Will Stockton, CA Become Largest U.S. City In Bankruptcy?
[Breitbart.com]
June 26, 2012 by Tony Lee
Officials in Stockton, California had until 11:59 p.m. on Monday to reach a deal to restructure the city’s debt to avoid bankruptcy under a new California mediation law. That deadline has passed and, according to the Associated Press, a Stockton spokesperson said what happened in those negotiations was confidential and would not be announced until Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, where members will meet to potentially discuss and vote on a plan to restructure their debt, according to The Fresno Bee.
If Stockton city officials failed to gain concessions, mainly from public sector employees and their representatives, the city manager will file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy on Wednesday, making Stockton the largest U.S. city to be in bankruptcy.
According to the Bee, the city already made drastic cuts to the public sector but previous “multi-year labor contracts for city workers with escalating costs and generous retirement plans” prevented the city from digging out of its fiscal hole.
Another city in California, Vallejo, filed for bankruptcy and is getting back its fiscal solvency by, as Walter Russell Mead has written, ditching the “blue model” of expensive labor contracts and unsustainable pensions.
It is something Stockton should be aware of. But, as Mead has also noted, the time to ditch the “blue model” before the city is a step away from falling off the fiscal cliff.
Photo credit: Otto Vondrak
Obama, Why Don’t You Just Resign?
Center for Western Journalism
[WesternJournalism.com]
Barack Hussein Obama has decided that in order to punish Arizona for having dared enforce American immigration laws, he has ordered his federal agencies to basically stop working with Arizona’s law enforcement agencies concerning illegal immigrants. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr has also made it known as the nations chief law enforcement officer that he too is only going to selectively enforce immigration laws that he personally likes. More to the point, Holder will only enforce what is beneficial to his boss’s re-election campaign. If I’m not mistaken, this attitude by both men is blatantly UNCONSTITUTIONAL and falls under the heading of “high crimes and misdemeanors’, an IMPEACHABLE offense!
Mr. Obama, how in the world can you look at the people of Arizona and tell them that YOU are not willing to give them EQUAL PROTECTION under the laws of the United States? Brian Terry, an American Border Patrol Agent, was shot in the back 18 miles INSIDE the border of the United States! Jaime Zapata, an ICE agent, was also killed because of an illegally run and botched program known as Fast & Furious. Being an accomplice to murder, Mr. Obama, is a crime punishable by prison time. Maybe you and Mr Holder could share a cell? Anyway, I digress…..again!
My feelings are, Mr. Obama, that you should be impeached before any more American and Mexican bodies pile up because of your insanity. Mr. Holder should be found guilty of contempt of Congress and charged with negligent homicide in the cases of the two dead federal agents. You and Holder should also have to face justice in the death of the Arizona rancher and others who were killed by your illegal compadres coming across our borders and onto American’s rightfully-owned land. I have an idea for a reverse gun walking program that I would like to run called “Slow & Deliberate”! It’s a program whereby I legally get to use federal funds to LEGALLY buy guns from LEGAL gun shop owners and arm American citizens to help guard the American border from the intrusion of illegals from everywhere. No problems, no paperwork, no questions! All neat, tidy, and LEGAL!
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