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Chart of the Day: Obama Era Ends With 152 Million People at Work, an Increase of 9.9 Million

by MelinaBivins35 Posted on February 3, 2017

Mother Jones

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The American economy added 227,000 new jobs last month. Unemployment ticked up slightly from 4.72 percent to 4.78 percent, so the headline rate increased from 4.7 percent to 4.8 percent. The whole jobs report was a little strange, though, due to a whopping revision in BLS’s estimate of the total population of the country. Without the controls, 413,000 people re-entered the labor force and the total number of people employed rose by 457,000. Those are both excellent numbers, even if they did cause the official unemployment rate to rise slightly. The labor participation rate rose from 62.7 percent to 62.9 percent regardless of the population revision.

Hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees went up at an annual rate of 2.3 percent. By coincidence, that’s also the average annual increase for the entire Obama presidency. In an era of low inflation, that’s OK but not great. Altogether, this is the last jobs report of the Obama era and the starting point for judging the economic policies of the Trump era:

Headline unemployment rate: 4.8 percent
U6 unemployment rate: 9.4 percent
Labor participation rate: 62.9 percent
Hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees: $21.84

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Chart of the Day: Obama Era Ends With 152 Million People at Work, an Increase of 9.9 Million

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Awesome necklaces are an air pollution visualization

by KattieUINM Posted on July 30, 2015

Awesome necklaces are an air pollution visualization

By on 30 Jul 2015commentsShare

Statement necklaces are so hot these days, but those giant neck shackles are nothing compared to these bad boys.

London-based artists Stefanie Posavec and Miriam Quick designed three in-your-face necklaces to reflect air pollution levels in Sheffield, U.K., a former steelmaking city with notoriously bad air. According to Posavec’s website, the duo felt that a necklace was appropriate because air pollution impacts the heart and lungs. Here’s more from Wired:

Posavec and Quick mapped three nonconsecutive weeks of unusual air-quality patterns onto flat plastic beads. Each bead represents an eight-hour period. The more pollution during that period, the larger and spikier the disc, and the more aware you are of how necklace touches your skin. The outlying data is particularly evocative: One of the necklaces has a big, prickly orange bead depicting the highest level of particulate matter during those few weeks, which took place on Guy Fawkes Night, a UK holiday during which celebrants light nighttime bonfires.

The designers also made three pairs of sunglasses, each with three lenses that represent different air pollutants in Sheffield. The lenses all have designs etched into them — the more prevalent the pollutant, the larger the design. Altogether, the lenses make the glasses pretty hard to see through, which is the point: Pollutants make the air hazy.

Steve McInerny

I never really knew what “statement necklaces” were supposed to be saying, but I’m pretty sure these accessories — called Touching Air and Seeing Air, respectively — are saying something more important. How about earrings that reflect noise pollution? Or toe rings that reflect soil toxicity? Maybe if we were all walking manifestations of the toxins in our environments, the world would be a cleaner place! Just kidding — that’ll never happen.

Source:
Funky Accessories That Visualize Invisible Air Pollution

, Wired.

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Awesome necklaces are an air pollution visualization

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Ex-State Supreme Court Justice: Judicial Elections Are Like "Legalized Extortion"

by AnnelieseHXW Posted on April 2, 2015

Mother Jones

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Though they usually don’t get much attention, judicial elections have become just as cutthroat and cash-driven as other political races. To win a judgeship, many candidates must slime their opponents and win the financial backing of often unaccountable interests that may have business before them in court. (Read more in this Mother Jones investigation.)

The amount of money flowing into these races is staggering: State judicial candidates raised $83 million in the 1990s. Yet during the two years 2012 election cycle, they raised more than $110 million—and that doesn’t include outside spending. Altogether, more than $250 million has been spent on judicial races since 2000.

Judges themselves often hate the process of fundraising and mudslinging, but view it as a necessary evil. Sue Bell Cobb, a career judge and the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, just wrote about her experience for Politico. Her story is worth a full read, but here’s a taste:

While I was proud of the work I did for the next 4 1/2 years, I never quite got over the feeling of being trapped inside a system whose very structure left me feeling disgusted. I assure you: I’ve never made a decision in a case in which I sided with a party because of a campaign donation. But those of us seeking judicial office sometimes find ourselves doing things that feel awfully unsavory.

…

When a judge asks a lawyer who appears in his or her court for a campaign check, it’s about as close as you can get to legalized extortion. Lawyers who appear in your court, whose cases are in your hands, are the ones most interested in giving. It’s human nature: Who would want to risk offending the judge presiding over your case by refusing to donate to her campaign? They almost never say no—even when they can’t afford it.

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Ex-State Supreme Court Justice: Judicial Elections Are Like "Legalized Extortion"

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