High NPR Star Salaries Curb the Appeal of Small-Dollar Donations

The next time a public-radio station goes into pledge-drive mode and begs listeners to chip in $100 for those snazzy premiums like the Nina Totin'-Bag, it would be wonderful if, in the spirit of balance and fairness, they would read off some salary numbers for NPR stars. Do people on modest incomes really want to chip in $25 to make sure an anchor can take home $375,000?

Instead, pledge-drive announcers often plead that stations need donations to pay for program fees, not anchor salaries. Blogger and news-app developer Andy Boyle pored over a few IRS 990 forms and revealed some of the highest-paid public radio poobahs:

– Steve Inskeep, co-host of NPR’s “Morning Edition.” 2009-2010: $361, 093, base salary of $319,370. 2010-2011: $373,097, base salary of $334,560.

– Renee Montagne, co-host of NPR’s “Morning Edition.” 2009-2010: $357,037, base salary of $328,117. 2010-2011: $369,552, base salary of  $321,919.

– Michele Norris, former co-host of “All Things Considered.” 2009-2010: $298,360, base salary of $264,9009. No 2010-2011 numbers listed.

–  Robert Siegel, cohost of “All Things Considered.” 2009-2010: $362,687, with a base salary of $309,479. 2010-2011: $375,652, with a base salary of $321,860.

– Terry Gross, host of WHYY’s “Fresh Air,” broadcast on hundreds of NPR affiliates. 2009-2010: $254,933, base salary of $233,483. 2010-2011: $256,611, base salary of $233,483.

He also had numbers for the popular public-radio show "This American Life," heard on many NPR stations:

-- Ira Glass, host and producer of “This American Life.” 2009-2010: $171,224, base salary of $127,871. 2010-2011: $170,190, base salary of $148,782.

– Alex Blumberg, producer of “This American Life,” cohost of the Planet Money podcast. 2009-2010: $154,801, base salary of $123,220. 2010-2011: $201,734, base salary of $134,400.

– Julie Snyder, senior producer of “This American Life.” 2009-2010: Not listed. 2010-2011: $156,153, base salary of $146,175.

Boyle added this point on the anchor of the public-radio show Marketplace: "Couldn’t find Kai Ryssdal’s salary in updated 990s for American Public Media."

Via: Newsbusters

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‘Big Sis’ Napolitano Bad Choice for UC

With its 10 campuses, nearly 200,000 staff and $20 billion annual budget, the University of California system is emblematic of the state government that pays a portion of UC’s bills: enormous, unruly, overly expensive, steeped in politics, dominated by unions and other special-interest groups and plagued with controversy.

California voters in 2010 turned the reins of government over to Jerry Brown, who has — despite his whimsical rhetoric — governed as the ultimate status-quo politician, protecting the state bureaucracy from reform.

Likewise, the UC regents have decided to choose a status-quo candidate as president, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Regent Sherry Lansing said in a statement that some might find Napolitano to be an “unconventional choice,” but that’s incorrect. Napolitano is as conventional a choice as you could make to run a large bureaucracy, even if she has no serious academic experience.

Based on her tenure in the federal government, she will be an advocate for higher spending, expanded unionization and more of everything that has undermined the university system.

Just when the UC system needed someone who might implement competitive reforms and focus on cost-cutting, the regents turn to a Washington insider more apt to keep federal funds flowing and student aid primed than to stretch the large budget already in place.

The University of California has been embroiled in many scandals in recent years. In one case, administrators enriched themselves, their friends and lovers, even as they were hiking tuition rates for students.

Via: California Political Review

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When will Jeffrey Zients return from South Africa?

Former Obama official held White House meeting with IRS officials during targeting scandal of Tea Party

Amid new revelations about the IRS targeting scandal, the Obama administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said Tuesday that former OMB head Jeffrey Zients’ extended absence from the United States is due to a family vacation.

OMB’s statement came after The Daily Caller reported that former leader Jeffrey Zients met at the White House with key figures at the Internal Revenue Service just before news broke that the IRS was targeting conservative nonprofit groups for abusive audits and delays.

Zients has still not returned from an overseas trip that began after his departure from the Obama administration in April, two weeks before the IRS scandal broke. A White House source told The Daily Caller that Zients’ absence from the country has been noticeable and concerning.

Via: Daily Caller

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SPECIAL FORCES VETERANS, MEMBERS OF CONGRESS DEMAND SPECIAL BENGHAZI INVESTIGATION

Several members of Congress joined representatives of the special forces military veterans and grassroots organizations on Tuesday to launch an effort to force the House to have a thorough, public investigation into the terrorist attack at Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) has introduced legislation to create a special select committee to investigate both the terrorist attack and subsequent actions by President Barack Obama’s administration and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s State Department. Wolf's bill has 161 co-sponsors. House GOP Leadership has not scheduled a vote on the bill. 

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) plans to harness the support for Wolf's bill into a "discharge petition" that would force a floor vote on the bill. The petition would need to be signed by 218 members of the House. 

“I’m going to describe what a discharge petition is because a lot of people have asked me questions exactly what it is,” Stockman said at the Tuesday press conference outside the U.S. Capitol building. “It’s to ask our leadership or actually demand from our leadership that we have a vote on Frank Wolf’s bill. [Wolf is] a congressman from Virginia who has a long history of being here and is articulate in demanding that we have an independent investigation.”

Stockman added, while gesturing to blown up photographs behind him of the four Americans murdered in Benghazi, “if Congress is silenced,” then “the blood of these folks behind us is on our hands.”

“We can’t be silent any more,” he said. “It’s been a year going by that we haven’t had justice. These folks demand justice. They cry out for justice. Silence is not an option any more. We’re going to challenge them. We’re going to have a discharge petition. I encourage you to contact your congressman to sign the discharge petition.” 

Via: Breitbart

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The depressing reality of ‘the recovery’: Americans aren’t getting jobs. They’re retiring.

For most of his presidency, President Obama has been focused on the economic short run — which makes sense, given that he took office in the midst of the biggest recession since the 1930s. With his big economic speech today, he’s shifting to the long-run, talking about the structural changes he thinks the economy needs to see for the U.S. to prosper going forward.

But anyone who thinks that the short-run battle is over should take a look at a new report by Daniel Alpert over at the Century Foundation. Alpert notes that while the headline unemployment number is well below its recession-era peak, that’s almost 100 percent due to declines in the labor force participation rate — that is, the share of the population that’s either employed or actively looking for work. Don’t believe him? Take a look at this chart:

Via: Washington Post
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Rep. Jim McDermott (D-olt): Republicans Scared Of Obamacare Because It’s Such An Awesome Law…

Rep. Jim McDermott, Washington Democrat, argued Wednesday morning that the real reason Republicans are so zealous in their attempt to repeal or defund President Obama’s health care law is that they’re afraid voters will like it once it’s implemented — and will see Mr. Obama as having made it happen.

The president needs to fight as he’s never fought before right now on health care, Mr. McDermott said on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal.”

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SPECIAL COVERAGE: Health Care Reform

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“If they lose this one, it’s over,” he said.

Mr. McDermott said that in comparison to Republicans in the 1960s, many of whom opposed President Lyndon B. Johnson’s push on Medicare but still helped implement it, “they have fought from the very first against improving” the health care bill today.

Many Republicans, however, have said that the law is simply not salvageable. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said an attempt to defund the law is now the only option left.

“This is the only chance and the last chance that we have,” Mr. Rubio said on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor.” “And the one thing that does bother me is that there [are] people in Washington that love to say, ‘We’re against Obamacare.’ How can you be against Obamacare but vote for a budget that funds its implementation when you know the harm that it’s going to do?

“Now I would much rather the president come down from his prideful position and basically say, ‘Look, the law is messed up.’ But he’s not going to do that obviously, and so this is the only option.”

Via: Washington Times

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Are You Getting Fooled by Obama? Check Out These 5 Pictures and Find Out

Organizing for Action, President Obama’s campaign group, is good at what it does. Its activists know how to get people fired up about President Obama, and they know they’ve been able to fool a lot of Americans.

They also know the 2,700-page Affordable Care Act is an overwhelming piece of legislation filled with bureaucracy, complexity, and regulation—bad news for everyone.

So it’s no surprise they aggressively posted “facts” about Obamacare on all of their social media outlets last week to try to hide the truth about Obamacare.

We refuse to let Organizing for Action fool us on Obamacare. Join us. Get the actual facts below and share the truth with your friends:

1. 

Via: The Foundry

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