Jonathan Kantrowitz

A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research finds that the number of guns that were subsequently linked to crime sold by Badger Guns & Ammo, a Milwaukee-area gun shop, increased dramatically after Congress adopted measures likely to reduce the risks gun dealers face if they divert guns to criminals. The study is the first to examine the impact of these amendments on the diversion of guns to criminals and was recently published online in the peer-reviewed Journal of Urban Health. (The study “Temporal Association Between Federal Gun Laws and the Diversion of Guns to Criminals in Milwaukee” is by Daniel W. Webster, Jon S. Vernick, Maria T. Bulzacchelli, and Katherine A. Vittes.)

The Tiahrt amendments are a series of amendments to appropriations bills and named for the sponsor, former U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-KS. They became law in 2003 and prohibit the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from releasing data from crime gun traces. Gun traces reveal when, where, and from whom a gun recovered from a crime was originally purchased. In 2004, the Tiahrt amendments further restricted crime gun-trace data by limiting access to government officials and prohibiting the use of these data in firearm dealer license revocations and civil law suits. In addition, the law prohibits ATF from requiring gun dealers to do a physical inventory of their firearms for compliance inspections and requires the FBI to destroy data from background checks of gun purchasers within 24 hours.

In 1999, ATF data showed that Badger Guns & Ammo led the nation’s gun dealers with the most gun sales later linked to crime gun traces. Shortly after the announcement, the gun shop’s owner announced that the store would no longer sell small, poorly made handguns (sometimes referred to as “junk guns”) that are commonly linked to crime.

Data from the new Johns Hopkins study indicate that the gun dealer apparently adhered to that policy for approximately 14 months, a period in which the number of guns sold by Badger Guns & Ammo and diverted to criminals declined by 66 percent. Reductions were observed for junk guns as well as other types of guns sold by Badger. After the Tiahrt amendments went into effect, guns diverted to criminals soon after being sold by Badger increased by 203 percent. The increase in the flow of guns from Badger to criminals following the adoption of the Tiahrt amendments, however, was not limited to junk guns. The study found no Tiahrt amendment-related increase in the number of guns sold by all other gun dealers that were diverted to criminals.

“Our findings suggest that changes to federal gun policy prompted a dramatic increase in the flow of guns to criminals from a gun dealer whose practices have frequently been of concern to law enforcement and public safety advocates,” said lead study author Daniel Webster, ScD, MPH, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research and professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Webster added, “The fact that the ATF took action which led the gun dealer to surrender his license in 2006 supports the idea that the large increase in Badger’s guns diverted to criminals was related to gun dealer practices.”

Study co-author and Center co-director Jon Vernick, JD, MPH, said, “our findings are consistent with other research that has shown that greater oversight and regulation of gun sellers is linked with fewer guns diverted to criminals shortly after retail sales.”

For the study, researchers examined data from firearms recovered by the Milwaukee Police Department and traced by the ATF from 1996 through 2006. Data for guns traced during 2003 to 2006 when the Tiahrt restrictions on ATF were in place were obtained from the Milwaukee Police Department. The number of firearms recovered by police less than a year following retail sale from someone other than the legal purchaser was used to track trends in illegal gun transfers.
Congress recently passed another appropriations bill with an amendment that makes permanent most of the protections for gun sellers that in prior Tiahrt amendments been limited to the fiscal year covered under appropriations bills.

Bank of America is hosting free mortgage assistance reviews in Bridgeport for customers who are having trouble paying their mortgage loans.

The reviews are available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday Jan. 19 through Saturday Jan. 21, 2012 at the Holiday Inn, 1070 Main Street, Bridgeport. Free parking is available at the Imperial Parking Garage in Bridgeport, which is adjacent to the hotel.

Bank of America mortgage customers who are experiencing financial hardship will have the opportunity to meet with home loan specialists, who can review their mortgage and discuss available options. Spanish-speaking translators will be available at both locations.

The events are free and registration is encouraged to help ensure customers receive same-day assistance. Registration can be made online at www.bankofamerica.com/homeowerevent, or by calling the toll-free number, 1-855-201-7426. The documents a customer will need to bring for a mortgage review are listed on the website.

Connecticut homeowners who are not Bank of America customers, but having difficulty making mortgage loan payments, should contact the state Department of Banking’s Foreclosure Assistance Hotline at 1-877-472-8313. The Department assists homeowners who are attempting to achieve loan modifications and prevent foreclosure. The Department’s website has valuable information about avoiding scams, applying for loan modifications, and navigating the foreclosure process.

From Reuters:

Special report: Romney’s steel skeleton in the Bain closet

…In October 1993, Bain Capital, co-founded by Mitt Romney, became majority shareholder in a steel mill that had been operating since 1888.

It was a gamble. The old mill, renamed GS Technologies, needed expensive updating, and demand for its products was susceptible to cycles in the mining industry and commodities markets.

Less than a decade later, the mill was padlocked and some 750 people lost their jobs. Workers were denied the severance pay and health insurance they’d been promised, and their pension benefits were cut by as much as $400 (258 pounds) a month.

What’s more, a federal government insurance agency had to pony up $44 million to bail out the company’s underfunded pension plan. Nevertheless, Bain profited on the deal, receiving $12 million on its $8 million initial investment and at least $4.5 million in consulting fees…

Seals of Jeremiah’s Captors Discovered!

A gripping story is found in the book of Jeremiah, Chapter 38. Prominent in this account are two of Jeremiah’s worst persecutors: Jehucal, son of Shelemiah, and Gedaliah, son of Pashur. What if tangible evidence of these princes existed? It would corroborate Jeremiah’s account—and be colossal proof of the accuracy of the Bible.

In 2005, archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, on behalf of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was digging into the northern section of the City of David when one of her colleagues spotted a small piece of clay lying in the dust. It had originally been made to seal a cord tied around a papyrus scroll. The tiny bulla bore a three-line Paleo-Hebrew inscription: “Belonging to Yehucal, son of Shelemiyahu, son of Shovi.” This was the seal of Jehucal.

In 2008, Dr. Mazar and her team were enlarging the dig, wet-sifting debris they had excavated just a few yards from the location of the Jehucal bulla. After washing away 2,600 years of dirt and dust from another seal, Dr. Mazar found herself reading “le Gedalyahu ben Pashur”—”belonging to Gedaliah, son of Pashur.”

Rarely do science and the Bible converge as dramatically as with the Jehucal and Gedaliah bullae. Unearthed near the palace of Judah’s king and scientifically dated to the time of Jeremiah, these artifacts resurrect the life and commission of one of the great prophets of scripture.

Clay seal found near the Western Wall bearing the Aramaic words “pure for God.”

Archaeologists have found a 2,000-year-old button-shaped clay seal near the Western Wall bearing the Aramaic words “pure for God.”

“It seems that the inscribed object was used to mark products or objects that were brought to the Temple, and it was imperative they be ritually pure,” the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement announcing the find.

Archaeologist Ronny Reich of Haifa University said it dates from between the 1st century B.C. to 70 A.D. — the year Roman forces put down a Jewish revolt and destroyed the second of the two biblical temples in Jerusalem.

The find marks the first discovery of a written seal from that period of Jerusalem’s history, and appeared to be a unique physical artifact from ritual practice in the Temple, said Reich, co-director of the excavation.

Very few artifacts linked to the Temples have been discovered so far. The site of the Temple itself — the enclosure known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary — remains off-limits to archaeologists because of its religious and political sensitivity.

Archaeologists say the seal was likely used by Temple officials approving an object for ritual use — oil, perhaps, or an animal intended for sacrifice. Materials used by Temple priests had to meet stringent purity guidelines stipulated in detail in the Jewish legal text known as the Mishna, which also mention the use of seals as tokens by pilgrims.

Jerusalem stone carvings baffle archaeologists

The carvings in the The City of David

Video

Archaeologists have discovered mysterious stone carvings at an excavation site in Jerusalem. The carvings – which were engraved thousands of years ago – have baffled experts.

Israeli archaeologists excavating in the City of David, the oldest part of the city, discovered a complex of rooms with three “V” shapes carved into the floor. Yet there were no other clues as to their purpose and nothing to identity the people who made them.

Eli Shukron, a co-director of the project that found the markings, said they were a “little bit” mysterious.

“It’s something that is here on the floor in this room from the First Temple period and we don’t know yet what it means,” he added. The First Temple period refers to a period in the ancient city beginning in the 10th century before the Christian era.

Building the Western Wall: Herod Began it but Didn’t Finish it

In an excavation beneath the paved street near Robinson’s Arch, sections of the Western Wall’s foundation were revealed that is set on the bedrock – which is also the western foundation of Robinson’s Arch – an enormous arch that bore a staircase that led from Jerusalem’s main street to the entrance of the Temple Mount compound.

Remains of Robinson’s Arch

According to Professor Reich, “It became apparent during the course of the work that there are rock-hewn remains of different installations on the natural bedrock, including cisterns, ritual baths and cellars. These belonged to the dwellings of a residential neighborhood that existed there before King Herod decided to enlarge the Temple Mount compound. The Jewish historian Josephus, a contemporary of that period, writes that Herod embarked on the project of enlarging the compound in the eighteenth year of his reign (that is in 22 BCE) and described it as “the largest project the world has ever heard of”.

While sifting the soil removed from inside the sealed ritual bath, three clay oil lamps were discovered of a type that was common in the first century CE. In addition, the sifting also yielded seventeen bronze coins that can be identified. Dr. Donald Ariel, curator of the numismatic collection of the Israel Antiquities Authority, determined that the latest coins (4 in all) were struck by the Roman procurator of Judea, Valerius Gratus, in the year 17/18 CE:

This means that Robinson’s Arch, and possibly a longer part of the Western Wall, were constructed after this year – that is to say: at least twenty years after Herod’s death (which is commonly thought to have occurred in the year 4 BCE).

This bit of archaeological information illustrates the fact that the construction of the Temple Mount walls and Robinson’s Arch was an enormous project that lasted decades and was not completed during Herod’s lifetime.

Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1298 today announced their endorsement of Chris Murphy for United States Senate. CWA Local 1298 represents more than 4,000 Connecticut workers employed by AT&T and a number of other communications companies.

CWA Local 1298 President Bill Henderson cited Murphy’s steadfast leadership in working to strengthen Buy American laws on federal spending as a key factor in their decision. Henderson said, “Chris has led the charge on Buy American purchasing policies for the US government – a common sense approach that could put millions back to work without costing any more than we are already spending. Chris is willing to pursue policies like this despite corporate opposition. The U.S. Senate needs some real shaking up. Murphy is the right person for the job.”

“I’ve made strengthening Buy American laws a top priority since my first day on the job, working for years on a series of bi-partisan bills to create an estimated 620,000 American manufacturing jobs,” said Murphy. “With over 4,000 members in Connecticut, Local 1298’s endorsement is an incredible boost for our growing grassroots campaign and I’m honored to have their strong support in our campaign for the Senate.”

Henderson said Local 1298 will be gearing up for unprecedented membership mobilizations. “We have contract negotiations in April 2012. In November, there are the national elections, which have a huge impact on the lives of working people. Our members will be rocking the state from now until the end of the year. By the end of November, we plan to be celebrating a great new contract, and solid victories in the elections. And the highlight of that will be newly-elected U.S. Senator Christopher Murphy.

Since announcing his candidacy 12 months ago, Murphy has built a strong grassroots campaign that continues to grow and gather momentum. He has received the endorsement of the Working Families Party, the Connecticut Education Association, Connecticut Fire Fighters, United Auto Workers, Connecticut Laborers, the Connecticut State Building and Construction Trades Council, the League of Conservation Voters, Connecticut’s entire Congressional House delegation, Attorney General George Jepsen, Comptroller Kevin Lembo, Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, dozens of state Senators and state Representatives and over 6,000 Democratic and progressive activists from all across Connecticut. In addition to grassroots support, Murphy has built a clear fundraising advantage by outpacing his opponents 2-1 in the first year of the campaign.

More details: GS Industries was the tenth biggest Bain investment during Romney’s years as head of the private equity firm. Bain created GSI in the early 1990s by spending $24 million to acquire and merge steel companies with plants in Missouri, South Carolina and other states.

Company managers then cut jobs and benefits almost immediately. Bain and other investors received management fees from GSI and a $65 million dividend in the first years following that acquisition.

GSI went bankrupt two years after Romney had left Bain. The GSI takeover by Bain Capital resulted in 700 steelworkers losing their jobs, health insurance, and a chunk of their hard-earned pensions.

This is exactly what Romney and his business partners at Bain did best – they were corporate buyout specialists. They earned millions off of these deals. They cost a lot of Americans their jobs and they loaded these enterprises down with debt.

More details: REALITY: ROMNEY’S PRIVATE SECTOR CAREER CONSISTED OF PROFITING OFF OF LAYING OFF THOUSANDS OF WORKERS

Romney’s Fortune “Was Made On The Backs Of Companies That Ultimately Collapsed, Putting Thousands of Ordinary Americans Out On The Street.” [New York Post, 2/19/11]

Romney-Led Bain Capital Closed US Factories, Caused Hundreds Of Layoffs And “Pocketed Huge Fees Shortly Before The Companies Collapsed.” [Los Angeles Times, 12/6/07]

Romney’s Tenure at Bain “Resulted in the Loss of Thousands of Jobs Through Layoffs And Bankruptcies.” [CNN.com, 1/30/08]

Former Bain Partners: Romney Had Chances To Fight To Save Jobs But Didn’t. [Boston Globe, 1/27/08]

I have previously written about how the housing market, which shows every sign of getting significantly worse before it gets better, threatens any possible recovery. The Fed is now suggesting a way to avert some of the worst effects of the surplus of empty, foreclosed properties creating such a huge downward pressure on the market:

At the same time that housing demand has weakened, the number of homes for sale is elevated relative to historical norms, due in large part to the swollen inventory of homes held by banks, guarantors, and servicers after completion of foreclosure proceedings. These properties are often called real estate owned, or REO, properties. While the total stock of REO properties is difficult to measure precisely, perhaps one-fourth of the 2 million vacant homes for sale in the second quarter of 2011 were REO properties. The combination of weak demand and elevated supply has put substantial downward pressure on house prices, and the continued flow of new REO properties–perhaps as high as 1 million properties per year in 2012 and 2013–will continue to weigh on house prices for some time. To the extent that REO holders discount properties in order to sell them quickly, the near-term pressure on home prices might be even greater.

In contrast to the market for owner-occupied houses, the market for rental housing across the nation has recently strengthened somewhat. Rents have turned up in the past year, and the national vacancy rate on multifamily rental properties has dropped noticeably from its peak in late 2009. These developments have been fairly widespread across metropolitan areas. The relative strength of the rental market reflects increased demand as families who are unable or unwilling to purchase homes are renting properties instead. Rental demand has also been supported by families who have lost their homes to foreclosure–the majority of whom move to rental housing, most commonly to single-family rentals.

The price signals in the owner-occupied and rental housing markets–that is, the decline in house prices and the rise in rents–suggest that it might be appropriate in some cases to redeploy foreclosed homes as rental properties. In addition, the forces behind the decline in the homeownership rate, such as tight credit conditions, are unlikely to unwind significantly in the immediate future, indicating a longer-term need for an expanded stock of rental housing.