Haunted houses thrive in scary economy

KathE Walker owns four haunted houses in the Denver area with her husband and two sons. She says that in that business if they don't run out scared, they will never come back. Especially when they are waiting in line, and paying 14.95 to go in. Considering her houses will have about 40,000 to 50,000 go through them this year,even with the economy the way it is, she works on the houses full time, getting the props ready for next year. Larry Kirchner, the President of the Haunted House Association, says that business is booming across the country because it is a good date night thing. Although the gross income is high, these houses cost the owners a lot, so they don't make a ton of money, but they still love to do it for the thrills.



http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/10/29/haunted.houses.thriving/index.html

This is a fun, and interesting story. I think its good non harmful humor, and the people that make a business out of it are very smart. Young people are just looking for a scary adventure at theses places and will go back if they get the thrill they were looking for. 40,000 to 50,000 is a very good number this year, especially when our economy is in the tough shape that it is. When the customer has fun, and the owners have fun, everybody wins!

Feds to question attendants of wayward jet

On Wednesday night, a Northwest Flight 188, an Airbus 320 carrying about 144 people flew past the Minneapolis airport while on the way back from San Diego, California. They missed the airport by 150 miles, and did not respond to any of the radio controller’s responses for 78 minutes. Once landed, the pilots were given a breathalyzer test, but both blew 0.000. One of the pilots said that neither of them was asleep, and that they were not having an argument. On the other hand, the other pilot said they were in a fierce argument. With no answers coming out yet, the FAA says they are going to interview and question the flight attendants; they are also going to review the recordings in the black box that contains 30 minutes of recordings. Fighter jets were launched in fear of a high jacking, but called back after reconnecting with the plane.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/26/airliner.flyby/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

I think that it is unbelievable that with the technology that we have in planes in this day and age, that without being asleep or drunk or something, there would be no way to miss your target by that far. I think that both pilots should be punished, and have their licenses revoked for a long time, if not forever. They endangered their passengers lives, and put the government in a tough spot with the fighter jets, luckily the drastic measures were not taken.

Federal Budget Blog

Spending what we can afford is an important issue that could in fact make or break this country. With the national debt racking up to nearly $12,000,000,000,000 (12 Trillion) in debt, and even more coming at the end of the year because of a 1.5 trillion dollar budget deficit to come from 2009 alone, the lending comes from the United States Population, lending institutions, foreign banks, and the Social Security trust fund, It is growing more and more everyday with everything we spend going on the tab. With the economy in a recession, and spending on the rise, more and more loans are being taken out by the United States. Some experts predicted surpluses through 2010, but with the economy the way it is, taxes have generated less monies the past year. Taxes could bring in more money within the next few years some think because Bush’s tax cuts will be taken away, which he argues will not help the economy because the cuts brought us out of the recession when he was in office. Earmarks, “Pork” to critics, cost the government more than $64 billion dollars. Money we could spend on other programs that approved by Congress, which could benefit our country greatly. Our $2.9 trillion spent of programs and agencies, breaking down the spending into four main categories: defense, nondefense, discretionary, mandatory, and interest on the national debt. The spending on nondefense discretionary spending, amounting to about $456 billion, pays for the federal programs adjusted every year. With Medicare spending it could consume nearly half of the whole federal budget, within the upcoming 10 years. These are the reasons for the rapidly growing debt, and concern for it.

Spending in this country needs to be re- analyzed. This year in particular with the bailouts to many companies for billions of dollars, and the proposed health care that could cost billions, spending has increased while we have not brought in as much money with the economic situation we are in. Loaning money from other countries puts us into their hands, and gives them power. As Robert Barro, renowned economist believes and so do I the way to fix that is to only spend what we can afford using a method of pay-as-you-go budgeting, also known as “paygo.” I think that the government should follow the same guidelines that my families, and the rest of America uses, spend only what you can afford and pay for. Without spiking the taxes of the wealthy, like many like to do, and just controlling our spending on unnecessary programs and earmarks, we can accumulate enough money to start to have surpluses, and pay back to our debtors.

Social Insecurity

http://goetsch.blogspot.com/2009/10/federal-budget-blog-entry.html

War Dollars

http://bigsteveblog.blogspot.com/

ACORN chief says videos 'made my stomach turn'

ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), a federally funded organization, is a community- based organization working with low income families on neighborhood safety, heath care, and other social issues. This article is the reaction of its chief on the videos surfaced showing its workers advising its visitors on how to start a prostitution business with underage, foreign girls. She said these videos, “Made her stomach turn.” At the same time she said that these videos were taken illegally, and that they were highly edited. She believes that the problems they have had in the past, embezzlement, fraud, and corruption, were only speculation and nothing else until proven. She believes that the enemies they have made during the elections are just trying to end their threat. She has been the chief of this organization since 2008, and states that she will be there for at least one more year trying to re-strengthen, and reorganize ACORN.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/06/acorn.press.club/index.html

I think it is sick that an organization that needs to provide such a needed solution to a problem that is often overlooked, would mess up this horribly. With social problems of these people, they are in desperate need of advice from ACORN on how to change their lives for the better. Instead of good advice they are told how to start an illegal business. Millions of dollars have been given to this organization that has repeatedly stumbled with embezzlement by family of its founder, and fraud and corruption during the recent elections. The governments as well as organizations like Bank of America have pulled their funding of the programs ACORN provides until it is proven that the allegations are false. I would do this if I was them as well, hopefully the chief can better the system soon