D.C. Chuckle

The cost of the review of ethanol is a measly $1m. Why has it taken so many years to have this study? More importantly, what happens if this study shows that ethanol is proven to be a dud? Answer:

No later than 30 days after the assessment is completed, EPA would be required to submit a report to the Congress, indicating whether the agency agrees with the study’s findings. The NAS and EPA would have 18 months from the time of enactment to complete the study. Mid-level ethanol blends could not be sold until after EPA issues its assessment report.

A few data points on ethanol:

- 10% of all gasoline sold contains ethanol. That comes to 13 billion gallons of alcohol, $25-30b of cash flow a year.

- The energy content of ethanol is 33% less efficient than gasoline by volume.

- Using E10 (10% ethanol) reduces mileage by 3.3%.

Americans drive 3 Trillion miles a year (incredible). If all of the drivers used blended gas containing 10% ethanol it would mean that the reduced efficiency would cost drivers 100b miles a year, or $350B. The actual losses to drivers is less than that calculation as not all gas consumed has ethanol, but the number that consumers pay as a result of ethanol is well in excess of $50b - serious money.

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Applications Being Accepted For Trooper Youth Week

The Delaware State Police & American Legion is accepting applications for the 42nd Trooper Youth Week starting Monday, June 24, 2013 through Friday, June 28, 2013. This is a week-long live-in academy sponsored by the Delaware State Police and American Legion of Delaware designed to give high school students who are sincerely interested in law enforcement an opportunity to experience the rigors of training that police officers receive at the Delaware State Police Academy.

The students selected from a competitive pool, are required to participate in physical training as well as a variety of classroom instruction ranging from crime scene and accident investigation. The program sponsored by the American Legion of Delaware, is facilitated by Uniform Troopers assigned to the Delaware State Police Training Academy.

High School Seniors, Juniors, and Sophomores are encouraged to complete an application. This can be done by contacting a School Resource Officer at their respective school or Corporal/1 Christopher Martin of the Delaware State Police at the Training Academy via email atchristopher.m.martin@state.de.us or telephone 302-672-5459.

All completed applications must be submitted to Corporal/1 Christopher Martin via the DSP Academy located at 1441 N. DuPont Hwy Dover, De 19901 no later than Monday, May 20, 2013.

Delaware State Police Issues Gold Alert

***UPDATE- Gold Alert Cancelled***

Gold Alert Subject:

Robert F. Warder Sr., 82, Seaford, DE (Photo Attached)
5’11” tall, 190 lbs., grey hair, brown eyes

Location Last Seen:

7000 block of Grace Circle, Seaford, DE

Date and Time Last Seen:

Wednesday April 24, 2013 at approximately 1:50 p.m.

Resume:
Seaford, DE- The Delaware State Police has issued a Gold Alert for a missing Seaford man.

The Delaware State Police is currently searching for Robert F. Warder Sr., 82 of Seaford, DE. Warder was last leaving his residence located in the 7000 block of Grace Circle in Seaford around 1:50 p.m. this afternoon and has not been seen or heard from since. He is described as a white male, 5’11” tall and 190 lbs. with grey hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing blue jeans and a brown shirt. He is possibly operating a green 2007 Ford F150 pickup truck with Delaware registration C26447.

Robert Warder's medical condition is such that there is a real concern for his safety.

Troopers are asking anyone who may have any information as to the whereabouts of Robert Warder to contact Troop 5 at 302-337-1090 or by utilizing the Delaware State Police Mobile Crime Tip Application available to download at: http://www.delaware.gov/apps/. Information may also be provided by calling Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333, via the internet at www.tipsubmit.com, or by sending an anonymous tip by text to 274637 (CRIMES) using the keyword "DSP."

Meet Your New $100 Bill

For only the fourth time in history, there will be a new $100 bill.

After a three-year delay due to slower-than-expected production, Americans will finally have an improved, high-tech $100 bill for their wallets, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday.

The bill is set to debut on Oct. 8.

What's so special about the new greenback? To start, the Fed says the the bill is a culmination of a decade-long research and design process.
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WE'RE #1

We’re number one! But not in any category that is positive. We’ve run the table on consumption, debt fueled prosperity, greed, sloth, gluttony, pride, envy, wrath, you name it, and now Americans are paying the price. People are broken down, the family unit is broken down, and the principles that founded this country are now considered terrorist activities.

By any measure Americans are unhealthy, unhappy, drug and alcohol guzzling slobs. We’re the fattest people in the history of the world. We’re trained like lab rats from birth to buy, buy, buy, and consume as much crap as we can on credit. Almost 50 million people get free food and drinks (food stamps) because we don’t want anyone to be deprived of their ability to consume.

110 million people didn’t have to go to work today, and get to sit on the couch and watch Jerry Springer. Our public and private debt bomb is ticking away at $56 trillion, with another $200 trillion in promises made. The soul and spirit of our country is dying a slow, painful death.

By all measures, we’re at the end of a debt and consumption super-cycle; and what have we done with all this bounty? Become miserable, lazy and obese. What a waste.

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Country Night This Friday! Dress Up For Free Admission!

GE Capital Cuts Off Lending To Gun Shops

General Electric Co. is quietly cutting off lending to gun shops, as the company rethinks its relationship to firearms amid the fallout from the school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

This month, Glenn Duncan, owner of Duncan’s Outdoor Store in Bay City, Mich., said he received a letter from GE Capital Retail Bank in which the lender said it had made “the difficult decision” to stop providing financing services to his store. Other gun dealers have received similar notices.

GE is at least the second big financial firm to retreat from the gun business following the school shootings, which claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and six adults in December.
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‘ARMED AND DANGEROUS’: BECK’S LATEST REVELATIONS ON SAUDI NATIONAL ONCE A ‘PERSON OF INTEREST’ IN BOSTON BOMBINGS

For the past week, Glenn Beck has been investigating a Saudi national once identified as a “person of interest” in the Boston Marathon bombing. The story has taken a number of alarming twists and turns, but on his radio program Wednesday, Beck released some of the most interesting information yet.

But first, here are a few background points on how the case developed:

• A Saudi national originally identified as a “person of interest” in the Boston Marathon bombing was set to be deported under section 212, 3B — “Security and related grounds” — “Terrorist activities” after the bombing on April 15
• TheBlaze received word that the government may not deport the Saudi national — identified as Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi — as the story gained traction on April 18.

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Obama Orders Flags Half-Staff In Honor of West, Texas Explosion Victims

President Obama ordered flags to be flown at half-staff on Thursday in honor of the victims of last week's explosion at a West, Texas fertilizer plant.

"As a mark of respect for the memory of those who perished in the explosion in West, Texas, on April 17, 2013, I hereby order, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at all public buildings and grounds and at all military facilities and naval stations of the Federal Government in the State of Texas," Obama said in a presidential proclamation.

Flags are flown at half-staff traditionally as a symbol of mourning. The president last ordered flags flown at half-staff last week as a tribute to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing.
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Universal Online Sales Tax Imminent?

That Congress has had aspirations on collecting sales tax on online purchases, which comprise an increasingly bigger portion of all retail sales in the US, in the past is nothing new. However, following last night's passage of the Marketplace Fairness Act in the Senate with a cloture-busting 74 votes for (and 20 against), the US may be very close to finally adopting a uniform standard taxing all online transactions, regardless of physical jurisdiction or any other geographic boundaries.

As Ars Technica reported last night, "your tax-free days of online shopping are numbered. If S743, also known as the Marketplace Fairness Act, becomes law, the millions of Americans who have been able to avoid sales tax online will have to start paying it. Given the broad support shown by today's US Senate vote, some version of it is likely to come to fruition."

And since a tax is a tax is a tax, it means that the purchasing power of online shopping Americans will be uniformly reduced by some X%, depending on what the final tax structure is agreed upon, which also means that the volume of all online transactions will have to decline by a corresponding amount all else equal, in turn leading to lower overall revenues and profits for online retailers. But at least the Federal government will have more cash to waste on such high ROI generating projects as Solyndra and Fisker.

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UNION MUSICIANS SAY MARVEL TAKES U.S. TAX BREAKS THEN HIRES OVERSEAS TALENT

 

Marvel's Iron Man 3 is expected to start the summer move season with a repulsor blast of box office power. Tell that to members of the American Federation of Musicians, a union protesting the company's use of foreign musicians in both the superhero sequel as well as the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

AFM members were outside the midtown Manhattan offices of Marvel on Tuesday handing out leaflets angry with the studio not using their members for Iron Man 3....

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ABNORMALCY BIAS

“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does. They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.” – Aldous Huxley – Brave New World Revisited

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Colorado To Pay Piper After Dems' War On Guns

Colorado Democrats have control of the state Senate, House and governor’s office. So this year, under pressure from the White House, they launched into a war on guns, adopting one regulation, restriction and rule after another.

Now the piper has come calling for his pay.

It was following public hearings on a series of gun-control bills last month that Michael Bane, executive producer for the Outdoor Channel, sent an email to Republican state Sen. Steve King saying that after seeking the advice of legal counsel, his company was pulling all production out of Colorado.

“This morning I met with my three producers, and we made the decision that if these anti-gun bills become law, we will be moving all of our production OUT of Colorado,” the email said. “We have already canceled a scheduled filming session for late this month.”
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OC Mulls Stormwater Utility Fees; Council To Further Discuss Fee Structure Soon

OCEAN CITY – The City Council is continuing to weigh options to address its aging stormwater infrastructure concerns, including a rate structure that would fund a new utility within the city.

On Friday afternoon, while the Mayor and City Council wrapped up budget hearings, City Engineer Terry McGean gave an update on the concept of instituting a stormwater utility fee to start repairing the millions of dollars’ worth of needed infrastructure repairs.

“You don’t really need to make a decision as far as budget time today,” McGean said. “I will caution in the budget right now we do have paving for a number of streets. Those streets do need stormwater work done to them but that is not in the budget right now. So it could be something where we are paving the street and then five years later we are digging it up to put storm drains in … it is something we really need to start thinking hard about as we move forward.”
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Newtown Budget With Extra School Security Rejected

Residents have rejected a budget that included money for extra school security in the wake of the December school shootings, with town leaders suggesting the spending and required tax increases were a hard sell.

Voters on Tuesday turned down the $72 million school budget by 482 votes and rejected the $39 million town government budget by 62 votes. Nearly 4,500 residents voted on the plans, which would have represented an increase of more than 5 percent next fiscal year.

First Selectwoman Patricia Llodra said the killings of 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School had an impact on the vote, the first since the massacre.

"We're very fragile as a community," she said. "We've lost some of our confidence."
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Housing's Trek From America's "Socialism", Through UK's "Communism" Ending In China's "Capitalism"

Socialism is a dirty word in many parts of the US, but as the FT reports, the government has turned its mortgage market into a giant nationalized enterprise on a par with China’s Red Army with over 90% of mortgages subsidized by the state and aided by so-called "progressive" or "redistributive" policies.

In the UK, the government have also become entwined with the housing market, albeit in different ways. Rates have also been slashed close to zero; tens of thousands are buying homes arm-in-arm with the state under 'shared equity schemes'; and one-third of all mortgages come from the two state-controlled banks (Lloyds and RBS); very reminiscent of supposedly communist China, where most banks are majority-owned by the state with small public floats.

The BoE has (supposedly temporarily) pumped over GBP14bn into a scheme called “Funding for Lending” aimed at forcing down the price of business loans and mortgages; also reminiscent of the “short-term” rescue of Fannie and Freddie five years ago. In spite of all this government-sponsorship (or perhaps due to its bubble reflation), analysts argue, "we still have a market where pricing is not at a rational level."

The question remains how can they avoid another crash if and when they withdraw support from the market? "It's broadly accepted nowadays that China still lives under the banner of 'communism' despite capitalist marketsplaying an increasing role in society. In Britain and America – at least where the housing market is concerned – the reverse process seems to be taking place."

Ironically, at the same time, China is trying to stall a bubble created by their own capitalism-driven shadow banking system by curving ownership and raising taxes on real estate.

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13 Corrections Officers Indicted In Md., Accused Of Aiding Gang’s Drug Scheme

More than a dozen Maryland state prison guards helped a dangerous national gang operate a drug-trafficking and money-laundering scheme from behind bars that involved cash payments, sex and access to fancy cars, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Thirteen female corrections officers essentially handed over control of a Baltimore jail to gang leaders, prosecutors said. The officers were charged Tuesday in a federal racketeering indictment.

The indictment described a jailhouse seemingly out of control. Four corrections officers became pregnant by one inmate. Two of them got tattoos of the inmate’s first name, Tavon — one on her neck, the other on a wrist. 
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County Opts To Skip National Search, Names Mason’s Successor

SNOW HILL -- Worcester County has decided to skip a lengthy search process and will promote current Finance Officer Harold Higgins to serve as Chief Administrative Officer when Gerald Mason retires this June.

“For me it’s kind of like playing third base for the Baltimore Orioles after Brookes Robinson retired,” said Higgins. “Gerry was so well liked and he does such a great job and following him has its anxiety levels. He’s such a great manager; it’s a privilege to follow him and try to continue on with what he’s done for the county in the past.”

The County Commission was quick to get behind Higgins, naming him Mason’s successor within three days of the latter’s retirement announcement.
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99.5% Of Illegal Immigrants Get Approval For Legal Status; High Number Raises Concerns About Fraud

The administration has approved 99.5 percent of applications of those who have applied for legal status under President Obama’s nondeportation policy for young adults, granting legal status to more than 250,000 formerly illegal immigrants.

Officials said they expect the approval rate to drop as more cases make their way through the system, as it takes longer to deny an application than to approve it. Indeed, the approval rate already has dropped from 99.8 percent just a month ago.

But the high rate leaves others wondering whether the administration is doing all it can to weed out fraud or potentially dangerous illegal immigrants in DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, as it’s formally known. 
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Bogus Weight-Loss Products, Fraudulent Prizes Top List Of Biggest Scams

More than 1-in-10 American adults fall victim to some sort of fraud, according to a new report from the Federal Trade Commission. And scams related to fraudulent weight-loss products are by far the most prevalent.

The FTC has just released a detailed survey [PDF] of consumer fraud in the U.S. for 2011. The agency found that in that year alone, 25.6 million adults (10.8% of the adult population) were victims of fraud. In total, the FTC knows of 37.8 million fraud incidents in 2011, meaning some folks were duped at least twice.

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