Category Archives: U.S.

U.S.

“Everything is on the table….No one is safe.” : August 2016 U.S. Federal State & Local Shenanigans

Incomplete list of U.S. Federal/State/Local Government self-destruct announcements for August 2016:

Bill & Hillary Clinton claim they paid 34.2% of their income to federal income taxes.  They also claim they paid 9.8% of their ‘adjusted’ income to charity, mostly to their own charity informally called Clinton Family Foundation (which, by the way, is how they keep their daughter Chelsea employed, it’s officially called the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation).

Flip-Flopper Hillary: According to The Washington Times, Hillary Clinton helped create the not-so-free Obama regime’s free trade deal known as Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), but now as a presidential candidate Hillary Clinton claims she will cancel TPP becasue it’s not free or fair to the working class!

The Washington Post revealed that despite Donald Trump claiming his golf courses are worth tens of millions of U.S. dollars his state tax filings are claiming otherwise, but only because Trump is trying to reduce paying his fair share of taxes.  

California: Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority laid off 13 people.  VVWRA is paid by how much sewage water flows into their privately run treatment plant, and sewage flows crashed by 22% (since 2010), forcing VVWRA to conduct across the board layoffs.  VVWRA blames the city of Victorville for diverting one-millions gallons of sewage into the city run treatment plant.  The city of Victorville counters by blaming delayed construction of a new pipeline on VVWRA.  That pipeline is supposedly functional now, and was 94% funded by taxes from the federal government (through FEMA).  Not only has Cupertino based Apple avoided paying its fair share of taxes to the not-so Golden State, as well as the United States, but apparently failed to pay the equivilant of $14-million USD in taxes to the European Union!  The Guardian reports that the Obama regime is threatening the European Union (an ally of the U.S.) for demanding U.S. companies like Apple pay their fair share in taxes!  And San Francisco based Uber failed to pay Taiwan the equivilant of $6.3-million in taxes!  The government of Taiwan (an ally of the U.S.) says Uber hasn’t paid taxes since 2013!

Colorado: The Colorado Weekly Homebuyers List reports at least six property owners/businesses facing federal and state tax liens, just in Boulder County.

Delaware: Illinois based HVS Convention, Sports, and Entertainment Consulting ties Delaware with Idaho for the 8th highest hotel tax rate in the U.S.

Florida: Brevard County Court warning of layoffs due to state taxpayer funding cuts.  The county Clerk of Courts told local news that 28 jobs could be eliminated between now and January 2017.  Local news reports say Brevard County Court has been eliminating jobs since 2008; from 480 to now less than 3-hundred.

Idaho: A Fourth District Judge has thrown out a lawsuit challenging the 2014 law that heaps huge taxpayer funded incentives on companies moving to The Gem State.  Tens of millions in tax breaks (supposedly in the form of “reimbursements”) have already gone to companies like California based Amy’s Kitchen and Ireland’s Glanbia Foods. Agricultural news source Capital Press also revealed that an undisclosed food producer was recently given a $15-million tax credit for creating a piddly 80 jobs in Boise.  The state Depatment of Commerce claims that tax ‘reimbursments’ helped create 4,737 new jobs. But if companies aren’t paying their fair share of taxes how are the state and local governments going to make up for it?  By hitting Idaho residents with jacked up taxes and fees, of course.

If you’ve got a family and you’re thinking about moving to Idaho to get a job with one of those taxpayer subsidized companies, think again.  The Gem State is one of the worst when it comes to affordable child daycare, and the state government does nothing about it.  Economic Policy Institute says the average Idaho family spends $6-hundred per month per child on daycare.  Child Care Aware says from 2013 to 2014 childcare costs in Idaho skyrocketed by 19.9%!  Even a daycare operator says it’s not worth it to raise a family in Idaho: “Ultimately, when you do the math, and mom is only making X amount, how much of that money is going toward lunches out, and extra clothing, and taxes, and gas to get to and from? You have to look at all of that and see if it’s cost-effective.”-Megan MacCleary, Megan’s Munchkins Preschool, whose income from her daycare operation is so low she qualies for Medicaid (even though daycare rates have gone up Idaho still ranks third lowest for daycare operator/worker pay)

Indiana: Ball State University economist Michael Hicks warned that taxpayers are being raped in the name of saving the corporate retail industry: “We are in the fourth or fifth iteration of government subsidizing new development at the urging of property developers, consultant firms and bond attorneys. Each time a shiny new strip mall is opened, a small-business owner somewhere else is eventually put out of business. The cycle continues. Consultants get rich, local economic developers claim jobs and local taxpayers get struck with empty retail infrastructure they didn’t need, and not enough money to fix the schools…”

Kansas: More proof of Failed State-ism; yet again monthly state tax collections failed to cover state government expenses.  August tax collections were $10-million USD short of what was needed!  Blame unAmerican corporate America: “Individual income taxes beat estimates for the second month of the fiscal year, which is encouraging, but corporate, sale and use tax receipts continue to lag pulling down the overall totals.”-Nick Jordan,  Secretary of Revenue

Kentucky: Illinois based HVS Convention, Sports, and Entertainment Consulting says Kentucky experienced a 19.32% hotel tax revenue growth, the biggest growth in the U.S.

Massachusetts: The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority warning of mass layoffs due to being ‘in the hole’ by $100-million USD!  At least 60 MBTA janitors are being laid off, for a start.

Michigan:  Proof of Failed State-ism; Montcalm County Sheriff Department warning deputies of possibly layoffs due to the county being in the financial hole by $1.5-million USD.  County administrators revealed that since 2012 tax collections have fallen behind expenses by an average of $2-million per year!  (if the private sector can’t pay people enough, then people can’t pay taxes)

New Jersey: More proof of Failed State-ism; The city of Paterson shutdown 36 taxpayer funded summer camps, warned of 250 layoffs, forced furlough days for remaining employees, and  intentionally increase police issued traffic tickets to generate cash!  Even with the layoffs, and forcing police to arbitrarily issue 30-thousand (80 per day) additional money generating traffic tickets, city administrators whine that they will still be short $2.1-million USD!  The New York Times revelaed that when Chris Christie became governor he reduced the $30-million in taxes owed by the now dead Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort to just $5-million!  Now we know the reason why Trump went from being a Democrat to being a Republican; bribery!

New Mexico: Cibola County prison shutting down by October, 3-hundred jobs affected!  The prison has been operated by the evil for profit Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) since 1998, CCA refused to say why they’re shutting the prison down.  It might be connected to the fact the federal government’s own study shows “They do not save substantially on costs and … they do not maintain the same level of safety and security.”

New York: The town of Oyster Bay is $700-million USD in debt, 103 employees have been retired early and another 150 will be laid off!    John Venditto, town supervisor for 18 years, warned “Everything is on the table. There will be a proportion between non-exempt employees and exempt employees. No one is safe.”

By the way, former Oyster Bay commissioner Frederick Ippolito had his federal court sentencing delayed. He pled guilty to failing to pay taxes on a $2-million consulting fee he was paid while serving as the town’s planning and development commissioner.

Ohio: According to Crain’s Cleveland Business the Internal Revenue Service has filed federal tax liens against 21 businesses.

South Carolina: Illinois based HVS Convention, Sports, and Entertainment Consulting says South Carolina experienced a negative 3.22% hotel tax revenue ‘growth’, the biggest decline in the U.S.

Washington DC: The Congressional Budget Office says within ten years taxpayer spending on military and civilian government jobs will hit a 53 years low, due to crashing tax revenues and skyrocketing costs of operations (especially due to ObamaCare).  Already the Internal Revenue Service has eliminated 17-thousand tax collecting jobs in the past six years!

WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification

JULY 2016 U.S. FEDERAL/STATE/LOCAL GOVERNMENT SHENANIGANS

Technology, U.S.

Operation Jupiter: Israel conducts Chemical, Biological warfare in U.S., controls National Guard?

04 September 2016 (13:22 UTC-07 Tango 01) 14 Shahrivar 1395/01 Dhu I-Hijja 1437/04 Ding-You 4714

Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN, once known as NBC, Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) administrators from Israel spent the last week of August in the United States. 

CBIRF demonstration in Maryland, 29 August 2016, for visiting Israeli Ministry of Defense administrators

For the past few years U.S. tax dollars have been used to help the Israeli military create a Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF).

National Guard Bureau General Joseph Lengyel with Israel’s assistant minister of defense Moshe Edri

Israel’s assistant minister of defense also made an ‘office call’ with the U.S. National Guard Bureau.

Also during the same time, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs Thomas Shannon went to Israel, where he went on an anti-Palestinian propaganda tour given by the Zionist government.  The tour actually proves that the Israeli government controls all access and exits points (meaning all food, medical supplies, fuel, access to employment, etc) around the world’s largest concentration camps known as West Bank and Gaza Strip.  Shannon also visited a factory inside a Kibbutz.  A Kibbutz is esentially a Communist Work Camp.

GOD IS EVIL: U.S. MILITARY LEADERS MEET WITH ZIONIST TERRORIST AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN!

FALSE FLAG: AIR FRESHENERS BLAMED FOR CHEMICAL ATTACK ON U.S. BASE?

OPERATION JUPITER: BIO-CHEMICAL ATTACK IN WASHINGTON STATE?

Technology, U.S.

Gary West & U.S. Army say ‘Wear your damn life jacket you dumb ass!’

Maybe it’s because of the hurricanes, or Labor Day weekend, or that it’s National Preparedness Month, but if your going to be near the water wear a great old-school technological invention known as the life jacket:

 

U.S.

Florida Militia preps for invasion of Hermine!

02 September 2016 (14:43 UTC-07 Tango 01) 12 Shahrivar 1395/29 Dhu I-Qa’da 1437/02 Ding-You 4714

Florida’s Camp Blanding is not only the base for state militia but as a staging area for Florida Power & Light as Hurricane Hermine comes ashore.

3/20th Special Forces preps Zodiac boat, and the Post commander says something:

 

GOES-13 infrared satellite image of Tropical Storm Hermine (now hurricane) on 01 Sep 2016

HOW TO PREP YOUR FIGHTER JET FOR A HURRICANE

U.S.

How to prep your fighter jet for a Hurricane

02 September 2016 (13:53 UTC-07 Tango 01) 12 Shahrivar 1395/29 Dhu I-Qa’da 1437/02 Ding-You 4714

Tyndall AFB, Florida, has a simple solution for preparing for Hurricane Hermine; just cram all your aircraft into hanger buildings:

A bunch of F-22s, a T-38 (in foreground) and QF-16 drones crammed into one hanger on Tyndall AFB

NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS MONTH: THE USAF HAS GONE TO THE DOGS, AND CATS!

U.S.

USAF 69 years on!

18 September is the official birthday of the U.S. Air Force, created in 1947 when the U.S. Congress seperated it from the U.S. Army.  Prior to that it was known as

U.S. Army Air Forces (1941-47),

U.S. Army Air Corps (1926-41),

U.S. Army Air Service (1918-26), Division of Military Aeronautics (1918), Signal Corps Aviation (1914-18), and Signal Corps Aeronautics (1907-14).

NATIONAL AIRBORNE DAY!

U.S. COAST GUARD, 226 YEARS OLD!

U.S.

“…we’ll all have to do more with less.” “a confluence of unpredicted events” : August 2016 ObamaCare Destruction

It must be noted that I started documenting these ObamaCare/healthcare related shutdowns at the beginning of 2014. In that year I posted the reports biannually (every six months). In 2015 ObamaCare cutbacks ramped up and I posted quarterly (every three months). For the past eight months of 2016 there have been so many ObamaCare cutbacks that I’ve posted a report every month!

Incomplete list of healthcare related layoffs and shutdowns, August 2016:

Alabama: Tennessee based Crestwood Medical Center laid off 13 people, directly blaming ObamaCare for lower patient volumes.

California: Menlo Park based Kaiser Health News reporting on a new ‘surprise’ healthcare billing that patients are unaware of, called Observation Care.  Not only can a hospital hit you with the surprise charge of a supposed visit by a doctor you never saw, but they’re also charging for the nurse to “observe” you.  More and more of these Observation Care charges are being rejected by Medicare because such service is now considered outpatient care, thus patients are being billed directly.  Sonoma West Medical Center (previously Palm Drive Hospital) laid off 25 administration staff after signing a management contract with Pipeline Health, they claim they’ll hire more nurses. Germany owned Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals announced they will layoff an undisclosed number of employees in Mission Bay.   Medical products maker Balda C. Brewer issued a shutdown WARN for their Anaheim ops, 130 jobs gone by Halloween! In Corona, Israeli based drugs maker Teva laying off 19 people by October.  MedRisk shutting down their Calabasas location by mid-October.  Bankrupt Gardens Regional Hospital (Tri-City Regional) issued a mass layoff WARN for their city of Hawaiian Gardens hospital (which provides service for low income people), 318 jobs gone by November!  Last year the city of Los Angeles sued Gardens Regional for ‘dumping’ homeless patients.   Gardens Regional administrators blame ObamaCare for their economic destruction saying in federal bankruptcy court “The debtor loses money every month it operates, and would soon be unable to pay its employees for the next pay period.”

Florida: In Hialeah, eyeglass maker Insight Optical Manufacturing sending 63 in-house jobs to cheap-o contractors by mid-October.  Nephron Pharmaceuticals eliminating 60 Orlando jobs by the end of October.

Georgia: WellStar Health Systems outsourced 521 jobs to a contractor!  Atlanta based Cable News Network (CNN) continues airing reports that swear “there is no proof that ObamaCare has cost jobs.”  I assume they don’t read Blind Bat News.  DeKalb County based U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports at least 2-thousand 517 casesof Zika in the U.S.  So far only the states of Wyoming and Alaska have escaped the virus.

Idaho: Non-profit Project Access Northwest testified before The Gem State legislature, blasting them for their version of ObamaCare saying 40% of the patients they see have no insurance! State Representative Fred Wood, from Burley, stated that Idaho’s version of ObamaCare is a “system where if you’re poor you have to rely on charity care, versus what everybody else gets.”

Illinois: After trying to get employees to retire early, NorthShore University HealthSystem now laying off at least 1-hundred people due to “redundancies”!   In East Alton, the Walgreens on West Saint Louis Avenue shutdown without warning.  The town’s mayor said Walgreens administrators told him the store wasn’t making enough money. Walgreens is also shutting down a store in Decatur.

Iowa: New Links Genetics laid off 1-hundred employees after one of its new cancer treatment drugs failed in testing!

Kentucky: King’s Daughters Medical Center killed 148 jobs!  It’s directly blamed on ObamaCare for reducing patient volumes, and cost reimbursements.

Maine: Eastern Maine Healthcare System laid off 35 people. 13 employees accepted early retirement deals.  It’s blamed on a $3-million USD shortfall caused by ObamaCare.

Massachusets: Nonprofit Baystate Health continues killing jobs, this time 3-hundred jobs gone due to a $75-million USD shortfall caused by reduced Medicaid payments, as a result of ObamaCare!  Employees at Fresenius Medical Care locked up and left an 86 years old dialysis patient inside the clinic!  The grand daughter of the patient had to call firefighters to get her grandma out, employees admitted they never noticed the patient!

New York: NYC based insurance company MetLife announced yet more job killing, this time the insurer wants to cut $1-billion USD in costs, and part of that will be the outsourcing of more than 1-thousand MetLife InfoTech/call center jobs in the U.S. and India!  U.S. Security Associates lost their contract with North Shore Long Island Jewish Hospital, 97 jobs lost by September.  Chapter 11 bankrupt Hebrew Hospital Senior Housing shutting down their Westhester Meadows retirement home, 89 jobs gone by the end of September.  God can’t stop Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Elmira from eliminating 83 jobs by September.  In Troy, god couldn’t stop ‘his’ Samaritan Hospital from eliminating 22 nursing positions.  Israel based drugs maker Teva issued a shutdown WARN for their Pomona location, 236 jobs lost between now and February 2017!  Phoenix Houses shutting down their Brooklyn addiction treatment center on J Street, at least 42 of the 109 employees will become unemployed in time for Thanksgiving.   

North Carolina: Columbus Regional Healthcare System eliminated 28 jobs.  In Ashville, after 19 years Skyland Behavioral Health Associates shutdown due to “a confluence of unpredicted events”.  Non-profit Mission Health eliminated three executive positions, cut executive pay between 13% and 25%, and is laying off 70 employees.  It’s directly blamed on federal taxpayer funding cuts and North Carolina’s version of ObamaCare.

Pennsylvania:  Drugs maker Merk issued a shutdown WARN for their North Wales operations, 148 jobs gone by mid September!  Canonsburg based drugs maker Mylan jacked up the price of its life saving EpiPen by 548%, to $608 USD for a package of two injectors!  Mylan says it’s making a cheaper ‘generic’ version, to retail at $304!  In 2007 the EpiPen cost $98!

Tennessee: Tennova Healthcare laying off 75 people in October.  God powerless to stop ‘his’ Baptist Memorial Health Care from laying off 23 people. Another 61 employees will be let go sometime in the near future.  Administrators directly blame ObamaCare for reduced costs reimbursements: “Healthcare is going through unprecedented change, and we’ll all have to do more with less. These changes will help position Baptist to provide the very best care for all of the mid-South.”-Jason Little, executive vice president and COO

Texas: In Waco, Missouri owned Providence Health Center is outsourcing their office and billing operations to a company in Illinois.  In Lubbuck, god powerless to stop Covenant Health from laying off 49 employees, administrators directly blame ObamaCare: “Covenant Health is financially stable, but the changes we’ve experienced thus far and will continue to undergo are the direct result of reduced reimbursements….”-Richard Parks, executive vice president and CEO

Virginia:  Ohio based grocer Kroger is shutting down its The Little Clinic urgent care ops at four Hampton Roads locations.  News reports didn’t explain why.  Lynchburg’s Centra Health will eliminate 124 jobs between now and Xmas!  Administrators blame the bad economy and ObamaCare for reducing patient volumes and cost reimbursements.

Washington: Vancouver based non-profit PeaceHealth announced they will layoff 5-hundred employees at two hospitals! PeaceHealth recently lost a major contract with California based Kaiser Permanente.  Interestingly this mass layoff has yet to be reported to state employment adminstrators (WARN).

Washington DC: The Congressional Budget Office predicts that only 12-million people will sign up for ObamaCare in 2017, far less than the 24-million predicted back in 2013.  Analysts say low enrollment in 2017 will mean the death of ObamaCare.

Wisconsin: God can’t stop ‘his’ employees from blowing the whistle on massive layoffs at Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare and Columbia Saint Mary’s.  When confronted by news media the administrators of the ‘christian’ hospitals refused to give numbers, but admitted its part of parent company Ascention Health’s consolidation plans.

OBAMACARE FAIL: U.S. ARMY PROVIDES FREE CARE FOR DESPERATE TEXANS!

OBAMACARE FAIL: U.S. MILITARY DEPLOYED TO RENDER FREE MEDICAL HELP TO 13-THOUSAND U.S. CITIZENS!

July 2016: “…NO AMBULANCE SERVICE.”  

ObamaCare = Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification

U.S.

Illegal immigrant kills U.S. firefighter with bus full of migrants! Illegal immigrant had prior run-in with cops!

28 August 2016 / 22:23 UTC-07 Tango 01  (08 Shahrivar 1395/25 Dhu I-Qa’da 1437/27 Bing-Shen 4714)

“He is in this country illegally from Honduras. He has no driver’s license. He had minor injuries.”-Melissa Matey, Louisiana State Police

In Louisiana, a bus supposedly full of migrant construction workers (initial reports said they were flood rescue volunteers) plowed into emergency vehicles that had responded to an accident on Interstate 10.  One fire truck was parked intentionally to block oncoming traffic, but for some reason the bus driver didn’t stop, killing two people and wounding at least 24 (initial reports said as many as 40 injured)!

The bus driver turned out to be an illegal immigrant who wasn’t even qualified-licensed to drive a bus, and had prior incidents with police!  One of those killed was a passenger in a car that had stopped due to the previous accident, the other person killed was a firefighter working the previous accident.  He was Saint John the Baptist Parish’s Fire District Chief!

Witnesses say the bus plowed into a fire truck, a pick-up truck and a car, shoving three firefighters over a bridge into a river.  One firefighter, and another passenger in the impacted car, are in critical condition.  Police say the unlicensed bus driver made no attempt to slow down, or to ‘move over’ to avoid emergency vehicles.

The company that employs the illegal driver goes by two names; AM Party Bus and Kristina’s Transportation.  So far, news media were unable to get a response from company administrators, or to find out who chartered the bus, or who employs the migrant workers on the bus.  The illegal driver will be charged with negligent homicide, along with other charges.

State Police records show the illegal bus driver was ticketed on 05 August for driving without a license!  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement revealed they were in the process of deciding if they should deport the illegal immigrant when today’s deadly accident happened!

This incident should reveal just how endemic the use of illegal migrants by unAmerican corporate America really is.

GERMAN NEWS MEDIA REVEAL WEALTHY MIGRANTS CONTROL NEW YORK CITY!

California food packager Foothill Packing has been fined $235-thousand USD for falsely firing U.S. citizens and replacing them with immigrants! 4-thousand 4-hundred “guest workers” were brought into Idaho in 2015 under the guise of there not being enough people to work the farms!

“IT’S NOT LIKE THEY’RE TAKING JOBS FROM AMERICANS” 5-MILLION MIGRANTS REFUSE TO LEAVE! TESLA CAUGHT USING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS!

MIGRANTS KILL SUMMER JOBS FOR U.S. TEENS

MIGRANTS KILL FOOD STORE WHILE TAXPAYERS FORCED TO BRING REFUGEES TO THE U.S.!

ILLEGALS GET FREE U.S. COLLEGE WHILE 43% OF U.S. CITIZENS CAN’T PAY STUDENT LOANS!

PROVEN, MIGRANTS TAKING JOBS FROM U.S. CITIZENS!

FALSE FLAG: ‘WAR REFUGEES’, THE GREATEST & MOST PROFITABLE HUMAN TRAFFICKING OP EVER!

U.S. BANKS & ILLEGAL DRUGS CAUSE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION TO U.S.!

WORLD BANK REVEALS THAT IMMIGRATION IS A FALSE FLAG OP TO MAKE U.S. CORPORATIONS RICHER!

U.S.

“It’s an indecent practice!” Throwing money at education doesn’t work, unless it’s to help police cheat! : August 2016 Dumbing Down the U.S.

It must be noted that I started documenting these education shutdowns at the beginning of 2014, in that year I posted the reports biannually (every six months). In 2015 education cutbacks ramped up and I posted quarterly (every three months). For the past seven months of 2016 there have been so many education cutbacks that I’ve posted a report every month!

Disappearing Students Syndrome (DSS): A phrase created by me to describe a phenomenon taking place across the United States, affecting both privately and publicly funded schools, from Kindergarten all the way through University levels.

Incomplete list of publicly announced education related layoffs & school shutdowns, August 2016:

California: Iconic film and photography school Brooks Institute forced to shutdown their Ventura campus due to a sudden crash in enrollment, 169 jobs lost!  News reports say Brooks suddenly stopped lease required remodeling work and failed to pay $70-thousand USD in rent on the city owned property! The city of Ventura will probably sue the college.  In San Diego, Museum of Contemporary Art laid off 28 people and shutting down their La Jolla campus, saying it’s part of their planned “expansion”.

Connecticut: Bridgeport Public Schools laid off two School Resource Officers (cops). 

Georgia: Albany State University and Darton State College eliminating 110 jobs! It’s blamed on non-stop Disapearing Students Syndrome.  God can’t stop the administrators of ‘his’ Piane College from eliminating 15 jobs due to what I call Disapearing Students Syndrome (it’s The Rapture eyes tells ya).  God’s ‘christian’ college will also reduce many employee’s pay to within 10% of minimum wage!

Idaho: Idaho State University (ISU) laying off 34 people at its Research and Innovation in Science and Engineering Complex (RISE), officially due to contract expiration.  Unnamed employees told local news sources that the RISE was being shutdown due to lack of money, but ISU admin denied the rumor.     More proof that throwing a lot of money at a problem doesn’t fix anything! After eight years, the state Department of Education’s $135-million USD campaign to increase math scores failed, big time! 8th graders considered at or above grade level dropped from 38% to 34% last year! 4th graders dropped from 41% to 38%!   The Education Commission of the States says Idaho’s taxpayer funding of education fails because “…the current formula did not contemplate a variety of different learning modalities, the increasing mobility of students and the states move toward mastery-based education.”      The 2016 Idaho Ready for Change survey says 73% of Idahoans prefer charter, or private schools, over traditional taxpayer funded schools.    Seven years later CenturyLink and Education Networks of America (ENA) now suing the state Department of Education over the scandalous Idaho Education Network project.  State Supreme Court rulings invalidated the IEN contracts, and the whole IEN broadband project was scrapped. CenturyLink and ENA claim they lost $18.5-million USD as a result!   Idaho public schools are also struggling financially after a court ruling (last year) revealed that the fees Idaho schools have been charging for decades violate the state constitution.  School District 151 revealed the illegal fees they were charging would’ve amounted to $140-thousand for the current school year.  School District 411 spent taxpayer funding on an attorney to find ways to continue to charge ‘fees’ without violating the state constitution.   Parents from school districts 2 and 25 (my district) are now suing for a refund of the illegal fees.  

Illinois: Chicago Public Schools (CPS) issued layoff notices to 1-thousand and 29 employees! Administrators claim that the layoffs are at schools experiencing crashing enrollment, but that other schools will actually be hiring.  In Pilsen, Benito Juarez Community Academy laid off ten people as part of the CPS funding cuts.  Elgin Community College laid off 15 employees and warned more layoffs are in the works as state taxpayer funding keeps getting cut.  In Wrigleyville, after 32 years Bookworks shutdown their brick-n-mortar store and will focus on internet sales only. The owners blame their declining brick-n-mortar book sales not on internet competition, but on jacked up rents, which in turn have changed the local brick-n-mortar landscape: “…the bar scene increased dramatically. For a number of years now it seems like every space that has gone for rent has eventually become a bar. It really has changed the atmosphere and focus of the neighborhood…”-Bob Roschke, co-owner

Indiana: The U.S. Department of Education is now banning Carmel based ITT Tech from accepting new students who rely on federal education loans or grants!

Iowa: Iowa State University eliminated 30 InfoTech jobs. At the same time, university administrators claim their reorganization of their IT department actually created eight jobs.

Kansas: Proof that taxpayer funding does not directly equal student performance? The Kansas Association of School Boards reports that student performance is ranked 10th for the United States, despite funding being ranked 29th!

Kentucky: In Louisville,  Speed Art Museum laid off seven people and reduced full-time employees to part-time.  It’s blamed on crashing attendance and $60-million USD in renovation costs.

Maryland: God’s Notre Dame laid off 12 people and shutdown 14 vacant positions.

Minnesota: After 103 years God powerless to stop the shutdown of ‘his’ Crossroads College (International Christian Bible College), after the Fall Semester! ‘Christian’ administrators blame it on what I call Disapearing Students Syndrome (it’s The Rapture eyes tells ya).

Ohio: In Beavercreek, education supply store Tools 4 Learning shutdown.

Oregon: After almost 40 years non-profit Arts Central-Art Station-VanGo-Artists in Schools shutdown its education programs in Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties.

Pennsylvania: Fiscally ignorant NAACP suing the state, saying the additional $260-million in education funding (on top of the state’s supposed “historic” funding levels) is not enough (see Idaho and Kansas above for proof that mo-money doesn’t equal mo-education)! California University of Pennsylvania has warned its employees of layoffs at the end of the 2016-17 school year, due to crashing enrollment.  A former university instructor reveals that state universities and local police are working together to ‘cheat’ on internet testing for future law enforcement personnel: “Many who earn their Penn State degrees through World Campus, particularly those serving in the military, eventually pursue careers in law enforcement. The removal of the exam-proctoring safeguard signaled to students that cheating in online courses was not only tolerated, but to some extent, also encouraged by Penn State.”-Shane Ralston 

South Carolina: It’s been revealed that PowerBall Lottery funding for state college scholarships is down: “We did not intend for the general fund to cover lottery scholarships to the extent it has. You can’t just tell someone we’re out of money.”-Chip Limehouse, weak-willed state Representative

It was also revealed that many of the state scholarships officially meant for low income students are actually going to students from wealthy families: “It’s an indecent practice! ….you’re sending kids to college on poor folks’ money, but you can’t figure out how to fund schools in Jasper County?”-Reverand Joe Darby

Wisconsin: Half Price Books shutting down their Highland Plaza store: “…during this changing time for our industry, we have to be smart about the business decisions we make. We have great customers here in Milwaukee, but unfortunately the customer traffic hasn’t been high enough to allow us to stay, so we are focusing our resources on our other Milwaukee-area locations.”

July 2016: “WE ARE GOING DOWN…”