Today, the
BLS came out with the worst jobs report revision in history. 911,000 jobs were revised downward since last year. What happened? First of all, can we really believe what the jobs number were last year? I don't think Biden's numbers were credible at all. I expected the jobs numbers to go down, since we're seeing all the illegals leave the country and a lot of excess government employees lost their jobs. Plus, all the
Blue states saw job loss (like Oregon) because their economies suck. So this wasn't all a surprise. The tariffs are not likely the cause of this. But the Fed could make things better by lowering interest rates. Not sure what Powell is waiting for.
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Well, Apple debuted the iPhone 17 today. Looks a lot like all the other iPhones. This one won't stand out. Tim Cook went back to his thinner strategy. Maybe we'll get some new emojis, too. Battery life is better than the iPhone 15 (but what about the 16)? The camera still sticks out, and even more so, since the phone is thinner. There's nothing really compelling for me. I might get the Air Pods Pro 3, though. I could use better battery life. The current one is just too short. Then I read that
AirPods 3 isn't going to be that much better than Air Pods 2. Well, crap.
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Top Harvard mathematicians leaves for China. Harvard, like UCLA, would rather lose its brain power than just commit to being non-discriminatory, non-antisemitic and protect its students from disruptive protestors. But nooooo – Trump is being "authoritarian!" He's trampling on "academic freedom!" He can't dictate to universities what they should do! Terry Tao may be next.
This is what they're afraid of:
Should the Trump administration settle for one-time fines, universities, chastened by the threats of the past few months, may yet recover their footing. But if, as seems entirely possible, the administration is determined to reshape the intellectual life and values of faculty members and students alike, then such recovery will be impossible.
Oh my goodness, reshape their intellectual life and values. Horrors!
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There's a legal battle going on that's not receiving much publicity.:
If the Supreme Court affirms the Fourth Circuit’s reasoning, ISPs might be pressured to disconnect users after receiving infringement claims, without waiting for any court to confirm wrongdoing.
Sounds harsh. Surely the court won't be that disruptive. Anyone can make an accusation and do a lot of damage.
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It turns out that
AI consultants don't know as much as they claim. Companies are hiring consultants only to find out that they don't know any more AI than their own company geeks. Imposter syndrome for real. You guys are just faking it.
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Hey,
those detained Hyundai workers in Georgia were not illegal. They had B-1 business visas and were hired as engineers for their specialized knowledge. They didn't overstay their visas and did not sneak in. Boy, ICE needs to own this mistake. Hyundai is going to have a tough time convincing other engineers to come over and help U.S. plants.
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Amnon Shoenfeld worked for King County for more than three decades, including 11 years at DCHS, and retired in 2014 as director of the department’s mental health and substance abuse division.
Shoenfeld said he was appalled at the lack of oversight the audit found, but when he dug into the numbers he found they “didn’t compute.”
I ran the article through Perplexity because this Seattle Times article was not making sense to me. I couldn't tell where the blame lay. I got this response:
The
reason such a huge mistake happened and went unnoticed for so long is
basically due to a combination of lax oversight, rapid growth in grant
funding, and insufficient internal controls at the Department of
Community and Human Services (DCHS).
Between
2019 and 2024, the grant funding managed by DCHS skyrocketed from $22
million to over $1.5 billion. This rapid expansion overwhelmed the
department’s ability or preparedness to properly monitor and manage the
grants. Auditors found that DCHS was largely failing to do basic
financial oversight: in 2023, only 1% of grantees’ financial records
were examined, a sharp drop from the policy that calls for 33% review
annually.
DCHS
also took on more financial risk intentionally by giving contracts to
many organizations with little or no government contracting experience
as part of an equity strategy. However, they failed to establish a
sufficient “safety net” to monitor these new grantees properly.
Further,
the audit detailed many instances of altered invoices, unapproved
payments to subcontractors, and thousands of dollars in untracked
stipends or prepaid debit card distributions. The department also lacked
formal written policies and training for staff on how to review and
approve expenses.
The
$900 million reporting error itself was discovered only after a retired
employee reviewed the auditor’s initial report and spotted the
discrepancy. This indicates that the original audit report contained
significant calculation or reporting errors that were not caught during
the audit's initial review.
In
summary, the mistake wasn’t just a simple math error but reflected
deeper systemic problems: rapid growth of funds without corresponding
oversight, internal control failures, inadequate policies and staff
training, and an environment where errors and possibly fraud could
flourish unnoticed until the recent audit exposed them. Public officials
described the audit findings as a "total disaster" and "damning,"
emphasizing the need for urgent reform and better oversight.
Perplexity was able to access information from multiple other sources to get this assessment. Yeah, I think the King County auditor Kymber Waltmunson needs to go.
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