Tag Archives: idaho

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

U.S. Postal Service: Domestic spies, ID thieves, layoffs, closings & privatization will continue until moral improves!

09 July 2013 (23:37 UTC-07 Tango 08 July 2013)/01 Ramadan 1434/18 Tir 1391/02 Ji-Wie (6th month) 4711

“Whether that is due to health benefits or retirement funding or something that only Congress can control, the bottom line is we are losing $25 million a day.”-Ron Schaer, USPS marketing manager in Portland, Oregon

“There’s a lot of deception going on, it’s being driven by the private sector, which wants to profit off the movement of mail. Part of that profit will come from not having to deal with postal unions.”-John Schwiebert, 18th Avenue Peace House, Oregon

Fact: U.S. Postal Service officials are dictated to by the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission.  The commissioners are selected/appointed by the President of the U.S., and the U.S. Senate.  They are the ones who determine things such as the price of a postage stamp and layoffs.

Fact: The U.S. Postal Service is not funded with tax dollars (“The USPS has not directly received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s with the minor exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled and overseas voters.”).  The USPS is funded through postage stamps and other services they provide.  Many times the USPS has asked the PRC for increases in postal rates, because they were not covering operating expenses, but the PRC refused  (that’s right, even though there have been rate increases, they still don’t cover operating costs).  Also, in 2006 the U.S. Congress forced the USPS to pay $5.5 billion per year, for the next 75 years, into accounts controlled by Congress (this is the final straw that broke the financial back of the USPS).

For proof of main stream U.S. news media ignorance about the USPS, recently the Wall Street Journal stupidly stated that “If you’re an American taxpayer, you own it.”  How can that be if the USPS is an independent agency that is not funded with tax money?

In Alabama, a mail carrier was found guilty of stealing people’s identities, and other crimes.  But he was just a part of a larger ID theft ring: “…his criminal organization not only stole innocent people’s identities, filed fraudulent tax returns and received tax refunds not owed to them, but they used Harrison’s position as a mail carrier to steal these debit cards from the mail…”-George L. Beck, U.S. Attorney

According to the New York Times, the USPS has been acting as a domestic spy agency for the U.S. government.  It was revealed when a mail carrier ‘accidentally’ delivered the order to photocopy all letters to a postal customer: “Show all mail to supv for copying prior to going out on the street”

That order was specifically against the postal customer that accidentally received the order.  Independent investigations revealed the USPS is using a Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program to copy at least 160 billion pieces of mail every year.

Of interest is that the USPS has just placed an order for $450000 worth of computer systems from Kansas based company Commtech.  Commtech designs high speed data collections, I mean communications equipment.  The USPS says it could double the order.

In Oregon, a postal carrier was found guilty of stealing $135000 in cash and checks from customers’ mail.  He blamed it on a gambling addiction.

In Texas, a postal employee pled guilty to using postal computers to collect child porn.  And a resident of Coldspring has been charged with murdering a mail carrier.  The suspect complained of slow delivery of his mail.  The carrier was on her cell phone with her son when the suspect shot her.

In Florida, mail carriers report increases in assaults against them.

In Rhode Island, the USPS is investigating why mail for businesses in East Greenwhich has been dumped by the carriers.  A part time carrier has been arrested in connection with the dumping.  The investigation would not have happened if it weren’t for postal customers complaining.

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Here in southeastern Idaho, I’ve watched as the Chubbuck USPS postal station in the Pine Ridge Mall was closed down.   Then I watched as Chubbuck’s independently contracted post office was closed down.  Now I see the staffing at the Pocatello Clark Street post office being reduced, and full timers switched to part time.  This past Saturday I saw the local Postmaster stocking shipping supplies for postal customers.  One source told me that despite locals’ objections to the closing of the area’s only processing center, the Gateway Station in Pocatello will be closed within 18 months.  This means that if I send a letter to Idaho Falls, an hours drive from my location, it will be first sent to Salt Lake City, Utah, and then sent back into Idaho to it’s destination.  Not very efficient or cost saving is it?

Relatives in California have told me of local post offices now operating Saturday hours on Fridays (10:00 hours to 14:30 hours).  It was officially reported that the USPS cut operating hours at their Highland and Calimesa post offices.  Also, full time employees have been replaced with part timers.  In La Jolla the USPS is selling off the historic La Jolla Post Office (National Register of Historic Places), despite protests.  This is odd considering the USPS just held a job fair in San Jose, supposedly to fill 500 positions!

In Indiana, after 17 years of service the USPS will close the postal station in Evansville’s Eastland Mall.  Fordsville will lose its branch PO, meaning the nearest PO will be 10 miles away.

In Massachusetts, the West Lynn PO will probably be closed down, for real this time.

In Hawaii, the Kapolei Post Office will be closed in August.

In Illinois, USPS officials told the Collinsville City Council the 50 year lease on the Collinsville Post Office was up in September, and they were not going to renew.  They said the post office was too big.

In Ohio, the processing center in Toledo will be closed.   By the end of 2014 processing centers in Akron, Athens, Canton, Chillicothe, Dayton, Ironton, Steubenville and Youngstown will be closed.

In New York, the USPS opened a new mini post office (called a village post office), in a mini-mart in Limestone.   In Newburgh, plans to close the processing center in 2014 have been changed.  It’s being closed this year!  Hundreds of jobs affected.

In Kentucky, the USPS opened a village PO in the Harrodsburg Food Center.

In South Carolina, the Asheville processing center will cease outgoing mail handling on 13 July.  Nearly 200 jobs affected.

The USPS will pay millions of dollars to improve worker safety, after they were hit with accusations from the Postal Workers Union and the U.S. Department of Labor OSHA.  This after the USPS signed a contract with Adayana Government Group to provide training for newly appointed Safety Specialists, Managers, Supervisors, and Facility Safety Coordinators. (called operation Safety Boot Camp)

After 50 years of ignoring Cuba, the USPS says it will begin negotiating the possibility of delivering U.S. mail to the communist country.

Beware of the Change of Address scam.  Internet sites are charging people up to $24 to file fake change of address forms.  The USPS does it for free (if you fill out the forms at your local PO).

What about the plan to go to five day delivery week?  At the beginning of the year the USPS was approved to begin a six day package delivery, and five day mail delivery scheme.  In April that plan was put on hold, not “shelved” as so many main streamer news media sites reported.  President Obama’s fiscal 2014 budget proposal allows the USPS to go to a five day delivery schedule.  The U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors (part of the PRC) said “….Congress has left it with no choice but to delay this implementation at this time….The Board continues to support the transition to a new national delivery schedule….”  The Board also lied and stated that “…this new delivery schedule is widely supported by the American public.”

According to Federal News Radio, the USPS is being transformed into something that resembles privatized European postal services: “In regard to partnerships, other posts tend to be more aggressive in what they do with. I think it is something where the Postal Service can catch up by learning from the aggressive actions that some of the European posts are taking, and that might apply to other areas as well.”-Michael Kubayanda, USPS Office of the Inspector General

 

 

Idaho, U.S.

2 1/2 mile fire update, containment. More Idaho fires expected, warns officials.

03 July 2013 (23:12 UTC-07 Tango 02 July 2013)/24 Sha’ban 1434/12 Tir 1391/26 Ji-Wie (5th month) 4711

Blackened hill from 2 1/2 Mile Road fire. About 1048 acres (424 hectares) burned. During the night winds died down and firefighters got the upper hand.

Blackened hill from 2 1/2 Mile Road fire, northern Bannock County (as seen from Cotant Park, Chubbuck). About 1048 acres (424 hectares) burned. During the night winds died down and firefighters got the upper hand.

Eastern Idaho Interagency Fire Center reports the 2 1/2 Mile fire is contained.

EIIFC also reporting the lightning caused Beaver Pass fire in Butte County.   One of the fire crews that battled the 2 1/2 Mile fire are now working the Beaver Pass fire with other crews from federal agencies and the cities of Arco and Custer County’s Lost River.  50 acres burned so far.

In southern Idaho, several fires are burning federal Bureau of Land management property.   The Emery Fire has burned at least 600 acres (248.8 hectares), they hope to have it contained by Wednesday night.  Another fire 3 miles north of the city of Wendell has burned 1833 acres (741.7 hectares), and is considered contained.  The Point fire, near Rogerson, has burned at least 2500 acres (1011.7 hectares).  The Jim Brown fire has burned 13000 acres (5260.9 hectares), containment expected by Wednesday night.   The West Hollister fire is contained, and burned at least 3000 acres (1214 hectares).  All the mentioned fires are suspected of being caused by lightning.

In western Idaho, fire crews are fighting the Turner fire, near Lucky Peak.  It burned about 300 acres (121 hectares) and is suspected of being human caused.

“We saw what last year’s fire season did to Idaho. Right now, we are set up to have potentially a worse fire season than last year.”-Bob Shindelar, Boise National Forest

Back in June, analysts warned that the fire danger is extreme for Idaho mountain areas.

“They’re coming into their third year of really dry conditions. Even though we had a relatively good snowpack across most of Idaho this year, it hasn’t made up the deficit we’ve seen in the past.”-Ed Delgado, National Interagency Fire Center

02JUL2013 update: 2 1/2 MILE FIRE, APPROACHING NORTHERN POCATELLO

01JUL2013: NEW 2 AND A HALF MILE FIRE NORTHEAST OF CHUBBUCK, IDAHO

June 2012:

Smoke seen from downtown Old Town Pocatello. Photo by AAron B. Hutchins, 28JUN2012.

POCATELLO CHARLOTTE FIRE STILL BURNING! 66 HOMES NOW DESTROYED!

Idaho, U.S.

2 1/2 mile fire update, approaching northern Pocatello

02 July 2013 (20:37 UTC-07 Tango 01 July 2013)/23 Sha’ban 1434/11 Tir 1391/25 Ji-Wie (5th month) 4711

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Idaho, U.S.

New 2 and a half Mile fire northeast of Chubbuck, Idaho

01 July 2013 (22:07 UTC-07 Tango 30 June 2013)/22 Sha’ban 1434/10 Tir 1391/24 Ji-Wie (5th month) 4711

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Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

World War 3, U.S. Economic Front: Another $20 million lost by Coldwater Creek! Blames it on climate change and shuttered stores!

29 June 2013 (21:41 UTC-07 Tango 28 June 2013)/20 Sha’ban 1434/08 Tir 1391/22 Wu-Wu (5th month) 4711

The Idaho based women’s clothing retailer, Coldwater Creek, just keeps bleeding out cash!  For its most recent quarter, which ended in May, Coldwater Creek lost $19.4 million USD.

Executives headquartered in Sandpoint blamed it on climate change and the fact that they’ve closed so many stores: “Our first quarter results were impacted by unseasonable weather throughout the quarter….”-Jill Dean, CEO

Coldwater Creek closed two retail stores in the last quarter, along with one factory store.  Company officials don’t expect any good news when this current quarter ends, either.  Amazingly, Coldwater Creek (CWTR) stocks are selling for about $2.50 per share, despite being downgraded to neutral by investment bank B. Riley!

To try and become more efficient, Coldwater Creek just spent money on a Oracle Retail Merchandise Planning and Optimization program: “Ultimately, this should lead to further reductions in aged inventory and allow us to increase our full price selling, making us more productive and profitable.”-Jim Bell, CFO/COO

They say the program will let them better forecast what women want to buy (by spying on customers’ shopping habits).

International

World War 3, Asian Front-Afghanistan: Whirling Dervish Obama does another 1-80 in Afghanistan! Idaho POW now a barganing chip! More tax dollars wasted & linked to suicide bombings!

21 June 2013/12 Sha’ban 1434/31 Khordad 1391/14 Wu-Wu (5th month) 4711

In Kunar Province, Ghazi Abad District, local government officials say a U.S. airstrike (drone strike?) killed three people and wounded several others.

In Helmand Province, Greshk District, reports of a major battle between Mujahideen and NATO/ISAF and Afghan National Army (ANA) troops.  Four armored vehicles destroyed, 17 people killed, dozens wounded.  The battle might have started because of home invasions launched by NATO/ISAF/ANA in the same district.  Five people were kidnapped, including an 80 years old man.

The Washington Post reports that the U.S. Department of Defense is planning on destroying $7 billion USD worth of military equipment in Afghanistan!  That includes up to 11000 MRAP (mine-resistant ambush-protected) vehicles which cost taxpayers about $1 million each!  DoD officials say destroying in place is cheaper than shipping them back to the U.S.  (more reason not to go on a nation building spree disguised as a War on Terror)

The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbaev, says Obama told him personally that the U.S. will remain “….deeply involved in developments in Afghanistan and Central Asia” after 2014.

20 June 2013/11 Sha’ban 1434/30 Khordad 1391/13 Wu-Wu (5th month) 4711

In Parwan Province, provincial government officials say Mujahideen “…..beheaded an Afghan intelligence officer along with a member of his family, and an Afghan police officer together with his brother.”  Most Mujahideen groups have stated they’ve sworn not to behead Afghans.

In Nangarhar Province, Jalalabad city, an explosion killed one cop and one civilian, one civilian wounded.

In Herat Province, Italian NATO officials announced they will keep up to 700 Italian troops incountry after the 2014 ‘pullout’!

In Balkh Province, German NATO officials announced they will keep German troops incountry after the 2014 ‘pullout’!   Working with German NATO command are troops from Montenegro.  Officials from Montenegro said they will keep troops incountry after the 2014 ‘pullout’!

Mujahideen have announced they are willing to trade the only U.S. POW (prisoner of war, isn’t that nice he’s considered a POW, but none of the detainees at Gitmo are) for five senior level Mujahideen held as “combatants” in Gitmo.  A Mujahideen source said of the POW from Idaho that “as far as I know” he’s in good condition.  They say he’s actually being held in Pakistan by Pakistani Mujahideen.

At the UN Security Council meeting, Afghan and Pakistani officials traded heated accusations over recent cross border incidents, and just who is behind “Islamist extremists”.  If the ‘Islamic World’ is confused about Islamic extremism, then maybe accusations that the United States/United Kingdom are the real instigators behind Islamic extremism are true?

“We do not recognize the name ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ and are pleased that Qatar has clarified that the name of the office is the Political Office of the Afghan Taliban, and has had the sign with the incorrect name in front of the door taken down.”-Rosemary DiCarlo, U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the UN

“The manner in which the office was established was in clear breach of the principles and terms of references agreed with us by the U.S. government.”-Afghan Foreign Ministry

“We have from time to time reminded all stakeholders about the red lines that was drawn by the world community and certainly by the participants should not be touched, should not be erased and should not be violated.  The talks are (being held) between the high peace council and the chosen representatives of Taliban. Of course, the U.S. had its role in encouraging this, perhaps even in precipitating this.”-Salman Khurshid, Foreign Minister of India

The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has discovered that the reason why many contractor funded projects have not been completed is because those contractors haven’t paid their subcontractors!  In at least 52 cases, contractors sub-contracted the work, then never paid the subcontractor!  SIGAR investigations revealed that some suicide bombers are subcontractors devastated by non-payment from the primary contractor: “In one example reported to SIGAR, after the prime contractor offered mediation and arbitration to solve a contract dispute, the subcontractor threatened to use a suicide bomb to blow up himself and the prime contractor’s offices. In another case, a prime contractor told SIGAR that a subcontractor threatened to blow up a compound of U.S. contractors and government agencies and another subcontractor threatened to kill the attorney for the prime contractor over nonpayment issues.”  (so what are these primary contractors doing with all that taxpayer money?)

19 June 2013/10 Sha’ban 1434/29 Khordad 1391/12 Wu-Wu (5th month) 4711

In Logar Province, Pul-e-Alam District, local government officials say a U.S. airstrike killed at least nine people.  Afghan National Army says they captured six Mujahideen in the same district.  In Baraki Barak District, ANA claims to have killed eight Pakistani Mujahideen, and seven Afghan Mujahideen.  Mujahideen confirmed “massive U.S. airstrikes” but said they killed six U.S./NATO personnel and destroyed three armored vehicles.

In Farah Province, Balablook District, local government reports a U.S. drone strike killed five people.

In Helmand Province, Greshk District, Zambuli area police check post, a local cop killed five fellow cops, then joined the Mujahideen.  He took all weapons and ammo at the check point with him.

A war artist working with U.K. Royal Army Red Coats, was shot in his left arm and hand by a Mujahideen sniper.

U.S. Army General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. is not bringing troops back home from Afghanistan, but sending them to war in Syria: “I can tell you, right here and right now, that the U.S. is every bit as determined to engage in an ill-defined, ill-advised and seemingly interminable mission in Syria as we were in Afghanistan. All that’s changing is the Zip Code.”

After announcing peace talks with Mujahideen (Taliban) at their newly built office in Doha, Qatar, President Obama is spinning another one eighty!  Now he says he is not in negotiations with Mujahideen, even after the U.S. main streamer media reported he was!  This comes after the Afghan government called off post 2014 U.S. troop deployment talks (aka Bilateral Security Agreement) in protest of the talks between the U.S. and Mujahideen.

Business/Economics, U.S.

World War 3, U.S. Economic Front: Job losses & store closings 12-13 April 2013. Business owner says the U.S. economy is the “Titanic…iceberg in sight”!

In California, AMS Fulfillment will layoff 200 people!  Company officials blame it on the loss of a major client. The Hanford Adult School officials warned they might have to layoff staff.  They blame the possible transfer of adult education to community colleges. The Technology, Arts, and Design High School closed down due to lack of enrollment.  Riverside County Superior Court to layoff 25 stenographers.  San Bernardino County Superior Court looking to reduce court reporters.  Despite having high profile customers the Empire Tap Room, in Palo Alto, shut down.  The owners blamed across the board increases to operating costs.  In San Marino, Fancy That! holiday supply store closed down.  In San Francisco, Freed, Teller & Freed coffee shop closed down.  The cafe opened in 1899, long before Starbucks was even an idea!  Xyratex moving operations to Mexico, leaving 300 Californians out-o-work!

Orthopedics company, Medtronic, laid off 50 people in Warsaw, Indiana.  Company officials blame the Obama/Romney Care medical device tax.

In New Mexico, 57 UNM Hospital employees lost their jobs.  The hospital contracted out their jobs to try and save money.

In Massachusetts, Quincy Medical laid off 30 nurses.  Tuell Nursing Home shut down after four decades of operations.  The operators blamed skyrocketing health care costs, and reduced Medicare payments under the Obama/Romney Care.  Amherst Woodworking shut down their 38 years old operation. The owner blame the bad economy: “We actually had a pretty good year in 2008, and then the bubble burst. Since then we’ve lost money.”-David Short

In New York, Horseheads Central School District plans to cut 70 positions.   Too Big to Jail Bank of America closing its branch on state Route 28 in the town of Olive.  Oswego Hospital closing its pediatric unit.  Cookie’s laying off 124 people in Fordham!  Store management blamed the bad economy.

Government communications and IT contractor, Harris Corporation, laying off up to 180 people!

In Muskegon, Michigan, Bon-Ton furniture store closed down.  20 employees out-o-work.  Art Van Furniture in Onaway closed down.  Owners blame lack of business.

The 50 years old Independence, Missouri, YMCA shut down.  Protestors pointed out that the YMCA was closing fitness centers in areas with “modest economics”.

In Louisiana, Charlie’s Seafood closed down due to a lease dispute.

Lockheed Martin creation and Department of Energy contractor, Technology Ventures, closed offices in Idaho and California.

Too Big to Jail Raymond James Financial laying off 160 people around the United States.  Company officials say they’re trying to get rid of “employee overlap”.

In Virginia, Petland in Roanoke shut down.  The owner tried to find a buyer for his store, but he said all potential buyers were refused business loans for some unknown reason.

Maker of plastic and metal containers, BWAY, consolidating two Texas factories into one, laying off 69 people.

In North Carolina, Meatballs on Main closed without notice, employees’ paychecks ‘bounced’.  The restaurant was open for less than a year.

In Hawaii, Farmers Insurance laying off 74 people.

The largest pool, patio and gameroom superstore in the United States, Branch Brook, closing stores in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware.  The shut down operation is being conducted by Romney style vulture capitalist company Gordon Brothers Group.

Plass Appliance & Furniture closing in Illinois.  Company officials say they plan to close all their Illinois stores and move to Florida.  In La Grange, the Clipper Ship Gallery shut down.  The owner of the 40 years old art gallery blamed the bad economy: “Businesses like ours that depend on discretionary spending have found it very difficult.”-Bert Jacobs

In Arizona, all Phoenix area Baja Fresh restaurants shut down!  Apparently the franchise owner dropped the franchise without telling Baja Fresh corporate people.

In Centerville, Iowa, one of the last Ben Franklin stores in the U.S. shut down.  The store had been in operation since 1954.  Sources related to the store owners said “…sales have dropped tremendously…”

3Rivers Credit Union will be closing its Van Wert, Ohio, branch.  It’s blamed on declining customers.

In Pennsylvania, Merchant’s Village indoor market closed down.  At one point there were 170 vendors working the market, but sales weren’t good enough and most vendors quit.

In Florida, Breakers Restaurant closed after 42 years in business.  Harpoon Harry’s beach club closed down.   Here’s what the owner said about the economy: “I thought we would have the whole season, and I’d have preferred to go through September. But my helpers need to find jobs. They’re on the Titanic, with the iceberg in sight.”-Jack Bishop

On Mercer Island, Washington, Alpenland Delicatessen closed up.  It first opened for business in the 1970s.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) doesn’t count the hundreds of layoffs involving less than 50 people each, in its mass layoff reports. It also doesn’t count all the little ‘mom & pop’ businesses that shut down.

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, Technology, U.S.

World War 3, U.S. Economic Front: Idaho Electric rates going up, blame the demise of Pocatello’s Hoku silicone factory!

11 June 2013 (15:02 UTC-07 Tango)/02 Sha’ban 1434/21 Khordad 1392/04 Wu-Wu (5th month) 4711

It’s been revealed that in May, Hoku Materials laid off its last engineer at the failed $700 million USD polysilicone factory in Pocatello, Idaho.  There are now only eight security guards working at the 50 football fields long factory.

Pocatello based news media interviewed the engineer who told them they were trying to work on a way to save the factory from bankruptcy sale.

Hoku Materials ghost town factory, Pocatello, Idaho. Now estimated to have cost $700 million.

Hoku Materials ghost town factory, Pocatello, Idaho. Now estimated to have cost $700 million.

Today, the factory is considered officially shut down, and will likely be parted out in bankruptcy liquidation sales (who wants to buy a 50 football fields long, never been used, polysilicone factory?).

The project was started five years ago, but right away ran into trouble because Hoku Corporation didn’t really have the money to build their Hoku Materials factory.  Pocatello even gave the company a huge tax break equivalent to the value of the land the factory was being built on.

Construction was delayed several times because Hoku couldn’t pay the construction contractor on time.  Eventually Hoku sold out to a Chinese company (Tianwei).  Then commodity market prices for polysilicone crashed.  The coup de gras was given by President Obama when he imposed high tariffs on Chinese solar power companies.

Another issue was that Idaho Power, the main supplier of electricity in Idaho, cut off power several times because Hoku didn’t pay their electric bill.  Now Idaho Power is jacking up electric rates for Idahoans, partially blaming it on the failed solar power polysilicone provider.

Most of Idaho Power’s electricity comes from dams on the Snake River, but water levels are so low they must rely more on wind and gas fired plants to generate electricity this year.  Regarding Hoku, Idaho Power is trying to regain the $23 million they invested.  In other words, Idaho Power company officials made a bad investment and they’re going to make their captive customers pay for it!

Electric rates for Idahoans trapped on the Idaho Power grid will see a 12% increase, the fourth largest increase in Idaho’s history.

I’ve been following this disaster for years, here’s more on the demise of Hoku Materials:

Capitalist Commodity Markets to blame for Pocatello’s Hoku Polysilicon near abandonment!

 

 

Idaho, International, Technology, U.S.

Cell Phone Martial Law: Verizon ordered to hand over all customer records to NSA & FBI! Idaho’s Frank Church was right!

06 June 2013 (03:46 UTC-07 Tango)/27 Rajab 1434/16 Khordad 1391/28 Wu-Wu (4th month) 4711

“The NSA’s capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter.”-a prophetic warning in 1975 by Frank Church, U.S. Senator from Idaho

“We decline comment.”-Ed McFadden, Verizon

The news media in the United Kingdom has revealed a top secret order from the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.  It orders cell phone companies to hand over all customer records to the U.S. National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation.  It specifically names cell service provider Verizon.

The order states that the collection of customer data (called “tangible things”) will be “…on an ongoing daily basis…”  It encompasses “…all call detail records…” 

Not only that, but it ordered “…that no person shall disclose to any other person that the FBI or NSA has sought or obtained tangible things under this Order…”

However, the Guardian obtained a copy of the police stateist order, and you can read it by clicking here. 

Your glorified leaders in Washington DC are using legal games and referring to phone calls as “metadata”, because if they used the term ‘communications’ then they would have to get court orders on each and every customer!

“We’ve certainly seen the government increasingly strain the bounds of ‘relevance’ to collect large numbers of records at once, everyone at one or two degrees of separation from a target, but vacuuming all metadata up indiscriminately would be an extraordinary repudiation of any pretence of constraint or particularized suspicion.”-Julian Sanchez, Cato Institute

This is more proof that Obama is no different, perhaps even worse, than Bush Jr!

Business/Economics, Idaho, Opinion

Washington Unions & city officials opposed to employee owned WinCo! It’s not evil crony Walmart man, it’s employee owned WinCo!

31 May 2013 (14:51 UTC-07 Tango)/21 Rajab 1434/10 Khordad 1391/22 Ding-Si (4th month) 4711

“Bellingham will not win with the opening WinCo…..It is an unfortunate ‘race to the bottom’ for jobs, wages and benefits in Bellingham.”-Jack Weiss, an obviously ignorant Bellingham city council member

I’ve been shocked to learn of a growing anti-WinCo movement in Bellingham, Washington.  It involves unions and some city council members.

They claim WinCo will crash local wages, and hurt other businesses.  On the first count, WinCo actually pays well, damn good in fact.  And the benefits are considered some of the best in the whole U.S. of A.

My ex-wife worked for WinCo for at least a decade, she admitted to me many times that it was the best damn job she ever had (considering she never finished high school, at one point she was making more money than me).  She loved the medical benefits!  She also loved the employee ownership of WinCo stocks.

My eldest daughter is working for WinCo, nine years now, and she’s extremely happy with her income and benefits, especially since she sees what’s going on with the rest of the grocery industry.  She was started several dollars an hour above minimum wage (a WinCo policy. WinCo’s pay policy is also adjusted according to region) and gets periodic raises.  She’s now making more money than her mother did while she was working for WinCo.  She also loves the medical/retirement benefits and the employee ownership of the company through stocks.  That’s the real threat to unions, they don’t own the company.

As far as hurting other businesses, I know another Idaho based grocery store, Albertsons, went down, but not because of WinCo, but partly because of their unions!  The unions forced Albertsons to charge outrageous prices for food.  (There are cases of mom and pop stores going under because of competition from bigger stores, but not any case that could be specifically pinned on WinCo.)

Employee owned businesses threaten both the traditional ‘publicly’ held evil elitist corporations and unions (I think some unions have become a type of evil elitist club).

Employee owned businesses usually have tougher employee work policies, which are voted on by your fellow co-workers so it’s hard to challenge (WinCo employees don’t dare be late to work, and if you’re sick for more than one day better get a doctors note).  Isn’t that similar to a union, except, once again, the union doesn’t own the company.  Also, no outrageous union dues, in fact WinCo employees get back more in their medical/retirement/stock benefits than what the average union member gets from their union!

A weakness is that it is possible for the employee owned business to be tricked into becoming a publicly held company, which would open the door to Romney style vulture capitalists.

In Pocatello, the new WinCo 117 recently opened up across the street from the ‘new’ Fred Meyer, yet I don’t see any sign that Fred Meyer is being adversely affected by the new expanded WinCo.  Fred Meyer is still just as busy (my other daughter works for Fred Meyer and loves it, employee pay/benefits similar to WinCo but it’s not employee owned), as is the evil Chubbuck Walmart.   I have noticed a lot of out of county and out of state license plates on the vehicles parked in the WinCo 117 parking lot, so it seems the WinCo is actually bringing new customers into the area.

The manager of the Bellingham, Washington, Fred Meyer was asked about any concerns over the idea of a WinCo being built.  His response: “It’s just an additional competitor in town. I’m sure there will be some customers who are price sensitive and will go to WinCo for certain items. But we have the one-stop shopping concept, where WinCo is just the basic food store.”-Bill Pelan, Lakeway Fred Meyer store director

(if Bellingham has a publicly held Fred Meyer, then there’s no excuse for Bellingham not to have an employee owned WinCo!)

Construction/remodeling started on the new Bellingham WinCo on 09 May 2013.  It should be ready to go before the end of the year.

WinCo is proof that employee owners know how to run a company better than unions or corporate elites!