WASHINGTON — The number of people who are chronically homeless dropped by nearly 12 percent from 2005 to 2006, according to government estimates being released Wednesday. The Department of Housing and Urban Development credited government programs designed to move homeless people into permanent housing. ‘HUD and local communities are increasingly providing permanent housing solutions and breaking a vicious cycle of homelessness for those who have lived on the streets as a way of life,’ HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson said in a statement. HUD says people are chronically homeless if they have been continuously living on the streets for a year or more, or if they have been homeless at least four times in the past three years. They also have to have a disability, often mental illness or substance abuse. The number of chronically homeless people dropped from 175,900 in 2005 to 155,600 in 2006, according to data collected by HUD from about 3,900 cities and counties. Earlier this year, HUD estimated there were a total of 754,000 homeless people on a given night in January 2005. The overall estimate for 2006 is expected early next year. The homeless are notoriously difficult to count, […]
ORLANDO, Florida — Energy drinks boost blood pressure in even the young and healthy people and may leave hypertensive adults more charged up than they bargained for, researchers said here. Consumption of two energy drinks a day increased systolic blood pressure by 10 mm Hg and heart rate by five to seven beats per minute, according to a small study reported at the American Heart Association meeting. Although this degree of change may hold little danger for most young patients, it likely would be clinically significant with regular consumption or in patients with cardiovascular disease such as hypertension, said James S. Kalus, Pharm.D., of the Henry Ford Medical Center in Detroit, Mich., and colleagues. ‘If you know you have cardiovascular disease or are taking medication to lower blood pressure, it is important to avoid energy drinks until we learn more about what they do,’ he said. Energy drinks typically contain high levels of caffeine and the amino acid taurine. These compounds have been shown in previous studies to have an impact on cardiac function and hemodynamic status, although the data available for caffeine are controversial, Dr. Kalus said. The study included 15 healthy volunteers (53% […]
WASHINGTON — Worker productivity surged in the summer at the fastest pace in four years while wage pressures eased. The Labor Department reported that productivity-the amount of output per hour of work-jumped at an annual rate of 4.9 percent in the July-September quarter. That was double the 2.2 percent rise in the second quarter and represented the fastest surge in worker efficiency since 2003. At the same time, wage pressures eased with unit labor costs dropping at an annual rate of 0.2 percent, the best showing in more than a year. Both outcomes were far better than had been expected and should relieve some of the concerns that a remarkable surge in productivity that began in the mid-1990s was in danger of being reversed. The slight drop in wage pressures was especially welcome after hefty increases over the past four quarters. Rising wages are good for workers but if they are not accompanied by strong productivity gains, they raise concerns among Fed policymakers about inflation. The 0.2 percent decline in unit labor costs in the third quarter followed a 2.2 percent increase in labor costs in the second quarter and even bigger jumps of 5.2 […]
As immigration politics explode into the presidential race, polls show Americans are taking a hard line on benefits for illegal aliens, including opposing driver’s licenses and such taxpayer-funded benefits as scholarships at state colleges for illegal-alien students. The new poll found 77 percent of the adults surveyed opposed making driver’s licenses available to illegal aliens, while just 16 percent supported the idea. Licenses fared poorly across party lines, including near-blanket opposition among self-identified Republicans, at 88 percent. Among independents and Democrats, it was still overwhelmingly unpopular, drawing 75 percent and 68 percent opposition, respectively. New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer in September proposed adding New York to the list of seven states that offer licenses to illegal aliens, and the issue has refused to die down since. Most Democratic presidential candidates have embraced the policy, including front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, arguing it’s a matter of road safety and a valid response to the federal government’s failure to give a path to citizenship to illegal aliens. But those on the other side, including Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Christopher J. Dodd and the entire Republican presidential field, oppose the idea. ‘I think we have to quit […]
CLEVLAND, OH. — A wave of foreclosures and evictions is about to sweep the United States in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage lending crisis. This could destabilise the US housing market and may also lead to further turmoil in financial institutions, who collectively own $1 trillion (£480.6bn) worth of sub-prime debt. Cleveland, Ohio, is an industrial city on the banks of Lake Erie in the US ‘rust belt’. It is the sub-prime capital of the United States. One in ten homes in the city is now vacant, and whole neighbourhoods have been blighted by foreclosed, vandalized and boarded-up homes. Many of these homes are now owned by the banks and investment pools owning the mortgages, and the company making the most foreclosures in Cleveland is Deutsche Bank Trust, which acts on behalf of such investment pools. Cleveland is facing a rising crime wave, and the cost of demolishing the vacant houses alone will cost the city $100m of its tax base. According to Jim Rokakis, the County Treasurer for Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County, ‘Wall Street strategies that made the cycle of no-money-down, no-questions-asked lending possible have sucked the life out of my city’. […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
