Spirit Airlines: $5 To Print Boarding Passes

But only if their clerk prints them for you at the airport.

Low-fare carrier Spirit Airlines drew gasps last year when it became the first U.S. airline to charge passengers for bringing carry-on bags aboard. On Tuesday, the proponent of fees for nearly everything airborne unveiled another U.S. first: Passengers who have boarding passes printed by a Spirit check-in agent will be charged $5 each for each nonstop flight. The Miramar, Fla., carrier said fliers can avoid forking over a five spot by checking in online and printing their own boarding passes. The new fee, which started Tuesday, applies to all flights booked for travel on or after Nov. 1.

Spirit also charges $20-$35 to use the overhead bin for a carry-on.

Rick Perry: God Caused The Bad Economy So We'll Return To Biblical Principles

So says the governor of Texas.

The Bush Legacy

(Source)

One Million Americans Apply For McJobs

Over one million applicants turned out for McDonald's highly-publicized hiring spree last week.

McDonald’s Corp, the world’s biggest restaurant chain, said it hired 24 percent more people than planned during an employment event this month. McDonald’s and its franchisees hired 62,000 people in the U.S. after receiving more than one million applications, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. Previously, it said it planned to hire 50,000. The April 19 national hiring day was the company’s first, said Danya Proud, a McDonald’s spokeswoman. She declined to disclose how many of the jobs were full- versus part-time. McDonald’s employed 400,000 workers worldwide at company-owned stores at the end of 2010, according to a company filing.

The big hiring push was heralded by some as evidence as a surging economy, but you have to wonder what those same analysts say about the 938,000+ plus folks who were desperate enough to work at McDonald's but got turned away.

Forbes Issues 2011 Billionaires List

Forbes Magazine has issued this year's list of the world's richest people. The number of billionaires grew by 199 in 2010.

Mexico's Carlos Slim expanded his lead as the world's richest man, adding $20.5 billion to his net worth in the past year, for a total fortune of $74 billion. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, now co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is second with a total worth of $56 billion. Despite Apple's leaps in value the past year, CEO Steve Jobs is still only No. 110 on the list, worth a comparatively more modest $8.3 billion. By February, Apple had grown to be worth $100 billion more than Microsoft. Eight of the world's billionaires this year are 30 years old or younger, and half of them got rich off of popular social networking site Facebook.

Tea Party kingpins David and Charles Koch are tied at #18, with a combined net worth of $44B. GOProud backer Peter Thiel lands this year at #833.

Vampire Forecloses On Bank

Alternate headline: Bloodsucker Vs. Bloodsucker.

(Via - Daily What)

Riots Worsen In Egypt

The Egyptian government has cut off internet access in Cairo as unrest worsens on the third straight day of rioting.

Rioting Continues In Eygpt

Police are retaliating against protesters with fire hoses, tear gas, and batons tonight as Cairo is roiled by its second day of anti-government rioting.

Anti-Government Riots Rock Egypt

Russia Today reports:

Thousands of anti-government protesters, some hurling rocks and climbing on top of an armoured police truck, clashed with riot police on Tuesday in the centre of Cairo in a Tunisia-inspired demonstration to demand the end of Hosni Mubarak's nearly 30 years in power. Police responded with blasts from a water cannon and set upon crowds with batons and acrid clouds of tear gas to clear demonstrators who chanted "Down with Mubarak", and as they demanded an end to the country's grinding poverty.

Sen. Harry Reid: Tea Party Will Disappear As Soon As The Economy Gets Better

Mitch Daniels: Deficit Doubled Under Bush Because The Dot-Com Bubble Burst

Potential 2012 GOP presidential candidate Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN) gets raked over the coals by CNN's Wolf Blitzer over the disastrous economic policies of the Bush II regime, for whom Daniels was budget director.

Unemployment Benefits Duration By State

(Via - Andrew Sullivan)

A&P Files For Bankruptcy

The 151 year-old Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, which operates 400 grocery stores under the names A&P, Food Emporium, Pathmark and others, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The company said it will have access to $800 million in debtor-in-possession financing and that all of its stores are fully stocked and open for business. The company said that it determined that it could not complete its turnaround plan without filing for bankruptcy protection. The filing was widely anticipated. The company's stock price fell more than 67 percent on Friday, and trading was halted in the afternoon. Shares have traded between 86 cents and $13 in the past 52 weeks.

The first A&P store opened in NYC in 1859 and the company remains the dominant grocery chain in the metro area. If my Food Emporium goes under, I'll have to shop at....Gristedes. Shudder.

Obama Calls For Federal Wage Freeze

President Obama today called for a two year freeze on the wages of all federal employees.

According to the administration, the two-year pay freeze would save $2 billion for the remainder of fiscal year 2011 and $28 billion over the next five years. The freeze would not apply to military personnel, but would apply to all civilian federal employees, including those in various alternative pay plans and those working at the Department of Defense. Federal workers shouldn't feel singled out: The White House says more tough choices are on the way. "This freeze is not to punish federal workers or to disrespect the work that they do," the White House said in a statement. "It is the first of many actions we will take in the upcoming budget to put our nation on sound fiscal footing -- which will ask for some sacrifice from us all."

Wanna bet the teabaggers still find a problem with this?

General Motors Thanks America

Yesterday General Motors ran this oddly affecting clip thanking Americans for bailing them out of bankruptcy.

Daily Grumble

The CVS on my block has completely done away with humans and you must now use the miserable, annoying, never-works-right self check-out. Place your scanned item on the tray. Place your scanned item on the tray. My motherfucking scanned item IS on the motherfucking tray. I always scream at the attendant, who shrugs and wanders away. Seniors, of course, are completely flummoxed by the machines, so checkout times are much longer. Congratulations CVS, you make the eye-rolling cashiers at Duane Reade feel like the fucking Welcome Wagon.

NYC Subway Fares To Jump On Dec. 30th

The MTA has announced an expected, but fairly hefty increase in its unlimited ride cards, effective December 30th.

MTA board members approved a whopping fare hike this morning with a 12 to 2 vote -- sending the monthly MetroCard to $104 from $89 and increasing the single ride from $2.25 to $2.50 starting Dec. 30. The hike is the third in three years and comes as the MTA made massive service cuts this past June. "What's next? A surcharge for scheduled information or directions to the on-board bathroom?" said Bill Henderson, an MTA watchdog. The hike will also include reducing the bonus on the pay-per-ride cards from 15 to seven percent, and increase the amount riders need to shell out for that bonus by $2. Also, the one- and 14- day unlimited MetroCards will be eliminated, a $1 surcharge will be applied every time a rider doesn't refill an old MetroCard, and commuter railroad fares will increase by as much as 11 percent.

I no longer ride the subway often enough to warrant a monthly pass, but that $1 surcharge for new cards will help me hang on to all those cards with 25 cents left on them. Back when wearing onions on our belt was the fashion, MTA cards only came in exact multiples of the cost of a single ride.

NY Times To Stop Printing (Someday)

The New York Times will cease production of its print edition relatively soon according to its publisher.

"We will stop printing the New York Times sometime in the future, date TBD," Arthur Sulzberger told an audience at a London media summit Wednesday. Sulzberger's statement came in response to a prediction that the newspaper would go out-of-print by 2015. "This sounds obvious, but it's a big deal," Business Insider founder Henry Blodget wrote. "The economics of the online news business will not support the infrastructure or newsroom that the printed paper supports. Unless the New York Times Company can come up with a miracle new digital revenue stream, therefore, it will eventually have to be restructured and downsized.

Early next year the Times will install a metered paywall on its website in which users will be able to read a limited number of free articles before being forced to subscribe.

American Apparel Stock Value Plummets Amidst Talk Of Bankruptcy

American Apparel's stock value is plummeting upon news earlier this week that the company may be forced into bankruptcy over its vanishing credit line with vendors.

After warning this week that there was "substantial doubt that the company will be able to continue as a going concern," the company saw its stock fall 21.3% on Wednesday, ending at an all-time low of 81 cents. That was on the heels of a 26% plunge the day before. In recent months, the troubled company has been beset by sales declines, losses, a crackdown on undocumented workers, problems with its debt, delayed quarterly filings and, most recently, an investigation by the U.S. attorney's office in New York related to the company's abrupt change in accounting firms. Industry experts say the company's problems are so severe that nothing short of a major overhaul in its business practices and management, which could include a possible bankruptcy filing, can pull it out of its free fall.

Some analysts contend that the company could only be saved with the removal of mercurial CEO Dov Charney, who has also faced numerous sexual harassment allegations from staffers.

Newsweek Sells For $1

The Washington Post has sold Newsweek to electronics billionaire Sidney Harman for $1 in return for his pledge to assume the struggling title's liabilities and retain most of its staff.

Newsweek has struggled through the recession more than most weekly news magazines, losing nearly $30 million last year alone. It was earning that much a year as recently as 2007. And the longer it remained on the market, the less tenable its financial situation became. It has been an expensive product for the Post Company to produce, with its various international editions and separate back-office positions that were specific to the magazine. Instead of sharing a general counsel and accounting staff with the Post Company, for example, Newsweek has its own employees in those positions. The magazine’s top editors and managers redesigned it last year in hopes of attracting more readers and advertisers. But the updated magazine, which contained more commentary and analysis on the news of the week, failed to catch on.

Harman, who is 91, is married to Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA).