Category Archives: North Carolina

NC common core, Why North Carolina should get away from Common Core, Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest, Local control important, One size doesn’t fit all, Common core not vetted and tested and costly

NC common core, Why North Carolina should get away from Common Core, Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest, Local control important, One size doesn’t fit all, Common core not vetted and tested and costly

“…and Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They [socialists] always run out of other people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them.”…Margaret Thatcher

 
“When an opponent declares, “I will not come over to your side,” I calmly say, “Your child belongs to us already… What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.”…Adolf Hitler 

“We control life, Winston, at all its levels. You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us. But we create human nature. Men are infinitely malleable.”…George Orwell, “1984″

 

 

From the Greensboro News and Record April 13, 2014.

“Why North Carolina should get away from Common Core

By Dan Forest

North Carolina should have the highest education standards in the world, but we can do better than Common Core.

Four years after Common Core was adopted by the State Board of Education, many students, parents and educators are getting their first glimpse of the implications of the new standards in the classroom. Yet after months of questions about the challenges of the standards from parents and educators, few answers have been revealed. Here is why we can to better than Common Core:

1. Local control of education is a bedrock of our nation. Parents, teachers and school boards should have ultimate control and authority over the education of their children. Common Core is a copyrighted set of standards, designed by two unaccountable national trade associations and pushed by the federal government through Race To The Top grants ($400 million in North Carolina) for states that adopted the standards. These standards cannot be changed or modified by state or local authorities. The argument is that we can add to them; however, the reality is that we cannot change anything written in them. Common Core is inflexible in meeting the demands of rapid change that is occurring around the world.

2. A One-Size-Fits-All set of standards for all of education in America is un-American. America is a nation of diversity and innovation. Each student is unique, and for the first time in the history of the world, through high-speed broadband technology and one-to-one devices in the hands of every student, we have the opportunity to customize curriculum and the education experience to each and every child. Our 50 states should be recognized for the innovation laboratories that they are, and they should be allowed to innovate in education, constantly improving standards and teaching methodologies in order to share their ideas with other states. A one-size-fits-all set of standards restricts that level of innovation.

3. Why would we settle for anything less than the best standards for North Carolina? Massachusetts had the best math standards in America, so why did we not start by adopting its standards for our students? Massachusetts educators improved their standards over decades, and they had been tried, tested, rewritten and aligned with working assessments. The Common Core standards still have not been tried, tested or rewritten for success four years after adoption in North Carolina. Why would we roll out Common Core to every school and every student in our state, all at once, without proper vetting and testing?

4. Common Core does not prepare our students for STEM education or careers.The promise of Common Core was that it was to be rigorous, internationally benchmarked, and it would prepare our students for college and career. Unfortunately, experts admit that rigor is difficult to define; the standards were never internationally benchmarked, and there is much debate as to Common Core college alignment. Experts have noted that the Common Core math sequence does not prepare our students for a rigorous STEM education in the university, nor does it prepare our students for STEM careers.
Why would the Chamber of Commerce, the conservative Fordham Institute, the Gates Foundation and others support Common Core despite its inability to prepare our students for STEM careers? Because there are significant financial interests for each. Experts have also noted that replacing classic literature with informational text, such as Consumer Reports, does not help our students develop better critical-thinking skills or reading skills.

5. Teachers need to be free to teach. Common Core is just another set of bureaucratic mandates that will force teachers to teach to the test. There has been much frustration from the teaching community regarding this aspect of No Child Left Behind, so the federal government created waivers from NCLB only to replace it with more burdensome guidelines that will take creativity and innovation out of the classroom. If we want innovation in education, we should focus less on standards and more on allowing our teachers to do what they do best — teach.

These are just a few reasons why Common Core should be replaced in North Carolina, not mentioning the high cost of implementation at a time when we need to increase teacher pay. Nor did I mention technology readiness for the standards, or even data collection of student information. It is time to replace Common Core with the best standards in the world — North Carolina standards.”

Read more:

http://www.news-record.com/opinion/columns/article_ef0badac-c0f0-11e3-b83a-001a4bcf6878.html

 

Credit reporting, Insurance companies, Rackets, Credit scores fallacies, Accountability, Transunion, Credit reporting entities create the problem and make money doing it, Consumers are victims

Credit reporting, Insurance companies, Rackets, Credit scores fallacies, Accountability, Transunion, Credit reporting entities create the problem and make money doing it, Consumers are victims

“Well, here we go again. Bank of America, a very large bank based in Charlotte NC is punishing it’s credit card customers for it’s lack of business acumen. This is a prevalent theme in modern day american business. Exorbitant salaries are paid to upper management, with “golden parachutes”, and when they don’t do their jobs properly, who gets punished. The customers and employees. Bank of America has a policy that appears rather arbitrary and unfair. Despite perfect payment records, credit card rates are being jacked up. Despite the fact that there have been recent congressional hearings into credit card companies and banks regarding their practices of affecting FICO scores and raising rates and heightened consumer awareness, Bank of America callously impacts good customers.”…Citizen Wells February 13, 2008

“Golden West Financial (WB), a longtime FICO skeptic, is one of the few mortgage lenders to minimize its use in recent years—and it credits that decision for its below-average mortgage losses.”  “The way we do business is a lot more costly, and cost was a big reason many competitors embraced credit scoring,” he says. “But some of our best borrowers had low FICO scores and our worst had FICO scores of 750.”…Bloomberg February 6, 2008

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″

 

 

I did not start Citizen Wells to report so much on Barack Hussein Obama and corruption in our government.

My original intent was to report on injustice in general and our educational system.

One of the areas I would have preferred to address is credit reporting and its impact on the public.

I am very knowledgeable about the subject.

After my lengthy IT career I was involved in small time real estate investments and renovations. As a byproduct of that activity I dealt with a lot of lenders and consequently had to stay on top of my credit report and score.

What I learned during that process was shocking. The total lack of accountability of the major credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and Transunion as well as the companies reporting credit data.

I have owned a cell phone since the early nineties and the cell phone companies were some of the worst at reporting and correcting errors. After getting attorneys involved in one situation and after much time had elapsed, I actually received an apology from one of them. It was their error, I had pointed it out earlier with extensive documentation. Ironically I was sitting in the office of my coastal real estate agent at the time. She had helped with some of the real estate transactions.

My life has changed and I rarely deal with credit issues.

I have one credit card that I use and pay off every month. I just received a credit limit increase from them.

Last year I received a notice from State Farm of a rather large increase to my home owners insurance policy. I called and was informed it affected the entire state. My neighbors recommended Farm Bureau, I went with them and they saved me money on my auto and home owners policy.

I paid for both in advance.

I just received a statement for my auto insurance for 6 months. It went up some.

They pulled my credit report. I have not checked it in a while since I have not borrowed money.

They found a problem and used that as justification for an increase.

I did not authorize having my credit report being pulled.

It turns out that they can anyway.

I did some research.

Under some circumstances they are allowed to. This is a grey area which I will explore further.

So naturally I atempted to get my free credit report.

I was unable to do so. I think I know why now. They have not updated my current address even though I have been living here over 3 years.

Instead of writing them for a copy, in the interest of time I signed up with Transunion for a trial credit monitoring, score and report.

I had no intention of paying them $ 17 per month for this. Back in the day I used one for approx. $ 35 a year. But I needed it then.

I logged on, immediately found some errors and attempted an online dispute. This was not allowed.

I next dialed a number provided. A lady from India or Pakistan (I assume & I should know….IT background). She was difficult to understand (God bless her) and kept asking for my “mailing address.” I kept explaining to her that I had a physical address that I received some mail at and a billing address as well. They had an old billing address and I pointed it out. I finally spoke to a supervisor, apparently also from the area of India. She spoke better English but still didn’t get it. She next wanted to go over every item in the report. I explained that I just wanted to dispute a few. In the past this was done simply online or with a easily understandable human.

I explained that it was their responsibility to keep the information accurate. They did not even have my billing address on file even though they had the credit card info.

At an impasse, I stated that I was extremely dissatisfied with Transunion, nothing personal against her and said goodbye.

I next canceled my Transunion service. The credit report cost $ 1 and saved me some time.

This of course is all a racket and has gotten much worse over the years.

I will next confront Farm Bureau Insurance and explain what has happened. I will ask if they want to get the attorneys involved.

Regardless, I will contact officials of the state of NC and hopefully, with so many republicans in power here, get an appropriate response.

This may take a while.

To be continued.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obamacare and Obama economy kill NC medical jobs, Wake Forest Baptist Hospital likely will cut more than 1000 jobs, 950 jobs already cut, Small and medium sized hospitals hit hardest

Obamacare and Obama economy kill NC medical jobs, Wake Forest Baptist Hospital likely will cut more than 1000 jobs, 950 jobs already cut, Small and medium sized hospitals hit hardest

“If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”…Barack Obama

“If you’ve got health insurance we’re going to work with you to lower your premiums by $2,500 per family per year. We will not wait 20 years from now to do it, or 10 years from now to do it. We will do it by the end of my first term as president.”…Barack Obama

“About two-thirds of the hospitals serving Medicare patients, or some 2,200 facilities, will be hit with penalties averaging around $125,000 per facility this coming year, according to government estimates.”…NE News Now

 

 

We warned you.

From the Greensboro News Record April 13, 2014.

“Another round of major expense reductions — including job cuts — are coming at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, with management’s plans being announced potentially as early as this week, according to sources.

Multiple employees, who are not being identified because they fear losing their jobs, have told the Winston-Salem Journal they understand that several hundred to more than 1,000 job positions could be eliminated, with the process already started in some departments.

People with knowledge of the situation say Wake Forest Baptist’s board of directors could be projecting up to an 8 percent reduction in operating expenses in fiscal 2014-15, which begins July 1. The sources say the board is contemplating a similar step in expense reduction for fiscal 2015-16.

The center reported to bond holders and rating agencies on Feb. 28 that it had $983.9 million in operating expenses through the first half of fiscal 2013-14. If it were to have $2 billion in operating expenses for the full fiscal year, an 8 percent reduction could represent about $160 million.

Operating revenue for the first half was up 4.5 percent to $960.4 million.

The center has about 13,000 full- and part-time employees, making it Forsyth County’s largest workforce. At least 950 job positions have been eliminated since a “re-engineering” initiative began in April 2012 that was projected to reduce expenses by several hundred million dollars.

When asked about another round of cost cutting, the center issued a statement Friday that said “the medical center is deeply engaged in its annual budgeting process and is continuing to proactively address the challenge of declining reimbursement for health care services. Since we are still in the planning cycle, it would be premature to comment further at this time.”

One source said that the board and Dr. John McCon nell, the center’s chief executive, are “rethinking the size of the expense base” and that the cuts “are not a one-time measure, although the hope is that through the reductions, the expense situation will improve. There is a need to expand the overall clinical platform to raise revenue.””

“The enhancements are similar to those of other academic medical centers and health systems in response to changes in federal health reimbursement formulas, higher mandated requirements for quality and infrastructure, new models of care delivery that are focused on value, and declines in federal funding for research and discovery.”

Read more:

http://m.news-record.com/news/article_fb40f586-c2c2-11e3-8af3-001a4bcf6878.html?mode=jqm

Also from above:

“Other industrywide challenges include more people without health insurance seeking medical help in its emergency department, which tends to increase the amount that hospitals are writing off as bad debt.”

More people without health insurance ???

From Citizen Wells November 15, 2012.

“Update: Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center to cut 950 job”

“Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center will lay off 76 employees this week and cut a total of 950 jobs by the end of next June, the center’s chief executive said today.

Dr. John McConnell said most of the cuts are administrative positions, but some faculty members could lose their jobs due to cuts in federal research funding. He also said 2012-13 revenue is being affected by “deep cuts in Medicare and Medicaid payments, which constitute nearly half of our health-care reimbursements.”

In a statement, the center said the cuts were being made “after a long and careful review of current staffing levels across the organization.”

The center said its restructuring is “designed to position the institution for success aligned with the challenges of health-care reform, federal budget deficits and a decline in research funding from The National Institutes of Health and private industry.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/tag/nc-wake-forest-baptist-medical-center-to-cut-950-jobs/

From Citizen Wells November 25, 2012.

“That’s a delicate balance, said Mark Graban, a national expert and consultant on health care management who lives in San Antonio, Texas.

“It’s easy to add up the cost savings of reduced payroll,” he said. “But it’s hard to add up the side effect of those layoffs.”

He said layoffs are sweeping the industry. Graban referred to a report from the American Hospital Association that says hospitals will cut 93,000 jobs during 2013.

Wake Forest and other major hospitals across the nation pledge that nurse-to-patient ratios won’t change despite the job cuts. Graban said that simple pledge may only mask lingering problems that hurt the quality of patient care.

Nurses and other professional staff, for example, see the headlines, see friends who may be laid off and work in fear, he said.

“A lot of times, quality and good patient outcomes are a result of nurses and other staff going above and beyond,” Graban said. “My concern would be not that the professionals are going to get lazy, but are they going to continue to be motivated to go above and beyond?””

“The coming changes could cost North Carolina’s hospitals up to $7.5 billion over the next 10 years , Dalton said.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/11/25/obamacare-forces-93000-hospital-job-cuts-in-2013-nc-hospitals-costs-up-7-5-billion-the-next-10-years-medicare-and-medicaid-reimbursements-mass-layoffs/

 

 

Greensboro Guilford County NC jobless rates drop, April 10, 2014, Fewer people working and jobs lost, Greensboro News Record accurate report, Labor force has plummeted in NC

Greensboro Guilford County NC jobless rates drop, April 10, 2014, Fewer people working and jobs lost, Greensboro News Record accurate report, Labor force has plummeted in NC

“11.4%: What the U.S. unemployment rate would be if labor force participation were back to January 2008 levels.” …James Pethokoukis, American Enterprise Institute, June 2013

“Nearly half of U.S. companies are reluctant to hire full-time employees because of the ACA. One in five firms indicates they are likely to hire fewer employees, and another one in 10 may lay off current employees in response to the law.

Other firms will shift toward part-time workers. More than 40 percent of CFOs say their companies will consider switching some jobs to less than 30 hours per week or targeting part-time workers for future employment.”…Duke University Fuqua School of Business December 11, 2013

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″

 

 

I applaud the Greensboro News Record for this accurate jobs report April 10, 2014.
“Jobless rate falls again in Guilford, but what does it mean?”

“Greensboro’s unemployment rate keeps dropping, but that may not mean that more people are working.

Since February 2013, this region’s unemployment rate has dropped from 9.9 percent to 6.9 percent this February, according to statistics released Wednesday by the N.C. Department of Commerce. The numbers are not adjusted for seasonal variations in hiring patterns.

But the employment pie is shrinking, so the number doesn’t necessarily mean more people have landed jobs.

And because the state surveys employment in a variety of ways, one measurement is up, and one is down, sending mixed messages.

A simple count shows that 1,970 more people say they’re working, compared with February a year ago, but the Greensboro-High Point labor force, defined as people who are employed or unemployed and actively seeking work, has dropped from 370,500 in February 2013 to 360,500 this past February.

That suggests that many people simply have stopped looking for work, local economists have said in recent months.

Perhaps the best measure of jobs, UNCG economist Andrew Brod said, is the survey of establishments that asks how many workers they employ.

Wednesday’s establishment survey shows that the Greensboro-High Point metro area lost 800 jobs between February 2013 and February 2014.”

Read more:

http://m.news-record.com/business/article_3f1582e4-bff4-11e3-8341-0017a43b2370.html?mode=jqm

From Citizen Wells March 29, 2014.

“We have the Obama administration touting job creation.

Governor Pat McCrory of NC is pleased with the improvement in the jobs situation.

The truth has stayed mostly hidden or under reported.

To fix a problem it is important to:
A) Acknowledgement the problem.
B) Understand the problem.

It appears that neither A or B is the case.

The Labor Force Participation Rate in NC has dropped 4 percent since Obama took office in January 2009 and 1.7 percent since Pat McCrory took office in January 2013.

The real unemployent rate in the US and NC?

Well over 10 percent.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2014/03/29/nc-unemployment-rate-drops-while-labor-force-plummets-participation-rate-drops-4-since-obama-took-office-1-7-since-mccrory-took-office-nc-losing-jobs-and-workers/

God only knows the impact of part time jobs on NC employment and the economy.

 

 

Massive NC voter fraud discovered, Over 35 thousand voters same first and last name DOB registered in NC and another state voted in 2012, Senate Leader Phil Berger and rep Thom Tillis

Massive NC voter fraud discovered, Over 35 thousand voters same first and last name DOB registered in NC and another state voted in 2012, Senate Leader Phil Berger and rep Thom Tillis

“On Monday June 23rd, 2008 the SBI initiated an investigation into allegations that employees of the Alamance County Health Department specifically Dr.
Kathleen Shapley-Quinn and Nurse Karen Saxer were knowingly and willingly falsifying patient medical records.”
“At the request of some patients, Alamance County Health Department provided work notes and prescriptions in alias names. Providing these services would assist illegal aliens with maintaining assumed or stolen identities, which may be a violation of state, or federal law. (Identity Theft, Fraud, etc.)”
“Veronica Arias, of Texas, reported on May 2nd, 2008 to the ACSO that someone in Swepsonville, NC had stolen her identity and was using same to be employed.
Maria Sanchez was arrested on May 6, 2008 by investigators of the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office for stealing and using the identity of Veronica Arias.
Sanchez used the name, SSN, DOB, of Veronica Arias who is a living resident of Texas.”…Alamance County NC Sheriff 2008 report
“North Carolina is the latest state featured by Project Veritas in its series on how America’s electoral system is extremely vulnerable to voter fraud. During last week’s North Carolina primary, James O’Keefe and his colleagues demonstrated how easy it is to obtain ballots even if the person has publicly professed not to be a U.S. citizen.”
O’Keefe also tells WND about his group’s visit to the University of North Carolina, where a dean and a program director laugh off confessions of voter fraud and even seem to encourage it. Yet a day later, both officials tell conservatives that voter fraud never happens.”…WND May 15, 2012

“We control life, Winston, at all its levels. You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us. But we create human nature. Men are infinitely malleable.”…George Orwell, “1984″

 

 

From Phil Berger for Senate April 2, 2014.
“Tillis, Berger Issue Joint Statement On Newly Discovered, Alarming Evidence Of Voter Error And Fraud”

“Raleigh, N.C. – House Speaker Thom Tillis (R-Mecklenburg) and Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) issued a joint statement Wednesday in response to more alarming evidence of voter error and fraud discovered by the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

Initial findings from the Board presented to the Joint Legislative Elections Oversight Committee today show:

  • 765 voters with an exact match of first and last name, DOB and last four digits of SSN were registered in N.C. and another state and voted in N.C. and the other state in the 2012 general election.
  • 35,750 voters with the same first and last name and DOB were registered in N.C. and another state and voted in both states in the 2012 general election.
  • 155,692 voters with the same first and last name, DOB and last four digits of SSN were registered in N.C. and another state – and the latest date of registration or voter activity did not take place within N.C.

These findings only take into account data from the 28 states who participated in the 2014 Interstate Crosscheck, leaving out potential voter error and fraud in the 22 states that do not participate in the consortium.

Additionally, during an audit of death records from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Board discovered:

  • 50,000 new death records that had not previously been provided to the State Board of Elections.
  • 13,416 deceased voters on the voter rolls in October 2013.
  • 81 deceased voters that had voter activity after they died.

The findings were made possible by a new election reform law passed by the General Assembly last year, which called on the Board to improve the accuracy of voter registration lists and combat potential fraud by cross checking information on voting records with those of other states.

“While we are alarmed to hear evidence of widespread voter error and fraud, we are encouraged to see the common-sense law passed to ensure voters are who they say they are is working,” said Tillis and Berger. “These findings should put to rest ill-informed claims that problems don’t exist and help restore the integrity of our elections process. We appreciate the State Board of Elections bringing this critical information to light.””

http://philberger.com/news/entry/tillis-berger-issue-joint-statement-on-newly-discovered-alarming-evidence-of-voter-error-and-fraud

From Citizen Wells December 11, 2012.

“How Obama stole the 2012 election was not a either or scenario. It wasn’t just voter fraud or absentee military ballots not counted or the Santa Claus appeal or the organizing strategy of the Obama Campaign or the massive record breaking contributions. It was a combination of those efforts.

I do not yet have a number for absentee military who were disenfranchised. I know for a fact, however, that they were not given a fair chance. I recently spoke to a family member who was in Iraq in 2008. He did not receive a ballot then.

Are you aware that there are over 800,000 undocumented aliens in Florida alone? In the period leading up to the 2008 election there was so much confusion on the part of social workers about illegal aliens and providing them with voter registration forms in Alamance County NC (just east of Greensboro), that the Sheriff’s Dept. documented the controversies in a paper. The Alamance Sheriff’s Dept. has subsequently been harassed by the US Justice Dept. for their efforts to uphold the law.

Obama and the Democrat party have done their best to permit illegal immigration and are now in the process of making them legal to broaden their voter base even more.

From The Examiner December 10, 2012.

“President Obama carried 70 percent of the Latino vote”

“Obama will introduce his own immigration reform proposal in January or February, and people familiar with the president’s plan say it will probably mirror a 2007 Democratic bill that would provide a path to citizenship for nearly all of the immigrants now in the country illegally, which some estimates put as high as 20 million people. That goes much further in dealing with illegal immigrants than Republicans have ever been willing to go, but Obama is betting that a newly chastened GOP will be more willing to negotiate.”

Read more:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/gop-embraces-immigration-reform-in-appeal-to-hispanic-voters/article/2515586#.UMcnSoP7LhI

Forget the popular vote spread between Obama and Romney. There were literally just a handful of counties in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and Virginia that decided the election based on the electoral college. The useless states of California and New York accounted for the popular vote spread.

WND has presented an excellent article on how Obama stole the 2012 election.

From WND December 10, 2012.

“DID OBAMA STEAL THE 2012 ELECTION?”

“Following Barack Obama’s re-election, accusations from some quarters have held that his campaign stole the election through vote fraud. Others claim no vote fraud occurred, and that the election victory resulted from the Obama campaign’s vastly superior get-out-the-vote effort. One RedState diarist has even gone so far as to announce that commenters complaining that the election was stolen will be banned from the site.

With all of the swirling allegations, where does the truth lie? While there have been many proven cases of vote fraud in previous elections, and many credible allegations of fraud in this election cycle, was the cumulative total of all fraud sufficient to throw the election for Obama? After all, Obama’s team ran an intensely focused, highly organized get-out-the-vote effort. Republican efforts were, by comparison, disorganized and nowhere near as comprehensive or sophisticated.

Still, members of the president’s team did everything possible to rig the game in their favor. They took liberties with the law Republicans would never dare attempt and obstructed voter-integrity efforts at every turn, while the vast political-media-entertainment-education-union-nonprofit complex went all in to promote Obama’s narrative.

Democrats and their media allies also engaged in what has fairly been described as a dishonest and “vicious” campaign to discredit the Republican nominee while steadfastly  shielding the administration from its many scandals. Any of these could have sunk Obama’s reelection prospects had the media reported them with the enthusiasm they showed in attacking and spreading disinformation about Romney.

When it comes to outright vote fraud, however, let’s examine first those allegations with the greatest potential for skewing election results.

100 percent vote for Obama

In some inner city precincts, Obama garnered between 98 and 100 percent of the vote. This was most frequently noted about Philadelphia, Pa., and Cleveland, Ohio. Incredulous observers stated, “Third world dictators don’t even get 99 percent of the vote.” Rush Limbaugh quipped, “I mean, the last guy that got this percentage of the vote was Saddam Hussein, and the people that didn’t vote for him got shot.”

But these statements confuse turnout with votes. In communist countries like Saddam’s Iraq, every voter is indeed required to vote for the one choice on the ballot, and participation is close to 100 percent all the time. However, in U.S. elections, turnout has run at about 60 percent for the past three presidential races.”

“Does this mean that vote fraud didn’t occur in these locations? No, but if it did, it was likely not enough to throw the election. One issue that warrants a closer look, however, is absentee ballots. In Ohio, 29.5 percent of the vote came through absentee ballots in 2008 (2012 results are not finalized yet). In Cuyahoga County in 2012, absentee ballots made up 40.5 percent of the total.

According to the New York Times, use of absentee ballots nationwide has tripled since 1980 and now stands at about 20 percent of total ballots cast. The Times notes, “While fraud in voting by mail is far less common than innocent errors, it is vastly more prevalent than the in-person voting fraud that has attracted far more attention, election administrators say.”

Absentee ballots are particularly vulnerable to vote fraud. In one notorious recent case in upstate Troy, N.Y., eight local Democrat politicians were indicted and four have pleaded guilty to falsifying absentee ballots. This was a local election and these politicians won their seats before getting caught. Anthony DeFiglio, a Democratic committeeman who pleaded guilty, said that absentee ballot fraud was a “normal political tactic”:

[It is] an ongoing scheme and it occurs on both sides of the aisle. The people who are targeted live in low-income housing and there is a sense that they are a lot less likely to ask any questions… What appears as a huge conspiracy to nonpolitical persons is really a normal political tactic.

Bob Mirch, the former Republican legislator who first discovered this fraud, said, “It’s an insider game. It takes insiders to do it, and I think it takes insiders to catch those who try to steal the election. … It’s easy to do it and yes, it’s easy to not get caught …” Frank LaPosta, a former Troy, N.Y., city council president said he got run out of the Democratic Party for speaking out against the vote fraud.”

“Just the same, it is clear that Democrats are up to something at inner city polls. Their eye-popping – and illegal – stonewalling of poll watchers strongly suggests nefarious activity. The left’s nationwide campaign to discredit voter integrity efforts as “voter suppression” and their obstinate battle against voter ID laws only serve to reinforce this impression. Following are a few examples of realvoter suppression and threats to voter integrity that occurred in 2012:

  • 75 GOP vote inspectors were ordered to leave Philadelphia poll locations by Democrat poll judges. One judge was caught on audio. A court order sent them back but who knows what went on while they were gone? These poll locations were all within the 59 precincts where Romney received no votes.
  • In Philadelphia, the Community Voters Project, an ACORN clone that employs some former ACORN workers, shredded Republican voter registrations. This is not the first time they have been in trouble.
  • The Florida AFL-CIO threatened True the Vote and Tampa Fair Vote with legal action for submitting voter registration challenges.
  • Maryland Representative Elijah Cummings issued a highly publicized threat against True the Vote and Election Integrity Maryland just for checking voter rolls. EIM found 11,000 questionable registrations, including 1,566 dead voters. The Maryland Board of Elections took no action.
  • Cummings also attacked the Ohio Voter Integrity Project with the same baseless claims.
  • Think Progress falsely claimed True the Vote was “under investigation” by Rep. Cummings, when in fact he has no legal authority to do so.
  • Despite overwhelming nonpartisan public support for voter ID laws, Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department and liberal jurists have delayed, emasculated or defeated ID laws in Texas, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
  • Holder has vowed to fight voter ID laws as restricting voters’ rights.
  • The Obama administration “spiked investigations” of eight states that had major voter roll problems.
  • The Holder Justice Department conspired with Project Vote on National Voter Registration Act (aka Motor Voter) enforcement lawsuits, which force state and local agencies to become, essentially, low income voter registration drives.
  • In 2009 DOJ announced to its attorneys that it would not enforce voter roll maintenance laws because it wouldn’t increase voter turnout.

“Finally, whatever the actual level of voter fraud that occurred in the 2012 election, the potential for future fraud is truly staggering. Pew Research Center published a report revealing election rolls in a shambles nationwide. They found:

  • 24 million invalid or inaccurate voter registrations
  • 1.8 million deceased voters
  • 2.75 million registered in multiple states.

As noted earlier, Cloward and Piven’s Motor Voter law is responsible for much of this mess.

James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas found 30,000 dead voters still on the rolls in North Carolina, a state Obama won by only 14,000 votes in 2008.”

“llegal alien voting

Glenn Cook of the Las Vegas Review Journal reported in early November that illegal aliens were being pressured, even threatened, by Culinary Union Local 226, to register and vote. Cook related the story of two illegals who told him about it. In Florida, an NBC investigative report found that illegals were registered to vote and indeed have been voting.

This year, immigration officials uncovered a massive document fraud ring operating in Baltimore that has provided thousands of fraudulent driver’s licenses, green cards and Social Security cards to illegals for years. Such documents are apparently easy and inexpensive to obtain.

DHS believes about one-third of illegals in the U.S. are people who have simply overstayed their visas. Many of these people could have obtained driver’s licenses while still legal. Since licenses typically expire after a much longer period, it is reasonable to assume many of these people could be registered to vote.

Because of the National Voter Registration Act (Motor Voter), anyone who obtains a new driver’s license is automatically registered to vote. Furthermore, the NVRA does not require voting officials to verify proof of citizenship when people register. In states where illegals can obtain driver’s licenses, including California, Washington, New Mexico and Utah, they are likely already registered to vote. How many illegals actually vote on a systematic basis is not known, but many do.

In fact, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler found that about 5,000 Colorado illegals voted in the 2010 midterm elections and 12,000 were registered to vote. In 2012, he sent letters to 3,900 people identified as potentially illegal voters. Gessler’s office intends to conduct a thorough statewide analysis once all results are official.

These illegal voters should obviously not be ignored. They could spell the difference between victory and defeat in many cases.

One aspect of Colorado’s voting history merits especially close scrutiny. Colorado has an approximately equal number of registered Republicans (1,157,373) and Democrats (1,151,198). Historically, unaffiliated voters in Colorado have numbered roughly the same. Between 2008 and 2012, however, their numbers grew by a whopping 23 percent, some 248,000 people. Unaffiliated voters, now numbering 1.3 million, are the largest single voting bloc in Colorado. Who are these people?

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, between 2000 and 2010 Colorado’s population grew by 728,000. Fully 42 percent of these were Hispanic and almost all, 303,000, were of Mexican descent. A Gallup poll shows that Hispanics in general (52 percent), but immigrants especially (60 percent), tend to identify as independent. Yet most affiliate with Democrats (52 percent) versus Republicans (23 percent).

How many of these were illegal, and how many of them voted? A study on illegal immigrant demographics by the Center for Immigration Studies estimates Colorado’s illegal population at 167,000, so to pin Obama’s Colorado win on illegals alone would require almost all of these to have registered and voted.

According to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, Coloradan voters must show a state-issued ID if they have one; if not, a utility bill or Social Security number will suffice. It is likely that some illegals voted and could have contributed to Obama’s victory, but it is unreasonable to assume a large scale illegal vote would have gone unnoticed. Gessler’s observation of a few thousand illegal voters is much more realistic.

Obama’s Colorado win was, however, secured with the unaffiliated vote, and many of these were Hispanic. According to Latino Decisions, an election eve poll claimed that 87 percent of Latinos in Colorado supported Obama over Romney. Nationwide, they found that the GOP was supported by only 25 percent of Hispanics. An October 2012 Pew Hispanic Center poll showed only 21 percent of Hispanics supporting Romney to 69 percent for Obama.

Despite Republican post-election hand-wringing, this is not likely to change much with any kind of concessions to the Hispanic community.

The reasons are straightforward and not dependent upon immigration reform. According to the CIS study, 57 percent of illegals in the U.S. live at or near poverty. Granted amnesty, would this group suddenly embrace the entitlement-reform-minded Republican Party en masse? Who would get credit for amnesty in their minds, Democrats, or the Republicans they dragged to the table? The very act of Republicans “conceding” to Democrats on amnesty and immigration “reform” declares Democrats the victors.

More relevant are the sentiments among legal immigrants and Hispanic U.S. citizens. According to CIS, well over 60 percent of legal immigrants from Mexico and Central American countries – i.e. the vast majority of Hispanic immigrants – live near or in poverty. Among U.S. born Hispanics, 50 percent of households with children are led by single mothers, 55 percent of households with children utilize welfare, and 45 percent of all Hispanic households pay no income tax.

They will probably not be voting Republican anytime soon.”

I URGE YOU TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE:”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/did-obama-steal-2012-election-voter-fraud-santa-claus-effect-absentee-military-ballots-voting-machine-malfunctions-illegal-aliens-voting-illegal-contributions/

 

Thanks to commenter Jonah.

 

 

NC unemployment rate drops while labor force plummets, Participation rate drops 4 % since Obama took office, 1.7 % since McCrory took office, NC losing jobs and workers

NC unemployment rate drops while labor force plummets, Participation rate drops 4 % since Obama took office, 1.7 % since McCrory took office, NC losing jobs and workers

“11.4%: What the U.S. unemployment rate would be if labor force participation were back to January 2008 levels.” …James Pethokoukis, American Enterprise Institute, June 2013

“Nearly half of U.S. companies are reluctant to hire full-time employees because of the ACA. One in five firms indicates they are likely to hire fewer employees, and another one in 10 may lay off current employees in response to the law.

Other firms will shift toward part-time workers. More than 40 percent of CFOs say their companies will consider switching some jobs to less than 30 hours per week or targeting part-time workers for future employment.”…Duke University Fuqua School of Business December 11, 2013

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″

 

 

We have the Obama administration touting job creation.

Governor Pat McCrory of NC is pleased with the improvement in the jobs situation.

The truth has stayed mostly hidden or under reported.

To fix a problem it is important to:
A) Acknowledgement the problem.
B) Understand the problem.

It appears that neither A or B is the case.

The Labor Force Participation Rate in NC has dropped 4 percent since Obama took office in January 2009 and 1.7 percent since Pat McCrory took office in January 2013.

The real unemployent rate in the US and NC?

Well over 10 percent.

The following article at least attempts to present the truth.

From WRAL March 28, 2014.

“NC employers shed thousands of jobs in February; unemployment rate dips”
“North Carolina’s unemployment rate fell again in February, but employers in the state continued to shed jobs, according to data released Friday by the state Department of Commerce.

A survey calculating nonfarm payrolls recorded 11,300 fewer jobs in the month after a decline of more than 7,000 jobs in January.

Despite the drop in jobs, the state’s unemployment rate dipped to 6.4 percent, marking the eighth straight month of steady decline. North Carolina’s unemployment rate is down 2.2 percentage points from February 2013 and is now better than the national unemployment rate, which was 6.7 percent last month.

The state’s labor force in February was 4,659,236, down 7,349 since January. The labor force is down more than 60,000 since February 2013, evidence of many people, some of them the long-term unemployed, are dropping out of the job market and are no longer counted in the unemployment rate calculation.

“If North Carolina is going to see a healthy long-term recovery in employment growth, we need to see all jobless workers moving into jobs, rather than out of the labor force. And we’re not seeing that because job creation remains anemic,” said Allan Freyer, an analyst with the NC Justice Center.

The number of people unemployed – those who are looking for jobs – fell sharply, from 310,974 in January to 296,226 in February.

Employers continue to shed jobs

Employers in North Carolina shed more than 11,000 jobs in February, and only three nonfarm sectors saw growth during the month.
NC Department of Commerce.”

“Gov. Pat McCrory said Friday that he’s pleased to see more people getting back to work.”

Read more:

http://www.wral.com/nc-employers-shed-thousands-of-jobs-in-february-unemployment-rate-dips/13520294/

By the way, the labor force in NC was 4,728,203  when McCrory took office. It was 4,659,236 in February 2014.

http://esesc23.esc.state.nc.us/d4/LausSelection.aspx

US & NC jobs data reality, Labor force plummets, Part time jobs created, WSJ The Hidden Rot in the Jobs Numbers, CitizenWells reveals unreported data, Media continues to protect Obama

US & NC jobs data reality, Labor force plummets, Part time jobs created, WSJ The Hidden Rot in the Jobs Numbers, CitizenWells reveals unreported data, Media continues to protect Obama

“11.4%: What the U.S. unemployment rate would be if labor force participation were back to January 2008 levels.” …James Pethokoukis, American Enterprise Institute, June 2013

“Nearly half of U.S. companies are reluctant to hire full-time employees because of the ACA. One in five firms indicates they are likely to hire fewer employees, and another one in 10 may lay off current employees in response to the law.

Other firms will shift toward part-time workers. More than 40 percent of CFOs say their companies will consider switching some jobs to less than 30 hours per week or targeting part-time workers for future employment.”…Duke University Fuqua School of Business December 11, 2013

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″

 

 

2014 is an election year and the media continues to protect Obama.

Everyone could be unemployed and the mainstream media would portray the jobs situation as rosy.

The following article from the Wall Street Journal is a notable exception.

From the WSJ March 16, 2014.

“The Hidden Rot in the Jobs Numbers”

“Most commentators viewed the February jobs report released on March 7 as good news, indicating that the labor market is on a favorable growth path. A more careful reading shows that employment actually fell—as it has in four out of the past six months and in more than one-third of the months during the past two years.

Although it is often overlooked, a key statistic for understanding the labor market is the length of the average workweek. Small changes in the average workweek imply large changes in total hours worked. The average workweek in the U.S. has fallen to 34.2 hours in February from 34.5 hours in September 2013, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That decline, coupled with mediocre job creation, implies that the total hours of employment have decreased over the period.

Job creation rose from an initial 113,000 in January (later revised to 129,000) to 175,000 in February. The January number frightened many, while the February number was cheered—even though it was below the prior 12-month average of 189,000.

The labor market’s strength and economic activity are better measured by the number of total hours worked than by the number of people employed. An employer who replaces 100 40-hour-per-week workers with 120 20-hour-per-week workers is contracting, not expanding operations. The same is true at the national level.

The total hours worked per week is obtained by multiplying the reported average workweek hours by the number of workers employed. The decline in the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls by 3/10ths of an hour—offset partially by the increase in the number of people working—means that real labor usage on net, taking into account hours worked, fell by the equivalent of 100,000 jobs since September.

Here’s a fuller explanation. The job-equivalence number is computed simply by taking the total decline in hours and dividing by the average workweek. For example, if the average worker was employed for 34.4 hours and total hours worked declined by 344 hours, the 344 hours would be the equivalent of losing 10 workers’ worth of labor. Thus, although the U.S. economy added about 900,000 jobs since September, the shortened workweek is equivalent to losing about one million jobs during this same period. The difference between the loss of the equivalent of one million jobs and the gain of 900,000 new jobs yields a net effect of the equivalent of 100,000 lost jobs.”

“Another possibility for the declining average workweek is the Affordable Care Act. That law induces businesses with fewer than 50 full-time employees—full-time defined as 30 hours per week—to keep the number of hours low to avoid having to provide health insurance. The jury is still out on this explanation, but research by Luis Garicano, Claire LeLarge and John Van Reenen (National Bureau of Economic Research, February 2013) has shown that laws that can be evaded by keeping firms small or hours low can have significant effects on employment.”

Read more:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304250204579433442474053878

I would like to add the following bit of data from the BLS.

The number of people who could only find part time work rose 121,000 from January to February 2014.

Did you see or hear that reported anywhere?

And now for NC.

From the Raleigh News Observer March 17, 2014.

“North Carolina’s unemployment rate continued improving in January to near the national average, falling to 6.7 percent, the state Commerce Department reported Monday.”

“”We’ve been in this kind of transitional period for years now. There are times when I say I wish I could have some news that was all good or all bad. If it was all good or all bad, it would be easy to interpret,” said Andrew Brod, a senior researcher at the business school at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. “You take the numbers as a whole. They’re not all good or all bad.””

“About 60,000 dropped out of the pool of people either holding jobs or looking for work in the year ending in January, while nearly 106,000 left the unemployed list, the state report said. That indicated around 60 percent of the decline in the unemployment rate was due to people ending their job searches, for whatever reason, rather than landing jobs, Brod said.

“In terms of the flight from the labor force, it’s looking as though last year wasn’t as bad as we previously thought,” Brod said.”

Read more:
Here are a few interesting numbers from the NC state website.

Labor force participation rate

Jan 2009  64.9%

Jan 2013  62.6%

Jan 2014  61.1%

As you can see, the labor force participation rate plummeted 3.8% since Obama took office in January 2009 and 1.5% in the last year alone.

The number of people employed in NC in January 2013 was 4,310,807.

The number of people employed in NC in January 2014 was 4,356,090.

That is a one year increase of 45, 283 people employed.

Does that match up with the drop in unemployment rate and gain in jobs that you have read about?

No!

Check for yourself.

http://esesc23.esc.state.nc.us/d4/LausSelection.aspx

Thanks to commenter and patriot Zach.

 

Greensboro News Record protects Obama punishes Governor Pat McCrory, Glaring example of media bias, Obama SOTUS unemployment, NC unemployment, Baby boomers blamed again, Sloppy reporting or lies?

Greensboro News Record protects Obama punishes Governor Pat McCrory, Glaring example of media bias, Obama SOTUS unemployment, NC unemployment, Baby boomers blamed again, Sloppy reporting or lies?

 
“Greensboro News Record editorial states ‘An occasional look at political claims that take shortcuts with the facts or don’t tell the full story.’  The News Record should practice what they preach.”…Citizen Wells

“11.4%: What the U.S. unemployment rate would be if labor force participation were back to January 2008 levels.” …James Pethokoukis, American Enterprise Institute, June 2013

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″

I suspected that the recent Greensboro News Record reporting on the NC unemployment rate and reasons was an attempt to discredit NC Governor Pat McCrory and his plans to create jobs.

I was ok with the News Record reporting the truth about the drop in the unemployment rate in NC. It was the truth. Mostly due to working age folks dropping out of the labor force.

Too bad the News Record does not apply the same standard to Obama. Instead, they use regurgitated AP lies that attempt to portray the drop in the labor force as mainly due to baby boomers retiring. That lie has been revealed here and at other sites such as Zero Hedge.

From the Greensboro News Record editorial January 28, 2014.

“Fact check on the State of the Union Address”

“An occasional look at political claims that take shortcuts with the facts or don’t tell the full story.”

“REP. CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS of Washington, in her prepared Republican response: “Last month, more Americans stopped looking for a job than found one. Too many people are falling further and further behind because, right now, the president’s policies are making people’s lives harder.”

THE FACTS: She leaves out a significant factor in the high number of people who aren’t looking for jobs: Baby boomers are retiring.
It’s true that a large part of the still-high unemployment rate is due to jobless workers who have given up looking for a job. There are roughly three people seeking every job opening, a circumstance that can discourage others from trying.
But one big reason people aren’t seeking employment is that there are so many boomers — the generation born in the immediate aftermath of World War II — and therefore more than the usual number of retirements.
As of December, the economy had gained 3,246,000 jobs since Obama took office in January 2009. When he was inaugurated, the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent and on the rise.
It peaked at 10 percent in October 2009 and has been inching down ever since, to 6.7 percent this past December.”

Read more:

http://www.news-record.com/news/local_news/article_e422165e-888f-11e3-829d-001a4bcf6878.html

From the Greensboro News Record January 28, 2014.

“Report: NC jobless rate falls to 6.9 percent”
“North Carolina’s unemployment rate dropped to 6.9 percent in December, its lowest level in more than five years, but Tuesday’s news came with signals that the rapid fall was related to thousands of discouraged people giving up on finding work.”

“Gov. Pat McCrory and state House Speaker Thom Tills, a fellow Republican from Mecklenburg County, on Tuesday credited tax cuts and fewer business regulations that GOP lawmakers approved this year for sparking an economic comeback.”

“But economists warn the fast fall in the unemployment rate has a lot to do with thousands of jobless workers no longer counted because they have become discouraged about the prospects of finding work and have given up.

Since December 2012, 13,414 more people are on payrolls and more than 124,000 fewer people were listed as unemployed, the report shows. That suggests that just 11 percent of the drop in unemployed workers resulted from the jobless finding work, said Allan Freyer, an analyst with the Budget & Tax Center, a part of the liberal-leaning NC Justice Center.

The state’s population of working-age adults who are looking for jobs also shrank by nearly 111,000 over the year. That means North Carolinians in the working-age population who are either employed or actively looking for jobs is the lowest since before the national recession started in December 2007.
As more people give up on finding work, that makes the unemployment rate look better because they’re no longer being counted, said Patrick Conway, an economics professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.”

Read more:

http://www.news-record.com/news/north_carolina_ap/article_97849be3-1c83-55f3-98a5-fce1d20f1cf5.html

From Zero Hedge January 8, 2014.

“This Chart Is A True Representation Of The Employment Crisis In This Country”

“The civilian labor force in the US has been causing bouts of hand-wringing and head-scratching. It represents the official number of people working or looking for work. It’s what the officialunemployment rate (U-3) is based on. If labor force participation drops – if for whatever reason, millions of people are no longer counted as part of the labor force, as is the case in the US – it’s a troublesome indicator for the economy and the real employment picture.

It also makes the unemployment rate, now 7.3%, look a lot less awful: if you’re not counted in the labor force, and you don’t have a job, you’re not counted as unemployed. There are millions of people in that category. And their numbers are growing, not diminishing.

“The irony of the U-3 unemployment statistic is the fact that while unemployment has gone down 30% since its 2009 peak, we have the lowest labor force participation rate in over 3 decades,” observed Ralph Dillon, Vice President at Global Financial Data, in an email. “The markets and politicians celebrate the official unemployment rate, but you have to be concerned with the trend that is most indicative of the health of the employment situation in this country: the downward trend of those who want to work and can’t.””

“The chart (Global Financial Data) juxtaposes the unemployment rate and the labor force participation rate since 1980. After the financial crisis, suddenly, for the first time in history, they both started moving in lockstep. Downward.

““This chart is a true representation of the crisis of employment in this country,” Dillon wrote. The diminishing labor force participation rate – the officially available labor pool, however unrealistic it might be – has been driving down the unemployment rate for the first time in history.”

People 55 to 64 years old, the first forget-about-retirement generation, are staying in the labor force to an ever greater degree. In 1992, only 56.2% were still in the labor force, in 2012, 64.5% were. Similar for older folks. The participation rate for people 65 to 74 years old jumped from 16.3% to 26.8%. Reality is this: fewer people can afford to retire.

But who is not making it into the labor force? Young folks. The participation rate for those 16 to 19 has plunged from 51.3% in 1992 to 34.3% in 2012. OK, the BLS explains that by an increase in school attendance, and that would be a good thing. But the 25 to 54 year olds? Even among them, participation rates dropped from 83.3% in 2002 to 81.4% a decade later.

Among the 18 to 34 year old “Millennials,” those lucky ones who’re official counted in the labor force, unemployment has been a nightmare, with double digit unemployment rates, still, nearly 6 years after the financial crisis, reported the youth advocacy group Young Invincibles. It’s even worse for the 16 to 24 year olds, whose official unemployment rate is still 15%!”

Read more:

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-01-08/%E2%80%9C-chart-true-representation-employment-crisis-country%E2%80%9D

Some common sense from Citizen Wells.

Ignoring facts from the US Government about the trend of retirement aged people working longer, there are more younger people entering the work force age group than would leave if all people turning 65 retired at once.

There are only 85% of those turning 65 still alive.

More people were born in the early nineties than in 1949.

Still not clear?

Read more:

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2014/01/20/labor-force-participation-collapse-from-younger-dropouts-not-retirees-zero-hedge-nails-it-more-younger-people-born-to-replace-older-labor-force-should-be-increasing-not-decreasing/

For their Orwellian misrepresentation of the US unemployment which protects Obama, the Greensboro News Record is awarded 4 Orwells.

Orwells4

NC employment unemployment truth January 2014, Labor force droputs, Participation rate plummets, Employment spin, Greensboro News Record awarded 2 Murrows

NC employment unemployment truth January 2014, Labor force droputs, Participation rate plummets, Employment spin, Greensboro News Record awarded 2 Murrows

“You can’t fix a problem unless you acknowledge and understand it.”…Citizen Wells

“11.4%: What the U.S. unemployment rate would be if labor force participation were back to January 2008 levels.” …James Pethokoukis, American Enterprise Institute, June 2013

“The function of the press is very high. It is almost Holy.
It ought to serve as a forum for the people, through which
the people may know freely what is going on. To misstate or
suppress the news is a breach of trust.”…. Louis D. Brandeis

 

 

It is fitting and proper that I award 2 Murrows to the Greensboro News Record. Edward R. Murrow was born just outside of Greensboro.

I will award more Murrows to the News Record when they report in the same manner on the US unemployment situation and Obama Administration.

From the Greensboro News Record January 7, 2014.

(print edition sub heading)

 

“People dropping out of the labor force might be skewing the decline.”

“The unemployment rate in the Greensboro/High Point metro area is the lowest since late 2008, when the economy began shedding jobs at an alarming rate.

The rate dropped to a seasonally adjusted 7.8 percent in November, the N.C. Department of Commerce reported Tuesday.

That’s a drop of 2.1 percentage points compared with November 2012.

It’s also the lowest rate in five years, when it was 7.9 percent.

But a closer look suggests the Greensboro/High Point metro’s job market may not be as healthy as it seems.

Despite the drop in the unemployment rate, the state’s survey of households suggests the region is adding few jobs.

The number of employed people is virtually unchanged since the end of 2012.”

Read more:

http://www.news-record.com/business/article_2fe50f6a-77ba-11e3-b6a7-0019bb30f31a.html

From the Greensboro News Record editorial January 9, 2014.

“Employment spin”

“After North Carolina cut unemployment benefits last summer, people went out and got jobs.

That’s the compelling story line Republicans are spreading to explain one reason for the state’s rapidly falling unemployment rate. It was 8.9 percent in July, when extended benefits ended and weekly payments decreased, and it declined steadily to 7.4 percent in November.

“Give people incentives to stay home, many will stay home. Give them incentives to work, and many more will work,” Jim Tynan wrote last week for the conservative journal Civitas Review Online.

Is it that simple? Can North Carolina, and the entire country, turn the economy around by cutting off unemployment benefits?”

“It’s not that simple. While more people are working, a much greater number have left the workforce. UNCG economist Andrew Brod noted recently that if the state’s labor force had been as large in November as it was in January, the most recent unemployment rate would have been 9.5 percent instead of 7.4 percent. Harvard economist Lawrence Katz last week said North Carolina’s shrinking labor force accounts for 95 percent of the falling unemployment rate. Job growth accounts for just 5 percent.”

“The bottom line for North Carolina’s economy is jobs. The number is slowly increasing, but the percentage of the state’s population that is employed hasn’t improved. If the problem were as easy to solve as some suggest — cutting off unemployment benefits — North Carolina would be in the fast lane to prosperity.”

Read more:

http://www.news-record.com/opinion/n_and_r_editorials/article_b3407324-78ad-11e3-912e-0019bb30f31a.html

The Greensboro News Record is awarded 2 Murrows.

Murrows2

 

MarketWatch.com and NC Governor Pat McCrory fail to present true employment in North Carolina, January unemployment rate 9.5 percent, Fewer employed in November, Labor force participation rate plummeted

MarketWatch.com and NC Governor Pat McCrory fail to present true employment in North Carolina, January unemployment rate 9.5 percent, Fewer employed in November, Labor force participation rate plummeted

“You can’t fix a problem unless you acknowledge and understand it.”…Citizen Wells

“11.4%: What the U.S. unemployment rate would be if labor force participation were back to January 2008 levels.” …James Pethokoukis, American Enterprise Institute, June 2013

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″

 

 

The unemployment rate in North Carolina in January was 9.5 percent.

There were more people employed in NC in January than November.

From MarketWatch.com January 8, 2014.

“What happens when jobless benefits are cut? North Carolina may offer clues”
“Last summer, North Carolina slashed the amount of cash it gave to people after they lost their jobs and the state also reduced the number of weeks they could receive benefits. Within several months, the unemployment rate fell a few ticks and by November it fell to a five-year low.”

“As a result, some 70,000 North Carolinians lost out on extra federal benefits at the end of last June.

So what happened? North Carolina’s jobless rate rose a notch to 8.9% in July and then began a steady descent: 8.7% in August, 8.3% in September, 8.0% in October and a preliminary 7.4% in November, according to U.S. Labor Department figures.

That’s the lowest rate since late 2008, though monthly numbers are prone to sharp revisions.

Government data also shows that more than 22,000 North Carolinians found work since the cutoff and the number of unemployed sank by nearly 73,000 to 344,000.

What the data doesn’t tell us, however, is what happened to all the people no longer classified as unemployed. While some found a job, others may have retired, ended up on welfare, moved in with family members, sought disability payments or fled to a nearby state with better benefits. We just don’t know.”

Read more:

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/capitolreport/2014/01/08/what-happens-when-jobless-benefits-are-cut-north-carolina-may-offer-clues/

From the Greensboro News Record January 7, 2014.

““We had the highest tax rates in the Southeast,” McCrory said. “… We think this tax reform, which lowered your corporate tax rates and lowered your income tax rate, will help existing businesses grow and help in the recruitment of new businesses and we’re already seeing a very positive impact.””
“McCrory cited the 2 percentage point drop in the state’s unemployment rate since he took office last January as evidence of the success of his administration’s agenda.”

Read more:

http://www.news-record.com/news/north_carolina_ap/article_fe4eeb5a-9ccf-57d7-b50b-6265f99285cc.html

From Citizen Wells December 22, 2013.

“I expect orwellian employment reporting from the Obama controlled US Government. I am less inclined to expect the same from the state of NC.

The unemployment rate fell from 9.5 percent in January to 7.4 percent in November. Yet there were fewer people employed in November than January.”

Why is the following not being reported?

In January of 2013 there were 4,322,922 people employed.

In November of 2013 there were 4,314,502 people employed.

The labor force participation rate plummeted from 63.4 percent to 61.3 percent in the same period.

http://esesc23.esc.state.nc.us/d4/LausSelection.aspx

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2013/12/22/nc-employment-november-2013-fact-vs-fiction-unemployment-rate-drops-from-9-5-to-7-4-percent-jan-to-nov-2013-fewer-working-in-nov-than-jan-labor-force-participation-rate-plummets/