Tag Archives: politics

Business/Economics, U.S.

United Corrupt Police States of America: It’s official, major U.S. cities, and their police departments, are rife with corruption!

The Chicago Tribune has published a report by the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the University of Illinois’ Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

That report says the public officials, including the police, of major cities in the United States are corrupt!  The study is based on federal court cases.

Percentage wise, Louisiana had the most corrupt officials.  Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania took the next three highest per capita positions for corruption.

When looking just at the number of cases, New York state was number one, followed by California and Illinois.

The study did not break down the types of corruption, but ‘public corruption’ includes bogus contracts, bribes, out right theft, ghost payrolling and police brutality.   Remember, the study is based on corruption cases that actually made it to federal court, so you can imagine just how corrupt your public officials really are!

 

Fukushima

Conflicting data delayed raising the Fukushima Daiichi severity level!

The government of Japan says conflicts between government agencies, not just TEPCo, delayed the raising of the nuclear crisis to the highest level of 7.

‘‘The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan said they could not vouch for the certainty of their estimates, so I told them to make a thorough, reliable analysis as soon as possible.’’-Edano Yukio, Chief Cabinet Secretary

The Fukushima Daiichi disaster would have been raised to level 7 on 23 March.  It turns out that not only was Tokyo Electric Power Company’s data faulty, but two government agencies had limited their radiation readings to just three locations.  On top of that they weren’t even sure their data was correct.  This is what the Japanese taxpayers pay for?

Several times the IAEA, and Greenpeace, said radiation readings at many sites, were too high, and evacuation zones should be expanded.  At one point a Japanese official said the data from Greenpeace would not be considered because Greenpeace was not a reliable source.

Chief Cabinet Secretary, Edano Yukio, indicated that Japan’s current safety standards are not the problem. It’s the enforcement, and lack of implementation of the standards that is the problem.

 

Idaho

Pay for Local East Idaho County Officials a Rip Off

If pay for Pocatello and Chubbuck officials is a bargain, then we’re getting ripped off from Bannock County officials.

According to the League of Women Voters, Bannock County Commissioners, and Officers, make $60,000 + per year.  The one exception is the County Coroner who makes only $23,195 per year.

Let’s put that in perspective.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Bannock County, Idaho, has a population of 80,812.  The majority of which live in the cities of Pocatello and Chubbuck.  When you combine the population numbers of those two cities, that totals 61,166, or 75% of the total population in Bannock County.  Now realize that the residents of those two cities get most, if not all, their services from their cities.  So why is pay for officials at the county level so high, compared to city officials?

Here’s another interesting piece of information; Bannock County has the highest tax rate in the whole state of Idaho (actual total dollar amount collected is not the highest in the state, there are several counties that collect much more than Bannock).  County officials point out that most of the taxes end up going towards the cities of Pocatello and Chubbuck, and School District 25.  If that’s the case, where is the county getting the money to pay the high salaries?

In a side issue; former Pocatello Mayor Roger Chase, in an interview he did as mayor, said that the top employers in Pocatello are not paying property taxes. Chase implied that those taxes are being passed on to everyone else who is paying property taxes.

Considering the population of Bannock County, and the fact that 75% of that population live in two cities that are providing their services, and the fact that most of those city’s elected officials make far less money than the county officials, I don’t see the justification for the higher county pay.  I’d like to see future candidates for county positions run on a pledge to lower their salaries.

The League of Women Voters of Idaho have their own website; lwvid.org.  The information about the pay of officials is published in a brochure.  For Bannock County, it is published by the League of Women Voters of Pocatello. It also contains cities of Chubbuck, and Pocatello, and state and federal official’s salaries.

Idaho

Pay for Local East Idaho City Officials a Bargain

My critical attitude towards local City officials was tempered, a little, after reading the amount of pay they get.

To make it clear what a bargain the officials of Chubbuck, Idaho, are, I’ll remind you that Allstate announced the planned opening of a call center here, with a starting annual salary of $27,000.

According to the Pocatello League of Women Voters, the Mayor of Chubbuck gets $45,000 per year.  Doesn’t seem bad for Chubbuck, but then the official population for the city is only 9,700.  It gets better with the city council. Chubbuck City Council members get $6,300 per year.

Obviously they’ve got to have income from elsewhere, and explains why most are business owners.  As local business owners it means, theoretically, that they are very concerned with the local economy.  This is another reason why your voting attention needs to be focused locally; your local officials have more impact than some fat cat in Washington D.C.

Pocatello, bigger than Chubbuck, with an official 2000 census population of 51,466, pays its officials more.  The mayor gets $74,268, but compare that to the city council.  They get paid $10,033 per year.

I hope local officials don’t push for an increase in their pay.  The local voters and taxpayers, of Chubbuck and Pocatello, are getting a real deal with current salaries.  The League of Women Voters of Idaho have their own website; lwvid.org.  The information about the pay of officials is published in a brochure.  For Pocatello and Chubbuck, it is published by the League of Women Voters of Pocatello. It also contains county, state and federal official’s salaries.