Julia Minamata juliaminamata.com

 

I ran across this Wall Street Journal article today, which says those great big financial institutions lots of folks ditched after Bank Transfer Day aren’t shedding any tears over the loss. Instead, the bigwig at Morgan Chase indicates that customers who don’t have $100,000 in assets don’t make the banks any cash anyway.

But the five biggest credit unions have seen a 45 percent increase in deposits.

In the Alibi’s news section last week, reporter Margaret Wright explores fallout from Bank Transfer Day locally. Scope her article Cash Out: Making sense of last year's run on the banks.

Eric Williams ericwphoto.com

 

It wasn’t a good idea. We knew that at the time, but I guess we thought we would get away with it.

On March 23, 2011, Mike Smith and I took the bus down Central through Albuquerque’s neon-lit Downtown. We were headed toward the Anasazi building. At nine stories tall, it towered over other buildings on the block, and its pueblo-influenced, multitier design gave its dark, empty windows romantic intrigue. Could we get in? What was inside? What would it be like to be one of the few people who had looked out of those lofty windows?

Near the very top of its eastern face, there was a tantalizing sign that entry was possible: A graffiti rainbow coursed from the rooftop down the bare side. If that artist could get in, so could we. We didn’t think about what would happen if we got caught; we just wanted to see it from the inside.

Man steals school bus, say police, who chase him down I-40 from Grants to Albuquerque.

People want politicians to do something about gas prices, poll says.

BernCo Sheriff Dan Houston gets a vote of no confidence from his deputies.

Los Lunas judge fails alcohol test, steps down.

LSD might help people quit the booze.

Lots of new jobs, but unemployment rate holds steady.

Vogue Italia shoots for ghetto fabulous, rips off regular people, maybe wanders into racist and classist territory.

Banks are foreclosing on many churches now.

NPR fact-checks viral video "Kony 2012," which aims to take down Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony with charges that he kills and rapes children.

Philosophy student at McGill is intentionally homeless.

New iPad not as fast as they say it is.

Coke and Pepsi change their recipes to be less cancerous.

Speaking of soda pop, Blue Sky may owe you a refund for not being made in New Mexico for a few years.

Filmmakers and Sarah Palin talk about the relative truthiness of Game Changer.

images_of_money / CC BY-SA 2.0

 

Yesterday, state Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman ruled in favor of New York City and its eviction of the original Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park. The judge said demonstrators are allowed to be there but can’t stay overnight or bring their tents, sleeping bags, generators and semi-permanent structures.

It happened here first. A couple weeks ago, (Un)occupy Albuquerque protesters were evicted from UNM by police on similar grounds: Conditions were unsafe, said the university. Protester Andrew Beale wrote about getting arrested in an opinion piece for the paper. But he also pointed out who he thinks the real bad guys are: Big banks that are risking the country’s economy again and arranging it so taxpayers might have to pay off their gambling debts if they lose.

Need a job? The city needs bus drivers.

A teen with a machete gets the Taser treatment from APD.

A lawyer in Mississippi was thrown in jail for not saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

Year 10 of war in Afghanistan.

Soldiers and scientists may have figured out what's killing the honeybees.

A bill to help banks snuck through the Senate with no debate.

Very thin women make way more money.

Why does everyone hate the weather so much?

A Pakistani diplomat says President Obama exaggerated the terror threat to Europe.

Hispanics will likely vote Democrat this year.

Forbes named the first lady the most powerful woman in the world.

Toxic red sludge reached the mighty Danube in Hungary.

Westerly weed.

Got to read books by Mario Vargas Llosa. He just won the Nobel for literature.