NYC Hot Dog Stand License: $289,500. Per Year.

Licenses for a New York City hot dog stand can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. There are 3,100 hot dog stand licenses in New York City, and there’s a 20 year waiting list for them. The licenses, not the hot dogs.

A “Half as Interesting” video from Wendover Productions

Update:

“‘Unjust and immoral’: street vendors call on New York City to issue more permits,” Erin Durkin, The Guardian

______________

Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-rWi

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

West Virginia: Life in the Spill Zone

“Life in West Virginia wasn’t all that easy to begin with. It is the third poorest state in the country; almost 18 percent of its population lives below the poverty line. Many people in the spill zone are now spending a chunk of their paychecks simply to have access to clean water — a necessity so fundamental it’s one that people in a developed country should expect.”

— “Don’t Drink the Water: West Virginia After the Chemical Spill,” Heather Rogers, Rolling Stone

Related:

“Chemical Valley,” Evan Osmos, The New Yorker

“What’s that smell in West Virginia water?” ScienceBlog

__________________

Short link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-j1W

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Freedom is Negligent, Goes Bankrupt

This may be the closest thing to good news coming out of West Virginia this week: Freedom Industries has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.  But does the Elk River chemical spill mean we’ll finally get tough, meaningful regulation and inspection of chemical storage facilities? Probably not.

Wild, Wonderful West Virginia

The business-friendly, health-challenged state of West Virginia has still not recovered from the spill of 7,500 gallons of 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol (MCHM) from Charleston’s Freedom Industries chemical plant into the Elk River, drinking water source for 300,000 people in nine counties. Some recent updates:

“Why So Many West Virginians Relied on Water from the Elk River: Industry Already Polluted the Others,” Nora Caplan-Bricker, The New Republic

“Safety violations found at another Freedom chemical facility,” Lindsay Abrams, Salon

“West Virginia chemical spill shines spotlight on loose regulation,” Alexandra Field. Meridith Edwards and Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN

“West Virginians Tolerate Chemical Spills Out of Fear of Losing Jobs,” Robert Reich, Moyers & Company

“I’m From West Virginia and I’ve Got Something to Say About the Chemical Spill,” Eric Waggoner, Huffington Post

“Thirsty in West Virginia,” Emma Fisher, Salon

__________________

Short link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-ixB

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Congress: Heed the Signs.

Written and animated by Zina Saunders (via Mother Jones.)

Related:

“How Many People Have Been Killed by Guns Since Newtown?” Chris Kirk and Dan Kois, Slate

“Gun violence, by the numbers,” Jennifer Kabat, Salon

“The Media Myth Of NRA Electoral Dominance Should End With 2012,” Timothy Johnson, Media Matters

“Five Things Every Elected Official Should Know About The NRA,” Ian Millhiser, Think Progress

___________________

Short Link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-fhV

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Fast Foreclosures

J.P. Morgan Chase acknowledged that employees signed off on thousands of foreclosure documents without really reading them. This was in response to a sworn statement by a Chase employee that her team signed off on 18,000 foreclosures a month without proper document review. The firm just froze the foreclosure of 56,000 homes until their documents are re-examined. 

Chase is not alone. An Ally Financial document processor admitted signing off on 10,000 foreclosures a month without reading the paperwork. “That’s barely a minute per case,” notes the Washington Post‘s Brady Dennis, “assuming he works a normal eight-hour day.”

Instead of oversight, banks have “robo-signers.” Still believe that financial institutions can regulate themselves?

 Update: “Robo-Signing: Documents Show Citi and Wells Also Committed Foreclosure Fraud,” Abigail Field, AOL Daily Finance.

 

Image (“American Dream, after Grant Wood”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Icelandic Exodus

More people left Iceland in 2009 than in any year since 1887. Some of those who remain line up in charity food lines. A country can expect this after its economy becomes “zombulated” by unregulated financial institutions and a right-wing, laissez-faire government.  In the words of current Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, “the ideology of an unregulated free market utterly failed.”

More: