Nick Pride & The Pimptones:
https://youtu.be/vNusy3V3h0Q
Lovely day
Bill Withers:
Happy Hour: Clifford Brown – Gertrude’s Bounce …
Panhandle Slim… Art for Folk…
Oregon’s Lost Lake
Pennywise and pound foolish
Sam Brownback might be one of the worst Republican governors in the nation — and he’s up against some stiff competition:
At least eight Kansas school districts are starting summer break early in response to the state’s midyear education funding cut.
The move has put increased pressure on Governor Sam Brownback, whose “experiment” with reducing income tax to incite economic growth is partially responsible for the state’s projected $800m budget shortfall going into the next fiscal year, which begins on 1 July.
In an effort to ameliorate that gap, Brownback in March cut $51m from the budget for the current school year – pushing schools to trim the school year and eliminate and cut education programs.
Marguerite Roza, a research associate professor at Georgetown University and director of the Edunomics Lab, which explores education finances, said it is rare for states to do midyear budget cuts.
“Midyear cuts are some of the worst,” Roza said, explaining that school officials have to reallocate resources last minute and that many staffers plan their lives around receiving a certain income, that could then be reduced.
Giving in to the temptation
On Monday night, it was so hot, I couldn’t sleep. I had a box fan blowing the hot air out of the room but it wasn’t enough. Finally, I got up and cracked the window — it was in the low 60s, but that meant I woke up with swollen eyes as big as baseballs from all that tree pollen. Ugh.
Thankfully, my landlord was available to install my AC yesterday, and I slept last night in peace. Hallelujah!
I don’t really like turkey, anyway
I go for the cranberry sauce:
The largest-ever U.S. outbreak of avian influenza, which has devastated Midwestern poultry and egg producers in recent weeks, could be felt at Thanksgiving tables across the nation come November, farmers and some trade groups say.
The virulent H5N2 strain has already spread to 14 states and led to the deaths or scheduled euthanizations of more than 21 million birds, including 3.3 million turkeys in Minnesota, the nation’s top turkey producer.
And now, with Thanksgiving just seven months away, farmers say they may be running out of time to raise enough turkeys –the traditional centerpiece of holiday feasts – to meet the demand.
Once a farm has been infected, flocks must be culled, composted in barns, then disposed of. Buildings must then be thoroughly disinfected. The whole process can take up to three months before a new flock of turkey poults can be brought in, said Steve Olson, executive director of the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association.
They don’t bother with silly stuff like retractions
They’re too busy scraping the scrambled eggs off their faces
Broadcast media and major newspapers are ignoring the State Department’s determination that there is no evidence to support allegations made by Republican activist and discredited author Peter Schweizer in his book, Clinton Cash, that Hillary Clinton’s actions as secretary of state were influenced by donations to the Clinton Foundation — despite the fact that many of these media outlets previously highlighted Schweizer’s allegations after receiving advanced excerpts of the book and entering into exclusive agreements with the author to report on its storylines.
On May 4, State Department spokesperson Jeff Rathke said that the department is “not aware of any evidence that actions taken by Secretary Clinton were influenced by donation to the Clinton Foundation or speech on honoraria of former President Clinton.” The statement came ahead of the official release of Clinton Cash, Republican activist and consultant Peter Schweizer’s book which alleges unethical ties between Hillary Clinton’s actions as secretary of state and foreign government donations to the Clinton Foundation.
Broadcast media and major newspapers have fallen silent following the State Department’s assertion that they “are not aware of any evidence to suggest that there was any influence.” Neither Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, nor NBC reported on State’s assertion in their May 4 evening broadcasts. Major newspapers including The New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, and Time magazine failed to report on the State Department’s response, despite many having received advanced excerpts from the book and having previously entered into “exclusive agreements” with Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer to report on “storylines found in the book.”
Still doing stupid shit that makes people hate the IRS
Whenever we pass a law that could be applied to people not intended as targets, you can bet your ass that eventually it will be applied:
Wielding a banking law intended to thwart drug trafficking and money laundering, the IRS has a new target in its sights: a rural convenience store that sells catfish sandwiches.
Lyndon McLellan lost over $107,000 in an IRS raid after the agency seized the bank account belonging to his small business, L&M Convenience Mart in Fairmont, North Carolina. “It took me 13 years to save that much money and it took fewer than 13 seconds for the government to take it away,” he said.
For over a decade, Lyndon has run his mart, an unassuming place where locals stock up on soft drinks and cigarettes. But last year, the IRS wiped out the shop’s bank account using the Bank Secrecy Act. Under this law, banks must report all cash transactions over $10,000. Federal law also prohibits “structuring” deposits in amounts under $10,000 to skirt the reporting requirement.
But making frequent cash deposits under $10,000 is only a crime if someone deliberately intends to evade filing those reports. Lyndon had no such intention. According to his niece, who usually made deposits, a bank teller told her that depositing less than $10,000 would avoid burdensome paperwork. Moreover, forfeiting Lyndon’s cash would violate his constitutional right to due process and the Eighth Amendment’s protection against “excessive fines.”