Evidence [more] that the U.S. is a State sponsor of terrorism.

By Charles V. Bagli, New York Times, April 4/5, 2012

[....] Since taking office in 2010, Gov. Chris Christie has approved a record $1.57 billion in state tax breaks for dozens of New Jersey’s largest companies after they pledged to add jobs. Mr. Christie has emphasized that these are prudent measures intended to help heal the state’s economy, which lost more than 260,000 jobs in the recession. The companies often received the tax breaks after they threatened to move to New York or elsewhere.

The generous distribution of subsidies in New Jersey has come under fire from government-reform groups, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City and some New Jersey landlords, who contend that the programs are an expensive and ineffective form of assistance to wealthy corporations [....]

By Alexi Barrioneuvo, New York Times, April 3/4, 2012

More than 200 real estate brokers and lawyers, many of them among the most ambitious in the Manhattan real estate world, filed into an Off Broadway theater last month for three hours.

The subject of the gathering was not art, but money: specifically, how to sell multimillion-dollar properties to clients from Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe.  While the brokers sipped wine and nibbled cheese, a panel of lawyers and a banker reviewed some of the biggest sales made to Russians, including [....]

Note sidebar:
Slideshow: Russians Write Big Checks for Luxury U.S. Real Estate

and for more see:
China, Russia and Brazil Buy Up New York
by Elise Knutsen, New York Observer, Nov 21, 2011

Yes, it’s true: New Yorkers are facing stiff competition in the real estate market from highfalutin foreign buyers. And where precisely are these buyers coming from? China, Russia and Brazil, according to a break-down from The Real Deal. Here’s the skinny on your home-searching competition: [....]

plus for more on Ryboloselv, see Knutsen's Dec 18, 2011 article:
Na Zdarovia Dmitry Rybolovlev! Fertilizer Kingpin Buys Sandy Weill’s $88 M. Penthouse

By Joshua Keating, Passport @ Foreignpolicy.com, April 4, 2012

It was already a bit bizarre when the United States offered a $10 million reward on Monday for information leading to the capture of Hafiz Saeed, the founder of the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba who is accused of orchestrating the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

After all, Saeed isn't exactly in hiding. As the New York Times reported yesterday, he lives in a well-known compound on the outskirts of Lahore and appears frequently at public rallies throughout Pakistan. (You can send my $10 million check to 1899 L St. NW., Washington D.C. 20036. Thanks!)

But things reached the level of high farce today when Saeed held a press conference essentially daring U.S. authorities to come arrest him [....]

Today's award for the most euphemistic lead paragraph goes to the New York Times. Paraphrasing Hillary Clinton, the Times says the U.S. has agreed to "send communications equipment to help rebels organize and evade Syria's military."

But yesterday (March 29) the U.S. House of Representatives—the hotbed of opposition to bike and walking as well as transit programs—voted to extend the current surface transportation bill for another three months, saving the funding of bike and ped programs. The Senate followed two hours later.  (This marks the 9th extension of the existing transportation bill since 2009 and another victory for the growing movement to ensure federal support for biking and walking projects.)

The political forces that want to steer policies back to the 1950s—when cars and highways were seen as the only way to go—have consistently failed to muster enough votes to shift federal transportation funding into reverse.  There are several reason for this, but one of the most surprising is the emergence of bicycle advocates—and to a lesser extent pedestrian advocates—as a persuasive political lobby.

Groups like the Alliance for Biking and Walking , the League of American Bicyclists, America Bikes, Bikes Belong, Rails to Trails Conservancy, People for Bikes, America Walks  and others emphasize the message that the biking and walking benefit everyone, not just folks who ride and stroll frequently. They've earned the attention of a growing bi-partisan bloc of Congress members, which makes the prospects for continued federal support of bike and pedestrian improvements much more likely than anyone expected last year.

The core of their message is plain common sense: All Americans are better off because biking and walking foster improved public health (and savings in health care expenditures for households, businesses and government), stronger communities, less congestion, safer streets, lower energy use and a cleaner, safer environment.

The security and surveillance state does not deal in nuance or ambiguity. Its millions of agents, intelligence gatherers, spies, clandestine operatives, analysts and armed paramilitary units live in a binary world of opposites, of good and evil, black and white, opponent and ally.

This is why the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was contested by me [Chris Hedges]and three other plaintiffs before Judge Katherine B. Forrest in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Thursday, is so dangerous.

By Simon Romero, New York Times, March 31/April 1, 2012

RIO DE JANEIRO — [....] Thor Batista, the 20-year-old son of Brazil’s richest man, was driving back one night in March from a meal at a steakhouse in the mountains above Rio. He was on a highway at the steering wheel of his father’s $1.3 million sports car, a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.

Wanderson Pereira dos Santos, 30, who lived in a shack at the highway’s edge and worked unloading trailer trucks, was on his bicycle, on an errand to buy flour. His wife was preparing to bake a cake. They were celebrating her birthday.

When Mr. Batista’s McLaren suddenly smashed into Mr. Pereira dos Santos, killing him instantly, it was clear that more than the two men collided on that stretch of highway. Two Brazils also met head-on: one in which a small elite live with almost unfathomable wealth, and another in which millions eke out an existence on the margins of that abundance [....]

By Liz Alderman, New York Times, April 1/2, 2012

PARIS — [....] the economic distress it has left in its wake is pushing a rising tide of workers into precarious straits in France and across the European Union. Today, hundreds of thousands of people are living in campgrounds, vehicles and cheap hotel rooms. Millions more are sharing space with relatives, unable to afford the basic costs of living.

These people are the extreme edge of Europe’s working poor: a growing slice of the population that is slipping through Europe’s long-vaunted social safety net. Many, particularly the young, are trapped in low-paying or temporary jobs that are replacing permanent ones destroyed in Europe’s economic downturn.

France fares better than most European countries, at 6.6 percent, but perhaps nowhere is the phenomenon more startling. While the country seems to exude prosperity, the number of working poor is up from 6.1 percent in 2006, and experts predict it will grow. In France, half the nation’s workers earn less than $25,000 [....]

Many of them are on temporary contracts that employers are increasingly using to replace permanent jobs, which carry benefits and job protections that many employers are reluctant to take on. Contract labor has surged in the last several years and is set to increase as politicians in France and elsewhere encourage their use as a way to reduce high unemployment. In 2011, temporary contracts accounted for 50 percent of all new hires in the European Union, according to Eurostat [....]

So, here we go again, open season on Planned Parenthood and the women who use Planned Parenthood. I was holding my breath hoping the wing nuts wouldn't try to scare women away from going to a Planned Parenthood clinic, but I knew deep down inside I was probably wrong.  In the 1980's when I escorted women into Planned Parenthood clinics it was dangerous. I hope we won't be going through that all over again.

Yes there is a War on Women being conducted by Republicans. There is.

Wall Street is buzzing about the annual report just put out by the Dallas Federal Reserve. In the paper, Harvey Rosenblum, the head of the Dallas Fed's research department, bluntly calls for the breakup of Too-Big-To-Fail banks like Bank of America, Chase, and Citigroup.

By Dashiel Bennett, The Atlantic Wire, March 30, 2012

Police in France arrested 19 suspected Islamic militants on Friday morning, including some who may be tangentially connected to the man who shot seven people in Toulouse this month. While none of the suspects have been directly connected to the recent attacks, some were members of a banned Salafist group that Mohamed Merah may have been linked to. The raids took place in the early morning hours in the cities of Toulouse, Nantes, Le Mans, and in the Paris, where police say they also seized automatic weapons. No formal charges have been filed yet, but President Nicolas Sarkozy says there could be more raids and the suspects will likely be expelled from France.

The crackdown appears to be due, at least in part, to criticisms that the government did not do enough to stop Merah [....]