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.....Obama is coming to the city today to raise money for the Democratic party. The president is expected to arrive at JFK Airport around 1:30 p.m. From there he will head to Manhattan for two events involving the Democratic National Committee.

Hungry for a means to supplement is budget, the US Forrest Service is proposing new regulations that would allow it to charge visitors $1500 if they want to take pictures in wilderness areas. Liz Close, the Forest Service’s acting wilderness director, called the new fees “essential to our mission. These wilderness areas belong to the government. Why shouldn’t we get revenue from what is our property?” Close warned against thinking that “these areas are too vast for us to enforce collection. We are watching from both the ground and the air. Rangers randomly patrol with orders to seize any cameras...

Luxury watchmaker Hublot has launched its newest timepiece in New York City. The Swiss watchmaker was joined by brand ambassador Dwyane Wade for the unveiling of the Classic Fusion Dwyane Wade, the Miami Heat star’s second timepiece with Hublot....

..... Obama is interrupting a weekend trip to return to the White House. The White House says Obama has changed his plans for Friday and will return to Washington late in the evening after fundraisers in Rhode Island and New York. He had planned to spend the night in New York. Presidential aides say the change in plans was not related to any current events and was the president's personal choice.

Rhode Island is finishing preparations Friday morning for a visit from President Barack Obama. Obama is expected to headline three events in the northeast on Friday. Two are scheduled in Westchester County, New York, and the third is set for Newport, Rhode Island.

Obama is going on a fundraising sweep through New York and Rhode Island as he continues to help Democrats raise money for November's elections. Obama headlines three events on Friday. Two are just north of New York City, in Westchester County, and the third is in Newport, Rhode Island..

...Michelle Obama was especially frank Thursday evening when addressing a crowd of about 150 Chicago donors about the best way to influence politics: “Write the biggest, fattest check that you can possibly write.”

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-17/wealthy-clintons-use-trusts-to-limit-estate-tax-they-back.html

...Obama didn’t want any press around while he was hitting up the one-percenters for big bucks, so he sent them to their room. No word on whether they got supper beforehand.

Obama is departing Wednesday on a three-day West Coast trip to glad-hand donors at five or more fundraising events, including four events in one day. The trip highlights the president’s focus on the 2014 race, where the GOP is on track to win a slight majority of the Senate and to slightly increase its majority in the House.

Money Paul Frees

Four years ago, I wrote a column about how the state of California had passed a law to make retailers turn over any unused gift cards to the State after a set period. The law did not consider any effects on the retailer; just the fact that California was grubbing for new revenue flows and once greedy politicians see a target they can devise any rationale for why the money or new tax should be placed into their coffers. The column also explored how the State was taking money from unclaimed bank assets as if it were another revenue...

...President Obama headlines a fundraising event for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the organization that raises money for Democratic candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives... Ted Deutch, who represents Broward and Palm Beach counties, is on the invite list for the Miami event, as is U.S. Rep. Steve Israel of New York, chairman of the DCCC, according to a copy of the invitation posted online by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit group that tracks government information. Deutch and Israel aren't really the draw. The hosts are Tracy and Alonzo Mourning. He's the former Miami Heat center and a major...

Fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers applauded as the team was sold for $2 billion, and cheered with each expensive new addition. Now the bill is coming due. And guess who is going to pay the price? Actually, you don't need to guess. The way baseball finds ways to separate fans from their money knows no bounds... At the heart of the issue is a new regional sports network that will pay the Dodgers $8.35 billion over the next 25 years. It was created by Time Warner Cable solely to broadcast the team's games, and it's the reason the new...

Jesus once rebuked the people of his time for their stubborn and unrepentant hearts: This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At...

Fear and Greed index. Interesting. Click link.

A recent report on a school in Queens, N.Y., is so unbelievable, so terribly sad, that it has left many readers practically speechless. A public school in Far Rockaway Queens, N.Y., has been accused of operating under unacceptable conditions (image source Google Maps) From students reportedly being forced to attend class in vermin-infested “temporary classrooms” that “smell like urine” to Principal Marcella Sills, 48, apparently being a frequent no-show, public school (PS) 106 in Far Rockaway, N.Y., is a “school of no,” according to the New York Post.The students don’t get gym or art classes, one source said. Instead, many...

Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, D-Va. Military veterans are pressuring Congress to move quickly when it reconvenes this week to cancel cuts in pensions for working-age vets - a change set in motion as part of last month's budget deal. However, reversing the decision to reduce cost-of-living pension increases could be difficult and, at best, would take some time to negotiate, say some legislators and lobbyists. Federal lawmakers from Hampton Roads, which has one of the nation's largest concentrations of retirees and active-duty service members, strongly support undoing the cuts. Most have already proposed or are co-sponsoring legislation...

4. Make Everything Owned by EverybodyHoarders blow. Take, for instance, the infamous one percent, whose ownership of the capital stock of this country leads to such horrific inequality. "Capital stock" refers to two things here: the buildings and equipment that workers use to produce goods and services, and the stocks and bonds that represent ownership over the former. The top 10 percent's ownership of the means of production is represented by the fact that they control 80 percent of all financial assets. This detachment means that there's a way easier way to collectivize wealth ownership than having to stage uprisings...

LAREDO, Texas — Out behind the nursing home where Josefina Alexander Gonzalez turned 99 Saturday, there’s a dilapidated green ranch house, its porch cover still held up by rough-hewn tree trunks. To the southeast, you see a lot of tall brush and honey mesquite, a view that hasn’t changed much since the 1940s, when her parents bought a 1,000-acre ranch … any other direction, and you’ll see new construction on her property, as developers cash in on the last large tract of open space inside of Loop 20 in north Laredo, now worth as much as $150 million. But if...