Jay Valatka
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On the article Salem Man Charged With Driving While Stoned
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On the article Salem Man Charged With Attempted Murder of 2-Year-Old
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On the article Salem Police Nab Alleged Serial Burglar, Recover Thousands in Stolen Items
Jay Valatka
8:55 pm on Wednesday, February 27, 2013
According to online Merriam-Webster:
thug = a brutal ruffian or assassinI think the appropriate term here is "alleged burglar", but that's quite a cache of stolen items in those photos. Not looking good for this guy.
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On the article Massachusetts Would See More Than $91.6 Million in Cuts Under Sequester: White House
Jay Valatka
10:29 am on Tuesday, February 26, 2013
ReplyFrom William Rivers Pitt's Op-Ed today
( http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/14793-the-fix-is-in-laying-bare-some-sequester-lies )"The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, which costs around $400 billion, was recently globally grounded due to a crack in an engine fin, a new reason among many others why no one wants this plane to begin with, yet it keeps getting built. The V-22 Osprey has been killing Marines for years now, yet it also keeps getting built, to the tune of $35 billion.
"Cancel these two "defense" programs that don't work and are not wanted by the service branches expected to use them, and...gosh. That's $435 billion we just saved, along with the lives of any number of servicemembers.
"Two programs.
"$435,000,000,000.00"
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On the article Does Salem Have a Skunk Problem?
Jay Valatka
11:15 pm on Thursday, February 14, 2013
ReplyFunny that this comes up today. I hadn't caught sight of any skunks in Salem in months, but just this morning, I witnessed a skunk crossing a street in Witchcraft Heights in broad daylight, around 9am. Seemed brazen.
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On the article Would You Miss Saturday Mail Delivery?
Jay Valatka
5:47 pm on Wednesday, February 6, 2013
ReplyCongress in 2006 legislated to put the USPS in the red.
National Association of Letter Carriers President Fredric Rolando: "The problem lies elsewhere: the 2006 congressional mandate that the USPS pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years, and do so within a decade, an obligation no other public agency or private firm faces. The roughly $5.5 billion annual payments since 2007 — $21 billion total — are the difference between a positive and negative ledger."
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On the article Death of the Ding-Dong, Twinkie, Wonder Bread: Hostess to Close
Jay Valatka
4:51 pm on Saturday, November 17, 2012
I know Hostess wasn't turning a profit, but I mentioned the "Angry CEO Syndrome" because of the timing of the bankruptcy filing and because of all the anti-union and anti-Obama meme comments before me. It's funny that although you found the insurance companies have been jacking up premiums supposedly to take advantage of RomneyCare, you don't seem to want to put these same insurance companies into your Basket of Blame. And, for the record, I have never said "all corporations are evil". Who actually says that kind of thing? And don't worry about me getting out more: I have many friends who are business owners.
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On the article Death of the Ding-Dong, Twinkie, Wonder Bread: Hostess to Close
Jay Valatka
9:29 pm on Friday, November 16, 2012
ReplyTwinkies and Wonder Bread and all those other Hostess products have gotten such a bad rap for many years - and perhaps rightfully so - that it was about time they closed shop. Hostess never seemed to change their product line to reflect the needs of consumers. I'm surprised it had managed to shuffle along this far.
I suspect the timing of this bankruptcy filing is a result of a growing epidemic that I like to call "The Angry CEO Syndrome", due to the recent election results. Symptoms include passive aggressive behavior by managers and executives, who tend to toss out a plethora of potentially baseless excuses such as "ObamaCare" and "unions" before laying off hundreds of their employees and, like Hostess above, filing for bankruptcy. Never is concern for employees or their health and well-being publicly articulated as much as the concern for more profits. Never is poor management faulted, but victimization by some kind of anti-business climate from elsewhere is often claimed. We've already seen a few egregious examples of this from companies such as Massey Energy and Papa John's, and we should expect to see many more in the coming weeks. -
On the article TELL US: What Should Scott Brown Do Next?
Jay Valatka
2:51 pm on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
ReplyReplace Tom Bergeron on "America's Funniest Home Videos". What? It's a good paying job!
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On the article Massachusetts Election Results 2012
Jay Valatka
9:13 pm on Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Thumbs up! Amy Goodman... one of the few great journalists!
Jay Valatka
8:03 am on Tuesday, April 9, 2013
This one has got to make the 2013 Ten Most Notable Police Logs.