Archive for March 2nd, 2009

Car Thief Nabbed After Calling 911 To Brag

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

A Duluth man is behind bars after allegedly stealing a car and repeatedly calling 911 to brag to police that they would not catch him.

Police say the 23-year-old man stole gas from a gas station late Friday, then fled in a car he allegedly stole earlier in the night.

A police officer spotted the stolen car about 2 a.m. Friday and chased the man, who crashed into a guardrail but then turned off his lights and sped away. Police soon found the car abandoned.

Shortly after that, the man allegedly began calling 911 from a cell phone and telling dispatchers he would not be caught because he was “smarter than the police.”

But about two hours later, a man called 911 to report a prowler at his home.
(more…)

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Worst job losses in 60 years expected

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The recession tightened its grip on U.S. businesses and consumers in February, according to economists, who are predicting the largest one-month job loss in almost 60 years.
“Pink slips continue to fly,” said Meny Grauman, an economist for CIBC World Markets.
With output still falling at a dizzying rate, most companies are shedding unneeded workers and cutting back the hours of those remaining. Strapped by debt and seeing their paper wealth evaporating, many consumers are spending as little as they can.
“The economic patient is still in critical condition, with little medication to relieve the pain,” wrote economists Brian Bethune and Nigel Gault of IHS Global Insight. “We will have to bite the bullet.”
The first week of the new month brings two of the most important economic indicators: the ISM index and the nonfarm payrolls report. Both are expected to be very grim news.
Little joy in manufacturing data
First, on Monday, the Institute for Supply Management reports back from purchasing managers at manufacturing firms across the nation.
Although few people outside of the financial markets or the economics profession know what it is, the ISM is probably the best single leading indicator marking the end of a recession. The ISM is a diffusion index that measures the breadth of economic distress or success across firms. It asks key executives to judge whether business is getting better or worse.
Once the ISM — and especially the new-orders component — turns up decisively, the expansion is typically one to four months away, although in some cases it has turned up as much as a year before the end of a recession.
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