Bizzy’s AM Coffee Biz-Econ-Life Links (062306)

Free Links:

• Personal Income went up 1.4% in the first quarter of 2006 after going up 1.9% in the fourth quarter of 2005. That 3.3% total is a lot more than inflation plus population growth during those six months.
• The heat is on Dominique Villepin in France, and he may resign — cry me a river. Not that I would expect much of an improvement, but there’s a special place in the Hall of Shame for the guy who doublecrossed Colin Powell at the UN in the runup to the Iraq War.
• The SOB Alliance has been all over the story about the released illegals in Ohio (Weapons of Mass Discussion, Lincoln Logs, Project Logic, and one or two others I couldn’t quickly track down), and so has Debbie Schlussel, so I don’t have to be. I can just seethe like everyone else.
• Tell me how why this doesn’t stink (HT Porkopolis). And if you think I’m going to spend precious credibility trying to defend these Republicans based on what I know, you’re in the wrong place. I just hope they can explain themselves, and I am not at all optimistic.
• Speaking of things that stink, the three Democrats and their relatives discussed here deserve equal scrutiny, and will likely not get it.
• We’re a darn wealthy nation (HT Willisms).
• Economic ho-hum report — 485 new jobs (though I would be happier if it had been done without the tax credits and abatments noted in the full article):
  

  Pennsylvania company to create 485 jobs in northeast Ohio

  WARREN, Ohio - Promotional material maker Leedsworld Inc. plans to add 485 jobs over the next five years in this northeast Ohio city.

  The New Kensington, Pa.-based company that makes things such as stationary and pens for corporations plans to open a 265,000-square-foot plant in Warren next month at a former Delphi Packard Electric location. The company said 105 jobs are expected to be created the first year.

  The company picked the location because it’s only 100 miles from its headquarters near Pittsburgh where 1,000 people work, Martin Vuono, the company’s chief financial officer, said Wednesday.

• Somehow I don’t think Oracle’s Larry Ellison has a check in the mail (June 28 update: he has officially reneged, as the gift was apparently based on Larry Summers continued presence as Harvard President; Summers announced his resignation in February) –
  

  Harvard says no sight of Ellison’s $115 million
  Wed Jun 21, 2006 5:37 PM ET

  BOSTON, June 21 (Reuters) - Harvard is still waiting for software billionaire Larry Ellison to make good on a $115 million pledge, a year after he announced what would have been the largest single contribution in the university’s history.

  Harvard said on Wednesday it hasn’t received a cent from the flamboyant founder and chief executive of software giant Oracle Corp. and that school officials have spent months trying to reach him to discuss the matter — without success.

  “Larry Ellison never paid us. The donation was never finalized,” said Harvard spokeswoman Sarah Friedell.

  The university has laid off three people it had hired to help run the proposed institute for health research as it waits for the funds promised by Ellison.

  Given the reneging noted in the update, one would expect that Ellison will reimburse the university for the costs of the three people involved while Harvard employed them, plus some transition money for each. I suspect that this will not occur.