People Begin Living without Electricity and water in California
I couldn’t find statistics for local utility shut offs in my area, but I knew we would start to see more and more of this.
Houses everywhere are going vacant. People don’t say goodbye, they don’t leave a number, they just disappear. With their disappearance we add another vacant house to the street. But families living in housing without utilities is a new sight for me to behold. I spoke recently with a rep from So Cal Edison who, full time contacts residence who have had their electricity turned off due to non payment. She has a negotiator sent in and they work on a reduced payment. It’s amazing to me, that now, it is becoming acceptable in California to camp out in your home.
People are losing their homes, losing their cars and losing their dignity. How are we going to afford kids clothes and school supplies for the coming year? How can we expect families to pay for all these additional costs when the economy is in the shape it in. I ask myself this everyday.
http://www.gazette.com/articles/upwar…
Requests for help paying utility bills surge upward
Comments 19 | Recommend 1
Light switches, furnaces and water faucets aren’t the typical gauges of economic health, but at Pikes Peak United Way’s 2-1-1 call center, they tell a tale of people who continue to struggle to pay their bills in a weak economy.
According to a report released Monday by the 2-1-1 Information and Referral Hotline, requests for utility bill assistance in the fiscal year ending June 30 jumped 20 percent from the previous year, outstripping requests for help with food and rent.
“That’s by far the biggest spike in looking at data year-to-year,” said 2-1-1 Center Manager Jessica Johnson-Simmons. “I would guess it would have something to do with recent utility hikes that have gone into effect, but it’s also a case of clients just getting too overwhelmed with their…
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009…
I feel horrible; I know my kids must feel horrible,” said Maria Schultheis, who lives in the house with her husband and twin teenage sons. “I’m humiliated because I never had to live like this.”
The town water department shut off the Schultheises’ water about a month ago after the family fell behind on payments on a $1,700 overdue bill. John Schultheis — a computer programmer who has been out of work for three years — watched in disbelief as town workers turned off the water valve near the curb of his three-bedroom bungalow in a quiet middle-class neighborhood in the Lake Hiawatha section of Parsippany.
As the recession continues,utility companiessay a growing number of New Jerseyans are falling behind on their electric, gas and water bills. For many, a flood of emergency funding in state andfederal aidprograms — coupled with a state-imposed moratorium on utility shut-offs during the winter months — has helped keep the lights on and the water flowing over the last few months.
But, with much of the state money gone and the winter moratorium ended, utility officials say more and more families like the Schultheises may be losing their electricity, gas or water service in the coming months.
“I do expect shut-off activity to increase the second part of the year,” said Victor Viscomi,PSE&G‘s director of billing and revenue operations. “Some of the emergency-payment assistance money is drying up.”
PSE&G, the state’s largest utility, has seen a 10 percent increase in families behind on their payments, compared with this time last year, Viscomi said. Many of those are households that had never had a late payment until now.
It seems like a miracle that our anointed leader was able to convince BP to establish a $20 billion slushescrow fund to compensate those hurt by the ongoing oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico. After all, he had no constitutional power to force them to do so; so had to resort to Chicago-style arm twisting.
But, let us take a closer look at the effect on BP’s finances:
1. BP will establish a $20 billion fund, but will pay only $7 billion into it during 2010.
2. BP is a British corporation, but has a very large operating entity in the US.
3. By Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAP), BP must book the entire $20 billion expense in the year accrued, i.e., year the liability is incurred. Therefore, they will book a $20 billion expense in 2010, reducing their US tax liability by $7 billion.
4. Our anointed leader also convinced this massive corporation to show their concern for the “small people” by withholding dividends to their shareholders for the last 3 quarters of 2010. This reduces their outward cash flow by about $7.5 billion, including approximately 40% of that amount to US citizens. Assuming that the Bush tax cuts will survive through 2010, the US Treasury will lose another $450 million in taxes on that amount. We won’t even discuss the effect on the US economy.
Let us put the results into a table easily understood by the “small” people:
BP Cash Flow:
o Escrow funding ($7 billion)
o Dividend saving $7.5 billion
o Tax savings $7 billion
o Net favorable cash flow : $7.5 billion
US Treasury Tax Receipts:
o BP Corporate income tax (-$7.5 billion)
o BP Shareholders (-$0.45 billion)
o Net unfavorable tax receipts ($7.95 billion)
I guess we really should expect this. After all, our annointed leader is the most inexperienced man in any room he enters.
Scorecard:
BP Corporate Bean Counters – +1
Washington Tax Cheating Ambulance Chasers – 0
American People – We Got BP (Bean @#$%&!)
This isn’t so hard to understand – BP made their largest political contributions to Obama’s campaign. Obama plays politics acting tough on BP. We pay. Anything different from Obama’s corrupt deals?
Actually, I admire BP for their deal-making ability. After all BP is not a fly by night operation and Obama thought he and his minimal business experienced tax cheats could take on BP.
I guess it obviously helps to have a “team”…lolll…Most of this info is already here on PWA but not put together chronologically…The SEC HAD a site where one could watch insider buying and selling…Early on when I went to verify that shares had indeed been sold the side had in effect been taken down…I subscribed to this site and received email alerts on certain stocks I was watching….The moment I saw that it had “in effect” been taken down, that was confirmation enough for me there was info nobody wanted the public to see!!!
I went through most of this info last night on twitter and quite a few people chimed in…They are very ANGRY…Keep the pressure on folks…End game~just another transfer of wealth and fitting the agenda for Climate-gate.
As we speak, the oil in the Gulf of Mexico still spews. As a matter of fact, it is flowing wide open. Yesterday, they removed the second dome they had said was there to contain the flow. They say the replacement for this one will be attached in four to ten days. You would think they they would have the replacement dome available before they remove the current one, but that is not the plan.
We mentioned in our article “Bombshell Expose’”, there is evidence these domes are a research experiment intended to collect methane crystals and data, not necessarily to contain the flow of oil and gasses.That is definitely part of it, judging by the live feed. A lot of instruments, meters and what appears to be memory cards, as well as the admission the dome has Methane Crystals building up inside. The article about Carbon storage and the need to research Methane Crystals being done at UChicago Argonne, indicates this is the opportunity to collect those Crystals.
It was also the opportunity to use the stockpiles of Corexit dispersants.
All the usual big players and a few radicals with start-up companies made fortunes on all ends of this disaster, from stocks, to clean-up and biofuel investments, Federal grants and Obama’s agenda included.
There were multiple agencies, both Federal and private who neglected or purposely overlooked warning signs. Many who were entrusted with inspection and oversight never even read the permit application, or design. They subbed out inspections to companies who did not have the capabilities to carry out an inspection.
The Gulf itself is targeted to be an Algae farm and all the big players are now rushing into start-ups and investing in biofuels.
Our oil, refining, gas and coal industries are under attack. He is not transforming the world off of fossil fuels, just the USA. O is contributing to offshore drilling, refining and mining in other countries. He is redistributing our wealth. Not among Americans, though. He’s transferring out of the country to Brazil, Venezuela, Nigeria, China, Russia, Indonesia & other “less fortunate” countries.
Before I get ahead of myself, I’d like to put the events in a chronological order, from beginning to current.
1.) The law expands entitlement spending by over $1 TRILLION in order to “cover” $30 Million more people. What will that do to State Budgets? We only need to look at history to find out. Cases in point?
2.) It adds $500 Billion in new tax increases at a time in our nation’s history when a RECORD number of American’s pay NO INCOME TAXES! And if you believe the lie told by President Obama that your taxes will NOT increase if you make less than $200,000 as an Individual or $250,000 as a Married couple, you need to know the TRUTH!
Speaking of NEW taxes, if you are a Small Business owner. Here’s what’s coming for you thanks to Obamacare:
A little over a week ago, May 9th, President Obama gave a commencement address to the studentsgraduating from Hampton University decrying what he called “a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments” warning that because of this “information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. He further stated that because of all the information now available to Americans it “… is not only putting pressure on you; it’s putting pressure on our country and on our democracy.”
According to Obama’s logic, too much information is bad, puts too much pressure on people and government, should never be entertaining, and most of all should NEVER expose anyone to any other arguments/opinions/thoughts than those that are deemed trustworthy.
Trustworthy according to whom? Obama? The current American President who now holds the distinction of having held less press conferences than any other President in history? Who’s White House “message machinery” is reported to be an“enormous operation” employing over 350 and costing millions of dollars?
I’ve been somewhat perplexed by how well consumer spending has held up, at least on a relative basis, given that 1) “underemployment” is above 20 percent and the number of long-term employed is at a record; 2) income has not kept pace with consumption; and, 3) the housing industry is nowhere near a recovery (and the foreclosures just keep on coming).
No doubt the government has played an important role in underpinning demand, especially through its emergency unemployment benefits programs and certain other stimulus efforts. But that didn’t seem to explain matters fully.
