Weekend Digest: The Original Hipsters Edition

TV PREVIEW: UNDER THE DOME
This next week the 90th Arkansas General Assembly convenes. A new Governor, new constitutional officers, and new majorities for Republicans in the House and the Senate.

On this week’s edition of Talk Business & Politics, we will break down the big issues that state lawmakers and Gov. Asa Hutchinson will tackle. There are political considerations and there will be business impacts to all of these major concerns.

Our roundtable guests include KATV’s lead capitol reporter Janelle Lilley, plus two of our newest TB&P contributors, Jessica DeLoach Sabin and John Burris. Tax cuts, prisons, the private option and more: How do our panelists see these hot button issues playing out?

Tune in to Talk Business & Politics, Sunday morning at 9 a.m. on KATV Ch. 7.

U.S. CARRIES $3 TRILLION PORTFOLIO OF LOANS
Politico magazine calls it “The (Real) Bank of America.”

“The USA has a bizarre $3 trillion portfolio of loans on its books — and no one in charge.”

Over the past two decades, federal credit programs have nearly quadrupled – making credit the fastest-growing chunk of the U.S. Government.

In fact, Politico calls it “America’s largest bank.”

That bank currently has a portfolio of more than $3 trillion in loans, the bulk of them to about 8 million homeowners and 40 million students, the rest to a motley collection of farmers and fishermen, small businesses and giant exporters, clean-energy firms and fuel-efficient automakers, managed-care networks and historically black colleges, even countries like Israel and Tunisia.

It has about 120 different credit programs but no consistent credit policy, requiring some borrowers to demonstrate credit-worthiness and others to demonstrate need, while giving student loans to just about anyone who wants one. It runs a dozen unconnected mortgage programs, including separate ones targeting borrowers in need, Native Americans in need, veterans in need and, yes, Native American veteran borrowers in need.

And there are problems. Lots of them.

For more on this bank, whose goal is not profit, and who has “no one responsible for managing its overall portfolio, evaluating its performance or worrying about its risks,” go to this link.

APPLE SETS ANOTHER RECORD
To set this one, Fast Company reports customers spent $500 million in the first week of January alone.

But this record is not about phones or iPads, it’s about what’s downloaded to them.

And not only does this record-setting explosion mean dollars, it also means jobs.

What is it? Connect to this link to find out.

SCANNABLE TRYING TO ‘TRANSCEND’ PAPER
What is Scannable? It’s a new app by Evernote with some amazing capabilities.

Open Evernote’s new Scannable app, point it at a document, business card, or receipt, and plop, it instantly creates a digital scan ready to be sent to a number of different locations — including an Evernote account. The free app, announced back in October, is now officially available in the iOS App Store.

But Fast Company points out that “a lot of scanning apps already exist” so what makes Scannable such a big deal that works “magic”?

Click here to learn why.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE SENATE
Want to know a secret? Politico magazine reveals some good ones involving the history of women in the U.S. Senate. Sadly, many of them are “marked by sexism both spectacular and small.” Like a fight over the Senate swimming pool.

It involved North Carolina Senator-elect Kay Hagan who arrived on Capitol Hill in 2008.

Politico says, “Kay Hagan just wanted to swim.”

But Hagan was told that the Senate pool was males-only. Why? Because some of the male senators liked to swim naked.

It took an intervention by Senator Chuck Schumer, head of the Rules Committee, to put a stop to the practice, but even then “it was a fight,” remembers pollster Celinda Lake, who heard about the incident when the pool revolt was the talk among Washington women.

For other historical secrets involving “the mere 44 women who have served in the Senate”, and yes some are also from the dark ages, you’ll have to click this link.

STATES SUE COLORADO FOR LEGALIZING POT
The Washington Post reports on legal action against now legal activity.

Oklahoma and Nebraska filed a lawsuit against neighboring Colorado in December for legalizing recreational marijuana and making it more difficult to enforce their state laws, but other nearby states aren’t jumping in to join the suit.

Oklahoma and Nebraska argue in their suit that Colorado’s marijuana policy violates the U.S. Constitution and is a burden on neighboring states’ law enforcement.

So why are Oklahoma and Nebraska suing Colorado and other states not? Find out at this link.

ALASKA’S BUDGET HARD TO PREDICT
Maintaining a budget helps if you know how much predictable income is involved. But what if you don’t? That’s the case with America’s largest state (in land mass) says The Washington Post.

Predicting how much Alaska’s government can afford to spend every year is hard. It fluctuates more than any state.

Alaska’s annual tax revenue has the highest level of volatility in the U.S., varying by as much as 34.4 percent beyond its overall growth trend, according to data from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Why? And how does Arkansas rank?

Go to this link to learn more.

THE GOLDILOCKS ZONE
What is it? It’s a planet that astronomers say are “orbiting their stars at distances compatible with liquid water” and are potentially habitable.

…bringing the total number of potentially habitable planets in the just-right “Goldilocks” zone to a dozen or two, depending on how the habitable zone of a star is defined.

But could there be hundreds “and more of these other worlds a lot like Earth?”

As the ranks of these planets grow, astronomers are planning the next step in the quest to end cosmic loneliness: gauging which hold the greatest promise for life and what tools will be needed to learn about them.

You can learn what those tools are at this link.

WORLD WAR II VET – THE GREAT ESCAPER – DIES
Englishman and Royal Navy veteran Bernard Johnson was known as the “Great Escaper.” He was 90 when he passed away last June.

At the time of his escape he was living in a nursing home.

He told the nursing home staff he was going out to take a walk….Mr. Jordan returned home a sort of hero.

What happened in-between? For this remarkable story of courage, determination and loyalty, follow this link.

THE TEDDIES
No. we’re not talking about what your youngster snuggles with at night. We’re talking about the “original hipsters.”

Following the Second World War, young people in Britain saw their lives transformed by a renewed interest in teenage leisure activities. Young working women with disposable income became a fashionable new subculture.

These ladies, who often dropped out of school at 14 or 15 to pursue work, were called “Teddy Girls.” Along with their male counterparts, the Teddies not only have come to represent what it meant to be young and free in 1950’s Britain, they also might be history’s first hipsters.

Teddy Girls, or Judies, were the female faction of Teddy Boys, a 1950’s British subculture typified by an Edwardian style, Dandy dress.

The boys of the Teddy subculture were known to be rowdy and violent.

These youth were the first generation in Britain to really embrace their teen years and did so by smoking cigarettes and digging rock-and-roll music.

Take a “cool” look back at this link.