Rotundus.com

Federal regulators shepherding the U.S. digital television transition visited Los Angeles on Monday and asked for divine assistance.

... "We need people to take up leadership in their community and make sure nobody gets left out in the switch," FCC Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein said during a public forum at the Mount Moriah Baptist Church in South Los Angeles. "Churches already have the infrastructure in place to do that."

Standing at the church pulpit, Adelstein asked the Baptist Ministries Conference of Los Angeles, nearly 50 African American preachers who meet once a month, to include information on the June 12 digital TV switch in their sermons.

Source: LA Times
HT: The Riddleblog

A BBC personality has shattered her ex-boyfriend's life by falsely accusing him of rape. The woman, who has broadcast to television audiences of millions, accused him of raping her 40 times throughout their two-and-a-half-year relationship.

He was arrested, held in a police cell and handcuffed as police searched his flat for evidence of his crime. But she retracted her allegation weeks later, and the officer investigating the claims described them as 'inconsistent' and 'not credible'.

Despite the lack of evidence, the incident remains on the Police National Computer thanks to a legal loophole, which campaigners say is blighting the lives of falsely accused men.

Even if the 'victim' withdraws their allegation, it will show up under enhanced Criminal Records Bureau checks that are undertaken regularly on people who apply for jobs with employers such as the NHS or schools. It will also prevent them from travelling to the United States.

The boyfriend cannot be identified to protect his accuser's anonymity, but wants to make his case public. He said: 'The lies she told have ruined my life. Yet, while I have lost out on jobs and been left paranoid and scared of women, she has got away without punishment. We're not even allowed to reveal her identity. Rape is a horrific crime, and there is no way I am capable of committing it.

Source: The Daily Mail

Let's see: Man accused of rape. The police determined her accusations of rape to be without merit and she also retracted her claims. Despite this his employment opportunities and ability to travel to foreign counties is restricted. And, of course, her identity legally cannot be revealed and she faces no charges (innocent when proven guilty?). All this despite the high percentage of rape accusations proven false

The [Heart and Stroke Foundation]'s annual report on Canadians' Health also revealed what it called "startling discrepancies" in the cost and availability of basic healthy food from province to province.

"Depending on where you live, some Canadians are often paying more than double to almost six times the price for the same basic healthy food," the report said. ... "You have to wonder why we control the price of alcohol but allow such price inconsistencies for healthy food — and not just in remote regions of the country — but even between larger metropolitan areas."

... The only items that showed little price variation and accessibility from one community to the next were pop, chips and cookies, which Canada's Food Guide recommends be consumed less frequently.

Source: Calgary Herald

Just like in other cases, government may be partly to blame.

I do find it curious though that there are price controls on booze but not on the amount that can be charged for, e.g., a ear of corn). That said, the European Union recently got rid of a bunch of regulations on food, but their requirements for veggies were overkill and quite wasteful.

What should you expect when most government economists seem to follow Keynes, know for saying, amongst other things, that "In a depression governments should pay people to dig holes and then fill them up again"?

Even disciples of Keynes, such as Harvard's Greg Mankiw, recently highlighted economic studies that show government spending binges -- shocks, they are sometimes called -- don't seem to help the economy grow. They might even make it worse.

One of the studies cited by Mr. Mankiw was by two European economists (Andrew Mountford and Harald Uhlig), titled "What are the Effects of Fiscal Shocks?" It looked at big, deficit-financed spending increases and found that they stimulate the economy for the first year, but "only weakly" compared with a deficit-financed tax cut. The overriding problem is that the deficits crowd out private investment and, over the long run, may make the economy worse. "The resulting higher debt burdens may have long-term consequences which are far worse than the short-term increase in GDP."

Two other studies point in the same direction. A paper by two economists, including the current chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, Olivier Blanchard, concluded that increased taxes and "increases in government spending have a strong negative effect on private investment spending."

Roberto Perotti, an Italian economist with links to Columbia University, in "Estimating the Effects of Fiscal Policy in OECD Countries," found nothing but bad news for Keynesians. Economic growth is little changed after big increases in government spending, but there are signs of weakening private investment.

Source: Financial Post