I have asked you to wake up and now its too late. The exit ramps are all passed and the fuel gauge is passed empty and pretty soon the vehicle will be sputtering and it will be time to get out and walk.
You have chosen to stew in your pidity, because of blissful pride and the rest of us who have been forced to rely upon you to get us to our destination are going to also be forced to deal with the consequences of your lack of direction.
You know life is fleeting and when we put you in a position of leadership and you willfully fritter away opportunity, then there are consequences; people are affected. You say people are "Monday Morning Quarterbacking"... That you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. Well, I disagree.
If you aspire to excellence and you fall short, then you fall within the grasp of excellence. If you aspire to nothing of substance and are directionless in your cause, flying by the seat of your pants, then those who pay attention know the difference and the straight shooters in life, those who choose not to stew in the pidity, are going to call you out on it... And in the end that is what bothers you isn't it?
But let me tender you this. It is not those of us that have offered you care and guidance that you have to lament. It is those who have willfully sipped the Kool-Aid. Those who you have held their head up and said, "Take another sip... it'll make you feel better." When they realize what foolishness this all has been, then you will see the problem. The problem of Us (Me) versus Them...
There is one thing that you should think about. In the end you will answer for your time here on Earth. When you leave this life and enter eternity, what will those last moments be. Will there be peace in knowing that you did what you could to help others (humanity) or will those last thoughts be of dread... remember that you and you alone own your life in the end.
Explorers - Muse - Matthew Bellamy - 2012
Once I hoped
To seek the new and unknown
This planet's overrun
There's nothing left for you or for me
Don't give in
We can walk through the fields
And feeling nature's glow
But all the land is owned
There's none left for you or for me
Who will win?
‘Cause I concede
Free me Free me
Free me from this world
I don't belong here
It was a mistake imprisoning my soul
Can you free me
Free me from this world
A world lush and blue
With rivers running wild
They'll be re-routed south
With none left for you or for me
Don't give in
Hear the engines roar
And save our crops from drought
But when the black gold's in doubt
There's none left for you or me
Fuse helium-3, our last hope
Free me
Free me
Free me from this world
We don't belong here
It was a mistake imprisoning our souls
Can you free me
And free me from this world?
Free me
I’ll free you
Free us from this world
We don't belong here
It was a mistake imprisoning our souls
Can you free me
And free me from this world?
Running around in circles feeling caged by endless rules
Can you free me
Free me from this world?
Shh, go to sleep
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Thursday, November 29, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- November 25, 2012
Are Black Friday Riots A Preview Of The Civil Unrest That Is Coming When Society Breaks Down? - The Economic Collapse Blog - Michael - November 23rd, 2012 - If Americans will trample one another just to save a few dollars on a television, what will they do when society breaks down and the survival of their families is at stake? Once in a while an event comes along that gives us a peek into what life could be like when the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted is stripped away. For example, when Hurricane Sandy hit New York and New Jersey there was rampant looting and within days people were digging around in supermarket dumpsters looking for food. Sadly, "Black Friday" also gives us a look at how crazed the American people can be when given the opportunity. This year was no exception. Once again we saw large crowds of frenzied shoppers push, shove, scratch, claw, bite and trample one another just to save a few bucks on cheap foreign-made goods. And of course most retailers seem to be encouraging this type of behavior. Most of them actually want people frothing at the mouth and willing to fight one another to buy their goods. But is this kind of "me first" mentality really something that we want to foster as a society? If people are willing to riot to save money on a cell phone, what would they be willing to do to feed their families? Are the Black Friday riots a very small preview of the civil unrest that is coming when society eventually breaks down? Once upon a time, Thanksgiving was not really a commercial holiday. It was a time to get together with family and friends, eat turkey and express thanks for the blessings that we have been given. But in recent years Black Friday has started to become even a bigger event than Thanksgiving itself. Millions of Americans have become convinced that it is fun to wait in long lines outside retail stores in freezing cold weather in the middle of the night to spend money that they do not have on things that they do not need. And of course very, very few "Black Friday deals" are actually made in America. So these frenzied shoppers are actually killing American jobs and destroying the U.S. economy as well. The absurdity of Black Friday was summed up very well recently in a statement that has already been retweeted on Twitter more than 1,000 times... "Black Friday: because only in America people trample each other for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have." It has gotten to the point where it is now expected that there will be mini-riots all over the country early on Black Friday morning each year. The following are a few examples of the craziness that we saw this year... -"Fights break out when stores open on Black Friday"
Asheville's Craggie Brewing closing Dec. 1 - Asheville Citizen Times - John Coutlakis - November 19, 2012 - The rough economy is claiming one of Asheville’s popular craft breweries. Craggie Brewing will close on Dec. 1, owner Bill Drew has announced. Craggie, which opened in 2009, was unable to reach profitablity, Drew said in a statement. The space at 197 Hilliard Ave. may be reborn as a brewery, Drew said. “Negotiations are currently being made for a new brewery to take over the space,” which would employee two of Craggie’s workers, he said.
Craggie becomes the first Asheville brewery to fail in what has become a very competitive scene for making craft beer here. With its closing, Asheville and Buncombe County will temporarily drop to nine breweries. The new Wicked Weed brewery and restaurant on Biltmore Avenue is set to open on Dec. 21. Meanwhile, work continues on the new Oskar Blues east coast brewery in Brevard, Sierra Nevada’s brewery in Mills River and New Belgium’s expansion in Asheville, which together will bring hundreds of brewery jobs to Western North Carolina.
Jim Rogers - The Bubble
Shipping Containers to Become Condos in Detroit - ABC News - Karin Halperin - November 23, 2012 - The first U.S. multi-family condo built of used shipping containers is slated to break ground in Detroit early next year. Strong, durable and portable, shipping containers stack easily and link together like Legos. About 25 million of these 20-by-40 feet multicolored boxes move through U.S. container ports a year, hauling children's toys, flat-screen TVs, computers, car parts, sneakers and sweaters. But so much travel takes its toll, and eventually the containers wear out and are retired. That's when architects and designers, especially those with a "green" bent, step in to turn these cast-off boxes into student housing in Amsterdam, artists' studios, emergency shelters, health clinics, office buildings. Despite an oft-reported glut of unused cargo containers lying idle around U.S. ports and ship yards - estimates have ranged from 700,000 to 2 million - the Intermodal Steel Building Units and Container Homes Association puts the number closer to 12,000, including what's sold on Craigslist and eBay. Joel Egan, co-founder of HyBrid Architecture in Seattle, which has built cottages and office buildings from shipping containers for close to a decade and coined the term " cargotecture" to describe this method of construction, warns that although containers can be bought for as little as $2,500, they shouldn't be seen as a low-cost housing solution. "Ninety-five percent of the cost still remains," he says. Here's a few recent North American projects - including the new condo complex - where the shipping container takes center stage:
Asheville's Craggie Brewing closing Dec. 1 - Asheville Citizen Times - John Coutlakis - November 19, 2012 - The rough economy is claiming one of Asheville’s popular craft breweries. Craggie Brewing will close on Dec. 1, owner Bill Drew has announced. Craggie, which opened in 2009, was unable to reach profitablity, Drew said in a statement. The space at 197 Hilliard Ave. may be reborn as a brewery, Drew said. “Negotiations are currently being made for a new brewery to take over the space,” which would employee two of Craggie’s workers, he said.
Craggie becomes the first Asheville brewery to fail in what has become a very competitive scene for making craft beer here. With its closing, Asheville and Buncombe County will temporarily drop to nine breweries. The new Wicked Weed brewery and restaurant on Biltmore Avenue is set to open on Dec. 21. Meanwhile, work continues on the new Oskar Blues east coast brewery in Brevard, Sierra Nevada’s brewery in Mills River and New Belgium’s expansion in Asheville, which together will bring hundreds of brewery jobs to Western North Carolina.
Jim Rogers - The Bubble
Friday, November 23, 2012
Newsletter about the City Council meeting of November 20, 2012
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 11/20/2012 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.
All materials and maps for this meeting are provide at this link: City Council Agenda - November 20, 2012
Invocation by Rev. Whit Malone, Pastor First Presbyterian Church
Consent Agenda:
A. Transfer of a Cemetery Deed from Judy K. Eldridge, unmarried to Billy Dean Buckner in Fairview Cemetery
B. Transfer of a Cemetery Deed from Judy K. Eldridge, unmarried to Annie Sue Hicks in Fairview Cemetery
C. Transfer of Cemetery Deed from Judy K. Eldridge, unmarried to Charles Ray Buckner in Fairview Cemetery
D. Transfer of Cemetery Deed from Judy K. Eldridge, unmarried to Jack Wayne Buckner in Fairview Cemetery
E. Transfer of Cemetery Deed from Judy K. Eldridge, unmarried to Judy K. Eldridge in Fairview Cemetery
F. Transfer of Cemetery Deed from Judy K. Eldridge, unmarried to Elvis Ray Darrin Buckner in Fairview Cemetery
G. Transfer of Cemetery Deed from City of Hickory to Geraldine Propst and Cindy Propst in Southside Cemetery
H. Special Joint Meeting of Hickory City Council and the Advisory Committee for Inspiring Spaces, Tuesday, November 27, 2012 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Mike Johnson’s Hickory Toyota Board Room. - A special joint meeting of Hickory City Council and the Advisory Committee for Inspiring
Spaces to be held on Tuesday, November 27, 2012 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Mike Johnson’s Toyota Board Room at 435 US Highway 70 SE. The purpose of this special joint meeting is to update and receive input from City Council and the Advisory Committee on Inspiring Spaces.
I. Approval of a Proclamation for Small Business Saturday, November 24, 2012.
J. Certificate of Sufficiency and Preliminary Resolution Relative to Street Improvements Along a portion of 304 and 336 10th Avenue NE – No. 02-12 (Authorize Public Hearing for December 18, 2012)
K. Certificate of Sufficiency and Preliminary Resolution Relative to Street Improvements Along a portion of 304 10th Avenue NE – No. 03-12 (Authorize Public Hearing for December 18, 2012)
L. Resolution of Intent for Petition of Robert Lee Combs Jr., Cynthia C. Combs; Kenneth R. Abernethy, Linda Yvonne McCall Abernethy; Patricia Abernethy Bolch and Alan C. Bolch to Close an Unopened Portion of 10th Avenue Place NE. (Authorize Public Hearing for December 18, 2012)
M. Call for Public Hearing – Amendments to Hickory City Code Chapter 16 – Junk and Secondhand Dealers, Regarding how Pawnbrokers, Precious Metal Dealers and Secondary Metals Recyclers record and report their purchases from the general public. (Authorize Public Hearing for December 4, 2012)
N. Consideration of a Contract of Services with AMEC Environmental and Infrastructure, Inc., for environmental engineering services, pursuant to the USEPA Brownfield Assessment Grant. - The City of Hickory was awarded two Brownfield Assessment Grants, each in the amount of $200,000. As part of the federal cooperative agreement, the City of Hickory is required by the USEPA to contract environmental assessment services with a licensed environmental engineering firm. AMEC is a well-known and respected regional environmental firm, with a wealth of experience with both the USEPA and NCDENR brownfield programs. AMEC was selected after the review of nine consultant qualification statements. Professional contractual services will be provided by AMEC in an amount not to exceed $370,000 which is fully covered under the USEPA Brownfield Assessment Grant. No City monies will be expended pursuant to this contractual service.
O. Approval of a Quitclaim Deed for Recombination of Properties to be known as the Hickory-Catawba Wastewater Treatment Facility (HCWWTF).- Additional property was purchased by the City of Hickory from the adjoining property owners in December of 2010 for the proposed HCWWTF Upgrade and Expansion. In accordance with the Town of Catawba Planning regulations, the City of Hickory is required to recombine the properties since the property is required for the purposes of constructing and operating the proposed HCWWTF.
P. Special Event/Activities Application, applicant Connie Kincaid, Hickory Downtown Development Association, for Downtown Hickory Art Crawls 2013, Thursday, May 16, 2013 and Thursday, September 19, 2013, from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., Union Square, 3rd St NW, 2nd St NW, 1st Avenue NW, 1st Avenue SW and Government Avenue SW.
Q. Special Event/Activities Application, applicant Connie Kincaid, Hickory Downtown Development Association, for Swinging Under the Stars, Sunday, May 26, 2013, from 12:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. at the Union Square Flag Court.
R. Grant Project Ordinance No. 5
1. To budget a 2012 Urgent Repair Program Grant awarded to the City of Hickory by the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency in the amount of $37,500 with a local required match of $3,750. The required match is provided by the Consortium HOME Program Income.
S. Grant Project Ordinance Amendment No. 3
1. To transfer $3,750 of Consortium HOME Program income to the 2012 Urgent Repair Program Grant. This transfer provides the funds necessary for the required local match for the 2012 Urgent Repair Program Grant.
T. Budget Ordinance Amendment No. 7
1. To budget $828 of General Fund Miscellaneous Revenue in the Fire Department Maintenance and Repair of Vehicles line item. These funds were received from Mountain Recycling, Inc. for the sale of scrap metal from the shop.
2. To budget a $55,000 check from the State of North Carolina Department of Commerce (One North Carolina Fund Disbursement to Turbocoating Corporation) in the Economic and Community Development Incentives line item. A grant was approved by the Department of Commerce One North Carolina Fund in the amount of $110,000. This budget amendment represents the first partial grant disbursement.
3. To appropriate $4,696 of General Fund Balance and budget in the Residential Sanitation Non Asset Inventory line item. This amendment is to budget a $4,696 insurance claim check from Trident Insurance Company for a truck radio replacement which rolled into General Fund Balance at year end.
Informational Items
1. (4:10) Filming City Council Meetings - Per City Council directive, City Staff is exploring the feasibility and cost of filming Council meetings. The City Manager will update the council on the findings thus far.
● Current lighting in Council chambers is inadequate and will need to be augmented.
● Current audio does not provide for output to a video camera. The system also has adequacy issues both at the dais and the podium.
● Live feed of the meeting would require a fiber optic cable run from Council chambers to Charter Communications head end. Staff and equipment would also be required to manage a live feed. Costs for this option are not currently being explored. As these items are defined and costs estimated, staff will provide Council with a recommendation for implementation.
The recorded meetings will be available on Charter Channel 3 and on the Hickory City Website. Manager Berry talked about wanting to have dual feeds to show presentations, display names, and the feed of Council Members at the dais. Alderman Lail brought up the subject of promoting the televised council meetings. Manager Berry said they are looking into the promotion of these meetings... They would likely have meetings ready for showing on Thursdays. They should be back in December with recommendations to the council unless technical issues cause this to be delayed until January.
The Hound is glad to see this moving forward. This is one of the five requests made by the Citizens for Equity in Government. The CEG has never asked that these meetings be Broadcast Live. The point of this process is to make meetings more accessible to the community. Having a live feed isn't going to create better access for people who are busy at work or doing other activities at 7pm on 1st and 3rd Tuesdays. One of the major reasons for doing this is the same as time with a DVR. It is all about time shifting so that people can pay attention to community issues when time is available for them to do so. It is our contention that the CEG has not made any unreasonable requests and the CEG does not intend to ever make any unreasonable requests. We believe that once this is implemented that the community will wonder why it took so long.
New Business - Public Hearing
1. Approve Revised Sewer Use Ordinance - The City of Hickory is required to operate under a NC Department of Environment & Natural Resources (NCDENR) approved Sewer Use Ordinance due to the size of the Wastewater Treatment Facilities and the presence of Industrial customers on the City of Hickory wastewater system. The adoption of an approved Sewer Use Ordinance is a requirement of the Clean Water Act of 1972 and subsequent revisions. The proposed revisions to the existing City of Hickory Sewer Use Ordinance are to address recent environmental regulation changes. This version of the City of Hickory Sewer Use Ordinance is intended to ensure that the City of Hickory Pretreatment Program operates in compliance with the appropriate State and Federal regulations, A NCAC 2H.0900 and 40 CFR 403 respectively. This public hearing was advertised on November 9, 2012 in a newspaper having general circulation in the Hickory area.
Matters not on the Agenda
(26:55) - Mayor Wright spoke about the League of Municipalities meeting he attended last week. He talked about transportation cost issues in the State and problems with revenues. Because of the recession and efficiencies the amount of money has gone down. There is a mention of taxes on tires and toll roads. He talked about the possibilities of stickers being sold to allow people to use HOV lanes (High Occupancy Vehicle). He next talked about 50 agenda items from a League Board meeting. Governor Elect McCrory is talking about modernizing the tax structure.. He talked about the Inter-Basin transfer issue.
(30:30) - Alder Sally Fox had several comments about the community Inspiring Spaces meetings. She said it was exciting to see the new faces and at every meetings she found out new information and it was a learning experience. She next talked about the Christmas tree downtown and that it was the most beautiful tree and this year's activities were the most wholesome in a long time.
Citizens Requesting to be Heard
(34:00) - Jesse McArthur - speaking about videotaping meetings - he said that in light of the discussion at this meeting that he did not feel it necesary not to speak at this time.
(34:45) - Cliff Moone - Spoke about his request and the City's granting of a Bill of Right's Proclamation and this year he would like a Human Rights proclamation given to the library.
He addressed the issue of Citizens being allowed the question items on the agenda at the beginning of the meeting. He discussed what occurred at the City Council meeting on October 2, 2012.
Cliff went into Alderman Lail's proposal from the end of that meeting to study the issue of allowing Citizen's Requesting to be heard back to the beginning of the meeting. Alderman Lail saw potential problems with what had been passed earlier in that meeting. Alderman Lail's motion and proposal failed for lack of a second motion.
At the following City Council meeting of October 16, 2012, the opportunity for Citizens to speak as provided for in the motion passed unanimously on October 2, 2012 was not extended. Later in the meeting, a citizen with a specific grant proposal was allowed to speak. Cliff then spoke of the Council meeting of November 6, 2012, which was chaired by Alderman Seaver and during that meeting he asked if anyone would like specific items removed from the Consent Agenda, when the Council has previously determined that Citizens do not have such a right. This was confusing and was not in keeping with the Council's motion of October 2.
Cliff wants the Council to address Alderman Seaver's point made at the October 2 meeting about arranging or tweaking the agenda so that the action can be appropriately implemented so that citizens will find it consistent and fair and clear in all future meetings so that they can operate within the Council's rules of Decorum. Cliff said he didn't want to be picky, but the motion was not part of the agenda should have been a motion (matter) not on the agenda. Staff Attorney Crone apologized saying that that night he had something else on his mind and he should have jumped in. Mayor Wright said there are capital R rules and little R rules. Cliff said he wasn't sure what the Mayor meant by that. Cliff stated that he would like to somehow or another see this be on the agenda. When you make a motion and pass something on the Agenda.. that that was a continuing thing. Now you can undo that as y'all so rightly said when, as you said, this is not a good exercise in Democracy... but would this not just continue from meeting to meeting? Attorney Crone began an answer, I don't understand.. I don't understand..." and Mayor Wright expressly cut him off saying, "We will get back with you at the next meeting Mr. Moone."
The Hound: Like Cliff, I do not want to nit pick about this. Why is the Council insistent on these contortions? Why not just put this on the Public Agenda and take all of the motioning per meeting out of this process? This all goes back to the Consent Agenda issue and us paying attention to what the rules on the agenda stated and allowed us to do.
So far no one has had an agenda item to inquire-ask about, but it is a matter of time until this will occur and the ambiguity should be taken out of the process. Look at the tent issue. I might be wrong, but I don't think Hickory Inc. is going to be putting multi-hundred thousand dollar projects in the Consent Agenda any more, so hopefully we won't have to travel back down that road again -- Hopefully (fingers crossed).
I don't agree with the Mayor about his Big R - Little R statement when it comes to rules. Rules are rules and they should apply to everyone. They should apply to Council, City Staff, and everyone participating in City processes equally -- across the board. If they expect us to follow "decorum," then they should follow decorum and quit making things up on the fly to suit their own fancy.
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 11/20/2012 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.
All materials and maps for this meeting are provide at this link: City Council Agenda - November 20, 2012
Invocation by Rev. Whit Malone, Pastor First Presbyterian Church
Consent Agenda:
A. Transfer of a Cemetery Deed from Judy K. Eldridge, unmarried to Billy Dean Buckner in Fairview Cemetery
B. Transfer of a Cemetery Deed from Judy K. Eldridge, unmarried to Annie Sue Hicks in Fairview Cemetery
C. Transfer of Cemetery Deed from Judy K. Eldridge, unmarried to Charles Ray Buckner in Fairview Cemetery
D. Transfer of Cemetery Deed from Judy K. Eldridge, unmarried to Jack Wayne Buckner in Fairview Cemetery
E. Transfer of Cemetery Deed from Judy K. Eldridge, unmarried to Judy K. Eldridge in Fairview Cemetery
F. Transfer of Cemetery Deed from Judy K. Eldridge, unmarried to Elvis Ray Darrin Buckner in Fairview Cemetery
G. Transfer of Cemetery Deed from City of Hickory to Geraldine Propst and Cindy Propst in Southside Cemetery
H. Special Joint Meeting of Hickory City Council and the Advisory Committee for Inspiring Spaces, Tuesday, November 27, 2012 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Mike Johnson’s Hickory Toyota Board Room. - A special joint meeting of Hickory City Council and the Advisory Committee for Inspiring
Spaces to be held on Tuesday, November 27, 2012 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Mike Johnson’s Toyota Board Room at 435 US Highway 70 SE. The purpose of this special joint meeting is to update and receive input from City Council and the Advisory Committee on Inspiring Spaces.
I. Approval of a Proclamation for Small Business Saturday, November 24, 2012.
J. Certificate of Sufficiency and Preliminary Resolution Relative to Street Improvements Along a portion of 304 and 336 10th Avenue NE – No. 02-12 (Authorize Public Hearing for December 18, 2012)
K. Certificate of Sufficiency and Preliminary Resolution Relative to Street Improvements Along a portion of 304 10th Avenue NE – No. 03-12 (Authorize Public Hearing for December 18, 2012)
L. Resolution of Intent for Petition of Robert Lee Combs Jr., Cynthia C. Combs; Kenneth R. Abernethy, Linda Yvonne McCall Abernethy; Patricia Abernethy Bolch and Alan C. Bolch to Close an Unopened Portion of 10th Avenue Place NE. (Authorize Public Hearing for December 18, 2012)
M. Call for Public Hearing – Amendments to Hickory City Code Chapter 16 – Junk and Secondhand Dealers, Regarding how Pawnbrokers, Precious Metal Dealers and Secondary Metals Recyclers record and report their purchases from the general public. (Authorize Public Hearing for December 4, 2012)
N. Consideration of a Contract of Services with AMEC Environmental and Infrastructure, Inc., for environmental engineering services, pursuant to the USEPA Brownfield Assessment Grant. - The City of Hickory was awarded two Brownfield Assessment Grants, each in the amount of $200,000. As part of the federal cooperative agreement, the City of Hickory is required by the USEPA to contract environmental assessment services with a licensed environmental engineering firm. AMEC is a well-known and respected regional environmental firm, with a wealth of experience with both the USEPA and NCDENR brownfield programs. AMEC was selected after the review of nine consultant qualification statements. Professional contractual services will be provided by AMEC in an amount not to exceed $370,000 which is fully covered under the USEPA Brownfield Assessment Grant. No City monies will be expended pursuant to this contractual service.
O. Approval of a Quitclaim Deed for Recombination of Properties to be known as the Hickory-Catawba Wastewater Treatment Facility (HCWWTF).- Additional property was purchased by the City of Hickory from the adjoining property owners in December of 2010 for the proposed HCWWTF Upgrade and Expansion. In accordance with the Town of Catawba Planning regulations, the City of Hickory is required to recombine the properties since the property is required for the purposes of constructing and operating the proposed HCWWTF.
P. Special Event/Activities Application, applicant Connie Kincaid, Hickory Downtown Development Association, for Downtown Hickory Art Crawls 2013, Thursday, May 16, 2013 and Thursday, September 19, 2013, from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., Union Square, 3rd St NW, 2nd St NW, 1st Avenue NW, 1st Avenue SW and Government Avenue SW.
Q. Special Event/Activities Application, applicant Connie Kincaid, Hickory Downtown Development Association, for Swinging Under the Stars, Sunday, May 26, 2013, from 12:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. at the Union Square Flag Court.
R. Grant Project Ordinance No. 5
1. To budget a 2012 Urgent Repair Program Grant awarded to the City of Hickory by the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency in the amount of $37,500 with a local required match of $3,750. The required match is provided by the Consortium HOME Program Income.
S. Grant Project Ordinance Amendment No. 3
1. To transfer $3,750 of Consortium HOME Program income to the 2012 Urgent Repair Program Grant. This transfer provides the funds necessary for the required local match for the 2012 Urgent Repair Program Grant.
T. Budget Ordinance Amendment No. 7
1. To budget $828 of General Fund Miscellaneous Revenue in the Fire Department Maintenance and Repair of Vehicles line item. These funds were received from Mountain Recycling, Inc. for the sale of scrap metal from the shop.
2. To budget a $55,000 check from the State of North Carolina Department of Commerce (One North Carolina Fund Disbursement to Turbocoating Corporation) in the Economic and Community Development Incentives line item. A grant was approved by the Department of Commerce One North Carolina Fund in the amount of $110,000. This budget amendment represents the first partial grant disbursement.
3. To appropriate $4,696 of General Fund Balance and budget in the Residential Sanitation Non Asset Inventory line item. This amendment is to budget a $4,696 insurance claim check from Trident Insurance Company for a truck radio replacement which rolled into General Fund Balance at year end.
Informational Items
1. (4:10) Filming City Council Meetings - Per City Council directive, City Staff is exploring the feasibility and cost of filming Council meetings. The City Manager will update the council on the findings thus far.
● Current lighting in Council chambers is inadequate and will need to be augmented.
● Current audio does not provide for output to a video camera. The system also has adequacy issues both at the dais and the podium.
● Live feed of the meeting would require a fiber optic cable run from Council chambers to Charter Communications head end. Staff and equipment would also be required to manage a live feed. Costs for this option are not currently being explored. As these items are defined and costs estimated, staff will provide Council with a recommendation for implementation.
The recorded meetings will be available on Charter Channel 3 and on the Hickory City Website. Manager Berry talked about wanting to have dual feeds to show presentations, display names, and the feed of Council Members at the dais. Alderman Lail brought up the subject of promoting the televised council meetings. Manager Berry said they are looking into the promotion of these meetings... They would likely have meetings ready for showing on Thursdays. They should be back in December with recommendations to the council unless technical issues cause this to be delayed until January.
The Hound is glad to see this moving forward. This is one of the five requests made by the Citizens for Equity in Government. The CEG has never asked that these meetings be Broadcast Live. The point of this process is to make meetings more accessible to the community. Having a live feed isn't going to create better access for people who are busy at work or doing other activities at 7pm on 1st and 3rd Tuesdays. One of the major reasons for doing this is the same as time with a DVR. It is all about time shifting so that people can pay attention to community issues when time is available for them to do so. It is our contention that the CEG has not made any unreasonable requests and the CEG does not intend to ever make any unreasonable requests. We believe that once this is implemented that the community will wonder why it took so long.
New Business - Public Hearing
1. Approve Revised Sewer Use Ordinance - The City of Hickory is required to operate under a NC Department of Environment & Natural Resources (NCDENR) approved Sewer Use Ordinance due to the size of the Wastewater Treatment Facilities and the presence of Industrial customers on the City of Hickory wastewater system. The adoption of an approved Sewer Use Ordinance is a requirement of the Clean Water Act of 1972 and subsequent revisions. The proposed revisions to the existing City of Hickory Sewer Use Ordinance are to address recent environmental regulation changes. This version of the City of Hickory Sewer Use Ordinance is intended to ensure that the City of Hickory Pretreatment Program operates in compliance with the appropriate State and Federal regulations, A NCAC 2H.0900 and 40 CFR 403 respectively. This public hearing was advertised on November 9, 2012 in a newspaper having general circulation in the Hickory area.
Matters not on the Agenda
(26:55) - Mayor Wright spoke about the League of Municipalities meeting he attended last week. He talked about transportation cost issues in the State and problems with revenues. Because of the recession and efficiencies the amount of money has gone down. There is a mention of taxes on tires and toll roads. He talked about the possibilities of stickers being sold to allow people to use HOV lanes (High Occupancy Vehicle). He next talked about 50 agenda items from a League Board meeting. Governor Elect McCrory is talking about modernizing the tax structure.. He talked about the Inter-Basin transfer issue.
(30:30) - Alder Sally Fox had several comments about the community Inspiring Spaces meetings. She said it was exciting to see the new faces and at every meetings she found out new information and it was a learning experience. She next talked about the Christmas tree downtown and that it was the most beautiful tree and this year's activities were the most wholesome in a long time.
Citizens Requesting to be Heard
(34:00) - Jesse McArthur - speaking about videotaping meetings - he said that in light of the discussion at this meeting that he did not feel it necesary not to speak at this time.
(34:45) - Cliff Moone - Spoke about his request and the City's granting of a Bill of Right's Proclamation and this year he would like a Human Rights proclamation given to the library.
He addressed the issue of Citizens being allowed the question items on the agenda at the beginning of the meeting. He discussed what occurred at the City Council meeting on October 2, 2012.
Cliff went into Alderman Lail's proposal from the end of that meeting to study the issue of allowing Citizen's Requesting to be heard back to the beginning of the meeting. Alderman Lail saw potential problems with what had been passed earlier in that meeting. Alderman Lail's motion and proposal failed for lack of a second motion.
At the following City Council meeting of October 16, 2012, the opportunity for Citizens to speak as provided for in the motion passed unanimously on October 2, 2012 was not extended. Later in the meeting, a citizen with a specific grant proposal was allowed to speak. Cliff then spoke of the Council meeting of November 6, 2012, which was chaired by Alderman Seaver and during that meeting he asked if anyone would like specific items removed from the Consent Agenda, when the Council has previously determined that Citizens do not have such a right. This was confusing and was not in keeping with the Council's motion of October 2.
Cliff wants the Council to address Alderman Seaver's point made at the October 2 meeting about arranging or tweaking the agenda so that the action can be appropriately implemented so that citizens will find it consistent and fair and clear in all future meetings so that they can operate within the Council's rules of Decorum. Cliff said he didn't want to be picky, but the motion was not part of the agenda should have been a motion (matter) not on the agenda. Staff Attorney Crone apologized saying that that night he had something else on his mind and he should have jumped in. Mayor Wright said there are capital R rules and little R rules. Cliff said he wasn't sure what the Mayor meant by that. Cliff stated that he would like to somehow or another see this be on the agenda. When you make a motion and pass something on the Agenda.. that that was a continuing thing. Now you can undo that as y'all so rightly said when, as you said, this is not a good exercise in Democracy... but would this not just continue from meeting to meeting? Attorney Crone began an answer, I don't understand.. I don't understand..." and Mayor Wright expressly cut him off saying, "We will get back with you at the next meeting Mr. Moone."
The Hound: Like Cliff, I do not want to nit pick about this. Why is the Council insistent on these contortions? Why not just put this on the Public Agenda and take all of the motioning per meeting out of this process? This all goes back to the Consent Agenda issue and us paying attention to what the rules on the agenda stated and allowed us to do.
So far no one has had an agenda item to inquire-ask about, but it is a matter of time until this will occur and the ambiguity should be taken out of the process. Look at the tent issue. I might be wrong, but I don't think Hickory Inc. is going to be putting multi-hundred thousand dollar projects in the Consent Agenda any more, so hopefully we won't have to travel back down that road again -- Hopefully (fingers crossed).
I don't agree with the Mayor about his Big R - Little R statement when it comes to rules. Rules are rules and they should apply to everyone. They should apply to Council, City Staff, and everyone participating in City processes equally -- across the board. If they expect us to follow "decorum," then they should follow decorum and quit making things up on the fly to suit their own fancy.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- November 18, 2012
Economists cut U.S. Q4 growth forecasts: survey - Reuters - November 8, 2012 - Forecasters cut their expectations for U.S. economic growth in the fourth quarter, though the labor market was seen holding on to recent improvement, a survey released on Friday showed. Economists expect the economy to grow at an annual rate of 1.8 percent in the current quarter, down from the previous estimate of 2.2 percent growth, according to the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's fourth-quarter survey of 39 forecasters. While that left estimates for gross domestic product for the year unchanged at 2.2 percent, growth in 2013 looked modestly weaker with economists forecasting 2 percent, down from 2.1 percent.
The Worst Economic Numbers In More Than A Year - The Economic Collapse Blog - Michael - November 15th, 2012 - With everything else that is going on in the world, a lot of people have failed to notice that we are seeing some of the worst economic numbers that we have seen in more than a year. For example, it was announced on Thursday that initial claims for unemployment benefits have hit their highest level in a year and a half. Hopefully this is just a temporary blip in the data, because initial unemployment claims tend to have a very strong correlation with the overall performance of the economy. We also continue to see poverty statistics rise. According to government statistics released earlier this month, the number of Americans living in poverty and the number of Americans on food stamps are both at all-time record highs. Meanwhile, the Dow and the S&P 500 are both down more than 5 percent since the election and the U.S. government rolled up 22 billion dollars more debt in October 2012 than it did in October 2011. The unfortunate truth is that things are not getting better. The U.S. economy continues to become weaker and more unstable, and there are a whole lot of reasons to be very pessimistic about our economic situation as we move into the winter months. Let's take a closer look at some of the troubling economic numbers that have been released in recent days...
Warren Buffett Guts the News - Manassas News & Messenger and InsideNoVA.com, top Prince William news sources, closing down - Washington Post Local - Tom Jackman - November 14, 2012 - When investor and newspaper fan Warren Buffett bought the Media General newspaper chain last year, there was hope for all of them, including the Manassas News & Messenger and the Richmond Times-Dispatch.But Buffett’s company announced today it is shutting down the News & Messenger after 143 years, as well as its highly informative Web site, InsideNoVA.com. It is the only paper in the Media General chain being shuttered by World Media Enterprises, a division of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. This is horrendous news for everyone in Prince William County and those who care about Prince William news. The News & Messenger and InsideNoVA are the definitive source of news in Prince William. Their reporters and editors work extremely hard to cover government, breaking news, high school sports, the latest lottery winners, everything. InsideNoVA also has a Facebook page with more than 26,000 followers, and when they post stories there they get plenty of reaction . Reaction that isn’t standard anonymous-crazy comments because people must use their Facebook accounts to post, which makes a lot of sense. World Media chairman Terry Kroeger told me this morning there was ”a lot of competition for the ad dollars.” I whined and complained about losing the biggest news source in a county of 400,000 people. “It is too bad,” Kroeger said. “We didn’t see a way to take the negative financial momentum and turn it positive. We didn’t take this lightly. We worked very hard to develop their plans, and we just could not get there.” I pointed out that InsideNoVA had a large following on Facebook and seemed to be working well in the digital world. “They put a lot of emphasis on their digital products,” Kroeger said, “so their print circulation fell even further.” The print circulation is about 10,000. When Buffett bought the 63 papers in the Media General chain, he said: “In towns and cities where there is a strong sense of community, there is no more important institution than the local paper. The many locales served by the newspapers we are acquiring fall firmly in this mold and we are delighted they have found a permanent home with Berkshire Hathaway.” This is actually the closing of two newspapers, since the Potomac News and the Manassas Journal Messenger merged in 2008. World Media said all 33 people working for the paper and Web site would lose their jobs, along with 72 others in the Media General corporate structure. There are a lot of talented and hard-working journalists at the News & Messenger and InsideNoVA and they deserve our respect and thanks. They didn’t deserve to be shut down after 143 years of public service.
Feds gave battery firm $1M on day of bankruptcy filing - USA Today - By Nathan Bomey, Detroit Free Press - November 17, 2012 - Electric car battery maker A123 Systems received a $946,830 check from the U.S. Energy Department on the day it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month -- providing more ammunition for critics who say the Obama administration is blindly funding failed clean energy companies. The Waltham, Mass.-based company also told two U.S. senators in a letter this week that it may seek more money from the $249.1-million Energy Department stimulus award it won in 2009. A123's Oct. 16 check was the latest payment as part of the original grant, which is distributed incrementally as the company meets certain benchmarks. A123 has received $133.3 million of the grant so far based on its investments in new battery plants in Livonia and Romulus, Mich.... Meanwhile, A123 also came under scrutiny from a federal trustee charged with providing oversight in bankruptcy cases for the size of its proposed performance bonuses for senior executives. The original bonuses, priced at a total of $2.4 million to $4.2 million for 10 employees, were reduced by 12.5% by a bankruptcy judge. A123, formed a decade ago with intellectual property from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, promised to add thousands of jobs in Michigan after winning the federal grant -- as well as more than $125 million in tax credits and grants from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. in 2008 and 2009.
Is The 29 Hour Work Week Coming As Employers Seek To Escape The Obamacare Mandate? - CNSNews - Craig Bannister - November 12, 2012 - Businesses with 50 or more employees who average at least 30 hours of work a week will be subject to the Obamacare insurance coverage mandate. Companies are reportedly planning large layoffs due to the implementation of Obamacare. But, companies can potentially avoid being subject to Obamacare's insurance requirements by limiting employees’ weekly hours to less than the 30 hour level defined by Obamacare as “full-time.” A little-known section in the ObamaCare health reform law defines “full-time” work as averaging only 30 hours per week, a definition that will affect some employers who utilize part-time workers to trim the cost of complying with the ObamaCare rule that says businesses with 50 or more full-time workers must provide health insurance or pay a fine. “The term ‘full-time employee’ means, with respect to any month, an employee who is employed on average at least 30 hours of service per week,” section 1513 of the law reads. (Scroll down to section 4, paragraph A.) That section, known as the employer mandate, requires any business with 50 or more full-time employees to provide at least the minimum level of government-defined health coverage to those employees. In other words, a business must provide insurance if it has 50 or more employees working an average of just 30 hours per week, which is 10 hours per week fewer than the traditional 40-hour work week. Thus, by cutting employees’ hours to ensure they average less than the 30 per week, employers could potentially avoid the cost of providing the minimum insurance levels mandated by Obamacare.
Job Cuts Announced At Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center - WFMY (Greensboro, NC) - November 14, 2012 - Cost-cutting at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center will cause 950 full-time positions to be eliminated by June 30, 2013, the healthcare provider announced Wednesday. In a news release, WFBMC said about half of the layoffs will come from "vacant, temporary and contract labor positions, as well as normal attrition and retirements." As many as 475 current employees -- about 3.5 percent of the company's workforce -- will get pink slips. While the staff reductions won't be complete until next summer, 76 employees are being laid off this week. WFBMC says those workers will still get their full pay and benefits through Jan. 4, 2013. Everyone who is being laid off will get severance pay. The medical center says the job cuts "will not affect nurse-to-patient ratios [or] the quality of patient care."
Banks told by Fed to test for 12% unemployment - Marketwatch - Ronald D. Orol - November 15, 2012 - The Federal Reserve is asking 30 big banks to make sure their capital can withstand a deep recession in which the unemployment rate rises to 12%. The Fed, which first required big banks to conduct “stress tests” in 2009, laid out three scenarios lenders have to test against. The goal is to ensure that the firms have enough capital to continue operations during stressful economic times. The Fed stressed they were not making economic forecasts “but rather hypothetical scenarios designed to assess the strength of financial institutions in stressful economic environments.” In addition to considering an unemployment rate of roughly 12% — up from 7.9% in October — in the most severe recession scenario, banks must evaluate how their capital buffers would withstand real GDP declining by around 5%. Banks will also have to test for equity prices that would fall by more than 50% over the course of the recession, with house prices declining more than 20% and with commercial real estate prices falling by a similar amount. While harsh, the Fed stress test isn’t necessarily as bad as conditions actually were during the so-called Great Recession from late 2007 to 2009. The unemployment rate rose from 4.7% before the recession started in Nov. 2007 to as high as 10%, the economy shrank as much as 8.9% during one quarter, and home prices have tumbled by roughly a third from their peak....
ROUBINI: Perfect Storm Or Not, 2013 Looks Awful - Business Insider - Lucas Kawa - November 16, 2012 - ...The perfect storm is not my baseline scenario. My baseline scenario is one of low economic growth in advanced economies and recession in some of them, like the euro zone, like the U.K., like Japan but not recession in the U.S., slower economic growth in emerging markets; that’s the baseline. But there could be a situation in which you could have a perfect storm that would happen if there is a fiscal cliff in the United States that tips the US into a recession, if the euro zone crisis gets worse and there is an exit of Greece that is disorderly, if the landing of China becomes a hard landing of China, and four, if we really had a war in the Middle East between Israel and Iran and oil prices go to $200/barrel...
Census: U.S. Poverty Rate Spikes, Nearly 50 Million Americans Affected - CBS News/AP - November 15, 2012 - As President Barack Obama is set to begin his second term, new statistics on America’s poverty rate indicate that nearly 50 million Americans, more than 16 percent of the population, are struggling to survive. New figures released by the Census Bureau this week found a spike in poverty numbers last year, going from 49 million in 2010 to 49.7 million last year. The numbers may come as a surprise to Congress, which estimated in September that the poverty rate would drop to 46.2 million. One of the most startling findings showed that almost 20 percent of American children continue to live in poverty. The Associated Press reports that the new figures are based on an updated formula devised by the Census Bureau to help give the government a better understanding for how to use safety-net programs. The numbers found that Hispanics and people living in urban areas had a higher chance of struggling to make it financially. Poverty among full-time and part-time workers also saw a jump from its 2010 number...
Ceilings, Cliffs and TAG - 3 Immediate Risks - StreeTalkLive.com - Lance Roberts - November 16, 2012 -
1 in 7 people now on Food Stamps in America
The Worst Economic Numbers In More Than A Year - The Economic Collapse Blog - Michael - November 15th, 2012 - With everything else that is going on in the world, a lot of people have failed to notice that we are seeing some of the worst economic numbers that we have seen in more than a year. For example, it was announced on Thursday that initial claims for unemployment benefits have hit their highest level in a year and a half. Hopefully this is just a temporary blip in the data, because initial unemployment claims tend to have a very strong correlation with the overall performance of the economy. We also continue to see poverty statistics rise. According to government statistics released earlier this month, the number of Americans living in poverty and the number of Americans on food stamps are both at all-time record highs. Meanwhile, the Dow and the S&P 500 are both down more than 5 percent since the election and the U.S. government rolled up 22 billion dollars more debt in October 2012 than it did in October 2011. The unfortunate truth is that things are not getting better. The U.S. economy continues to become weaker and more unstable, and there are a whole lot of reasons to be very pessimistic about our economic situation as we move into the winter months. Let's take a closer look at some of the troubling economic numbers that have been released in recent days...
Warren Buffett Guts the News - Manassas News & Messenger and InsideNoVA.com, top Prince William news sources, closing down - Washington Post Local - Tom Jackman - November 14, 2012 - When investor and newspaper fan Warren Buffett bought the Media General newspaper chain last year, there was hope for all of them, including the Manassas News & Messenger and the Richmond Times-Dispatch.But Buffett’s company announced today it is shutting down the News & Messenger after 143 years, as well as its highly informative Web site, InsideNoVA.com. It is the only paper in the Media General chain being shuttered by World Media Enterprises, a division of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. This is horrendous news for everyone in Prince William County and those who care about Prince William news. The News & Messenger and InsideNoVA are the definitive source of news in Prince William. Their reporters and editors work extremely hard to cover government, breaking news, high school sports, the latest lottery winners, everything. InsideNoVA also has a Facebook page with more than 26,000 followers, and when they post stories there they get plenty of reaction . Reaction that isn’t standard anonymous-crazy comments because people must use their Facebook accounts to post, which makes a lot of sense. World Media chairman Terry Kroeger told me this morning there was ”a lot of competition for the ad dollars.” I whined and complained about losing the biggest news source in a county of 400,000 people. “It is too bad,” Kroeger said. “We didn’t see a way to take the negative financial momentum and turn it positive. We didn’t take this lightly. We worked very hard to develop their plans, and we just could not get there.” I pointed out that InsideNoVA had a large following on Facebook and seemed to be working well in the digital world. “They put a lot of emphasis on their digital products,” Kroeger said, “so their print circulation fell even further.” The print circulation is about 10,000. When Buffett bought the 63 papers in the Media General chain, he said: “In towns and cities where there is a strong sense of community, there is no more important institution than the local paper. The many locales served by the newspapers we are acquiring fall firmly in this mold and we are delighted they have found a permanent home with Berkshire Hathaway.” This is actually the closing of two newspapers, since the Potomac News and the Manassas Journal Messenger merged in 2008. World Media said all 33 people working for the paper and Web site would lose their jobs, along with 72 others in the Media General corporate structure. There are a lot of talented and hard-working journalists at the News & Messenger and InsideNoVA and they deserve our respect and thanks. They didn’t deserve to be shut down after 143 years of public service.
Feds gave battery firm $1M on day of bankruptcy filing - USA Today - By Nathan Bomey, Detroit Free Press - November 17, 2012 - Electric car battery maker A123 Systems received a $946,830 check from the U.S. Energy Department on the day it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month -- providing more ammunition for critics who say the Obama administration is blindly funding failed clean energy companies. The Waltham, Mass.-based company also told two U.S. senators in a letter this week that it may seek more money from the $249.1-million Energy Department stimulus award it won in 2009. A123's Oct. 16 check was the latest payment as part of the original grant, which is distributed incrementally as the company meets certain benchmarks. A123 has received $133.3 million of the grant so far based on its investments in new battery plants in Livonia and Romulus, Mich.... Meanwhile, A123 also came under scrutiny from a federal trustee charged with providing oversight in bankruptcy cases for the size of its proposed performance bonuses for senior executives. The original bonuses, priced at a total of $2.4 million to $4.2 million for 10 employees, were reduced by 12.5% by a bankruptcy judge. A123, formed a decade ago with intellectual property from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, promised to add thousands of jobs in Michigan after winning the federal grant -- as well as more than $125 million in tax credits and grants from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. in 2008 and 2009.
Is The 29 Hour Work Week Coming As Employers Seek To Escape The Obamacare Mandate? - CNSNews - Craig Bannister - November 12, 2012 - Businesses with 50 or more employees who average at least 30 hours of work a week will be subject to the Obamacare insurance coverage mandate. Companies are reportedly planning large layoffs due to the implementation of Obamacare. But, companies can potentially avoid being subject to Obamacare's insurance requirements by limiting employees’ weekly hours to less than the 30 hour level defined by Obamacare as “full-time.” A little-known section in the ObamaCare health reform law defines “full-time” work as averaging only 30 hours per week, a definition that will affect some employers who utilize part-time workers to trim the cost of complying with the ObamaCare rule that says businesses with 50 or more full-time workers must provide health insurance or pay a fine. “The term ‘full-time employee’ means, with respect to any month, an employee who is employed on average at least 30 hours of service per week,” section 1513 of the law reads. (Scroll down to section 4, paragraph A.) That section, known as the employer mandate, requires any business with 50 or more full-time employees to provide at least the minimum level of government-defined health coverage to those employees. In other words, a business must provide insurance if it has 50 or more employees working an average of just 30 hours per week, which is 10 hours per week fewer than the traditional 40-hour work week. Thus, by cutting employees’ hours to ensure they average less than the 30 per week, employers could potentially avoid the cost of providing the minimum insurance levels mandated by Obamacare.
Job Cuts Announced At Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center - WFMY (Greensboro, NC) - November 14, 2012 - Cost-cutting at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center will cause 950 full-time positions to be eliminated by June 30, 2013, the healthcare provider announced Wednesday. In a news release, WFBMC said about half of the layoffs will come from "vacant, temporary and contract labor positions, as well as normal attrition and retirements." As many as 475 current employees -- about 3.5 percent of the company's workforce -- will get pink slips. While the staff reductions won't be complete until next summer, 76 employees are being laid off this week. WFBMC says those workers will still get their full pay and benefits through Jan. 4, 2013. Everyone who is being laid off will get severance pay. The medical center says the job cuts "will not affect nurse-to-patient ratios [or] the quality of patient care."
Banks told by Fed to test for 12% unemployment - Marketwatch - Ronald D. Orol - November 15, 2012 - The Federal Reserve is asking 30 big banks to make sure their capital can withstand a deep recession in which the unemployment rate rises to 12%. The Fed, which first required big banks to conduct “stress tests” in 2009, laid out three scenarios lenders have to test against. The goal is to ensure that the firms have enough capital to continue operations during stressful economic times. The Fed stressed they were not making economic forecasts “but rather hypothetical scenarios designed to assess the strength of financial institutions in stressful economic environments.” In addition to considering an unemployment rate of roughly 12% — up from 7.9% in October — in the most severe recession scenario, banks must evaluate how their capital buffers would withstand real GDP declining by around 5%. Banks will also have to test for equity prices that would fall by more than 50% over the course of the recession, with house prices declining more than 20% and with commercial real estate prices falling by a similar amount. While harsh, the Fed stress test isn’t necessarily as bad as conditions actually were during the so-called Great Recession from late 2007 to 2009. The unemployment rate rose from 4.7% before the recession started in Nov. 2007 to as high as 10%, the economy shrank as much as 8.9% during one quarter, and home prices have tumbled by roughly a third from their peak....
ROUBINI: Perfect Storm Or Not, 2013 Looks Awful - Business Insider - Lucas Kawa - November 16, 2012 - ...The perfect storm is not my baseline scenario. My baseline scenario is one of low economic growth in advanced economies and recession in some of them, like the euro zone, like the U.K., like Japan but not recession in the U.S., slower economic growth in emerging markets; that’s the baseline. But there could be a situation in which you could have a perfect storm that would happen if there is a fiscal cliff in the United States that tips the US into a recession, if the euro zone crisis gets worse and there is an exit of Greece that is disorderly, if the landing of China becomes a hard landing of China, and four, if we really had a war in the Middle East between Israel and Iran and oil prices go to $200/barrel...
Census: U.S. Poverty Rate Spikes, Nearly 50 Million Americans Affected - CBS News/AP - November 15, 2012 - As President Barack Obama is set to begin his second term, new statistics on America’s poverty rate indicate that nearly 50 million Americans, more than 16 percent of the population, are struggling to survive. New figures released by the Census Bureau this week found a spike in poverty numbers last year, going from 49 million in 2010 to 49.7 million last year. The numbers may come as a surprise to Congress, which estimated in September that the poverty rate would drop to 46.2 million. One of the most startling findings showed that almost 20 percent of American children continue to live in poverty. The Associated Press reports that the new figures are based on an updated formula devised by the Census Bureau to help give the government a better understanding for how to use safety-net programs. The numbers found that Hispanics and people living in urban areas had a higher chance of struggling to make it financially. Poverty among full-time and part-time workers also saw a jump from its 2010 number...
Ceilings, Cliffs and TAG - 3 Immediate Risks - StreeTalkLive.com - Lance Roberts - November 16, 2012 -
1 in 7 people now on Food Stamps in America
Friday, November 16, 2012
City Meetings this week... Inspiring Spaces & the Airport
Went to a couple of City meetings this week. One was for "Inspiring Spaces" on Tuesday night at Highland Rec. Let's say that most of the people who I spoke with that attended those meetings were Uninspired. The meeting was basically a rehash of the presentation made to the City Council a few weeks ago. There is a feeling amongst most people who pay attention that the city has made up it's mind about what it is going to do. It is obvious to most that they have decided that they want to do something along Main Avenue Northeast from the area where it splits off to around City Hall. And on the map that was shown, areas 1 and 2 on the map were (tada) Union Square and the SALT block. In my Yoda voice, "I think that not to be a coincidence."
I really don't think that Hickory Inc. is looking at these cities that they visited properly. They are saying that they invested in their cities and this caused industry to come to those areas and that simply is not the case. They are looking at Greenville, SC and Chattanooga. Those cities development looks great because they landed a couple of auto manufacturers (BMW and Volkswagen respectfully). They have seen major investment in their area's at all levels from the federal and state level associated with these plants and from local businesses. Those plants are highly valuable because they are employment intense industries. In articles about Volkswagen and Chattanooga they state that they came there because of the wage structure.
It is my opinion that the investments that have been made in Hickory of late are not going to resurrect our fortunes and there is really nothing to talk about when it comes to these issues until we start dealing with the run down areas. I am not talking about the look when I say rundown. That is the most superficial aspect of rundown and throwing up some bushes and slapping some paint on those areas is not going to change the dynamics. It is about the marketplace.
There is hope for that old Hollar Hosiery Mill, not because of the renovation, but because of its location and the fact that there are businesses already lined up to move in there. Will it make an earth shattering impact? No, because it only rearranges the deck chairs. People that go there to eat or shop or see a band will be people who go to other restaurants, bars, and stores in the area. So, it will pull customers from those other local existing venues, but no one is going to flock to Hickory to visit those shops. And if it doesn't increase the economic impact on the dynamics of our residents, then it isn't going to make a dent on the overall Economics of the area. But, I will say that it is a feel good effort and it does look better and it is a very good investment, if we do get some labor intense industries in the area that can give people disposable income to spend.
I also went to the airport for the city's special session there. Again in my opinion, there really wasn't a need for a special session there. It was another feel good story and the one thing that I came away with is a feeling that the airport is in very good hands with Terry Clark out there running the show.
As has been pointed out here, and because of actual conversations we have had with people who utilize the airport and its services, the moves that have occurred at the airport are great and they are long overdue. For the most part, they were moves that were recommended by the Airport Taskforce back in 2006. If Hickory Inc. would have followed the recommendations at the time, they would have reaped millions of dollars in revenue through the fuel sales and other operations plus they wouldn't have lost the revenues they did related to airplane owners not wanting their planes parked at the airport. There were also costs associated with the way the previous FBO mismanaged the airport's maintenance and didn't pay their bills in a timely fashion and/or didn't pay bills due to their bankruptcy.
Now, that is all I have to say today. I haven't written as much about the local scene, because really there isn't much going on with the local scene as far as the subjects we delve into here on the Hickory Hound. Now behind the scenes there are developments, but as we wind down 2012, we aren't going to see much coming from the city. It is all under the radar waiting for 2013.
We are, however, interested in seeing what Hickory Inc. is going to try to sneak in at the last City Council meeting before Christmas and the New Year. Remember demolishing the pools and the tent on Union Square both took place at those City Council meetings in 2010 and 2011. We wonder if something that has been kept under the radar related to Inspiring Spaces will occur at those meetings.
I really don't think that Hickory Inc. is looking at these cities that they visited properly. They are saying that they invested in their cities and this caused industry to come to those areas and that simply is not the case. They are looking at Greenville, SC and Chattanooga. Those cities development looks great because they landed a couple of auto manufacturers (BMW and Volkswagen respectfully). They have seen major investment in their area's at all levels from the federal and state level associated with these plants and from local businesses. Those plants are highly valuable because they are employment intense industries. In articles about Volkswagen and Chattanooga they state that they came there because of the wage structure.
It is my opinion that the investments that have been made in Hickory of late are not going to resurrect our fortunes and there is really nothing to talk about when it comes to these issues until we start dealing with the run down areas. I am not talking about the look when I say rundown. That is the most superficial aspect of rundown and throwing up some bushes and slapping some paint on those areas is not going to change the dynamics. It is about the marketplace.
There is hope for that old Hollar Hosiery Mill, not because of the renovation, but because of its location and the fact that there are businesses already lined up to move in there. Will it make an earth shattering impact? No, because it only rearranges the deck chairs. People that go there to eat or shop or see a band will be people who go to other restaurants, bars, and stores in the area. So, it will pull customers from those other local existing venues, but no one is going to flock to Hickory to visit those shops. And if it doesn't increase the economic impact on the dynamics of our residents, then it isn't going to make a dent on the overall Economics of the area. But, I will say that it is a feel good effort and it does look better and it is a very good investment, if we do get some labor intense industries in the area that can give people disposable income to spend.
I also went to the airport for the city's special session there. Again in my opinion, there really wasn't a need for a special session there. It was another feel good story and the one thing that I came away with is a feeling that the airport is in very good hands with Terry Clark out there running the show.
As has been pointed out here, and because of actual conversations we have had with people who utilize the airport and its services, the moves that have occurred at the airport are great and they are long overdue. For the most part, they were moves that were recommended by the Airport Taskforce back in 2006. If Hickory Inc. would have followed the recommendations at the time, they would have reaped millions of dollars in revenue through the fuel sales and other operations plus they wouldn't have lost the revenues they did related to airplane owners not wanting their planes parked at the airport. There were also costs associated with the way the previous FBO mismanaged the airport's maintenance and didn't pay their bills in a timely fashion and/or didn't pay bills due to their bankruptcy.
Now, that is all I have to say today. I haven't written as much about the local scene, because really there isn't much going on with the local scene as far as the subjects we delve into here on the Hickory Hound. Now behind the scenes there are developments, but as we wind down 2012, we aren't going to see much coming from the city. It is all under the radar waiting for 2013.
We are, however, interested in seeing what Hickory Inc. is going to try to sneak in at the last City Council meeting before Christmas and the New Year. Remember demolishing the pools and the tent on Union Square both took place at those City Council meetings in 2010 and 2011. We wonder if something that has been kept under the radar related to Inspiring Spaces will occur at those meetings.
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