The Fiscal Cliff could force some prisons to release inmates. Criminals may be the only United States citizens looking forward to the potential scenario where the ongoing budget negotiations between Republican House Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama end without an agreement. Besides a double-dip recession, states who rely on Federal monies will have to look to other “solutions.”

If the the Fiscal Cliff’s automatic spending reductions kick in, it would trigger an 8 percent cut in nearly $2 billion in federal grants that go to state and local law enforcement. Lane County, Oregon may be forced to release even more criminals because of a major cut in federal subsidies to its law enforcement budget.

Yes, that’s even more…they’ve done this before, with jail commanders like Lane County Sheriff Tom Turner using a protocol affectionately known as “the RAT” to guide their decisions according to the Associated Press:

“Everybody we’re releasing is dangerous to society. But we’re having to choose which ones to keep and which ones to let out.”

Their Risk Assessment Tool, or RAT, ranks “inmates based on nearly 80 questions about their criminal history and other factors to predict how likely they are to reoffend.” Weeding out repeat offenders may be the goal but in practice things don’t always work out the way we would wish. As one example, less than an hour after one low-level offender walked out of the Oregon prison he was attempting to rob a bank during Christmas week.

The loss of state operating revenue from the Fiscal Cliff only adds to the $1.5 billion in cuts to federal law enforcement grants since fiscal 2010. According to the Associated Press, Elizabeth Pyke, director of government affairs for the National Criminal Justice Association, believes that the Fiscal Cliff is just a leading indicator of how the financial future of the United States may affect law enforcement:

“It would not be unreasonable to envision a day in the not too distant future when federal support for state and local law enforcement will be virtually eliminated.”

NPR reports that the two million people plus prison inmate population in the United States requires States to spend about $50 billion annually to house them all. The Huffington Post adds that states with budget problems like California are trying to lower the prison population by early-releasing supposedly low-risk offenders. Some cities are even feeling the heat of budget problems, with Angel Taveras, the mayor of Providence, R.I., writing that the Fiscal Cliff would “have profound and draconian consequences for the City of Providence.”

What do you think State and local governments should do in response to the budget problems the Federal government is facing along with the imminent Fiscal Cliff?

Fiscal Cliff To Force Prisons To Release Inmates is a post from: The Inquisitr

While more than 80 high-profile CEOs penned a letter calling for significant budget cuts to reduce the nation’s deficit, hundreds of economists warn that this will only make things worse for Americans.

Economists claim that such austerity measures are “medieval medicine,” and will only make the economic crisis worse. Trying to reduce the deficit ignores the underlying problem of the recession: unemployment.

On Wednesday, 350 economists signed a letter in response to the CEOs austerity plan. The letter calls for “jobs and growth, not austerity.” Written by Robert Borosage and Roger Hickey, co-directors of the Institute for America’s Future, and Robert Kuttner, founder of The American Prospect, insists that creating long-term jobs is the only way out of our current economic crisis. They argue that using some of the government deficit to create more jobs is the only way to pull America up by its bootstraps, so to speak.

“The budget hawks have the sequence backwards…. Budget cuts in a deep slump lead only to a deeper slump,” maintain the economist group. “We need jobs first. With recovery, deficit reduction will come of its own accord thanks to increased revenues in an improving economy.”

The US unemployment rate has been steadily declining, and at 7.9 percent, is lower — albeit slightly — that the recession peak of 10 percent three years ago.

Economists have good reason to be wary of austerity measures. As Greece has slashed its budget instead of using bailout funding, its economy has collapsed and its deficit still continues to grow. Other European countries have met the same fate.

Teresa Ghilarducci, director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at The New School, says that economic recovery “requires government action to spur the economy and encourage banks and corporations, which are sitting on massive sums of cash due to economic uncertainties, to free up those resources and create jobs.”

“The problem now is slow growth that has created the 7.9 percent unemployment rate,” Ghilarducci said. “Any austerity, any budget cuts will just make that worse.”

Economists argue that, at the polls this voting season, “voters agree joblessness and a bad economy are much higher priorities than deficits.”

What do you think is the golden ticket out of the recession?

Economists Warn Against Proposed Budget Cuts, Say More Jobs Will Save The Economy is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) will be announcing that, even though their national convention is going to be held at the Bank of America Stadium in North Carolina, they are going to pull their funds from the bank.  The Wall Street Journal is reporting that, according to a Democratic Party official, the DNC is going to start moving their money over to union owned Amalgamated Bank after the election.

The move could make things strange for the Obama re-election campaign, which is still going to use Bank of America, but the DNC wants to make the move anyway.

The DNC is pulling its money as a protest of Bank of America’s foreclosure policies.  They join a long list of companies and cities who are doing the same.  Cities from Massachusetts to California are pulling millions in accounts and putting them in more socially conscience banks.

President Obama is not likely to follow suit during an election season when he is looking to raise money from the industry in a hostile climate to begin with. In 2008, the Obama Campaign took in 66 percent of the employees donations from Bank of America.  In 2012, that number dropped to 28 percent according to Bloomberg.

Mitt Romney is crushing President Obama in fundraising from Wall Street.  As of June, Romney has taken in $37 million from the finance sector compared to the President who took in only $4.8 million dollars.

Obama has made Wall Street one of his top targets during the last four years, consistently mocking them for being greedy and referring to them as “fat cats.”  He also worked hard to pass reforms of the sector, which are not considered friendly to the industry.  President Obama is still making pains to convince the industry he is supportive.

Democratic National Committee Divesting From Bank Of America is a post from: The Inquisitr

A month ago, IQ reported the story of former Wall Street executive Michael Marin, who violently collapsed and suddenly died in court of an apparent suicide. A few weeks later, we reported that a bottle labelled “cyanide” was found in his car.

Yes, that was absolutely a cyanide pill that he swallowed in court leading to his shocking death moments later, according to his autopsy report.

After being found guilty of arson back in June, Marin put his face in his hands and appeared to have swallowed something. He drank from a water bottle, and moments later he began seizing violently, collapsing to his death, according to the Huffington Post. Remember, this was all in a courtroom immediately following his sentencing, and it was all caught on tape. Immediately, the media began speculating as to whether he had committed suicide via poison pill, and the Maricopa County medical examiner’s office toxicology tests prove that theory true. Michael Marin had poison in his system, reports KMOV-4.

Marin was staring down more that 16 years in prison for setting fire to his 10,000-square-foot home on July 5, 2009. The elaborate plot consisted of Marin setting fire in four parts of his home, and escaping from the second floor with a rope ladder, dressed in scuba gear to project him from smoke inhalation. Prosecutors believe that Marin was having financial troubles and couldn’t afford the mortgage payments on his large home, reports CNEWS.

Marin’s adult son alerted authorities to the potential for his father’s suicide, prompting the search or Marin’s car. The son received a delayed email from Marin, saying that his will was in order in case “things don’t go well in court.”

How did Marin smuggle a poison ill into court, you ask? Primarily because he wasn’t in custody. Defendants who aren’t in custody aren’t strip-searched, so it would have been fairly simple for Marin to hide the pill in a pocket or elsewhere.

You want video? Here’s video from our pals at Newsy:

Michael Marin Courtroom Suicide: Yup, That Was Cyanide is a post from: The Inquisitr

Everyone knows that Walmart is huge, but just how huge is something we rarely think of.   But now we have some data to mull over.  The six heirs to the Walmart fortune are worth more than 40% of Americans combined.

The Walton family, heirs to the Walmart fortune during a recent study were found to be worth a total of $89.5 billion dollars.  This sum is the amount that the bottom 41.5% of American families combined. That means that the six Walton families are worth more money than 48.8 million households in America.  The analysis was completed by Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute.

Sylvia Allegreto of the University of California at Berkeley had said last year that the Waltons were worth about the same as 30% of Americans but after the financial meltdown of 2008 more and more people, to save money, started going to Walmart in droves.  What makes the number so unbelievable and sad is that the majority of the more than 1 million workers at Walmart are part of that 40% of Americans the Waltons created.  Most jobs at Walmart are low paying hourly positions.

Walmart not only pays low wages, but the economic impact of a Walmart coming to town can be catastrophic.  A planned Seattle-area Walmart could cost the area $14.5 million in lost wages over the next 20 years, a local advocacy group found in April.

The uber rich like the Waltons have seen their wealth go up by more than 273% over the last 30 years while the bottom half of the spectrum has only seen their wealth grow by 20%.  According to the Congressional Budget Office. In addition, the top 10 percent of U.S. earners control two-thirds of the country’s wealth.

Walmart Heirs Worth More Than Entire Bottom 40% of Americans is a post from: The Inquisitr

Recent whispers regarding hidden 401(k) fees and what your retirement planning may actually be costing you have gotten quite a lot of press lately, and quite a lot of people worried. But never fear, the federal government is here, with a new law that took effect July 1st that requires these hidden fees be disclosed so that you can better plan your retirement plans and shop around for the best option.

By law, you will finally know how much retirement actually costs you.

The law’s disclosure efforts will help those planning for retirement understand how big a bite hidden fees take out of their savings, notes Jean Setzfand, vice president of financial security at AARP, a nonprofit group for retirees. “The purpose is to make something that is not so tangible, tangible to the average person,” said Setzfand according to CNN.

The disclosure will be sent out annually, and will include a list of available investment plans and fund managing fees that go with them (which usually make up about 80% of the total fees). “[I]nformation on these fees has always been available,” said Dave Gray, vice president of client experience at Charles Schwab. “But this is the first time the fee information will be consolidated into a single document and sent to participants.”

According to Time, even employers are usually in the dark about what it costs to set up, run, and manage a retirement fund. “It isn’t unusual to find 401(k) plans with total costs paid by the participant exceeding 3% annually—double what a well-run plan should cost,” they said. That’s one of the reasons the new measures have been put in place.

Currently, there are still some concerns over the new measures. There’s no page limit on disclosure, meaning statement will remain the same length they are now. Providers will also dump information on you – showing fees for every investment fund they offer instead of customizing the report to the products you’re invested in. You’ll have to work through all those numbers yourself. There also won’t be a way to compare fees to other plans or an industry average. You’ll have to use an online retirement tool to figure that out.

Though the new disclosure measures aren’t perfect, they show a step in the right direction, notes Setzfand. “I think there’s always more we can do, but this [disclosure] is a great first step,” he said.

Hidden 401(k) Fees Now A Thing Of The Past, But Transparency Isn’t Perfect is a post from: The Inquisitr

Wondering where you can find the best places to do business in the United States? New U.S. business city rankings released Wednesday shuffled a few standards out of their spot as other towns got a promotion.

Provo, Utah, home of Brigham Young University, rocked Raleigh, North Carolina out of its place as the best U.S. business city in the Forbes ranking. Provo is the third largest city in Utah, and is located about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City, notes Reuters. Recent and robust job growth and a low crime rate earned the city the top honor on the Forbes business banking list.

“Provo had job growth of 3 percent in 2011, which was third in the United States, and they ranked tenth-lowest in crime,” said Mike Ozanian of Forbes, adding, “Brigham Young University provides a stabilizing presence to their economy.”

The university in Provo boasts the third largest enrollment among private colleges in the country and had 13 start-ups in 2010.

Raleigh, North Carolina, has consistently been ranked in the top three of the Forbes list since 2003, but fell from its no. 1 spot because the cost of living rose 5% over the national average. Still, it maintains a top 3 spot thanks to a growing population and a projected 2.9% job growth. Fort Collins, Colorado, Des Moines, Iowa, and Denver, Colorado rounded out the top five on the list.

The Forbes list also includes the bottom 10 cities for business. Three of the bottom five are in California. Among them, Stockton, which filed for bankruptcy Tuesday.

Do you live in one of the best U.S. business cities? Do you live in one of the worst?

Best U.S. Business Cities According To Forbes: Top Spot Not Raleigh, NC Anymore is a post from: The Inquisitr