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Daily Archives: December 29, 2011

NYC has safest decade in recorded history

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(WSJ graphic) – “New York had its safest decade in recorded history. Fire deaths, murders and other crimes were down.”

  • News release: “Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and Fire Commissioner Salvatore J. Cassano today announced that near record levels for public safety were maintained in 2011, with crime on the decline again and the second lowest number of fire deaths since comparable records have been kept. Prior to 2002, the city had not recorded fewer than 600 murders in a year since the early 1960s. This will be the tenth consecutive year the city has seen less than 600 murders, with slightly more than 500 in 2011, a nearly five percent reduction from the previous year and the third lowest total since comparable records were kept starting in 1963. Overall crime, when compared using the same metrics, fell slightly again in 2011, marking the 21st straight year in which major felony crime has declined. Major felony crime is down by more than 34 percent over the last 10 years…“The biggest declines happened in neighborhoods where crime was the highest to begin with, among the poorest in the city,” said Police Commissioner Kelly. “The Atlantic Magazine noted recently [The City That Became Safe, by Franklin E. Zimring] that New York’s crime decline was a public good that is ‘truly progressive, benefiting disproportionately the poor and vulnerable who need it most.’ That’s something that police officers of this city have worked hard to accomplish, some making the ultimate sacrifice in the process. It’s an accomplishment they can be proud of.”

    • LendingTree.com: Hawaii Leads Nation with Highest Average Closed Home Loan Amount

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    PRNewswire: “With mortgage rates continuing to be near record lows, LendingTree.com, the nation’s leading online lender exchange and personal finance resource, today released data highlighting the average loan amount on residential real estate purchases for all 50 states and Washington D.C. for the year. Hawaii, by far, leads the nation with an average home loan… Continue Reading

    International Comparisons of Hourly Compensation Costs in Manufacturing, 2010

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    News release: “Manufacturing hourly compensation costs in the United States in 2010 were lower than in several northern and western European countries, Australia, and Canada, but higher than in the United Kingdom and 19 countries in southern and eastern Europe, Asia, and South America, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. U.S. hourly compensation costs… Continue Reading

    Rising Inequality: Transitory or Permanent? New Evidence from a U.S. Panel of Household Income 1987-2006

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    Rising Inequality: Transitory or Permanent? New Evidence from a U.S. Panel of Household Income 1987-2006. December 15, 2011. Jason DeBacker (Treasury Department), Bradley Heim (Indiana University), Vasia Panousi (Federal Reserve Board), Ivan Vidangos (Federal Reserve Board) “We use a new and large panel dataset of household income to shed light on the permanent versus transitory… Continue Reading

    Treasury Releases Semi-Annual Report to Congress on International Economic and Exchange Rate Policies

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    News release: “The U.S. Department of the Treasury today released the Semi-Annual Report to Congress on International Economic and Exchange Rate Policies, December 27, 2011 – that is required under Sections 3004 and 3005 of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988. The Report covers international economic and foreign exchange developments in the first… Continue Reading

    EPIC Sues DHS Over Covert Surveillance of Facebook and Twitter

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    “EPIC has filed a Freedom of information Act lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to force disclosure of the details of the agency’s social network monitoring program. In news reports and a Federal Register notice, the DHS has stated that it will routinely monitor the public postings of users on Twitter and Facebook. The… Continue Reading

    Prosecutors in State Courts, 2007 and Juvenile Arrests, 2009

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    Prosecutors in State Courts, 2007 – Statistical Tables: “In 2007, 2,330 state prosecutors’ offices served state judicial districts in the United States. The offices reported a total estimated budget of $5.8 billion in 2007 and employed nearly 78,000 attorneys, investigators, paralegals, and support staff. State prosecutors closed 2.9 million cases charged as felonies in state… Continue Reading