Stockton May be on the Cusp of the rebound

Yes, the same Stockton that's on the verge of filing for bankruptcy protection. In fact, it's leading all California metro areas in job growth. From Reuters:

The Business Forecasting Center of the University of the Pacific in Stockton estimates a 5 percent increase in payrolls in the Stockton region for the 12 -month period ending in March. Jeff Michael, the center's director, said the city's economy is finally starting to recover from the knock-on effects of the area's dramatic housing crash. The region has "clearly joined the recovery," he told Reuters on Thursday. Local job growth will run at about 4 percent this year and about 2 percent annually through 2016, he said.
Of course, all this take time to move through the system - possibly too much time to avoid a trip to bankruptcy court. "If I had to bet, I'd bet the city would probably enter bankruptcy," Michael said. "The problem is too deep and too complex and involves too many parties to reach a negotiated solution in a few months." At this point, there are three possibilities: Slashing more services and staff, restructuring debt by working with creditors, or filing for Chapter 9, which is municipal bankruptcy. City officials presented those options at a Town Hall meeting. From the Stockton Record:

A participant elicited applause by next suggesting the city could save $300,000 a year by firing [City Manager Bob Deis]. The city manager - at the time seated with his back to the personal attack - shook his head and smiled. City firefighter and Stockton resident Mike Pasqualicchio took aim at [Mayor Ann Johnston] for being on the City Council in the 1990s that cast "uneducated" votes for increasing city retirees' health care - the bulk of Stockton's problems today. Johnston responded that Stockton got caught in a statewide trend that began when the California Highway Patrol first received enhanced retirement benefits. "Yes, I voted on a couple of those," Johnston said. "I was assured by city staff that this was something we could afford. Did I ask the right questions? I thought I did at the time." Deis defended Johnston by saying that city staff at the time was at fault for failing to provide the council members with the fine print.

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Official: City headed in right direction

This has got to be because of the newly active citizens, whom I am provoking to stand up for their rights. This Story is trying real hard to keep the wool over our eyes. Doesn't She know that not reporting $46,000+ to your employer as the amount that was overpaid, would be viewed as embezzlement?

By Scott Smith
Record Staff Writer
May 02, 2012 12:00 AM

STOCKTON - Despite a barrage of bad news, Stockton has jump-started the revitalization of its downtown, begun a road project that will open up south Stockton commerce and formed a committee set on curbing the city's violence.

The city's long-inert Community Development Department is in the midst of a cultural overhaul, and vacant department head positions will be filled within weeks.

So City Manager Bob Deis told the City Council on Tuesday, ticking off a long list of steps Stockton is taking forward.

Deis said the city is having to overcome years of mismanagement and apathy at City Hall. He predicted that in another year, the foundation the city is laying now will begin to pay off.

"Stay the course," he told the City Council in a study session, outlining the successes and ongoing challenges. "The city of Stockton is doing some things right, making headway."

A year ago, the City Council set four goals: straightening its finances; increasing public safety; stimulating Stockton's economy; and making City Hall efficient.

Under those interlocking goals, city leaders pinpointed a list of 38 specific items that needed fixing.

Deis and other city staffers reported item by item a description of each specific area, who in City Hall is leading the effort and a status check - what's on schedule, behind or complete.

As glowing examples, Deis said the city invited a strike team from the Urban Land Institute for a week in February that will soon send recommendations for revitalizing Stockton's troubled core. In April, a committee formed under the Marshall Plan on crime met for the first time. After the meeting, Deis said members said they were impressed with the outlook.

All of this progress came even with significant distractions, like tense labor negotiations with the city's represented employees and Stockton having gone into confidential mediation with creditors in a pre-bankruptcy stage.

City Hall also experienced an exodus of key city staff within the past year, said Deis, who has worked at six different local governments in his career. He complimented the council for taking aggressive actions.

"Everywhere, councils develop goals, and that's it," he said. "Very few translate those into action."

Mayor Ann Johnston passed the compliment back to city staff for their work.

"I, too, am frankly amazed at the progress we've made despite all the challenges," she said.



Vice Mayor Kathy Miller also pointed out that the city has kept open community pools, started a youth tennis program and found a partner to keep the inner-city Merlo gym open with activities.

Too often, the headlines splash with the challenges, she said. "It's important to let the public know that we are busy and we are delivering critical services," she said.

Resident Gary Malloy pressed the council and city leaders for tangible results coming from the plans on paper. He asked when more police will be on the streets and why monthly financial reports weren't available.

"The citizens want to see action on crime and action on the finances," he said. Two people were found slain earlier in the day.

Police Chief Eric Jones responded to his staffing levels, saying that he has 344 budgeted positions and 326 officers now on the job. His office is actively recruiting, and soon, a federal grant will allow his office to hire 17 more officers, he said.

Stockton police are constantly working with the FBI, federal marshals and the California Highway Patrol, he added.

Deis said the downside is a federal grant giving Stockton 20 police officers soon expires, and the city's general fund will have to absorb their pay. "Come hell or high water," he said, "we're not going to cut those positions."

Contact reporter Scott Smith at (209) 546-8296 or ssmith@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/smithblog.

America 2012: The Supreme Court Has Made It Legal For The Police To…

Last week the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police in the United States can strip search anyone that they arrest. It doesn’t matter how minor the crime is and it doesn’t matter if they suspect that you have contraband on you or not. The Supreme Court even said that you can be strip searched if you have been arrested for a traffic violation. Any type of arrest will do. Once you are arrested, if the police want to strip off your clothes and see you naked there is not a thing you can do about it. You can read the entire Supreme Court decision right here. Considering the fact that 13 million Americans are put in jail at some point each year, this is a very frightening thing. The notion that we are all “innocent until proven guilty” is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Thanks to the Supreme Court, it is now legal for the police to strip search you any time they want. All they have to do is find some excuse to arrest you. And considering the fact that almost everything is illegal in America, that is not hard to do. America continues to become a very dark place in 2012, and very few people are speaking up in defense of liberty and freedom.

But don’t the police need probable cause before they search you? Aren’t we protected against unreasonable searches by the U.S. Constitution? After all, the 4th Amendment says the following….

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Unfortunately, not even the Supreme Court seems to care much about the U.S. Constitution anymore.

As I have written about previously, in the “new America” you don’t get any rights.

Instead, the government gives you a limited number of “privileges” that it can revoke at any time.

The story of the man that was at the heart of the Supreme Court case mentioned above demonstrates this. His name was Albert Florence and he was arrested for not paying a fine that he had already paid.

But the fact that he was innocent didn’t seem to matter too much to the police. They held him in prison for six days and strip searched him twice. The following is how CNN describedwhat Florence went through after his arrest….

Court records show Florence was subjected to an invasive strip and visual body-cavity search. He was then held for six days in the county lockup before being transferred to a Newark correctional facility, where, he claims, he was subjected to another more intrusive search before being placed in the general prison population.

“It was very disgusting. It was just a bad, bad experience,” he told CNN’s Kate Bolduan recently. “I was just told, ‘Do as you’re told.’ Wash in this disgusting soap and obey the directions of the officer who was instructing me to turn around, lift my genitals up, turn around, and squat.”

Are you upset when you read that?

You should be.

You see, this is how totalitarian governments act. Totalitarian regimes love to dehumanize and humiliate their “detainees” by stripping them naked.

So when we see this kind of behavior by authorities in the United States we should be very concerned.

And when we see the U.S. Supreme Court giving the stamp of approval to this kind of activity, we should be sounding the alarm.

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Why Does The Department Of Homeland Security Need 450 MILLION Hollow Point Bullets?

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AUTHOR: THE AMERICAN DREAM

Somebody out there has decided that the Department of Homeland Security needs a whole lot of ammunition. Recently it was announced that ATK was awarded a contract to provide up to 450 MILLION hollow point bullets to the Department of Homeland Security over the next five years. Is it just me, or does that sound incredibly excessive? What in the world is the DHS going to do with 450 million rounds? What possible event would ever require that much ammunition? If the United States was ever invaded, it would be the job of the U.S. military to defend the country, so that can’t be it. So what are all of those bullets for? Who does the Department of Homeland Security plan to be shooting at? According to the U.S. Census, there are only about 311 million people living in the entire country. So why does the Department of Homeland Security need 450 million rounds of ammunition? Either this is an incredible waste or there is something that the Department of Homeland Security is not telling us.

I could understand if the U.S. military was ordering ammunition in this quantity. When you fight wars you can go through ammunition very rapidly.

But the Department of Homeland Security is only supposed to be shooting at people very rarely.

It simply does not make sense that they would need so much ammunition.

The following is an excerpt from the official press release about this deal between ATK and the Department of Homeland Security….

ATK announced that it is being awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) agreement from the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (DHS, ICE) for .40 caliber ammunition. This contract features a base of 12 months, includes four option years, and will have a maximum volume of 450 million rounds.

ATK was the incumbent and won the contract with its HST bullet, which has proven itself in the field. The special hollow point effectively passes through a variety of barriers and holds its jacket in the toughest conditions. HST is engineered for 100-percent weight retention, limits collateral damage, and avoids over-penetration.

“We are proud to extend our track record as the prime supplier of .40 caliber duty ammunition for DHS, ICE,” said Ron Johnson, President of ATK’s Security and Sporting group.

But this is not the only kind of ammo that the DHS is placing an order for.

Business Insider is also reporting that the Department of Homeland Security is seeking to buy 175 million rifle ammunition rounds….

We’ve also learned that the Department has an open bid for a stockpile of rifle ammo. Listed on the federal business opportunities network, they’re looking for up to 175 million rounds of .233 caliber ammo to be exact. The 223 is almost exactly the same round used by NATO forces, the 5.56 x 45mm.

This all comes at a time when gun sales are absolutely going through the roof in the United States.

Gun manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Co. recently announced that it would be suspending new orders until May because it received orders for more than one million guns during the months of January and February.

The following announcement about this suspension of sales comes from their official website….

The Company’s Retailer Programs that were offered from January 1, 2012 through February 29, 2012 were very successful and generated significant orders from retailers to independent wholesale distributors for Ruger firearms.
Year-to-date, the independent wholesale distributors placed orders with the Company for more than one million Ruger firearms.
Despite the Company’s continuing successful efforts to increase production rates, the incoming order rate exceeds our capacity to rapidly fulfill these orders. Consequently, the Company has temporarily suspended the acceptance of new orders.
The Company expects to resume the normal acceptance of orders by the end of May 2012.
Since Barack Obama first took office, gun sales in America have risen to extraordinary levels.

Overall, more than 10 million guns were sold in the United States during 2011.

And gun sales have continued to rise at a brisk pace in 2012. The following was recently posted on Yahoo News….

The NSSF said that 920,840 instant criminal background checks were made in January alone, a gain of 17.3% over the same month in 2011. This now makes it the 20th consecutive month of increases. While using the number of background checks is a good measurement of sales, it doesn’t paint the whole picture as some checks are used for the purchases of multiple firearms. Also, some private transfers and sales from gun shows are exempt, making the actual number of guns sold higher.

According to Gallup, 41 percent of all Americans said that they owned a gun in 2010. But when that question was asked again in 2011, that number had risen to 47 percent.

Clearly, a lot of Americans are feeling the need to arm themselves.

Unfortunately, they may find themselves short on ammunition for those guns considering how much ammo the government is buying up.

So what is causing everyone to buy so many guns?

Well, without a doubt we are likely to see a rise in crime as the U.S. economy continues to crumble. People want to be able to protect themselves and their families when everything falls apart. In fact, we are already starting to see some really violent home invasions in many parts of the nation. Many in the prepper movement are deeply concerned about the direction this country is headed and they want to be prepared for whatever happens.

Of course the rising gang problem in America is a major concern too. According to the FBI there are now 1.4 million gang members living in the United States, and that number has increased by 40 percent since 2009. Many urban communities have essentially been taken over by these gangs, and many of these gangs are definitely not shy about using violence. Average Americans that live in these communities want to be able to have a fighting chance against these gangs.

But that doesn’t explain why the DHS needs so much ammunition. Yes, our world is becoming increasingly unstable, but under what conditions does the DHS ever anticipate firing off 450 million rounds?

Something does not add up. If anyone has a possible explanation for why the DHS would need

Bernanke to Congress: We're Much Closer to Total Destruction Than You Think

Official Congressional budget estimates understate the peril of rising debt, Fed chair Ben Bernanke told the Budget Committee on Capitol Hill today.

Warning that our nation's fiscal health has deteriorated appreciably since the onset of the financial crisis and the recession, Bernanke called upon lawmakers to confront the long term fiscal challenges sooner rather than later. If lawmakers don't confront them, they'll find themselves confronted by them.

From Bernanke's prepared remarks:

By definition, the unsustainable trajectories of deficits and debt that the CBO outlines cannot actually happen, because creditors would never be willing to lend to a government with debt, relative to national income, that is rising without limit. One way or the other, fiscal adjustments sufficient to stabilize the federal budget must occur at some point. The question is whether these adjustments will take place through a careful and deliberative process that weighs priorities and gives people adequate time to adjust to changes in government programs or tax policies, or whether the needed fiscal adjustments will come as a rapid and painful response to a looming or actual fiscal crisis.

Bernanke explained that the Congressional Budget Office's calculations miss an important reality. As the government's debt and deficits rise, the economy will slow down—an effect not taken into account by the CBO. So, for instance, when the CBO says that federal spending for health-care programs will roughly double as a percentage of GDP in the next 25 years, it is probably being too optimistic. If debt keeps, rising, GDP will be much lower than the CBO estimates—which will mean that health care spending will be a much larger percentage of the overall economy.

Here's Bernanke on the effect of rising debt:

Sustained high rates of government borrowing would both drain funds away from private investment and increase our debt to foreigners, with adverse long-run effects on U.S. output, incomes, and standards of living. Moreover, diminishing investor confidence that deficits will be brought under control would ultimately lead to sharply rising interest rates on government debt and, potentially, to broader financial turmoil. In a vicious circle, high and rising interest rates would cause debt-service payments on the federal debt to grow even faster, resulting in further increases in the debt-to-GDP ratio and making fiscal adjustment all the more difficult.

In short, the official estimates members of Congress hear from their budget office are under-estimating our dire economic predicament. If fiscal policy is not brought under control, things will be much, much worse.