Incomplete list of U.S. Federal/State/Local Government self-destruct announcements for September 2017:
California: After 47 years the taxpayer funded San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery shutdown, it’s known for its transsexual displays. But don’t think it’s dead and gone, taxpayers are funding a new sexual alternative artist display space in the War Memorial building. To me sexual identity is more personal than religious identity, therefore government should not be involved, especially regarding the spending of tax dollars to promote it!
Connecticut: Municipalities warning of mass layoffs due to an expected, and dreaded, massive cut in state taxpayer funding.
Florida: Taxpayer funded Fluor Federal Solutions eliminated 145 jobs at Naval Air Station Pensacola!
Idaho: A lawsuit by Shoshone-Bannock Tribes revealed that chemical company FMC stopped paying for the storage of hazardous waste on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation (known as Eastern Michaud Flats Superfund site). FMC paid the fees until suddenly tearing down its chemical factory and abandoning the site in 2002, yet continued to store hazardous waste there. A federal court ruled FMC owes the tribe $19.5-million USD.
After years of claiming the economy was growing, and denying there was a growing homeless problem, and of treating homeless people like criminals to be rounded up and put in ‘concentration camps’, and despite officially record low unemployment numbers, the city of Boise, students at Boise State University, and Ada County, are relenting and spending millions of taxpayer and donor dollars building first ever dedicated homeless services called Our Path Home and New Path Community Housing! And in a No-Shit-Sherlock! moment a homeless advocate admitted that past homeless policies, which basically criminalized people for being homeless, failed to stop homelessness: “Though we were well-intentioned, we as a community were retraumatizing the same population we were trying to help. It’s a very traumatic process to be, let’s say, discharged from a hospital to an emergency shelter, to putting your name on maybe 13 waiting lists around the county, to having to retell your story 13 times, to not being sure when your name next comes up on the list.”-Wyatt Schroeder, CATCH of Ada County
Related; privately run homeless shelter rejected: The Mormon dominated city of Pocatello promptly revoked the temporary operating permit for the planned Big Mama’s homeless shelter after an area Muslim doctor made a huge donation to the project.
The Gem State’s worsening problem with its foster care Guardians ad Litem (GaL) program resulted in the legislature increasing taxpayer funding by 75% (most GaLs are private volunteer organizations), and it made national news with U.S. News & World Report.
More shenanigans for Idaho’s prison system after a man arrested for driving intoxicated was put into a cell with a convicted mass-murderer. Yep, the mass-murderer killed the drunk guy!
The new owner of the only funeral home in Valley County discovered that the former county coroner was ‘disappearing’ the bodies of locals who recently died. Eventually an investigation by Idaho State Police was launched. However the new owner of the funeral home said this “We were getting calls from families wanting to know where their loved ones were. I didn’t have any clue where the bodies were….. He was keeping the bodies at his home in the coroner’s truck….” Apparently the former coroner, Nathan Hess, was selling the bodies in Boise because he’s been charged with “using public position for personal gain”.
For the third time in a row another sudden resignation of a public official, this time over sexual harassment and even “violence”. It was revealed that in August that the Controller’s Office Chief of Staff Dan Goicoechea suddenly resigned after an investigation was launched into claims by a state employee of “sexual advancements” and “threats of violence” by Goicoechea. The employee said she was not the only one threatened and that such acts had been ongoing with other employees before she was hired. What’s also interesting is that state government officials waited a month before revealing the resignation.
Another ‘elected’ official revealed to be lying, this time about her residency status. From 2010 to 2016 Priscilla Giddings claimed residency in Ada County, according to property tax records, yet she was elected as the state representative for Idaho County in 2016. State law says you must reside in the county you want to represent for at least one year before running for state office. State law also says you can claim property tax exemption only for the home you live in.
Despite ‘elected’ leaders constantly claiming growth in the state, the population in the Clark County is officially crashing and burning. The U.S. Census Bureau ranks Clark County among the 15 most sparsely populated counties in the United States at only one person for every two square miles! The population has been declining since 2000 (which, as I’ve written before, is when the economy went south for Idaho, and has yet to recover), and is expected to continue declining (there’s only 860 people currently in the county). Declining local populations are another reason why state leaders are accepting additional federal bribes, I mean funding to take in immigrants and refugees at record numbers.
Crashing local population numbers might be one reason Idaho leaders are boasting record low unemployment numbers!
Illinois: Illinois Policy Institute estimates that one Illinois resident leaves the state forever every five minutes! Chicago Tribune reported “In 2016, Illinois lost 37,508 people, putting the state’s population at its lowest level in nearly a decade, according to U.S. census data”, and that’s on top of the record of approximately 2-million citizens who left between 1985 and 2015! The report blames government: “Some of those who are leaving Illinois say they’re frustrated with their tax burden……..Illinois lawmakers passed a spending plan over the summer, one that involved a 32 percent income tax hike for residents.” Speaking of taxes, Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office laid off an undisclosed number of employees due to lack of taxpayer funding, leaving metal detection scanners in county facilities with nobody to operate them.
Massachusetts: In Worcester, after 89 years the pissed-off owner of Shack’s Clothing say he’s forced to shutdown by outrageous property tax: “It had nothing to do with business and everything to do with tax assessments……We sold the building….I’m retiring, I don’t care. I’ve been doing this for 47 years and have seen the city deteriorate, little by little.”-Jeffrey Shack
Montana: Polysilicon producer REC Silicon suddenly laid off 30 people, blaming trade disputes between the governments of the U.S. and China. What was that about Trump saving the coal mining industry? A U.S. District judge halted Signal Peak Energy from mining a 176-million-ton federal coal reserve, 80 jobs lost between October 2017 and March 2018.
New Jersey: City of Trenton laid off 64 firefighters due to a lack of $5-million USD in taxpayer funding.
Pennsylvania: Luxembourg based but U.S. tax dollar funded ArcelorMittal eliminating 150 jobs at its Conshohocken steel factory, blaming it on crashing demand, especially from the U.S. military (apparently the company supplies a lot of steel for MRAPs and ships), plus competition with cheaper imported steel! Formerly Japan owned (Toshiba) now bankrupt taxpayer funded nuclear power industry giant Westinghouse announced it will eliminate at least 1-thousand-5-hundred jobs, on top of the at least 7-hundred jobs killed in the past few months! Apparently this is what elitist CEO Jose Emeterio Gutierrez meant when he claimed he was reorganizing Westinghouse to be a ‘servant led’ company, when asked to explain the layoffs he replied “I’m not stupid! …..we have to do something.”
Texas: Taxpayer funded L3 Aerospace Systems eliminated 124 jobs in Waco in an effort to “…maintain our operational focus on providing our current U.S. Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and international customers…”!
Virginia: Road construction-Parallel Thimble Shoal Tunnel project forcing the Chesapeake Grill to shutdown.
Washington: County taxpayer run Poulsbo Recycle Center shutdown due to the land being sold for $1.2-million USD. Kitsap county public works admitted they needed the money and that the recycling ops were costing them too much to operate. However, they also claim the money from the sale of the property will be used to expand household hazardous waste collections.
Washington DC: U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs fired the medical director of Washington D.C. VA Medical Center, Brian Hawkins, for a third time this year! The D.C. VA director was first fired back in July for improper use of personal emails, but was hired back after he filed a lawsuit. In April he was fired a second time (from his administrative duties, but kept working for the VA) for the unsanitary conditions of the hospital. This time he was fired as a result of the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017.
WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification
Government Shenanigans August 2017: “EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY”
ObamaCare ACA Death Spiral, September 2017: “THIS FACILITY FAILED ITS RESIDENTS MULTIPLE TIMES THROUGHOUT THIS HORRIFYING ORDEAL!”
Dumbing Down the U.S. of A., September 2017: “NOT ONLY DID THEY CHANGE HER GRADES…THEY OSTRACIZED HER!”
