** You have to love the consternation amongst anti-immigration factions in the U.S. and Nevada who “court” the Hispanic vote while calling for the “self-deportation” of undocumented persons. The Nevada View notes:
Dean Heller has been trying real hard lately to massage his image with Hispanic voters in Nevada. He wants Latinos to forget his long record of unfriendly rhetoric, votes against bills like the DREAM Act, and general disregard for the issues that matter most to their community.
Perhaps Senator Heller would like to explain his vote (#121) opposing the nomination of Maria Carmen Aponte to represent the U.S. as ambassador to the Republic of El Salvador? The Republican filibuster of Aponte’s appointment was broken on a 61-37 Senate vote. “Republicans had opposed Aponte over unfounded rumors that her boyfriend of years ago was a Cuban spy and over conservative outrage at an opinion piece she wrote last summer on gay rights. ” [Deseret News] (emphasis added)
Lest we consider the Hispanic community some sort of monolithic amalgam, Senator Heller’s opposition to Aponte’s appointment is a direct slap at Americans of Puerto Rican heritage. The appointment also serves to increase the number of a traditionally under-recognized group: Hispanic women. Aponte follows in the footsteps of Maria Luci Jamarillo, who served as ambassador to Honduras from 1977 to 1980. [USDip]
** Meanwhile back at the DREAM Act. President Obama’s announcement of enforcement guidelines regarding children who were brought to this country by undocumented parents has candidate Romney on his back foot. As of January 1, 2012 former Governor Romney was unequivocal:
Reporting from Des Moines — Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney has pledged to veto the so-called DREAM Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for children of illegal immigrants if they attend college or serve in the military. [LATimes]
That was before he was equivocal. As of 36 hours ago the former Massachusetts governor was still dodging:
“But rather than flatly decrying the White House’s new policy as a reward for illegal behavior, as he did throughout the primaries, Romney has yet to explain what he’d do instead or even whether he’d even reverse Obama’s orders.” [TPM]
It’s only June, so we have lots of time before Governor Romney invokes his best known position on all things: “I’m not familiar precisely with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said whatever it was.” [TPM]
** The former Governor has had yet another Etch-A-Sketch moment on alternative energy. Dismissing his record promoting alternative energy during his tenure in Massachusetts, the Governor has moved:
Today he is a proclaimed skeptic on global warming, a champion of oil and other fossil fuels, a critic of federal efforts to develop cleaner energy sources and a sworn enemy of the Environmental Protection Agency. [NYT]
This is a bit out of step with the efforts of the Las Vegas Sanitary Sewer Enterprise Fund which has invested in solar power to 20% of the power needed to operate the Water Pollution Control Facility in Las Vegas. One official reported:
When the solar array project at the wastewater treatment plant is finished, the city will be up to nearly 5 megawatts of total solar energy installed across 28 city facilities and will provide up to 20 percent of the city’s peak energy demand, Perrigo said. “That will save the city anywhere from $800,000 to $1 million on its energy bill,” he said. [LV Sun]
Isn’t the idea to save tax dollars? Current estimates project city power costs at $15 million per year. Reducing total power costs by about 6.7% annually means better value for Las Vegas water and sewer customers.
** Governor Romney is on record supporting the repeal of the Dodd Frank Act, which may not make some small investors very comfortable. The Facebook IPO story keeps moving along, and we’re now informed that Facebook and Morgan Stanley stuffed Facebook stock into small investors’ accounts while the “smart money ran for the hills.” [BusinessInsider] Mike Mayo (analyst for Credit Agricole CLSA) has some blunt words for the bankers — fix your system or it will get fixed for you, “and rightly so.” And, if we think the problems in money market funds (MMF) were all finished with the issues of the Reserve Primary Fund in September 2008, please think again:
“In particular, MMFs can still take risks similar to those that destroyed the Reserve Primary Fund and triggered the damaging run in 2008: MMFs still use the same set of tools, including rounded NAVs, to maintain principal stability; and investors still have incentives to run at the first sign of trouble. Thus, the SEC’s current efforts to modify the structure of MMFs to reduce incentives to run may be essential not only for protecting MMF investors—especially retail investors—but also for protecting the stability of the U.S. financial system and maintaining the access of businesses, consumers, and governments to credit. In a future post, we intend to describe a proposal for improving the stability of MMFs by making them less vulnerable to runs.” [LibertyStreet]
“Vulnerable” and “runs” are NOT two words a person wants to see in any discussion of money market funds. Perhaps we can be reassured by Governor Romney’s position on de-regulation of financial markets: “I’m not familiar precisely with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said whatever it was.” [TPM]
