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Archive for June, 2008

Unemployment Extension Signed by Bush

WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush has signed a spending bill today that includes a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits, a measure expected to be of great help to people in states such as Michigan struggling with high unemployment rates.

Initially, Democrats had argued that states with particularly high unemployment rates, like Michigan’s — which led the nation at 8.5% in May — should receive an additional 13-week extension, but the White House balked at such a plan.

NRA Files Suit to Overturn Handgun Bans

· A day after the Supreme Court issued a landmark gun ruling striking D.C.’s handgun ban, the National Rifle Association filed suit in five jurisdictions to overturn their bans as well. One of the suits is against the City of San Francisco over its ban on handguns in public housing.

For most of the last century, the interpretation of the Second Amendment has been that the right to bear arms is a collective right, such as with military service; Thursday’s ruling says gun ownership is also an individual right.

The 5-4 ruling grows out of a Washington, D.C., case in which a security guard sued the district for prohibiting him from keeping his handgun at home. In the District of Columbia, it is a crime to carry an unregistered firearm, and the registration of handguns is prohibited.

The rules are so strict, they essentially regulate handguns out of existence. The regulations were intended to curb gun violence in the capital city.

Stocks Down Amid Economy and Oil Worries

NEW YORK – Stocks plunged Thursday as Wall Street contended with a barrage of bad news: another surge in oil prices and warnings of trouble in the key financial, automotive and high-tech industries. The major indexes showed losses of about 2 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which shed more than 300 points and dropped to its lowest level in nearly two years.

Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Constitution

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – For the first time in U.S. history, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that individual Americans have the right to own guns for personal use, and struck down a strict gun control law in the U.S. capital.

The landmark 5-4 ruling marked the first time in nearly 70 years the country’s high court has addressed whether the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, rather than a right tied to service in a state militia.

Supreme Court Gun Ban Ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court today did not release its long-awaited ruling on whether the District’s handgun ban violates the Second Amendment. That means the potentially landmark decision will almost certainly come tomorrow morning when the court is planning to issue the last of its rulings for the term.

The case, District of Columbia v. Heller, which was argued nearly four months ago, could settle the decades-old debate over whether the Second Amendment grants individuals the right to own firearms.

No Evidence That Public Surveillance is Making Us Safer

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, local governments across the country set aside concerns over privacy and installed surveillance cameras in public streets and plazas.

Now — even after a damning report by the head of London’s extensive surveillance network and with little evidence that the systems work — police in many cities are trying to add thousands more cameras to their networks.

“‘Cameras Everywhere’ continues to be the best description of the trend in the video surveillance market,” security market analysts J.P. Freeman Co. said in a report in 2006 that estimated that a quarter of major U.S. cities were investing in the technology.

Solar Power and Renewable Energy, It’s All About the Money

Although the renewable energy industry saw over US $100 billion in global market activity, 14 percent of global venture capital investment and accounted for roughly one-third of new U.S. electrical generation capacity last year, the industry is still very far from maturation. But America’s financial leaders are helping change that.

All risks considered, the world’s leading investors are recognizing that a transition to a clean energy economy is the single biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century — and possibly the biggest economic opportunity ever.

The U.S. represents one of the largest renewable energy markets, so merchant bankers, private equity firms and venture capitalists are all educating themselves about how to navigate this immature yet promising marketplace and make the right decisions to drive the industry forward. REFF is an event designed to give financiers the tools to invest in this increasingly complicated space.