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Kudos to Shirley Bianchi for her well-written essay on the important role of taxation in our nation’s history (“Taxes, socialism and weak links,” July 3).
There were two absolutist vows that I refused to take when I ran for state assembly several years ago: “no new taxes” and “no cuts in government spending.” Both vows are equally foolish.
There will always be circumstances when it is necessary for a legislator to vote either to raise taxes or to cut spending.
If a city is about to lose its entire police department, it is hard to imagine someone refusing to raise taxes for the sake of public safety if spending has already been cut to the bone. And it would be equally foolish to refuse to cut spending elsewhere if this is the only alternative.
If I am asked to choose between a fundamentalist and a pragmatist on decisions about taxation and spending, I will choose the pragmatist anytime.
Yes, Shirley Bianchi, let’s get rid of this notion that taxes are bad, as espoused by fundamentalist, anti-tax people (“Taxes, socialism and weak links,” July 3). Let’s also get rid of this notion that spending is good, as espoused by fundamentalist career politicians.
After President Bill Clinton signed legislation in 1996 “ending welfare as we know it,” many highlighted this “common sense” solution and criticized progressives for opposing the bill. Soon after passage, politicians and the media said it had not caused the downsides that activists had predicted, ignoring that the law had not been fully implemented. But troubling reports soon emerged. Jason DeParle wrote a number of pieces in the New York Times about rising homelessness among Milwaukee families denied welfare under the new law. Welfare rolls were down, but the nation had unusually low unemployment, and many leaving the rolls had become homeless. Now, a new report shows that the Clinton welfare law is performing exactly as opponents feared, as the nation’s deep recession allows states to force families off aid and into destitution. It is an American tragedy, largely ignored because the victims are primarily low-income women and their children.
After reading Robert Pear’s April 11 story on how welfare reform is playing out in blue-state Rhode Island, I wondered whether it would echo through the rest of the media. After all, the media had given extraordinarily positive coverage of the “success” of the 1996 law eliminating the federal welfare entitlement, and recall many reporters in the late 1990’s who expressed surprise when I told them I thought the bill would cause great harm to families.
Today, a decade after implementation, the Clinton-Republican “bipartisan” welfare law is a failure. As unemployment has doubled since 2007 and the number of people receiving food stamps has skyrocketed by 40%, the welfare caseload has risen only 10% — a clear indication that the nation’s poorest families are not receiving welfare grants due to the restrictive time limits imposed by the 1996 law.
Ask yourself: if the federal government allowed states to put time limits on food stamps, would those numbers have gone up 40%? Or would we have even more kids on the streets begging for alms?
Families are suffering unnecessarily today because Bill Clinton branded himself a “New Democrat,” vowed to “end welfare as we know it” as part of his 1992 campaign, and then found himself at the start of his 1996 re-election year with not having passed welfare reform.
In the paranoid world of presidential politics, Clinton’s people actually believed that Republican Bob Dole could defeat him that November unless welfare reform was passed. So Clinton, along with every Democratic Senator up for election that year except the late Paul Wellstone, joined with Republicans in enacting a welfare bill that omitted many of the essential safeguards that progressives had insisted be part of any deal.
Safeguards like avoiding lifetime time limits, which were completely unrealistic in light of the nation’s boom and bust economy. Or allowing states to cut or even eliminate benefits as sanctions against families allegedly missing work requirements, regardless of surrounding circumstances.
Liberal supporters pointed to the increased funding for job training, and argued that this was worth the trade-off. Others pointed to the current system not giving recipients sufficient incentive to work (as if the meager grants available prior to 1996 would lead many people to prefer welfare to employment).
Few with experience working with low-income families felt the time limits were anything but a strategy for states to reduce their rolls. And that is precisely what happened.
Welfare reform was said to be a tremendous success in the years following passage, because the economy had jobs for welfare recipients and the lifetime time limits had not kicked in. And thousands of articles and columns written about welfare reform succeeded and why its progressive critics were wrong.
And progressives were not simply criticized for backing the wrong policy. Instead, opponents were identified McGovernite, “big government knows best,” pie-in-the-sky 1960’s throwbacks whose views had brought the Democratic Party nothing but failure in national elections.
But as progressives warned back in 1996, welfare reform could not be measured only by the first few years, or only during economic good times.
As family homeless shelters are overfilled in city after city, as mothers are forced to return to abusive husbands to get money for their kids, and as child poverty has greatly increased since 1996, the law’s failure is clear.
Since 1996, the proportion of children receiving welfare has declined by 50%, while fewer than half of economically eligible families participate in the program.
As progressives predicted, the primary impact of the welfare law has been to deny cash assistance to the nation’s poorest families. This escalation of poverty among the nation’s families is a key part of Bill Clinton’s legacy, ignored as he troops through the third world on missions to help the downtrodden.
The problems of the poor have been eclipsed by the economic downturn for the working and middle class. But while the number of destitute families increase out of sight and out of mind, President Obama and Congress must address this national disgrace.
Throughout the past year, financial institutions struggled to sustain their former levels of profitability, as a rise in interest rates caused mortgage refinancing volumes to plunge. Ordinarily, that might have meant difficulty for Ellie Mae , which specializes in software that helps mortgage originators manage their businesses more efficiently.
Yet as we've seen for quite a while, Ellie Mae stock has soared, even as volumes remained weak during most of 2014. Coming into Thursday afternoon's fourth-quarter report, Ellie Mae investors weren't certain about the company's growth prospects; but Ellie Mae's results left no doubt that the company's mortgage-handling platform has found favor in its core audience.
Let's take a closer look at just how well Ellie Mae performed last quarter, and what's coming in 2015.
Originating success at Ellie MaeEllie Mae posted record results in the fourth quarter, with a 53% climb in revenue, to $46.6 million, easily outpacing the 37% growth that most investors were looking to see. Net income soared more than 150%, and on an adjusted basis, earnings doubled to $0.38 per share, defying the slight decline in the consensus estimates among stock analysts. For the year, Ellie Mae's growth wasn't quite as impressive, but was still good, with revenue rising by more than a quarter, and adjusted net income climbing at an 18% pace.
Looking more closely at some of Ellie Mae's key metrics, the company clearly benefited from an upturn in the popularity of its service. The number of clients using Ellie Mae's Encompass system jumped 18%, to 109,000, and 85,000 of those users took advantage of the software-as-a-service version of the platform, up 33% from the year-ago quarter. Users under contract also rose by a third, and revenue from the SaaS version of Encompass climbed by nearly half, and now represents three-fifths of total revenue for the quarter.
Ellie Mae's Encompass consumer direct product. Source: Ellie Mae.
In addition, Ellie Mae's customer base has gotten more active, and therefore more profitable. Revenue per active user rose by 32%, to $433, and on-demand revenue jumped by nearly three-fifths to compose the lion's share of Ellie Mae's total sales. As new CEO Jonathan Corr pointed out, "We benefited from an uptick in the volume of loan applications during the quarter."
Yet Ellie Mae has also proven that even a slowdown in mortgage activity was positive for the company. "Against the backdrop of mortgage industry volumes that declined 38% in 2014," Corr said, "our performance was driven by demand for our all-in-one solution that meets lenders' ever-increasing needs for loan quality, regulatory compliance, and operating efficiency."
CEO Jonathan Corr. Source: Ellie Mae.
What will 2015 bring for Ellie Mae?Ellie Mae remains optimistic about the coming year. The company's guidance for the first quarter includes revenue expectations of between $46 million and $47 million, producing adjusted earnings of $0.19 to $0.21 per share, both of which are better than those who are following the stock currently expect. For the full 2015 year, sales of $203 million to $206 million would equate to adjusted earnings of $0.86 to $0.91 per share, also topping estimates on both scores.
Yet a lot of Ellie Mae's success will depend on mortgage origination volume, and that's a tough issue for market participants to figure out. For its part, Ellie Mae relies on figures from the Mortgage Bankers Association and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which believe that 2015 mortgage origination volume will climb 3% from last year's levels. Yet with some expecting the Federal Reserve to start raising interest rates in the middle of the year, the potential for soaring interest rates and a potential standstill in mortgage origination activity is a real threat.
Still, investors responded positively to Ellie Mae's quarterly results, sending the stock up nearly 10% in the first half-hour of after-hours trading following the announcement. Given how much success the company has had with its software, even during challenging conditions, anything short of a worst-case scenario for the mortgage market could bring even more growth to Ellie Mae's business this year and beyond.
The article Ellie Mae Rides the Mortgage Rebound Higher originally appeared on Fool.com.
The East Baton Rouge Parish government may have violated the state constitution by selling two pieces of public land and enacting two contracts with the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination Program, according to an audit released by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor today.
The 63-page audit says that two pieces of land were sold for less than their appraised value, an action forbidden by the state constitution, which states public property must be sold at or above fair market value. According to the audit, the city-parish may have also failed to establish minimum prices and publish public notice of the ordinances regarding the sale, as is required by the state.
As first reported by Daily Report in 2017, one of the deals involved a prominent 50,000-square-foot vacant lot at the corner of Jefferson Highway and Bluebonnet Boulevard that sold for just $10,000—an astonishing sale that left local experts scratching their heads.
The city-parish also contracted with area vendors to provide services in connection with the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination program. Two of those contracts lacked sufficient detail to determine whether the amounts the city-parish paid were reasonable in light of vendors’ services, the audit reports.
Chief Administrative Officer Darryl Gissel says the city-parish provided the missing documentation and will address contracts like those audited with more specificity in the future.
As for the land sales, Parish Attorney Lea Anne Batson says the city-parish disagrees that the sales were not properly advertised.
“However, in hindsight, the second deal was clearly for less than the market the value and we have filed a suit to rescind the sale,” Batson says, adding that future sales will include an appraisal and minimum bid.
See the full audit, which includes a six-page response from Mayor Sharon Weston Broome.
The theme is “Don’t Give Up!” Everyone may attend. Details: Friday, July 21, 9:20 a.m. - Sunday, July 23. PNC Arena, 1400 Edwards Mill Rd, Raleigh. http://bit.ly/1s7wWJ6, 919-861-2300.
Details: Friday, July 21, 10 p.m. $5, 21+. Pinhook, 117 W Main St, Durham. www.thepinhook.com, 919-667-1100.
Sponsored by Carolina Song & Dance Association. Music by Donnybrook Lads. Details: Friday, July 21, Lesson 7:30 p.m.; Dance 8 p.m. -11 p.m. $10. No partner/experience is needed. Please wear soft-soled shoes. Carrboro Century Center, 100 N. Greensboro St, Carrboro. www.csda-dance.org/index.htm.
Join a Park Ranger for a canoe trip on the Eno River. Children must be 8 years old or older and accompanied by an adult. Details: Friday, July 21, 9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area, Eno Mountain Rd Bridge, 625 Virginia Cates Rd, Hillsborough. http://bit.ly/2uRggYT, 919-383-1686.
An afternoon of poetry and discussion, focused on the Beats and other poets from the post-WWII to mid-1960s era. Details: Saturday, July 22, 3 p.m. Free. Southwest Regional Library, 3605 Shannon Rd, Durham. http://bit.ly/2tmDqEz, 919-560-0213.
Details: Saturday, July 22, 7 a.m. Meet in front of the Wild Bird Center in Eastgate Shopping Center (1800 E. Franklin Street) in Chapel Hill for a 2-3 hour bird walk. Heavy rain will result in cancellation. For questions, contact Vern Bothwell at vbothwell@jbdlaw.com.
Learn about the pH of the river and how it compares to the pH of other items you can find in your home. Details: Saturday, July 22, 9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Free. Eno River State Park, Piper-Cox Porch, 6101 Cole Mill Rd, Durham. fhttp://bit.ly/2t3uzw6, 919-383-1686.
Take a closer look as to what makes certain types of plants thrive while others cannot. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Details: Saturday, July 22, 12 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Free. Eno River State Park, Piper-Cox Porch, 6101 Cole Mill Rd, Durham. http://bit.ly/2sQatBc, 919-383-1686.
Take a look at the invasive species that are found in the area and how they are affecting native species. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Details: Saturday, July 22, 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. Free. Eno River State Park, Piper-Cox Porch, 6101 Cole Mill Rd, Durham. http://bit.ly/2uiwtJl, 919-383-1686.
Explore the pyrophyllite quarry with a real geologist. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Details: Saturday, July 22, 10 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area, 625 Virginia Cates Rd, Hillsborough. http://bit.ly/2tNg9NK, 919-383-1686.
Celebrate North Carolina food culture and history! This extremely tasty event includes a BBQ and Pie contest. Guests can taste the BBQ and pick a People's Choice winner of their own. Details: Saturday, July 22, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Free. Duke Homestead, 2828 Duke Homestead Rd, Durham. http://bit.ly/1pF2qUf, 919-627-6690.
Discover an abandoned cemetery deep in the woods and hear some lore around those who may still haunt these woods. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Details: Sunday, July 23, 7 p.m. - 8 p.m. Free. Eno River State Park, Cabelands Parking Lot, 6101 Cole Mill Rd, Durham. http://bit.ly/2uiGBSF, 919-383-1686.
Rev. Emily Carroll of First Calvary Baptist Church of Durham will begin the revival's topic "The Worship Experience." Rev. Brandon McLauchlin of St. Charles AMEZ of Sparkill, NY will be the key speaker on Tuesday, July 25. Pastor Brent Murphy of the New Birth Bible Fellowship of Raleigh will close the revival on July 26. Details: Monday, July 24 - Wednesday, July 26. Mt. Level Missionary Baptist Church, 316 Hebron Rd, Durham. 919-477-3893.
A community of songwriters developing their craft together. Upright piano on site. Details: Monday, July 24, 7:30 p.m. Free. The ArtsCenter, 300-G East Main St, Carrboro. http://bit.ly/2tTdqT8, 919-929-2787.
Join Jeanette Stokes for a reading and discussion of her latest work, “Just Keep Going: Advice on Writing and Life.” Books will be available for purchase. Details: Tuesday, July 25, 7 p.m. Southwest Regional Library, 3605 Shannon Rd, Durham. http://bit.ly/2tTpNi3, 919-560-0268.
Weekly club meetings offer a comfortable environment to practice public speaking and leadership skills. Details: Tuesday, July 25, 12 p.m. - 1 p.m. Guests are free. Health Sciences Library, UNC, 335 South Columbia St, Chapel Hill. http://unc.live/2tjLJWg.
Details: Every Tuesday, 10:45 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Free. Johnny’s Gone Fishing, 901 W. Main St, Carrboro. www.johnnysgonefishing.com, 919-932-5070.
Details: Tuesday, July 25, 8:30 p.m. Free. Pinhook, 117 W Main St, Durham. www.thepinhook.com, 919-667-1100.
A needlework group that creates knitted and crocheted items for charities. Details: Every Tuesday, 1 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Chapel Hill Public Library, Meeting Room A, 100 Library Dr, Chapel Hill. More information: schectman at gmail.com, or see Facebook group "Chapel Hill Charity Knitting and Crochet."
Learn basic canoeing techniques. All equipment is provided. Children must be 8 years old or older and accompanied by an adult. Details: Tuesday, July 25, 10:30 a.m. Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area, Eno Mountain Rd Bridge, 625 Virginia Cates Rd, Hillsborough. http://bit.ly/2tIzfq4, 919-383-1686.
Join us for Preschool Storytime at The Regulator with Amy Godfrey. Details: Every Wednesday, 10:15 a.m. Free. The Regulator Bookshop, 720 9th St, Durham. www.regulatorbookshop.com, 919-286-2700.
A club where people gather to improve public speaking and group leadership skills. Details: Wednesday, July 26, 7 a.m. - 8 a.m. Guests are free. Duke Credit Union, 2200 W. Main St, Durham. http://bit.ly/2t8YL53.
Grab a pint and ponder the big questions of life and faith. Part of the Southern Village Wellness Wednesdays. Details: Wednesday, July 26, 4 p.m. - 5 p.m. Free. Town Hall Grill, 410 Market St, Chapel HIll. http://bit.ly/2urbvbv.
Details: Wednesday, July 26, 7 a.m. Meet in front of the Wild Bird Center in Eastgate Shopping Center (1800 E. Franklin Street) in Chapel Hill for a 2-3 hour bird walk. Heavy rain will result in cancellation. For questions, contact David Anderson at d47anders@gmail.com.
Sponsored by Sun Assembly English Country Dancers. All dances are taught in a gender-neutral manner. No partner required. Details: Thursday, July 27, 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. $7. Freedman Center, 1004 Watts St, Durham. Website: www.sunassembly.org, 919-683-9672.
Details: Thursday, July 27, 6:30 p.m. - 8 p.m. Free. Duke Medical Center, Board Room 11708, Yellow Zone, 1st Floor, Duke Clinic, 40 Duke Medicine Cr, Durham. Contact Janeli Smith, 919-660-7510, for more information.
Featuring Chef John May partnering with local purveyors to create exciting themed evenings. The theme will be Grilled Veggies featuring Fullsteam Brewery. Details: Thursday, July 27, 6:30 p.m., $40, includes four courses. Additional $15 for beverage pairings. Piedmont Restaurant, 401 Foster St, Suite 401-B2, Durham. http://piedmontrestaurant.com, 919-683-1213.
For an extended list of events, please visit our website at www.heraldsun.com/entertainment/local-events. If you would like to submit an event to our calendar, please email Cindy Henry, Calendar News Clerk, at calendar@heraldsun.com. The deadline is the Friday before you would like the event to appear in the next Friday's calendar of events.
It had to happen sometime. Snapchat may be one of the most popular apps, but millions of face swaps don’t exactly equal cold, hard cash. You know what does? Showing ads between friends’ stories.
The good news: You can skip them (for now). The bad news: The video ads are full screen, with sound, and if you accidentally swipe up you might be sent to an even longer ad or asked to download another app. Swipe carefully.
It’s not just that ads are coming—we probably always knew that—it’s that Snapchat’s new push suggests that a lot of them are coming really fast. The company has added an API so that advertisers can buy huge ad campaigns all at once. It’s offered to make things as easy as possible by connecting advertisers with creative firms to design the ads (which used to be done in-house). It’s building measurement tools so that advertisers can see which videos are most popular. It’s bragging that five times more people “engage” with its ads than on other social platforms. In other words, it really, really wants to leverage money out of those 150 million pairs of eyes that look at the app daily.
It’s no surprise Snapchat wants to make itself more attractive to advertisers, given that, before now, it had yet to truly focus on making money. It’s partnered with media organizations and experimented with sponsored filters but there’s a lot more money to be made if it can only figure out how strong our tolerance is.
Of course, Snapchat has promised that it will review all ads to make sure there they’re not terrible but, as The Verge pointed out, we’ve heard that before from Instagram and it wasn’t very convincing. A leaked presentation deck shows that Snapchat made $59 million last year, and wants to hit up to $1 billion by next year. Just imagine how many ads that’ll take.
The Old Coffee Pot, a popular breakfast spot on St. Peter Street in the French Quarter, closed this month, according to a message on the restaurant’s Facebook page.
Fans of the picturesque spot, adjacent to Pat O’Brien’s and just off Bourbon Street, responded on the Facebook page, with lamentations.
In 2018, the restaurant was featured on a typically brutal episode of "Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back."
The restaurant, at 714 St Peter St., served traditional Creole and Cajun cuisine and was one of the few places in town where calas were regularly served. “Calas Cakes,” as the menu called them, were listed as rice cakes served with or without pecans. Dining writer Tom Fitzmorris has written that the restaurant has served them since the 1940s.
The restaurant was popular with tourists, especially for its breakfast and personable waitresses, who had a loyal following all their own.
Does a good engineering culture matter? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
I was fortunate, early on in my career, to work at Maxim Integrated Products. Maxim was one of the most successful technology companies of the 1990s, growing to $1B/year in revenue by the end of the decade.
Maxim’s engineering culture was superb. The talent level, passion, rigor, and collaboration was off the charts.
I’ve worked at successful technology companies, unsuccessful technology companies, and I’ve started my own company since leaving Maxim. There is a direct correlation between having a successful engineering culture and the success of the company.
A. Great technology companies only hire the best. Great technology companies have extremely high standards for hiring.
A great technology company may make hiring mistakes, but they are quickly corrected.
Unsuccessful technology companies' hiring standards are less stringent. They knowingly hire mediocre talent that is “good enough”.
B. Great technology companies pay for talent. And, interestingly enough, the great technology companies I’ve worked at usually pay market rate. They don’t have to overpay.
Unsuccessful technology companies are all over the map. I’ve seen them overpay, but, more often, I’ve seen them underpay.
C. Great technology companies have rigor. The design review process at the great companies that I’ve worked at is always tough.
The design team reviewing the design is always well prepared. And the designer was usually appreciative of the rigor imposed.
Unsuccessful technology companies have a weak design review process. And I’ve seen instances where there was no design review process at all.
D. Great technology companies have teams that work well together. The teamwork and collaboration between engineers at the great technology companies is, in my experience, really good.
Engineers learn from each other and help each other regularly. In other words, there is cultural fit among the engineers.
E. Great technology companies never, ever release a design unless all the review action items are completed. This is a big issue in the semiconductor world where you can be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars every mask set.
Unsuccessful technology companies have a “Silicon bread board” mentality. Designs are spun again and again causing delays and results that don’t meet specifications.
F. The engineering team at a great technology company passionately cares about the company’s success. Sometimes engineers just care about the work because it’s cool.
And I’m not saying that there aren’t engineers at unsuccessful companies that don’t care. There are.
However, the percentage of engineers that are truly passionate and care about the company is much higher at the great technology companies. It makes sense because of how high the standards are for hiring and the importance great technology companies place on culture.