Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- April 7, 2013

21 Statistics About The Explosive Growth Of Poverty In America That Everyone Should Know - The Economic Collapse Blog - Michael - April 4th, 2013 - f the economy is getting better, then why does poverty in America continue to grow so rapidly?  Yes, the stock market has been hitting all-time highs recently, but also the number of Americans living in poverty has now reached a level not seen since the 1960s.  Yes, corporate profits are at levels never seen before, but so is the number of Americans on food stamps.  Yes, housing prices have started to rebound a little bit (especially in wealthy areas), but there are also more than a million public school students in America that are homeless.  That is the first time that has ever happened in U.S. history.  So should we measure our economic progress by the false stock market bubble that has been inflated by Ben Bernanke's reckless money printing, or should we measure our economic progress by how the poor and the middle class are doing?  Because if we look at how average Americans are doing these days, then there is not much to be excited about.  In fact, poverty continues to experience explosive growth in the United States and the middle class continues to shrink.  Sadly, the truth is that things are not getting better for most Americans.  With each passing year the level of economic suffering in this country continues to go up, and we haven't even reached the next major wave of the economic collapse yet.  When that strikes, the level of economic pain in this nation is going to be off the charts.                 The following are 21 statistics about the explosive growth of poverty in America that everyone should know...


60 Completely Outrageous Ways The U.S. Government Is Wasting Money - The End of the American Dream - Michael - March 24, 2013 - Is there anyone better at wasting money then the U.S. government?  Despite the sequester and all of the talk about “deep cutbacks”, the federal government continues to waste money in some of the most outrageous ways imaginable.  For example, does the U.S. government really have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to study the size and shape of the reproductive organs of ducks?  Does the U.S. government really have to spend 1.5 million dollars to study why so many lesbians are overweight?  There is so much waste that could still be cut out of the federal budget, and yet the very small sequester cuts that just happened are being described as “catastrophic” by many of our politicians.  But you know what?  The federal government will still spend more money in fiscal year 2013 than it did in fiscal year 2012 even after the sequester cuts are factored in.  So if this is how much whining our politicians will do even though government spending is still going up, what would they do if we were actually forced to start living within our means at some point?  That is something to think about.  In any event, please show this article to anyone that believes that the U.S. government is actually “tightening the belt”.  Sadly, the truth is that the federal government is still wasting our money in some of the most frivolous ways that you could possibly imagine.                         The following are some of the completely outrageous ways that the U.S. government is wasting money…


People Not In Labor Force Soar By 663,000 To 90 Million, Labor Force Participation Rate At 1979 Levels - Zero Hedge - Tyler Durden - April 5, 2013 - Things just keep getting worse for the American worker, and by implication US economy, where as we have shown many times before, it pays just as well to sit back and collect disability and various welfare and entitlement checks, than to work .The best manifestation of this: the number of people not in the labor force which in March soared by a massive 663,000 to a record 90 million Americans who are no longer even looking for work. This was the biggest monthly increase in people dropping out of the labor force since January 2012, when the BLS did its census recast of the labor numbers. And even worse, the labor force participation rate plunged from an already abysmal 63.5% to 63.3% - the lowest since 1979! But at least it helped with the now painfully grotesque propaganda that the US unemployment rate is "improving."                        People not in labor force:

Job Gains Slow Amid U.S. Unemployment at Four-Year Low - Bloomberg - By Alex Kowalski - April 5, 2013

Weak job gains hurt economic outlook - Reuters - Jason Lange - April 5, 2013

Job Insecurity High as Layoffs Show Huge Surge - Reuters through CNBC - April 4, 2013


Wal-Mart's Food Fight: Betting on Data, Not Workers - Reuters through CNBC - Martha C. White - April 5, 2013 - The company is throwing its supply-chain and inventory management expertise behind the delicate logistics of stocking and selling products that can wilt or sour, but if a data-driven solution to what historically has been perceived as a people problem fails, it won't just be the groceries that spoil.

"It's one of the top issues they face," said Gary Giblen, an independent retail industry consultant. "You only get one time at bat with perishables," he said.                  Groceries are a big opportunity for Wal-Mart. "About half of meals eaten in this country include one fresh item," said Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst for the NPD Group.                       "The general megatrend is that people are eating more fresh food ...it's growing faster than the packaged food sector," consultant Giblen said...                            "Our grocery business continues to be a key traffic driver," executive vice president and president of Wal-Mart U.S. William Simon told investors when the company reported its quarterly earnings in February. That month, the company's grocery business got a high-profile boost when Michelle Obama visited a Walmart store in Missouri and touted its healthy eating initiatives, part of the First Lady's Let's Move! anti-obesity campaign.                     But this attention comes as the retail giant comes under media scrutiny for what critics say are chronically understaffed stores.

"Don't have items they are looking for-can't find it," was one complaint detailed in an internal memo obtained by the New York Times that addressed the issue of staffing, noting that customers "lose trust" when this happens.


Feds offer new hope for avoiding 'robocalls' - Jennifer C. Kerr, Associated Press through USA Today - April 2, 2013 - There may soon be another way to fight those annoying recorded phone pitches known as robocalls.                   The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday announced winners of a national contest to develop new blocking technology for illegal sales calls.                  Recorded commercial robocalls are illegal even if a consumer is not on the do-not-call list. Those calls may only be placed if someone has given their consent.                  The winners are Aaron Foss, a freelance software developer based in Long Island, N.Y., and Serdar Danis, a computer engineer who did not wish to disclose his hometown. Each winner will receive $25,000.                     The technologies developed by Foss and Danis involve software that could analyze and filter calls to screen out those being placed from a computer or from someone who has been identified as an unwanted caller.                        The judges also selected two Google computer engineers as winners of a separate category, which did not include a cash prize, for organizations that employ 10 or more people...


Auto Lending Bubble Inflates, And the Fed May Be Responsible - Reuters through CNBC - April 3, 2013 - ... At car dealers across the United States, loans to subprime borrowers like Nelson are surging — up 18 percent in 2012 from a year earlier, to 6.6 million borrowers,according to credit-reporting agency Equifax Inc. And as a Reuters review of court records shows, subprime auto lenders are showing up in a lot of personal bankruptcy filings, too. It's the Federal Reserve that's made it all possible.                   In its efforts to jumpstart the economy, the U.S. central bank has undertaken since November 2008 three rounds of bond-buying and cut short-term interest rates effectively to zero. The purchases of mostly Treasury and mortgage securities - known as quantitative easing and nicknamed QE1, QE2 and QE3 - have injected trillions of dollars into the financial system.                          The Fed isn't alone. Central banks from Tokyo to Frankfurt to London are running their printing presses overtime. The heavily indebted advanced economies are trying to reflate their way out of the prolonged bout of crisis and recession that crystallized with the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings in 2008.                  That crisis, of course, followed a nearly decade-long cycle of easy money and exotic financial products that itself began with the collapse of the tech-mania bubble of the late 1990s.                The Fed's program, while aimed at bolstering the U.S. housing and labor markets,has also steered billions of dollars into riskier, more speculative corners of the economy. That's because, with low interest rates pinching yields on their traditional investments, insurance companies, hedge funds and other institutional investors hunger for riskier, higher-yielding securities — bonds backed by subprime auto loans, for instance.                  Lenders like Exeter have rushed to meet that demand. Backed by Wall Street banks and big private-equity firms, they have been selling ever-greater amounts of subprime auto loans in the form of relatively high-yield securities and using the proceeds to fund even more lending to more subprime borrowers.                    Expansion of the subprime auto business was chronicled in a 2011 Los Angeles Times series. Since then, growth has continued apace. Consider that in 2012, lenders sold $18.5 billion in securities backed by subprime auto loans, compared with $11.75 billion in 2011, according to ratings firm Standard & Poor's.                The pace has continued so far this year, with $5.7 billion of the securities issued, compared with $4.4 billion for the same period last year, according to Deutsche Bank AG. OnMonday alone, three deals totaling $1.6 billion of subprime auto securitieswere announced by Wall Street banks.                 To make up for the risk of taking on increasing numbers of high-risk borrowers,subprime auto lenders charge annual interest rates that can top 20 percent.                       The Exeter loan Nelson and his wife got, for example, carried a 21.95-percent rate. Exeter, which is majority-owned by private-equity giant Blackstone Group, assumes that one in four borrowers will default on their loan, according to an Exeter investor pitch book reviewed by Reuters.


David Stockman - Head of Reagan's Office of Management and Budget on the Current Economy - The Reaganomic's Team - The Great Deformation

Fox Business -



Bloomberg -



CNBC -



 - Peak Prosperity

Hickory City Council Audio - 4/2/2013

A.Presentation for National Public Safety Telecommunications Week Presented to Shelley Davis and Nicole Sain, Telecommunicator Supervisors for Hickory Police Department.

B. Proclamation for Fair Housing Month Presented to Lois Leonard from the Board of Realtors.

Several people spoke during Citizens Requesting to be Heard

1) (11:30) - Bob Anderson speaks about televising City Council

2) (14:10) - Dr Joseph Inglefield - The need for an Aquatics facility

City Council members and staff:

A Vision for Aquatics Well-Crafted:

It is time to jump in the pool with a splash! The door to the pool is open and the water feels great. Now is the time to embrace the opportunity that has been presented to the City of Hickory, a time for Aquatics well crafted. According to your own survey the entire city of Hickory embraces this central aquatics facility. 82 % of residents, whom you represent, who voted for you want this facility. Thirty thousand dollars worth of community input should be persuasive?

The Rudy Wright Memorial competition pool would be a fitting name for the showcase venue of the Aquatics center. Imagine the cannonball splashes at the ribbon-cutting?

Imagine swim teams from the area, potentially nationwide, in competitions, family members splashing, playing, enjoying the water. Imagine all the children of Hickory learning the lifelong skill of swimming and water safety. Since Mayor Wright has said and promised on many occasions every child in Hickory should be a swimmer. Imagine Hickory could produce more college-level swimmers with full scholarship rides to universities like Virginia Tech, Harvard, Yale, Duke and UNC. Lenoir Rhyne University swimming teams hosting local collegiate competitions, Hickory High swim team hosting regional and state championships. Hickory has a proud history of swimming success with great coaches like Paul Schiffel with his LRU and CVAC teams, Jon Jolly and the Seahorses at the Y , and Cathy Hitchcock at Hickory High Red Tornados or should it be Typhoons for the watery setting? Imagine what they can do with a facility that meets their talents and those of the swimmers???

Let's think even bigger maybe some Olympians? Yes, Hickory Aquatic Olympians well-crafted. I challenge the Park and Rec to produce Olympic athletes in any sport, but especially in the aquatic arena. This would be an inspiration to all the citizens of Hickory. Sails in the Square could lead to Sails on Lake Hickory with sailing regattas, paddleboard competitions, open water swims, but this all starts with a aquatic facility.

This is not an "amenity"! Look at the statistics for deaths from drowning versus deaths from fires. We have a fine fire department with a great record, what we need is a Department of Water Safety. This is a public health issue. This is an economic issue, with jobs springing from training of fire and rescue personnel, lifeguards, recreational professionals, jobs that lead to healthier lifestyles and less Misery. Sorry the HDR missed reporting it but we are the 5th most miserable place to live in the country, and we all know misery loves company, so let's snap out of it City Council be leaders well crafted, be city staff well crafted.

The citizens of Hickory want an aquatic facility that meets the same standards of being well-crafted that City Council has set. You, City Council, have set the bar high so now is the chance to show us what you are made of. Don't be petty, be crafty, embrace it! Enjoy it, revel in it, and remember it is for all of us but especially the kids. Imagine if little Zahra Baker had been on the city's swim team? Just maybe someone would have noticed the bruises and abuse. Let's honor her and build a swimming facility and provide the programming that can make this swimming facility a home for all our citizens and future Olympians.

3) (19:00) - Slade Kosova - The need for an Aquatics facility

4) (22:35) - James Thomas Shell - Unfair Assessments and Unethical Practices

John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

I would like to start out by speaking to you about Jesus Parables of Minding your own business and Looking out for number one.

Have any of you heard those? You haven't, because they don't exist. And yet it is the advice that has been prevalently given to me over the years in this community and is one of the biggest problems that we face. A community that looks out towards everyone's interests is a community with a more solid foundation. The resilient community that we wish to be.

The first issue that I would like to address is the property that was 1859 Cafe. This was my Aunt's Restaurant. This property was assessed for $184,200 in 2003 and in 2007 the assessment was raised to $205,100. She is in the process of closing on the property and selling it for... $35,000.

I have learned a lot about the predatory aspects of the local economy through this process of my Aunt shedding herself of the burden that 1859 became. She wanted to sell the restaurant when my Grandmother was in the process of passing away, because she was putting all of these hours of work into the place and she was losing money. She has been paying hundreds of dollars a month at the commercial rate to Hickory Inc. and Duke Power even after she had closed the business and y'all hadn't even picked up the garbage in months.

My whole family sacrificed blood, sweat, and tears in that place for 27 years. My Uncle died while running an errand for items Jane needed on the morning of March 31, 2007. We buried him six years ago tomorrow.

This city has sat back and allowed that side of town to become run down. We never felt like y'all were on our side. That area used to have several viable businesses that have all left one by one over the last decade and now all that is left are rundown buildings and thrift stores and other non-profit endeavors related to poverty.

This woman was contracted to sell my Aunt's property as an agent and auctioneer, including the building, and she did not operate in my Aunt's best interest. She really made no attempt to sell the building and the items inside the building were literally sold for pennies on the dollar and she stripped the hood and ansul system and a walkin cooler from the kitchen and sold them for scrap to one of the local recycling businesses, destroying the viability to use the place as a restaurant any longer. That drastically reduced the options to market the place and thus cost my Aunt a lot of money. Basically my Aunt was robbed in plain daylight.

I personally contacted the North Carolina Auction Licensing Board and this woman has been reprimanded and sanctioned for what she did, but the damage has been done to my family and pardon me for not chugging from the Fountain of Optimism I hear in here on a continuous basis. Oh and that is the Link House, the second oldest building in Hickory, and it will be demolished by the new owners.

My mother owns a Townhouse in West Hickory and it is on the books assessed at $53,000 by Catawba County. She is in charge of the homeowners association where she lives. She knows what is going on. This is not conjecture. The last couple of properties sold where she lives have sold for less than $40,000. A property there has currently gone through the foreclosure process and the agent placed in charge of its sale told my mother that they hoped to get $35,000 for that property.

Better yet, there are people that have fallen way behind on their Homeowners Association dues including the properties that have been foreclosed on. The banks say that they aren't going to pay the Homeowner's Association dues in arrears, present, or future. These people have walked away from their obligations and the other homeowners are going to have to eat these amounts in arrears at the same time that they are paying taxes on assessments that clearly aren't valid.

What is my solution? Reality. I will talk to Catawba County about this, but it is high time that these property assessments match the realistic value of these homes. I can go on and on about unrealistically assessed properties in this community.

We need to get real. Anyone with a clue understands that two factors go into the local property tax bills. The assessed property value x The Property Rate = The amount owed. You basically claim that you haven't gone up on property taxes in 18 years, when I think everyone here would say that their taxes have gone up over that span. It is a disingenuous claim. Fix the assessments and raise the rates if you have to, but it is high time to be honest about the realities of the marketplace and it is high time to be more vigilant about these unethical practitioners that I have mentioned. It is time to stop turning a blind eye towards this stuff.

I have a Long Memory. This is my family that has been taken advantage of, don't think it can't happen to you.

The anger, the bitterness, the resentment that I feel towards some of what I have witnessed in this community has been honed and forged in steel. It is a feeling that many have in this community, but instead of sitting back in hopelessness and despair, I have resolved to take a stand, with the help of a few, to move this community forward into dealing with reality. As long as I am here, I will continue to do my part.

Matthew 25:40 talks about looking out for the "Least of These." It is time to start looking out for our neighbors. I am not the Judge. There is a higher Authority.

5) (30:05) - David Zagaroli - Public Arts - World Renowned Studio of Clay Structures designed by John Hare

6) (31:40) - John Hare - Official Sculptor for the Olympics in the past and he wants to create a sculpture park here in Hickory.

7) (36:05) - Cliff Moone - Speaks about Video Taping the meetings and speaks about North Carolina House Bill 150. We need to have an educated citizenry. The Legislature is moving towards usurping local government authority.

8) (40:25) - J. Franklin Davis - Speaks about the Gallup-Healthway study and other studies and obesity and health in this community.


Public Hearing -
1. (52:10) - Consider Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice and Plan to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing.

2. (1:01:20) - Consider Amendment to the City’s Community Development Block Grant Budget and Action Plan

Departmental Reports

1. (1:10:45) - Consideration and Approval of a Facility Lease Agreement with Hickory Music Factory. Inc.

2. (1:22:20) -  Present Offer in the HUD Housing Discrimination Complaints, Billy Sudderthet al vs the City of Hickory

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- March 31, 2013

State-Wrecked: The Corruption of Capitalism in America - New York Times - David Stockman - March 30, 2013 - ... So the Main Street economy is failing while Washington is piling a soaring debt burden on our descendants, unable to rein in either the warfare state or the welfare state or raise the taxes needed to pay the nation’s bills. By default, the Fed has resorted to a radical, uncharted spree of money printing. But the flood of liquidity, instead of spurring banks to lend and corporations to spend, has stayed trapped in the canyons of Wall Street, where it is inflating yet another unsustainable bubble.                     When it bursts, there will be no new round of bailouts like the ones the banks got in 2008. Instead, America will descend into an era of zero-sum austerity and virulent political conflict, extinguishing even today’s feeble remnants of economic growth.                            THIS dyspeptic prospect results from the fact that we are now state-wrecked. With only brief interruptions, we’ve had eight decades of increasingly frenetic fiscal and monetary policy activism intended to counter the cyclical bumps and grinds of the free market and its purported tendency to underproduce jobs and economic output. The toll has been heavy.                     As the federal government and its central-bank sidekick, the Fed, have groped for one goal after another — smoothing out the business cycle, minimizing inflation and unemployment at the same time, rolling out a giant social insurance blanket, promoting homeownership, subsidizing medical care, propping up old industries (agriculture, automobiles) and fostering new ones (“clean” energy, biotechnology) and, above all, bailing out Wall Street — they have now succumbed to overload, overreach and outside capture by powerful interests. The modern Keynesian state is broke, paralyzed and mired in empty ritual incantations about stimulating “demand,” even as it fosters a mutant crony capitalism that periodically lavishes the top 1 percent with speculative windfalls.                     The culprits are bipartisan, though you’d never guess that from the blather that passes for political discourse these days. The state-wreck originated in 1933, when Franklin D. Roosevelt opted for fiat money (currency not fundamentally backed by gold), economic nationalism and capitalist cartels in agriculture and industry.

Thanks, World Reserve Currency, But No Thanks: Australia And China To Enable Direct Currency Convertibility - Zero Hedge - Tyler Durden -  March 31, 2013 - ...Australia appears to have come to the same conclusion, with the Australian reporting that the land down under is set to say goodbye to the world's "reserve currency" in its trade dealings with the world's biggest marginal economic power, China, and will enable the direct convertibility of the Australian dollar into Chinese yuan, without US Dollar intermediation, in the process "slashing costs for thousands of business" and also confirming speculation that China is fully intent on, little by little, chipping away at the dollar's reserve currency status until one day it no longer is.                   That said, this latest development in global currency relations should come as no surprise to those who have followed our series on China's slow but certain  internationalization of its currency over the past two years. To wit: "World's Second (China) And Third Largest (Japan) Economies To Bypass Dollar, Engage In Direct Currency Trade", "China, Russia Drop Dollar In Bilateral Trade", "China And Iran To Bypass Dollar, Plan Oil Barter System", "India and Japan sign new $15bn currency swap agreement", "Iran, Russia Replace Dollar With Rial, Ruble in Trade, Fars Says", "India Joins Asian Dollar Exclusion Zone, Will Transact With Iran In Rupees", and "The USD Trap Is Closing: Dollar Exclusion Zone Crosses The Pacific As Brazil Signs China Currency Swap."                     And while previously the focus was on Chinese currency swap arrangements, the uniqueness of this weekend's news is that it promotes outright convertibility of the Yuan: something China has long said would happen but many were skeptical it ever would. That is no longer the case, and with Australia setting the precedent, expect many more Asian countries (at first) to follow in Australia's footsteps, because while the developed world is far more engaged in diluting its currency as a means to spur "growth", Asian and developing world nations are still engage in real, actual trade, where China is rapidly and aggressively becoming the world's hub.



Video: An American Recovery: Police Restrain Hundreds of People Begging For Food As Officials Opt To Throw It In the Trash Rather Than Help - SHTFPlan.com - Mac Slavo - March 28th, 2013 - When SunTrust Bank bank foreclosed on the Laney Supermarket grocery store, managers were left with thousands of pounds of food and nowhere to put it. So, they decided to move non-perishable items to the parking lot for those who might need it. As news of the give-away spread throughout the neighborhood, a crowd numbering in the hundreds quickly swooped in.                          But the goods never made it into the hands of people who desperately needed, as local police barricaded the stockpile of food. They called in a disposal company and tossed every bit of it into the trash, angering many of those who had hoped they could take some of the food home.                  Nearly 100 million Americans are living on the edge of poverty and 47 million Americans have nowhere to turn but Uncle Sam to help put food on their tables through nutritional food assistance programs.                        When a grocery store is giving away food that has no official owner what do benevolent government officials tasked to serve and protect do?                  They look starving Americans in the face and throw the food in the trash.                         Still think the government will help you should our financial, economic and political systems collapse? Still think they care about you or your children?                   Think again.                    Not a single official had the wherewithal to do what’s right and feed the hungry.                  They were all just following orders.



The Most Important Thing to Remember About America's Food Stamp Boom - The reason a record number of Americans are on food assistance is that a record number are in poverty. - Jordan Weissmann - March 28, 2013 - he Wall Street Journal is out with a long article today exploring why the number of Americans on food stamps isn't falling along with the unemployment rate. As of December there were 47.8 million people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, up more than a million over the year. So what's going on?                      It's a complicated answer, and the WSJ does a good job teasing out the story's different threads. But I want to focus on the simple part of the issue for a moment, because in the big picture, it's also by far the most important part. So repeat after me: There are record numbers of Americans on food stamps today because there are record numbers of Americans in poverty (records begin in 1959.)                     As of 2011, there were 46.2 million men, women, and children living below the U.S. poverty line. There isn't much reason to believe that the last year of mediocre job growth has dented that number. And until it plunges, the food stamp rolls are going to stay full -- plain and simple.



New NC legislature targets ‘arrogant’ cities - Raleigh News and Observer - Jim Morrill - March 30, 2013 - Even in a state that has grown increasingly urban, North Carolina cities are on the defensive, fighting to keep prized assets and local control against a legislature that appears intent on taking them.                         Three cities – Charlotte, Asheville and Raleigh – face the loss of signature assets. Small towns, like bigger cities, fear significant revenue drains.                                 It’s not just municipalities that have felt the sting. Senate bills would redraw school board districts in Wake and Guilford counties and change the way members in each are elected.               “It has been an amazing array of bills that add up to more restrictions on cities and on urban counties to govern themselves,” says Ferrel Guillory, a political analyst at UNC Chapel Hill.                          
• Lawmakers would transfer control of Charlotte Douglas International Airport – the world’s sixth busiest based on takeoffs and landings – from the city to an independent, regional authority.
Sen. Bob Rucho, a Matthew Republican, says city officials want control “for their personal agenda rather than what is best for the economic future of airport, the city and the region.”
• The Senate negated a lease of the former Dorothea Dix hospital property to the city of Raleigh, which plans a park. The bill would require the state to get fair market value. The lease had been approved in December under former Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue.
The measure, now in the House, sparked tense debate. At a hearing, Capitol Broadcasting president and CEO Jim Goodmon said nobody would trust doing business with the state if it breaks the lease.
• A long-anticipated bill filed last week would put Asheville’s water system under control of a Metropolitan Sewerage District, without compensating the city.                    Dozens of other bills would affect cities.                      House Bill 150, for example, would limit their ability to make homebuilders adhere to design standards. House Bill 79 calls for a constitutional amendment eliminating extraterritorial jurisdiction, a tool that helps cities control development on their borders.
Tax reform bills would end revenue sources such as the franchise and business privilege license taxes. That would cost cities $320 million, according to the N.C. League of Municipalities, though bill supporters say it would be balanced by broadening the sales tax base.                      House Bill 252 would prevent Asheville from using part of its water utility revenues for street repairs that result from installing underground water lines.                  All these follow last year’s major changes in North Carolina’s annexation laws that made it harder for cities to grow through annexation.                   “The legislature has created a threatening environment for cities, forcing cities to legitimize and justify their role in North Carolina and its economy,” says Esther Manheimer, vice mayor of Asheville and a former legislative attorney.               “Past legislatures have understood the role of cities in the overall health of the state, and that was never questioned.”...

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/03/30/2790796/new-nc-legislature-targets-arrogant.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/03/30/2790796/new-nc-legislature-targets-arrogant.html#storylink=cpy

Eustace Mullins - Secrets of The Federal Reserve (FULL)

Hickory Metro - 5th Most Miserable in the United States

An article from Wall St 24/7 -  March 26, 2013 -  America’s Most Content (and Miserable) Cities - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2013/03/26/americas-most-content-and-miserable-cities/#ixzz2OnfJQUFv

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which has surveyed 1.7 million Americans since it was first conducted in 2008, measures the physical and emotional health of residents in 189 of the nation’s largest metropolitan regions. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the scores of each metro area in the six categories that comprise Gallup’s index to identify the cities that did best and worst.


5. Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, N.C.
> Well-being index score: 62.7
> Obesity: 32.1%
> Median household income: $38,923
> Adult population with high school diploma or higher: 79.0%

Nowhere else in the nation did people have as negative an evaluation of their lives as in the Hickory metro area. A major reason was that survey respondents living there were less optimistic about their life in five years than respondents in almost all other parts of the country. Hickory residents also were rated poorly for emotional health, with survey respondents telling Gallup they felt sad or depressed more often than in almost all other metro areas. As of January, the Hickory metro area had an 11.5% unemployment rate, among the higher rates in the country. Many residents lacked the formal education necessary to work in higher paying jobs. Just 79% of residents had at least a high school diploma, and 18.2% at least a bachelor’s degree, versus 85.9% and 28.5%, nationwide.

The Hound: And many of us who are educated are screwed as well. I keep hearing this thing about how we need to be "Solutions Oriented" until it makes me want to throw up. That is just a Mantra of the status quo, because the Hound has offered up many a solution and every time those "Solution Oriented" people will give you every reason why it won't work and I have even seen people that will do everything they can to assure your failure if you get something off the ground.

Case in point is Microlending. We can continue to tell the local Powers That Be why we need a Microlending program for entrepreneurs and start-ups, but as long as you have government officials that act as roadblocks it will not happen. We can talk about the need for High Speed Fiber-Optic and competition in local Telecommunications/Media, but the Powers That Be don't feel it is in their interests, so we continue to fall behind.

You can go on and on. I have been told that we need to consolidate our local governmental web portals to streamline processes that enable entrepreneurs to get the information and fill out the necessary documents to move ventures forward. It has fallen on deaf ears.

I am not the only person with ideas. The ideas aren't my ideas, but they are ideas that I champion. What saddens me is that they can't move forward with the impediments that I have addressed and people aren't being listened to. They aren't being given the time of day by the Glad Handers.

I will be telling a story of reality soon that will put a lot of things in context. When we can minimize these sad experiences in our lives, then we will be able to move forward. The reality is that this isn't a psychological issue. It is about getting creamed by realities. When you start to address the realities, then you will start to change the mindset. You will never change the mindset until you address the realities.

Update : In March 2014 Hickory Metro 2014 - Tied for 4th Most Miserable in the United States

Newsletter about the City Council meeting of March 19, 2013

This newsletter is about the Hickory City Council meeting that I attended this past week. City council meetings are held on the first and third Tuesdays of each Month in the Council Chambers of the Julian Whitener building.

At right of this page under Main Information links is an Hickory's City Website link. If you click on that link, it takes you to our city’s website, at the left of the page you will see the Agenda's and Minutes link you need to click. This will give you a choice of PDF files to upcoming and previous meetings.

You will find historic Agenda and Minutes links. Agendas show what is on the docket for the meeting of that date. The Minutes is an actual summary of the proceedings of the meeting of that date.

Here is a summary of the agenda of the 3/5/2012 meeting. There were a couple of important items that were discussed at this meeting and the details are listed further below:

Please remember that pressing Ctrl and + will magnify the text and page and pressing Ctrl and - will make the text and page smaller. This will help the readability for those with smaller screens and/or eye difficulties.

City Website has changed - Here is a link to the City of Hickory Document Center

All materials and maps for this meeting are provide at this link: 

City Council Action Agenda - March 19, 2013 

A Note from the Hound: Sorry it took a while to get this out. I had other priorities and obligations that caused this to be delayed by a week. Just trying to make ends meet and get things done in my life. I am sure that most of you can understand that. My hands are full and tied most of the time. I appreciate those of you that read this information and even more those who act upon it.






Invocation by Rev. Bob Roach, Pastor, First United Methodist

Special Presentations -
(1:55) - Business Well Crafted Presentation Award, presented by Dave Paist to Alex Lee, Inc. 
 http://www.hickorywellcrafted.com/work/well-crafted/alex-lee-inc/

Persons Requesting to Be Heard
(6:15) - David Crosby speaks against Video Presentations of City Council Meetings. (You can read my comments about Mr. Crosby's comments below.)


Consent Agenda: (10:15)
A. Request Approval to Issue a Pyrotechnic Display Permit at Catawba Valley Community College (CVCC). - St. Stephen’s High School has requested to obtain permission for Zambelli Fireworks Company to provide a public display of pyrotechnics at CVCC after the graduation ceremonies on May 25, 2013. The North Carolina Fire Code requires a mandatory operational permit for the use and handling of pyrotechnic special effects material. The Fire Prevention Bureau shall review all required documentation and will also inspect the pyrotechnics display area prior to the event to ensure compliance.

B. Citizens’ Advisory Committee Recommendations for Assistance through the City of Hickory’s Housing Programs - The following requests were considered by the Citizens’ Advisory Committee at their regular meeting on March 5, 2013:

 Maudie Hewitt, 232 10th Avenue SE, Hickory, was awarded a City of Hickory’s Housing Rehabilitation Loan. The Citizens’ Advisory Committee recommends approval for assistance not to exceed $15,000.00 for repairs to her house. Assistance would be in the form of a 3% interest loan for a 20 year period.

Funds are budgeted for these items through the City of Hickory’s former Rental Rehabilitation Program income received in FY 2012 and/or program income received through the City of Hickory’s Community Development Block Grant Program.

Each of the following applicants is being recommended for approval for assistance under the City of Hickory’s 2012 Urgent Repair Program. This program provides qualified low income citizens with assistance for emergency-related repairs not to exceed $5,400.

 Z. Ann Hoyle, 628 South Center Street, Hickory,
 Lucille Griggs, 1073 20th Street NE, Hickory,

C. Special Event/Activities Application for Ignite Hickory, Charles Moretz and Christopher Harris, Managers of Ignite Hickory, Inc., for a Community Worship, on April 13, 2013 from 2:30 pm to 10:00 pm in Downtown Hickory Under The Sails.

D. Special Event/Activities Application for National Day of Prayer, Steve Clark, Chairman, Hickory Committee for National Day of Prayer, on Thursday, May 2, 2013 from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm on Union Square. 

E. Budget Ordinance Amendment No. 15.

1. To transfer $15,544 of General Fund Contingency to the 800 Megahertz Radio
System Upgrade and Rebanding Capital Project. This transfer is necessary to
complete and close out the City of Hickory's project.

F. Capital Project Ordinance Amendment No. 3.

1. To accept a $15,544 transfer from General Fund Contingency to the 800
Megahertz Radio System Upgrade and Rebanding Capital Project line item. This
transfer is necessary to complete and close out the City of Hickory's project.

Informational Items (10:35)
A. Report of Mayor Wright’s travel to the Mayor’s Meeting with Governor McCrory in Raleigh, NC on March 5-6, 2013 (Meals - $71.75; Mileage Reimbursement $189.84; Lodging - $101.48) (Exhibit X.A.)

New Business - Departmental Reports:

1. (11:10) Update on Council Chambers Audio-Video Improvements. - City Council directed staff to finalize recommended options and provide costs for certain additional improvements with the consideration of properly representing the City through a well crafted presentation.

The Hound is very much disappointed about the attitudes towrards video taping these meetings. That goes to Mr. Crosby's statements above, during citizens requesting to be heard, as well.  If these people haven't spoken to anyone who is in favor of videoing these meetings, then I suggest that they get outside of the little group they hang around with and listen to what the regular folks are saying.

This is about transparency. Mr. Crosby can talk about the waste of money and only 30 people listening to this. This is the same David Crosby that wanted to shut down members of the CEG from passing out materials at the Saturday Farmer's Market when the referendum was taking place. Once again the oldsters going about trying to shut down Democracy in Hickory when it doesn't fit their criteria.

I've seen some nights over the last few years that certainly deserved video coverage. A few examples would be the nights when the battle over the pools were taking place. There were also a couple nights that involved moving the Farmer's Market from the Depot Parking Lot to Union Square. And of course there was the fiasco surrounding the structure on Union Square where they made it a Departmental Report so that Citizens couldn't speak. And there was the night when representatives of the CEG, with the help of Rebecca Inglefield, had items removed from the Consent Agenda and this is in my opinion is why the City hasn't dropped charges on Rebecca related to the incident at City Hall when they didn't want to be forthright about the cost figures related to the structure on Union Square.

You can go on and on. Yeah 30 people might start out watching it, but I can tell you that the number is more than that already. And if these meetings are televised, and something like what I pointed to above does happen, then there will be many more people paying attention.

Danny Seaver says "if they aren't going to be live, then what good are they." Well the deal is that they will be archived. On the Hound I have people looking at the old Newsletters related to what happened at City Council meetings back in 2008 and 2009. They are history and references and I would think a school teacher that I have heard so many people show appreciation to would understand such a concept. Mr. Seaver talked about by the time this is released it is old news and already been in the paper. God Bless Larry Clark and the HDR, but the limited articles produced in the Record do not convey what is happening at these meetings. I learned that when I started attending these meetings. Sometimes you need to eyeball some things yourself. It is all about checks and balances. The people are the government. They deserve to know what is going on.

The comments above were highly disappointing, but they are entitled to them. I appreciate the information provided by the City Inc. related to this video recording process and I think it is a great basis for the conversation moving forward. I personally don't think the Mural of Downtown needs to be removed. You can see the video above I have made and it is laughable to say it detracts from anything. Better sound is needed definitely. Better lighting? The lighting seems fine to me and my little ole camera has no lighting enhancement, but we can give them the benefit of the doubt on that one. So, $14,000 for the system put forward by Hickory Inc., but personally I don't care if you set up a camera with a tripod. These meetings should be recorded and broadcast and there are no excuses just a whole lot of subterfuge. We don't have to have the bells and whistles. We need to get to the 21st Century first.
 
This is very important and if we have hundreds of thousand of dollars to spend on a glorified tent on Union Square and the other "priorities" I have seen over the past years, then we have a few thousand dollars to spend to have transparent and open government brought to the people. Mr. Crosby might want to take us back to 1938, but most of us understand the evolution of this world and trying to hold these realities back is hurting Hickory. The people like this are never going to get it. We will continue marching forward.



2. (31:10) Approval of an Offer to Purchase and Contract from Habitat for Humanity of the Catawba Valley, Inc. to City of Hickory to Purchase Property Located at 159 12th Street Court SE, Hickory, in the Amount of $54,000 (Lot 16, Plat Book 48 Page 184, Catawba County PIN 3713-18-30-3145) - This property purchase offers a creative way to advance the city’s Community Development Block Grant Housing Rehabilitation and Purchase program. The home is located at 159 12th Street Court SE, and contains roughly 1200 square feet with four bedrooms and two full baths. It has been appraised at $54,000. Habitat for Humanity of the Catawba Valley obtained the property by taking a deed in lieu of foreclosure. If purchased, the home would be renovated for occupancy by a low to moderate income owner occupant. Purchasing this home for rehabilitation will enable the city to continue to advance its Consolidated Plan goals of protecting the city’s existing housing stock and advancing single family home ownership while also advancing the city’s continued partnership with Habitat for Humanity of the Catawba Valley.

The city’s purchase of the property will allow Habitat to leverage their rehabilitation funding and increase the number of existing homes renovated for low to moderate income homeowners. It is estimated that the city purchase of this home will free up enough funding to enable Habitat to rehabilitate three additional homes for low and moderate income homeowners. In addition, Habitat has agreed to assist the city in finding a family to occupy the home. The sale of the property will generate program income that will be used to advance future community development projects in the city. Staff hopes to have a family placed in the home within one year of purchasing the property.

The Hound has no problem with uplifting these areas and can see the benefit of such a program, but let me ask about the priority. We've got this money to invest in this property, but we don't have a few thousand dollars for a video system to show how our government works? And to bring transparent government to the people? leaves one wondering about what some are trying to hide here, doesn't it?

 

 

*** Larry Pope asked to speak at the end of this meeting. Danny Seaver made the motion to allow Mr. Pope to speak, but it was not seconded.