Other stuff – Page 16 – Outrun Change

Update on marijuana regulation: #24

Not much that I’ve noticed in the news about regulation of the recreational marijuana market. Here are a few things of interest. Reminder: Reason I’m following this issue is to watch a natural experiment on whether over-regulation will crush a new industry.

4/20 – Kelly Phillips Erb at Forbes – On 4/20, It’s High Time to Think About Taxes, Revenues & Marijuana – Great survey of how we got to the place we are today.

How the marijuana laws have developed, the Department of Justice’s effort to look the other way when states have legalized either medical or recreational marijuana, and the IRS’ stand that most costs of running a marijuana business are non-deductible.

Also, some discussion on how likely Congress is to make changes to federal law. Current assessment: not likely. Doing so would appear to be soft on crime. Current mess with opioid abuse would make any efforts to legalize marijuana appear to be bad.

6/16 – MarketWatch – Microsoft gets into the weed business – One of the requirements in those states where recreational marijuana is legal is the need to track every bit of marijuana from the seed that germinated into a plant all the way to the specific end product the marijuana went into.

Continue reading “Update on marijuana regulation: #24”

Convicted human trafficker Keith Graves has been moved to a federal penitentiary

Long-term housing for Mr. Graves. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The Bureau of Prisons inmate locator page reports that Keith A. Graves is now in custody at Victorville Medium I Federal Correctional Institution, located in Victorville, California.

Update 7-19-16: for future reference, his inmate number is 13523-059. His middle initial is A, for Alexander. Age 40 as of summer 2016.

Update 10-23-18: Mr. Graves is still at Victorville Medium I FCI with an unchanged release date of 12/24/2043. Just 25 years and a couple months to go. His current age is 42, which means he will be 67 years old on his scheduled release date.

I’m not quite sure I understand why he would be at a medium security prison. I obviously don’t understand these things, but seems to me that a drug distribution conviction and five trafficking convictions would land him in a higher security facility.

Continue reading “Convicted human trafficker Keith Graves has been moved to a federal penitentiary”

Income statement for LAX airport

The Los Angeles city controller is working to put all financial activity for city agencies on-line, down to the invoice level.

Most recent agency’s financial statements to go online is LAX, the airport.

3/24 – Wall Street Journal – Follow the money at LAX –

Here is the income statement for LAWA, the airport authority. All amounts in millions of dollars: Continue reading “Income statement for LAX airport”

Update on marijuana regulation – #23

I have not noticed a lot of coverage of the efforts to regulate the newly state-legal business of recreational marijuana. Here are a few articles catching my interest.

As a reminder, I am watching the efforts in Colorado and Oregon to develop a new industry which is highly regulated. This is a natural experiment to test my hypothesis that heavy-handed regulation will constrain a new industry.

1/5 – Denver Post via The Cannabist – Federal judge tosses Colorado marijuana banking lawsuit – State of Colorado chartered a credit union, the Fourth Corner Credit Union, with its business model of serving the state-legal marijuana industry. The credit union requested a master agreement allowing it to access the Federal Reserve system and thus participate in the banking system.

The FRB denied the application. The credit union sued.

A federal judge threw out the suit on the basis that allowing the credit union to operate would “facilitate criminal activity” since marijuana is illegal under federal law.

Continue reading “Update on marijuana regulation – #23”

More background on Keith Graves’ sentencing.

The view from Mr. Graves’ residence for the next 33 years or so. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

As was mentioned earlier, on February 17th many women who had been trafficked in prostitution received justice when Keith Graves was sentenced to 33 years 9 months in federal prison.

Amy Dalrymple interviews several of the victims and explains After the trauma of sex trafficking, women struggle to cope. The emotional aftermath is severe. The trial was devastating for the witnesses, because Mr. Graves was able to cross-examine them in person since he was representing himself. Check out the article for a better description of the trauma involved.

Most of the sentencing documents are now available in the federal PACER system. Since those are public documents, I will post them as part of this discussion. Feel free to read the following documents if you are really interested. Or really, really bored.

I will summarize and comment on the documents in case you don’t want to read them.

Sentencing

The sentence is 405 months for each of five counts of trafficking, with sentences to run concurrently and credit for time served. That is 33 years and nine months. Follow along with me for a few minutes and I’ll explain where the 405 number came from.

Continue reading “More background on Keith Graves’ sentencing.”

Best. Vacation. Ever.

Got back yesterday from another trip to Williston, North Dakota to visit our son and daughter-in-law. (Cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)

Also got to spend a lot of time with our first grandson, who was born on February 8. (Our daughter-in-law pointed out he has a mathematical birthday: 2-8-16. Read that as 2 x 8 = 16.

He is an absolute delight. Quite a precious baby.

Continue reading “Best. Vacation. Ever.”

Keith Graves sentenced to 33 years 9 months

Long term housing for Keith Graves. Duration of residence yet to be determined. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com — Residence of Keith Graves for the next 33 years. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

Sentencing was on February 17. Federal judge Daniel Hovland sentenced Keith Graves to 33 years 9 months in federal prison for five counts of human trafficking along with drug possession and distribution.

2/18 – Williston Herald – Man sentenced to 33 years for sex trafficking (online link not available) – Article says the feds asked for life. Judge ruled 33 years 9 months is the appropriate sentence. Article says he noted that is within federal sentencing guidelines.

Update: Viewable copy of above article: Dickinson Press – ‘Despicable’ sex trafficker gets 33 years in prison

Prosecutors claimed in the hearing there were “dozens” of additional victims, none of whom could be located for the trial. It looks like those victims were identified by review of the electronic devices confiscated from Mr. Graves. He denies those devices are his.

Mr. Graves says he will appeal the conviction. He also objected to several references to previous conviction (or convictions, not sure) for sexual offense.

I have not read the sentencing arguments filed by the US Probation Office. Last time I checked, the document was posted at the federal PACER system but not available to be read.

Sentencing guidelines

Continue reading “Keith Graves sentenced to 33 years 9 months”

Suffering increases in Venezuela, all as a result of official government policies – 2

Shipwreck standing on the beach with the sea in the background. Margarita Island. Venezuela. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

The level of suffering in Venezuela is increasing. All of the blame for the current and future suffering can be laid at the feet of the socialist government.

Previously mentioned Venezuela is in the early stages of hyperinflation: Instead of reading about hyperinflation and economic collapse in history, you can watch it play out live. Tune in to Venezuela.

Some more discussion on the increased suffering:

2/6 – The Economist – The endgame in Venezuela – A few stats from the article:

Government acknowledges that for the 12 months ending 9/2015, inflation was 141% and the economy shrank 7.1%.

Continue reading “Suffering increases in Venezuela, all as a result of official government policies – 2”

Update on Keith Graves sentencing – 2/11/16

Now-convicted human trafficker Keith Graves is still scheduled for sentencing on Wednesday, February 17. That is the latest information visible on the federal PACER website.

A presentence investigation report was filed yesterday, 2/10, but is not available on the website. It is not noted as sealed. I don’t know the PACER system well enough to know what that means. Usually when something is posted it is available immediately.

Continue reading “Update on Keith Graves sentencing – 2/11/16”

Update on the government players in the wide open frontier of space exploration

Cutting edge tech from 1981, above, will update the Saturn V for the new Space Launch System from NASA. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com — Cutting edge tech from 1981, above, will update the Saturn V (cutting edge in 1960s) for the new Space Launch System from NASA. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

The subsidized, politicized government players in the space race are still in the game. A few articles of interest: the directly subsidized ULA approach, the hidden subsidies in the European approach, NASA’s rolling forward the cutting edge Saturn V technology, and China expanding GPS coverage from their country to worldwide.

1/28 – Behind the Black – McCain and Air Force question ULA military arrangement – ULA receives a payment even if there aren’t any launches in a year. This is to give ULA sufficient funds to keep a critical national defense resource open.

I vaguely remember reading that during the Cold War, big defense contracts would be given to one of the major contractors merely because they didn’t have enough work to keep all their production lines open.

While those approaches made sense 10 or 30 years ago, the concept doesn’t work quite so well when there are multiple private companies developing their own launch vehicles and manned capsules.

Continue reading “Update on the government players in the wide open frontier of space exploration”

Update on the wide open frontier of private space exploration

The competition for getting back into space is strong. Very cool.

1/22 – USAF Space and Missile Systems Center – SpaceX Falcon 9 upgrade certified for National Security Space Launches – Upgraded Falcon 9 has been approved for military launches. Gives SpaceX increased opportunities for USAF work.

2/1 – Behind the Black – Another 5 month slip of first Falcon Heavy launch – Continue reading “Update on the wide open frontier of private space exploration”

Which group pays more in individual income taxes? The top 1% of earners of the bottom 95%?

If you guessed the bottom 95%, you would be right.

Follow-up question: What is the spread between the percentage of taxes paid by each group?

What do you think it is? A multiple? Something like double or triple what the 1% pays?

Maybe just a percentage more? 30%, 50%, 60%?

Actually the spread is thin.

Check out the following graph:

Used with permission of Prof. Mark Perry at Carpe Diem.

Continue reading “Which group pays more in individual income taxes? The top 1% of earners of the bottom 95%?”

Fun news on the incredibly wide open frontier of private space exploration – 1/18

SpaceX Dragon capsule in orbit. Photo by SpaceX released to public domain.

If you want to know why I remain so optimistic for our future even though the national political, geopolitical, and economic news is so depressing, check out the space news I’ve noticed in the last week. As Behind the Black often says, the competition is heating up.

One bit of not-so-great news. From Space.com: Video Shows SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Land on Droneship, Then Fall Over and Explode. The video is here. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 landed almost dead center on the drone floating 200 miles south of Vandenberg. The engine cut off which means it was landed successfully. Then one of the legs gave out, the rocket tipped over, then exploded. Preliminary guess is that something (a lockout collet?) iced over while on the launch pad.

1/14 – Behind the Black – Orbital ATK and SpaceX win Air Force contracts – ULA does not have engines for its rockets and thus must rely on Russian engines to get our military launches into space. Orbital ATK and SpaceX both have contracts to develop new engines.

The obvious story line here that gives me such encouragement is two new-on-the-scene, privately owned space companies have been called in to help the mega-contractor ULA get out of its mess.

Another big contract:

Continue reading “Fun news on the incredibly wide open frontier of private space exploration – 1/18”

For an illustration why I use Oxford commas…

… check out this tweet from my friend, John Bredehoft:

My favorite illustration goes like this:

In his lifetime, the journalist interviewed JFK, a drug user and philanderer.

SpaceX successfully lands a first stage booster

[youtube=https://youtu.be/ZCBE8ocOkAQ?t=6]

Space.com provides the great news: Wow! SpaceX Lands Orbital Rocket Successfully in Historic First. On December 21 SpaceX successfully launched 11 satellites into orbit. The secondary objective was to recover the first stage.

On the third attempt to do so, they successfully landed the first stage booster on land. After (not if, but when) they figure out how to do this routinely the cost of a space launch will drop radically. Article says the drop in cost could be in the range of a factor of 100.

One of the commenters on the following video gave this comparison: The flight on 12/21 is like launching a pencil over the Empire State Building, slowing down, and landing softly inside an area the size of a shoe box.

Continue reading “SpaceX successfully lands a first stage booster”