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oday, U.S. Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) sent a letter to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation today pressing for him to hold a hearing in the Committee on the significant issue of pay disparity between men’s and women’s sports in the United States.

The Boston City Council wants to make sure everyone who needs menstrual products has access to them, regardless of income. During the regular city council meeting, Councilors Matt O’Malley and Lydia Edwards called for a hearing about menstrual equity. “It’s important to have conversations about public health that impact women, girls, and low-income families,” said O’Malley during Wednesday’s meeting.

It's never been a better job market for private equity professionals, with the sector seeing the most active hiring market ever, according to a new report. In a survey of 630 North American investment professionals released Tuesday, recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles found that more than half of respondents saw an increase in base salary this year compared with 2017. More than three-quarters of that group saw their base salary increase up to 20%. Managing partners saw the biggest increase, with base compensation up 13.6%, to $768,000. Bonuses are rising, too: 77% of those surveyed said their bonus increased from...

THOMAS, J., concurring. I join the Court’s opinion, which highlights just a few of the many problems with the plaintiffs’ claims. There are several more. Section 1182(f) does not set forth any judicially enforceable limits that constrain the President. See Webster v. Doe, 486 U. S. 592, 600 (1988). Nor could it, since the President has inherent authority to exclude aliens from the country. See United States ex rel. Knauff v. Shaughnessy, 338 U. S. 537, 542–543 (1950); accord, Sessions v. Dimaya, 584 U. S. ___, ___–___ (2018) (THOMAS, J., dissenting) (slip op., at 13–14). Further, the Establishment Clause does...

oys R Us isn’t paying severance to its 30,000 workers who will lose their jobs as the retailer shuts down, even though it doled out millions in executive bonuses a week before it filed for bankruptcy. Now, some workers are calling on lawmakers to create new rules that would require bankrupt companies backed by private-equity firms to provide compensation to their workers.

.....OMB later cited internal data to the Washington Examiner that said the top 20 percent of people to pay income taxes account for 94.8 percent of those taxes in 2016. That appears to be a jump from just a few years ago. In 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported that the top 20 percent of income earners paid 84 percent of income taxes.

I’ve gone through only the first day of testimony from the AIG bailout trial, and we are already up to our third bombshell. The first witness called by the plaintiff, Starr International (an investment vehicle controlled by Hank Greenberg), was Scott Alvarez, general counsel for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Part of the testimony covered a discussion that took place late in the evening of September 15, the day Lehman declared bankruptcy in the wee hours of the morning. The topic was AIG. The participants included Alvarez, Timothy Geithner, Fed governors Don Kohn and Kevin Warsh, Ken Wilson, a...

Minneapolis — Target cut its profit and comparable-store sales outlook amid stiffer competition and its own stumbles in areas like grocery sales. The discounter’s second-quarter net income fell nearly 10%, though that was better than what most had expected. Sales at stores open at least a year fell 1.1%, reversing seven straight quarters of gains. Target shares were down more than 6% in mid-morning trading Wednesday. The quarter underscores challenges that Target and other retailers face from Amazon.com and shoppers who remain cautious about spending.

Fed decision day: The event traders across the globe have anticipated for months has finally arrived. As of 8:00 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were 43 points lower, or 0.26% to 16621. S&P 500 futures shed 6 points, or 0.31% to 1982, while Nasdaq 100 futures slid 10 points, or 0.24% to 4370. Today’s Markets Months of speculation about whether September was the month in which the Federal Reserve would begin to lift short-term interest rates is finally coming to a close. The Federal Open Market Committee meets for the final day of its two-day policy-setting meeting, which...

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/features/2014-12-11/jeb-bush-has-a-mitt-romney-problem

MADISON – While labor unions grouse about public sector pay, a state government job is a good gig if you can get it, according to the latest income data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Wisconsin, state employees earned on average $53,552 in 2012, nearly $12,000 more than their fellow workers in the private sector, based on BLS data tracked by Stateline, the news service of The Pew Charitable Trusts. The salary data was drawn from BLS’ Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages, through the fourth quarter of 2012. While Wisconsin state employees are coming off a two-year...

According to CoreLogic’s Q1 Equity report, 850,000 households returned to positive equity in their homesouthanks to the recent increase in house prices. And here is the CoreLogic map of negative equity as of Q1 2013. The higher concentrations of negative equity are still in the sand states (Florida, California, Arizona and Nevada) and the rust belt cities of Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland. So, the housing market is healing and as long as the government ceases to interfere, we should see further healing. Then along came the NY Fed’s Robert Hockett with “Paying Paul and Robbing No One: An Eminent Domain...

Azusa Pacific University has blocked students from forming a Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) chapter, which is a project of Young America’s Foundation. Administrators said they are banning the group because they disagree with principles stated on YAF’s national website. Ashley Blackwell, the would-be chair of the chapter, is currently the chair of a generic conservative club at APU and wants to formally affiliate with YAF. Ashley and other key members of her club have attended a number of Foundation conferences both in Washington, D.C., and at the Reagan Ranch, which Young America's Foundation has owned and preserved since 1998.

"How can you be the president with the worst  unemployment record since the Great Depression  -and pick a fight over job creation?  There's a point where this becomes ludicrous..." ___________________________________________________________________ "Bain as an issue doesn't work, because people look at it on balance... and they say 'wait a second -yeah- you can pick a couple companies that lost. You can pick a lot of companies that succeeded.' And as even as the governor of Massachusetts said last week, it is a good company." "This is going to fall flat on its face ... Obama picking a fight on the economy is probably...

If private equity and hedge fund managers were optimistic that the election of one of their own would preserve their prized carried-interest tax break, Monday’s debate must have given them pause. Given the chance to defend his low tax rate by talking up the importance of low taxes on investment for job creation and competitiveness, Mitt Romney balked. Instead, he made an implicit case for why investment taxes shouldn’t be any lower than they are — as Newt Gingrich wants — and defended his own conduct rather than seeking to justify the tax policy.

This past spring, gourmet gift purveyor Harry & David filed for bankruptcy protection. The 77-year-old mail order company is an American business icon famous for its premium fruits, exquisite gift baskets and extraordinary service. So what brought the high-end gift giant to its knees? The slide began in 2004, when a New York private equity firm purchased the Oregon-based company for $230 million in a highly leveraged buyout, only paying $82 million in cash. One year later, the private equity firm sold $245 million worth of bonds to pay off the debt and recoup its original investment. Later in 2005...

While Congress raises the nation’s debt limit by trillions to accommodate President Obama’s manic spending spree, the commander-in-chief keeps hurling big chunks of taxpayer dollars at new government programs that aim to bring “social equity” to underserved communities. Among them is an imaginative multi-agency project (Partnership for Sustainable Communities) that helps low-income communities improve access to affordable housing, transportation options and lower transportation costs while protecting the environment. Less than a month ago the administration celebrated its second anniversary by bragging that three federal agencies have doled out more than $2.5 billion in “assistance” to promote “equitable development” while addressing...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Falling home prices have shrunk equity so much that the proportion of their homes that Americans actually own is near its lowest point since World War II. The Federal Reserve says average home equity plunged from more than 61 percent at the start of 2001 to 38 percent in the January-March quarter this year. That drop comes as home prices in big metro areas have reached their lowest level since 2002.

1) Remember, these stats rarely include second mortgages or firsts that were refi’d after the purchase where cash out was pulled and the loan amount was increased, as most negative equity estimates are based on original purchase price of the house itself. Zillow, quoted in the story below, is one that uses original purchase price. 2) With respect to negative equity as it relates to the housing market and repeat buyers — the much needed but missing ingredient to a magic housing fix — effective negative equity is far greater. This is because to rebuy a homeowner has to sell,...

Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke collapsed today during a meeting in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's office, officials said. According to Democratic sources, Ambassador Holbrooke, Secretary Clinton's top aide for the region, gasped and was clearly undergoing a medical situation when he collapsed. He is said to have walked out of her office on his own power and was tended to by medical personnel at the State Department before being transported to George Washington University Hospital where to be treated for a blood clot. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley refused to confirm Ambassador Holbrooke's condition, but confirmed...