If you're like those of us who have trouble balancing our checkbooks, the news from Bank of America may help ease the pain of long hours of trying to figure out where you went wrong. The bank announccd this week that it has $4 billion less than it had recorded. What's more embarrassing, the bank's accounting error had gone on undetected "for several years," the New York Times reported.
"The error also raises questions about the quality of Bank of America's own accounting employes who are supposed to present an accurate financial picture of the bank's sprawling operations to the public and regulators each quarter," the Times said.
Now, about the matter of whether you remembered to subtract the $10 overdraft fee on your last bank statement...
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Monday, April 28, 2014
At sea among the marvels of the digital age
Well, we survived it. The technological scourge that was to produce the amenities of an informed rational life.
The DVD-VCRs, I mean.
The flat screen TVs and their multiple remotes, I mean.
The IPads, I mean.
And, of course, the laptop computers, I mean.
Where to start?
About the DVD-VCRs: For months - maybe years - ours seldom functioned. Embarrassed, I couldn't even explain the problem to the techies at the electronics stores. Have you ever seen their faces as they begin with annoyed tolerance, "Did you...?" "No, I didn't", I interrupt before they get another word out. "Look, they don't work."
Finally, a happy ending. Found a a sympathetic caregiver who sent one of his insiders to our house at a reasonable price (it pays to comparison shop) to correct the problem. Although it takes three remotes (Who knew?) to activate discs or tapes on the thing in the family room, it's working - so long as I refer to my notes.
About the IPads. Nancy's worked with anemic sounds as though she were listening to the Met opera from the next state. It was a problem after experts installed a new operating system in her ancient laptop (wiping out her email addresses and music she bought from ITunes) - a failing age, the techies reminded us, while discreetly wondering about anybody who would keep a computer around the house for more than a decade. We learned that computers age in dog years.
But a happier ending. Our son Rick set up a wireless Bose speaker that amplified the sound. Good. I didn't even know such equipment existed.
Oh, about the Tivoli radio in the kitchen. Talk about powerful sound. Stand back from the piece when changing stations. Otherwise you will suffer sympathetic vibration from the roar of static as you turn the dial.
Did I mention the hollow thump from beneath Nancy's teen-age car? We took it to the auto shop this morning. Several other cars on hoists. Sort of a nice feeling to know that we're not alone.
The DVD-VCRs, I mean.
The flat screen TVs and their multiple remotes, I mean.
The IPads, I mean.
And, of course, the laptop computers, I mean.
Where to start?
About the DVD-VCRs: For months - maybe years - ours seldom functioned. Embarrassed, I couldn't even explain the problem to the techies at the electronics stores. Have you ever seen their faces as they begin with annoyed tolerance, "Did you...?" "No, I didn't", I interrupt before they get another word out. "Look, they don't work."
Finally, a happy ending. Found a a sympathetic caregiver who sent one of his insiders to our house at a reasonable price (it pays to comparison shop) to correct the problem. Although it takes three remotes (Who knew?) to activate discs or tapes on the thing in the family room, it's working - so long as I refer to my notes.
About the IPads. Nancy's worked with anemic sounds as though she were listening to the Met opera from the next state. It was a problem after experts installed a new operating system in her ancient laptop (wiping out her email addresses and music she bought from ITunes) - a failing age, the techies reminded us, while discreetly wondering about anybody who would keep a computer around the house for more than a decade. We learned that computers age in dog years.
But a happier ending. Our son Rick set up a wireless Bose speaker that amplified the sound. Good. I didn't even know such equipment existed.
Oh, about the Tivoli radio in the kitchen. Talk about powerful sound. Stand back from the piece when changing stations. Otherwise you will suffer sympathetic vibration from the roar of static as you turn the dial.
Did I mention the hollow thump from beneath Nancy's teen-age car? We took it to the auto shop this morning. Several other cars on hoists. Sort of a nice feeling to know that we're not alone.
Friday, April 25, 2014
The Kasich bash: Life among the GOP dollar signs
Re-posted from Plunderbund:
Leaving nothing to chance, the Ohio Republican Party staged the operatic version of Gov. Kasich's personally created Valhalla this week that reportedly will raise upward of $800,000 for his reelection campaign. Indeed, the Columbus Dispatch described the mosh pit in Columbus as the 'biggest fundraiser in Franklin County history."
In a piece that typically gasped in awe over the guv's skill in attracting largesse from the corporate world, we were told of guys elbowing around the high-rolling dinner guests with hard hats (translation: Ohio is on a mighty path with "Kasich Works") and a "mock construction zone on the speaking platform''. (Translation: See how John runs among his fellow bulldozers.")
We can only wonder why somebody didn't think of having the production sent to the voters by the Metropolitan Opera's live transmission to a theater near you.
It should be obvious by now that the story of the Kasich campaign begins with a fortissimo show of cash-on-hand to intimidate his Democratic opponent, Ed FitzGerald.
As a politician whose treasured word is "metric', which he doubtless acquired in his days as an exec of bankrupt Lehman Brothers, we can expect the money thing to come up often as the only valid test of competency in determining your vote.
My former colleague, Dave Hess, who covered Rep. Kasich as a Capitol Hill correspondent for Knight-Ridder newspapers, recently described him to me.
"He's opportunistic," Hess said. "And misguided - and an advocate of plutocrats".
In Kasich's trumpeting of his own great deeds about the Ohio economy, there has been no mention of how the federal economic comeback has greatly girded his boasts. The Plain Dealer reported the other day, albeit back on page 18 next to a Macy's bra ad, that Ohio is getting $18.17 million from the U.S Treasury to expand creditworthy small businesses. "Yet," the story noted, "Ohio's announcement made no mention of the federal government's role - namely, that it is providing the money".
There was a time, when Kasich was opposing Federal steps to enliven the economy, including the critical auto baleout. (He later did one of his jujitsu acts on national TV by saying he didn't think it helped that much anyway.)
But there we go. Talking about money again. That's what the state GOP bash was all about. Not policy. Not ideology. Not an outreach to minorities and "the others" down the ladder. But cash.
It reminded one of something Oscar Wilde once said:
"No man is rich enough to buy back his past."
.
Leaving nothing to chance, the Ohio Republican Party staged the operatic version of Gov. Kasich's personally created Valhalla this week that reportedly will raise upward of $800,000 for his reelection campaign. Indeed, the Columbus Dispatch described the mosh pit in Columbus as the 'biggest fundraiser in Franklin County history."
In a piece that typically gasped in awe over the guv's skill in attracting largesse from the corporate world, we were told of guys elbowing around the high-rolling dinner guests with hard hats (translation: Ohio is on a mighty path with "Kasich Works") and a "mock construction zone on the speaking platform''. (Translation: See how John runs among his fellow bulldozers.")
We can only wonder why somebody didn't think of having the production sent to the voters by the Metropolitan Opera's live transmission to a theater near you.
It should be obvious by now that the story of the Kasich campaign begins with a fortissimo show of cash-on-hand to intimidate his Democratic opponent, Ed FitzGerald.
As a politician whose treasured word is "metric', which he doubtless acquired in his days as an exec of bankrupt Lehman Brothers, we can expect the money thing to come up often as the only valid test of competency in determining your vote.
My former colleague, Dave Hess, who covered Rep. Kasich as a Capitol Hill correspondent for Knight-Ridder newspapers, recently described him to me.
"He's opportunistic," Hess said. "And misguided - and an advocate of plutocrats".
In Kasich's trumpeting of his own great deeds about the Ohio economy, there has been no mention of how the federal economic comeback has greatly girded his boasts. The Plain Dealer reported the other day, albeit back on page 18 next to a Macy's bra ad, that Ohio is getting $18.17 million from the U.S Treasury to expand creditworthy small businesses. "Yet," the story noted, "Ohio's announcement made no mention of the federal government's role - namely, that it is providing the money".
There was a time, when Kasich was opposing Federal steps to enliven the economy, including the critical auto baleout. (He later did one of his jujitsu acts on national TV by saying he didn't think it helped that much anyway.)
But there we go. Talking about money again. That's what the state GOP bash was all about. Not policy. Not ideology. Not an outreach to minorities and "the others" down the ladder. But cash.
It reminded one of something Oscar Wilde once said:
"No man is rich enough to buy back his past."
.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Kochs leave one zoo to claw at another
In case you think you've heard everything there is to know about Team GOP - - you haven't.
The billionaire Koch brothers, the biggest gorillas in the room these days, have extended their claws into a hometown issue that is pathetically marginal to their grandiose right-wing schemes to control the whole political universe.
Plunderbund has a piece reporting how the Koch enterprise, Americans for Prosperity, has barged into a 1.25 mill replacement levy for the Columbus Zoo. Although the brothers have plenty of experience as congressional zookeepers, they are opposing the levy on the May 6 ballot as just one more nasty way the government is taking your money. To this end, Plunderbund reports that Americans for Prosperity is sending out anti-levy mailers to voters across Franklin County.
It might help if the zoo had its own gorillas. But not much.
* * * * *
There's more about the hyperactive folly on the right:
Rand Paul, the pre-season presidential favaorite among Republlcans, may be reconsidering his fervant support of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who is armed and defiant of the government's effort to rid federal lands of his cattle. The New York Times reported Bundy's racist comments at a news conference, which defines him. Charging that blacks willingly seek federal assistance by turning to dependency, he declared:
"They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I've often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy. They didn't get no more freedom. They got less freedom."
Seems to me, Bundy has already decided that they should be "doing things". Rand Paul now says he found those remarks offensive.
* * * * *
Staying on the angry right: Republicans in the Missouri House want to impeach Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon for, among other things, supporting joint tax returns from same-sex couples legally married in other states...GOP state Rep.John Becker, from Union Twp., near Cincinnati, wants to impeach U.S. District Judge Timothy Black for ruling that Ohio must recognize out-of-state gay marriages...In Latta, S. C., Mayor Earl Butland stirred up a storm by firing the town's popular first female police chief, Crystal Moore, because she' openly gay. He said he would prefer to have somebody who drinks too much instead of a gay person being around children.
* * * * *
Finally, the old birther is back. Donald Trump, I mean. He has now found another way to denigrate President Obama. Trump doesn't like the way Obama exits Air Force 1, "hopping and bobbing all the way." He says it's so "inelegant and unpresidential".
Which also describes Trump's presence in politics.
 |
The billionaire Koch brothers, the biggest gorillas in the room these days, have extended their claws into a hometown issue that is pathetically marginal to their grandiose right-wing schemes to control the whole political universe.
Plunderbund has a piece reporting how the Koch enterprise, Americans for Prosperity, has barged into a 1.25 mill replacement levy for the Columbus Zoo. Although the brothers have plenty of experience as congressional zookeepers, they are opposing the levy on the May 6 ballot as just one more nasty way the government is taking your money. To this end, Plunderbund reports that Americans for Prosperity is sending out anti-levy mailers to voters across Franklin County.
It might help if the zoo had its own gorillas. But not much.
* * * * *
There's more about the hyperactive folly on the right:
Rand Paul, the pre-season presidential favaorite among Republlcans, may be reconsidering his fervant support of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who is armed and defiant of the government's effort to rid federal lands of his cattle. The New York Times reported Bundy's racist comments at a news conference, which defines him. Charging that blacks willingly seek federal assistance by turning to dependency, he declared:
"They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I've often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy. They didn't get no more freedom. They got less freedom."
Seems to me, Bundy has already decided that they should be "doing things". Rand Paul now says he found those remarks offensive.
* * * * *
Staying on the angry right: Republicans in the Missouri House want to impeach Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon for, among other things, supporting joint tax returns from same-sex couples legally married in other states...GOP state Rep.John Becker, from Union Twp., near Cincinnati, wants to impeach U.S. District Judge Timothy Black for ruling that Ohio must recognize out-of-state gay marriages...In Latta, S. C., Mayor Earl Butland stirred up a storm by firing the town's popular first female police chief, Crystal Moore, because she' openly gay. He said he would prefer to have somebody who drinks too much instead of a gay person being around children.
* * * * *
Finally, the old birther is back. Donald Trump, I mean. He has now found another way to denigrate President Obama. Trump doesn't like the way Obama exits Air Force 1, "hopping and bobbing all the way." He says it's so "inelegant and unpresidential".
Which also describes Trump's presence in politics.
Monday, April 21, 2014
Robertson: Planet will shatter, maybe by Thursday
The Rev. Pat Robertson has issued another apocalyptic warning: The world will end, possibly as early as Thursday. His knowledge of Biblical prophecy tells him so. A massive meteor, bigger than Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and the Great Pumpkin combined, will slam into the planet , the preacher says, wiping out everything. That won't give us much time to get all of the screens up, but it wouldn't help anyway.
It would be the worst global catastrophe in 66 million years. Experts dubbed the last one the "Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction" - a brain-twister that you don't have to remember because of that Thursday thing. The CPE did, however, wipe out three-fourths of planet life, including the marauding dinosaurs. Well, not all of them, if you look around the halls of Boehner's Congress today.
Fair warning. I'm heading out for a double banana split, which I've
been guiltily putting off for months. If not now, when?
It would be the worst global catastrophe in 66 million years. Experts dubbed the last one the "Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction" - a brain-twister that you don't have to remember because of that Thursday thing. The CPE did, however, wipe out three-fourths of planet life, including the marauding dinosaurs. Well, not all of them, if you look around the halls of Boehner's Congress today. Fair warning. I'm heading out for a double banana split, which I've
been guiltily putting off for months. If not now, when?
UA still hunting for new president - or maybe not
And so, dear reader, we begin a new week with the University of Akron Board of Trustees still unsure of the identity of the school's next president.
Presumably the gestation period began back in August, 2013, when President Luis Proenza announced that he would move on. You can find more than one person on the campus who believes the required institutional "search" for Proenza's successor ended in 2011 when the school hired dethroned OSU football coach Jim Tressel and put him on
a fast-track career projectile that would seat him in the president's office when it was finally vacated.
The Board's game plan appears to be drawn from the playbook of another OSU icon, Woody Hayes, known widely for a grinding offense relying on "Three yards and a cloud of dust". The trustees must have read about it somewhere.
The search, such as it has been, has been a pro forma exercise that finally drew a dozen and half or so applicants with Tressel prominently among them after a series of coy responses on whether he was actively seeking the job. Not only that job. It has since been revealed that he has applied for the presidency at Youngstown State University. Has the situation now opened to auction bidding for his services between the two schools?
There's been little coming from the Board, although I'm told that three Republican members, and maybe more, are solidly behind hiring Tressel for the top job. That group is led by Jonathan Pavloff, Board vice chairman and chairman of the Summit County Republican executive committee.
Meantime, the next president may have to demand hazard pay. He (or she?) will quickly be challenged by a projected $15 million budget shortfall, a four percent decline in enrollment and a two percent increase in tuition. Tressel would find the challenges much greater than defeating Michigan.
College, anybody?
Presumably the gestation period began back in August, 2013, when President Luis Proenza announced that he would move on. You can find more than one person on the campus who believes the required institutional "search" for Proenza's successor ended in 2011 when the school hired dethroned OSU football coach Jim Tressel and put him on
a fast-track career projectile that would seat him in the president's office when it was finally vacated.
The Board's game plan appears to be drawn from the playbook of another OSU icon, Woody Hayes, known widely for a grinding offense relying on "Three yards and a cloud of dust". The trustees must have read about it somewhere.
The search, such as it has been, has been a pro forma exercise that finally drew a dozen and half or so applicants with Tressel prominently among them after a series of coy responses on whether he was actively seeking the job. Not only that job. It has since been revealed that he has applied for the presidency at Youngstown State University. Has the situation now opened to auction bidding for his services between the two schools?
There's been little coming from the Board, although I'm told that three Republican members, and maybe more, are solidly behind hiring Tressel for the top job. That group is led by Jonathan Pavloff, Board vice chairman and chairman of the Summit County Republican executive committee.
Meantime, the next president may have to demand hazard pay. He (or she?) will quickly be challenged by a projected $15 million budget shortfall, a four percent decline in enrollment and a two percent increase in tuition. Tressel would find the challenges much greater than defeating Michigan.
College, anybody?
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Ohio GOP moves Obamacare down yellow brick road
Re-posted from Plunderbund
One of the cautionary notes as the Kasich/Taylor campaign burst crazily into spring is that it's folly for the governor's opponents to make things up to discredit him. The Kasich team has already demonstrated beyond doubt that one of its perfected specialities is selling him to the voters with little regard for reality even if you allow for the routine
embellishments of political engagement.
Just arrived, for example, is a paean from Ohio Republican Headquarters with a toast to the daring wisdom of Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, who also heads the state insurance department, in her most recent assault on Obamacare. So far, that wouldn't surprise us. Taylor apparently will be the governor's reality star on the Affordable Care Act that he would just as soon not talk about himself. .We read no farther than the first couple of sentences that Mary will be quite the contrarion in the campaign to do the governor's bidding. Here are the opening lines of the GOP release just to show you we wouldn't dare make this up:
"Subscriber, yesterday Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor traveled to Washington to stand up for Citizens against Obamacare. While the President continues his weak [!] attempt to convince Americans that Obamacare isn't a disaster, our Lieutenant Governor is doing everything she can to fight back against this destructive law..."Disaster? Destructive? There about eight million reasons why we might doubt that.
The release is is signed by Matt Borges, the Ohio GOP chairaman, but I'm not sure why anyone would put his name on this fairy tale. I recall that Kasich said he doesn't read newspapers. But shouldn't the janitor or somebody else on his staff inform him that the ACA has just passed eight million enrollees, was earlier passed by Congress and ruled constitutional by the U.S.Supreme Court?
If this is how the governor plans to get reelected then it's OK for some us to report that 50 million more Americans will be enrolled by Memorial Day.
That's quite s stretch, you say? Oh?
P.S. We added Taylor's photo for the millions of Ohioans who have never seen nor heard of her.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Student newspapers: In sports, timing is everything
Most folks in the industry as well as the readers would agree that America's newspapers are in serious trouble. But when a college newspaper scoops the mainstream paper in its town, the New York Times could not ignore it. Maybe not a newsworthy shaggy dog story, but at least one that's of a tail wagging the dog.
It happened in Ann Arbor, Mich., where the university's student newspaper, the Michigan Daily, revealed the unseemly absence of news coverage involving the Wolverines' senior place kicker . It came to light after he was "permanently separated" from the college for violating the student sexual conduct policy back when he was a freshman in 2009. He remained on the team until the current football season ended,with the sexual assault charge long hidden from public view. It's difficult to win some games without a place kicker.
"It's unclear why sanctions were not decided in this matter until recently," the Michigan Daily reported. Indeed.
The the New York Times accepted the cue in its own piece this week, reporting:
"It was a shocking revelation for a university town that has a population of 116,000 and a football stadium of nearly the same capacity. But almost as surprising was the origin of the report: The story was not broken by the local professional news organization, the Ann Arbor News. Instead it was uncovered by The Michigan Daily, the university's independently run student newspaper."
The News is owned by Advance Publications, which also owns the Plain Dealer and other papers. In 2009, it installed its plan to cut back daily print editions to two days a week in favor of a web-first model. The student paper is now the only five-days-a week print paper in Ann Arbor.
The student paper's aggressive reporting reflects the growth of campus dailies as well as news sources via other media. The Times noted that the University of Kansas has started a wire service and covers the legislature. Arizona State now has a Washington Bureau - the state's largest in the nation's capital. It is staffed by students who receive college credit. (The University of Akron suspended its student paper for lack of able young bodies to run it.)
Meantime, don't you wonder about priorities when a football player remains at a school four years after he is accused of sexual assault until after his last season has ended and he's no longer useful as an athlete? Fortunately, they didn't stop all of the presses in Ann Arbor.
ga
It happened in Ann Arbor, Mich., where the university's student newspaper, the Michigan Daily, revealed the unseemly absence of news coverage involving the Wolverines' senior place kicker . It came to light after he was "permanently separated" from the college for violating the student sexual conduct policy back when he was a freshman in 2009. He remained on the team until the current football season ended,with the sexual assault charge long hidden from public view. It's difficult to win some games without a place kicker.
"It's unclear why sanctions were not decided in this matter until recently," the Michigan Daily reported. Indeed.
The the New York Times accepted the cue in its own piece this week, reporting:
"It was a shocking revelation for a university town that has a population of 116,000 and a football stadium of nearly the same capacity. But almost as surprising was the origin of the report: The story was not broken by the local professional news organization, the Ann Arbor News. Instead it was uncovered by The Michigan Daily, the university's independently run student newspaper."
The News is owned by Advance Publications, which also owns the Plain Dealer and other papers. In 2009, it installed its plan to cut back daily print editions to two days a week in favor of a web-first model. The student paper is now the only five-days-a week print paper in Ann Arbor.
The student paper's aggressive reporting reflects the growth of campus dailies as well as news sources via other media. The Times noted that the University of Kansas has started a wire service and covers the legislature. Arizona State now has a Washington Bureau - the state's largest in the nation's capital. It is staffed by students who receive college credit. (The University of Akron suspended its student paper for lack of able young bodies to run it.)
Meantime, don't you wonder about priorities when a football player remains at a school four years after he is accused of sexual assault until after his last season has ended and he's no longer useful as an athlete? Fortunately, they didn't stop all of the presses in Ann Arbor.
ga
Monday, April 14, 2014
Employers told to fire all women to end dispute over unequal pay
Reposted from Plunderbund:
With the rise of pay inequalilty for women looming as a strong political issue, a new Republican organization called Americans for Pay Disparity is reaching out to companies to counter the challenge with a simple response: Fire all of the female employees on their payroll. According to a recent advisory to companies, unequal pay for women would not be a negative issue if all of the workers were men.
With the rise of pay inequalilty for women looming as a strong political issue, a new Republican organization called Americans for Pay Disparity is reaching out to companies to counter the challenge with a simple response: Fire all of the female employees on their payroll. According to a recent advisory to companies, unequal pay for women would not be a negative issue if all of the workers were men.
Hooray! Times are changing in Cuyahoga Falls
We knew it would happen, despite the earlier resistance by former Mayor Don Robart and his Republican naysayers on the Cuyahoga Falls Park Board. The board has now approved a family rate for same-sex couples at the Natatorium that it turned down a year ago.
Robart, who was ejected as mayor in last November's election, had argued, rather lamely, that a change giving married gay couples the lower family rate would be too costly for the city. Besides, he insisted the city was bound by state law that didn't recognize same-sex marriage.
Considering that the Natatorium has upward of 12,000 annual members , how many newly recognized married couples do you think it would take to break the bank? Secondly, a Federal judge in Cincinnati reportedly is prepared to order the state to recognize out-of-state gay marriages. Time marches on!
Can we now say that the Falls has taken one more step to join the march? Now,can we ever persuade Ohio Atty. Gen. Mike DeWine, who has been zealously injecting his office against gay marriage around the country, to join the march?
Robart, who was ejected as mayor in last November's election, had argued, rather lamely, that a change giving married gay couples the lower family rate would be too costly for the city. Besides, he insisted the city was bound by state law that didn't recognize same-sex marriage.
Considering that the Natatorium has upward of 12,000 annual members , how many newly recognized married couples do you think it would take to break the bank? Secondly, a Federal judge in Cincinnati reportedly is prepared to order the state to recognize out-of-state gay marriages. Time marches on!
Can we now say that the Falls has taken one more step to join the march? Now,can we ever persuade Ohio Atty. Gen. Mike DeWine, who has been zealously injecting his office against gay marriage around the country, to join the march?
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