EGYPT
The blame game has begun for the Egypt crisis with fingers pointing in all directions, the latest being U.S. intelligence agencies, according to The Politico. NYT blares the headline "White House and Egypt Discuss Plan for Mubarak's Exit." In the meantime, while everyone is busy making it about intelligence, bad decisions and mistakes, the Egyptian people remind us all that this is about them, not us and protests in Egypt continue, some even calling it the final push to oust 82 year-old President Hosni Mubarak.
UNEMPLOYMENT
The unemployment figures are in and show unemployment down to 9 percent but jobs remain sluggish with only 36,000 new jobs reported.
That number does not include 2.8 million (up from 2.5 million last year) people considered "marginally attached to the labor force". According to the Department of Labor's Economic News Release, those 2.8 million people are not counted as unemployed even though they "wanted and were available" to work because they had not searched for a job the 4 weeks preceding the survey.
Gallup also tracks unemployment numbers and they find the unemployment rate at 9.8 percent, up from 9.6 percent at the end of December.
Gallup explains:
Gallup's measures paint a real-time picture of the current job realities on the ground: nearly 1 in 10 Americans in the U.S. workforce are unemployed, nearly one out of five are underemployed, and the nation's overall hiring situation has not improved over the past four to six months.
BLOGOSPHERE NEWS
Open Left has announced they are closing down and no new blog content will be available after today.
TIDBITS
Wall Street Journal has a comprehensive piece up about the beginning of the end of Obamcare. A second WSJ piece explains how states cannot afford Obamacare, which is ironic since Democrats deemed fit to call it the "Affordable Care Act."
RIDICULOUS ITEM OF THE DAY
Last but not least, the most ridiculous item of the day comes from Hammonton, NJ, where police charged a 7-year-old with a misdemeanor for bringing a "Nerf-style toy gun," to school.
School officials described the child as "a nice kid" and "a good student." Authorities haven't commented on what specific disciplinary action or punishment the boy faces though it could involve counseling and other resources made available to the family.
View more videos at: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com.
The comments from that piece on NBC Philadelphia pretty much sum up my own reaction:
I know everyone is sensitive, as they should be, following school shootings and what happened in Arizona...but charging a 7 year old?! Seriously?!
Another:
Wow! Why don't the police go after real criminals and leave elementary school kids alone. You know what that school just taught the kid, to not trust people and certainly not to trust the police. Maybe the school should just pull the kid aside and "teach" him why he should not bring fake guns to school. I am sure that would be more effective than the criminal charges brought against a 7 year old!!!!!!
There are the tidbits.. Happy Friday everyone.
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