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Showing posts with label young. Show all posts
Showing posts with label young. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Is Stockton Falling off Financial Cliff?
STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — A red, white and blue sign declaring Stockton an "All-America City" still adorns City Hall, but the building's crumbling facade tells the real story of the community's recent fortunes.
Since the sign went up nearly a decade ago, Stockton has twice topped Forbes magazine's list of "America's most miserable cities." And now another unflattering title could be headed its way: largest American city to declare bankruptcy.
The city of 290,000 that rode the wave of the housing boom in the late 1990s and early 2000s now finds itself littered with foreclosed homes, saddled with pension, health care and other obligations it can't afford, and unable to pay its bills.
The City Council voted last month to suspend $2 million in bond payments and begin negotiations with bond holders, creditors and unions. A new California law requires that cities begin a 60-day mediation process before filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, though city leaders can file at any time if negotiations stall.
The police union, upset over job cuts and a record murder rate, posted billboards tracking the city's "body count" and giving out the city manager's phone number. One blood-spattered sign read: "Welcome to the 2nd most dangerous city in California: Stop laying off cops!"
The city's deficit now is $15 million — a little more than 9 percent of its annual general fund — and that could double in the next fiscal year.
"We are hanging on by our fingertips," said Mayor Ann Johnston, who has overseen three fiscal emergency declarations and hopes to persuade the city's creditors to forgive some debt.
Founded along the San Joaquin River during the Gold Rush, Stockton has much to boast. It's a gateway to Yosemite National Park and sits atop fertile soil that supports an agricultural industry that built the city and still is its underpinning — the three-day annual Stockton Asparagus Festival draws 100,000 people. It's one of just two deep-water inland ports in California.
During the housing boom, people priced out of the San Francisco Bay area were trundling down Interstate 5, buying up homes in subdivisions built for commuters.
"We became affordable housing for the Bay Area," Johnston said.
City leaders believed the influx of residents and wealth would finally lift the community into its rightful place as a top-tier city. From 2000 to 2005, median home prices quadrupled to $400,000.
The downtown waterfront is a monument to the high hopes of the era. An extensive promenade leads past a 12,000-seat sports arena, a gleaming hotel that opened as a Sheraton and an upscale restaurant, much of it bought with city money.
Today, there are more Canadian geese than people in this part of town. Residents say they avoid the arena because they don't feel safe at night. The Sacramento restaurateur the city lured with generous incentives has closed his doors-- though white tablecloths still adorn the sleek dining room-- and the Sheraton management has also left town.
A developer recently bought the hotel at auction and is refashioning the rooms into dorms for University of the Pacific students.
Though many communities across the country are struggling with their finances and some already have filed for bankruptcy — Pennsylvania's capital of Harrisburg, Jefferson County, Ala., and little Central Falls, R.I. — Stockton's litany of problems stand out.
The unemployment rate has doubled over the past decade and now hovers around 16 percent. A fifth of residents live below the poverty line.
The city has the second-highest foreclosure rate in the nation — it alternates with Las Vegas for the dubious distinction of first place. Home prices have fallen to pre-2000 levels, and as many as half of homeowners owe more than their houses are worth.
The looming bankruptcy was a subject of discussion at Weston Ranch subdivision, where three unemployed neighbors passed a rainy afternoon drinking beer in lawn chairs. All three are underwater on their homes.
Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/In-Stockton-Calif-slow-fall-off-financial-cliff-3396501.php#ixzz1p68OkECr
Monday, February 27, 2012
America For Ron Paul
Sunday, February 26th, marked an exciting day for Ron Paul Supporters, when A new Coalition was formed, America For Ron Paul. Supporters of all ages, and ethnicity joined forces, in Mountain House, CA, amassing 4,000+ people in attendance. All of his loyal supporters were enjoying a day in America, with music, games, and speakers to entertain the large crowd. Ron Paul was not scheduled to show, he is struggling with the media, and the voter fraud that seems to be encompassing the nomination for the Republican Party.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Starved Wisconsin Girl's Statements Detail Her Life
MILWAUKEE (AP) — When the malnourished 15-year-old awoke each morning, she could hear her family eating and getting ready for the day. If she felt especially brave or desperate she would call to her stepmother and beg for food, but usually she just went back to bed and hoped her hunger pangs went away.
The girl was 70 pounds when she was rescued. She told investigators during lengthy interviews at the hospital that most of the food she ate was scraps she found on the floor or in the garbage. She had spent most of five years in the basement of her family's Madison home, where she was beaten and sexually assaulted.
The girl's statements, contained in court documents, paint a troubling picture of physical, mental and sexual abuse. The girl describes running away, only to be found, brought home and threatened. Confined to the basement, she had no one to ask for help. She wasn't allowed to go to school or church, have visitors or talk on the phone.
Dane County officials say the girl is getting help now. She gained 17 pounds after about a week under doctors' care, a criminal complaint said. She has been placed in foster care, and child welfare officials say there's been an outpouring of support from people across the nation, who sent cards and letters.
Her father and stepmother have been charged with child abuse, child neglect and reckless endangerment. The charges carry a maximum combined prison sentence of 11 years, 3 months. The girl's 18-year-old stepbrother is charged with child abuse and child sexual assault and faces 68 years behind bars if convicted.
The three have preliminary hearings set for Thursday morning, and prosecutors say more charges are likely. The Associated Press isn't naming them to avoid identifying the girl. The AP does not usually name victims of sexual assault.
The defendants and their relatives have declined to comment on the charges. The stepbrother's attorney did not immediately return a phone message Monday, and the father and stepmother are still applying for public defenders.
The girl told investigators the abuse started the month she turned 10. Her stepmother beat her, and her stepbrother repeatedly forced her to perform oral sex on him. That's also when the family began keeping her in the basement.
Because it had no bathroom, she said she often bathed in a basement sink that had no hot water and relieved herself in boxes or containers. If she made a mess while doing so, "they will make me eat it. Or drink it or rub it on my face," she said.
She said she was forced to do chores naked and had to call upstairs for permission to eat. She was often told her stepmother was too busy to feed her.
"I know it's a lie," the teen told police. "She's playing with my brother upstairs. I can hear her upstairs watching TV."
She wasted away to 70 pounds. In contrast, police records say her father weighs 240 pounds and her stepmother 370 pounds. The girl implied she could unlock the basement door but said there were motion sensors and an alarm that would draw her stepmother's wrath. Still, she said she fled a couple times, but her parents always found her and threatened to report her to police as a runaway.
Neighbors expressed concern. One called authorities after watching the parents scream at the girl as she was forced to push cement blocks from one side of the yard to the other for no apparent reason. However, the parents blocked county workers from speaking with the girl.
While there might have been more chances to seek help, the girl said she didn't until Feb. 6, when her stepmother threatened to throw her down the stairs. Terrified, barefoot and lightly dressed, the girl bolted through the door and into the cold, wandering aimlessly until a motorist stopped to check on her and eventually contacted police.
"The human brain can only tolerate so much trauma, so much fear," said Ernie Allen, the president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. "What children in captivity tend to do is figure out whatever they have to do to survive. So we should never be surprised when children don't do heroic things, when they don't try to escape. It's pretty clear that this girl was in a situation in which she had no power, in which every aspect of her life was controlled."
The girl was 70 pounds when she was rescued. She told investigators during lengthy interviews at the hospital that most of the food she ate was scraps she found on the floor or in the garbage. She had spent most of five years in the basement of her family's Madison home, where she was beaten and sexually assaulted.
The girl's statements, contained in court documents, paint a troubling picture of physical, mental and sexual abuse. The girl describes running away, only to be found, brought home and threatened. Confined to the basement, she had no one to ask for help. She wasn't allowed to go to school or church, have visitors or talk on the phone.
Dane County officials say the girl is getting help now. She gained 17 pounds after about a week under doctors' care, a criminal complaint said. She has been placed in foster care, and child welfare officials say there's been an outpouring of support from people across the nation, who sent cards and letters.
Her father and stepmother have been charged with child abuse, child neglect and reckless endangerment. The charges carry a maximum combined prison sentence of 11 years, 3 months. The girl's 18-year-old stepbrother is charged with child abuse and child sexual assault and faces 68 years behind bars if convicted.
The three have preliminary hearings set for Thursday morning, and prosecutors say more charges are likely. The Associated Press isn't naming them to avoid identifying the girl. The AP does not usually name victims of sexual assault.
The defendants and their relatives have declined to comment on the charges. The stepbrother's attorney did not immediately return a phone message Monday, and the father and stepmother are still applying for public defenders.
The girl told investigators the abuse started the month she turned 10. Her stepmother beat her, and her stepbrother repeatedly forced her to perform oral sex on him. That's also when the family began keeping her in the basement.
Because it had no bathroom, she said she often bathed in a basement sink that had no hot water and relieved herself in boxes or containers. If she made a mess while doing so, "they will make me eat it. Or drink it or rub it on my face," she said.
She said she was forced to do chores naked and had to call upstairs for permission to eat. She was often told her stepmother was too busy to feed her.
"I know it's a lie," the teen told police. "She's playing with my brother upstairs. I can hear her upstairs watching TV."
She wasted away to 70 pounds. In contrast, police records say her father weighs 240 pounds and her stepmother 370 pounds. The girl implied she could unlock the basement door but said there were motion sensors and an alarm that would draw her stepmother's wrath. Still, she said she fled a couple times, but her parents always found her and threatened to report her to police as a runaway.
Neighbors expressed concern. One called authorities after watching the parents scream at the girl as she was forced to push cement blocks from one side of the yard to the other for no apparent reason. However, the parents blocked county workers from speaking with the girl.
While there might have been more chances to seek help, the girl said she didn't until Feb. 6, when her stepmother threatened to throw her down the stairs. Terrified, barefoot and lightly dressed, the girl bolted through the door and into the cold, wandering aimlessly until a motorist stopped to check on her and eventually contacted police.
"The human brain can only tolerate so much trauma, so much fear," said Ernie Allen, the president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. "What children in captivity tend to do is figure out whatever they have to do to survive. So we should never be surprised when children don't do heroic things, when they don't try to escape. It's pretty clear that this girl was in a situation in which she had no power, in which every aspect of her life was controlled."
This is a horrific story, hopefully she can begin living a REAL NICE life soon. May God be with her every guiding step, and grant her serenity. This just isn't meant to happen, especially to an innocent little girl. Starvation, her Guardians deserve to be beaten and starved, to teach those sickos Right from Wrong!Oh Zee
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Silicon Valley: The rise of the adolescent CEOs
By Sarah McBride
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Josh Buckley, chief executive of an online gaming start-up, is looking forward to next month's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, particularly for the parties and the accompanying schmoozing with industry A-listers.
There's one problem: Buckley, who will turn 20 this week on February 22, may be turned away from many of the parties because he is not old enough to drink. His fake ID was recently confiscated, and the two new ones he ordered from a company in China have not yet arrived.
Such are the dilemmas facing the ever-younger entrepreneurs that Silicon Valley investors are backing these days. While little data on the phenomenon exists, venture capitalists say they are funding more chief executives under age 21 than ever before.
"At a certain point, they can't get much younger or we're going to be invested in preschool," quipped Marc Andreessen, whose venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is one of several that backs Buckley's company, MinoMonsters.
Andreessen and other venture capitalists say the entrepreneurs they fund at 18 or 19 typically have been prepping for years -- learning computer code, taking on ambitious freelance projects and educating themselves on the Internet.
Some are self-consciously molding themselves in the image of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 27, who created computer games as a child and was taking a graduate-level computer course by his early teens. Internet businesses that target consumers make a sweet spot for the baby-faced, because online companies often require relatively little capital. A semiconductor start-up might require $10 million to $20 million in the early stages, noted Joe Kraus of Google Ventures, and that would be tough even for the most talented youngster.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Josh Buckley, chief executive of an online gaming start-up, is looking forward to next month's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, particularly for the parties and the accompanying schmoozing with industry A-listers.
There's one problem: Buckley, who will turn 20 this week on February 22, may be turned away from many of the parties because he is not old enough to drink. His fake ID was recently confiscated, and the two new ones he ordered from a company in China have not yet arrived.
Such are the dilemmas facing the ever-younger entrepreneurs that Silicon Valley investors are backing these days. While little data on the phenomenon exists, venture capitalists say they are funding more chief executives under age 21 than ever before.
"At a certain point, they can't get much younger or we're going to be invested in preschool," quipped Marc Andreessen, whose venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is one of several that backs Buckley's company, MinoMonsters.
Andreessen and other venture capitalists say the entrepreneurs they fund at 18 or 19 typically have been prepping for years -- learning computer code, taking on ambitious freelance projects and educating themselves on the Internet.
Some are self-consciously molding themselves in the image of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 27, who created computer games as a child and was taking a graduate-level computer course by his early teens. Internet businesses that target consumers make a sweet spot for the baby-faced, because online companies often require relatively little capital. A semiconductor start-up might require $10 million to $20 million in the early stages, noted Joe Kraus of Google Ventures, and that would be tough even for the most talented youngster.
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