Consumer prices drop to lowest in 61 years by one percent in October

The biggest dip in consumer prices since 1947 is causing concern with some, and is a relief for others. The price of

of gasoline is just one indicator, as it's dropped in price for 62 straight days now.

Analysts predicted a drop of half of one percent. The price of clothing, airfare, and other goods have all been affected by the economy.

It wasn't that long ago we were paying nearly five dollars a gallon. Experts seem to think this is a bad thing. They point out that assets, such as cars, are being devalued by the trend.

How Much Longer Can Fans Continue to Pay for Tickets to See Live Professional Sporting Events?

              

         Leisure activities will always find a niche, even when the economy is bad. My parents talked about going to weekend matinees even during the Great Depression. People somehow found the money to go to the movies and escape from the drudgeries of that terrible depression.
       Other leisure activities like sports did encourage fans to part with their hard-earned pennies in arenas and ballparks across the nation. But attending a baseball game, or basketball game, or a game of football, didn’t cost all that much then.
         During those early days you didn’t see players becoming wealthy. Most players had “day jobs” to pay the bills. There were some who did extremely well, like the legendary Babe Ruth, but most didn’t retire on what they made while playing.
          Today, if a person is a professional playing in the NBA, NFL, or for the major leagues in Baseball, they need an accountant to handle the big paychecks coming their way. Contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars are scattered throughout all professional sports.
          The foundation for every sport has been, and will be, the fans who buy the tickets, hotdogs, popcorn, and assorted memorabilia associated with a team or player that is popular. Without them arenas would close, ball parks would be empty, and stadiums silent.
           But even the most loyal fan must be challenged right now to attend events, or buy goodies, with the state of our sinking economy. I’ve already noticed that there are a lot of empty bleachers at professional basketball games that I watch on television.
          I went to a NBA basketball ticket purchasing site, and found some interesting figures when it comes to what fans across the country pay to see their home teams play. If you plan on attending a New York Knicks game live, the tickets range from $27 to $3,209 each!
          California has several basketball teams and the price difference to attend a Lakers game - where tickets range from $32 to $2,675 each - is dramatically different if you go to a LA Clippers game which is played in the same place as the Lakers games - Staples Center. Tickets range from a reasonable $11 to an even more reasonable $535 for the best seats in the house when it’s a Clipper home game.
          If you want even lower ticket prices, and still want to see a California team, then the Golden State Warriors Oracle Arena is the place to go with ticket prices ranging from just $7 to $402 each to see the player’s sweat up close.
          After comparing team prices, it appears that if you want a real bargain then go to Ford Center in Oklahoma and see the Thunder for as low as $6 per ticket, and as high as $214 a ticket.Getting seats is no problem when attending most NBA games right now, as attendance has already shown signs of dropping off from last season.
         Only the big market teams, like the Lakers, Celtics, or the Knicks, are still filling arenas with fans ready to spend their dearly-earned ducats. I suspect that as the season goes on, even these teams will start to feel the crunch.
            It’s all just a matter of economics. A $2,675 ticket for a Laker home game, or pay the mortgage? Pay $535 to watch the Clippers get clobbered up close, or the car payment? When people are cutting back on Christmas shopping and holiday activities, can tickets for live sporting events be far behind?
            As It Stands, entertainment in various forms is threatened by the economy, but sports team owners are gambling that die-hard fans will keep the games going.

An incident occurred while Bush was giving Obama a tour of the Rose Garden recently that the press is trying to keep hush hush...

Sports Memorabilia Collector turns his Hobby into a Museum

    

(ABOVE - HONUS WAGNER CARD WORTH $2.8 MILLION! Gary Cypres (ABOVE) has been collecting football, basketball, and baseball memorabilia for twenty years. He also has 18th-Century tennis rackets, arcade, and board games, among other interesting things.

Cypres plans to open the new LA Sports Museum on Nov.28th. There's a charge, but fans will probably flock there as it's been called the best sports memorabilia collection in the country, by industry experts. I have a high school buddy who lives in Redding, who I thought had the most impressive private collection of Dodger memorabilia around.

 Cypres has an extensive collection of Dodger stuff worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. A bit out of my buddy's league, but he doesn't seem to mind as he was the one who told me about this new museum!

The LA Times has a good article on the fabulous collection. Click here to read more.

After 400 lawsuits Judge says disabled man can't sue anyone anymore!

Meet Jarek Molski (below). Is he a crusader or an extortionist? The recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court is letting

 

a federal judge's ruling barring the disabled man from filing any further litigation after filing more than 400 suits in less than two years! The 38 year-old Woodland Hills man used the Americans With Disability Act like an ax and went after any retails business he entered. He sued restaurants, bowling alleys, wineries, and any other businesses he entered. Fear of adverse judgements compelled many to settle out of court, earning him thousands of dollars.

Here in Humboldt County we have our own lawsuit extortionist, but he's not even disabled! Locals are very aware of this man who is a lawyer with a bad reputation. Perhaps some day, the courts will stop his little game like they did for Molski. We can only hope.

I Heard that Bush and Cheney Were Starting To Mellow Out: But this?

Dubya and Cheney are caught red-handed sampling a government grow in an undisclosed location. Cheney, who has been practically invisible in recent months is preparing to launch a new line of Texas Grown Medical Marijuana for Ex-Feds. Duyba's ranch in the Lone Star State is going to be the location for their new green industry.

Rumors are that Dubya's been passing around the product of his first crop to friends and family. Cheney, who has been tending the crops in recent months, has been telling friends that Dubya's Red Hair Sinsemilla is the kind!

Democrats set to overturn any last minute regulations by Bush

      Plans to push through new environmental regulations favorable to big business in the waning days of the Bush Administration began as early as last May. That’s when White House Chief of Staff, Joshua Bolton, urged agency heads to finalize energy and environmental regulations before November 1st.

                                                                                                              
      However, it turns out there is an answer to sneaky tricks like this. The White House planners forgot one small detail, a little known law called the Congressional Review Act of 1996 (CRA).

        This law states that any regulation finalized within 60 days of congressional adjournment - Oct. 3, in this case - is considered be legally finalized on Jan.15. The new Congress has sixty days to review it and can reverse it with a joint resolution, according to Politico, a national online magazine.

        Just think what this means. Any regulation finalized in the last half-year of the Bush administration can be wiped out with a simple party-line vote in the Democrat-controlled Congress. I’m amazed that the Republicans didn’t remember this law, as they originally introduced it.

        The CRA was used in 2001 to overturn a Clinton administration rule that set new requirements for ergonomic spaces. The Bush administration apparently did forget it as they make their last attempts to pander to the big corporations that put Bush in office.

       A senior aide on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, chaired by Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), acknowledged that CRA is an option that the committee is exploring.

       The committee has two targets. One is a rule to allow federal agencies to determine whether their policies threaten endangered species, without requiring the approval of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

        The other is a regulation opening land in the West to oil shale development and mountaintop removal. A White House spokesman, Carlton Carroll, recently told the press,  “We are not rushing regulations through at the last minute. We are simply continuing our responsibility of governing until the end of the president’s term.”

         There’s no doubt in my mind that most Americans consider this administration’s energy and environment policies toxic, and this attempt to sneak through some final putrid policies is typical of the administration’s entire eight years.

          Even though the CRA can’t be filibustered, legislative lifting is generally more difficult than executive action. “There’s a lot that the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we’ll see the president do that,” said John Podesta, a member of Obama’s transition team, to Fox News Sunday.

           Jerry Brito, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and an expert on “midnight (or last minute) regulations,” told the press that he would advise Obama to package all of the regulations into one bundle that could be voted up or down.

           Brito reasoned that the new president could “limit special pleading” by lumping the pet projects together. There’s no doubt the environmental lobby would be happy with this move. Sierra Club’s lobbyist, Dave Hamilton, told “Politico” in a recent interview, that his organization supports any attempt to derail the Bush rules.

         Rick Melberth, director of regulatory policy at OMB Watch, a liberal regulatory watchdog group, said “If these rules are overturned, the benefits for the environment are potentially significant.”

          “If Obama is able to overturn a sizeable number of Bush’s midnight regulations, he would be the first president in recent memory to succeed at such an effort,” Brito said.

          Clinton managed to repeal 9 percent of President George H.W. Bush’s regulations and amend 48 percent of them. The rest remained in place. President George W. Bush managed to repeal only 3 percent of Clinton’s regulations and amend 15 percent, according to Brito.

           Karen Harbert, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy, told the press, “Congress has an historic opportunity to adopt a bipartisan practical energy policy that would strengthen the security of the United States and its citizens.”

          As It Stands, anything that overturns any Bush policy or regulation gives me hope for this country’s future.

The wild winds relent but So Cal is still burning in three areas

Southern California firefighters are getting a break from the 70 mph winds that have tormented them for four days. Over 800 homes have been destroyed. About 20,000 people have had to evacuate their homes. Some are getting a chance to return home today to see if their homes are still standing. The Los Angeles Times examines the devastation.  

Among the counties affected is San Bernardino, where my sister lives. She hasn't had to evacuate yet but has been watching the fires down below her. Her house is in the foothills. For the full story Click Here.

Civil marriage vs Civil Unions: Some Differences

To clear up what some are saying about civil unions and civil marriage, here are some of the really important differences. This whole issue has become our civil rights issue of the new millennium and all myths regarding it need to be exposed.

Portability - Marriages are respected state to state for all purposes, but questions remain about how civil unions will be treated in other states. They need to be recognized nationally.

Ending a Civil Union - If you are married, you can get divorced in any state in which you are a resident. But if states continue to disrespect civil unions, there is no other way to end the relationship other than by establishing residency in Vermont and filing for a divorce there.

Federal Benefits - According to a 1997 GAO report, civil marriage brings with it 1,049 legal protections and responsibilities from the federal government, including the right to take leave from work to care for a family member, the right to sponsor a spouse for immigration purposes, and Social Security survivor benefits that can make the difference between old age in poverty and old age in security. Civil Unions bring none of these critical legal protections.

Taxes & Public Benefits for the Family - Because the federal government does not respect Civil unions, a couple with a civil union will be in a kind of limbo with regard to government functions performed by both state and federal governments, such as taxation, pension protections, provision of insurance for families, and means-tested programs like Medicaid. Even when states try to provide legal protections, they may be foreclosed from doing so in joint federal/state programs.

Filling out forms -Every day, we fill out forms that ask us whether we are married or single. People joined with Civil Unions should be able to identify themselves as a single family unit, but misrepresenting oneself on official documents can be considered fraud and carries potential serious criminal penalties.

Separate & Unequal - Second-Class Status - Even if there were no substantive differences in the way the law treated marriages and civil unions, the fact that a civil union remains a separate status just for gay people represents real and powerful inequality.

We've been down this road before in this country and should not kid ourselves that this is an issue of equality for all Americans. We've come a long way, but will never achieve total equality until the institution of marriage applies to EVERYONE with No exceptions.

As an old hippie that believes in love and peace, I would feel so much better about this country if gays and lesbians were given equal marriage rights with the rest of the population.

There are differences between a civil union & marriage

It seems to me there are a lot of ignorant people out there who think that marriage and civil unions are basically the same thing. They're not! A civil union deprives couples hundreds of things that a marriage gets. I think everyone should read This Link to understand just how unfair the law is right now.

Will Republican Meltdown Open the Doors for 3rd Party Growth?

There's no doubt that the Republican brand has been tarnished and it's party is in disarray. What does the future hold for the GOP. Is the elephant going to be a symbol of the past? What does the disintegration of the Republican Party mean to the rest of the minority parties? In todays Times-Standard, AS IT STANDS takes a look at these questions and urges equal media access to the rest of the political parties in this country. CLICK HERE to read today's column.