The "Facts" Keep Changing About the Boston Bombings -- And It"s Fueling a Conspiracy Theory Industry

Important details like the suspects" weapons, NYC plans and the shootout keep changing.

In the aftermath of massive, complicated crimes it’s not uncommon for a bit of crucial information to be immediately put forward by police, only to be contradicted later on. While it’s understandable that initial leads and assertions might end up being wrong in a dynamic situation like the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, wholesale contradictions can encourage skepticism of the motives of those releasing inaccuracies — as with initial, false reports that Osama bin Laden hid behind his wife when U.S. forces shot him. Another effect of changing details can be to encourage conspiracy theorists who latch onto inconsistencies, and to undermine trust in authorities.

Now, almost a week after the Tsarnaev brothers fought a rolling street battle with dozens of heavily armed police officers, we learned Wednesday night that they had only a single handgun, according to sources who spoke with ABC News and the AP, something that directly contradicts what officials had previously said.

Here are some of the biggest changes to facts released in this investigation:

• Suspects’ arms – After the manhunt, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said the brothers were “heavily armed” and numerous reports detailed a fairly extensive arsenal. According to a New York Times report from April 21 citing a law enforcement official, “The authorities found an M-4 carbine rifle … two handguns and a BB gun.” Now unnamed sources say there was only a single 9mm pistol between the two brothers. Indeed, photos of the shootout suggest only one brother had a weapon.


• Boat gunfight? – Police initially reported that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev fired on police when they found him hiding in a boat Friday night. “It was back and forth … yes — he was firing,” Watertown Police Chief Ed Deveau told CNN Saturday (though the FBI cautioned at the time that only federal authorities had official information). In its definitive “tick tock” of the events, the Washington Post reported that the suspect inside the boat “was shooting back.” But later, the Washington Post and the AP reported yesterday that Tsarnaev was unarmed when police found him after what what was described as a gunfight. As it turns out, police may have been spooked by an errant shot, and fired into the boat, but apparently zero shots came out.


• 7 -Eleven and the MIT officer – Initial reports suggested the brothers tried to hold up a 7-Eleven, and then killed an MIT officer who either responded to the robbery or just happened to be in the area. But days later, authorities revealed that the holdup was committed by different suspects and the confusion was caused by the close proximity of the two events. It’s still unknown exactly why the brothers killed the police officer.


• Carjacking – Some reports indicate that the person whom the brothers carjacked escapedwhile they inexplicably went into a store to buy snacks, while others say the brothers let the victim go because he wasn’t American. It’s also still unclear which brother stole the black SUV, and which drove the Honda that followed.


• Trip to NYC - What the suspects did after the bombing remains a mystery, but one detail that emerged was that they were planning to head to New York City — to party. That’s what New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday. But today, NBC News reports the brothers discussed trying to detonate a bomb in Times Square, but that the plan was not well developed and “aspirational at most.”

We’ll update this post as more examples emerge.

 

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The "Facts" Keep Changing About the Boston Bombings -- And It"s Fueling a Conspiracy Theory Industry

Disturbing Facts About State Lotteries: They Prey on the Poor and Trash the Economy, and Political Leaders Don"t Care (Hard Times USA)

The following article is part of AlterNet"s series on poverty, Hard Times USA.

State lotteries amount to a hidden tax on the poor. They eat up about 9 percent of take-home incomes from households making less than $ 13,000 a year. They siphon $ 50 billion a year away from local businesses—besides stores where they’re sold. And they are encouraged by state-sponsored ads suggesting everyone can win, win, win!

State lotteries, which once were illegal, now exist in most states. What many people don’t know about lotteries is that they prey on those who can least afford it; most people never win anything big; and 11 states raise more money from lotteries than from corporate taxes. Beyond the moral, mental health or religious debates over gambling, lotteries are another example of how society preys on the poor and the working-class.

Let’s look at why state lotteries do far more harm than good—especially at the bottom of the economic ladder.

1. Legalized gambling is almost everywhere.Legalized gambling is available in every state except for Utah and Hawaii. This includes state lotteries, which are in 42 states, Puerto Rico and Washington DC. Lotteries were illegal for most of the 20th century, but that changed in 1964 when New Hampshire—a state without an income tax—reinstituted a state lottery. The first lotteries predate the American Revolution, but those mostly privately run efforts were so corrupt they were completely prohibited by every state in 1894.

2. They suck billions out of the economy.In 2009, $ 50.4 billon was spent on state lottery tickets and video kiosks. The government pocketed $ 17.9 billion of this total in 2010, which breaks down to 30 percent in profits and 8 percent in administrative costs, including advertising. The rest went to prizes and commissions to stores selling the tickets. Many corner stores could not remain open without the income from lottery sales. 

3. They are a tax from anti-tax politicans. Tax-averse Democrats and Republicans have increasingly been relying on state lotteries to subsidize basic public programs like schools instead of raising taxes for that purpose. In 11 states—Delaware, West Virginia, Rhode Island, Oregon, South Dakota, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas and Washington—the lottery raised more per person than corporate income taxes. “The long-term shift in tax burdens from capital and corporations to individuals and their activities is perhaps best illustrated by the rise of state lotteries,” wrote tax expert David Cay Johnston, calling lotteries “the most heavily taxed consumer product in America.”

4. They hit the poorest the hardest. “Simply put, lotteries take the most from those who can least afford it,” wrote economist Richard Wolff. “Instead of taking those most able to pay (the principle of federal income tax in the U.S.), state leaders use lotteries to disguise a regressive tax that falls on the middle and even more on the poor.” A 2010 study found that households with take-home incomes of less than $ 13,000 spent on average $ 645 a year on lottery tickets, which is about 9 percent of their income. The reason people play lotteries varies, but it mixes hopes and dreams with desperation: poorer people see it as a slim chance to radically improve their standard of living.

5. Communities of color, less-educated spend the most. Numerous academic studies have found that non-whites spend much more on lotteries than whites, with one study putting the figure at $ 998 for African Americans and $ 210 for whites. Household with incomes under $ 25,000 spent an average of about $ 600 a year, while $ 100,000-plus earners spent about $ 300 year. People who never graduated from college spent the most, about $ 700 a year, while graduates spent under $ 200.

6. They redistribute money up the economic ladder. Most people buy tickets and win little or nothing. This is taking more money from the poor, working and lower middle-classes than from those most able to pay taxes. These billions also are diverted away from local businesses—with the exception of the stores where tickets are sold. “This is exacty the opposite of the kind of economic stimulus a depressed economy needs,” wrote economist Wolff.

7. They give the wrong message about solving poverty. Lotteries reinforce libertarian political messages, suggesting that everyone needs to take individual action in response to socirty’s inequities, even though the government has helped well-connected individuals, businesses and industries become rich for decades. This easy money for states diverts political debate away from society-wide analyses and solutions to what prevents people from moving up the economic ladder. Instead, it pushes individuals in marginal circumstances toward gambling as their hope for gain.

8. They amount to one of the highest investment tax rates. Another way to look at the social policy hypocrisy surrounding state lotteries is to skip the moral dimension—the religious objections to gambling, the mental health costs of gambling addition, the hidden state income tax—and just compare the tax rates on this form of investment with tax rates on other types of inventments, such as stocks. State lotteries impose a 38 percent tax rate on buying tickets, according to Johnston. No taxes are paid when a person buys a stock or bond, a more preferred investment vehicle for wealthier households. Moreover, the current federal tax rate for earnings from short-term investments—held less than a year—ranges from 10 to 35 percent.

9. Hypocritical when compared to state drug laws. One of the rationales for criminalizing drugs is that abuse leads to addiction, which harms individuals, families and society at large. But state-sponsored gambling also feeds addictive behavior—people who are addicted to gaming, including lotteries. “I work in a convenience store and the way some people are addicted to the lottery is downright sickening,” wrote toddpugz, responding to a DailyFinance.com report on the topic. “I see people every day who scrape together their last few pennies to play the lottery. Even worse are the ones who claim the lottery is ‘fixed’ but continue to play it on a daily basis. And let’s not forget those who actually ‘study’ past numbers thinking it will give them some insight into the next day’s numbers.”

10. Big winners often see their lives unravel. One of the surprises that comes with winning the lottery—for the rare few who win big—is how a fast infusion of money can wreck families, disrupt friendships and even invite violent crime, con-men, and targeting by jealous family members. Some winners spend all their winnings in no time. Others just use it to fuel more gambling binges.

Revenue-strapped state legislatures may see state lotteries as an easy way to bring in the hundreds of millions that they need for basic government services—schools, police, roads and social safety nets. But state lotteries have become an easy way to take from the least wealthy Americans and avoid the harder task of making everyone pay their fair share. State lotteries may be as old as America, but so is the country’s history of economic exploitation.  

Fri, 04/05/2013 – 16:36

 
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Disturbing Facts About State Lotteries: They Prey on the Poor and Trash the Economy, and Political Leaders Don"t Care (Hard Times USA)

9 Economic Facts That Will Make Your Head Spin

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How much will you need for medical expenses in retirement? What does it cost to keep 2.5 million Americans behind bars? Here are a few facts and figures that might surprise you.

1. Recovery for the rich, recession for the rest.

Economic recovery is in rather limited supply, it seems. Research by economist Emmanuel Saez shows that the top 1 percent has enjoyed income growth of over 11 percent since the official end of the recession. The other 99 percent hasn’t fared so well, seeing a 0.4 percent decline in income.

The top 10 percent of earners hauled in 46.5 percent of all income in 2011, the highest proportion since 1917 – and that doesn’t even include money earned from investments. The wealthy have benefitted from favorable tax status and the rise in stock prices, while the rest have been hit with a continuing unemployment crisis that has kept wages down. Saez believes this trend will continue in 2013.

2. Half of us are poor or barely scraping by.

The latest Census Bureau data shows that one in two Americans currently falls into either the “low income” category or is living in poverty. Low-income is defined as those earning between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level. Adjusted for inflation, the earnings for the bottom 20 percent of families have dropped from $ 16,788 in 1979 to just under $ 15,000. Earnings for the next 20 percent have been stuck at $ 37,000.

States in the South and West had the highest proportion of low-income families, including Arizona, New Mexico and South Carolina, where politicians are eagerly shredding the social safety net.

3. Unhappy meal.

46.7 million Americans must now use food stamps in order to get a meal, and many aren’t old enough to earn money for themselves. Almost half of all U.S. children will be on food stamps during some part of their childhood. For black children, that number is 90 percent.  Eight percent of those receiving food stamps are seniors.

The average monthly SNAP benefit (food stamps) per person is $ 133.85. That’s less than $ 1.50 per person, per meal. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2011, a gallon of milk cost $ 3.50 on average in the U.S. while a pound of stew beef cost $ 4.30. Food prices are expected to increase as much as 3 percent in 2013.

4. Old age and poverty.

According to economist Kenneth Thomas, the U.S. has the dubious honor of having the highest elder poverty rate of any industrialized nation larger than Ireland. If poverty is measured as 50 percent of the median income, a whopping 25 percent of elderly Americans are considered poor.

Research shows that an increasing number of Americans are entering poverty in old age. The percentage of Americans ages 75 to 84 new to poverty doubled in 2009 from the 2005 figure. Most elderly Americans living in poverty have serious medical problems.

5. Incarceration nation.

Two and a half million Americans are currently under lock and key. That’s more than the population of Philadelphia, Houston, Phoenix or Dallas. More than the entire state of New Mexico. The U.S. has 5 percent of the world"s population, but we have 25 percent of the world"s prisoners.

The cost to taxpayers for keeping all these people behind bars is $ 63.4 billion a year. In some states, the cost of keeping a single prisoner is as much as $ 60,000 per year – about as much as it would take to pay for workers axed by austerity policies – like teachers, for instance.

6. The cost of gender inequality.

The National Partnership for Women and Families has found that women in the U.S. earn $ 10,784 less than their male counterparts each year. According to their calculations, if women earned equal pay for equal work, they could purchase 1.7 years worth of groceries in Washington state, an additional 2,746 gallons of gas in Colorado, and 3.7 extra years of health insurance premiums in Connecticut.

7.  College degrees still pay off, big-time.

Today, 31 percent of Americans hold a bachelor’s degree, and the financial gap between haves and have-nots is huge. A 2012 report by the Association of State Higher Education Executive Officers showed that people who get a bachelor’s degree have a median income of $ 50,360, while those with only a high school diploma earn a mere $ 29,423 on average. An associate’s degree bumps you up to a median income of $ 38,607. If you get a graduate degree, your median income is $ 68,064. That"s 35.2 percent more than those with a bachelor’s degree.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, if you are born into the poorest fifth of U.S. families and get a college degree, you have an 80 percent chance of improving your economic status over the course of a lifetime. The odds drop to 55 percent without a college diploma.

8. A retired couple needs a quarter million for retirement – just for healthcare.

In 2011, 53 percent of Americans feared they wouldn’t have enough money to live comfortably in retirement, up from only 41 percent in 2004.

They have good reason. Research from 2010 shows that soaring healthcare costs indicate that a couple must sock away $ 250,000 for medical expenses, taking into consideration Medicare premiums, copayments and deductibles, out-of-pocket prescription costs, and a life expectancy of 85 for women and 82 for men.

9. The looting of America.

American capitalism as currently practiced clearly redistributes income upward. According to Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, the richest 1 percent of Americans now hold 25 percent of the country"s wealth.

The total income share for the 1 percent has jumped more in the U.S. than in any other major Western country since 1960, according to new research by Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez. The top 1 percent"s share of income dipped in some European countries and increased by up to 4 percentages elsewhere, but in the good old U.S., land of opportunity, it soared over 9 percentage points.

Mon, 02/18/2013 – 10:32  
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9 Economic Facts That Will Make Your Head Spin