From Yesterday's Newspaper:
* The county school board reports that the revenue shortfall for the next school year will be $25 million -- more than twice what was originally estimated. (Fortunately, the school district has about $24 million in reserves. When that's used up, however...)
The reason for the shortfall is twofold: The state has cut school funding by $1 billion statewide; and the voter-approved property tax amendment reduces local taxes which provide funds for school operations.
* The cost of the 2010 U.S. census was initially set at over $11 billion. The Census Bureau, however, screwed up a contract for hand held computers. These technology problems might cost another $2 billion on top of the original $11 billion. In addition, the Census Bureau is looking to hire and train almost 600,000 temporary workers to assist.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) said "What we're facing is a statistical Katrina on the part of the administration."
* The Pentagon has admitted mistakenly sending missile parts to Taiwan. Notice the word, "mistakenly." Four electrical fuses to be used on intercontinental ballistic missiles somehow got lost and shipped all the way to Taiwan.
This was a bad booboo, said officials, "because of its indirect link to nuclear weaponry and because of the sensitivity of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, which China regularly denounces as provocative."
Well, I guess it was good they went to Taiwan and not to China.
* According to trustees for Social Security and Medicare, those programs are under threat of extinction because the monies to fund them are being depleted. The Social Security trust fund will be gone by 2041 and the Medicare trust fund will be used up by 2019.
Hey, we can't worry about Social Security and Medicare when we've got to fight the insurgents and rebuild everything we blew up in Iraq!
I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring.
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