Saturday Morning News -- Last Day Of May, 2014

The word for the day: dwarf

Bloomberg is reporting on the futility of Obama's going-green efforts at expense of American taxpayer: 

In fact, both critics of the effort, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and environmentalists pressing for quicker action make a similar argument: Whatever the Obama administration does at home will be dwarfed by worldwide trends. 

Were U.S. emissions cut to zero, “global emissions would continue to increase,” Robert Stavins, director of Harvard University’s Environmental Economics Program, said in an e-mail. “So, the direct impacts of the new power plant rules on atmospheric greenhouse-gas concentrations will be small.”

But it will make us feel good. The good news: there has been no evidence of any warming for the past 18 years.

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The Wall Street Journal

Federal investigators probing insider trading by Phil Mickelson

Federal investigators are pursuing a major insider-trading probe involving finance, gambling and sports, examining the trading of investor Carl Icahn, golfer Phil Mickelson and Las Vegas bettor William "Billy" Walters.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission are examining whether Mr. Mickelson and Mr. Walters traded illicitly on nonpublic information from Mr. Icahn about his investments in public companies, people briefed on the probe said. The FBI and SEC are examining whether Mr. Walters on at least one occasion passed a tip on to Mr. Mickelson, these people said, and are studying the two men's trading patterns.

"Phil is not the target of any investigation. Period," said a lawyer for Mr. Mickelson, Glenn Cohen, on Friday, adding that an FBI agent had told him Mr. Mickelson wasn't a target. The FBI declined to comment on Mr. Cohen's statement. Two FBI agents approached Mr. Mickelson on Thursday after he finished a round of golf at the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, seeking to speak with him in connection with the investigation, a person familiar with the situation said. Mr. Mickelson referred them to his attorney, this person said.

Weak wages pose threat to liftoff for economy

A long-awaited liftoff in the U.S. economy is facing pressure from stubbornly weak wage growth, muddying the outlook for consumers and challenging Federal Reserve policy makers who are counting on a pickup as they unwind the central bank's extraordinary support for the recovery.

Growth in wage and salary income slowed to just 0.2% in April from the prior month, marking the weakest monthly increase of the year ....

After adjusting for inflation, wage and salary income was up 2% from a year earlier. The figures came in a report showing that U.S. consumer spending fell in April for the first time in a year even while inflation crept up. The weak start to the second quarter, coming after the U.S. economy in the first quarter contracted for the first time in three years, is challenging the thesis of economists and investors who have been counting on a 2014 growth breakout.

Those expectations have pushed U.S. stock benchmarks to record levels, while yields on safe Treasury bonds have dipped in part due to softer economic data.

Plover protections ruffle feathers in northeast

The ruckus began last July after an unleashed dog frolicking on a beach here killed a young bird.

The unlucky chick was a federally protected piping plover, and its death set off a chorus of squawking from all sides. Federal wildlife officials threatened the town with a $12,000 fine, required Scarborough to hire a "piping plover coordinator" and pushed the town to pass a new leash law.

Things got so contentious that citizens in dog suits picketed the town hall to protest the moves.

"It's pitted husband against wife," said Richard Sullivan, a member of the town council. "Neighbors and families are split over the issue."

Southern Maine isn't the only place getting ruffled over regulations to safeguard plovers—small, fragile, sandy-hued shorebirds that breed in the Great Lakes, Northern Great Plains and along the Atlantic Coast, where they were designated as threatened in 1986 after their numbers had plummeted.

Plover disputes have roiled communities from New York's Long Island to North Carolina for years, giving rise to a popular bumper sticker among those who think too much attention is paid to the birds' welfare: "Piping Plovers Taste Like Chicken."

The clashes have been particularly acrimonious along the densely inhabited New England coast, where towns have blocked off long sandy stretches to protect the rebounding plover population from dogs, dune-buggy drivers and beachgoers who leave trash that can attract predators. 

Russia, Ukraine near deal on gas bill -- posted last night

Demise of magazine distributor in Florida to take out 6,000 jobs

One of the biggest distributors of magazines in the U.S., Source Interlink Distribution, said on Friday that it will soon end "substantially all" of its business operations, putting its 6,000 employees out of work.

The wholesale distribution company, based in Bonita Springs, Fla., said it had tried to strike new terms with key publishers and national distributors over the last five months but failed to do so. Companies such as Source Interlink play a major role in the magazine business, arranging for printed magazines to be distributed to retailers large and small.

It has become a more difficult part of the business in recent years, as consumers increasingly use the Web to read digital content, including magazines. That shift has upended the economics of newsstand distribution. 

Rat poison D-Con to lose some potency; maker agrees to lessen the potency of its d-Con to address safety concerns raised by the EPA. Apparently, the EPA feels rats are safer in the home than d-Con.

Google's Motorola smartphone (Moto X) facility to close factory door in Texas. This was a huge story in the local news last night. The factory has not even been open for one year. Apparently, affects about 700 employees. Cites high costs. Now, remember, the country with the cheapest non-labor manufacturing costs in the world is probably the US and the factory in Ft Worth was very close to its customers. Let's see if the story mentions the 800-lb gorilla on the factory floor? From the article:

Poor Moto X sales meant the company couldn't achieve economies of scale, he said, while costs for labor and shipping parts were higher than in overseas plants.

Nope, nothing about the 800-lb gorilla, $5,000/employee for ObamaCare-mandated health care. 

Gold falls to lowest prices in four months as Ukraine crisis eases.

The Los Angeles Times

The headline:  Bodies of 52 vets accumulate at morgue; L.A. County can't explain why.

Over the last 15 months, 52 unclaimed bodies of U.S. military veterans accumulated at the Los Angeles County morgue because nobody arranged transportation to Riverside National Cemetery for burial.

As of Thursday, the county could not explain why. "All the people who touched this process are working together to figure out how this occurred," said county spokesman David Sommers.

The problem began in 2013, after Rose Hills Mortuaries in Alhambra, which transported the bodies of homeless veterans under a charity program, started turning down some bodies that it said did not meet eligibility requirements.

And now the process will start over:

As for the 52 bodies that arrived from the morgue, the coroner's office must follow its standard protocol and independently verify the identities of the dead, Harvey said. In most cases, federal approval for the burials has probably expired, and reauthorization will be required.

I think if one watches the movie LA Confidential one will have a better appreciation for the county.

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Sony Pictures Imageworks is moving its Los Angeles-area headquarters to Canada.

In a further blow to Southern California's visual-effects industry, Sony Pictures Imageworks is moving its Los Angeles-area headquarters to Canada.

One of Hollywood's leading visual effects companies said Friday that it will move into a new facility in Vancouver that will accommodate up to 700 employees. It isn't clear how many of the company's 270 workers based in Culver City will lose their jobs, though some will be offered a chance to relocate.

The announcement was met with dismay in Southern California's beleaguered visual-effects industry, which has been buffeted by the effects of outsourcing and runaway production.

Let's see if the 800-lb gorilla in the room is mentioned in this story?

Although the visual effects industry was pioneered in California, local companies have had an increasingly difficult time competing with rivals in Canada, Britain and India that benefit from tax credits or cheaper labor. More than half a dozen California visual-effects houses have shut down or filed for bankruptcy in recent years.

Nope, no mention of ObamaCare. The reasons were all about tax credits that Canada provides the film industry, but California does not. Biting the hand that feeds you.

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Ah, yes, the blue screen of death -- after every game the LA Clippers lose, coming to a monitor near you. Microsoft billionaire Steve Ballmer to buy the LA Clippers. His $2.0-billion bid beat Oprah's $1.2 billion. It was a "silent auction." No re-attacks. The best Sterling had hoped for was $1 billion. Now he's suing because ... well, I'm not sure why he's suing. [I have almost 15,000 posts; I update several posts every day. I rarely get comments. But I actually have folks writing me .... defending ... Mr Sterling. LOL.]

3.8-magnitude earthquake overnight ten miles from San Pedro, California.