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Massachusetts cops reinstated with back pay after testing positive for cocaine

“Officers Ronnie Jones, George Downing, Shawn Harris, Richard Beckers, Jacqueline McGowan and Walter Washington each had very different explanations as to why there might have been cocaine detected in their hair follicles, yet all were summarily fired in the last decade. The board’s ruling reinstates them to their jobs with back pay dating to October 2010. Reasons for the presence of cocaine given by officers included a recent prescription of lidocaine, living near a crackhead, keeping drug evidence in the same pocket as food and accidental physical contact after mistaking the drug for powder from a doughnut.” Continue reading →

Obama won’t push Middle East peace initiative in Israel trip

“President Barack Obama on Thursday signaled there would be no big Middle East peace initiative on the table when he arrives in Israel later this month for his first visit as US leader. Officials have styled the trip as an effort to reconnect with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he had a delicate relationship during his first term and to coordinate on key issues like Iran and Syria. ‘The President reiterated America’s unshakeable support for Israel and thanked the leaders for role they play in strengthening ties between the two nations,’ the official said.” Continue reading →

Democratic senator votes against CIA nominee: Too many Bush-era policies continue

“Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon voted against John Brennan’s nomination to be the next director of the CIA, saying he was too cozy with the policies of the Bush administration. Merkley listed warrantless wiretapping, the lack of rights given to those deemed ‘enemy combatants,’ and the use of drone strikes as his primary concerns. The Democratic senator doubted that Brennan, who has defended warrantless wiretapping, would alleviate his concerns. Brennan has been closely associated with the use of drone strikes against suspected terrorists in Pakistan, Yemen and other countries. In a 2012 speech, he insisted the practice was legal.” Continue reading →

Why Bond Market Bulls Are About to Get Crushed

“We have the lowest interest rates in 250 years – lower than at any time since the founding of the country – created by the Federal Reserve forcing interest rates to zero in the short term. In addition, we have the Fed encouraging banks to help lower rates through buying Treasuries. On top of this, we also have some $350 trillion of swaps derivatives of interest rates – more than half of all the derivatives out there are interest-rate derivatives. Banks use these swaps to transmit lower rates to other debt instruments based on what can they can get from the Fed. This drives all rates down. We’ve seen 30 years of declining interest rates.” Continue reading →

Banking group warns there’s too much ‘easy money’ in global economy

“An influential group of leading world banks warned Thursday that central banks are pumping out too much easy money and markets risk becoming dangerously addicted to ultra-low interest rates. The Institute of International Finance, which groups 450 banks, said if central banks continue to flood money into the global economy then any future bid to get it under control could itself destabilize the financial system. ‘These conditions — quantitative easing, very low interest rates — cannot last forever, but the risk is that financial markets have become addicted to them,’ it warned.” Continue reading →

Bank of England Says Government Should Split Up RBS, Accept Loss

“Bank of England Governor Mervyn King urged the government to split up Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) and speed up the return of Britain’s biggest publicly owned lender to private ownership following its bailout in 2008. ‘We’re four and half years on and there’s no sign of it going back to the private sector,’ King told the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards at a hearing in London today. ‘That indicates we’ve not been sufficiently decisive in recapitalizing or restructuring it.’ RBS has been criticized by lawmakers for failing to boost lending to the economy, even though the taxpayer owns more than 80 percent of the lender.” Continue reading →

Top 5 moments of Rand Paul’s filibuster

“It was a long, hard slog for viewers and participants in the filibuster of the vote to confirm new CIA chief John Brennan, most notably for Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who, we are sad to say, found time to invoke Hitler and the Nazis, but never in the 13 hours of testimony, resorted to reading aloud from the latest edition of the Ron Paul Family Cookbook. Here are a few highlights of the filibuster, which, although clearly futile in that Brennan’s appointment is all but inevitable, we hope will be entertaining enough to help you weather the disappointment of not having Rep. Ron Paul’s family recipes.” Continue reading →

McCain blasts Rand Paul’s filibuster as a ‘political stunt’

“Speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tore into Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) ‘ridiculous’ 13-hour filibuster, chastising the junior senator for a speech that was ‘not helpful’ and not in keeping with Republican orthodoxy on the terror war. McCain also quoted from a Wall Street Journal editorial that mocked Paul. ‘If Mr. Paul wants to be taken seriously, he needs to do more than pull political stunts that fire up impressionable libertarian kids in college dorms,’ the editorial jibes. Still, McCain emphasized that ‘if someone is an enemy combatant, that enemy combatant has nowhere to hide: not in a cafe, not anywhere.'” Continue reading →