A bill slowly making its way through the state Legislature would make it legal for Wisconsin residents to use deadly force if necessary to protect their homes.Under current law someone could break into a home and if the burglar was injured in the act, the perpetrator could sue the homeowner, said Rep. Amy Sue Vruwink, D Milladore.
Source: http://www.nraila.org/News/Read/InTheNews.aspx?ID=13659
Of all rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendmentâ??s â??right to bear armsâ?? is arguably the most controversial and the most restricted.To protest one of those restrictions, last week college students throughout the nation took part in the â??Empty Holster Protestâ?? sponsored by Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. Students wore empty holsters to call attention to the fact that even students with the legal right to carry weapons are forbidden to do so on college campuses.
Source: http://www.nraila.org/News/Read/InTheNews.aspx?ID=13658
David Jenkins wore an empty black holster Thursday at the University of Central Oklahoma, protesting a state law prohibiting firearms on campus.The political science student objects that he can’t carry his .380 caliber Ruger pistol at school even though he has a concealed carry permit and usually takes the handgun wherever he goes, including church. He is participating in a protest organized by Students for Concealed Carry on Campus and taking place at universities across the country this week. The national group says concealed weapons could be needed for protection in extreme circumstances, like a school shooting.
Source: http://www.nraila.org/News/Read/InTheNews.aspx?ID=13657
Given El Dorado County’s Old West name, maybe it isn’t surprising that the big issue in its biggest election this year is about carrying guns.Everywhere the six non incumbent candidates for sheriff go — even Monday’s forum in an upscale retirement community — Topic A has been who gets a license to carry a concealed weapon.
Source: http://www.nraila.org/News/Read/InTheNews.aspx?ID=13656
Matt Speckman, a former Turlock police sergeant, used to be in charge of processing concealed gun permits. Now retired, he’d like one himself.Speckman, 49, attended the FBI academy, trained at a nationally recognized firearms course, earned an MBA, is studying for a Ph.D, toted a gun for 30 years and screened gun permit applicants for seven years. Yet Turlock Police Chief Gary Hampton and Sheriff Adam Christianson, both of whom have approved gun permits for politicians and prominent businessmen, turned him down.
Source: http://www.nraila.org/News/Read/InTheNews.aspx?ID=13655
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</p>No one can criticize the Obamacare legislation for being too short.* But even at 2K+ pages, the new law fails to address some major problems with the health system.* One of these is the flawed formula Congress created years ago to determine how much the Medicare payment physicians receive for services rendered.
Year after year, the Congressional reimbursement formula calls for sharp reductions in Medicare payment rates. And year after year, Congress votes to suspend its own formula. That keeps doctors from bailing out of the Medicare program, but it does nothing to remedy the problem of rapidly expanding Medicare costs.<spanid="more-31099"></span>
Congressional inaction means that physician Medicare payments are slated to be slashed by 21.2 percent. When Congress returns from Easter recess, they may enact a temporary (theyve been down that road for years) or a permanent fix. The problem with the permanent fix – repealing their own worthless formula – is that it would immediately raise health care spending by more than $200 billion over the next ten years. Since current law, and not the doc fix, was the basis for the deficit reduction initially assumed for Obamacare, this creates a little problem. Unless the Congress cuts federal spending to offset the fix, the taxpayers are saddled with another big addition to the federal deficit. But Obama had pledged he would not add a dime to the deficit.
The other option is the short term fix. But the docs are fed up with it. We need more than Band-Aids , says <ahref="http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/04/05/2090970/texas-physicians-petition-congress.html">As Dr. William H. Fleming III, president of the Texas Medical Association.* We need a complete transplant
<ahref="http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/04/05/2090970/texas-physicians-petition-congress.html">Flemings group has launched a petition to warn congressional leaders that some physicians could be forced to stop accepting Medicare patients if a permanent fix cannot be worked out.* Similar organizations in 10 other states have confirmed that they will join the petition, and another 30 associations have expressed interest.
There is a big lesson here. The perennial need for a Medicare doc fix exemplifies the federal governments inability to manage health care costs effectively. And Medicare physician payment is not nearly as low as Medicaid physician payment. *And given the massive expansion of Medicaid expected under Obamacare, physicians will see even more of their income subjected to the irrational payment schemes of the politicians and the bureaucrats. *That can only lead to greater problems for Medicaid patients, who already have trouble finding doctors willing to treat them.
Rather than create new entitlement programs and expand old ones, Congress would have done better to try to fix the numerous problems in existing programs and cut federal spending.* True reform would have made systemic changes to Medicare and Medicaid that would make them financially viable.* Instead, <ahref="http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2009/05/Time-to-Get-Serious-Again-About-Medicare-Reform">the programs fiscal woes will only get far worse.
To learn more about the right direction for Medicare reform, <ahref="http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2010/pdf/bg2377.pdf">click here.
</p>The press has rushed to report a minuscule drop in teen births based on data released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). As usual, the mainstream media are focusing on a trivial, politically correct story while ignoring the real story buried in the data.
Heres the real story: According to CDC, a record 40.6 percent of children born in 2008 were born outside marriage a total of 1.72 million children. The overwhelming majority of the unwed mothers were young adults with low education levels, precisely the kind of individuals who have the greatest difficulty going it alone in our society.
Only about 7.5 percent of these out-of-wedlock births, 130,000, were to girls under 18. Of course, these births can be disastrous for the girls involved. But as a social problem, teen pregnancies and births are of quite limited importance. By contrast, 1.72 million out-of-wedlock births amount to an overwhelming catastrophe for taxpayers and society.<spanid="more-31106"></span>
The steady growth of childbearing by single women and the general collapse of marriage, especially among the poor, lie at the heart of the mushrooming welfare state. This year, taxpayers will spend over $300 billion providing means-tested welfare aid to single parents. The average single mother receives nearly three dollars in government benefits for each dollar she pays in taxes. These subsidies are funded largely by the heavy taxes paid by higher-income married couples.
America is rapidly becoming a two-caste society, with marriage and education at the dividing line. Children born to married couples with a college education are mostly in the top half of the population; children born to single mothers with high-school degrees or less are mostly in the bottom half.
The disappearance of marriage in low-income communities is the predominant cause of child poverty in the U.S. today. If poor single mothers were married to the fathers of their children, two-thirds of them would not be poor. The absence of a husband and father from the home also is a strong contributing factor to failure in school, crime, drug abuse, emotional disturbance, and a host of other social problems.
In 1963, as Pres. Lyndon Johnson was launching the War on Poverty, 7 percent of American children were born outside marriage. White House staffer Daniel Patrick Moynihan, later U.S. Senator from New York, warned the nation of the calamities associated with the growing number of out-of-wedlock births. For more than 40 years, our society has ignored Moynihans warnings. Despite the transparent linkages among poverty, social problems, and disintegration of the family, the liberal intelligentsia has watched the steady collapse of marriage in low-income communities with silent indifference.
The reason? Most liberal academics regard marriage as an outdated, socially backward institution; they have shed no tears over its demise. Even worse, liberal politicians and anonymous government bureaucrats have a vested interest in the growth of the welfare state, and nothing grows the welfare state like the disappearance of marriage.
Single mothers are inherently in far greater need of government support than married couples, so an increase in single parenthood leads almost inevitably to an increase in government benefits and services and a thriving welfare industry to supply them. Marital collapse creates a burgeoning new clientele dependent on government services and political patrons. When liberals refuse to talk about marriage and the poor in the same breath, they are guilty of willful neglect of the major source of poverty.
For the statist, the collapse of marriage is a gift that keeps on giving. Its no accident that the modern welfare system rewards single parents and penalizes married couples.
The Left, with the complicity of the liberal media, hypes the issue of teen pregnancy partly because feminists think girls should attend college for a few years before becoming single mothers, partly in order to strengthen their agenda of promoting condom use and permissive sex ed in the schools. (In reality, condom proselytizing is a bogus answer to actual social problems. Contrary to conventional wisdom, lack of access to birth control isnt a significant contributor to non-marital pregnancy among teens or non-teens.)
Liberal journalists and pundits deliberately remain silent on the far larger issue of out-of-wedlock childbearing among adults because they believe the collapse of marriage is irrelevant, if not benign. From their perspective, concern about marriage is a mere red-state superstition; the important task is to increase government subsidies as we build a post-marriage society.
It should, thus, be no surprise that President Obamas new budget proposes to eliminate the only government program aimed at strengthening marriage in low-income communities. If Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have their way, the tiny, recently created healthy marriage initiative ($100 million annually) will be abolished next year.
The statist Left is not content to merely watch marriage die; it seeks to nail the coffin lid tightly shut.
<ahref="http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=MzE2ZDEwMzlkNTgyMTFlNWNiMzNiZmRmZmNjODk1YmM=">C ross-posted at <ahref="http://www.nationalreview.com/">National Review Online.
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</p>On April 6, last minute action by the Obama administration averted <ahref="http://www.jobsandfreedom.com/?p=116#more-116">a near trade conflict with Brazil concerning the trade-distorting U.S. cotton subsidy programs. With the provisional deal, the U.S. avoided about $830 million in trade sanctions on over 100 American exports targeted by Brazil.* Those retaliatory tariffs would have gone into effect on April 7. More changes to U.S. cotton programs, which were declared illegal under <ahref="http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/press-releases/2010/april/us-brazil-agree-upon-path-toward-negotiated-solution">the WTOs 2008 ruling, have been pushed back to as early as 2012 when Congress will have to revisit the farm bill.
So, a trade war was avoided. More precisely, it has been delayed. Considerable murkiness lingers on the trade horizon, and not just with Brazil. As <ahref="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703734504575125702428510076.html"> Fridays WSJ editorial points out:<spanid="more-31090"></span>
The fallout from U.S. protectionism will hurt our ongoing economic recovery efforts.* The protectionism itself is doing irrevocable damage to Americas leadership in international economic discussions. Free trade and its expansion through multilateral, regional, and bilateral agreements have been vital to world economic strength and prosperity.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner commented during his recent two-day visit to India that President Obama was deeply committed to trying to build a consensus among Americans for more open trade and to support the [economic] recovery, as noted in <ahref="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/24bb1b46-42a5-11df-91d6-00144feabdc0.html">the Financial Times. While the Obama Administration has repeatedly said that the U.S. will not abandon its legacy of supporting open and free commerce, the fact is that it has done little to nothing to demonstrate that commitment in more substantive terms. One sign of inaction: three pending free trade agreements with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea remain on ice.
Talking about strengthening Americas trade relations around the world, boosting exports, and even enforcing trade rules are only empty gestures without tangible action to re-establish Americas leadership in advancing free trade.
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</p>Leaders from 46 nations, the most gathered together since the United Nations was formed in San Francisco in 1945, will meet over the next two days in Washington, DC. The stated goal of this Obama administration-hosted summit is laudable: <ahref="http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/04/11/obama_takes_non_nuclear_pledge_to_world_leaders/">keeping nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands. Who could argue with that? And this <ahref="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/press-briefing-preview-nuclear-security-summit-gary-samore-white-house-coordinator-">Nuclear Security Summit comes less than a week after President Barack Obama released a <ahref="http://blog.heritage.org/2010/04/07/nuclear-posturing/">Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and just days after he signed a <ahref="http://blog.heritage.org/2010/04/08/morning-bell-obamas-false-start/">New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. As <ahref="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-april-8-2010/the-big-bang-treaty">many of the <ahref="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/07/giulianis-obama-nuke-crit_n_528439.html">White House’s <ahref="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2010/0326/Nuclear-weapons-free-world-a-vision-of-Kennedy-Reagan-Obama">allies pointed out last week, President Ronald Reagan wanted a world without nuclear weapons, and he also signed an arms treaty with the Soviet Union. President Obama’s policy goals are just like President Reagan’s. So why is anyone criticizing the White House’s nuclear strategy? Because <ahref="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Reagan-would-not-start-with-today_s-Russia-90572344.html">how we get to a nuke-free world matters.
Reagan knew that to eliminate the need for large nuclear arsenals, you must first start to eliminate the dependence — both ours and others’ — on massive nuclear attack as the guarantor of security. That is why Reagan’s first priority was to build up U.S. conventional forces and introduce missile defense. That allowed his negotiators to approach arms control agreements from a position of strength.
President Obama has done the exact opposite. He has <ahref="http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/01/the-obama-five-year-defense-budget-plan-is-worse-than-a-freeze/">cut our national defense, <ahref="http://blog.heritage.org/2009/07/22/morning-bell-obama-just-made-us-more-vulnerable-again/">including acquisition of the F-22, <ahref="http://blog.heritage.org/2009/09/17/morning-bell-surrender-and-betrayal-do-not-make-us-safer/">removed missile defense installations in Eastern Europe, and <ahref="http://blog.heritage.org/2009/11/04/a-year-of-living-dangerously-dismantling-missile-defense/">cut missile defense development programs. <ahref="http://blog.heritage.org/2010/04/09/a-%E2%80%9Cdeclaration%E2%80%9D-jack-bauer-wouldn%E2%80%99t-make/">His lawyer-like NPR weakens America’s deterrence credibility by broadcasting our intention not to respond in kind if we are hit by weapons of mass destruction. And his New START agreement not only <ahref="http://blog.heritage.org/2010/04/08/new-start-would-render-u-s-vulnerable-to-missile-attack/">clearly links our missile defense shield with Russian missile reduction, but it also <ahref="http://blog.heritage.org/2010/04/09/department-of-misstate-new-start-does-contain-limits-on-conventional-weapons/">limits our own conventional weapons capabilities as well.<spanid="more-31066"></span>
Reagan also understood how other nations viewed their own nuclear programs and recognized the limits of unilateral arms reductions. President Obama clearly does not. Russias nuclear and conventional weapons arsenals are declining faster than ours, due to age and funding, so of course they want to bring our levels down to theirs. <ahref="http://blog.heritage.org/2010/04/09/crashing-obamas-nuclear-wedding/">New START plays right into the Kremlin’s needs by constraining our advantage in conventional (non-nuclear) strategic weapons, including missile defense, in order to accentuate the power of their nuclear arsenal. Meanwhile, the current Iranian regime views their nuclear program as essential to their domestic survival, so the<ahref="http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/04/Iran-Economic-Sanctions-at-the-UN-Security-Council-The-Incredible-Shrinking-Resolution"> increasingly worthless sanctions the Obama administration is trying to get out of the United Nations Security Council will do nothing to slow the Iranian bomb either. <ahref="http://blog.heritage.org/2010/04/09/heritage-foundation-asia-watchers-on-the-washington-nuclear-summit/">And Obamas call for eliminating nuclear weapons even provides North Korea with some political cover for maintaining its stockpile. In September 2009, Pyongyang declared that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula [will be] in the context of a global effort to build a world free of nuclear weapons. North Korea now ties its denuclearization to worldwide U.S. disarmament.
Heritage fellow James Carafano <ahref="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Reagan-would-not-start-with-today_s-Russia-90572344.html">concludes:
Reagan’s sound vision for “rendering nuclear weapons obsolete” started with first ensuring robust defenses, then reducing the nuclear stockpile appropriately. Obama has taken a “reduce first, beef up defense later (if ever)” approach.
It’s a path that leads to even greater danger, not to “zero.” Doubtless President Obama is motivated by the very best of intentions. But in a world of proliferating nuclear power, we should remember where a road paved only with good intentions leads.
Quick Hits:
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</p>Along with many of our allies, we here at Heritage have been focusing attention on Progressivism, <ahref="http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2007/07/The-Progressive-Movement-and-the-Transformation-of-American-Politics">the political movement which is largely responsible for the growth and vast expansion of centralized administration in the federal government. *As I have argued in <ahref="http://westillholdthesetruths.org/">my own book, progressivism challenged the original principles of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution as outmoded 18th century ideas and instead promoted evolving rights and a living Constitution that constantly adapts the founding principles and unlimits government to address any and every social problem of the day.* Many decades ago, Progressivism was very controversial, but nearly all Democrats and most Republicans over the decades have made their peace with it.<spanid="more-31069"></span>
One exception to this is Representative Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsinironic since that state can claim to be the geographic source of Progressive politics in this country.* In light of his work in thinking through the many great challenges we face today, but especially since the election of Barack Obama, Ryan has focused on the Progressive movement and its responsibility for the growth of big government, and argued that the American people must reject the Progressives vision and restore the Founders principles as the basis for this nations liberty, prosperity and independence.
Several of Ryans recent speeches on this subject are particularly incisive for their unusually rich analysis of Progressivism, the first <ahref="http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2010&month=02">at a Hillsdale College event, then more recently at <ahref="http://www.myheritage.org/media/?videoID=75724595001">a Heritage Foundation event in Dallas, Texas and at an <ahref="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/04/02/should_america_bid_farewell_to_exceptional_freedom .html">Oklahoma City political dinner.
There has been some misunderstanding of Ryans analysis of Progressivism, particularly in his Oklahoma City address.* Ryan rightly explains that the first wave of Progressive reforms emphasized populist ideas such as recall elections and the Initiative and Referendum process by which public policy questions were put to a vote.* As the Progressive movement developed, it moved away from its first phase and openly advocated centralized bureaucracies as the real answer to political problems.* This is not an argument to return to the early Progressivism of Theodore Roosevelt or Woodrow Wilson, but to understand Progressivisms steps so we can unravel its damage.
Now that the American people have been awakened to the profound and ongoing harm done to this country by Progressivisms drive to transform America in to a European social state, it will take statesmanship of the highest magnitude, shaped by rigorous arguments and great prudence, to actually get us out of the statist web that has been developing in America for over 100 years.
In the United States Congress, as of right now, Paul Ryan has been the singular voice persistently questioning the very essence of Progressivism in both principle and policy.* And more, he has gone back again and again to the original principles on which this nation was founded, and followed these principles as the only fixed and sure guides to the policy reforms America needs going forward.
It was a hypothetical question we floated a few months back for a Round Table session, but recently it seems that our hypotheticals are moving more towards the realm of reality. Our friends over at Engadget beat us to the punch on this one, and put together a fantastic list and summary of the companies thought to be considering a bid for purchasing Palm, but we thought it’s something that we should ask to our more targeted webOS audience: who do you think should buy Palm? Poll after the break, as are those comments in which you so want to sound off.
Jay Rosen points us to a worthwhile read by Lane Wallace in The Atlantic, concerning “the bias of veteran journalists.” The basic concept is that veteran journalists think they know so much about a story that they have an angle going into the story, and only ask questions to support that story. It is not claiming that this is a political bias — which is the usual charge thrown out at reporters — but that the bias is in the fact that they think they know the story before they really know the story. As an example, she points to her own recent experience on a certain piece of technology:
A few weeks ago, I attended the public launch of a company’s product that had, until that point, been kept tightly under wraps. The product involved a breakthrough approach and new technology that had the potential of having a revolutionary impact on its industry, as well on consumers around the world. Unlike most of the journalists covering the event, I was not an expert on that particular industry. It wasn’t my normal “beat.” The reason I was there was because I’d been interviewing the company’s CEO over the previous several months for a book project. But that also meant that while I wasn’t an expert about the industry in general, I was in the odd position of knowing more about the company’s “secret” product than any other journalist in the room.It was an eye-opening experience. A lot of major news outlets and publications were represented at the press conference following the announcement. A few very general facts about the product had been released, but the reporters had only been introduced to details about it a half hour earlier. There was still a lot about how it worked, how it differed from other emerging products, and why the company felt so confident about its evolution and economic viability, that remained to be clarified.
But the reporters’ questions weren’t geared toward getting a better understanding of those points. They were narrowly focused on one or two aspects of the story. And from the questions that were being asked, I realized–because I had so much more information on the subject–that the reporters were missing a couple of really important pieces of understanding about the product and its use. And as the event progressed, I also realized that the questions that might have uncovered those pieces weren’t being asked because the reporters already had a story angle in their heads and were focused only on getting the necessary data points to flesh out and back up what they already thought was the story.
Fascinating stuff. She then backs this up by pointing to a recent study on “experts” and how they tend to be worse at predicting things, often because they’re so certain of the outcome that they miss key elements of why something is different, or why what they expect won’t happen. That is, they approach the scenario with a knowing viewpoint, and therefore don’t understand why it’s a big deal. This leads her to quote an anecdotal claim by a friend who’s an editor, saying that new beat reporters ask the best questions, because they don’t assume they already know the answers to stuff.
I’ll admit, after reading the column, my first thought was total agreement. It makes a lot of sense, right? And it certainly fits in well with Rosen’s concept of the Church of the Savvy, which involves reporters who are more focused on using their soap box to make people think that they’re connected to the inside and “savvy” with how everything works, that they focus more on describing the process, rather than reporting the facts (and debunking the non-facts). I tend to agree with that general sentiment, and this concept of “expert bias” initially felt right as well. In a different arena we see it all the time — when we present stories about the economic impacts of copyright law or patent law, we often get lawyers who stop by to insist that this is ridiculous — and we should trust them because they’re the expert lawyers, in spite of the actual evidence.
And, no, I’m not claiming I’m above this kind of bias either. Everyone falls into this kind of trap at some point as well — assuming you know more about a story than you really do. If you’re crafting a story, you have a general model of “what the world looks like” and you certainly build your story based on that. But no one has a perfect crystal ball. No one can understand what variables will really be key in the future. No one can always get it right. At the very least, I try to learn from my own mistakes, and look back at why I was wrong (though, of course, no one gets that process right all the time either!).
Still, even after nodding my head through Wallace’s column, after thinking about it a bit, I’m no longer sure I really believe it makes sense. Go back to her opening anecdote. In that case, she’s actually as guilty as the reporters she’s mocking. The reason she thinks they’re missing the story is because she does think she’s an expert: because of her time with the company, she felt she was more of an expert about that “secret” product, than those who knew the industry. And so she got upset that they didn’t follow her pre-conceived storyline. Really, it’s a bit of a kettle/pot scenario. What if those other reporters, who knew the industry, actually were right — because they knew the wider industry and the wider impact of this product, rather than only getting the one side of the story from PR people over an “insider” session (savvy!).
On top of that, I’m not convinced about the “cub reporters ask better questions” claim either. I’ve been to plenty of press events, where those reporters don’t ask any questions at all — because they’re not comfortable enough to do so — and I’ve also been to events where clearly unknowledgeable reporters ask really bad questions — or are more open to being “fed” press releases as stories, because it’s nicely packaged up for those who don’t know how to ask the hard questions.
So where does that leave us? Yes, there is a problem in the bias of expertise, where people are so sure of their opinion going in that they may miss some underlying key point. But I don’t think that means that you want want naive folks covering a story either. What’s needed is that convergence of voices. It’s the discussion that comes out after all of this which presents the real value. It’s one of the reasons why we tend to value the discussions on this site so much. If I say something stupid, people will call me on it, and there’s a good discussion in the comments — from which we all get to learn.
In thinking about it some more, it seems that the real issue is not the fact that one person has too much or too little expertise in a particular subject. It’s that the whole spectrum is valuable — and that spectrum comes out in discussion, not in positioning a single person as being the only person who can report on/talk about a particular subject. The problem comes in the idea that any particular situation involves “the word from on high,” rather than the starting point for discussion.
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We’re rolling out Closing Thoughts a day early, because the weekend was incredibly messy. There’s panic in the saves market right now. All the major indices are down.
In fact, when Chris Perez(notes) issued his third walk on Sunday it nearly triggered the Borowski Rule, which would have resulted in an automatic one-hour suspension of all add/drops. The trading floor is like a war zone.
"Blue Horseshoe loves Jim Johnson(notes)! Buy! BUY! … Wait, no. He had that elbow thing. Sell! SELL! … No, not SNELL you [expletive]! SELL! S-E-L-L. SELL!"
It’s madness. Below you’ll find an updated snapshot of every team’s bullpen situation, followed by the usual collection of player notes. Please try to remain calm during this period of upheaval. There are always buying opportunities.
• Trevor Hoffman(notes), baseball’s all-time saves leader, did not have an easy series against St. Louis. He blew saves on Friday and Sunday, allowing five earned runs and three homers in the process. "It’s embarrassing," he later said. Albert Pujols(notes) and Matt Holliday(notes) went deep in consecutive at-bats against Hoffman on Sunday, so that was clearly a degree-of-difficulty save situation. He still lucked into the win, too, so his owners got something for their pain. There are no job security issues with Hoffman, of course. When they install a countdown banner in your home park, you’re safe. The Brewers would almost certainly send Hoffman to the DL with a make-believe injury before turning over the ninth to LaTroy Hawkins(notes). Milwaukee gets the Cubs and Nats this week, so the immediate setup is favorable.
• Baltimore’s Mike Gonzalez has allowed five hits, four walks and four earned runs in two innings of work so far this season. Manager Dave Trembley basically gave Gonzalez a timeout on Sunday. Jim Johnson is next in line to close for the O’s, but — as Scott Pianowski pointed out on Friday — Gonzalez has a two-year, $12 million deal, so he won’t simply be kicked to the curb. Koji Uehara(notes) (hamstring) could be a dark horse saves candidate here when he returns from the DL. Gigantic minor leaguer Kam Mickolio(notes) (6-foot-9) is an option, too. The Baltimore Sun wants readers to select the next O’s closer, which doesn’t really seem like the worst idea.
• If you caught either Sunday’s Closing Time or Saturday’s Weekly Rundown, then you already know about the Frank Francisco(notes) implosion. He’s off to a brutal early start — 2.0 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 2 BB — and has been relieved of closing duties, at least temporarily. Flame-throwing Neftali Feliz(notes) is the interim closer. Rangers manager Ron Washington has expressed confidence in Francisco publicly, but I really think Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News has it right when he frames the situation this way: "In reality, though, the job is likely lost until Feliz proves he can’t do it." Francisco’s velocity has been in the 90-92 range, a few ticks below where he was in 2009.
• Kevin Gregg(notes) picked up a pair of saves at Baltimore on Friday and Sunday, while Jason Frasor(notes) closed out wins on Thursday and Saturday. When you have save situations in every game, this sort of thing happens. Frasor hasn’t lost his job; there’s just a lot of closing work to go around in Toronto right now.
• We mentioned Chris Perez’s multi-walk performance above, so we should probably discuss the details down here. He was a mess on Sunday when asked to record a four-out save. Perez walked three batters, allowed three hits, and only found the strike zone on just 17 of his 37 pitches. His wild pitch allowed the winning run to score. (Although in fairness to Perez, Lou Marson(notes) has to block that ball. Video here). No one’s threatening Perez at the moment, but Kerry Wood(notes) is playing catch, and a mound session isn’t far off.
• Huston Street(notes) has been performing "strengthening exercises" (great euphemism), and should begin a throwing program later this week. Franklin Morales(notes) has saved two games in Street’s absence thus far, though he hasn’t managed to strike anyone out yet.
• Brad Lidge(notes) (knee, elbow) made a rehab appearance at Single-A Clearwater on Saturday, and he was rocked. He allowed three doubles and a walk in two-thirds of an inning, striking out no one. His fastball velocity was reportedly 89-91 mph. Lidge is scheduled to pitch again on Monday.
• Here’s a name to file away: Sergio Santos(notes). He’s a converted infielder with an absolute cannon (95-98 mph). On Friday, Santos entered a tight game for the White Sox with the bases loaded and two outs, and he K’d Delmon Young(notes) on a rather nasty slider. "This kid has no fear," said Ozzie Guillen.
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Photo via Getty Images
ECONOMIST Robert Gordon, a member of the NBER recession dating committee, has released some comments on the decision made last week not to declare an end to the recession. In his view, the recession is clearly finished:
Real GDP has recovered strongly from a trough in 2009:Q2 and by 2010:Q2 (the current quarter) will have reached (or be very close to) its value reached in the peak NBER quarter of 2007:Q4, according to forecasts of private organizations that so far have proved to be remarkably accurate in forecasting real GDP changes a quarter or two in advance..
The committee also considers real GDI (the income-side measure of real GDP). For reference, this appears in the NIPA tables as Table 1.7.6 line 11. Most macroeconomists think that the BEA should feature this measure more strongly. Real GDI was at essentially the same level in 2009:Q2 and 2009:Q3, and then rose strongly in 2009:Q4 as did real GDP. The issue of whether the economy troughed in 2009:Q2 or 2009:Q3 is settled by the average of real GDP and real GDI, which reached its trough in 2009:Q2.
Real GDI is an important variable. It reached its peak in 2007:Q4 which ratifies the BCDC decision about the date of the peak. While it did not rise from 2009:Q2 to 2009:Q3, it rose strongly in 2009:Q4 and will presumably rise strongly in the first half of 2010.
The end date of the recession is equally clear:
The traditional measure of production used by the committee is the Federal Reserve Board Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which reached a well-defined trough in June 2009. For those who object that the IIP refers only to about 15 percent of the economy, the broader monthly measure real manufacturing and trade sales also reached its trough in June 2009. The private firm Macro Advisers has constructed a measure of monthly GDP that is available back to 1992, and this also indicates a cyclical trough in June 2009. While real GDI is flat across 2009:Q2 and 2009:Q3, quarterly real GDP reaches its trough in 2009:Q2, as does the average of quarterly real GDP and real GDI. Thus we have three monthly measures that reach a trough in June, the average of two measures of aggregate economic activity which reach their trough in 2009:Q2, and no clearly defined troughs occurring later than that in any series other than the traditional lagging data on aggregate hours of work and total employment.
So why didn’t the committee make an official judgment?
The committee viewed the likelihood of a double dip that would take the level of real GDP back below its previous trough of 2009:Q2 as extremely unlikely. However, the committee thought that, even if that probability was extremely small, it would be very costly to the committee to be proved wrong after the fact. Thus the committee was swayed by the view that the low probability of a double-dip multiplied by the high cost of being wrong in declaring the recession prematurely still amounted to a significant potential cost.
And so it seems likely that once additional data have come in, further reducing the probability of a large and imminent decline in output, the committee may feel comfortable making a declaration about the recession. As it stands, it looks as though the American economy has been out of recession for a solid three quarters.
UPDATE: Incidentally, were the June 2009 trough to hold up, that would make this latest recession, at 18 months, the longest since the 43 month downturn from 1929 to 1933. The previous two recessions were 8 months each, and there were 16 month recessions from 1973-5 and from 1981-2.
Here is something that I’m having a hard time with. Apparently a company called Narc That Car is paying people to report the license plate numbers of their neighbors automobiles in order to give repo-companies current information on where delinquent borrowers may reside. Are you kidding me? What ever happened to basic elementary school principles such as: Love thy neighbor or treat everyone as you would like to be treated? If you travel to the above website you’ll see they tout the act of betraying thy neighbor as nothing more than starting your own business.
“Thinking about starting your own business? Maybe you simply would like to earn extra income for you or your family. If so, would you like to generate your own income for simply gathering information? Want to learn more about how this opportunity works and what it takes to get started?”
One should also think of the moral and legal ramifications of going down this road. First off if ANY of your neighbors find out you will automatically be branded as any of the following: “betrayer, blabbermouth, canary, deep throat, double-crosser, fink, informant, narc, nark, rat, sneak, snitcher, source, squealer, stool pigeon, stoolie, tattler, tattletale, tipster, turncoat, weasel, whistle-blower”.
Secondly, you’ll most likely feel bad about yourself and need therapy and or a possible confession at church. Third is that if you live in a neighborhood like mine, and some select neighbors find out what you’re doing, you may not only find yourself in hot water, but sleeping with the fishes as well…
Sony Creative Software has updated its Vegas Pro software to 9.0d and now features superior closed captioning support for broadcast editors, in addition to multi-layer PSD file support and timeline burning to DVD for enhanced editing flexibility and efficiency for creative professionals.
The Vegas Pro 9.0d software update is available now for download online at Sony Creative Software and is free for existing registered Vegas Pro 9 users, or $234.95 for owners of Vegas Pro 8 or prior. Vegas Pro 9 software is available in English, German, Spanish, Japanese, and French. Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for Vegas Pro 9 is U.S. $699.95.
“As professional video editing workflows are in constant evolution, the Vegas Pro 9.0d software update provides new tools that allow editors to efficiently produce outstanding results across a wide range of targeted delivery platforms and formats,” said Dave Chaimson, vice-president of global marketing for Sony Creative Software. “With the significant additions of closed captioning support, enhanced PSD support and timeline burning to DVD, along with enhancements to the Device Explorer, Vegas Pro 9.0d software provides maximum user control for creative production.”
Closed Captioning Support
All new closed captioning support in Vegas Pro 9.0d provides broadcast editors with a workflow that enables the importing, editing, and exporting of CEA-608 captioned data in high definition Sony XDCAM MXF material.
Multi-layer Adobe Photoshop Document (PSD) Support
Multi-layer PSD support in Vegas 9.0d provides a highly flexible model for professionals to quickly create complex animation and professional results from a single PSD image. This new feature enables more creative compositing when working with PSD files by providing individual control over the separate file layers.
Enhanced Device Explorer Support
Improvements to the device explorer in Vegas Pro 9.0d significantly increase support for additional cameras and devices, including hard disk and memory recording devices. The extra support provides customers with a more powerful and adaptable system for unparalleled video editing.
Burn Timeline to DVD
Timeline burning to DVD, like the current Vegas Pro “Burn to Blu-ray” process, allows editors a more seamless final output method for their video editing projects.
PreSonus FaderPort Control Surface Driver Support
The PreSonus FaderPort control surface offers additional flexibility for controlling and automating Vegas Pro 9.0d via hardware other than mouse and keyboard. The touch- sensitive device is perfect for controlling volume and pan parameters, as well as play, stop, start transport functionality and managing markers for fast and easy audio and video editing.
Official changelist:
* Added closed captioning support (reading and writing of XDCAM HD and HD422 closed captions, as well as .SCC file import/export).
* Added support for the PreSonus FaderPort control surface.
* Added Device Explorer support for CompactFlash-based memory recording units such as the HVR-MRC1 and hard-disk-based recording units such as the HVR-DR60.
* Added support for AVCHD Lite video.
* Added support for timecode in XDCAM EX AVI/DV files.
* Tools > Multicamera > Lay Out Tracks Using Media Timecode and Lay Out Tracks Using Media Date/Time Stamp now use unique tracks for media without tape names.
* Added support for importing layered PSD files across tracks.
* Added White Balance video plug-in.
* Added scripts: Remove Letterboxing, Render Audio Tracks, Resize Generated Media, and Stereo To Mono.
* Copy Snapshot to Clipboard and Save Snapshot to File now deinterlace interlaced images and operate at Best (Full) resolution if the Video Preview is set to (Auto) size and Good quality if set to Draft or Preview.
* Copy Snapshot to Clipboard now performs pixel-aspect correction like the Save Snapshot to File command.
* Added Copy Snapshot to Clipboard and Save Snapshot to File to the Trimmer.
* Added timeline DVD burning (Tools > Burn Disc > DVD).
* Updated to latest RED SDK, including support for 4.5K images and FLUT color science.
* élastique Efficient is now the default time stretch mode.
* MPEG-2 smart render across formats now supports MPEG-2 video streams intended for Blu-ray Disc (only available when operating points are identical: e.g. resolution, framerate, video data rate, color resolution).
* The Mastering Effects Bundle 2 plug-ins (available with Sound Forge Pro 10) can now be used in Vegas Pro if they are installed on your system.
* Implemented various compatibility improvements to XDCAM MXF files.
* Improved support for reading AVC/AAC (.mp4) video.
* Improved image sharpness on Windows Secondary Monitor display when Apply deinterlace filter is not used.
* Improved Trimmer Fit-to-Fill behavior when the source is a still image.
* Implemented various additions and improvements to Interactive Tutorials.
* Fixed a crash that could occur during startup when using the 64-bit version of the application with certain RAID controllers.
* Fixed a crash that could occur when adding certain audio effects to the Master Bus FX chain.
* Fixed a hang that could occur while changing FX parameters with an external DV monitor enabled.
* Fixed a hang that could occur when using 32-bit VST audio effects in the 64-bit version of the application.
* Fixed a hang that could occur after capturing HDV clips.
* Fixed field order in reader for certain H.264 files.
* Fixed Import Stereo as Dual Mono when dragging media from the Device Explorer window.
* Fixed a smart render issue with XDCAM HD.
* Fixed a smart render issue with MXF PAL DV rendered to AVI PAL DV.
* Fixed timecode reading for 50p and 60p XDCAM MXF media.
* Fixed an issue with waveform drawing accuracy when very quiet events are normalized.
* Fixed an issue that could prevent audio from appearing for certain AVI files.
* Fixed a crash that could occur when rendering many markers to Sony MXF format.
* Fixed a bug that could cause clicks when using certain Track EQ automation settings.
* Fixed an issue where deleting one Track Motion preset could cause others to be removed.
* Fixed a slight artifact that could occur when using the Broadcast Colors video effect.
* Improved support for VST audio plug-ins written in Delphi.
* Fixed a problem that could cause summary data to be lost when using custom Windows Media Video rendering templates.
* Fixed a problem with enabling the audio stream when using custom Windows Media Video rendering templates.
* Fixed the ability to capture from HDCA-702 MPEG TS Adaptor.
* Fixed the ability to render to multiple mono files using PCA format.
* Fixed the ability to seek in files rendered using the MainConcept AAC/AVC format.
* Fixed a problem that could cause corrupt video when rendering to QuickTime format using the 3 Mbps Video template.
* Fixed the operation of the Proportional check box in the Checkerboard generator plug-in.
* Fixed an issue with media generators not using a changed pixel aspect ratio.
* Fixed an issue saving and restoring templates in the Command Properties dialog.
* Fixed an issue that prevented JPEG from being used to save image sequences.
* Fixed an issue with Trimmer Fit-to-Fill not creating the correct media start time.
* Fixed an issue with scrubbing in reverse past the media start time in the Trimmer.
* Fixed issue with Event Pan/Crop Match Output Aspect when Adjust source media to better match project or render settings applied to the source media.
* Fixed an issue that prevented markers from appearing in the correct position for rendered FLAC files.
* Corrected a problem that could cause black frames in MOV files after installing the QuickTime 7.6.6 update.
Gregory T. Huang wrote:
The Seattle area’s hippest celebration for local software and technology startups is gearing up for its big night. After receiving nearly 7,000 nominations for 11 “best of” categories in Seattle tech, media company Seattle 2.0 is announcing today the finalists for its annual awards show. (Disclosure: I am one of the 36 judges who helped select the finalists.)
Now you, the public, are invited to vote on the finalists starting today, to determine the winners. Community voting will be open until midnight on May 11; anyone can vote on the awards website.
The winners will be announced at the second annual Seattle 2.0 Awards event on May 19th at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center in Seattle. Last year’s event was a smash hit and featured an inspirational talk by Glenn Kelman from Redfin. This year, the keynote speaker will be Jonathan Sposato, the former CEO of Seattle-based Picnik. Picnik, the popular Web-based photo editing startup, was acquired by Google last month in one of the biggest deals of the year. (You can read my interview with Sposato right after the acquisition here.)
Here is the complete list of categories and finalists (there are a lot of them). Good luck to all:
Best Startup: Apptio, BlueKai, BuddyTV, Cheezburger Network, Redfin.
Best Bootstrapped Startup: BigOven, Biznik, Bonanzle, HasOffers, Survey Analytics.
Best Nonprofit Startup: Jolkona, One Bus Away, Startup Weekend, TisBest, Vittana.
Best Startup CEO: Rich Barton (Zillow), Sunny Gupta (Apptio), Glenn Kelman (Redfin), Andy Liu (BuddyTV), Dave Schappell (TeachStreet).
Best Startup Technologist: Damon Cortesi (Untitled Startup), Joe Heitzeberg (WhitePages), Darrin Massena (Picnik/Google), Daryn Nakhuda (TeachStreet), Scott Porad (Cheezburger Network).
Best Startup Designer: Alex Berg (ex-Wetpaint), Greg Bowers (TeachStreet), Aviel Ginzburg (Untitled Startup), Jenny Lam (Jackson Fish Market), Matt Lerner (Front Seat).
Best Venture Capitalist: Geoff Entress (Voyager Capital), Michelle Goldberg (Ignition Partners), Greg Gottesman (Madrona Venture Group), Nick Hanauer (Second Avenue Partners), Andy Sack (Founder’s Co-Op).
Best Angel Investor: Bill Bryant, Clark Kokich, Andy Liu, Dan Rosen, Kelly Smith.
Best Service Provider to Startups: Pearl Chan (CFO Selections), Geir Hansen (Silicon Valley Bank), Eric Koester (Cooley Godward Kronish), Craig Sherman (Wilson Sonsini Goodrich Rosati), Joe Wallin (Davis Wright Tremaine).
Best Entrepreneur Blog: Inspired Startup by Andy Liu, Quick Sprout by Neil Patel, Redfin Blog by Glenn Kelman, Startup Front End by Tony Wright, Untitled Startup Blog by Damon Cortesi & Aviel Ginzburg.
Best Event for Startups: Hops & Chops by Dave Schappell & Daryn Nakhuda, STS Meetings by Chuck Groom & Gaurav Oberoi, TechFlash Live by John Cook, Todd Bishop & Eric Engleman, Ignite Seattle by Brady Forrest et al., Seattle Open Coffee by Andy Sack.
UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS
For all you Storm2 owners out there, here is the latest leaked OS for the 9520, courtesy of BBLeaks. This is not a DRM version, so it will not work on the 9550. If you decide to install, let us know in the comments any feedback you have!
Something you need to remember: This OS is not an official OS released by RIM or any network. Before installing this OS we strongly recommended you do a full backup of your device, just in case something happens. We take no responsibility for any harm caused to your device or data from installing it. Other than that best of luck.
You’re reading a story which originated at BlackBerrySync.com, Where you find BlackBerry News You Can Sync With…
This story is sponsored by the new BlackBerry Sync Mobile App Store. Grab your free copy today at www.GetAppStore.com from your BlackBerry.
Leaked OS: BlackBerry Storm2 9520 OS 5.0.0.612
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Google Docs is still a no go as far as most enterprises are concerned. However, Google is obviously desperate to claw away at Microsoft Office’s dominance. They have just announced a plethora of new features, which should make Docs a worthy alternative to Microsoft offerings such as SharePoint.
The document editor as well as the spreadsheet editor has been refreshed to provide significant performance improvements. The document editor now offers real-time experience, which means that you can view character-by-character changes as collaborators make edits. Also new to the document editor is sidebar chat, which was previously available in the spreadsheet editor.
New features in spreadsheet editor include formula bar for cell editing, auto-complete, drag and drop columns, and simpler navigation between sheets.
Google has also launched a collaborative drawing editor. Don’t be misled by its name, Google isn’t trying to compete with MS Paint. Rather, the drawing editor is intended for drawing flow charts, designs, diagrams and other fun or business graphics.
The drawing editor should become available later today, while the preview versions of documents and spreadsheets would be rolled out to all users within the next few days.
by Jen Harper
I know you were probably a little worried that these guys
had gone extinct, so I have some excellent news: Insane Clown Posse just came
out with a new song! And that’s not all. It teaches us about science—with a twist—so
no need to fret any longer about our flagging education system. It’s a little ditty
called Miracles. And I suppose the
takeaway here is that ICP doesn’t believe in science, per se, since, as the band
sings (sort of), “I don’t want to talk to a scientist. Y’all motherfuckers
lying and getting me pissed.” Do I smell climate deniers? Hmm, I’ll let you
decide. Oh, and some examples of those unexplainable, non-science-related
mysteries (i.e., “magic”)? Giraffes, the sun, the moon, planting seeds, “fucking
rainbows,” “fucking magnets,” water, fire, air, and dirt.
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