Hundreds of people worked their final shifts Friday at a Whirlpool Corp. refrigerator factory in southern Indiana that has been the site of protests over its closure.
The Evansville plant's production line was shutting down after turning out refrigerators for 54 years, meaning the loss of some 600 jobs. About 450 other workers were laid off in March when Whirlpool ended its second production shift.
snip
The company announced last year that it would shut down the factory and move production to Mexico. Whirlpool will still have a presence in the city, with 300 employees at its refrigeration design center.
Months of protests over the closing plans didn't change the decision, which executives of the Benton Harbor, Mich.-based company said was needed to reduce costs and streamline its operations.Some 1,500 people joined AFL-CIO national President Richard Trumka for march outside the factory in February protesting the decision, which some workers attributed to corporate greed.
Out of curiosity, I wonder how many of the 1500 protesters bought one product over the other because of the price?
U.S. companies are holding more cash in the bank than at any point on record, underscoring persistent worries about financial markets and about the sustainability of the economic recovery.
The Federal Reserve reported Thursday that nonfinancial companies had socked away $1.84 trillion in cash and other liquid assets as of the end of March, up 26% from a year earlier and the largest-ever increase in records going back to 1952. Cash made up about 7% of all company assets, including factories and financial investments, the highest level since 1963.
While renewed confidence in corporate-bond markets has allowed big companies to raise a record amount of money, many are still hesitant to spend the cash on hiring or expansion amid doubts about the strength of the recovery. They are also anxious to keep cash on hand in case Europe's debt troubles lead to a new market freeze.
Don't worry Mr./Ms. CEO the Obamunists are here and they'll subside your fears.
They called it Paradise I don't know why Somebody laid the mountains low While the town got high.............
Californians don’t see much evidence that the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression is coming to an end.
Unemployment was 12.4 percent in May, 2.7 percentage points higher than the national rate. Lawmakers gridlocked over how to close a $19 billion budget gap are weighing the termination of the main welfare program for 1.3 million poor families or borrowing more than $9 billion in the bond market. California, tied with Illinois for the lowest credit rating of any state, is diverting a rising portion of tax revenue to service debt, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its August issue.
Far from rebounding, the Golden State, with a $1.8 trillion economy that’s larger than Russia’s, is sinking deeper into its financial funk. And it’s not alone.
Turning the world's most abundant area into a third world economy?
This weekend is a good one for the Gekko's to grab some R&R. We're heading to Milwaukee for Summerfest so my posting might be limited. I'll be back in town Wednesday night.
It also appears to be a good weekend for Midas. Not only will he get to see the 311 show tonight, he'll be in town for Justin Bieber tomorrow night and I believe there's lesbian Coldplay tribute band playing in a park downtown.
In this case, Nancy Lollapelosi is setting up a legal defense fund ......................
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is asking supporters for contributions to help prevent the "subpoenas and investigations" that would result from a GOP majority.
In a fundraising letter for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Pelosi says if Republicans take back the House, they'll initiate "endless investigations against President Obama" and "bring back the days of Ken Starr and the politics of personal destruction."
"Remember a Republican-controlled Congress that devoted more time to subpoenas and investigations than to solving our country's problems?" Pelosi asks. "There is far too much at stake for our country now to allow it to happen again."
I have this theory that you can tell the difficulty of any given profession by the number of legacies residing in the profession. My theory being that for some professions it's all about contacts, access to coaching and training and exposure.
For instance, take sports broadcasting. It is completely littered with Buck's, Caray's, Albert's, Brennaman's, etc. In my mind, it's not about talent for these guys but having access to the trade that gets them the job; being able to be in the booth with old dad, doing rehearsal tapes. being introduced to the players in the profession, etc........
I've always proclaimed this theory as it relates to sports. Baseball has to be the easiest of all the sports by just looking at the number of Boone's, Griffey's, Bell's, Alou's, Matthew's etc in the sport.
Or take auto racing where the name Andretti or Petty gets you a team as a five year old.
But Gordon, maybe it has more to do with talent inherited by the kids from the parents.
Well, if that were true, there would be at least 24 guys in the NBA with the name of Kemp since Shawn Kemp single handedly passed on his talents to hundreds of baby momma's across the country.
Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Moses Malone all have kids who probably wouldn't have even warranted D-1 scholarships if it weren't for their names, yet none of them have an impact on the NBA.
Using my theory, could there possibly be a profession that requires less talent than being a politician?
Pelosi is Italian-American and was born Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro in Baltimore, Maryland, the youngest of six children of Anunciata M. ("Nancy") and Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr., who was a Democratic party U.S. Congressman from Maryland and a Mayor of Baltimore.[3] Pelosi's brother, Thomas D'Alesandro III, also a Democrat, was mayor of Baltimore from 1967 to 1971, when he declined to run for a second term.
What about the Kennedy's? Let's face it. Could any of them make a dollar in a fully functioning, legal, American business?
How about this list political legacies......
Jesse Jackson Jr? The Bush's? Robin Carnahan? Kwame Kilpatrick? Monica and John Conyers? Hillary Clinton? Evan Bayh?
A real talent pool........... for a zombie movie.
The American political landscape is totally littered with losers who wouldn't be anything if not for Mommy, Daddy, or Hubby clearing the way for them in the profession of politics.
So I think it's kind of funny that the pride of Harry Reid's loins, Rory won't use his last name in his latest political ad...............
Boy, he sure picked up his dad's weasel like good looks now didn't he?
I'll never proclaim to be the smartest guy in a room. But here's one thing I can be absolutely certain of. I will be smarter than the smartest liberal in the room.
Why?
Because I grasp this fundamental concept regarding government. No matter how benevolent you claim to be, there just isn't enough money to cover everyone for everything.
If you need a case study let's look at the world's most benevolent country, France...................
French labour unions staged a day of strikes and street rallies on Thursday to protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to raise the retirement age beyond 60 years. Opinion polls show most voters oppose the reform and by midday tens of thousands of marchers had gathered in several cities, but there were mixed reports about participation in strike action. Teaching unions announced that 40 percent of primary and secondary school teachers had gone on strike, whereas the education ministry put the figure at just over 12 percent. Public transport was only mildly disrupted nationwide, with three quarters of regional trains and all high-speed TGV services running as normal and only very minor delays for some Paris commuters. Nevertheless, a strike by air traffic controllers in support of the protest saw 30 percent of flights from Paris Orly airport cancelled and 10 percent from Charles de Gaulle, the environment ministry said. "What happens today will be fairly decisive for how things develop," said Bernard Thibault, leader of the CGT, the largest of the broad coalition of trade unions organising the national protest.
Sounds an awful lot like California and Michigan.......
Congress is working on financial reform. At first, I thought this would be every bit as horrible as the health care bill until I read this from Sen. Chris Dodd.............
"No one will know until this is actually in place how it works. But we believe we've done something that has been needed for a long time. It took a crisis to bring us to the point where we could actually get this job done."
Did he really say that? Seriously, this is a quote from The Onion or an SNL skit right?
Police arrested a man Wednesday evening accused of being naked at the library with a bag full of stolen cheese.
An off-duty police officer working security at the downtown branch of the Cincinnati Public Library said he found 52-year-old Darrell Bess washing himself in the nude about 5:30 p.m. in the men's restroom.
When officers searched his bag, they said they found a knife, a razor, two stolen DVDs and 4 pounds of parmesan cheese stolen from a Findlay Market store.
C'mon if you are going to hit a homeless shelter for some spaghetti you need the cheese man.
In any event, did Darrell here vote for The One of The Maverick in the last presidential election?
Bonus question. How many times did the census bureau count this guy?
They called it Paradise The place to be They watched the hazy sun Sinking in the sea............
You know you live in Paradise when you can take your welfare card to your local casino and get free money out to place a wad on black.......................
California welfare recipients are able to use state-issued debit cards to withdraw cash on gaming floors in more than half of the casinos in the state, a Los Angeles Times review of records found.
The cards, provided by the Department of Social Services to help recipients feed and clothe their families, work in automated teller machines at 32 of 58 tribal casinos and 47 of 90 state-licensed poker rooms, the review found.
State officials said Wednesday they were working to determine how much money had been withdrawn from casino ATMs by people using the welfare debit cards.
But hey, shouldn't poor people be allowed to throw a few dimes into a slot machine? Isn't it a little discriminatory to think that only rich people should be allowed to blow their money on a craps table?
Subsidizing Native Americans by letting poor people lose their money in Indian casinos?
From the city of Oakland where an 8.0 earthquake would probably do $20 billion in improvements.............
Nineteen-year-old Rachael Green held her high school diploma in her hands June 15. One week later she died after being shot during a candlelight vigil for a classmate who was killed just days before.
Gunmen opened fire on the group gathered in West Oakland at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, killing Green and wounding five people.
The shooting happened in a parking lot of the Acorn apartment complex in the 1100 block of Eighth Street, about a half-block from where the Oakland police union held a news conference Monday. The union had denounced city plans to lay off police officers, saying it would make the city more dangerous.
Police said Green was an Oakland resident. Wounded in the attack were a
14-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy, a 15-year-old boy, a 16-year-old boy and an 18-year-old man. All live in Oakland except the 16-year-old, who police said lived in Tracy. Their names were not released.
A couple of weeks ago, I told Mrs. Gekko that Al and Tipper Gore's divorce was the result of a sex scandal.
Without hesitation, Mrs. Gekko said "Let me guess....... he's gay".
Which actually was the allegation in one of the news rags at the time.
None the less, I was surprised that an allegation came out that he may not be gay and it appears that the rags scooped the main stream media, who once again feels the need to hide scandal among the faithful............
The Portland Police Bureau has today released a statement regarding allegations of sexual assault by former Vice President Al Gore while in Portland. Vice President Gore has also been in the news recently for the unexpected divorce from his wife of 40 years, Tipper Gore.
Below is the full text of the PPB press release:
A national tabloid magazine has published a story discussing allegations made by a Portland woman against former Vice President Al Gore. The Portland Police Bureau does not generally disclose information regarding sex crimes, as they are deemed confidential. However, because of the high-profile nature of this case and the fact that the woman involved provided reports to a media outlet, we will provide the following information:
In December 2006, a local attorney contacted the Portland Police Bureau and said he had a client that wanted to report an unwanted sexual contact by Mr. Gore. This allegation stemmed from an incident on October 24, 2006, when the woman involved, a Licensed Massage Therapist, was called to a local hotel to provide a massage to Mr. Gore.
C'mon, I'm sure he just assume this masseuse was one of those happy ending kind of gals. He probably got the referral from The Billary.
Now just out of curiosity,I wonder how many of the traditional news outlets who had no problems detailing unsubstantiated charges against, Kobe Bryant, the Duke Lacrosse team, etc. will be reporting on one of the brethren.
