher Than... As it continues to modify strict disciplinary policies in an effort to keep students in the classroom, Chicago Public Schools released data on Tuesday showing privately-run charter schools expel students at a vastly higher rate...


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All unbiased education research shows that Race to the Top is lowering achievement in great bounds.  It is not only the implementation----it is the model.  No academic in education would support this as all of the learning research over decades has been tossed out to simply push a policy with a goal of privatization and not achievement.  Foundations pushing Race to the Top will fund research to 'prove' success but parents, teachers, and communities know they are seeing achievement decline and the broad and detailed subject matter and disappearing.  AS ONE PARENT IN MARYLAND'S HOWARD COUNTY SHOUTED -----YOU ARE DUMBING DOWN OUR SCHOOLS.  Indeed, they are.

This is not a democratic or republican issue-----everyone hates this.  It is being pushed by global corporate pols working to create Wall Street businesses out of our public school system.  In Baltimore Johns Hopkins Education is pushing this and O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake are allowing our education schools in the area be taken with teaching this philosophy to our education students.  

STOP ELECTING GLOBAL CORPORATE POLS IN BOTH PARTIES FOLKS!!!
  THE GOVERNOR APPOINTS PEOPLE TO STATE EDUCATION THAT EMBRACES STRONG PUBLIC EDUCATION OR EMBRACES PRIVATIZATION AS IS THE CASE NOW.

This is why in Maryland you hear the Maryland State Education Association---MSEA backing this reform----they are appointed by O'Malley.  Meanwhile, American Federation of Teachers AFT----not supporting this reform.  Look as well at PTA/PTO organizations that are being co-opted into this reform.  You will not hear the Maryland PTA shout out against this even as parents across Maryland do.

The Maryland AFL-CIO joined the Baltimore Teachers Union to campaign for Anthony Brown------WHO WILL SHOVE THIS REFORM THROUGH NO MATTER WHAT!  Why would Baltimore's Teacher's Union support a Wall Street privatization that will kill the teaching profession, kill unions, and kill the opportunity children in these communities might have in the future?

BALTIMORE CITY SCHOOLS ARE BEING STACKED WITH EDUCATION PRIVATIZERS---FROM TEACH FOR AMERICA AND VISTAS----TO PRINCIPALS GRADUATING FROM THESE HOPKINS EDUCATION PROGRAMS.


This is not a done deal-----we can reverse this but people must become engaged in politics and stop voting the same global corporate pols into office!!!

News from EPI

New Report Examines Realities of Race to the Top ImplementationFailure to address root causes of achievement gaps and mismatches between states’ goals and their resources have hindered educational improvements

September 12, 2013

Race to the Top has done little to help most states close achievement gaps, and may have exacerbated them, according to a new report by Elaine Weiss, National Coordinator of the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education. In Mismatches in Race to the Top Limit Educational Improvement: Lack of Time, Resources, and Tools to Address Opportunity Gaps Puts Lofty State Goals Out of Reach, Weiss takes a comprehensive look at the Obama administration’s signature education initiative, and finds a few notable successes but many more shortcomings.

Race to the Top offered federal funding to states that committed to meeting a series of goals—including developing new teacher evaluation systems that rely substantially on student achievement, identifying alternative teacher certification systems, turning around low-performing schools, and substantially boosting student achievement and closing achievement gaps. In her report, Weiss examines how much progress states have made over the first three years of the grant period. With a year to go before funding is scheduled to end, states are largely behind schedule in meeting goals for improving instruction and educational outcomes.

“This report should be a wake-up call, not only to states and districts implementing Race to the Top, but to states implementing No Child Left Behind waivers and those beginning to roll out the Common Core State Standards,” said Weiss. “Real, sustained change requires time and substantial, well-targeted resources. Raising standards in schools cannot work without accompanying supports that make attaining them possible for all students, not just the most advantaged.”

Key findings of the report include:

  • States made unrealistic promises in order to secure Race to the Top funding, and have found greater-than-expected challenges to meeting their goals.
  • The narrow policy agenda and short time frame prescribed by Race to the Top have hampered state and district abilities to improve teacher quality, while failing to address other core drivers of opportunity gaps.
  • Shortcomings in Race to the Top have spurred conflicts between states, school districts, and educators that have further hindered progress.
This report draws on studies from the U.S. Department of Education and others, state and local reporting, as well as a survey of district superintendents and interviews with parents, teachers, and state and community education leaders. The report also includes in-depth case studies of two Race to the Top states, Ohio and Tennessee. Weiss’s analysis provides the most comprehensive picture to date of the successes and challenges states have faced throughout Race to the Top and the policy implications at both the state and federal level.

“This paper details the results of careful examination of implementation of Race to the Top and whether or not it has produced the game-changing improvements proponents promised,” said Daniel A. Domenech, executive director, AASA, The School Superintendents Association. “The report represents the first comprehensive look at the program, the challenges states face in implementing grants and key implications for moving forward, and bolsters what AASA has long advocated—while Race to the Top has some positive impact on education, there are better alternative strategies for improving education, including prioritizing existing federal statutes like ESEA and IDEA, and ensuring that all students in all public schools benefit from limited federal funding. AASA applauds Broader, Bolder for its leadership on this report and we’re grateful for the opportunity to collaborate on the project for the past two years.”

It is especially important to look at challenges posed by Race to the Top as states adopt and implement the Department of Education’s Common Core standards. States’ struggles to reliably and productively hold schools and teachers accountable, and to raise student achievement under the current standards, are likely to grow as demands increase while time, staffing, and other resources remain flat or are further diminished.


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May 23rd, 2014

5/23/2014

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'In recent years, a group of Wall Street financiers and philanthropists such as Bill Gates have put money behind private-sector ideas, such as vouchers, data-driven curriculum and charter schools, which have doubled in number in the past decade. President Obama, too, has apparently bet on compe­tition. His Race to the Top initiative invites states to compete for federal dollars using tests and other methods to measure teachers, a philosophy that would not fly in Finland'.


PRIVATIZING YET ANOTHER PUBLIC SERVICE------THE FOUNDATION OF DEMOCRACY-----PUBLIC EDUCATION.

WHETHER YOU SUPPORT THE IDEA OF SEGREGATION IN EDUCATION IN EMBRACING THESE CHARTER/SCHOOL CHOICE POLICIES-----PEOPLE ARE CARING LESS ABOUT THE SEGREGATION AND SIMPLY WANT GOOD SCHOOLS IN THEIR COMMUNITIES.


One thing I do with my campaign is educate as to what is happening with these public private partnerships that corporate pols pretend are for the public good.  I've spoken of communications and the Post Office and public energy/water utilities and VEOLA/Exelon.  I am passionate about public education so much is shared on the road about the privatization of public education in Baltimore.  Wall Street chose urban communities for this push for two reasons.  One, these poor communities are desperate for jobs and to be small business owners and they are desperate for any means of quality education.  It is no coincidence that the majority of organizations supporting this privatization plan are black churches/ministers who are connecting to charter schools.  Do they know that these schools will be taken by Wall Street national charter chains that will not care about children or that the plan will end public education and equal opportunity and access?  I think many of these churches and ministers simply see a need-----and they want an opportunity to operate a small business and are not thinking what vocational K-community college means especially for people of color.  That is what is happening in Baltimore.  BUILD is a great group of people but they embrace this charter movement and they endorse the most global corporate of candidates that work against the interests of people in the communities they represent.  These pols work against all people's interests except the wealthy corporate crowd.

The Baltimore Education Coalition is only a Johns Hopkins organization that is basically a Michelle Rhee education privatization group of Teach for America, charters, school choice, and national corporate non-profits that come into a schools and take over all school policy.  If you take a look at these non-profit websites it is clear they are a standard site with very little information and absolutely no feel on local community.

THIS IS WHAT CORPORATIONS ARE USING TO TAKE OVER COMMUNITY MOVEMENT TOWARDS CHARTERS.  Remember, Hopkins = Bloomberg =Wall Street so the intent is to make businesses out of each individual school.


When I tell people Mike Miller of the Maryland Assembly said he would work to end state funding of public education I have only a case of he said-she said.  If I remind people that all corporations in Baltimore are receiving tax breaks excluding property taxes-----that corporations like Hopkins are still categorized as non-profits and pay no property taxes-----and that the Baltimore City Hall is shouting for large cuts to residential property taxes-----WHICH IS THE ONLY SOURCE OF FUNDING FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS----where is the money for funding schools going to come?  So, if we are eliminating resources locally----then is it likely that those state funds will disappear?  I encourage people to think what filling our school board with business people, Teach for America, and charter school owners means to public education.  Think about KIPP as the national charter chain that already has gone private in many states across America and is just waiting to do so in Baltimore.  Ending public funding will force schools to partner with corporations and national charter chains will be there to expand.

This Wall Street plan is happening in cities across America and the goal will be to build this private charter platform in these cities and then expand them across the state.  It only takes a few pieces of legislation to do this and we all know how quickly all of this Race to the Top and Common Core legislation passed the Maryland Assembly.  So, this is the goal and ending public education will take yet another cornerstone of democracy into the hands of Wall Street.  Controlling what people are taught is a must in an autocratic society.


I especially talk with religious communities about the intention and how Wall Street will not allow for religious teaching in the system they are developing.  The Catholic Church is taking most of its private schools to charters no doubt to receive education funding giving this charter movement more legitimacy.  I let these leaders know the intent and most are surprised but when they look at the big picture-----

THE CANARY IN THE COAL MINE IS CLEAR.  BALTIMORE'S SYSTEM OF CHARTERS AND SCHOOLS AS BUSINESSES ARE SIMPLY A PLATFORM FOR TAKEOVER BY NATIONAL CHARTER CHAINS.


Below you see an article that does a good job looking at both sides. I want to emphasize that when KIPP says the bulk of private donations go to building space for its schools----KIPP in Baltimore simply converts existing space as does most of KIPP across the country.  KIPP is already privatized in some states and as we see these charters are not public schools----they are simply getting the public money other public schools that are closed would be getting.  I have looked at how achievement data and demographic data in Baltimore schools is collected and shared and I know that KIPP in Baltimore just as around the country is allowed to hide much data under guise of 'charter' and that much of the data raises concerns.


So, KIPP is the Wall Street national charter chain of choice and heavy funding up front will end in massive profits when KIPP takes over most public schools across America.  Remember, these national charter chains are made to look good now but believe me----once they are allowed to replace our public schools----if left to move forward this could be in a decade----all of that private donation would stop, quality fall, and these schools will only be vocational tracking into what will be mostly low-wage employment.

Look at some of Baltimore's highest achieving public schools having their funding taken for advanced programs -----while achievement is truly excelling----and you see the future.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE REQUIRED TO FOLLOW THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF EQUAL PROTECTION AS WITH ACCESS AND OPPORTUNITY.  USING CHARTERS TO SKIRT THIS IS ONE STEP TO ENDING THIS REQUIREMENT.  WHAT HAPPENS TO 90% OF AMERICANS IF EQUAL PROTECTION LAWS DISAPPEAR?  THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT DISAPPEARS-----WHERE ALL PEOPLE ARE CITIZENS DESERVING A HUMANITIES/LIBERAL ARTS BASED EDUCATION.


Below you see the direct connection with the policy of advancing this one national charter chain.  Maryland is making it harder and harder for low-income families to receive any kinds of financial aid for 4 year institutions like U of M College Park.  Below you see a scholarship directed specifically at KIPP students.  If getting a scholarship to UMD requires attending KIPP----then more parents move their children to KIPP.  College Park and Wallace Loh is the most corporate of public universities and their desire to move public K-12 education to that of corporate is no secret.  More students graduating from KIPP going to college-----WELL, THAT IS WHY!

So, these are the clues one sees to which national charter chains will get the nod as all state funding for public education moves from public schools to these charters.


UMD Forms Partnership with KIPP Charter Schools Network

August 15, 2013 
Contacts: Beth Cavanaugh, UMD, 301-405-4625
Steve Mancini, KIPP, 415-531-5396

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The University of Maryland and KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) announced today the creation of a formal partnership to attract and recruit KIPP students, including those in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. regions.
Through this partnership, KIPP students will have access to existing programs and resources created for low-income or first-generation college students, as well as scholarships created through a gift from Charles Daggs, UMD class of 1969 and a KIPP Bay Area board member. This partnership will also help to support KIPP's mission to increase college competition rates for underserved KIPP students throughout the country.

"We all win by creating new opportunities and upward mobility," says University of Maryland President Wallace D. Loh. "This new partnership extends our success with talented, low-income students, and our progress closing the achievement gap. It creates a much richer learning environment for all students. Congratulations to KIPP and our alums, whose vision makes this possible."

This fall, four KIPP students – three from Baltimore City and one from Washington, D.C. – will enter UMD's freshmen class. Three of these students have been awarded full scholarships through the Daggs gift and the UMD Incentive Awards Program.

"This partnership will support our hardworking KIPP students as they work toward a degree from one of the best public universities in the country," says Richard Barth, CEO at KIPP. "We are so grateful for Chuck Daggs's generous gift, which is helping to support this partnership and providing much-needed resources to some of our top graduates who have excelled in their schools and communities, to help them attain an excellent college education."

Established in 2002, KIPP Baltimore consists of two schools – one elementary school and one middle school. In Washington, D.C., KIPP operates nine schools – one high school, three middle schools, and eight elementary schools. All schools are free, open-enrollment charter schools that offer a rigorous, college preparatory education.

KIPP Baltimore and Washington, D.C. are part of a national network of 141 KIPP public charter schools. A report released this year by independent research firm Mathematica showed that KIPP middle schools nationwide are producing positive, significant and substantial achievement gains for students in all grades and four subjects—math, reading, science, and social studies. Mathematica researchers found that KIPP achieved these academic gains with students that entered middle school with lower achievement scores than their peers in neighboring district schools.

KIPP – the Knowledge Is Power Program – is a national network of open-enrollment, college-preparatory public charter schools with a track record of preparing students in underserved communities for success in college and in life.  KIPP was founded in Houston in 1994 and has grown to 141 schools serving more than 50,000 students in 20 states and Washington, D.C.  More than 95 percent of students enrolled in KIPP schools are African American or Latino, and 86 percent qualify for the federal free and reduced-price meals program.

Read a story from The Baltimore Sun on the new KIPP partnership here.


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Keep in mind that Baltimore City schools perform so badly because they have been starved of revenue for decades.  The state underfunded them for decades, Baltimore City is left with systemic fraud and corruption that extends to the school funding....so, students of Baltimore City schools have been victims of misappropriation of education funds they were legally required to receive.  These funds mostly ended up in affluent and corporate development in Baltimore with a few corrupt education administrators joining in to the fleecing of the Baltimore education budget.

THIS IS WHY BALTIMORE CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE IN SHAMBLES AND NOT PERFORMING SO SIMPLY MAKING SURE THEY ARE FULLY FUNDED AND RESOURCED----THAT TEACHERS RECEIVE HELP IN THE CLASSROOMS IS THE ANSWER. 

What education privatizers are doing is sending all the funding, resources, and help to charters instead while most Baltimore public schools cannot even afford toilet paper.  Your warm and fuzzy community charter will be taken over by these national charter chains.

THE MIDDLE-CLASS NEEDS TO KNOW THAT THIS GOAL OF NATIONAL CHARTER CHAINS WILL NOT STAY WITH THE POOR STUDENTS----IT WILL BECOME ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS.




March 31, 2011


New study of KIPP says the charter chain pulls in more cash than other schools
By Sarah Garland

Charter schools that post unusually high academic gains are often accused of having unfair advantages over traditional public schools, including more advantaged students and more private money at their disposal. A new and highly contentious study released today attempts to prove that the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), the largest charter-school network in the country, is inundated with both in comparison to its regular public-school counterparts and other charter schools.

The study is likely to give ammunition to charter-school critics as evidence that KIPP’s high test scores can be attributed to extra cash and a population of students that’s easier to educate.
But the study’s findings are far from conclusive: The data used in the financial analysis are limited and, according to KIPP, often inaccurate, and the methodology used to examine KIPP students is problematic.

In the national battles over whether to increase the number of charter schools, research has been a weapon wielded aggressively by both sides. (Teachers’ unions and their supporters are typically on the anti-charter side, and ed-reformer-types like Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of the D.C. schools, and Joel Klein, former chancellor of the New York City schools, are on the other.)

But this study is different than many others because it accepts the fact that KIPP’s academic outcomes are indisputably extraordinary, and seeks instead to dig more deeply into “the reasons for its success.”

Most notably, the study, by Western Michigan University researchers at the Study Group on Educational Management Organizations, addresses the question of whether KIPP receives more money per student from government and private sources than other schools. Critics have wondered whether the chain’s reliance on philanthropic dollars, which have helped fund its rapid expansion, can be maintained as the network continues to grow.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at a KIPP school in Newark (photo courtesy of Gary He for Facebook)

“Are KIPP schools sustainable, and are we overly reliant on philanthropic dollars?”
are questions that KIPP also asks itself, Steve Mancini, a spokesperson for the charter network, told The Hechinger Report yesterday. The possibility that KIPP is getting more money per student than its traditional-school counterparts also raises the question of whether it’s reasonable to expect regular public schools to match KIPP’s achievements, and whether increasing the number of charter schools is an efficient use of money – an important question in tough economic times.

Here is what the study found:

In the 2007 school year, 12 KIPP school districts encompassing 25 schools received $12,731 per pupil from local, state and federal governments. Public-school districts where the KIPP schools were located received $11,960 (a few dollars more than the national public school average). Charter schools in general received much less on average: $9,579. Compared to regular public schools and other charters, KIPP received much more federal money, as well as more than double what other charters received in local funding.

Besides the extra government money that KIPP receives, the study found that the 12 KIPP school districts reported $37 million to the IRS in private donations in 2008, about $5,760 per pupil on top of the nearly $13,000 per pupil they received from the government.

“We were surprised they were getting so much,” said Gary Miron, a researcher at Western Michigan University and lead author of the study.

But KIPP vigorously rejected the study’s data after reviewing it yesterday. “This report has multiple factual misrepresentations,” Mancini said.

Mancini noted that the study focused on only 25 KIPP schools out of 58 open at the time when researchers calculated the financial data — missing schools in California, for example, which allocates much less money to charter schools than other states. According to KIPP’s own estimates, its schools receive about $9,000 to $10,000 per pupil, on average, from government sources, a figure that is closer to what other charters receive.

As for the private money, Mancini said the study does not take into account the fact that a significant part of the donations goes toward paying for buildings, often a large cost for charter schools in districts that don’t give them facilities. Miron, the study’s author, said that school districts must also pay for buildings, but Mancini countered that these costs are generally not included in per-pupil calculations.

KIPP estimates that it receives only about $2,500 per student from private sources, putting the total (including government money) at around $11,500 or $12,500 per pupil, right around what regular public schools receive. The study does not include data on the amount of private money other charter schools receive, but, keeping in mind that KIPP is the largest and best-known charter network in the country, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to assume KIPP does better at fundraising and that other charters receive less.

The takeaway is that KIPP’s model is not especially cheap, although KIPP does offer extras that traditional public schools don’t — like Saturday school and longer school days — for a similar amount of money.

“I think what this study does is at least give us pause about inferring that the KIPP model is a low-cost model,” said Jeffrey Henig, a political scientist at Teachers College who briefly reviewed the study before it was published, and who is affiliated with the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, housed at Teachers College. (The Hechinger Report is also located at Teachers College.)

The New York Times and Washington Post coverage of the study focused on the money issues, but articles in Education Week and Bloomberg News focused on the study’s examination of KIPP students.

KIPP uses a “no-excuses” model in which students and parents are required to sign performance contracts. Most of the students it educates are low-income. In fact, the WMU study found that KIPP enrolls higher percentages of low-income students than the public-school districts in which its schools are located.

But the idea that charter schools “cream” the best students from surrounding neighborhood schools and push out students who don’t perform well academically is a persistent critique of the schools, and the study claims to have found that the hardest-to-educate KIPP students tend to leave the schools at high rates.

A study finds that 40 percent of black males quit KIPP schools, a figure contested by KIPP (photo courtesy of brookesb)

In particular, the researchers argue that 40 percent of African-American male students, a group that generally posts lower test scores, “drop out” of KIPP schools between sixth and eighth grade. (Most KIPP schools are middle schools.)

“KIPP schools are cycling out those low-performing students, but they’re not replacing them,” said Miron. This is thought to be advantageous to KIPP for two reasons: first, the schools get to keep the funding tied to the student for that academic year even after he or she leaves the school; and, second, a school’s test score average goes up when low-performing students quit.

KIPP aggressively contests this finding, however. Mancini pointed to a study KIPP commissioned from the nonpartisan research group, Mathematica, which followed individual students over time. The WMU study used aggregated data taken as a snapshot and compared KIPP attrition rates to the rate of students who moved out of the school districts in which KIPP schools were located. Mathematica researchers said that a student leaving an individual school is not the same phenomenon as a student leaving a district.

“You have to do a school-by-school comparison,” said Brian Gill, one of the co-authors of the Mathematica report, which found that, on average, attrition at KIPP schools is about on par with schools in surrounding neighborhoods. “There’s a real danger from people drawing inferences from this that aren’t supported.”

The WMU study also assumes that all missing students have left the school and that none are held back a grade. In fact, many KIPP schools have policies that require low-performing students to repeat a grade, and they have been shown to enforce such policies at higher rates than other schools. Miron contends that students who are held back are more likely to leave, a phenomenon that we examined in a previous story. That some KIPP schools don’t replace students if they leave is true, however, and both Mancini and the Mathematica research team said they have been looking into this phenomenon.

Next week, Mathematica will release a new study on the matter, but as with most charter school studies, it’s unlikely to be the last word.


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The designation of charter schools as public is ridiculous and is done simply to allow taxpayers to pay to build the infrastructure for these national charter chains.  Once the structure is built in a city like Baltimore then all pretense to private will end and you will see these schools listed on the Wall Street stock exchange.

Charters fail to meet all the requirements of public schools as regards equal access and opportunity, public transparency with data, and any oversight of whether information provided is accurate.  It is when large institutions do extended research into these areas that all of the data becomes questionable.

We know that all of the pressure on teachers and administrators of both charter and public schools is forcing some to falsify data because it is impossible to make these changes as fast as these programs are implemented.  Remember, Bush created the No Child Left Behind laws that are now being used to close schools and force these evaluations and tests in the classrooms-----but it was unfunded and never advanced.  This push now for immediate change-----

IS A WALL STREET PLOY TO MOVE A VERY, VERY BAD PUBLIC POLICY THROUGH BEFORE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE CAN STOP IT.


I want to emphasize------some charters are good----they do indeed offer choice and do so under the rules of public education.  The problem is that those that do not are gobbling up charter growth at tremendous speed.  That is what a corporation does----expands and takes the market share.

Public or Private: Charter Schools Can’t Have It Both Ways

Email to a friend Permalink Saturday, January 05, 2013

Aaron Regunberg, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™





Are charter schools public? Are they private? Are they somewhere in between? There is a lively debate in the education community over these questions. Charter advocates claim that charter schools are, of course, public schools, with all the democratic accountability that this entails. The only difference, they say, is that charters are public schools with the freedom and space to innovate. On the other side, charter critics argue that contracting with the government to receive taxpayer money does not make an organization public (after all, no one would say Haliburton is public) and if a school is not regulated and governed by any elected or appointed bodies answerable to the public, then it is not a public school.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was recently forced to weigh in on this question. It came out with a clear verdict that charter schools are not, in fact, public schools.

The ruling came in response to a case regarding a charter school in Chicago, the Chicago Math and Science Academy (CMSA). In 2010, two thirds of CMSA’s teachers voted to unionize, in accordance with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act, which grants the employees of all public schools the right to form unions. In an attempt to invalidate this vote, charter officials filed papers with the National Labor Relations Board arguing that CMSA should not be covered under the state law because it does not qualify as a public school.

And that is precisely what NLRB concluded, ruling that CMSA is a “private entity” and is consequently covered under the federal law governing the private sector. According to the federal government, the debate is settled—charter schools are not public schools, and that is all there is to it.

Of course, that is not the whole story, because the charter movement is diverse. On the one hand, there are some community-based charter schools that are very much of and by and answerable to the communities they serve, which to me is what the word “public” is all about. On the other hand, there are corporate charter chains that have been widely criticized for discriminatory practices and unaccountable governance, which do not seem public at all. We should acknowledge these differences, and carve out a place for some nuance in the public-or-private debate.

What we should not do, however, is allow the charter movement or any particular charter chains to have it both ways. The Chicago Math and Science Academy has taken at least $23 million in taxpayer money since it formed in 2004, so it is perfectly willing to be “public” with regards to whose money it spends. But when its teachers want to join a union, now it is a “private entity.” That is hypocrisy, plain and simple. The situation is similar regarding many charter schools’ demographic situations. Chains like KIPP claim they enroll the same student populations as public schools and, like public schools, do not turn any students away. Yet widespread evidence suggests these schools use a variety of tactics, such as counseling certain students out, to create unrepresentative student bodies. In fact, a recent study found that in 2008, 11.5 percent of KIPP students were ELLs, compared with 19.2 percent of students in their local school districts, while 5.9 percent of KIPP students had disabilities, compared with 12.1 percent of students in the local school districts. Likewise, I have written a number of posts about similar irregularities found in the Achievement First charter chain, whose cadre of well-paid lobbyists could not stop stressing the “public” nature of their schools during last year’s hearings in Rhode Island.

That is not how it works. If you’re public, you’re public—you take all students, not just the ones who are easiest to educate; you offer fair protections to your employees; you play by the same rules on an even playing field. And if you’re private, stop claiming otherwise—stop saying your schools are public schools when they are not. Charters cannot have their cake and eat it too, and it’s about time we stopped letting them do so.



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Remember, Finland's education system is based on the US public education of my time----before the Reagan/Clinton education reforms and defunding of public education.  We have a successful model that allowed for the best and the brightest in the world and moved more poor students into the middle-class in history.  So, why are we moving towards something with no research, no proof of achievement, and that takes the entire public education system down?

THAT'S WALL STREET------AND THEIR POLS FOR YOU


As you see below the Finns transformed their schools system 40 years ago----that was when the US system was thriving.....
now the Finns are performing as the US used to.


Why Are Finland's Schools Successful? The country's achievements in education have other nations, especially the United States, doing their homework

By LynNell Hancock Smithsonian Magazine

It was the end of term at Kirkkojarvi Comprehensive School in Espoo, a sprawling suburb west of Helsinki, when Kari Louhivuori, a veteran teacher and the school’s principal, decided to try something extreme—by Finnish standards. One of his sixth-grade students, a Kosovo-Albanian boy, had drifted far off the learning grid, resisting his teacher’s best efforts. The school’s team of special educators—including a social worker, a nurse and a psychologist—convinced Louhivuori that laziness was not to blame. So he decided to hold the boy back a year, a measure so rare in Finland it’s practically obsolete.


Finland has vastly improved in reading, math and science literacy over the past decade in large part because its teachers are trusted to do whatever it takes to turn young lives around. This 13-year-old, Besart Kabashi, received something akin to royal tutoring.

“I took Besart on that year as my private student,” Louhivuori told me in his office, which boasted a Beatles “Yellow Submarine” poster on the wall and an electric guitar in the closet. When Besart was not studying science, geography and math, he was parked next to Louhivuori’s desk at the front of his class of 9- and 10-year- olds, cracking open books from a tall stack, slowly reading one, then another, then devouring them by the dozens. By the end of the year, the son of Kosovo war refugees had conquered his adopted country’s vowel-rich language and arrived at the realization that he could, in fact, learn.

Years later, a 20-year-old Besart showed up at Kirkkojarvi’s Christmas party with a bottle of Cognac and a big grin. “You helped me,” he told his former teacher. Besart had opened his own car repair firm and a cleaning company. “No big fuss,” Louhivuori told me. “This is what we do every day, prepare kids for life.”

This tale of a single rescued child hints at some of the reasons for the tiny Nordic nation’s staggering record of education success, a phenomenon that has inspired, baffled and even irked many of America’s parents and educators. Finnish schooling became an unlikely hot topic after the 2010 documentary film Waiting for “Superman” contrasted it with America’s troubled public schools.

“Whatever it takes” is an attitude that drives not just Kirkkojarvi’s 30 teachers, but most of Finland’s 62,000 educators in 3,500 schools from Lapland to Turku—professionals selected from the top 10 percent of the nation’s graduates to earn a required master’s degree in education. Many schools are small enough so that teachers know every student. If one method fails, teachers consult with colleagues to try something else. They seem to relish the challenges. Nearly 30 percent of Finland’s children receive some kind of special help during their first nine years of school. The school where Louhivuori teaches served 240 first through ninth graders last year; and in contrast with Finland’s reputation for ethnic homogeneity, more than half of its 150 elementary-level students are immigrants—from Somalia, Iraq, Russia, Bangladesh, Estonia and Ethiopia, among other nations. “Children from wealthy families with lots of education can be taught by stupid teachers,” Louhivuori said, smiling. “We try to catch the weak students. It’s deep in our thinking.”

The transformation of the Finns’ education system began some 40 years ago as the key propellent of the country’s economic recovery plan. Educators had little idea it was so successful until 2000, when the first results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a standardized test given to 15-year-olds in more than 40 global venues, revealed Finnish youth to be the best young readers in the world. Three years later, they led in math. By 2006, Finland was first out of 57 countries (and a few cities) in science. In the 2009 PISA scores released last year, the nation came in second in science, third in reading and sixth in math among nearly half a million students worldwide. “I’m still surprised,” said Arjariita Heikkinen, principal of a Helsinki comprehensive school. “I didn’t realize we were that good.”

In the United States, which has muddled along in the middle for the past decade, government officials have attempted to introduce marketplace competition into public schools. In recent years, a group of Wall Street financiers and philanthropists such as Bill Gates have put money behind private-sector ideas, such as vouchers, data-driven curriculum and charter schools, which have doubled in number in the past decade. President Obama, too, has apparently bet on compe­tition. His Race to the Top initiative invites states to compete for federal dollars using tests and other methods to measure teachers, a philosophy that would not fly in Finland. “I think, in fact, teachers would tear off their shirts,” said Timo Heikkinen, a Helsinki principal with 24 years of teaching experience. “If you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect.”






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May 22nd, 2014

5/22/2014

0 Comments

 
Maryland consumers are being ignored and taken to the cleaners because its energy utilities have been handed to national corporations and rate payers are used to subsidize the costs of doing business.  Our Public Service Commission once regulated in public interest and is now stacked with corporate interest officials with O'Malley and Erhlich.  Just as with health care we are losing control of the most critical public services as energy is a must and needs to be affordable.  As most people are now needing subsidy for heating, cooling, and cooking, these essential needs make people captured to simply getting basic necessities.  This does not allow for freedom or democracy when most people must beg for subsidized necessities.

SMART METERS
are not about sustainability ----they are about rationing energy as prices soar and public subsidies end.


The Public Service Commission of Maryland


was created in 1910 to regulate utilities. Also during this time, natural gas was becoming a popular substitute for manufactured gas. Warfield wanted to bring natural gas to Baltimore but did not succeed in doing so. Between 1906 and 1910, gross income increased by 31 percent, and in 1910 Warfield resigned and was succeeded by J.E. Aldred as chairman. Aldred embarked upon vigorous expansion. Much of the company's electricity was supplied by hydroelectric plants on the Susquehanna River, and Consolidated owned several gas generating plants. With production in place, the company could offer more competitive rates.



When BGE was sold to Constellation there was a billion dollars from the sale placed in public trust for the closing of Calvert Cliffs.  Financial analysts now show that the closing will be done for far less so there is a bolus of public money that can come back to consumers or pay for infrastructure.  What we see is an insulting $170 dollars and soaring rates to pay a second time for infrastructure.  Just as happened with the subprime mortgage fraud settlement that never made it to the victims of fraud and went to subsidize corporate developers.

Time and time again public wealth is lost through fraud and corruption or handed outright as subsidy to now billion dollar a year corporations fat with profit from the public's money.

STOP VOTING FOR GLOBAL CORPORATE POLS RUNNING AS DEMOCRATS!


Below you see Exelon is soaking its consumers across the country as it is here in Maryland.


BGE's customers to get $170 rebate -- ...www.topix.com/forum/com/ceg
BGE customers will get one-time rebates of $170 and other benefits totaling $2 billion in ... Constellation and BGE to ... Constellation Energy ...




ComEd customers face big price increases
May 07, 2014|By Julie Wernau | Tribune staff reporter

Just as the Chicago area is getting ready for air conditioning weather, residents can expect to be jolted by higher electric bills.

Starting June 1, Commonwealth Edison customers on average will see monthly bills jump 21 percent, to about $82 a month from about $69 a month.

City residents and others who have switched to competing suppliers won't escape the higher prices because the cost of all electric power is higher.




Demand had continued to grow, and in 1981 the Safe Harbor Hydroelectric Project started a four-year expansion project. In an effort to improve profitability, BGE trimmed its operating budget in 1982 and 1983 and sought diversification into other businesses. In 1983 however, the Maryland Public Service Commission turned down BGE's application to form a holding company, stating that Maryland law forbids such a structure for utilities. The holding company reorganization would have enabled BGE to diversify freely.

The Brandon Shores Unit Number 1--a coal-burning electricity-generating plant--opened in 1984, helping to eliminate the company's dependence on foreign oil. A second Brandon Shores unit started up in 1991. In 1983 about 60 percent of the company's operating revenue was in electric power sales, and around the same time gas sales began to slump.
In 1986 BGE formed Constellation Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary through which it planned to expand its nonutility interests, despite being denied the right to form a holding company.



Deregulation in the 1990s

In 1992 the company faced a dramatic shift in the way it did business when Congress passed the Federal Energy Policy Act. The act permitted competition in the wholesale power market and, by allowing retail competition, signaled the end of regulated, regional monopolies. Although its relatively small size and regional coverage would work against it in a competitive market, analysts felt BGE's customer mix could be a benefit. Because it had few industrial customers, BGE would not be so much at the mercy of large manufacturers who would set one supplier against another in a bidding war. However, BGE apparently felt the disadvantage of its size and responded to the act's passage by looking for a partner that would help cut costs through economies of scale.

In the mid-1990s, the electricity market was growing at a rate of only two percent a year. BGE focused on expanding its gas customer base and managed to increase that division's profits 25 percent in 1995. However, the company's real estate investments were performing poorly, which pulled down overall company earnings that year.

BGE forged an agreement to merge with Washington, D.C.-based Potomac Electric Power Co. (PEPCO) in 1995. The two companies anticipated making substantial staff cuts to reduce overlapping jobs; those cuts and savings from eliminating related redundancies were expected to save $1.3 billion over 10 years. Stockholders approved the deal in 1996, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave its okay in 1997. Maryland followed suit with conditional approval, but the process was held up by conditions placed on the merger by the District of Columbia. BGE and PEPCO had proposed splitting the expected savings from the merger evenly between customers and shareholders. D.C. regulators, however, wanted customers to get a larger share, and made that a condition of the merger. BGE and PEPCO would not agree to that condition, and the two companies called off the merger in December 1997. The companies had invested more than two years and $100 million in arranging the merger. Analysts considered both companies as likely candidates for other merger or takeover deals in the coming years.

In 1998 BGE began a major organizational restructuring that split the company into three discrete units: utility operations, power generation, and unregulated subsidiaries. "All the rules under which we operate are being rewritten," Christian H. Poindexter, BGE's chairman and CEO, said to Baltimore Sun correspondent Kevin McQuaid. "That's what's driving this." Part of the reorganization entailed the creation of Constellation Enterprises Inc., a holding company for the utility's unregulated subsidiaries. The company expected to continue to make management and organizational changes in 1998 as part of its preparation for competition, which Maryland had slated to begin in 2002.

Principal Subsidiaries: Constellation Enterprises Inc.; BGE Energy Projects & Services, Inc.; BGE Home Products and Services, Inc.; BGE Commercial Building Systems; Constellation Energy Source.



___________
This is a good look at the progression from public to privatized utility from the 1990s/early 2000s anticipating the problems we have today.  Remember, all this is the time of Reagan/Clinton and neo-liberalism....deregulating and consolidating for powerful corporate control of government. You see, all that happened was BGE staffing was slashed, pay declined, service and quality disappeared, and now we cannot even reach a real customer service representative as we 'wait on hold'.  Long power-outages come from no investment in infrastructure and maintenance so profit could soar.  Now, with the Maryland Public Service Commission stocked with pro-corporate officials from Erhlich and O'Malley----this commission looks at the public with contempt at public forums.

The citizens of Maryland are ready to return our vital public services to the hands of the public to operate in the public interest with money invested building public value and not profit.

Below you see the same questions being asked at the end of the 1990s as are now asked today, only it is getting worse.
Sadly, Progressive Maryland is now taken corporate as currently it advocates for the most Wall Street of pols in elections.  Anthony Brown will of course act just as O'Malley as corporate pol extraordinaire and this is whom Progressive Maryland today endorses.  So, it is not only our public commissions taken corporate but our democratic political action groups.  Do you hear your pol or political organization fighting these fights?  See why only Gansler, Brown, and Mizeur hit Maryland election news?


STOP ELECTING CORPORATE NEO-LIBERALS WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT.  RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE!

Energy Companies

Progressive Maryland  2000s

Energy companies – led by Pepco and Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE, owned by Constellation) – have for decades invested heavily in lobbying in Annapolis and campaign contributions to lawmakers. In just the past year, energy companies spent at least $477,679 on lobbying during the 2004 session (see attached list for Pepco, Mirant, and Constellation) plus untold thousands of dollars on campaign contributions (Common Cause estimates conservatively that they have donated $440,000 since 1999).

Those investments have yielded handsome dividends. Sometimes the dividends come in the form of anti-consumer, anti-environmental bills that pass, such as California-style electricity deregulation that became law in Maryland in 1999 and only now is being fully implemented, so far with negative results for environment and consumers.

And sometimes the dividends come in the form of what does not happen. The dog that failed to bark helped Sherlock Holmes solve the mystery of The Hounds of the Baskerville. A big and curiously silent hound is the Maryland state government when it comes to the abysmal performance of Pepco and BGE in the aftermath of last year’s Tropical Storm Isabel, when hundreds of thousands of customers went for days (and in some cases weeks) without electricity. That fiasco and the negligence of BGE and especially Pepco have been amply documented.

The two committees with jurisdiction over the electricity industry – the Senate Finance Committee and House Economic Matters Committee – held a joint hearing in October 2003, one month after the blackout. At those hearings, lawmakers decided to limit themselves to fact-finding so as not to pre-empt the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) from fixing the problem through regulation. But rather than fix the problem, PSC put the fix in. First, in April of 2004, PSC’s Ehrlich-appointed Chairman, Kenneth D. Schisler, fired the engineers and senior civil servants with the technical expertise to evaluate (and potentially criticize in detail) the utilities’ dysfunctionality. Then, in June, the PSC issued an “Order” that actually compliments the utilities for their improved performance since the 1999 blackouts following Tropical Storm Floyd (!) and merely suggests a few costless proposals. These bromides include “enhancing communications between utilities, local emergency management agencies, media and customers” and “consider[ing] taking additional steps with municipal governments to increase private landowner awareness of the risks attendant with off-rights of way tree and vegetation problems that pose risks to utility electrical facilities.” Lending new meaning to the term “captive agency”, the PSC then concludes its Order (“Suggestion” is more like it) with this amazingly counter-empirical claim: “No new 4 evidence or industry information has been adduced or presented that would suggest a need to alter the existing policies regarding overhead and underground wiring of the general electric distribution system.”

Will the hound of Maryland state government continue its peculiar silence vis-à-vis electric companies during the 2005 session of the General Assembly? Lawmakers were probably correct this past year to give PSC a chance to do its job. But considering PSC’s failure to do so, and considering Pepco’s subsequent 16 percent rate hike on customers this year, it is high time for the General Assembly to intervene. Lawmakers should hold public hearings and get answers to some obvious questions, such as: • Since deregulation in 1999, has the Pepco and BGE service-areas had more annual black- and brown-out days than before deregulation? • Since deregulation, have the Pepco and BGE service-areas had more annual black- and brown-out days than other parts of the country? • Why was the industry allowed to deregulate in such a way that the utilities could cut investment in infrastructure, such as power lines, poles, transformers, and vegetation-pruning capability? • Why, since deregulation, did the Public Service Commission allow Pepco’s CEO, John M. Derrick, Jr., to double his annual compensation up to $1.9 million per year in 2002? Worse, why did PSC allow BGE’s top executive, Mayo A. Shattuck III, to more than triple the CEO’s salary since deregulation, paying himself a whopping $6.9 million in 2003? Given BGE’s lousy performance during Isabel, how in the world could Shattuck justify a salary like that?•

Are PSC members allowed to work for the same companies they supposedly “regulate” after they leave public service? If so, does this help explain the failure of the PSC to chastise either Pepco or BGE after Isabel? And does it help explain PSC’s supine willingness to approve any hike in executive compensation, no matter how outrageous? • Why did power outages in the BGE and especially Pepco areas last longer than power outages in some other areas hit by Isabel, such as North Carolina and Pennsylvania? • Considering that Isabel’s overall impact was not much worse than Floyd’s had been in 1999, why did the BGE area suffer 790,450 customer outages over a period of nine days after Isabel compared to only 503,831 over the same time-period following Floyd? Worse, why did the Pepco area suffer 545,000 customer outages over a period of eleven days after Isabel compared to only 79,000 after Floyd? Granted, 2004’s wet summer made 5 trees easier to topple during Isabel, but was the ground so much softer as to explain this huge increase in power outages? Based on the answers to these and other questions, lawmakers can and must pass reform legislation – with a strong presumption that re-regulation is the only way to avert a California-like energy mess in Maryland. Will lawmakers take this kind of decisive action in the weeks and months ahead? Or will all that utility spending on lobbying and campaign contributions induce in lawmakers the kind of lethargy that killed reform following the Tropical Storm Floyd blackouts of 1999?

__________________

As you see below the consolidation of all industries with the Reagan/Clinton deregulation and global market push has been a disaster for citizens of all states.  This happened because the politicians elected as governor appointed officials to the State Public Service Commission who would vote in favor of the corporation and not the public.  We saw in the 1980s where this commission worked for public interest and today O'Malley actually wants to place Exelon executives on our PSC.

THIS IS WHY IT MATTERS WHO YOU ELECT AS GOVERNOR.  ALL CANDIDATES EXCEPT CINDY WALSH WILL CONTINUE TO FILL THE PSC WITH CORPORATE APPOINTMENTS.  I WILL START TO TAKE THIS UTILITY BACK TO PUBLIC SERVICE.


For those who think this is big government-----WAKE UP-----these are vital public services that are being priced out of most people's reach.  When the number of people needing subsidy for energy grows you have disenfranchised those citizens and those subsidies will end.


BGE Wins Competitive Bid For Privatization of the Fort Meade Gas and Electric Utility Distribution Systems.


Link to this page




Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) has been awarded a 50-year contract for privatization of the natural gas and electric distribution systems at the United States Army's Fort George G. Meade facility in Anne Arundel County, MD. The Army selected BGE as the successful bidder in a competitive procurement process, which began in 1999. Under the contract, the Government's aged gas and electric distribution systems will be replaced with new, modernized, BGE owned, operated and maintained systems that will provide safer and more reliable service for Fort Meade, its tenants, and the people who live and work there. BGE plans to begin the three-year construction project, which will add about 350 commercial services to BGE's infrastructure, once design and engineering work have been completed.

"BGE is proud to have won the contract for privatization of the gas and electric distribution systems at Fort Meade," said Frank O. Heintz, President and CEO of Baltimore Gas and Electric Company. "It is indeed an honor to be entrusted with this tremendous responsibility. The extension of BGE's surrounding gas and electric distribution systems onto Fort Meade is a natural and logical extension of our existing relationship, which began in 1917 with the establishment of Fort Meade. Fort Meade is one of our most important customers, and I am confident that BGE will meet all of the needs of this sensitive and crucial operation."

Note: BGE is a member of Constellation Energy Group . A Fortune 500 company based in Baltimore, Constellation Energy Group is the nation's leading competitive supplier of electricity to large commercial and industrial customers. We market energy nationally and manage the associated risks. We own and operate a diversified fleet of generation plants throughout the United States. We also deliver electricity and natural gas through the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), our regulated utility in Central Maryland. In 2002, the combined revenues of our integrated energy company totaled $4.7 billion.

CONTACT: Linda Foy (media), BGE, +1-410-234-7433, Linda.J.Foy@bge.com, or Jack Thayer (investor relations), +1-410-783-3647, Jonathan.Thayer@constellation.com, for BGE


________________________________________

There is not a SMART METER critique that shows energy costs going down for the consumer.  In fact, consumers are being hit with inflated bills and not able to attain recourse because these new too big corporations just ignore these consumers and with public justice dismantled-----Americans across the country are having their money taken with no recourse.  This is happening in the energy sector and with this consolidation comes the public's loss of control.

WE MUST BRING UTILITIES BACK TO PUBLIC STATUS AND WE MUST BRING BACK REGULATION.


These profits are ever climbing because the taxpayers and ratepayers are footing the bills for infrastructure and operations while service and quality declines and environmental issues grow.  Natural gas is fracking and having Exelon in our backyard increases pressure for fracking in Maryland.


Exelon to buy Constellation in $7.9 billion deal
Print By Associated Press business staff
on April 28, 2011 at 12:13 PM, updated April 28, 2011 at 12:15 PM



Associated Press fileExelon Corp.'s nuclear plant in Byron, Ill. NEW YORK  --

Exelon Corp. agreed to buy Constellation Energy Group Inc. for $7.9 billion Thursday, the latest in a string of acquisitions in the electric power industry.

Exelon CEO John Rowe, the longest-serving utility CEO in the country, has long been a proponent of consolidation. He has failed three times since 2003 to acquire a smaller rival. Now the market conditions appear to be on his side.

A combination of lower power prices and rising costs tied to tightening environmental standards has been the catalyst for several recent deals, including Duke Energy Corp.'s $13.7 billion buyout of Progress Energy Inc.

Constellation shareholders will receive 0.93 shares of Exelon for each Constellation share. That's worth $38.59 a share, a 12.5 percent premium over Constellation's closing price on Wednesday.

In Constellation, Exelon would acquire a company much like itself -- with one important difference. Along with a regulated utility and a wholesale power division, Constellation has among the largest retail power divisions in the country.

Analysts say Constellation's large retail arm and Exelon's large wholesale power division could work well together.

"Constellation's retail arm is a good fit, because it tends to do well when wholesale markets are bad," said David Grumhaus, a utility analyst at the Chicago hedge fund Copia Capital.

Wholesale electric providers own generating stations and sell their power to local utilities or retail power providers either through long-term contracts or through regional power pools.

Retail electric providers buy blocks of wholesale power and resell it to industrial, commercial and residential customers. Through most of the last decade, when power prices were rising steadily, retail providers struggled to sign up new customers because they couldn't offer rates lower than what customers were already getting from traditional utilities.

Lower demand for electricity in the wake of the recession and persistently low natural gas prices have lowered power prices and allowed retail providers to advertise low rates in order to attract customers. Also, new devices such as smart meters that track when power is used throughout the day have allowed retail providers to offer new rate plans based on when customers use power in order to lower overall bills.

"It's a deal that makes sense," Grumhaus said.


_________________________________________

The same benefits are offered again and again as to why merger after merger is good for the State of Maryland and as the article shows below-------none of the benefits happen.  The 600 jobs toted with this deal ended being a staff shakeup where local employees were fired and 600 new staff brought from out of the area.  This is a loss of jobs, not a gain.  The rate payers were immediately slapped with a whopping rate increase to pay the costs of infrastructure upgrades and operational costs, they were given $100 million tax credit for absolutely no reason to build a complex right on the water's edge in Baltimore------racketeering and unsustainable development in one swoop.  This deal kept the coal- fired power plants open and the billion dollars of taxpayer trust tied to paying for the closure of Calvert Cliffs is now in the hands of Exelon.

These are all political deals as you see the donations to these campaigns and the connection of Exelon to Obama goes directly to O'Malley's top position on the Democratic Governor's Association
. 

THE CITIZENS OF MARYLAND HAVE A LOSE LOSE ON THIS MERGER.


Now we see Exelon as the main lobbyist for exporting natural gas which will make natural gas prices soar and rates as well.  We are being tied to the most invasive and corrupt system of energy control----the SMART METER ----that has as its only goal the rationing of energy as costs soar and public subsidy disappears.

It is good to note that as this article states the movement to natural gas in producing energy in Maryland will not take coal-fire out of the equation as Exelon simply sold the coal-fired plants to eliminate its footprint----they are still in operation.  Natural gas is far more damaging to global warming than electricity-operation of plants and will be used as an excuse to frack in Maryland.  Indeed, Exelon spends heavily to lobby for exporting natural gas and for the export facility here in Maryland.  Lastly, the mention of Exelon being required to pay for low-income subsidy was found to be a joke as the money sent was found to be fungible taxpayer subsidy to Exelon.  Even the jobs did not happen!


YOU MUST ENGAGE IN POLITICS TO BE THE CHANGE!!

Break up the Exelon bohemoth!

Posted on January 12, 2013 by interestingblogger


I recently read in The Daily Record an article which brought some ideas to my mind. The article noted that “Baltimore’s design review panel Thursday gave a preliminary thumbs up to a design for a sleek, glass, brick and metal tower to house the city’s new Exelon Corp. headquarters at Harbor Point.” As I mentioned in another post, the Inner Harbor benefited big business, not the workers. What about Exelon?

I’ll give you some background. A while ago last year I wrote opposing the Constellation-Exelon merger in my previous blog, Sunshine Politics that “the merger would be a victory for the monied interests because $7.9 billion dollars went into the pocket of Exelon Corp. for their purchase of Constellation Energy Corp…[and] 120 of those megawatts [of new generation Exelon is required to developed within the state, which is 280-300 megawatts] will come from a natural gas-powered plants. I [also noted]…the merger…causes the last Fortune 500 company to leave Baltimore…[which won't] help lower the city’s 20%+ unemployment. [Using the Baltimore Brew I learned that]…the site selected by Exelon…has been the subject of controversy among Baltimore real estate factions…[which could]…adversely affect electric utilities across the Baltimore region and across the state…[I later added rhat] Exelon paid for [numerous] fines for…past negligence…[including a fine] in 2005, the corporation paid $602,000 for exceeding the sulfur dioxide level in Pennsylvania.” I even predicted the merger would be approved, and I bemoaned the fact that there was not strong public opposition, saying that due to this fact, elected officials fell in line with the deal like Maryland’s  Governor Martin O’Malley who “appreciated the PSC’s decision, saying that it will add 6,000 new jobs in Maryland,” who had previously opposed the deal. Using OpenSecrets, I found that “Exelon has been the top contributor to 162 Congressmembers in the House and Senate from 2000 to the present, including Bob Ehlrich is 2000, Ben Cardin in 2012 and Steny H. Hoyer in 2012. Even Constellation Energy gave $10,000 to Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who I’ve previously described as the anti-occupy mayor. The conditions of this merger set by the Public Services Commission (PSC) seemed notable including a hundred dollar rate credit to all BGE customers within 90 days, an investment of over 113 million dollars over three years by Exelon to “provide energy efficiency and low-income energy assistance to BGE customers” and the development of 285-300 “megawatts of new generation within the state,” 120 of which will come from a  natural gas power plant, 125 from “renewable resources” and 30 from solar power. Next, the PSC required the amount of staff at BGE and the two power plants to be the same for the next two years (no firing), but didn’t mention firing from Constellation or Exelon which will not be prohibited. Most importantly, Exelon is required to divest itself of BGE “if Exelon files for bankruptcy or allows its credit rating to drop six levels below investment grade,” which doesn’t seem to take into account the bad record of credit agencies like Moody’s and Standard and Poors which are partly responsible for the current financial crisis (the movie Inside Job explains this well).

You may wonder why this merger was a bad idea. Consider the occupiers, who criticized it before they were evicted, who said it is a bad “deal for Baltimore (and the surrounding areas) because it does not protect jobs and has no guarantees for rate relief.” They even organized a march against the merger at one point! The Tribune-owned Baltimore Sun revealed some about the merger that should make one opposed to it, which noted that once Exelon and Constellation are combined, the new company will be “the largest non-utlity energy provider in the United States.” In 2005, a similar merger approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission with a company in New Jersey would have created such a behemoth, but after massive public action, it was stopped. Even without public action to stop the merger, a consumer advocacy group in Maryland, the Maryland Office of People’s Counsel, and its counterpart in Pennsylvania were opposed, saying that “the combined company would hold too much power in the…Mid-Atlantic electricity grid, potentially pushing wholesale electricity prices higher.” As I noted when I wrote this originally, the merger itself could possibly eliminate 630 jobs in Constellation Energy and Exelon, most of which would in Baltimore, along with the fact that Exelon has a horrible safety record.

What could we as citizens do about this injustice? I did write in the past that the common folk of the state should participate in “militant non-violence opposing this merger and must push for re-regulation of the energy markets by the PSC,” but I feel more is needed.  I still support militant non-violence, yet I think that one can look to the Maryland Declaration of Rights for inspiration. Article 6 points out that “all persons invested with the Legislative or Executive powers of Government are the Trustees of the Public, and, as such, accountable for their conduct,” that “the People may…reform the old, or establish a new Government; [and that] the doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression is absurd, slavish and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.” The bolded section I believe is the most important. The common folk of Maryland should use the ideas of Article 41 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights, and declare that the monopoly of the Exelon-Constellation merged company is “odious, contrary to the spirit of a free government and the principles of commerce, and ought not to be suffered.” The people must tell their government that the energy markets must be re-regulated and that the Exelon-Constellation merger must be broken up by the state, otherwise Marylanders will suffer.


0 Comments

May 21st, 2014

5/21/2014

0 Comments

 
I DON'T WANT TO BE TOO CONSPIRACY THEORY----BUT MANY OF THE 'CATEGORIES' ARCHIVED TIED TO THIS SITE ARE NOW EMPTY WHERE THEY WERE ONCE FULL.

Please check the archived postings as I start replacing those posts missing.


BELOW IS WHAT POLS FROM ERHLICH TO O'MALLEY HAVE BEEN DOING AND IT IS WHY ELECTIONS ARE CAPTURED AND FRAUD AND CORRUPTION RAMPANT.


Today I want to revisit the idea of who is pushing all of the public private partnerships in Maryland and why.  I spoke generally about communications yesterday and today I want to talk public utilities.  Waste and water are one of the last public utilities left and the plan in Maryland is to privatize them.  Can you imagine a global corporate investment firm owning control of our water and waste?

MEET HIGHSTAR INVESTMENT FIRM AND VEOLA ENVIRONMENTAL CORPORATION AND THE COMMON DENOMINATOR----JOHNS HOPKINS AS MAJOR SHAREHOLDER.


High Star used to be connected to AIG but was spun off as AIG headed to bankruptcy from massive corporate fraud.  All those hundreds of billions of dollars AIG earned on credit-default swaps (CDS) insuring against losses when the subprime mortgage industry collapsed -----ALL INVOLVING FRAUD-----was funneled into separate investment firms so these gains would not be lost in bankruptcy.  This is a Bains Capital-style gutting of a healthy corporation of assets and then sending it to bankruptcy scheme.  Well, guess who was heavily invested in HighStar AIG while all the fraud was happening?  IVY LEAGUE UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR ENDOWMENT FUNDS.  These endowment fund values soared because of all of the fraud connected to AIG and that is why we heard that Ivy League Trusts were in the billions of dollars as is true of JOHNS HOPKINS.  So, if Rule of Law had brought all of the fraud back as it should------Ivy League Trusts would be broke.  Instead they are super-sized as all that money stayed with them and became the next stage of investment.

Christopher Hoiles Lee


is Founder and Managing Partner of AIG Highstar Capital, a fourth generation fund manager, was formed in 1998 to make value added, operationally focused private equity investments in infrastructure and has invested over $5 billion for its limited partners and co-investors.

Lee graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1974 with a BA in history. He attended the London School of Economics during 1975. Prior to founding Highstar,. his career in finance began in 1977, including periods with Chase Manhattan and Lehman Brothers, and as CFO of a NYSE listed company based in Mexico City, Grupo Tribasa. He has a particular expertise in public private partnerships, and appears in the media on infrastructure related issues.[1]

Recently he co-authored an Op Ed for Politico with Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley on Ports America's recent 50-year PPP in the Port of Baltimore.

He serves as a member of both the Board of Trustees of Johns Hopkins. and the Dean's Advisory Board for the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins. He is also a Vice Chair of the South Street Seaport Museum in New York.


________________________________________________

All of this is important because HighStar has been connected with buying infrastructure corporations like waste and water and recently bought VEOLA ENVIRONMENTAL now here in Baltimore ready to privatize Baltimore's water and waste.  Waste is already privatized for the most part with HighStar's waste corporations.   When we had an incinerator protest in Baltimore because it would burn hazardous waste----LIKE HOSPITAL WASTE----this was a HighStar project taking over more of public waste business.  Keep in mind that the public pays taxes to receive free waste pickup but that changed when rates for waste went higher and this connection with HighStar and its waste corporations are the culprit.  Maximizing profit by subsidizing corporate operations.

As Baltimore and Maryland works to privatize all of our waste collection it now moves to our public water works and that means VEOLA ENVIRONMENTAL will take this public utility in the guise of public private partnership.  Can you imagine a Wall Street investment firm controlling our water works policy and reaping all of the investment money from the Federal government for infrastructure building?  THE FRAUD WILL BE TREMENDOUS WHEN WALL STREET IS INVOLVED IN INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT.  That is where this is going.  So, an investment firm made rich on subprime mortgage fraud of which Baltimore was hit hardest.....is now setting the stage to make it rich on our water infrastructure.  Keep in mind that all this infrastructure was originally built with public money and remained a public utility during the Great Works Era.  What neo-liberals and neo-cons have planned is to have the public pay for what will become privately owned.


Below you see when these deals happened-----2006-2007, just before the economic collapse in 2008.

AIG Highstar Capital Announces the Acquisition of Utilities, Inc. from Nuon.





NEW YORK -- Hydro Star, LLC, a subsidiary of AIG Highstar Capital II, L.P. and certain of its affiliates (Highstar II), has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the stock of Utilities, Inc. from a subsidiary of n.v. Nuon (Nuon). Hydro Star and Nuon entered into a stock purchase agreement dated May 14, 2005.


Utilities, Inc. is a water and wastewater utility holding company based in Northbrook, Illinois. It has almost 300,000 customers located in 17 states, with a principal focus in the high growth areas of the Sunbelt.

Highstar II is a group of private equity funds that invest in infrastructure related assets and businesses. Highstar II is sponsored by AIG Global Investment Group (AIGGIG). AIGGIG member companies are subsidiaries of American International Group, Inc. (AIG).

Nuon is a large energy company based in the Netherlands, active in the generation, marketing, sale and distribution of electricity, gas, and heat, as well as related products and services. The divestment is in line with Nuon's strategy to concentrate its energy business in The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

AIGGIG Chairman and CEO Win J. Neuger stated, "We have long considered water infrastructure as an attractive investment opportunity and an excellent complement to Highstar II's existing energy infrastructure portfolio. Utilities, Inc. is a leader in this industry and we are pleased that Highstar II has the opportunity to acquire this business from Nuon.".

The transaction for the purchase of Utilities, Inc. is expected to close in early 2006 and is subject to customary conditions, including the receipt of Hart Scott Rodino approval and other regulatory approvals.

AIG Global Investment Group comprises a group of international companies which provide investment advice and market asset management products and services to clients around the world. AIGGIG member companies are subsidiaries of American International Group, Inc. (AIG).

American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is the world's leading international insurance and financial services organization, with operations in approximately 130 countries and jurisdictions. AIG member companies serve commercial, institutional and individual customers through the most extensive worldwide property-casualty and life insurance networks of any insurer. In the United States, AIG companies are the largest underwriters of commercial and industrial insurance and AIG American General is a top-ranked life insurer. AIG's global businesses also include financial services, retirement services and asset management. AIG's financial services businesses include aircraft leasing, financial products, trading and market making. AIG's growing global consumer finance business is led in the United States by American General Finance. AIG also has one of the largest U.S. retirement services businesses through AIG SunAmerica and AIG VALIC, and is a leader in asset management for the individual and institutional markets, with specialized investment management capabilities in equities, fixed income, alternative investments and real estate. AIG's common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, as well as the stock exchanges in London, Paris, Switzerland and Tokyo.



_____________________________________________

Here you see the amount of fraud included in those credit default swaps insuring what everyone knew was subprime mortgage loans infused with fraud and known to be toxic waste.

Why is this important?  This entire scheme is planned to move all real estate------the subprime mortgage fraud and economic collapse that is sending more and more people into foreclosure----but it sets the stage for pretending governments are so stressed as to require that they be privatized.

REMEMBER, SIMPLY REINSTATING RULE OF LAW BRINGS BACK TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CORPORATE FRAUD TO OUR GOVERNMENT COFFERS AND INDIVIDUAL'S POCKETS. 


There is no need for any public sector cuts or privatization.


AIG REPORTS $2.7 BILLION NET LOSS

ATTRIBUTABLE TO AIG FOR THE
SECOND QUARTER OF 2010 DRIVEN BY RESTRUCTURING-RELATED
CHARGES; CONTINUING INSURANCE OPERATING INCOME REMAINS STABLE
NEW YORK, NY, August 6, 2010 – American International Group, Inc. (AIG) today
reported a net loss attributable to AIG of $2.7 billion for the second quarter of 2010, or $(3.96)
per diluted common share, compared to net income of $1.8 billion, or $2.30 per diluted
common share, in the second quarter of 2009. The second quarter 2010 loss was primarily due
to a $3.3 billion non-cash goodwill impairment charge included in discontinued operations.
Second quarter 2010 adjusted net income was $1.3 billion (compared to $1.1 billion in
the second quarter of 2009), including operating income of $2.2 billion from continuing
insurance operations, Mortgage Guaranty operating income of $226 million, $604 million in
income from the Asia life insurance operating segment (principally American International
Assurance Company, Ltd. (AIA)), and fair value gains on Maiden Lane III of $358 million,
partially offset by interest and amortization on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
(FRBNY) Credit Facility and third party debt, invested asset impairment charges and other net
restructuring and legal settlement charges, and a decrease in the net deferred tax asset.


_____________________________________________

The plan is to have VEOLA ENVIRONMENT take many city water utilities and in fact, here in Baltimore they are already writing all of the plans for the city's infrastructure upgrade coming probably next year.  They are waiting for the Trans Pacific Trade Pact to pass Congress so global corporations can come to the US for all the Federal funds designated for these infrastructure projects and HighStar/VEOLA will be right there.

I have talked quite a bit about the dangers of SMART METER technology and water and waste will be captured by this along with our natural gas and electricity and as I show------HighStar is the one behind all these corporate connections and Johns Hopkins is the majority shareholder that will earn billions of dollars and control of most of our public utilities.  THIS IS WHAT WE CALL A CORPORATE STATE.  The public in Maryland knows they have no say in all of these policies now completed behind closed doors.


Highstar Capital Agrees to Buy Veolia Unit for $1.9 Billion


By Jeffrey McCracken and Sonja Elmquist Jul 19, 2012 3:07 AM ET   Bloomberg Financials



Aug 1Sep 1Oct 1Nov 1Dec 1Jan 1Feb 1Mar 1Apr 1May 1Jun 1Jul 17.5010.0012.5015.0017.50* Price chart for VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT. Click flags for important stories. VIE:FP9.3507/19/12 Highstar Capital, a U.S. infrastructure fund, agreed to buy Veolia Environnement SA (VIE)’s U.S. waste-management business for about $1.9 billion.

The transaction will cut Veolia’s net debt by $1.8 billion, the Paris-based world’s biggest water company said today in a statement. After the deal it will have completed 60 percent of its 5 billion euro ($6.1 billion) divestment plan, it said.


Highstar, the infrastructure-focused private equity firm once affiliated with American International Group Inc. (AIG), beat bids from buyout firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLC and Brazilian conglomerate Estre Ambiental SA, said people familiar with the matter prior to the announcement.

Veolia is shedding the unit as it tries to cut debt by 20 percent to 12 billion euros by the end of next year. Chief Executive Officer Antoine Frerot said last month he wants to focus on “promising” countries and will pursue asset sales in the U.S. and U.K.

“The transformation of Veolia is progressing as planned,” Frerot said in the statement.

Veolia shares rose as much as 4 percent to 9.58 euros in Paris. The shares traded at 9.50 euros at 9:04 a.m. local time.

Cost Cuts Veolia plans to cut operating costs by 120 million euros in 2013 and narrow its geographic reach. On June 28, Veolia sold its U.K. regulated-water business to Infracapital Partners for 1.2 billion pounds ($1.9 billion).

The deal “will create a strong company with compelling growth prospects,” Highstar Capital Founder and Managing Partner Christopher Lee said in a separate statement. Highstar’s U.S. waste business will operate in 20 states with annual revenue of about $1.4 billion, it said.

Veolia ES Solid Waste Inc. has more than 300 locations that provide hazardous and non-hazardous waste management and industrial cleaning services, the company said on its website.

Highstar already operates U.S. waste management businesses Advanced Disposal Services Inc. and Interstate Waste Services Inc, according to the New York-based company’s website.



________________________________________

Coincidence that Ivy Leagues are heavily invested in real estate and infrastructure even as it is riddled with fraud and all knew an economic crash was coming-----REALLY?   Maybe they went all out because the people making sure no losses for the rich occurred with the fraud and collapse were appointed by Bush and Obama and happen to be from Harvard, Yale, and other Ivy League universities which are also Wall Street human resources.

So, this entire movement of wealth and property was a scheme from the late 1980s when Reagan and then Clinton came on board and cities created their MASTER PLANS FOR REDEVELOPMENT.  They infused it with fraud and corruption and brutality as they took all the gains of workers over the decades of New Deal and the soaring middle-class.  IT WAS PLANNED AND DELIBERATE AS IS THE FAILURE TO EXACT JUSTICE TO BRING BACK THE FRAUD. 

We do not want these people controlling our utilities or our government. 

STOP ALLOWING A NEOLIBERAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHOOSE YOUR CANDIDATES----RUN LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES.  IF YOU ARE REPUBLICAN YOU HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM IN THE NEO-CONS------


PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS ARE SIMPLY A STEP TOWARDS HANDING EVERYTHING PUBLIC TO PRIVATE HANDS.

Ultra-wealthy look to Ivy League endowment funds for investment lessons

 Michael Nairne | October 16, 2012 | Last Updated: Oct 17 9:54 AM ET  Financial Post


Reuters/Brian SnyderA students sits on the steps of Widener Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in this file photo. For the 20 years ended June 30, 2011, the Harvard and Yale Endowments earned annual average returns of 12.9% and 14.2% respectively. These numbers soundly trounce the 8.3% return of a portfolio comprised of 40% bond and 60% stocks, the asset mix of a traditional pension plan.

Today’s paltry interest rates on top of a decade of mediocre stock returns have prompted many wealthy families to search for more rewarding portfolio solutions. Some are turning to the trail blazing example of leading U.S. college endowment funds such as Yale’s and Harvard’s, which have been leaders in the quest for higher returning portfolios.



The returns of such endowments have been enviable. For the 20 years ended June 30, 2011, the Yale and Harvard Endowments earned annual average returns of 14.2% and 12.9% respectively. These numbers soundly trounce the 8.3% return of a portfolio comprised of 40% bond and 60% stocks, the asset mix of a traditional pension plan. It isn’t only Yale and Harvard that excelled — the average large U.S. college endowment returned 10.7% annually. To put this into a Canadian context, equity-oriented, global balanced mutual funds here over the same period earned an unremarkable 5.6% per annum.

Why did endowments shoot ahead of other investors? Because they were pioneers in moving beyond the traditional staples of publicly traded bonds and stocks by shifting into alternative assets. By investing in real estate, commodities, timberland, energy, infrastructure, private equity and hedge funds, they were able to create a unique blend of diversification and growth. In fact, alternative assets now constitute the majority of endowment assets — a full 51% in 2011, whereas alternatives accounted for a meager 3% in 1992. These days, alternatives are “alternatives” in name only.

You only have to glance at the asset mix of college endowments to see how different it is from that of the typical investor. Fixed-income assets play a minor role, constituting only 10% of the average endowment portfolio. As noted in Yale’s 2010 Endowment Report, it “is not particularly attracted to fixed-income assets, as they have the lowest historical and expected returns of the six asset classes that make up the Endowment.”

Instead of bonds, many endowments have turned to hedge funds for diversification and a measure of downside protection. In fact, in 2011, 19% of endowment assets were invested in hedge funds.

It is the avid pursuit of growth that drives endowments’ stellar returns. They currently allocate 65% of their capital to equities and real assets. Patiently hunting for higher long-term returns, they are major investors in private equity, either through funds or directly acquiring companies. They also look far afield for opportunities, and invest more in international equities than domestically. And their real asset investments go far beyond real estate to include infrastructure, commodities, timberland, farmland and energy.

Wealthy families are realizing that clipping coupons from a traditional portfolio of bonds and stocks won’t cut the mustard in an era of miniscule interest rates and so-so stock valuations. Many have woken up to the fact they share the same challenges as college endowment funds — funding hefty and growing bills year in and year out while still wanting to build their wealth over the long-term.

It is, therefore, no surprise that a recent survey of ultra-wealthy families by the Institute for Private Investors found that 55% are increasing their investments in private companies. Close to half of the respondents are adding more real estate, commodities and global equities to their portfolios.

We’ve found that many of the wealthy families with whom we work are lengthening their investment horizons. With their children now in early adulthood, a truly multi-generational plan is warranted. In turn, a longer time horizon lends itself to a growth-oriented investment strategy that includes a significant global equity weighting as well as illiquid assets such a mortgage funds, direct real estate investment and private equity.

Of course, the pursuit of higher returns even in such a diversified fashion brings its share of risk. Major endowments suffered a 20.5% loss in the year ended June 30, 2009, while more aggressive funds such as Yale and Harvard, which plummeted 24.6% and 27.3% respectively, experienced even larger declines.

Many wealthy families figure that if that is the price of admission to “first in class” long-term returns, it is a cost they are prepared to pay.


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    Cindy Walsh is a lifelong political activist and academic living in Baltimore, Maryland.

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