Brian Gongol
Exits Ahead
Costs of Federal regulation: $1.127 trillion
That's more than China's reserves of foreign currency about which people were atwitter earlier this year
Why conspiracy theories don't seem to hold much water
"They think government is evil-intentioned but supremely, even divinely, competent. That's crazy-talk, Count Chocula."
Bad news for Iowa's budget
The governor's out patting himself on the back for a $332 million budget surplus for this year -- but the state is going to face automatic spending increases of $615 million or more in FY 2007. $615 million minus $332 million equals a $283 million shortfall next year...to be made up by tax increases. Iowa has a budget problem.
One-third of Nebraska's corn crop goes to ethanol
Interior Department spends six years covering up oil-lease mistake
Total cost to taxpayers: As much as $10 billion in lost lease revenues
Japan to stop listing centenarians
Privacy concerns overwhelm the list. There are 40,000 people aged 100 or over in the US.
Housing market cools off in Twin Cities region
Median prices flat, with sales down by a quarter over last year
1.8 million people in food emergency
In Somalia alone. What would happen if organized groups were to provide quasi-governmental social services, like Hamas has done in Lebanon? What if they were hostile to the West?
Neo-Nazis expected to win elections in eastern Germany
Another shining example of when economics could avert problems -- the far right is winning support in eastern Germany because the economy there is depressed; thus, "outsiders" like immigrants provide a convenient and concrete target for peoples' anger over their financial hardships. Germany never dealt effectively with a whole slew of economic issues created by reunification, including the fact that East Germans don't change employers much. Things are also troublesome because wages haven't converged as much as costs have between east and west...thus making eastern Germany that much less competitive economically.
UK to lighten up on airline security next week
Hand-baggage limits and liquid bans may be changed
Canadian woman starts a newspaper in Iraq
Pakistanis using pirate radio to oppose US presence
All the more evidence that the Voice of America is critical to US diplomatic efforts abroad, and that cuts to it are just plain stupid
The importance of good recordkeeping
Greek church is using Ottoman Empire documents in a court case over who owns land and a lake in Greece
Organized crime advertises on the Internet
State legislators say Federal government is overstepping its bounds way too much
REAL ID Act, food labeling, National Guard authority among the issues cited
Apple thinks iTV will be big moneymaker
It's intended as a simple wireless network that streams programming (like TV shows and movies) from the Internet to television sets and iPods. The whole idea of releasing streamed movie content has long evaded the movie studios.