Welcome! "What's Happenin'?" is a casual community diary (a daily series, 8:30 AM Eastern on weekdays, 10 AM on weekends and holidays) where you can hang out, talk about what is going on with you, listen to music, talk about the news and the goings on here and everywhere.
Maybe you have seen some news stories that you think are not receiving enough attention and you'd like to post links to them. Maybe you'd like to just chat among friends about your life, your health, your family or social circle, your pets, etc. You can also post links to your own writings here on dkos or elsewhere. Perhaps you want to share some pictures or music or links to other things. This is your kind of place to talk about what's happening.
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News
So Wall Street executives aren't masters of the universe. Who knew!?
Bill Daley, White House chief of staff, to hand off some responsibilities
Embattled White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley will hand off some day-to-day responsibilities to presidential confidante Pete Rouse after coming under fire from West Wing officials for his management style and ineffectual relationship with Congress, according to administration sources.
The shift, first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Monday night, comes as the White House gears up for a brutal reelection campaign and a looming fight over the bipartisan supercommittee’s debt reduction proposals.
Rouse, a longtime Hill aide once known as the “101st Senator” for his stature among congressional heavyweights in both parties, will assume a far greater role in legislative affairs — easing growing tension between the White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who complained to President Barack Obama personally about Daley’s performance, according to congressional sources.
This should be interesting! I hope its televised.
Blagojevich sentencing set for Dec. 6
Impeached Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich plans to make a statement to the court at his newly scheduled sentencing hearing in December, his attorney said Monday.
The attorney's comments came as a federal judge set a new sentencing date of Dec. 6 for Blagojevich.
Jurors at Blagojevich's retrial earlier this year convicted him on 17 of 20 corruption charges, including attempted extortion for trying to sell or trade President Barack Obama's vacated U.S. Senate seat. At his first trial last year, jurors deadlocked on all but one count — convicting Blagojevich of lying to the FBI.
Oh Noes! The banks have to have proof before they foreclose on a home!? Isn't that like socialism or something???
Nevada Foreclosure Filings Dry Up After ‘Robo-Signing’ Law
Foreclosure filings in Nevada plunged in October during the first month of a new state law stiffening foreclosure-processing requirements.
Slightly more than 600 default notices were filed against homeowners through Oct. 25 in the state’s two most-populous counties, Las Vegas’s Clark County and Reno’s Washoe County. That was down from 5,360 in September, or an 88% drop, according to data tracked by ForeclosureRadar.com, a real-estate website that tracks such filings. Default notices represent the first step in processing foreclosures.
Nevada’s state Assembly passed a measure that took effect on Oct. 1 designed to crack down on “robo-signing,” where bank employees signed off on huge numbers of legal filings while falsely claiming to have personally reviewed each case. Banks suspended their foreclosure filings one year ago and have gradually restarted them after those and other improper foreclosure-processing practices surfaced.
The city doesn't like this idea, and I'm not sure I'm so hot on it, either. Still, playing the game on their terms has gotten us to this point. Go Oakland!
Occupy Oakland's new target - foreclosed buildings
Now that their general strike is over, Occupy Oakland activists are looking for a new initiative to keep the momentum rolling - and their gaze is turning toward taking over foreclosed or abandoned buildings.
The subject came up in earnest in group meetings over the past couple of days, and conversations have narrowed down not to whether Occupy activists should take over empty buildings, but when and how.
"It's a very important front for the Occupy movement all over this country, and if any one city can set a precedent for taking over foreclosed buildings, the idea will then quickly spread," said Adrian Dyer, an Occupy organizer. "The key is to improve what we occupy, to do it right, to set a good example."
If you're optimistic about the economy, read this.
Companies spending more--and hiring less
Unemployment is down and business spending is up, so it's time to laugh at all that talk of another recession, right? Unfortunately there are more than enough other numbers to put a stop to any laughter.
The U.S. unemployment rate dropped from 9.1 percent to 9 percent in October because 80,000 jobs were created. We're up nearly a million jobs for the year. Nor is that all. "Capital Spending Nears 2008 Level as U.S. Skates New Recession," Bloomberg tells us. In the third quarter of this year, capital spending rose 24 percent to $43.3 billion as companies made upgrades to plants, property and equipment. This shows "some executives embracing the likelihood that the economy averts recession."
What this really shows is some people desperate for anything resembling good economic news. You don't have to look very far to find the problems here.
I wonder if this is true of all disciplines.
The stroke of genius strikes later in life today
Young geniuses might have once made nearly all of the significant breakthroughs in science, but nowadays that's doesn't seem to be the case, a new study suggests.
Einstein once said, "A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so." The genius himself discovered that matter was transmutable to energy with his famous equation E = mc2 and helped lay the foundations of quantum theory by that age as evidence for his claim.
That peak age has shifted considerably, the researchers found, with 48 being prime time for physicists.
If only the marijuana dispensaries could afford to buy a few lawmakers. Maybe they should join the Chamber of Congress?
Medical marijuana advocates sue to halt dispensary closings
Medical marijuana advocates have filed lawsuits in California's four federal judicial districts aimed at quickly winning court orders to halt the U.S. attorneys from closing dispensaries.
The lawsuits are the second legal challenge to the stepped-up enforcement efforts that the four prosecutors announced last month at a high-profile joint news conference in Sacramento.
Matt Kumin, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuits, said that Tuesday the plaintiffs plan to ask the judges assigned to the cases for temporary restraining orders halting the crackdown.