Meanwhile, back at the ranch...Portland's financial position is characterized as "problematic" in the latest audit. There's a surprise!
The city owes some $3.4 billion, much of that due to unfunded pension liabilities due police and firefighters - the city doesn't have accounts to put money into; they pay as tax and fee revenues roll in, sort of like a lot of folks do with their credit cards.
The city has more debt, however—$3.4 billion in 2014 compared to $2.7 billion in 2005. While the city's population has grown, the city's debt per person has also grown. It increased 14 percent since 2005, rising to $5,630 per resident in 2014.
And the debt's only going up. This isn't a healthy situation, and all the happy talk by Portland politicians about being a "national model for green&sustainable" and streetcars powered by unicorn farts isn't going to make it a healthy - or sustainable - situation.
Sulfites are actually in darned near everything you consume, these days, but the ones that get the most attention are those found in wines. That's because a lot of folks with asthma or other problems so often claim that the sulfites in wines compound their issues, and thirty years ago the FDA classed them as an allergen.
There's just one teeny little problem, here: sulfites are a natural by-product of fermentation, and they head off bacterial proliferation that would otherwise ruin the product (and possibly sicken the drinker). So they're kind of important. As it happens, though, there's a pretty easy way to deal with them.
As an aside, reds are generally low in sulfites, while whites are often chock-full of them. It's also worth noting that there are two "flavors" of SO2 in wines: "bound" SO2 has bound to compounds in the wine, while "free" SO2 is used much more gradually as it preserves the wine.
Anyway, after all that, here's the money-shot: it turns out that a few drops of plain old hydrogen peroxide in the glass won't affect the flavor, but will neutralize virtually all of the "free" SO2, which appears to be the main allergenic culprit in the wine.
Malden, Massachusetts has a trash cop. The city charges people based on how much trash they generate, but people cheat - so the trash cop spends mornings going through garbage bags, looking for identifiers so that he can write them up a ticket.
Malden is one of about 1,200 cities nationwide that has implemented so-called Pay-as-You-Throw programs, which charge residents for garbage bags. The municipal garbage trucks won’t pick up any trash that’s not in marked Malden bags, which cost $1 for a 15-gallon bag, $2 for a 33-gallon bag. Since residents have to now pay for every garbage bag they use, the thinking goes, they’ll recycle and compost more. The city picks up recycling and yard waste for free.
But people put trash in with the recycling, so the garbage cop writes them up. Or they'll buy some garbage bags elsewhere (the ones purchased from the city carry an identifying stamp) and dump the bags into public trash cans - or drop them off in front of other peoples' homes. The garbage cop sorts through these bags, looking for an envelope or something else that he can use to identify the perp. It's an ongoing battle, but he doesn't mind, because he's saving the planet.
“Look at this,” he says, slowing his truck near a home with recycling bins innocently set out front. Amid the orange-juice cartons and newspaper in the recycling bin: half-full paint cans. Paint cans can’t be recycled. He writes a ticket.
The tickets left behind are polite reminders to residents on proper trash disposal and recycling techniques. They say:
UNACCEPTED TRASH. PLEASE REMOVE WITHIN 24 HOURS OR SUBJECT TO $300 FINE + REMOVAL FEE
Zanazzo writes these tickets for people who put out household carpeting as trash, or trash that is not in a blue Malden bag, or more than one bulk item per week, or television monitor or tires or wood or toilets. (By state law, residents are on their own for toilet disposal.) It’s up to residents to know the rules, and to know what can and can’t be recycled.
Yes, it's a dirty job , but someone's got to do it. Because as he puts it, "People are slobs". Someone's got to save them from themselves, for the sake of the planet. And he's just the guy to do it.
It seems as though a likely response to this sort of enforcement might involve people simply driving their trash outside of town and dumping it in a ditch someplace. On the other hand, investing in a trash compactor and a shredder would likely make his job considerably more difficult.
Not that it'd matter much to us, we generate less than 20 gallons of trash every couple of weeks - although it'd be even less if tanneries still used dog poop to remove hair from hides, as they did in the early 19th century....
At last count, there were 4,300 Americans studying at German universities, with more than half pursuing degrees, says Ulrich Grothus, deputy secretary general of theGerman Academic Exchange Service.
"We've seen an overall increase in international students in this country over the last 10 years, but the increase for Americans has been much faster," he says. Between 2003 and 2013, he says, the number increased by 56 percent.
The fact that many programs are taught in English and tuition is usually free has helped make Germany the third most popular destination for American students studying abroad. Only the United Kingdom and Canada are more popular.
Also appealing is the high quality of German education. This year's reputation rankings in the London-based Times Higher Education magazine placed three German universities in the top 50 of approximately 20,000 higher education institutions worldwide.
With American universities piling on the bills - and the student loan debt- and increasingly for sub-par education, heading over to Germany makes a lot of sense for the savvy twenty-something desiring to get that degree.
Oh, he's fired up over the recent SCOTUS rulings; so much so that he wants a Constitutional Amendment that would allow voters to remove activist Justices. And while in general I appreciate Mr. Cruz's candor and his willingness to stand up to the establishment Republicans, his call for an Amendment is entirely backward.
The rulings actually provide Republicans with a much-needed shot in the arm; campaigning just became easier for Republican candidates, as has fundraising. Obamacare is here to stay - and that's an anvil hanging from the neck of Grandma Clinton; Democratics own it.
And as for the ruling on homosexual marriage: as observed here yesterday, the first articles pushing for legalization of polygamy are already emerging. We can expect Republicans to campaign on family values, the shredding of the Constitution, and much more in the coming months. If not for these rulings, Republicans would have had a murkier time of it; they'd have been stumbling around in search of messages that resonate.
Obviously, although they have reason to, Republicans aren't likely to cheer the rulings - at least, not in public.
Investigators seized 23,211 marijuana plants, 4,394 pounds of processed marijuana, 15 pounds of hash in brick form, 16 firearms and 50,000 rounds of ammunition.
The two thousand plants, along with the pound of processed marijuana and the ounce of hash are currently awaiting the inventory process.
Apparently, they were growing pot inside a large bag.
This July 4 is expected to be mild across most of the USA, although DHS anticipates scattered terrorist attacks. So hey, for the most part, we're good. USA! USA!
Sunny Beaches! King Barky has decreed that American forces stationed in Arab countries must abide by Ramadan sanctions against eating during daylight hours, although they will still be free to shoot people and/or blow them up, as we have seen Islamists do in Tunisia and elsewhere. As devout Islamists will tell you, the restrictions apply only to food and drink. Murder's still okay.
I've referred to the drooling, baying crowd simply as "Leftists", and have noted that we're now seeing what they're truly made of. But Moonbattery has taken it a step further:
Yeah! Let's ban Dixie cups while we're at it! You've gotta love the Tolerant™ Left.
Escaped murderer David Sweat has been shot, but was taken into custody before he could bleed out. That's too bad, as it would have been nice if they'd simply let him run some more. On a bright note, he and his buddy are both out of the neighborhood, so there's that.
