Interesting thing I saw in Sports Illustrated: $4 million - Estimated annual amount the Trail Blazers expect to save after eliminating 90 staff jobs, such as community relations ambassador and team broadcasting associate, on July 8. $12 million - Annual salary of Blazers reserve guard Damon Stoudamire, who on July 4 was arrested on a marijuana-related charge for the third time in 16 months. Another interesting thing I saw in Readers Digest: The Constitution gives the government the right to seize private property for "public use" as long as just compensation is paid the owner. The concept is known as eminent domain, and traditionally it has been used by government to take land for schools, highways, military bases, and other projects with obvious public benefit. In 1984 a Supreme Court decision expanded the understanding of eminent domain. According to the Court, states were then allowed to define "public use" as anything "rationally related to a conceivable public purpose." In many cases, public officials are able to justify land grabs by arguing that higher tax revenues qualified as a "public purpose." A study by the Institute for Justice, a public interest legal foundation, found that over the past five years more than 10,000 homes have been seized or threatened with seizure, virtually all on similar grounds...Though necessary in rare cases, eminent domain has become the weapon of first resort for cash-hungry government, a tool of greedy bureaucrats serving the interests of greedy developers. Listening: Spoon |