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TONIGHT IN CINCINNATI: Vigil for Health Care Reform Passage
By: Dave Harding, ProgressOhio
Posted Mar 20, 12:40 PM
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Posts in the category African-American Issues
Received via email from our friends at Americans United For Change:
What happened in Massachusetts yesterday is a call to action, not a cause for retreat.
The people of Massachusetts voted for change and they are frustrated with the seeming lack thereof. They are hurting and they have not yet seen Congress come forward to ease their pain, punish those who caused this crisis or make sure it cannot happen again.
Unfortunately, they picked the wrong side to blame. Regardless of how you feel about the way the health insurance reform effort has played out, it's important to note that most Democrats in Congress, and certainly the White House, supported swift, bold and effective change. The majority of Democrats in the Senate, for example, support the public health insurance option. But they couldn't get it done because the minority Republicans blocked an up-or-down vote.
When it comes to financial reform, the Obama Administration and Senate Banking Committee Chair Chris Dodd proposed strong legislation to reign in the abuses of the big banks that led to this mess in the first place. The banking committee's Republican leader, Senator Richard Shelby said "no way, no how, not ever."
You get the idea: Lack of change is not for lack of trying on the part of the majority of congressional Democrats. But despite being the majority, the Republicans have blocked them from voting.
Scott Brown is only going to make it harder to do what we need to do in America - like clean up Wall Street and provide good, affordable health care for all. He has shown on the campaign trail that he will stand firmly with his Republican colleagues in favor of the Bush-era policies and politics that got us into this mess in the first place.
And if that doesn't scare you into fighting even harder, I don't know what will.
Call your member of Congress at 202-225-3121 or write your Senators and Members of Congress through our website.Tell them to fight hard against Wall Street, the insurance companies and those elected officials who carry their water.
Cross-posted at DailyKOS.com
CLAIM MAY HALT HER OWN PROJECTS & MAKE HERSELF AN OUTLAW
No snark. Pleistocene Ungreen Mean Jean Schmidt, R-OH, has called a potential halt to virtually all U.S. nuclear power revival plans for legal reasons related to the genocide in Darfur.
Schmidt charges that any federal assistance to AREVA Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of French nuclear giant AREVA, would violate federal law. Schmidt's argument would render illegal at least half a dozen projects that she herself has backed for her district.
The statute in question is the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act of 2007, which passed the House in a 411-0 vote, on concerns about the Darfur situation. The bipartisan act prohibits federal agencies from doing business with any company with Sudanese holdings. Among its global operations, AREVA owns gold mines in Sudan.
Why the sudden overriding concern for black African genocide victims by the nukomaniacal whitebread Republican? Could Jean Schmidt's Christmas Tree possibly be decked with uranium tinsel and corporate shillings?
Schmidt's Epiphany
Schmidt's anti-nuke Christmas epiphany comes in a "statement" issued by the congresswoman two days before Christmas, and apparently timed to avoid scrutiny or response over the holiday. In other words, Schmidt wanted to control the spin on a characteristically bizarre story that emanates from her own careless action.
About one year ago, attempting to assist her corporate sponsor USEC Inc. in getting a $2 billion federal loan, Schmidt filed a complaint with the Inspector General of the US Department of Energy, asking him to investigate the legality of DOE payments to AREVA under the 2007 Act prohibiting business with companies that have Sudan connections.
AREVA had just submitted a competing application for the same pot of loan funds sought by USEC.
Schmidt probably forgot about the complaint, after USEC and AREVA settled their outstanding issues and formed a partnership in the spring of 2009. But the DOE IG recently informed Schmidt that he was initiating the investigation she had previously requested, thus provoking Schmidt's pre-Christmas patchwork media action.
Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we pander by attacking AREVA.
Four south Ohio newspapers have now reported Schmidt's statement, doing little but parrot the congress-entity. (Thank God that some of the usual editors were on vacation, or the stories would suffer from even more USEC-inspired distortions.) The Brown County News Democrat broke the "news" on December 24 http://newsdemocrat.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=129733 , the Chillicothe Gazette followed on December 25 http://www.chillicothegazette.com/article/20091225/NEWS01/912250303/Schmidt-asked-DOE-for-investigation-of-USEC-competitor , the Portsmouth Daily Times on December 26 http://portsmouth-dailytimes.com/bookmark/5319439, and the Pike County News Watchman today, the 27th.
The News Watchman, available online only to subsribers, opens with the most shameless fact distortion, claiming that Schmidt "may have 'struck gold' for USEC Inc." Anything to make the paper's advertising anchor happy.
Neither Schmidt nor the Ohio reporters who have so far covered the story seem to realize that AREVA Inc. is a company pivotal to all plans for a so-called American nuclear renaissance. AREVA is pioneering many of the new reactor designs on which USEC's future market depends, and AREVA is building the very first reactor to break the 35-year coma of the American nuclear industry in Maryland. In addition, AREVA is building one of three new viable U.S. uranium enrichment plants in Idaho, it leads the world in nuclear reprocessing technology including DOE's MOX facility in South Carolina, and it's building the principal U.S. facility to manufacture new reactor components in Virginia.
Who is Chairman of the Board of AREVA Inc., the U.S. subsidiary? None other than G.W. Bush's Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham. That's how big AREVA is in corporate American and Republican circles.
According to AREVA Inc.'s website here http://portsmouth-dailytimes.com/bookmark/5319439 the company operates at over 40 U.S. locations and employs close to six thousand American workers directly. AREVA has entered into tight partnerships with Duke Energy, Northrop-Grumman, and USEC Inc., the latter being the hometown company that Schmidt intends to protect from AREVA competition.
Moreover, virtually all of AREVA's U.S. ventures rely on some form of federal support, either through R&D contracts, loans, loan guarantees, purchase agreements, or leases of federal land. If the Department of Energy were to rule Schmidt's IG complaint valid, then hundreds of contracts and leases would be deemed illegal, the partnerships would crumble, and the entire "renaissance" would be thrown back into a dark age. The nuclear option would be rendered dead for decades in the United States.
In a preemptive move against any claim that partners and subsidiaries might escape the legal embargo placed on the AREVA parent company in France, Schmidt appears to have closed off that option:
"In 2007 the President signed into law a bill that I strongly supported making it illegal for the U.S. Government to do business with companies that also do business in Sudan. That law prohibits Areva from doing business with the United States since they also own gold mines in Sudan. Hiding behind a subsidiary is a laughable excuse,"
Mean Jean the Corporate-Criminal Busting Machine! Logically, the same logic applied to subsidiaries also applies to the venture partners whose joint holdings and fortunes are inextricably bound to those of AREVA, and to the subsidiaries formed by those partnerships, like Unistar. According to the Chillicothe Gazette and the Portsmouth Daily Times, Schmidt goes so far as to say she's at work on new legislation to cut off any backdoor escape route for AREVA subsidiaries.
What will this do to Schmidt's popularity and fundraising ability within the AREVA-lovin smootchie-smootch crowd that constitutes the GOP? It doesn't take a Nostradamus to forecast that Schmidt's name will now be, well, Schmidt.
Schmidt's ePIFNI
So why the sudden attack of Naderite conviction for the neanderthal Republican? Certainly any scholarly answer must start with the observation that Schmidt's IQ compares unfavorably to that of a flea beetle. With all due deference to my own member of Congress, Jean can dummy up but she can't dumb down.
Which is to say that the inestimable congresswoman did not foresee the consequences when she filed her complaint. But she can't back down now, especially because she's already been skewered by Independent-Democrat opponent David Krikorian for trying to suppress congressional recognition of the Armenian genocide. (Search tag "Genocide Denial Trial" to get my past diaries on that subject.) Backing away from the Darfur genocide legislation might be a bit much for even her remaining dozen or so stalwart supporters to stomach.
On a purely local level, Schmidt's Darfurian law-enforcement initiative would render illegal at least six projects in OH-02 that she herself has championed. She is still on record as supporting most or all of them. The projects are:
1. In 2006, Schmidt backed a new company named ePIFNI, pronounced "epiphany," the Piketon Initiative for Nuclear Independence. ePIFNI's first action was to organize a tour for Ohio officials to AREVA's nuclear reprocessing center at Cap de la Hague in France, presumably paid for by AREVA. The public result of the trip was a report that "the cows look happy" (I swear), but secretly ePIFNI submitted a proposal to DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management for construction of a spent fuel storage facility at Piketon, Ohio, based on AREVA engineering guidance. This was the plan, revealed by whistleblowers, for which Schmidt got zinged in the 2006 campaign. Governor Ted Strickland, rumored to be seeking reelection as a Democrat, also provided two letters of support to ePIFNI.
2. In 2007, after Congress passed the Sudan Divestment Act, ePIFNI received $674,000 from DOE to "study" the Piketon site as part of the ill-fated Global Nuclear Energy Partnership program. 52% or $350,000 of that was paid to AREVA, though AREVA produced no discernable work product. It appears that the money was illegally diverted to reimburse AREVA for the prior Ohio junket to France. Strickland and Schmidt both supported this misadventure. AREVA also collected a substantial portion of the GNEP "study" funding that went to ten other selected sites.
3. Also in 2007, with GNEP and the waste storage schemes fading, Ted Strickland and Jean Schmidt began direct negotiations with AREVA for the location of a new centrifuge uranium enrichment plant at or near the Piketon site. At this point, Schmidt already had to know that any deal with AREVA would be illegal. Ultimately, AREVA rejected Piketon and chose a location in Idaho, which Schmidt appears to not recognize as part of the United States (she now repeatedly says that money should be preferentially given to Ohio over Idaho projects in order to "protect American workers.")
4. In the spring of 2009, Schmidt's corporate sponsor and Piketon site operator USEC Inc., formerly an AREVA competitor, reached a private settlement with AREVA that converted the former litigious rivalry into a partnership. Under terms of the settlement, AREVA agreed to purchase a large amount of enriched uranium from USEC in the short-run, apparently in exchange for future access to USEC utility customers after USEC departs the enrichment business. (USEC plans to shut down its Paducah plant in 2012, and it loses its Russian uranium supply in 2013.) Under this agreement, federal payments to USEC undeniably go to aid AREVA. If USEC's "American Centrifuge Plant" were hypothetically to operate, much of its product would go to AREVA directly and to fuel AREVA-model reactors.
5. The fruits of the USEC-AREVA partnership became apparent in June of 2009, when USEC and AREVA, along with Duke, Unistar and the former ePIFNI partner SODI, held a joint extravaganza at Piketon to announce they would build a new nuclear reactor of AREVA design on-site. This would be "green energy" it was announced, because USEC's new centrifuge plant would produce the uranium utilized in the reactor next door (wrongly implying that the uranium wouldn't need to leave the site for fabrication, and USEC had some mechanism for financing its plant). The powerful CEO of AREVA, Anne Lauvergeon, flew in from France. And who was on stage to hawk the deal for the bipartisan asses of the Ohio political classes? None other than Governor Strickland and Congresswoman Schmidt, neither of whom mentioned that any deal with AREVA at a federal site would violate the Sudan Divestment Act. Did Jean pull Anne aside to complain about the AREVA gold mines in Sudan? Is the moon made of Camembert? (I acknowledge that the phrase "bipartisan asses" is a rear-end redundancy.) http://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/pages/full_story?article-Nuclear%20Power%20Plant%20Coming%20=&page_label=home_top_stories_news&id=2734486-Nuclear+Power+Plant+Coming&widget=push&instance=home_news_lead&open=& br />
6. During all this prurient Piketon pandering, none of which has resulted in a single local production job, the real work has been going on in cleanup of the old gaseous duffusion plant at Piketon, which closed in 2001. That work has been championed by Senator Sherrod Brown. The Obama DOE has determined that it would be a conflict of interest for USEC to serve as general contractor on the principal Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) job that lies ahead. That leaves AREVA as the major potential bidder on the project. Schmidt's "Darfur" initiative may aim in part at knocking AREVA out, perhaps to force a review of the USEC exclusion decision. More likely, it just puts the whole D&D project in jeopardy, as contractor intrigues and corruption have plagued the Piketon site.
The Un-American Centrifuge Plant
None of the Christmas-time newspaper articles reveals the date when Schmidt filed her IG complaint. Therein lies the real solution to the mystery.
Logically, the filing had to occur sometime between October 2008 and April 2009. The former date followed AREVA's surprise filing of an application for a federal loan guarantee to support construction of its Eagle Rock Enrichment Plant in Idaho. That application caught all USEC supporters by surprise.
Schmidt's congressional mentor, Energy Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman David Hobson of OH-07 (now retired), had specifically arranged the enrichment loan program to ensure that USEC was the only company that could qualify, and that the $2 billion available in the fund was only enough to cover USEC's project costs, with none left for competitors.
AREVA's loan application in the fall of 2008 completely knocked USEC's project out of potential contention, because USEC required full funding in order to qualify at all. Obviously it was that dilemma that spurred Jean Schmidt's IG complaint, on behalf of her corporate sponsor.
But then Mean Jean apparently forgot that she had filed the complaint, because by June of 2009, she was sharing a USEC stage with AREVA's Anne Lauvergeon. All one big happy gold-mining gold-digging nuclear family, n'est pas?
Plus ca change, plus la meme chose, as they say.
By the end of July, the jig was up for USEC. Then, the Department of Energy announced that USEC's application for a $2 billion loan was denied, citing "technical, financial and regulatory issues." That's three black marks out of the three criteria in consideration.
Ted One-Term Strickland then intervened, not to save USEC but to save his reelection chances. He negotiated a six-month period after which USEC could reapply, the timing determined by Strickland's own need to have a positive loan decision announced before the 2010 election. But Strickland failed to confirm with USEC that the six-month timeframe was even feasible. (USEC, by its own report, only has ten centrifuges installed since project startup in 2003. Over the same time period, Iran installed at least four thousand.)
Any smidgeon of hope for USEC disappeared completely one week before Christmas, when Moody's downgraded USEC stock and default risk to "junk grade." http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j57O8TG1wBjwzndEAXzOlvIfh3KgD9CLVG580 The spin from USEC was priceless. (If only USEC could spin a centrifuge the way they do the news.) USEC's Elizabeth Stuckle told Ohio papers that "'junk grade' is only a colloquial term."
Well I have news for you, Ms. Stuckle. "Big frickin' boondoggle that's a pox on the Ohio landscape and all American taxpayers" is also a colloquial term. Pardon my French.
It's finally time for some frankness about USEC's Un-American Centrifuge Plant.
You may recall that Jean Schmidt achieved some notoriety for backing the scheme to send all the spent nuclear fuel intended for Yucca Mountain, NV, instead to "interim" storage at the federal reservation near Piketon, at the eastern end of Schmidt's district. (Background: I broke that story in the Pike County News Watchman.)
Unreported by mainstream media at the time, the Ohio nuclear waste dumping plan was intended to bail out USEC Inc., the privatized former government corporation that controls the Piketon site. As a requirement of the 1996 USEC Privatization Act, USEC had announced an "advanced" technology centrifuge enrichment plant for Piketon, ballyhooed by the likes of Ted Strickland and Rob Portman (now governor and Senate candidates respectively) in January of 2004.
Like I said, USEC's "American Centrifuge Plant" met a statutory requirement. But USEC never had a commercially viable technology for the project, which became increasingly apparent after 2005, as USEC repeatedly missed demonstration deadlines. Competitors in the enrichment business, including AREVA, URENCO, GE-Hitachi and the Revolutionary Republic of Iran, then swooped in to snatch USEC's former market share.
The Schmidt hit the centrifuge, so to speak. USEC was stuck, no reference to Ms. Stuckle. But the company had long anticipated the problem and had taken countervailing steps. Almost immediately after announcing the Un-American Centrifuge project, USEC invested its money instead in the purchase of another company, NAC International. NAC happens to specialize in the storage of spent nuclear fuel.
Translation: USEC never intended to build a centrifuge plant at Piketon -- it had neither the technology nor the financing to do so. Rather, assuming continued Republican dominance in DC, USEC intended to pull a nuclear switcheroo. Claiming hardship caused by all those big bad French, German, Russian and even Iranian competitors, USEC planned to keep its leased federal buildings at Piketon empty, which it has. At the appropriate time, i.e. right about now, USEC would then offer those buildings as spent fuel storage hangars, managed on a lucrative contract by USEC's own subsidiary, NAC International, while sliding its enrichment customers over to its new partner, AREVA Inc. USA.
Every one of you who watched the 2008 presidential debates heard the evidence, though you didn't know what it meant at the time. Not once but twice, John McCain assaulted Barack Obama in the debates with the accusation that Obama "opposes the storage of spent nuclear fuel."
It seemed to make no sense, and Obama reacted with confusion, because Obama had never taken any position on spent fuel storage at all. ("Storage" implies an "interim" arrangement like the Piketon scheme, as opposed to the "disposal" that had been planned for Yucca Mountain.)
You see, McCain had been briefed by Rob Portman and USEC in conjunction with his numerous town hall meetings in southern Ohio. McCain knew that USEC depended for its corporate existence on its ability to convert its enrichment project to spent fuel storage. McCain also knew that USEC is a mainstay for Republican campaign financing in Ohio. To give some idea of how central USEC is in Republican circles, it has retained neocon godfather and known leaker of classified information Richard Perle as "strategic advisor."
McCain also knew that Obama would never allow such a scheme; no stated position from the Obama campaign was necessary.
USEC cannot now pull off such a conversion, because it would be opposed by virtually every politician from Piketon to Washington and all points in between. It also cannot now qualify for any federal loan guarantee. USEC's existence past 2013 is in serious doubt. And that is the reason for significant panic in Ohio Republican leadership circles.
I can almost feel sorry for Jean Schmidt. It's hard to be a corporate shill when your sponsor is a corporate shell. It gets confusing, and that's why Ms. Schmidt is now caught having set a legal train in motion that may result in shutting down the Republican Renaissance that is nuclear-based.
For voters, however, I think this is a clarifying moment. We've got to stop shilly-shallying around with that whole USEC crew and their Schmidty attitude.
AREVAderci, Jean Schmidt: ACTION ITEM
You've got to hand it to Ms. Schmidt. Her diligent researches have uncovered a consequence of statutory law that has gone unenforced. It doesn't matter if you're "pro-nuke" or "anti-nuke." If you care about the people of Darfur, if you want to reproach the government-backed genocide in Sudan, then the terms of the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act must be met without equivocation or exemption.
AREVA owns and operates gold mines in Sudan. Therefore, all U.S. government agencies are prohibited from doing business with AREVA, its subsidiaries and its consortium partners. Existing contracts, purchase orders, and leases involving these entities must be canceled, and funds wrongly dispersed since the Act took effect should be recouped.
Help the people of Darfur by urging the U.S. government to strictly enforce the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act. SUPPORT Jean Schmidt's effort to hold corporate criminals like AREVA and its co-conspirators to the letter of U.S. law.
PLEASE copy and paste the following text to an e-mail to the top Department of Energy officials listed along with their e-mail addresses. Make sure to include your own contact information. Include a link to this diary if you like.
Please also send a cc to SHIPPSONG@aol.com. That way, Southern Ohio Neighbors Group can keep track of the correspondence to DOE. SONG is the public interest watchdog group for the Piketon federal site, and is the group with which I am associated.
Together with diligent public officials like Congresswoman Schmidt, we can end AREVA's depradations in Sudan today!
Gregory Friedman, Inspector General, Gregory.Friedman@hq.doe.gov
Scott Blake Harris, General Counsel, Scott.Harris@hq.doe.gov
Dennis Spurgeon, Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, Dennis.Spurgeon@hq.doe.gov
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave. SW, Washington DC 20585
Dear Inspector General Friedman, General Counsel Scott Harris, and Assistant Secretary Spurgeon,
I am writing to support the complaint of Congresswoman Jean Schmidt of Ohio. The Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act of 2007, which passed with total bipartisan support, must be strictly enforced.
Because AREVA owns gold mines in Sudan, the U.S. Department of Energy and its contractors are barred from conducting any business with AREVA, its subsidiaries, and its consortium partners including USEC Inc., Northrop-Grumman, Duke Energy, and Unistar.
Any existing or prospective contracts, purchase orders, loans, loan guarantees, or leases with these entities must be terminated, and expended funds since the Act went into effect recouped.
Since Congresswoman Schmidt has acknowledged her awareness of the terms of SADA, special scrutiny should be given to the involvement of AREVA and its partners at the Piketon DOE reservation, in Ms. Schmidt's district. An investigation should be opened into the following projects at Piketon since 2007, all of which have been supported by Ms. Schmidt:
1. AREVA's receipt of GNEP funding for the Site Characterization study performed by ePIFNI and SODI.
2. AREVA's negotiations to build a uranium enrichment plant at Piketon.
3. AREVA's participation in the announced USEC-AREVA-DUKE-SODI nuclear reactor project, for which AREVA CEO Anne Lauvergeon visited the Piketon federal site in June, 2009, accompanied by Congresswoman Schmidt.
4. AREVA and partners' involvement in cleanup operations at the gaseous diffusion plant at Piketon.
5. AREVA's announced settlement and partnership with USEC Inc.
Please keep me informed of your progress on these investigations.
Happy New Year!
Name:
Organization:
Address:
Telephone:
E-mail:
CLAIM MAY HALT HER OWN PROJECTS & MAKE HERSELF AN OUTLAW
No snark. Pleistocene Ungreen Mean Jean Schmidt, R-OH, has called a potential halt to virtually all U.S. nuclear power revival plans for legal reasons related to the genocide in Darfur.
Schmidt charges that any federal assistance to AREVA Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of French nuclear giant AREVA, would violate federal law. Schmidt's argument would render illegal at least half a dozen projects that she herself has backed for her district.
The statute in question is the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act of 2007, which passed the House in a 411-0 vote, on concerns about the Darfur situation. The bipartisan act prohibits federal agencies from doing business with any company with Sudanese holdings. Among its global operations, AREVA owns gold mines in Sudan.
Why the sudden overriding concern for black African genocide victims by the nukomaniacal whitebread Republican? Could Jean Schmidt's Christmas Tree possibly be decked with uranium tinsel and corporate shillings?
Schmidt's Epiphany
Schmidt's anti-nuke Christmas epiphany comes in a "statement" issued by the congresswoman two days before Christmas, and apparently timed to avoid scrutiny or response over the holiday. In other words, Schmidt wanted to control the spin on a characteristically bizarre story that emanates from her own careless action.
About one year ago, attempting to assist her corporate sponsor USEC Inc. in getting a $2 billion federal loan, Schmidt filed a complaint with the Inspector General of the US Department of Energy, asking him to investigate the legality of DOE payments to AREVA under the 2007 Act prohibiting business with companies that have Sudan connections.
AREVA had just submitted a competing application for the same pot of loan funds sought by USEC.
Schmidt probably forgot about the complaint, after USEC and AREVA settled their outstanding issues and formed a partnership in the spring of 2009. But the DOE IG recently informed Schmidt that he was initiating the investigation she had previously requested, thus provoking Schmidt's pre-Christmas patchwork media action.
Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we pander by attacking AREVA.
Four south Ohio newspapers have now reported Schmidt's statement, doing little but parrot the congress-entity. (Thank God that some of the usual editors were on vacation, or the stories would suffer from even more USEC-inspired distortions.) The Brown County News Democrat broke the "news" on December 24 http://newsdemocrat.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=129733 , the Chillicothe Gazette followed on December 25 http://www.chillicothegazette.com/article/20091225/NEWS01/912250303/Schmidt-asked-DOE-for-investigation-of-USEC-competitor , the Portsmouth Daily Times on December 26 http://portsmouth-dailytimes.com/bookmark/5319439, and the Pike County News Watchman today, the 27th.
The News Watchman, available online only to subsribers, opens with the most shameless fact distortion, claiming that Schmidt "may have 'struck gold' for USEC Inc." Anything to make the paper's advertising anchor happy.
Neither Schmidt nor the Ohio reporters who have so far covered the story seem to realize that AREVA Inc. is a company pivotal to all plans for a so-called American nuclear renaissance. AREVA is pioneering many of the new reactor designs on which USEC's future market depends, and AREVA is building the very first reactor to break the 35-year coma of the American nuclear industry in Maryland. In addition, AREVA is building one of three new viable U.S. uranium enrichment plants in Idaho, it leads the world in nuclear reprocessing technology including DOE's MOX facility in South Carolina, and it's building the principal U.S. facility to manufacture new reactor components in Virginia.
Who is Chairman of the Board of AREVA Inc., the U.S. subsidiary? None other than G.W. Bush's Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham. That's how big AREVA is in corporate American and Republican circles.
According to AREVA Inc.'s website here http://portsmouth-dailytimes.com/bookmark/5319439 the company operates at over 40 U.S. locations and employs close to six thousand American workers directly. AREVA has entered into tight partnerships with Duke Energy, Northrop-Grumman, and USEC Inc., the latter being the hometown company that Schmidt intends to protect from AREVA competition.
Moreover, virtually all of AREVA's U.S. ventures rely on some form of federal support, either through R&D contracts, loans, loan guarantees, purchase agreements, or leases of federal land. If the Department of Energy were to rule Schmidt's IG complaint valid, then hundreds of contracts and leases would be deemed illegal, the partnerships would crumble, and the entire "renaissance" would be thrown back into a dark age. The nuclear option would be rendered dead for decades in the United States.
In a preemptive move against any claim that partners and subsidiaries might escape the legal embargo placed on the AREVA parent company in France, Schmidt appears to have closed off that option:
"In 2007 the President signed into law a bill that I strongly supported making it illegal for the U.S. Government to do business with companies that also do business in Sudan. That law prohibits Areva from doing business with the United States since they also own gold mines in Sudan. Hiding behind a subsidiary is a laughable excuse,"
Mean Jean the Corporate-Criminal Busting Machine! Logically, the same logic applied to subsidiaries also applies to the venture partners whose joint holdings and fortunes are inextricably bound to those of AREVA, and to the subsidiaries formed by those partnerships, like Unistar. According to the Chillicothe Gazette and the Portsmouth Daily Times, Schmidt goes so far as to say she's at work on new legislation to cut off any backdoor escape route for AREVA subsidiaries.
What will this do to Schmidt's popularity and fundraising ability within the AREVA-lovin smootchie-smootch crowd that constitutes the GOP? It doesn't take a Nostradamus to forecast that Schmidt's name will now be, well, Schmidt.
Schmidt's ePIFNI
So why the sudden attack of Naderite conviction for the neanderthal Republican? Certainly any scholarly answer must start with the observation that Schmidt's IQ compares unfavorably to that of a flea beetle. With all due deference to my own member of Congress, Jean can dummy up but she can't dumb down.
Which is to say that the inestimable congresswoman did not foresee the consequences when she filed her complaint. But she can't back down now, especially because she's already been skewered by Independent-Democrat opponent David Krikorian for trying to suppress congressional recognition of the Armenian genocide. (Search tag "Genocide Denial Trial" to get my past diaries on that subject.) Backing away from the Darfur genocide legislation might be a bit much for even her remaining dozen or so stalwart supporters to stomach.
On a purely local level, Schmidt's Darfurian law-enforcement initiative would render illegal at least six projects in OH-02 that she herself has championed. She is still on record as supporting most or all of them. The projects are:
1. In 2006, Schmidt backed a new company named ePIFNI, pronounced "epiphany," the Piketon Initiative for Nuclear Independence. ePIFNI's first action was to organize a tour for Ohio officials to AREVA's nuclear reprocessing center at Cap de la Hague in France, presumably paid for by AREVA. The public result of the trip was a report that "the cows look happy" (I swear), but secretly ePIFNI submitted a proposal to DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management for construction of a spent fuel storage facility at Piketon, Ohio, based on AREVA engineering guidance. This was the plan, revealed by whistleblowers, for which Schmidt got zinged in the 2006 campaign. Governor Ted Strickland, rumored to be seeking reelection as a Democrat, also provided two letters of support to ePIFNI.
2. In 2007, after Congress passed the Sudan Divestment Act, ePIFNI received $674,000 from DOE to "study" the Piketon site as part of the ill-fated Global Nuclear Energy Partnership program. 52% or $350,000 of that was paid to AREVA, though AREVA produced no discernable work product. It appears that the money was illegally diverted to reimburse AREVA for the prior Ohio junket to France. Strickland and Schmidt both supported this misadventure. AREVA also collected a substantial portion of the GNEP "study" funding that went to ten other selected sites.
3. Also in 2007, with GNEP and the waste storage schemes fading, Ted Strickland and Jean Schmidt began direct negotiations with AREVA for the location of a new centrifuge uranium enrichment plant at or near the Piketon site. At this point, Schmidt already had to know that any deal with AREVA would be illegal. Ultimately, AREVA rejected Piketon and chose a location in Idaho, which Schmidt appears to not recognize as part of the United States (she now repeatedly says that money should be preferentially given to Ohio over Idaho projects in order to "protect American workers.")
4. In the spring of 2009, Schmidt's corporate sponsor and Piketon site operator USEC Inc., formerly an AREVA competitor, reached a private settlement with AREVA that converted the former litigious rivalry into a partnership. Under terms of the settlement, AREVA agreed to purchase a large amount of enriched uranium from USEC in the short-run, apparently in exchange for future access to USEC utility customers after USEC departs the enrichment business. (USEC plans to shut down its Paducah plant in 2012, and it loses its Russian uranium supply in 2013.) Under this agreement, federal payments to USEC undeniably go to aid AREVA. If USEC's "American Centrifuge Plant" were hypothetically to operate, much of its product would go to AREVA directly and to fuel AREVA-model reactors.
5. The fruits of the USEC-AREVA partnership became apparent in June of 2009, when USEC and AREVA, along with Duke, Unistar and the former ePIFNI partner SODI, held a joint extravaganza at Piketon to announce they would build a new nuclear reactor of AREVA design on-site. This would be "green energy" it was announced, because USEC's new centrifuge plant would produce the uranium utilized in the reactor next door (wrongly implying that the uranium wouldn't need to leave the site for fabrication, and USEC had some mechanism for financing its plant). The powerful CEO of AREVA, Anne Lauvergeon, flew in from France. And who was on stage to hawk the deal for the bipartisan asses of the Ohio political classes? None other than Governor Strickland and Congresswoman Schmidt, neither of whom mentioned that any deal with AREVA at a federal site would violate the Sudan Divestment Act. Did Jean pull Anne aside to complain about the AREVA gold mines in Sudan? Is the moon made of Camembert? (I acknowledge that the phrase "bipartisan asses" is a rear-end redundancy.) http://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/pages/full_story?article-Nuclear%20Power%20Plant%20Coming%20=&page_label=home_top_stories_news&id=2734486-Nuclear+Power+Plant+Coming&widget=push&instance=home_news_lead&open=& br />
6. During all this prurient Piketon pandering, none of which has resulted in a single local production job, the real work has been going on in cleanup of the old gaseous duffusion plant at Piketon, which closed in 2001. That work has been championed by Senator Sherrod Brown. The Obama DOE has determined that it would be a conflict of interest for USEC to serve as general contractor on the principal Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) job that lies ahead. That leaves AREVA as the major potential bidder on the project. Schmidt's "Darfur" initiative may aim in part at knocking AREVA out, perhaps to force a review of the USEC exclusion decision. More likely, it just puts the whole D&D project in jeopardy, as contractor intrigues and corruption have plagued the Piketon site.
The Un-American Centrifuge Plant
None of the Christmas-time newspaper articles reveals the date when Schmidt filed her IG complaint. Therein lies the real solution to the mystery.
Logically, the filing had to occur sometime between October 2008 and April 2009. The former date followed AREVA's surprise filing of an application for a federal loan guarantee to support construction of its Eagle Rock Enrichment Plant in Idaho. That application caught all USEC supporters by surprise.
Schmidt's congressional mentor, Energy Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman David Hobson of OH-07 (now retired), had specifically arranged the enrichment loan program to ensure that USEC was the only company that could qualify, and that the $2 billion available in the fund was only enough to cover USEC's project costs, with none left for competitors.
AREVA's loan application in the fall of 2008 completely knocked USEC's project out of potential contention, because USEC required full funding in order to qualify at all. Obviously it was that dilemma that spurred Jean Schmidt's IG complaint, on behalf of her corporate sponsor.
But then Mean Jean apparently forgot that she had filed the complaint, because by June of 2009, she was sharing a USEC stage with AREVA's Anne Lauvergeon. All one big happy gold-mining gold-digging nuclear family, n'est pas?
Plus ca change, plus la meme chose, as they say.
By the end of July, the jig was up for USEC. Then, the Department of Energy announced that USEC's application for a $2 billion loan was denied, citing "technical, financial and regulatory issues." That's three black marks out of the three criteria in consideration.
Ted One-Term Strickland then intervened, not to save USEC but to save his reelection chances. He negotiated a six-month period after which USEC could reapply, the timing determined by Strickland's own need to have a positive loan decision announced before the 2010 election. But Strickland failed to confirm with USEC that the six-month timeframe was even feasible. (USEC, by its own report, only has ten centrifuges installed since project startup in 2003. Over the same time period, Iran installed at least four thousand.)
Any smidgeon of hope for USEC disappeared completely one week before Christmas, when Moody's downgraded USEC stock and default risk to "junk grade." http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j57O8TG1wBjwzndEAXzOlvIfh3KgD9CLVG580 The spin from USEC was priceless. (If only USEC could spin a centrifuge the way they do the news.) USEC's Elizabeth Stuckle told Ohio papers that "'junk grade' is only a colloquial term."
Well I have news for you, Ms. Stuckle. "Big frickin' boondoggle that's a pox on the Ohio landscape and all American taxpayers" is also a colloquial term. Pardon my French.
It's finally time for some frankness about USEC's Un-American Centrifuge Plant.
You may recall that Jean Schmidt achieved some notoriety for backing the scheme to send all the spent nuclear fuel intended for Yucca Mountain, NV, instead to "interim" storage at the federal reservation near Piketon, at the eastern end of Schmidt's district. (Background: I broke that story in the Pike County News Watchman.)
Unreported by mainstream media at the time, the Ohio nuclear waste dumping plan was intended to bail out USEC Inc., the privatized former government corporation that controls the Piketon site. As a requirement of the 1996 USEC Privatization Act, USEC had announced an "advanced" technology centrifuge enrichment plant for Piketon, ballyhooed by the likes of Ted Strickland and Rob Portman (now governor and Senate candidates respectively) in January of 2004.
Like I said, USEC's "American Centrifuge Plant" met a statutory requirement. But USEC never had a commercially viable technology for the project, which became increasingly apparent after 2005, as USEC repeatedly missed demonstration deadlines. Competitors in the enrichment business, including AREVA, URENCO, GE-Hitachi and the Revolutionary Republic of Iran, then swooped in to snatch USEC's former market share.
The Schmidt hit the centrifuge, so to speak. USEC was stuck, no reference to Ms. Stuckle. But the company had long anticipated the problem and had taken countervailing steps. Almost immediately after announcing the Un-American Centrifuge project, USEC invested its money instead in the purchase of another company, NAC International. NAC happens to specialize in the storage of spent nuclear fuel.
Translation: USEC never intended to build a centrifuge plant at Piketon -- it had neither the technology nor the financing to do so. Rather, assuming continued Republican dominance in DC, USEC intended to pull a nuclear switcheroo. Claiming hardship caused by all those big bad French, German, Russian and even Iranian competitors, USEC planned to keep its leased federal buildings at Piketon empty, which it has. At the appropriate time, i.e. right about now, USEC would then offer those buildings as spent fuel storage hangars, managed on a lucrative contract by USEC's own subsidiary, NAC International, while sliding its enrichment customers over to its new partner, AREVA Inc. USA.
Every one of you who watched the 2008 presidential debates heard the evidence, though you didn't know what it meant at the time. Not once but twice, John McCain assaulted Barack Obama in the debates with the accusation that Obama "opposes the storage of spent nuclear fuel."
It seemed to make no sense, and Obama reacted with confusion, because Obama had never taken any position on spent fuel storage at all. ("Storage" implies an "interim" arrangement like the Piketon scheme, as opposed to the "disposal" that had been planned for Yucca Mountain.)
You see, McCain had been briefed by Rob Portman and USEC in conjunction with his numerous town hall meetings in southern Ohio. McCain knew that USEC depended for its corporate existence on its ability to convert its enrichment project to spent fuel storage. McCain also knew that USEC is a mainstay for Republican campaign financing in Ohio. To give some idea of how central USEC is in Republican circles, it has retained neocon godfather and known leaker of classified information Richard Perle as "strategic advisor."
McCain also knew that Obama would never allow such a scheme; no stated position from the Obama campaign was necessary.
USEC cannot now pull off such a conversion, because it would be opposed by virtually every politician from Piketon to Washington and all points in between. It also cannot now qualify for any federal loan guarantee. USEC's existence past 2013 is in serious doubt. And that is the reason for significant panic in Ohio Republican leadership circles.
I can almost feel sorry for Jean Schmidt. It's hard to be a corporate shill when your sponsor is a corporate shell. It gets confusing, and that's why Ms. Schmidt is now caught having set a legal train in motion that may result in shutting down the Republican Renaissance that is nuclear-based.
For voters, however, I think this is a clarifying moment. We've got to stop shilly-shallying around with that whole USEC crew and their Schmidty attitude.
AREVAderci, Jean Schmidt: ACTION ITEM
You've got to hand it to Ms. Schmidt. Her diligent researches have uncovered a consequence of statutory law that has gone unenforced. It doesn't matter if you're "pro-nuke" or "anti-nuke." If you care about the people of Darfur, if you want to reproach the government-backed genocide in Sudan, then the terms of the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act must be met without equivocation or exemption.
AREVA owns and operates gold mines in Sudan. Therefore, all U.S. government agencies are prohibited from doing business with AREVA, its subsidiaries and its consortium partners. Existing contracts, purchase orders, and leases involving these entities must be canceled, and funds wrongly dispersed since the Act took effect should be recouped.
Help the people of Darfur by urging the U.S. government to strictly enforce the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act. SUPPORT Jean Schmidt's effort to hold corporate criminals like AREVA and its co-conspirators to the letter of U.S. law.
PLEASE copy and paste the following text to an e-mail to the top Department of Energy officials listed along with their e-mail addresses. Make sure to include your own contact information. Include a link to this diary if you like.
Please also send a cc to SHIPPSONG@aol.com. That way, Southern Ohio Neighbors Group can keep track of the correspondence to DOE. SONG is the public interest watchdog group for the Piketon federal site, and is the group with which I am associated.
Together with diligent public officials like Congresswoman Schmidt, we can end AREVA's depradations in Sudan today!
Gregory Friedman, Inspector General, Gregory.Friedman@hq.doe.gov
Scott Blake Harris, General Counsel, Scott.Harris@hq.doe.gov
Dennis Spurgeon, Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, Dennis.Spurgeon@hq.doe.gov
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave. SW, Washington DC 20585
Dear Inspector General Friedman, General Counsel Scott Harris, and Assistant Secretary Spurgeon,
I am writing to support the complaint of Congresswoman Jean Schmidt of Ohio. The Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act of 2007, which passed with total bipartisan support, must be strictly enforced.
Because AREVA owns gold mines in Sudan, the U.S. Department of Energy and its contractors are barred from conducting any business with AREVA, its subsidiaries, and its consortium partners including USEC Inc., Northrop-Grumman, Duke Energy, and Unistar.
Any existing or prospective contracts, purchase orders, loans, loan guarantees, or leases with these entities must be terminated, and expended funds since the Act went into effect recouped.
Since Congresswoman Schmidt has acknowledged her awareness of the terms of SADA, special scrutiny should be given to the involvement of AREVA and its partners at the Piketon DOE reservation, in Ms. Schmidt's district. An investigation should be opened into the following projects at Piketon since 2007, all of which have been supported by Ms. Schmidt:
1. AREVA's receipt of GNEP funding for the Site Characterization study performed by ePIFNI and SODI.
2. AREVA's negotiations to build a uranium enrichment plant at Piketon.
3. AREVA's participation in the announced USEC-AREVA-DUKE-SODI nuclear reactor project, for which AREVA CEO Anne Lauvergeon visited the Piketon federal site in June, 2009, accompanied by Congresswoman Schmidt.
4. AREVA and partners' involvement in cleanup operations at the gaseous diffusion plant at Piketon.
5. AREVA's announced settlement and partnership with USEC Inc.
Please keep me informed of your progress on these investigations.
Happy New Year!
Name:
Organization:
Address:
Telephone:
E-mail:
Tuesday, December 15 - 7:00 pm
Drexel Theater, 2254 E. Main St., Bexley
CALL+RESPONSE is a first of its kind feature documentary film that reveals the world’s 27 million dirtiest secrets: there are more slaves today than ever before in human history. CALL+RESPONSE goes deep undercover where slavery is thriving from the child brothels of Cambodia to the slave brick kilns of rural India to reveal that in 2007, Slave Traders made more money than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined.
Luminaries on the issue such as Cornel West, Madeleine Albright, Daryl Hannah, Julia Ormond, Ashley Judd, Nicholas Kristof, and many other prominent political and cultural figures offer first hand account of this 21st century trade. Performances from Grammy-winning and critically acclaimed artists including Moby, Natasha Bedingfield, Cold War Kids, Matisyahu, Imogen Heap, Talib Kweli, Five For Fighting, Switchfoot, members of Nickel Creek and Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, Rocco Deluca move this chilling information into inspiration for stopping it.
Music is part of the movement against human slavery. Dr. Cornel West connects the music of the American slave fields to the popular music we listen to today, and offers this connection as a rallying cry for the modern abolitionist movement currently brewing. Written, directed and produced by Justin Dillon of the band, Tremolo.
Tickets - On Sale Now! $5 in advance and $7 General Admission/$6 Students at the door. Tickets are available online at www.drexel.net, at Drexel Theatre Box-Office or by calling Samantha Sudai at
(614) 493-7930. Call + Response is presented by Bexley resident & student Samantha Sudai. More information on the film is available at www.callandresponse.com
Drexel Theater, 2254 E. Main St., Bexley
CALL+RESPONSE is a first of its kind feature documentary film that reveals the world’s 27 million dirtiest secrets: there are more slaves today than ever before in human history. CALL+RESPONSE goes deep undercover where slavery is thriving from the child brothels of Cambodia to the slave brick kilns of rural India to reveal that in 2007, Slave Traders made more money than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined.
Luminaries on the issue such as Cornel West, Madeleine Albright, Daryl Hannah, Julia Ormond, Ashley Judd, Nicholas Kristof, and many other prominent political and cultural figures offer first hand account of this 21st century trade. Performances from Grammy-winning and critically acclaimed artists including Moby, Natasha Bedingfield, Cold War Kids, Matisyahu, Imogen Heap, Talib Kweli, Five For Fighting, Switchfoot, members of Nickel Creek and Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, Rocco Deluca move this chilling information into inspiration for stopping it.
Music is part of the movement against human slavery. Dr. Cornel West connects the music of the American slave fields to the popular music we listen to today, and offers this connection as a rallying cry for the modern abolitionist movement currently brewing. Written, directed and produced by Justin Dillon of the band, Tremolo.
Tickets - On Sale Now! $5 in advance and $7 General Admission/$6 Students at the door. Tickets are available online at www.drexel.net, at Drexel Theatre Box-Office or by calling Samantha Sudai at
(614) 493-7930. Call + Response is presented by Bexley resident & student Samantha Sudai. More information on the film is available at www.callandresponse.com
“We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing health care. We cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are. But we can fault legislation in which the government incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem. When health insurance companies deny care or raise premiums, co-pays and deductibles they are simply trying to make a profit. That is our system.
“Clearly, the insurance companies are the problem, not the solution. They are driving up the cost of health care. Because their massive bureaucracy avoids paying bills so effectively, they force hospitals and doctors to hire their own bureaucracy to fight the insurance companies to avoid getting stuck with an unfair share of the bills. The result is that since 1970, the number of physicians has increased by less than 200% while the number of administrators has increased by 3000%. It is no wonder that 31 cents of every health care dollar goes to administrative costs, not toward providing care. Even those with insurance are at risk. The single biggest cause of bankruptcies in the U.S. is health insurance policies that do not cover you when you get sick.
“But instead of working toward the elimination of for-profit insurance, H.R. 3962 would put the government in the role of accelerating the privatization of health care. In H.R. 3962, the government is requiring at least 21 million Americans to buy private health insurance from the very industry that causes costs to be so high, which will result in at least $70 billion in new annual revenue, much of which is coming from taxpayers. This inevitably will lead to even more costs, more subsidies, and higher profits for insurance companies — a bailout under a blue cross.
“By incurring only a new requirement to cover pre-existing conditions, a weakened public option, and a few other important but limited concessions, the health insurance companies are getting quite a deal. The Center for American Progress' blog, Think Progress, states “since the President signaled that he is backing away from the public option, health insurance stocks have been on the rise.” Similarly, healthcare stocks rallied when Senator Max Baucus introduced a bill without a public option. Bloomberg reports that Curtis Lane, a prominent health industry investor, predicted a few weeks ago that “money will start flowing in again” to health insurance stocks after passage of the legislation. Investors.com last month reported that pharmacy benefit managers share prices are hitting all-time highs, with the only industry worry that the Administration would reverse its decision not to negotiate Medicare Part D drug prices, leaving in place a Bush Administration policy.
“During the debate, when the interests of insurance companies would have been effectively challenged, that challenge was turned back. The “robust public option” which would have offered a modicum of competition to a monopolistic industry was whittled down from an initial potential enrollment of 129 million Americans to 6 million. An amendment which would have protected the rights of states to pursue single-payer health care was stripped from the bill at the request of the Administration. Looking ahead, we cringe at the prospect of even greater favors for insurance companies.
“Recent rises in unemployment indicate a widening separation between the finance economy and the real economy. The finance economy considers the health of Wall Street, rising corporate profits, and banks' hoarding of cash, much of it from taxpayers, as sign of an economic recovery. However in the real economy -- in which most Americans live -- the recession is not over. Rising unemployment, business failures, bankruptcies and foreclosures are still hammering Main Street.
“This health care bill continues the redistribution of wealth to Wall Street at the expense of America's manufacturing and service economies which suffer from costs other countries do not have to bear, especially the cost of health care. America continues to stand out among all industrialized nations for its privatized health care system. As a result, we are less competitive in steel, automotive, aerospace and shipping while other countries subsidize their exports in these areas through socializing the cost of health care.
“Notwithstanding the fate of H.R. 3962, America will someday come to recognize the broad social and economic benefits of a not-for-profit, single-payer health care system, which is good for the American people and good for America's businesses, with of course the notable exceptions being insurance and pharmaceuticals.”
In an interview on the Today Show, Vice President Biden asserted that a health care bill will be completed by Thanksgiving because President Obama has "re-centered debate" and there's bipartisan consensus for change.
Said Biden: "I believe we will have a bill. I've been in the Congress for a very long time, eight presidents. I believe we will have a bill before Thanksgiving."
On Rep. Joe Wilson's (R-SC) outburst: "Joe, you embarrased the institution I love."
Watch It:
Said Biden: "I believe we will have a bill. I've been in the Congress for a very long time, eight presidents. I believe we will have a bill before Thanksgiving."
On Rep. Joe Wilson's (R-SC) outburst: "Joe, you embarrased the institution I love."
Watch It:
Please consider circulating this information for the good of our communities:
I grew tired of waiting for my Food Stamp Ohio Direction Card.
Prior to calling the number below today, September 1, 2009, I received mailed information from Ohio Department of Job and Family Services saying that I would receive the card. The only thing that was emphasized was the requirement to call in to activate the card and get a PIN #.
I called 1 - 866 - 386 - 3071 from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services mail I received.
I spoke with a Customer Service Representative named Olivia in Utah.
Olivia told me that the only way to physically obtain the Ohio Direction Card is to call and request it.
She said to expect it to between 5 - 7 days.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I grew tired of waiting for my Food Stamp Ohio Direction Card.
Prior to calling the number below today, September 1, 2009, I received mailed information from Ohio Department of Job and Family Services saying that I would receive the card. The only thing that was emphasized was the requirement to call in to activate the card and get a PIN #.
I called 1 - 866 - 386 - 3071 from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services mail I received.
I spoke with a Customer Service Representative named Olivia in Utah.
Olivia told me that the only way to physically obtain the Ohio Direction Card is to call and request it.
She said to expect it to between 5 - 7 days.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local news
Cincinnati.Com » Local news
Last Updated: 5:32 pm | Friday, August 21, 2009
Hannity concert closed to most media
The Enquirer • August 21, 2009
Tickets are pretty much sold out for the Sean Hannity Freedom Concert at Kings Island tonight.
Advertisement
At 2 p.m., less than 100 seats -- all with obstructed views -- were left at the 10,000-seat Timberwolf Amphitheatre, said Kings Island spokesman Don Helbig.
The concert lineup includes Billy Ray Cyrus, Charlie Daniels, Lee Greenwood and Michael W. Smith performing at 7 p.m.
Hannity himself, plus other political guests, also are expected to speak . However, most media outlets -- except Fox News -- have been excluded from covering the event by Hannity's organizers, Helbig said.
The sixth annual concert series benefits the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund started by Oliver North to help dependents of deceased or disabled U.S. military veterans. North will attend the show.
If you go, you can share your news and photos with the community by visiting www.cincinnati.com/share.
Cincinnati.Com » Local news
Last Updated: 5:32 pm | Friday, August 21, 2009
Hannity concert closed to most media
The Enquirer • August 21, 2009
Tickets are pretty much sold out for the Sean Hannity Freedom Concert at Kings Island tonight.
Advertisement
At 2 p.m., less than 100 seats -- all with obstructed views -- were left at the 10,000-seat Timberwolf Amphitheatre, said Kings Island spokesman Don Helbig.
The concert lineup includes Billy Ray Cyrus, Charlie Daniels, Lee Greenwood and Michael W. Smith performing at 7 p.m.
Hannity himself, plus other political guests, also are expected to speak . However, most media outlets -- except Fox News -- have been excluded from covering the event by Hannity's organizers, Helbig said.
The sixth annual concert series benefits the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund started by Oliver North to help dependents of deceased or disabled U.S. military veterans. North will attend the show.
If you go, you can share your news and photos with the community by visiting www.cincinnati.com/share.
Plain racism:
The Full Story Of Poster Altercation At McCaskill Event: By The Guy Who Filmed It, Peter Glickert
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x353387
Ohio Health Care for America Now Details Ohio-Specific Health Disparities and Emphasizes Opportunity for Equality in Legislation
Columbus, OH - Today, Progress Ohio, as a part of Health Care for America Now (HCAN) - the nation's largest health care campaign - will release a state-specific report showing how communities of color are adversely affected by our nation's broken health care system and suggest ways comprehensive health care reform will correct this inequality and injustice.
"Unequal Lives: Health Care Discrimination Harms Communities of Color in Ohio" will explain how the nation's more than 103 million people of color suffer disproportionately in our health care system, and Wednesday's release will explain how legislation under consideration in Congress would offer one of the best opportunities since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 to erase persistent health disparities.
http://www.progressohio.org/page/-/Documents/OHIO_HEALTH_DISPARITIES_REPORT.pdf
National report is available for download here:
http://www.progressohio.org/page/-/Documents/NATIONAL_HEALTH_DISPARITIES_REPORT.pdf
People of color in the United States live shorter lives and suffer poorer health than non-Latino white Americans, experiencing higher infant mortality rates, higher rates of lack of insurance, lower quality care, reduced likelihood of having a regular doctor, and less access to standard tests, procedures, and drugs regardless of income.
"Unequal Lives" also offers the Health Care for America Now campaign's recommendations to erase racial and ethnic health care disparities, including the call for an affordable benefit package that provides a defined, comprehensive set of age- and gender-appropriate services that promote health in a linguistically and culturally competent manner.
The Michael Jackson memorial service, to my surprise, made my eyes well up several times. Jennifer Hudson and Stevie Wonder sang beautifully, Brooke Shields spoke sincerely, Paris sobbed, Marlon mourned his stillborn twin and even Al Sharpton got to me.
Since almost all of Hollywood and Harlem has related their MJ memories by now, I'll tell my middle-aged white woman from Ohio story before it fades away.
It was 1970 or maybe 1971. Motown was the preferred dance music of suburban kids like me. A rain-out at the Ohio State Fair caused back-to-back scheduling of the Osmond Brothers and Jackson 5 in the grandstand. I came for the Osmonds (a pre-Marie good show featuring Donny), and stayed in my fold-up wooden chair for the Jacksons (a great show).
The Jacksons were dressed in paisley shirts, bell bottoms and suede fringe vests. They performed ABC, Stop the Love You Save, and Rockin Robin. It was quintessential bubble gum pop. The brothers moved as a group, but it was obvious Michael was a standout with that booming voice of his.
I adored their afros, their flat noses, their sharp dance moves. Black kids seemed so cool; kids like me seemed to have no ethnicity at all. We had, um, surfer music.
It was disappointing in later years when MJ seemed to take on my pasty feminine appearance. Weirder still was the drawn-out child molestation trials and his accusations of racism against his record producer. But you know, celebrities are different than you and I.
(Btw, in regard to the child molestation charges, has anyone come forward to say "Michael Jackson ruined my life"? I don't think so.)
MJ's signature moves, specifically the Moonwalk (difficult) and the Robot (easy), seemed to congeal his inter-generational appeal. My sons' college-aged friends and I all like his music -- most unusual.
Many people have observed that MJ's appeal crosses racial and generational lines. I can personally attest to that. I want to remember him as that little black kid belting out "I'll Be There" on the grandstand stage in the August Ohio sun.
It appears that the Hamilton County Ohio Republican Party as well as the Republican National Committee require ONLY the following information on their first page of THEIR voter registration form:(The items REQUIRED are indicated by asterisks.)
*Date of Birth
*Email Address
*Registration Street Address
*City
*Zip
THE BOX DELINEATED AS APARTMENT # DOESN'T HAVE AN ASTERISK. AN APARTMENT DWELLER COMPLETING THE STREET ADDRESS SECTION COULD MISS WHERE IT SAYS "APARTMENT #."
The same problem repeats itself under the section entitled "Mailing Address."
ON THIS PAGE THEY DO NOT DISPLAY ANY INDICATION TO LIST ONE'S COUNTY.
ON THIS PAGE THE FOLLOWING IS DISPLAYED:
"CHOICE OF PARTY"
http://www.hamiltoncountyrepublicanparty.org/
Primary links
Register to Vote
Important registration information
Paid for by the Hamilton County Republican Party. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.
Developed by: Midnet Media
Privacy Policy
Paid for by the Hamilton County Republican Party, Alex M. Triantafilou, Chairman, 700 Walnut Street, Ste 309, Cincinnati, OH 45202
http://www.gop.com/ActionCenter/RegisterToVote/RegistrationInformation.aspx?state=OH
REGISTER TO VOTE < ACTION CENTER < HOME
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Register to Vote - Step 2 of 3
Eligibility
To register in Ohio you must:
• be a citizen of the United States
• be a resident of Ohio
• be 18 years old on or before election day. If you will be 18 on or before the day of the general election, you may vote in the primary election for candidates only.
• not be convicted of a felony and currently incarcerated
• not be found incompetent by a court for purposes of voting.
Please Confirm
I am a United States citizen.
I meet the eligibility requirements of my state.
The information I have provided is true to the best of my knowledge under penalty of perjury. If I have provided false information, I may be fined, imprisoned, or (if not a U.S. citizen) deported from or refused entry to the United States.
Your Information
Salutation
First Name
Middle Initial
Last Name
Suffix
Date of Birth *
Invalid Date of Birth.
ID Number
Choice of Party
Contact Information
Email *
Phone () -
(xxx) - xxxxxxx
Registration Address
Street Address *
Apartment #
City *
State: OH ZIP *
Check this box if mailing and registration addresses are the same
Mailing Address
Street Address *
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City *
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Compare the above with official Ohio Secretary of State's Voter Registration Form:
http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/upload/publications/election/VRform.pdf
*Date of Birth
*Email Address
*Registration Street Address
*City
*Zip
THE BOX DELINEATED AS APARTMENT # DOESN'T HAVE AN ASTERISK. AN APARTMENT DWELLER COMPLETING THE STREET ADDRESS SECTION COULD MISS WHERE IT SAYS "APARTMENT #."
The same problem repeats itself under the section entitled "Mailing Address."
ON THIS PAGE THEY DO NOT DISPLAY ANY INDICATION TO LIST ONE'S COUNTY.
ON THIS PAGE THE FOLLOWING IS DISPLAYED:
"CHOICE OF PARTY"
http://www.hamiltoncountyrepublicanparty.org/
Primary links
Register to Vote
Important registration information
Paid for by the Hamilton County Republican Party. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.
Developed by: Midnet Media
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Reacting to a recently released scorecard showing compliance with statutory MBE and EDGE goals, Senator Miller said, “the level of participation by most state agencies is appalling.” The report shows that 58 out of the 93 state departments, universities and boards and commissions have less than a 2% minority business participation rate. The MBE law requires state entities to set-aside 15% of their total purchases each year for minority business contracting opportunities.
“I want to sincerely commend Governor Ted Strickland for his leadership in developing this important measurement tool,” Senator Miller said. “This is the first time, in more than 20 years, that we have had a Governor who has been concerned or courageous enough to address the need to increase minority business participation in the state of Ohio,” he added.
It is now incumbent upon the Governor and the Department of Administrative Services to aggressively move state government toward a realization of these goals by doing the following:
* strongly encourage compliance with the law and the Governor’s Executive Order;
* aggressively market opportunities to MBEs and EDGE program participants;
* encourage majority contractors to subcontract with MBE and EDGE firms; and
* streamline the certification process for MBE and EDGE firms.
“We now have numbers that reflect the state’s performance in the area of minority and disadvantaged business participation. By publishing a scorecard, the legislature and the public now have a meaningful way of holding state agencies accountable for their actions, or rather inaction, on this important issue,” Senator Miller said.
Senator Miller is currently serving as a member of State Controlling Board. During his tenure he has been a consistent voice for minority and disadvantaged businesses, asking pointed questions to individual agencies on their program participation and their legal obligation to the MBE and EDGE programs.
“We have now determined the baseline and it is woefully inadequate. Ohio has an aggressive law in place to address minority business participation but these numbers are deplorable. We have to do a better job of enforcement,” Senator Miller said. “I am encouraged by the Administration’s action but will continue to be forthright in ensuring that these important issues are attended to quickly and effectively.”
The creation of the scorecard was required by Executive Order 2008-13S developed and signed by Governor Strickland on June 25, 2008. Per the Executive Order, the performance scorecards are available on the Ohio Department of Administrative Services website.
Written by Dr. Robert Fitrakis
Former Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism Board Chair and community activist Cornell McCleary died February 11 at the age of 55. Cornell recruited me to run for the NAACP Board in the early 1990s. He was one of the few black leaders in Columbus that reached out the white community surrounding the Free Press, as well as to the gay community. When I began co-publishing and editing the Free Press in 1992, my co-publisher and now U.S. Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy suggested we tap McCleary as Chairperson of our Board.
McCleary spearheaded a Free Press outreach toward African American writers like Jeff Winbush and Jerolyn Barbee. McCleary got the Free Press involved in a long-running investigative series to "out" white supremacists in Ohio. The Free Press began to print the names and addresses of known Klan and neo-Nazi members, and also began to publish "Wanted" posters with their photos and vitals attached. All of this culminated with buses of anti-racist activists demonstrating outside the homes of the white supremacists. McCleary used his extensive ties with black private investigators and police officers to gather intelligence. Five white supremacists left the state rather be "outed." Read More »
Former Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism Board Chair and community activist Cornell McCleary died February 11 at the age of 55. Cornell recruited me to run for the NAACP Board in the early 1990s. He was one of the few black leaders in Columbus that reached out the white community surrounding the Free Press, as well as to the gay community. When I began co-publishing and editing the Free Press in 1992, my co-publisher and now U.S. Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy suggested we tap McCleary as Chairperson of our Board.
McCleary spearheaded a Free Press outreach toward African American writers like Jeff Winbush and Jerolyn Barbee. McCleary got the Free Press involved in a long-running investigative series to "out" white supremacists in Ohio. The Free Press began to print the names and addresses of known Klan and neo-Nazi members, and also began to publish "Wanted" posters with their photos and vitals attached. All of this culminated with buses of anti-racist activists demonstrating outside the homes of the white supremacists. McCleary used his extensive ties with black private investigators and police officers to gather intelligence. Five white supremacists left the state rather be "outed." Read More »
From the Huffington Post, "DAY 2: ERASING BUSH'S FOREIGN POLICIES President Signs Order to Close Guantanamo Bay"
Ella Mae Johnson, a 104 year old from Cleveland, will be making the trip to DC to see Barack Obama sworn in as President.
Teddy Roosevelt was President when Mrs. Johnson was born. In 1924 she received a masters from what is now Case Western.
Sherrod Brown invited Mrs. Johnson and had this to say:
"It is fitting that she should mark her 105th birthday this January by witnessing the swearing in of our nation's first African-American president. I am honored to be part of her journey and humbled by her legacy."
Post Election Audit for the November 4, 2008 General Election
The audit will begin on Monday, December 8, 2008 at 9:00am at the Hamilton
County Board of Elections, in the auditorium on the 3rd floor at 824 Broadway,
Cincinnati, Ohio.
The audit will begin on Monday, December 8, 2008 at 9:00am at the Hamilton
County Board of Elections, in the auditorium on the 3rd floor at 824 Broadway,
Cincinnati, Ohio.
I had posted earlier today that Vic Wulsin (D) won the U.S. House of Representatives for the 2nd District. That post was an error. At least, she won Hamilton County.
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20081126/NEWS0108/311260076/1055/NEWS
CINCINNATI - A federal appeals court agreed Wednesday that a lawsuit challenging Ohio's voting system as unfair and marked by problems should be heard in court.
The League of Women Voters brought the action three years ago in the aftermath of the 2004 general election, which brought national criticism of Ohio elections officials while President Bush narrowly carried the state to clinch re-election. The organization wants a court order requiring the secretary of state and governor to put "a fair and competent system" in place.
A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled unanimously that the lawsuit should continue in U.S. district court in Toledo.
The lawsuit cites examples of voters in some counties who were misdirected by poll workers, believe their votes were miscounted or not counted at all, and found broken or not enough voting machines at their polling sites. It also alleges misuse of provisional ballots.
"If true, these allegations could establish that Ohio's voting system deprives its citizens of the right to vote or severely burdens the exercise of that right, depending on where they live," wrote Judge Julia Smith Gibbons.
The panel agreed that the lawsuit raises valid questions about violations of citizens' equal protection and due process rights. The lawsuit doesn't challenge the 2004 results.
The court rejected state efforts to have the case thrown out as moot, noting that the League of Women Voters cites problems in Ohio elections dating back to 1971.
A message seeking comment was left with Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's office. The state could ask the full appeals court to hear its case for dismissal or seek a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.
The state has made elections changes since 2004, and voters also replaced a Republican governor and secretary of state with Democrats in the 2006 elections.
But elections have continued to bring complaints. An Ohio congressional seat remains undecided three weeks after this year's election because of challenges to provisional balloting in Franklin County.
A 6th Circuit panel on Tuesday sent that case back to the Ohio Supreme Court for a ruling on how to count thousands of those ballots in the 15th District race between Republican state Sen. Steve Stivers and Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy
CINCINNATI - A federal appeals court agreed Wednesday that a lawsuit challenging Ohio's voting system as unfair and marked by problems should be heard in court.
The League of Women Voters brought the action three years ago in the aftermath of the 2004 general election, which brought national criticism of Ohio elections officials while President Bush narrowly carried the state to clinch re-election. The organization wants a court order requiring the secretary of state and governor to put "a fair and competent system" in place.
A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled unanimously that the lawsuit should continue in U.S. district court in Toledo.
The lawsuit cites examples of voters in some counties who were misdirected by poll workers, believe their votes were miscounted or not counted at all, and found broken or not enough voting machines at their polling sites. It also alleges misuse of provisional ballots.
"If true, these allegations could establish that Ohio's voting system deprives its citizens of the right to vote or severely burdens the exercise of that right, depending on where they live," wrote Judge Julia Smith Gibbons.
The panel agreed that the lawsuit raises valid questions about violations of citizens' equal protection and due process rights. The lawsuit doesn't challenge the 2004 results.
The court rejected state efforts to have the case thrown out as moot, noting that the League of Women Voters cites problems in Ohio elections dating back to 1971.
A message seeking comment was left with Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's office. The state could ask the full appeals court to hear its case for dismissal or seek a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.
The state has made elections changes since 2004, and voters also replaced a Republican governor and secretary of state with Democrats in the 2006 elections.
But elections have continued to bring complaints. An Ohio congressional seat remains undecided three weeks after this year's election because of challenges to provisional balloting in Franklin County.
A 6th Circuit panel on Tuesday sent that case back to the Ohio Supreme Court for a ruling on how to count thousands of those ballots in the 15th District race between Republican state Sen. Steve Stivers and Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy
An Ally of Ohio's Payday Lenders Seeks to Blow Hole in State Budget
The Ohio Grocers' Association, one of the very few supporters of our state's predatory payday lenders, is seeking elimination of the Commercial Activity Tax (CAT). The CAT tax is a reasonable low tax that is applied to a large variety of businesses in size and scope. OGA, which as you might recall is headed by the father of Check 'N Go lobbyist and former candidate for State Representative John Rabenbold, is aiming to exempt grocers, wholesalers and producers from paying the CAT tax. Such an exemption would dramatically impact state revenues, leading to the disappearance of approximately $188 million in annual revenue, plus a likely $355 million in additional revenue that has already been collected from businesses who pay the CAT tax.
Consider this: schools and local governments receive the lion share of proceeds and additional proceeds go into the state's General Revenue Fund. Imagine a half a billion-dollar shortfall projection in advance of next year's budget deliberations! There will be fewer and fewer dollars available for lifting the cap on the housing trust fund (benefiting affordable housing), rolling back property taxes for low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) property owners and a myriad of other social services that are necessary in the midst of a serious economic downturn.
This is NOT a tax on food, but a very limited tax on the gross receipts of some of Ohio's largest businesses. If the Supreme Court fails to see that the CAT tax is fully constitutional, the decision will amount to a slippery slope whereby certain businesses will seek special exemptions so that they don't have to pay their fair share.
With the Wall Street crisis, the potential bankruptcy of General Motors, recent jobs losses at DHL and the less than rosy projections from Ohio's budget officials, now is not the time to tack on an additional shortfall of over $500 million! The CAT tax is working and should continue to work. Grocers, wholesalers and producers should pay their fair share of tax revenues. State services and programs that benefit low and moderate income Ohioans should not be sacrificed for the purposes of providing a tax holiday for corporate interests.
A broad coalition of business interests believe that the CAT tax is working as intended and support a fair tax policy. The coalition includes the Ohio Manufacturers' Association, the Ohio State Medical Association, the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Ohio Dental Association, the Ohio Chemistry Technology Council, the Ohio State Bar Association and the Ohio Business Roundtable.
If they can get behind the CAT tax, shouldn't we? It's important that the CAT tax be maintained to ensure that important social services programs aren't on the chopping block in January! Let's hope the Ohio Supreme Court does the right thing and upholds the CAT tax.
The Ohio Grocers' Association, one of the very few supporters of our state's predatory payday lenders, is seeking elimination of the Commercial Activity Tax (CAT). The CAT tax is a reasonable low tax that is applied to a large variety of businesses in size and scope. OGA, which as you might recall is headed by the father of Check 'N Go lobbyist and former candidate for State Representative John Rabenbold, is aiming to exempt grocers, wholesalers and producers from paying the CAT tax. Such an exemption would dramatically impact state revenues, leading to the disappearance of approximately $188 million in annual revenue, plus a likely $355 million in additional revenue that has already been collected from businesses who pay the CAT tax.
Consider this: schools and local governments receive the lion share of proceeds and additional proceeds go into the state's General Revenue Fund. Imagine a half a billion-dollar shortfall projection in advance of next year's budget deliberations! There will be fewer and fewer dollars available for lifting the cap on the housing trust fund (benefiting affordable housing), rolling back property taxes for low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) property owners and a myriad of other social services that are necessary in the midst of a serious economic downturn.
This is NOT a tax on food, but a very limited tax on the gross receipts of some of Ohio's largest businesses. If the Supreme Court fails to see that the CAT tax is fully constitutional, the decision will amount to a slippery slope whereby certain businesses will seek special exemptions so that they don't have to pay their fair share.
With the Wall Street crisis, the potential bankruptcy of General Motors, recent jobs losses at DHL and the less than rosy projections from Ohio's budget officials, now is not the time to tack on an additional shortfall of over $500 million! The CAT tax is working and should continue to work. Grocers, wholesalers and producers should pay their fair share of tax revenues. State services and programs that benefit low and moderate income Ohioans should not be sacrificed for the purposes of providing a tax holiday for corporate interests.
A broad coalition of business interests believe that the CAT tax is working as intended and support a fair tax policy. The coalition includes the Ohio Manufacturers' Association, the Ohio State Medical Association, the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Ohio Dental Association, the Ohio Chemistry Technology Council, the Ohio State Bar Association and the Ohio Business Roundtable.
If they can get behind the CAT tax, shouldn't we? It's important that the CAT tax be maintained to ensure that important social services programs aren't on the chopping block in January! Let's hope the Ohio Supreme Court does the right thing and upholds the CAT tax.
Unfortunately the New York Times ran a fluff piece about payday lending in their Sunday magazine this week. The article, entitled "Check Cashers, Redeemed," profiles Tom Nix of Nix Check Cashing who owns a large chain of check cashing stores and payday loan shops in Southern California.
"There are two big problems with businesses like Nix Check Cashing. One is that the fees are high. Most cashers pocket between 2 and 4 percent of each check's value, which a recent Brookings Institution study calculated could add up to $40,000 in fees over a customer's working life. And their version of credit, a two- or four-week cash advance against a postdated check, known as a payday loan, is even pricier -- about 30 times the annualized interest rate of a typical credit card." If someone pays nearly $40k for check cashing alone, imagine how many tens of thousands of dollars in fees over a lifetime a payday loan borrower might pay!
Nix acknowledges that the downturn in the economy has allowed payday lenders to capitalize on the misfortunes of struggling workers: "Now that the economy has turned ugly, these poor and blue-collar customers are the hardest-squeezed. Payday loans are up, Nix told me when I spoke to him recently, and check-cashing revenue is down."
The article author, Douglas McGray of the New America Foundation, suggests that because check cashers and payday lenders happen to disclose interest rates and fees to borrowers, that their product is fair and transparent.
"The first thing you notice when you walk in the door at Nix is a list of products, services and prices, a bit like a fast-food menu. Some of the prices are quite high, but the charges are neither confusing nor deceptive. "They're going to charge you $13, is that O.K.?" a cashier -- young, Latina, long blond hair, long pink nails -- asked as a bulky, middle-aged guy handed over a stack of cash to send via Moneygram."
"Even the payday loans are transparent. "Your max is $150, so make it out for $172.50," the cashier Joseph told a stocky black woman in a baseball cap, standing at the counter with an open checkbook. (Unlike check-cashing customers, payday borrowers are by necessity bank customers -- they have to write a postdated check to get a loan.) The woman was paying a lot -- $22.50 to borrow $150 for just two weeks. But there were no surprises, no hidden fees."
Nix has taken up what is coined "social marketing" by hiring folks from the neighborhood to work at the payday loan shops, hoping that word of mouth will bring additional business through their doors:
"But there are less-obvious factors too. Nix hires from the neighborhood and pays well enough that cashiers stick around. Word spreads, and in Watts or Highland Park or Pacoima, that reputation often carries more weight than some bank ad on a bus stop. "It's social marketing 101," says Hopkins, the consultant."
Nix later says that he viewed payday lending in a negative light, but that didn't deter him from entering the business: "In the late 1980s, when a few check cashers started to accept postdated personal checks and advance cash for a fee, Nix thought it was a sleazy scheme. He thought so even after California legalized the practice in 1997. "I didn't want to be a loan shark," he told me. "But the reality is, customers wanted it."
McGray gives Nix credit, apparently, for lowering interest rates on payday loans from 468% APR to 391% APR. "Kinecta's executives decided to keep the payday loan and change the terms. Starting with three stores in the spring, and eventually across the entire chain, Nix is increasing the maximum loan from $255 to $400. They are dropping the fee from 18 percent ($45 for a two-week $255 loan) to 15 percent ($60 for a two-week $400 loan). And they will rebate a third more ($20, in the case of a $400 loan) into a savings account, after six months, if you pay your loans back and don't bounce any checks. People get payday loans because they have no savings, Lagomarsino explained. After six months, heavy payday borrowers will accumulate a small balance. Enough, she and Nix say they hope, to convince them they can afford to save more. Later, they say, they intend to drop fees further for borrowers who always pay back on time." Even if you account for the $20 put into a savings account, the interest rates on Nix's payday loans are still upwards of 260% APR!
391% APR and 260% APR don't amount to what the payday lending industry calls "financial freedom" and they aren't fair or reasonable interest rates. Thankfully, Ohioans didn't believe the industry and voted yes on issue 5 to lower rates to 28% APR. Let's hope that the State of California considers limiting the practice of predatory payday lending as well.
To read the New York Times magazine article, please click here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/magazine/09nix-t.html?_r=1&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin
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Re: Dennis, do you have learning disability?
No, Brian, I do not have a learning disability, but my two s...
No, Brian, I do not have a learning disability, but my two s...
Dennis, Ted Strickland isn't going to vote for you
The people on this site MIGHT. But not if you refuse to answ...
The people on this site MIGHT. But not if you refuse to answ...
