Planet Money : NPR

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Are There Too Many Political Appointees? : Planet Money : NPR

The transition to the Biden administration may be going, let us say, a bit slower than transitions have in the past. But the rumbles of the age-old, post-election shift in Washington can still be heard. Thousands of victorious campaign staffers, donors, glory seekers, and hangers-ons will soon be swarming the capital in search of jobs in the new administration. And, in a few weeks, there will be a convenient guidebook published for them.

The book is officially called United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions, but it's better known as the Plum Book because of its purple cover — and also probably because it's filled with plum jobs, many of which are appointed by the winning presidential candidate. The book is published every four years after presidential elections. It's a long list of positions around the federal government, typically providing information on who last held them and what their salary was.

How the NYPD gets people’s personal data with no oversight

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How the NYPD gets people’s personal data with no oversight

The NYPD has used tens of thousands of questionable subpoenas over the last decade to intimidate private companies into handing over the personal information of cops and civilians alike — all with no oversight from the city or the courts, The Post has found.

While the vast majority of subpoenas in New York State — and across the country — require the signature of a judge or the blessing of a grand jury, the New York City Council empowered the department nearly a century ago to issue such commands to force unwilling cops to produce internal records or appear at disciplinary hearings

November 17, 2020 Morning

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Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Two weeks to December 🎄. Cloudy and 30 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁️ There is a south-southwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The skies will clear around 5 pm.

This is the middle of November 🦃 so cool and cloudy weather is to be expected. 🌥 Out for my morning walk 🚶🏻, and it’s cool and gray but generally pleasant for the second half of November. A week from today will be the Tuesday before Thanksgiving 🦃. Listening to Simon and Garfunkel’s Cloudy.

Not AN ILLEGAL! At least when it comes to my truck. I got my new registration sticker on my truck 📜 and my truck passed inspection but I have to go back to the shop for the sticker later in the week. Annoying that they haven’t gotten the stickers after the November 3rd rush but they said it would take two minutes to get the inspection finished later in the week but everything looked good. At any rate, it buys me time ⌚. At some point I’ll have to make a decision about the tires and probably the worn struts and the wheel bearing that I think is going although it might just be the wear noise of the tires.

Been doing a lot of research on internet options for January should the pandemic continue along for remote work 💻 from home. I am thinking if I can reduce my data service on my phone 📱 I can cover at least some of the cost. I just don’t think it’s practical to work in my truck from the library when it’s negative 20 out and I don’t want to screw up my good job because I’m so damn stubborn about technology. 🙄My phone plan expires in December, so I could cut down the data plan to save money there. I’ll probably have to reduce my monthly savings goals but I don’t want to kill the golden cow 🐮. At any rate, I would get the most basic and cheapest plan if I had to get it.

Plus it would be a heck of a lot easier than using the USB cable 🔌 to transfer files 📂 between my phone 📲 and the laptop 💻 whenever I need a file between the two. It works but it’s kind of cumbersome to say the least. Plus then I could build smart 🧠 devices using microprocessors to pull data from the internet. On the other hand, I would miss my walks to the library and the park 🏞 to get podcasts and other files.

I am working on a new chart 📊 uploader for the blog that will allow me to directly upload CSV files saved from Open Office or Microsoft Excel and use them as graphs on the blog. That means I can create new graphs directly from my phone or any other computer 🖥 I may be on.

Those Kinzua and Allegheny Reservoir aerial photos 🗺 I’ve been going through are quite interesting, I am going to do some more work on them and eventually post some historical comparisons. 📚 Neat stuff.

Today will have a chance of rain and snow before 10am, then a chance of rain between 10am and 5pm, then a slight chance of rain and snow after 5pm. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a high of 42 degrees at 2pm. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 29th. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 38 degrees. The record high of 73 was set in 1928. 2.8 inches of snow fell back in 1992.❄

Today I decided to do the virtual meeting route from the library 💻 rather than go downtown in part because I feel a bit congested in my nose. 👃🏻 I’m sure it’s just allergies now that windows are closed but everybody else will believe it’s the Corona 👾 even though I haven’t been drinking 🍻 at all lately and have been mostly anti-social. 🗣️

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:41 am with sun having an altitude of 28.3° from the due south horizon (-42.6° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 11.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:49 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (237°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (245°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:32 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 13 seconds with dusk around 5:01 pm, which is 50 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the southwest (218°) at an altitude of 13° from the horizon, 231,656 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:37 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 39 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 40 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 4 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 23 degrees at 5am. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 10th. Northwest wind 8 to 10 mph. In 2019, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 32 degrees. The record low of 10 occurred back in 1972.

Tomorrow is going to be bitterly cold ❄. I am not prepared for winter ☃️ but I have to admit that for the morning walk and evening walk 🧣I wore my heavy Carhartt. I will have to leave the heat turned up tonight before bed so things don’t get too cold by mid night.

A picture perfect weekend on tap. 😎 Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 53. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 55. Typical average high for the weekend is 46 degrees.

This weekend I will probably stay in town, 🏡 just because next weekend after Thanksgiving I might do a three day Buy Nothing Weekend trip to the Adirondacks. Sure I could probably work remotely from the library on that following in Speculator but the sun sets early this time of year. And I don’t want to drive home from the Adirondacks during the rut in the darkness.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until December 🎄 when the sun will be setting at 4:23 pm with dusk at 4:54 pm. On that day in 2019, we had snow and temperatures between 28 and 17 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 41 degrees. We hit a record high of 67 back in 1934.

Morning At Camp