Month: January 2012

Mitt Romney Earns More in 9 Days Than You Do in 9 Years

01/17/2012 | Comment

In the course of answering questions about his income taxes (which are probably a lot) and his tax rate (which is probably lower than your’s), Mitt Romney had this to say about his other income:

“I got a little bit of income from my book, but I gave that all away,” Mr. Romney told reporters after an event here. “And then I get speakers’ fees from time to time, but not very much.”

Apparently Romney earned about $375,000 in speaker fees between February 2010 and February 2011, an average of $41,592 per speech. Which works out to nine speeches.

The average per capita income in the United State for 2010 was $40,584.

In other words, Mitt Romney earns more for 9 days of work than the average American will make in 9 years.

Romney has millions of dollars in assets, but just based on his work for those 9 days in 2010, he almost qualifies for the 99% (OK, he’s only at 98%).



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Apple Store Coming to Forest Hills

Maybe things have changed since Tim Cook took over, but I’m pretty sure Apple still has an NDA the size of the Manhattan phone book (if anyone remembers what that is). Any developer who says that he is in “preliminary talks with Apple” about anything is either a) heavily exaggerating or b) unlikely to hear from Apple ever again.

Besides, the next Apple store is coming to Williamsburg.

(Not that an Apple store in Queens is out of the question. But don’t bet on an iconic Manhattan-style store – Apple has hundreds of smaller stores around the country (including Manhasset and Roosevelt Field Mall), and is always opening new ones.)

Study of Retail Workers Finds $9.50 Median Pay

$9.50 an hour median pay for what for most is part-time or temp work, with only 3 in 10 receiving health benefits.

These are the jobs that are created as better paying jobs with better benefits get squeezed out on the industrial side.

And no, the living wage bill working its way through the Council won’t do anything to make this better.

Billboard Collapse Video

Nowy Dziennik has a security camera video of the billboard collapsing onto the BQE this afternoon. It looks as though the billboard that went down was the one that had been tagged for ages (most recently by “Rambo”).

As a special bonus, I now know the Polish words for “billboard” and “Brooklyn Queens Expressway”.

[via City Room]

Leopoldo Hernandez

Lepoldo Hernandez, 57, was struck and killed by two vans at the intersection of Borinquen and Keap yesterday morning. This is a particularly pedestrian-unfriendly intersection, in the pre-dawn hours, with a (allegedly) speeding van. DNA Info (which is new to the neighborhood beat) includes a set of heart-wrenching on-the-scene photos.

Three Williamsburg Charters to Close

Three charter high schools run by the Believe Network, which has had numerous problems over the years. As one state official put it:

Over the last few months, both the State Education Department and the Department of Education have laid out a very troubling pattern of what is, at best, financial irregularities by the school’s management and perhaps much worse

This “troubling pattern” will likely leave as many as 1,500 local high school students without a school come June.