Richest 1% may own half of global wealth by 2016 The combined wealth of the world's richest 1 percent could overtake that of the other 99 percent by 2016 , according to a report by Oxfam published Monday, as billionaires, politicians and business leaders gather in Davos for the annual World Economic Forum. In a study called "Wealth: Having it all and wanting more." the international charity warned that a sharp rise in inequality was holding back the fight against global poverty at a time when 1 in 9 people do not have enough to eat and more than a billion people live on less than $1.25 a day. © Provided by CNBC Of the remaining 52 percent of global wealth in 2014 , about 46 percent was owned by the rest of the richest fifth of the world's population. The other 80 percent of the world share d around 5.5 percent, according to Oxfam. Rising inequality has moved into the spotlight in recent years amid concerns that living standards have been hit by slow economic recovery in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Brown v. Board of Education Educational segregation in the US prior to Brown §Background For much of the sixty years preceding the Brown case, race relations in the U.S. had been dominated by racial segregation. The plaintiffs in Brown asserted that this system of racial separation, while masquerading as providing separate but equal treatment of both white and black Americans, instead perpetuated inferior accommodations, services, and treatment for black Americans. The United States and the Soviet Union were at the height of the Cold War at this time, and US officials, including Supreme Court Justices, were highly aware of the negative effect that segregation and racism had on America's international image. §Case §Filing and arguments In 1951, a class action suit was filed against the Board of Education of the City of Topeka, Kansas in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. The suit called for the school district to reverse its policy of racial segregation. §Supreme Court review §Holding
Drought may soon yield mysterious WWII-era bomber beneath Lake Mead Water levels are at their lowest at Nevada's Lake Mead leading the National Park Sevice to allow permits for recreational diving at the site of a downed B-29 bomber. (National Park Service) The drought that has parched much of the southwest may soon yield a mystery that has rested at the bottom of Nevada's Lake Mead for nearly 70 years, a B-29 bomber that went down carrying a top-secret missile defense system that may have actually caused the crash. The B-29 bomber, also known as the "Superfortress" and the same model as the storied Enola Gay and Bockscar, the planes that dropped atomic bombs on Japan, crashed in 1948 as it flew over the giant lake testing a sun-powered missile guidance system. For decades, it lay at a depth of 300 feet in the man-made lake that was formed by construction of the Hoover Dam. "There's a lot of history there. "It would be amazing," Curtis Snaper, of Sin City Scuba in nearby Las Vegas, told FoxNews.com.
Love Canal Love Canal was a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, located in the LaSalle section of the city. It officially covers 36 square blocks in the far southeastern corner of the city, along 99th Street and Read Avenue. Two bodies of water define the northern and southern boundaries of the neighborhood: Bergholtz Creek to the north and the Niagara River one-quarter mile (400 m) to the south. Hooker Chemical sold the site to the Niagara Falls School Board in 1953 for $1, with a deed explicitly detailing the presence of the waste,[1] and including a liability limitation clause about the contamination. Ten years after the incident, New York State Health Department Commissioner David Axelrod stated that Love Canal would long be remembered as a "national symbol of a failure to exercise a sense of concern for future generations Early history[edit] The Love Canal came from the last name of William T. This dumpsite was in operation until 1953. The Love Canal Disaster[edit] Sale of the site[edit]
Congress could soon allow pension plans to cut benefits for current retirees Congress could soon allow the benefits of current retirees to be cut as part of an agreement to address the fiscal distress confronting some of the nation’s 1,400 multi-employer pension plans. Several unions and pension advocates opposing the move, which would be unprecedented, say that permitting financially strapped plans to cut retiree benefits would violate the central promise of traditional pensions: that they would provide a defined benefit for life. “This proposal would devastate retirees and their surviving spouses,” said Karen Friedman, executive vice president of the Pension Rights Center, a nonprofit group. “The proposal would also torpedo basic protections of the federal private pension law . . . that states that once benefits are earned, they can’t be cut back.” Several of the nation’s large multi-employer pension plans are on a course that would leave them insolvent within a decade. In recent weeks, negotiations over the proposal have heated up on Capitol Hill. Michael A.
When Boris Yeltsin went grocery shopping in Clear Lake - The Texican © Houston Chronicle >gallery_thumbnails_show|thetexican-2577-post-3385-g22200|thetexican-2577-post-3385-g22200|0 gallery_thumbnails_show|thetexican-2577-post-3385-g22200|thetexican-2577-post-3385-g22200|0 gallery_overlay_open|thetexican-2577-post-3385-g22200|thetexican-2577-post-3385-g22200|0 gallery_overlay_open_thumbs|thetexican-2577-post-3385-g22200|thetexican-2577-post-3385-g22200|0 © Houston Chronicle 09/16/1989 - Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall's Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. 09/16/1989 - Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an...unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall's Supermarket after touring...the Johnson Space Center. 09/16/1989 - Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall's Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. At JSC, Yeltsin visited mission control and a mock-up of a space station.
Clinton has received $16 million in post-presidency benefits March 7, 2015: Former President Bill Clinton speaks at the Future of Energy session at a university conference sponsored by the Clinton Global Initiative in Coral Gables, Fla. (AP) Former President Bill Clinton has received nearly $16 million in taxpayer funds since leaving the White House, covering everything from his pension to personnel to benefits -- and renewing questions over how much taxpayers really should spend on ex-presidents who make millions after leaving office. A new Politico report and analysis examined the payments since he left office in 2001, and claimed it amounts to more than any other ex-president has received. Meanwhile, Politico points out, Clinton has a personal annual income that beats all the other living former presidents. His $15 million advance -- then a record -- for his 2008 memoir was just a sliver of his earnings. From 2001 to 2014 Clinton has received a roughly $200,000 annual pension (all presidents received the same level of pension in 2014).
TIL After President Carter retired, he started an effort to eradicate the Guinea Worm, which infected millions of people with worms that slowly and painfully burrow out of the body over 3 months. By 2001, the infection rate was reduced by 98%, with 80% of How Walmart's Bosses Get Rich Off Welfare Abuse | Carl Gibson Forget about the guy at the grocery store using food stamps to buy lobster. Walmart, the world's largest retail company, is even more dependent on government welfare so it can make jaw-droppingly obscene profits. In fact, government handouts are the main reason Walmart is so profitable, and the billion-dollar corporation's business model is centered around the continued dependence on social safety net programs. Paying Workers Poverty Wages When Walmart pays its workers so little that they need food stamps to survive, they're also investing in a steady profit stream. Employee wages are so low that during the last holiday season, one Walmart in Ohio held a food drive for its own employees so they could have a decent Thanksgiving dinner. Walmart's insistence on paying its workers so little is especially despicable, given that the company could pay workers much more without even changing any of its prices. Excessively Compensating Executives
Beyonce offends fans by pouring $20,000 bottle of champagne into hot tub (Twitter) Beyonce unintentionally caused a bit of outrage on Tuesday for pouring a supposed $20,000 bottle of Ace of Spades champagne into a hot tub in the “Feeling Myself” video. As Gossip Cop reported, Beyonce and Nicki Minaj released the video on Monday, but now fans are upset that the singer wasted the expense bottle, noting that what she spent for it could have been used to help a lot of people in need. “Even just $1000 could have completely changed someone’s life you know? Like a chance at college or maybe finally being able to eat lunch,” wrote a Twitter user with the name “Xnejana.” Some fans, however, stood up for Beyonce pointing out that she has done a lot for the less fortunate. Beyonce has yet to comment on the controversy.