Subject: Policies
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One of the stories that has been submerged in the Midwest flooding is the complete lack of an effective FEMA response, bad judgment, and limited capacity. A tragic example was that FEMA was not requiring flood insurance for a number…
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When I was a kid, I loved watching presidential election returns. Every four years I’d get to rush home and sit in front of the TV and watch as the tote boards toted and the commentators commentated and eventually the…
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It was bound to happen: Oil goes up to $140-plus a barrel and the president calls for offshore drilling and opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, aka ANWR. Technology will prevent another Exxon Valdez disaster, he says, or a slick-bathed California shoreline.
Doesn’t that just sum up the Bush “energy policy” for two administrations — oh, hey, this should make my family, buddies, along with Uncle Dick, even richer.
Bush, of course, proposed it as relief for the national “pain at the pump” — and can we retire that played-out phrase? Geez, people, alliteration’s great, but please.
The Dems slapped him down right quick this time around — well, not SLAPPED, exactly, but gave him an indignant shove, anyway, and said forget it. more
Several other Rooflines bloggers have speculated about the impact of a new emphasis on metropolitan areas coming from the federal level. This past Friday, civic leaders from Cleveland and Youngstown, Ohio and Pittsburgh, Pa. met in Youngstown (the mid-point between…
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Metropolitanism, or regionalism, was back in the news this morning as Barack Obama trumpeted the concept at the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. There’s nothing especially sexy about the idea of cities and suburbs working together to…
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Sen. Barack Obama’s decision to forgo public financing for the 2008 general election appears to be steeped more in pragmatism than it is in putting an end to public financing — it’s about putting an end to this form of…
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As the water rose in his Cedar Rapids home, Frank refused to leave, even when a FEMA boat pulled up to his porch. FEMA wouldn’t take his two dogs, Romeo and Angie, and he wasn’t leaving without them.
Finally a fire department boat plucked Frank and the dogs out as the water continued to rise. A fireman even lunged into the water to grab Angie, a German Shepherd puppy, after she jumped overboard.
Now Frank, 59 and in a wheelchair, is living in a Red Cross shelter set up at a high school. He has applied for FEMA aid, but as a renter he doubts he will get much. He is looking for an apartment where he can move and be reunited with his dogs, who are staying at an animal shelter. But coming up with the first and last month’s rent and security deposit is hard on his disability income.
Meanwhile Ken, 58, has gotten his FEMA aid — all of $481. He thinks his home in working-class southwest Cedar Rapids was destroyed; he figures he’ll end up in bankruptcy soon. For the past week he hasn’t even been able to do his work cleaning gutters because he’s been spending all day in lines to fill out forms. Now he and his wife figure their only option may be moving in with her family in Tennessee.
“But my friends are here, my kids are here, my church is here,” said Ken, who spent Father’s Day waiting in the hot sun to retrieve belongings from his house, only to be told he couldn’t enter.
Thus begins the long slow recovery process, which will consume people’s lives for months or even years to come, long after all the TV cameras and national politicians have stopped visiting. more
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Overcoming pleas that such a measure will destroy small businesses – just as similar measures apparently have destroyed all small businesses in Chicago, New York and Paris – the Pennsylvania state legislature has stopped wringing its hands long enough to…
Michael Davis, a Dallas city planner, has been named to Barack Obama’s Urban Policy Committee. Barack Obama, if elected, plans to create a White House Office on Urban Policy “to ensure that all federal dollars targeted to urban areas are…
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How important was Tim Russert to presidential politics? Certainly he was a central figure in the news coverage in the 2008 cycle, and let’s not forget his famous Florida triplet in Bush v. Gore in 2000. Tim Russert’s style outraged…
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So James A. Johnson has resigned from Barack Obama’s vice president search committee in the aftermath of the Wall Street Journal’s revelations that Johnson, a former chief executive of Fannie Mae, according to The New York Times “received mortgages on…
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Long, long ago, children, in 1981, Ronald Reagan became President of the United States and expanded the military budget by 43 percent over what it was during the U.S. war in Viet Nam. He also scared the holy hell out…
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Forget two-year presidential campaigns that raise hundreds of millions in donations. It’s back to basics time and it’s time to know your candidates. In an apparent attempt to avoid being Swift-Boated, Barack Obama has launched www.fightthesmears.com. You might have received…
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While America has been waiting for Congress and state legislatures to get their act together on the foreclosure crisis, some state attorneys general have been taking matters into their own hands and taking law-enforcement actions against predatory lending practices and…
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Now that the Democratic primary race is over, will the mainstream media start to scrutinize John McCain? Let’s hope they begin looking beyond the “maverick” mythos he has woven around himself and that much of the press has been all…
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For those of you unable to tune into our June 3 Learning Lab Web cast held in collaboration with The Professional Development Institute, here’s a link to the archived version. John Taylor, president and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment…
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A New York State commission established by Governor Eliot Spitzer recently recommended ways to lower property taxes, which are putting a world of hurt on homeowners. Fair enough. Some of the commission’s recommendations, like a proposed “circuit breaker” that would limit property-tax burdens for lower-income homeowners, are well-considered approaches.
Unfortunately, there are some recommendations that are not as progressive minded, particularly the proposal to cap property taxes for schools. This proposal, if made law, would weigh heavily on the backs of public schools.
According to The New York Times:
“Under the commission’s preliminary proposal, counties, towns and school districts would be allowed to raise property taxes by 120 percent of the consumer price index or 4 percent each year, whichever is lower. Breaking the cap would require approval by at least 55 percent of the voters in a given district. And those districts that increased spending by less than the cap would be allowed to use a portion of the difference in future years.”
This is a bad idea.
It handicaps school systems that are already struggling to introduce quality education and life opportunities into the average classroom. The cap could lead to dramatic and harmful suspensions of school services in the future and desperate attempts by communities and the state to make up budget gaps. As a New York Times editorial recently noted, “the proposal would not give any relief to property owners or even renters in urban areas of the state. Instead, if the state decides to pour more money into suddenly cash-starved nonurban school districts, the cap could well result in added burdens in the cities.” more
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Don’t get me wrong: I’m happy that Senator Obama will be the Democratic nominee. It says a hell of a lot about how far the country has come. And I was starting to realize just how much of a typical…
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Let’s not kid ourselves: we have reason to be skeptical, tentative, wary, and yes, waiting to be inspired and swept away by someone America can line up behind. Am I talking about Barack Obama? Am I talking about John McCain?…
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Have you heard of Stan Brock? If not, watch the video below — it will help you to work up a good ration of righteous indignation as we head toward the presidential election. STAN BROCK BRINGS HEALTH CARE TO AMERICANS…
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National Housing Institute
