Fort Worth District could lose 553 jobs in cuts

On Tuesday morning, 167 Ft. Worth positions will be voted on to see if they will be cut due to shortage in funding. The officials cannot say too much because they cannot release names of the employees that do not know they are being released. Wouldn't this mean the positions are already eliminated? So why is there a voting? Most of the 553 jobs that are being voted on are vacant or will be soon after people retire. All of the recently employed had to sign a form saying that they were aware that their jobs were paid with temporary funds.

"Our primary goal has been, and remains, to make decisions in the best of our interest of our students and in so doing, preserve jobs," Superintendent Melody Johnson said in a message to staff.

To stop some of the teachers from being fired, they are being transferred to other schools and districts. Officials estimate that the job reduction could save $17 million. This is going to cut the funding for several years but what happens when, or if, the economy takes another drop? Will education keep decreasing in it's teachers? If this is the case, there is no way that education standards will stay the same.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/04/10/2989761/fort-worth-district-could-lose.html

Obama Promises Tuition Tax Credit

President Obama is promising struggling college students to help pay for college due to his student loan debt. For $10 billion a year, Obama is promising $4,000 in tuition for each student who achieves 100 hours of community service. A campaign, involving an Illinois Senator, expresses how they are struggling with rising fuel prices, educational costs, and other family demands. Campaigns like this are used to promote the presidents plans to help these families in need during the tough economic times.

"I was given love, and I was given support, but most importantly, I was given an education that put me on a pathway to my dreams. So was Michelle," states Obama during a speech.

Later in this speech, Obama shares his story of loan debt after marrying Michelle and taking many years to finally pay off this joint student debt. He also shares about a time he communicated with a dental hygenist student who falling into a deeper debt in paying for her school because she is having to pay $4 for a gallon of gas. Obama promises her, as well as every other college student in the world, that this time will pass and they will be able to afford, and finish, their schooling. According to this plan, Obama is going to cause a major increase in our national debt. Although, with people getting the money to afford college, we are going to see an increase in the job demands since there will be more degrees being accomplished. Obama has thought a very good plan in making people help the community by earning 100 hours to recieve the $4,000 but many people will begin to achieve this, if they haven't already. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25214156/ns/politics-decision_08/

Americans Cancel Trips to Japan Due to the Earthquake

Due to the earthquake and the following tsunami in Japan, Americans are advised by the US government to postpone or cancel their planned trips to Japan for either leisure or business visits. Japanese travel organizations have described themselves as "swamped" with phone calls after this disaster.

Peggy Goodman informs us, "trips will resume before the end of May or beginning of June." Goodman is the president of Friendly Planet Travel in Pennsylvania who has yearly plans of tours going on in Japan. 727,000 visitors in Japan came from America last year, according to the tourism organization.

After the disaster occurred, the State Department sent warnings to the Americans to keep people from traveling to Japan since there was a shortage of water and food beginning to happen. Although the alerts end April 1, there are still many risk factors that may keep people from traveling. Many businesses are not operating in Japan right now because they're in recovery. Japan has many resources that we need every day and affects many major corporations we have. Japan has greatly impacted the entire world more than with just the economy. Japan moved 8 feet with this earthquake, it also moved the Earth 4 inches on it's axis. Although it may not seem like much, it has had a big affect. One life was lost in California and many people have been affected by either losing relatives in Japan or their jobs. It won't be long until we all see dramatic changes in our life involving money, oil prices and jobs.


http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-03-14/business/28690659_1_travel-plans-tour-operators-and-travel-tokyo-s-haneda

Drilling is not The Source of Parker County Water Contamination

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/03/07/2902435/state-regulators-say-driller-not.html

Texas Railroad Commision hearing examiners declared that two Barnett Shale natural gas wells were not the soure of methane gas contamination of residential water wells in Parker County. These examiners believe that the source of the contamination is from a much shallower gas-bearing formation than the Barnett Shale, which is located more than a mile below ground level. The Railroad Commissioners are trying to find wells that are not contaminated so they can focus on other wells that are more dangerous. All these contaminations deal with methane, the primary ingredient in natural gas. All researchers hired by the EPA found the same results as the examiners. This result was that the contamination of the water wells was caused by methane. Since there is a scarce amount of uncontaminated water in these wells, the supply of clean water will decrease, therefore, the price of the water is going to increase as well as the demand. Clean water is a necessity in everyday life. We use water for showers, nutrition, hydration, etc. which creates a high demand for this product. Without this product, a catastrophe will evolve and slow down our economy well by well.

Rajasthan Minister Steps in to Save Tiger

A happy reunion Friday Febraury 4th between Tigress T-5 and her cubs at the Ranthambore national park. The minister saved the tiger in a near death experience. When Beena Kak was in the park taking pictures of the pond, he noticed the tiger lying on it's back with red marks all over. This red mark turned out to be "a life-threatening wound that had invited hundreds of maggots." After an hour long operation on this tigress, she was able to be back with her cubs.

"I felt disturbed when I saw what I had clicked. I went back to where I had seen the tigress first. I took some more close-ups and realized that blood was oosing out of the wound. I called up the divisional forest officer," said the minister.

The docter that took care of the tigress explained that it was a 4-inch-deep wound and if left unattended, the tigress would have died in two days. After a minor surgery, the tigress was able to be united with her cubs.

Minister Beena Kak gave up his time in order to save this tigress. This opportunity cost ended up saving this tigress' life. The doctor also gave up his time to save this tigress that was practically on their death bed if the maggots would have infected for any longer.


http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/environment/the-good-earth/rajasthan-minister-steps-in-to-save-tiger/articleshow/7428474.cms

Falling U.S. War Budget in 2012

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-war-budget-may-fall-in-fiscal-2012-2011-02-14



According to marketwatch, the Department Defense has proclaimed that they will reduce the spendings for the war in Iraq as the war slowly comes to an end. The process they choose to do this is by lowering the fiscal budget for 2012 since the 2011 fiscal budget which effectively froze spending this year at the 2010 level. The face value for the 2012 core budget was 1% growth above the 2011 budget.

"We expect growth to turn negative next year, which is why we remain cautious on defense," Spingarn said.

As the consumer is taxed by the fiscal policy, this money is then transferred to the government which is "spent" on the military as well as other things. Without this budget, the government uses the money at the President's and Congress' discretion which will affect the household and businesses. By bringing home the troops, the President will then use the same fiscal budget, which will become lowered, on things better for the consumer.

Christina Aguilera Fumbles National Anthem

During this year's 2011 Superbowl, Christina Aguilera butchered the fourth line of the National Anthem. This famous singer combined the second and fourth line of the anthem into her own lyrics. Instead of the proper "What so proudly we hailed through the twilight's last gleaming,"....."O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming," we heard:

"What so proudly we watched at the twilight's last gleaming"

Christina Aguilera tried to cover up her mistake by singing the rest of the song as best as she could causing the last note to be a little off on pitch. Such a tragic event could cause many Aguilera fans to stray away, also known as a change in consumer taste. This will decrease the demand for Christina's music unless she has true and loyal fans that stick by her side through all the pitches and mess ups. Music store managers may even make the decision to reduce their prices in Christina's previous cd's. Many fans may even substitute her music for another pop star, like Britney Spears.


http://www.billboard.com/events/christina-aguilera-fumbles-national-anthem-1005023702.story#/events/christina-aguilera-fumbles-national-anthem-1005023702.story

The New Internet TV

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2021865,00.html

"With all the shows and movies I care to consume available over the Internet, I'll ask rhetorically, why should I cough up cash each month for several hundred channels of stuff I have no intention of watching?"

A new internet tv box to allow you to view on-demand video right off the net on your HDTV. They claim there are many other boxes that allow you to acheive this but those boxes are made of better hardware, lower prices and a broader content of shows. Roku, the small company offering these boxes, has three different boxes with upgrades of wi-fi, less video hiccups, and a remote with an instant replay button. The signature service is Netflix Watch Instantly which allows unlimited movies and TV episodes for a flat rate of $8.99 a month. Apple is a component with a costlier box known as Apple TV. Apple TV allows you to connect your Apple products to the new box. A new service like this will shut down other online services such as Hulu until they can find new ways like a pay service for the shows.

A new product like this will decrease the demand for TV's if this product is sufficient and reliable. The number of sellers for this box will increase because new producers are going to find ways to update this product in order to appeal to their customers. A change in income might force some consumers to rely on this method which will decrease their bills because they are getting rid of their cable in order to have only the internet for shows. This is not a bad deal as long as you have all the shows you enjoy.

Legislature Applaud Rangers into the World Series

State Rep, Diane Patrick, R-Arlington, set up the event where the Texas Rangers will be honored by the House and Senate because of their great season and road to the World Series.

"We just decided to try and combine these two events because a large part of the Arlington community will be in town and it's a great time to honor the Rangers," Jenny Goerdel, Patrick's Chief of Staff.

Claws and antlers will be showing up in the state capitol on Wednesday. Both the House and Senate are passing resolutions lauding the team's success. This is a very exciting time for the Rangers and their populatrity keeps increasing. Due to this experience, the demand of the Rangers is going to increase. This means that the change in consumer taste and change of the number of consumers is all increasing because more people are going to watch to see what else they can do. The future expectations of the Rangers should be winning so stores will most likely increase their Ranger supply in order to keep the fans satisfied.

Patrick's Resolution that was talked about earlier in this blog can be found here:http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/82R/billtext/html/HR00145I.htm


http://blogs.star-telegram.com/politex/2011/01/legislature-to-applaud-rangers-world-series-berth-wednesday.html#ixzz1Bzj4fgld

Starbucks Expanding Rollout of 31-Ounce Drink

Since today's economy is always increasing, people are finding ways to change their businesses to increase as well. Many have noticed that when gas prices go up, other sales go up too.

Starbucks is looking to increase their sales by adding another size to their menu. "The bigger-is-better concept seems to be striking a chord among some Starbucks customers," according to the Starbucks Corporation. The new cup, Trenta, meaning 30 in Italian, will be introduced in the following states: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, Nevada, and Arizona. This nationwide rollout will be completed by May 3. The Starbucks owners are making this switch in order to keep up with today's rapid sales. If people have the option to buy a larger Starbucks drink, they will. The Starbucks owners will have to have some type of opportunity cost though. This may consist of various things such as a loss of supplies or other drinks becoming scarce due to the desire for the new drink. This new drink will only be for iced beverages including coffee, teas, and lemonades which will allow the hot drinks of Starbucks to still be a demand. Coffee cravers will love this new switch if they're feeling like the old "grande" just isn't enough for them. Therefore, Starbucks will receive an increase in profit for this new 31-ounce drink.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/01/17/2774440/starbucks-expanding-rollout-of.html

The Result of Climate Change, Water and Risk

In July of 2010, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) wrote about the water shortages and cotton shortages that are to occur in the lower 48 states of the US. Researchers at Tetra Tech, a consulting firm used by the federal government and many major corporations, are trying to find what would happen to water supplies in 16 different climates. The result of this search was that the supplies will decrease and the need for the water will increase. This is an example of scarcity. Scarcity, as we have learned, is the result of not having enough goods and services to fill desires. In this case, water is the scarce resource because it is non-renewable and need on a global basis. With such a small amount of water, it is needed for a great amount of things. The primary uses of fresh water is agriculture, power plant cooling and domestic use. An opportunity cost, which is what is given up in order to have the next best option, would be giving up the water in order to save what is used. The water scarcity will cause many troubles such as the cotton production.

"Clearly much needs to be done to ensure we're using water wisely. Conservation methods need to improve, legislation to slow down, and reverser climate change is required, and we may have to decide if we want to grow cotton for t-shirts, or food for our tables."

It is obvious today that we are not careful with how we "waste" our resources. We must think of proper ways to conserve our non-renewable natural resources to keep them sustainable for future generations.

http://blog.airdye.com/goodforwater/2010/07/28/water-scarcity-and-cotton/