HERE’S VIDEO of the sunken U.S.S. Independence aircraft carrier.

FEDS TOLD TO FIND THE FUGITIVE FELONS LIVING IN PUBLIC HOUSING AND EVICT THEM: Does good old fashioned shoe-leather reporting still make a difference? Consider Ethan Barton of the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group. His work exposed the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s failure to enforce the law barring fugitive felons from living in public housing.

And now, as Barton reports today, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley is telling the HUD Inspector General to stop playing games about a previously unpublished 2012 report. That document estimated that 1,300 fugitive felons were living in public housing in just one HUD region. Grassley thinks it’s time for government officials to get serious about finding such fugitives and removing them, as required by federal law.

“’It is troubling that the full number of wanted fugitive felons living in public housing remains unknown, unexplained, undocumented and unjustified,’ the Iowa Republican wrote in a letter to HUD Inspector General (IG) David Montoya Wednesday. ‘Tenants deserve to know if a wanted fugitive felon is living in the same housing project.’

“So, Grassley wants the HUD IG to do ‘a thorough, nationwide investigation into the number of wanted fugitive felons living in public housing and the adequacy of controls in place to prevent that from occurring. The American people need assurance that HUD is enforcing the law and ensuring the safety and security of public housing tenants.’”

Grassley’s directive culminated a process that began several weeks ago when Barton first reported the 2012 document. When he asked the IG what was done about the 1,300 fugitive felons, he got the run-around and a claim the report was never published because it was based on faulty data. But what made the data faulty was never explained, to Barton or to Grassley.

It will take a while but ultimately Grassley’s directive should result in hundreds of dangerous criminals being removed from public housing and brought to justice. No telling how many murders and rapes will never happen now because a persistent journalist refused to go away.

AT AMAZON, save on Point & Shoot Digital Cameras.

Plus, deals on Coffee, Tea & Beverages.

A STREET CAR NAMED STATE DEPARTMENT: “I have always depended on the kindness of donors.”

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS NO ONE IS ASKING:

• Shot: Don’t call it a reboot: how ‘remake’ became a dirty word in Hollywood.

—Headline, the Guardian, yesterday.

• Chaser: 2013 – a year of prequels, sequels and reboots.

—Headline, the Guardian, May 10, 2013.

• Hangover: Week in geek’s 2012 preview: Sequels, reboots and an unexpected journey.
  

—Headline, the Guardian, January 16, 2012.

• The DTs: Hollywood takes a safe bet for 2011 with the year of the repeat.

—Headline, the Guardian, January 1, 2011.

US MILITARY SEEKS GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY.

JOEL KOTKIN on why Blue cities are such cesspits of inequality.

There’s little argument that inequality, and the depressed prospects for the middle class, will be a dominant issue in this year’s election, and beyond. Yet the class divide is not monolithic in its nature, causes, or geography. To paraphrase George Orwell’s Animal Farm, some places are more unequal than others.

Housing represents a central, if not dominant, factor in the rise of inequality. Although the cost of food, fuel, electricity, and tax burdens vary, the largest variation tends to be in terms of housing prices. Even adjusted for income, the price differentials for houses in places like the San Francisco Bay Area or Los Angeles are commonly two to three times as much as in most of the country, including the prosperous cities of Texas, the mid-south and the Intermountain West.

These housing differences also apply to rents, which follow the trajectory of home prices. In many markets, particularly along the coast, upwards of 40% of renters and new buyers spend close to half their income on housing. This has a particularly powerful impact on the poor, the working class, younger people, and middle class families, all of whom find their upward trajectory blocked by steadily rising housing costs.

In response to higher prices, many Americans, now including educated Millennials, are heading to parts of the country where housing is more affordable. Jobs too have been moving to such places, particularly in Texas, the southeast and the Intermountain West. As middle income people head for more affordable places, the high-priced coastal areas are becoming ever more sharply bifurcated, between a well-educated, older, and affluent population and a growing rank of people with little chance to ever buy a house or move solidly into the middle class.

Ironically, these divergences are taking place precisely in those places where political rhetoric over inequality is often most heated and strident. Progressive attempts, such as raising minimum wages, attempt to address the problem, but often other policies, notably strict land-use regulation, exacerbate inequality.

The other major divide is not so much between regions but within them. Even in expensive regions, middle class families tend to cluster in suburban and exurban areas, which are once again growing faster than areas closer to the core. Progressive policies in some states, such as Oregon and California, have been calculated to slow suburban growth and force density onto often unwilling communities. By shutting down the production of family-friendly housing, these areas are driving prices up and, to some extent, driving middle and working class people out of whole regions.

They’ll turn us all into beggars ’cause they’re easier to please.

HE’D NEVER DO THAT WITH ISLAM: University of Texas prof mocks NRA, Christianity with satirical prayers.

VIDEO DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Prager University’s Conservative Student’s Survival Guide:

THAT WAS FAST: Trump-Pence now on the Minnesota ballot.

Ryan Furlong, a spokesman for Minnesota’s secretary of State’s office, said that Trump’s filing is completed and the GOP ticket will appear on the office’s website listing those on the ballot soon.

He noted that major party candidates have until Monday to file for ballot access.

Minutes after The Hill spoke to Furlong, Trump and running mate Mike Pence’s names were on the secretary of State’s website.

NBC affiliate KARE11 in Minneapolis reported earlier in the day that the state’s Republican Party hadn’t filed paperwork for Trump to get on the ballot.

I wonder what happened to the state GOP’s legal requirement to “officially elect alternate electors” outlined last night by Michael Brodkorb.

(Hat tip, Glenn!)

SAINT ATILLA RAISED RAISED THE HAND GRENADE UP ON HIGH: Crusader-era hand grenade surprises archaeologists.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Here’s everything scientists know about how to avoid ageing.

THE 1950s — THE GOLDEN AGE THAT NEVER WAS:

To hear liberal pundits such as Robert Reich, Bernie Sanders and Michael Moore tell it, the 1950s were the golden age of the American middle class, when unionized factory workers took home good wages from jobs “making things”, when a 91 percent top marginal tax rate kept “the rich” in check, and when proceeds from those taxes funded wonderful programs that helped us all, such as the Interstate Highway Program and the G.I. Bill.  Budgets were balanced and people were happy.

Things worked then, they tell us, so why don’t we go back to the policies (and, in particular, the tax rates) that led to such prosperity?  We don’t need 91 percent rates again (as Senator Sanders and others will concede) just much higher rates on the rich, enough to pay for the kind of social programs that, presumably, will magically transform the U.S. into a larger version of Denmark.

This is lunacy, of course, but it is lunacy eagerly embraced by those too young to remember the 1950s, by those too historically ignorant to know anything about the 1950s and by those too intellectually dishonest (such as Professor Reich) to present an objective view of what the 1950s were really like – for workers, for the U.S. government, and for the general population.

Read the whole thing.

I’m old enough to remember when the left viewed the 1950s as an era of bland ideological conformity and paranoid red baiting. It’s certainly good that the left wouldn’t allow the pitfalls of that decade to occur today.

AN ALTERNATE THEORY: Berkeley’s Soda Sin Tax Seems to Be Working, But Probably Just Because It’s Berkeley.

Makes sense to me.

WHY ARE DEMOCRAT-RUN CITIES SUCH CESSPITS OF SURVEILLANCE? Baltimore police respond to report they secretly spied on city with aerial surveillance tech from Iraq War.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE:  The War Intensifies, Michael Ledeen writes. “The enemy knows that Obama’s leaving in 5 months, so it’s best to grab while the grabbing’s easy. Bad times indeed.”

Not at all — just more and more “peace in our time,” as Obama promised would be forthcoming at the start of his second term.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: The world’s first network of fully self-driving taxis is up and running.

NuTonomy, a self-driving company that spun out of MIT and is based in Singapore and Cambridge, Mass., has just launched the first-ever public test of a commercial fleet of fully self-driving cars.

The company, which will be testing its ride-hail service in a Singaporean business district called 1 North, has been testing its self-driving technology in the area since April and was chosen to be the Singapore government’s official partner in the development of this technology earlier this month. NuTonomy plans to deploy a full fleet of vehicles — at least 1,000 — in Singapore by 2018.

Through the test, a select number of people will be able to hail one of six nuTonomy cars — either a Renault Zoe or a Mitsubishi i-MiEV that the company has retrofitted with sensory and self-driving technology — using the company’s proprietary ride-hail app. A nuTonomy engineer will remain on board to ensure the system is working properly and to take over if needed.

The real test will be if passengers are still willing to enter cabs without a nuTonomy engineer.

I’M SURE FEMINISTS WOULD DISAGREE, but I think it’s admirable to work to stay attractive for your spouse.

OH BOY: EMAILS REVEAL THAT TOP HILLARY AIDE RESEARCHED DRUG USED TO COMBAT PARKINSON’S AND ALZHEIMER’S, THEN PASSED INFORMATION ON TO HILLARY, Ace of Spades writes.

Meanwhile, increasing chatter about Hillary’s admitted medical condition, hypothyroidism.

By the way, the media is of course in Circle the Wagons mode around Hillary.

CNN’s very liberal media critic (would they hire any other kind?) calls Sean Hannity’s questions about Hillary’s health “reckless.”

And yet his colleague at CNN, Sanjay Gupta, has penned an article asking if Trump is at high risk for heart disease.

Will Stetler mention this? Of course not; the Guild knows its own and the Guild protects its own.

In May of 2008, Gupta also strongly questioned then 71 year old John McCain’s health — including his mental health as a former POW — during an interview with Katie Couric, in order to help CBS and Time-Warner-CNN-HBO’s preferred candidate to cross the finish line. ABC’s Charles Gibson also asked that same month if McCain had sustained any “psychological damage,” as NewsBusters notes in a post today headlined “Nets Skeptical of McCain Health in 2008, Worried About Mental Fitness.”

UNSETTLED: Supposed ‘Ground Breaking’ Study Only Proves Warming Proponents Have Jumped The Shark.

They called it a “ground breaking study,” I call it rubbish. This new study claims that global warming began in 1830 just when the industrial revolution began to pick up steam (no pun intended). What they didn’t take into account was just around the same time the Earth was coming out of an unusually cold 40-year period caused by low sunspot activity called the Dalton Minimum (no relation to Timothy Dalton).

Read the whole thing.

AT THIS POINT, PROBABLY: Is Doomsday Inevitable For Venezuela?

The problems could grow worse. Several oil service companies suspended or slowed operations in Venezuela this year due to difficulties in obtaining payment from the state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). Contractors have cut back on drilling in Venezuela amid rising unpaid debt, which threatens to take Venezuela’s output down even further.

On June 28th 2016, Baker Hughes reported that the number of oil rigs in Venezuela dropped from 69 to 59 in May of this year. The CEO of the Italian oil and gas contractor Saipem SpA said that in April the company had suspended 89 percent of its operation rigs in Venezuela (25 of its 28 rigs). Other companies as Schlumberger or Halliburton Co are reducing their activities in Venezuela because of unpaid services bills. Venezuela’s active rig count, a good indication of future production, fell from 71 to 49 in July according to Baker Hughes, the lowest since the end of 2011.

That’s some bad luck, eh?

The author adds, “Even if oil prices increase, the situation is very complicated for Venezuela’s economy.” Those “complications” can be reduced to just three words: Chavez, Maduro, and socialism — but you won’t find those words anywhere in this report.

SECOND EARTH DISCOVERED, ACCORDING TO THE LONDON SUN. They’re not saying it’s aliens – but it’s aliens.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Hillary Clinton’s Cash-For-Access Diplomacy.

UM: Trump, Pence not yet on MN ballot.

Tuesday was the deadline for non-major party candidates for President and Vice President to file the necessary paperwork to be on the ballot in Minnesota. There is no filing fee for presidential candidates, but non-major party candidates must submit a 2,000-signature petition.

According to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website, these are the candidates who have filed to be on the ballot…

The list doesn’t include Donald Trump or Mike Pence.

The deadline for major party candidates to file isn’t until August 29, but there’s a hitch.

Again: Process for Trump to be on MN ballot. #MNGOP didn't officially elect alternate electors – trouble ahead? Yep. pic.twitter.com/oaEZQEw3AA

— Michael Brodkorb (@mbrodkorb) August 25, 2016

The cleanest way for #MNGOP to solve mess is to call state convention to elect alternate national delegates – but they can't, no time.

— Michael Brodkorb (@mbrodkorb) August 25, 2016

It isn’t as though Trump has a serious shot at Minnesota, but this doesn’t look good for the state GOP.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Trump’s on the ballot now.