Microcredit helps small businesses buck the system in Madagascar
May 17th, 2013 
davidguide Feds Turn Up Heat on Westchester County New York
April 29th, 2013 davidguide ProPublica Staff
White Plains, NY, United States (ProPublica) – by Nikole Hannah-Jones April 23: This post has been updated to include the response from the Westchester county attorney. The showdown in Westchester County over a 4-year-old federal residential desegregation order just got real. The U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to the New York City suburb last Friday threatening to seek a contempt ruling in federal court. A contempt ruling could result in fines against both the county and County Executive Rob Astorino if he fails to agree to enact legislation that would ban discrimination against [...] Continue Reading…
Health Insurance Actuaries In the Hot Seat On ‘Rate Shock’
April 21st, 2013 davidguide Washington, DC, United States (KaiserHealth) – Few aspects of the Affordable Care Act are more critical to its success than affordability, but in recent weeks experts have predicted costs for some health plans could soar next year. Now health law supporters are pushing back, noting close ties between the actuaries making the forecasts and an insurance industry that has been complaining about taxes and other factors it says will lead to rate shock for consumers. “Most actuaries in this country — what percentage are employed by insurance companies?” Sen. Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, asked an actuary [...] Continue Reading…
Russian oil producer Rosneft to double crude-oil deliveries to China
March 28th, 2013 davidguide Nathan Andrada – Fourth Estate Cooperative Contributor
Moscow, Russian Federation (4E) – Russia’s OAO Rosneft reached a deal with the Chinese government Friday to double its crude-oil deliveries from its current volume, boosting energy links between the two major emerging economies, Russia and China. Under the agreement, China will provide Rosneft, the world’s largest listed oil producer, a $2bn loan in exchange for 25 years of deliveries, according to Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin after the signing of the agreement. The Russian state oil firm already supplies 15 million metric tons to China every year under a deal signed [...] Continue Reading…
OECD sees China’s economic growth at 8.5 percent in 2013
March 28th, 2013 davidguide Nathan Andrada – Fourth Estate Cooperative Contributor
Beijing, China (4E) – The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said China’s economy will accelerate in 2013 and 2014, weathering the fragile global recovery. The OECD estimates gross domestic product (GDP) will grow 8.5 per cent in 2013 and 8.9 per cent in 2014, higher than the forecast of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of 8.2 percent in 2013 and 8.5 per cent in 2014. The group said that the world’s second-largest economy could benefit from the rising demand for housing and improving business investment, even as export growth [...] Continue Reading…
Michigan Gov. Snyder appoints bankruptcy lawyer to fix Detroit financial crisis
March 18th, 2013 davidguide Windsor Genova – Fourth Estate Cooperative Contributor
Detroit, MI, United States (4E) – Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced Thursday the appointment of Washington, D.C. bankruptcy attorney Kevyn Orr as emergency financial manager tasked to fix the financial crisis gripping Detroit. Snyder introduced Orr in a press conference also attended by Mayor Dave Bing at the Cadillac Place in the New Center area. The 54-year-old University of Michigan law school graduate was a partner with the Jones Day law firm and served as lead bankruptcy attorney of Chrysler in 2009. The Local Emergency Financial Assistance Loan Board unanimously approved [...] Continue Reading…
Disparate Impact and Fair Housing: Seven Cases You Should Know
February 16th, 2013 davidguide ProPublica Staff
Washington, DC, United States (ProPublica) – by Christie Thompson Last week, the Obama administration formalized the legal standard it has used to enforce fair housing laws and hold banks accountable for their role in a foreclosure crisis that hit black and Latino homeowners the hardest. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a regulation on “disparate impact,” codifying a long-used legal precedent that says the Fair Housing Act prohibits practices that result in discrimination “regardless of whether there was an intent to discriminate.” After decades of being denied credit, many minority communities were [...] Continue Reading…
Big Corporations Put Up Seed Funding for Republican Dark Money Group
February 16th, 2013 davidguide ProPublica Staff
United States (ProPublica) – by Justin Elliott Some of the nation’s biggest corporations donated more than a million dollars to launch a Republican nonprofit that went on to play a key role in recent political fights. Like the nonprofit groups that poured money into last year’s elections, the decade-old State Government Leadership Foundation has been able to keep the identities of its funders secret. Until now. A records request by ProPublica to the IRS turned up a list of the original funders of the group: Exxon, Pfizer, Time Warner, and other corporations put up at [...] Continue Reading…
