What you need to know before Tuesday - St. Louis Beacon

What you need to know before Tuesday - St. Louis Beacon:

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What you need to know before Tuesday

In Elections

By Jason Rosenbaum, Beacon staff

7:55 am on Fri, 08.03.12

There will be some constants when voters head to the polls Tuesday for Missouri’s primary election.

Everyone will get a chance to select nominees for the U.S. Senate and U.S. House as well as a raft of statewide offices up for grabs every four years. They’ll also decide on the so-called “prayer” amendment, a measure that’s won praise from some political and religious leaders and criticism from some attorneys and educators.

Other voters face hotly contested primaries for seats in the Missouri General Assembly, including in areas where winning the Democratic primary is tantamount to election. And in St. Louis, Democratic voters will likely pick the successor to city Treasurer Larry Williams.

For those still mulling their choices, the Beacon put together summaries of the contests and links to previous stories. Click on the names of the candidates to read past stories about the candidate. 

The CEO Plan to Steal Your Social Security and Medicare | Common Dreams

The CEO Plan to Steal Your Social Security and Medicare | Common Dreams

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If we assume that an average retiree collects benefits for 20 years, this implies an average cut in their benefits of 3 percent. Is that a big deal? Well, there are a lot of would-be Social Security cutters who are screaming bloody murder because President Obama wants to increase the tax rate on a portion of their income by a bit more than 3 percentage points. This means that if President Obama's proposal to increase taxes on the richest 2 percent is a big deal, then the plan to cut the Social Security COLA is also a big deal.

The corporate CEO crew is also considering a plan to raise the normal retirement age for Social Security to 69. And, they want to reduce the benefit formula for high income workers which, incredibly, they define as people who earn more than $40,000 a year.

Their main trick for Medicare is to raise the age of eligibility from 65 to 67. Apparently our CEO gang has not discovered that the health insurance market for older people is a disaster. They also continue to promote the misconception that the problem is Medicare and Medicaid.

These programs are actually much more efficient than private insurers. The real problem is our private sector health care system, which already costs more than twice as much per person as the average in other wealthy countries, with few obvious benefits in outcomes.

The scary budget projections that our CEOs like to tout assume that health care costs will exceed 20 percent of GDP in a decade. That would imply costs of more than $34,000 for a family of four in today's economy. And these costs are projected to keep growing through time.

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Peaceful Protest Over Tar Sands Takes a Violent Turn in Burlington, Vt. | Common Dreams

Peaceful Protest Over Tar Sands Takes a Violent Turn in Burlington, Vt. | Common Dreams

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The main protest ended at 3:45 P.M.

Just before 5 P.M., a smaller group of demonstrators attempted to block buses transporting the conference attendees to dinner, prompting police dressed in riot gear to open fire on the crowd.

Protesters were fired upon, police said, "to protect officers from those in the crowd who were moving toward them."

Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger released a statement late Sunday. He praised the “laudable environmental goals” of the marchers and said this about the police action:

“The Burlington police had the responsibility of ensuring the free movement of approximately 200 conference attendees from around the region and world. The police took extensive steps to clear a safe path for the buses without conflict and, when their repeated verbal warnings were ignored, they resolved the situation without serious injury to demonstrators or themselves.”

During the earlier, peaceful portion of the demonstration, environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, told the crowd this is “a hinge moment in human history.”

He pointed to crop devastation this year across the center of the country from drought and about meager monsoons this year in India, and said that while he had begun a quarter of a century ago to write about potential environmental collapse, “There is nothing abstract about any of this,” he said.

voting info mo--il

Missouri Legislation Voter ID: SB 442; HB 1104 Status: Pending litigation, will appear on the November 6, 2012 ballot regarding a disenfranchising voter ID law. Upcoming Elections 2012 State Primary Election: August 7, 2012 2012 General Election: November 6, 2012 Voter Registration/ID Requirements Driver’s license or state ID College ID Copy of current utility bill Bank statement Paycheck Government check or other government document containing name and address Polling hours 6 a.m.-7 p.m. ------------ ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- Illinois Legislation Voter ID: HB 3903 Status: Referred to rules committee Upcoming Elections 2012 State Primary Election: March 20, 2012 2012 General Election: November 6, 2012 Voter Registration/ID Requirements Valid photo ID Utility bill Bank statement Government check/government document Paycheck Polling hours 6 a.m.-7 p.m.

Romney’s Olympic tax myth

Romney’s Olympic tax myth

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More than catnip, this latest conservative tax myth is like a designer drug for the Fox News set, tailored perfectly for maximum impact at a time when Americans are hungry for anything Olympics-related. The offense: According to Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist’s anti-tax outfit, President Obama’s IRS will tax Olympic winners up to $9,000 after they return home victorious from London. Conservative blogs are having a field day and Republican politicians are clamoring to capitalize on news. Darling Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida introduced a bill to exempt Olympians’ winnings from taxes and an adviser to Mitt Romney told reporters today, “He believes that there should be no taxation of the type you are describing.” They’re calling on Obama to support the plan.

The only problem: It’s not really true. In addition to their medals, American winners are given prize money from the U.S. Olympic Committee: $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze. Their medals are also worth about $675, $385 and under $5, respectively. ATR says this all gets taxed at 35 percent, meaning a gold medalist owe $8,986, silver winners owe $5,385, and bronzers owe $3,502.

Disaster: Russian Grenade Fishing (Video)

in this area, some have fished like this