Black Man Driving Wife to Work Accused of Being Illegal Cab Driver – DNAinfo.com New York

FLUSHING — City investigators wrongfully accused a black man of being an illegal taxi driver after they spotted him dropping off his wife at work, believing she was a white livery cab passenger, a lawsuit charges.

Married couple Dan Keys Jr., 66, and Symone Palermo, 53, are suing the Taxi and Limousine Commission for $3 million, claiming that in an act of racial profiling its agents seized their Lincoln Town Car for eight days and gave each of them summonses — despite their attempts to explain they are husband and wife. Continue reading Black Man Driving Wife to Work Accused of Being Illegal Cab Driver – DNAinfo.com New York

Short Stories: The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

NecklaceI read this short story the summer I was twelve. Of the many books and short stories I read in my childhood, this one left a lifelong impression for the values and life-lessons I drew from it.

Decades later, Guy de Maupassant remains one of my favorite writers, and this story remains freshly imprinted in my memory.

Rima


Guy de MaupassantShe was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans. She had no marriage portion, no expectations, no means of getting known, understood, loved, and wedded by a man of wealth and distinction; and she let herself be married off to a little clerk in the Ministry of Education. Her tastes were simple because she had never been able to afford any other, but she was as unhappy as though she had married beneath her; for women have no caste or class, their beauty, grace, and charm serving them for birth or family, their natural delicacy, their instinctive elegance, their nimbleness of wit, are their only mark of rank, and put the slum girl on a level with the highest lady in the land. Continue reading Short Stories: The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

@BillMoyersHQ: Bankers and Politicians: A Symbiotic Relationship | Money & Politics

Although they can put in place any laws and regulations that they see fit, politicians are not in the driver’s seat in their relation with banks. Bankers know more about banking than politicians. Moreover, politicians want the bankers’ cooperation to make the investments the politicians favor — or campaign contributions. When bankers warn that capital requirements will hurt bank lending and reduce economic growth, they are rarely challenged by politicians, not only because politicians do not see through the banks’ claims but also because they do not want to upset their symbiosis with bankers.

Bankers and politicians have a two-way dependence. In this situation, politicians can forget their responsibilities, and the political system fails to protect the economy from banking risk. Even after the financial crisis, as one politician admitted, the banks “own the place.” Continue reading @BillMoyersHQ: Bankers and Politicians: A Symbiotic Relationship | Money & Politics

CNN Money: Middle class Americans: Not so wealthy by global standards

June 11, 2014

Want an over-the-top summer place of your very own? These luxury homes are in some of the hottest beach destinations in the U.S. — and the deals on these places can’t be beat. More

The numbers seem to back it up. Americans’ average wealth tops $301,000 per adult, enough to rank us fourth on the latest Credit Suisse Global Wealth report.

Americans’ median wealth is a mere $44,900 per adult — half have more, half have less. That’s only good enough for 19th place, below Japan, Canada, Australia and much of Western Europe. Continue reading CNN Money: Middle class Americans: Not so wealthy by global standards