This NOAA site provides a great deal of information on this season’s devastating series of outbreaks. Did you know that the United States accounts for 3/4 of all tornadoes worldwide; that the Fujita Scale for measuring a tornado’s strength actually has an F6 designation for a storm of “inconceivable damage” with winds of 319-379 mph; or that New Jersey has experienced 146 tornadoes between 1950 and 2011? Other information can be found at: The New York Times, HowStuffWorks, NPR, PBS, USA Today, Joplin Globe, and The Oklahoman.
Archive for May, 2011
NJ Supreme Court Orders Additional $500M to Abbott Districts
In a 3-2 ruling, the Court at 10am today ordered the Christie administration to fund the Abbott school districts with an additional $500M for the next school year; Governor Christie has acceded to the ruling. The text of the decision is here. News/analyses can be found at: The New York Times, the Bergen Record, The Star-Ledger, NJ Spotlight, Bloomberg News, and the Wall Street Journal. A great deal of information on the Abbott question can be found at the Education Law Center.
Revised New Jersey Student Funding Data Released
Entitled Taxpayers’ Guide to Education Spending (the former Comparative Spending Guide), this report from the NJ Department of Education radically revises upward the amount of monies spent per student. All school districts are available. For example, the average cost of educating a student went from $13,600 last year to $17,836 this year; locally, Jersey City went from $17,368 in the 2010 version to $21,824 in the 2011 iteration. The whys and wherefores of these increases can be found at the Bergen Record, NJ Spotlight, Jersey City Independent, and the Wall Street Journal.
What is the IMF?
Bank? Credit union? A tool of Western powers dictating to weaker economies, especially in the Third World? A regulator of markets? A reform-minded organization? Depending on your viewpoint, yes to any of the above. Here is what the IMF says about itself. Other explanations/information can be found at: NPR, CNBC, the Telegraph, CRS, Brookings Institution, Council on Foreign Relations, BBC, The Economist, The New York Times, and SourceWatch.
2011 Summer Library Hours
During Summer I (May 23-June 27) and Summer II (July 5-August 8), the Library will be open Sunday, 11am-4:45pm; Monday thru Thursday, 7:30am-8:45pm. We will be open 8am-5pm on June 28-30; and August 9-26. We will be closed Memorial Day weekend, May 27-May 30, and the July 4th weekend, July 1-July 4.
New Jersey Education News
With end of semester activities and graduations, many of us have not kept up with the latest developments in the education sector in New Jersey. Herewith are some noteworthy events: Governor Christie has nominated Rochelle Hendricks as the state’s first Secretary of Higher Education, a cabinet-level position (Bergen Record, new jerseynewsroom); Governor Christie issued Executive Order No.64 mandating an examination of the “…appropriate level and content of financial disclosure applicable to the trustees of the State’s College and University boards”; he also appointed the members of the Education Transformation Task Force who are to examine the “red tape” in this sector and have recommendations ready by September; the New Jersey School Boards Association overwhelmingly approved a resolution supporting the requirement of voter approval for any new charter school; bill A3852 and its identical counterpart, S2243 would legislate voter approval for any new charter school; NJ Spotlight hosted a “Charter Conversation” which included acting education Commissioner Christopher Cerf; the New Jersey Comptroller has initiated a review into the compensation packages for all 19 community college presidents of whom two have resigned so far(nj.com, Bergen Record); and with increased tax revenues predicted for this year, education funding comes to the fore once again, especially in the Abbott districts (Wall Street Journal).
2010-2011 AAUP Faculty Salary Report
The latest edition has just been released; NJCU is in it.
The Failure and Collapse of Wall Street
This 600+ page report – Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse – from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (also known as the Levin-Coburn Committee), presents in readable fashion the steps that led to the meltdown of 2007-2009; a recapitulation of events from the 1990s adds to this report’s value. Highlights and recommendations are included. The report does not pull punches; no one really comes out looking that well. Please read The Levin-Coburn Report Coverage from The Columbia Journalism Review to see how mainstream media did or did not report on this withering document. And here is a video of the committee from C-SPAN on the day of the report’s release. A listing and links to the hundreds of Congressional hearings on the financial crisis is also available.
Oil and Gax Tax Hearings
For those of you who are interested in yesterday’s activities before the Senate Committee on Finance, the entire hearing is available via a webcast as well as by transcripts. Additional information can be read at: The New York Times, Accounting Today, Natural Resources Defense Council, ProPublica (with many links), PBS, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, Oil & Gas Journal, and Houston Chronicle.
2011 CEO Compensation
Compensation packages for CEOs of the largest 350 American public companies have been produced by The Wall Street Journal. Sorting can be done by company, salary, stock options, total compensation, etc. There is also an embedded link to the company’s proxy statement from which these figures were derived.
2011 NJCU Commencement Photos
Some photos are here courtesy of nj.com (the online home of the Jersey Journal and The Star-Ledger among others). Over 200 photos are available thanks to our own Lou Tiscornia. Here is a link to a story of NJCU’s oldest graduate, an eighty-four year old great-grandmother.
Death of Osama bin Laden – Policy Considerations
This CRS report – Osama bin Laden’s Death: Implications and Considerations – addresses the impact that bin Laden’s demise will have on national policy/security issues.
Status of Governor Christie’s “Tool Kit” Proposals
Last year Governor Christie presented a “tool kit” of 33 proposals aimed at reducing property taxes, reforming civil service, and revamping the pension systems. This informative article from The Star-Ledger gives us an update of where things now stand. And just this morning Senate President Steve Sweeney gave us his take on the “tool kit” proposals; this reiterates a previous statement he had made. Here is the Governor’s opinion on his stalled proposals as voiced at the recent Manalapan Town Hall Meeting.
2011 Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 for 2011 has just been published. For the second year in a row, Wal-Mart tops the list, but Exxon Mobil, at number 2, is the most profitable company. One can peruse the full company list where a brief profile of the company along with key financial figures are available, or you can search by a variety of criteria: by state, top companies to work for, CEOs, or industry sector. Information is available back to 1955 (although this needs to be used with a little caution; the 1955 list has Exxon Mobil as number 2. In fact, back then, the company was called Standard Oil of New Jersey or more commonly – Esso. We were still working for Esso when the name change to Exxon occurred in 1972.)
Declassified bin Laden Files Released
From the National Security Archive of George Washington University comes this collection of documents. Included are a CIA biography and a 400 page profile of this terrorist leader. Additional documents can also be perused.
Impact of the 2007-2009 Great Recession
This special issue of the Monthly Labor Review entitled The 2007-09 Recession and Employment examines just what transpired shortly before and during this economic crisis. Buttressed with numerous charts and references (many accessible online), this issue highlights the effects of this economic crisis on various sectors, among them: healthcare, mining, construction, manufacturing, and retail trade. Additional readings that are of interest include: The 2007-2009 Recession: Similarities to and Differences from the Past (CRS); How the U.S. Economic Output Recession of 2007-2009 led to the Great Recession in Labor Markets (Northeastern University); and Great Recession (Brookings).
President Obama Announces the Death of Osama bin Laden
A video and full transcript of the speech are available here.
Economic Crisis – May 2011 Update
2011 Retirement Confidence Survey (Employee Benefit Research Institute); Economic Policy Reforms: Going for Growth (OECD); Asian Devlopment Outlook 2011 (Asian Development Bank); In Financial Crisis, No Prosecutions of Top Figures (The New York Times); Levin-Coburn Report on the Financial Crisis (Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations); EU 10 Regular Economic Report – Main Report: Recovery and Beyond (World Bank); Financial Cycles: What? How? When? (IMF); How Debt Markets Have Malfunctioned in the Crisis (Journal of Economic Perspectives); 2010 Recovery Widespread Across Industries (Bureau of Economic Analysis); The Impact of the 2007-2009 Recession on Workers’ Health Coverage (Employee Benefit Research Institute); and Surviving the Aftermath of the Storm: Changes in Family Finances from 2007 to 2009 (Federal Reserve).
Congressman Frank J. Guarini Library Blog 