mobby_6kl posted:

Yeah it's the same everywhere, housing is cheap in the middle of nowhere where nobody wants to live because there's nothing to do (both work and like for fun) but the top cities are skyrocketing

quote:

KillHour posted:

It's true I live in Buffalo and there's only one restaurant and no culture. Only poverty and meth additions for miles. Cars rust here the first year and the only doctor died in a blizzard making house calls.

KillHour posted:

It's true I live in Buffalo and there's only one restaurant and no culture. Only poverty and meth additions for miles. Cars rust here the first year and the only doctor died in a blizzard making house calls.

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

On a per square foot basis, the cheapest one (Homewood, in PA) only increased 1.4% last year - lower than inflation.

However, when you google the name of the town one of the first things that comes up is how it was "destroyed by disinvestment when industry shut down in the 1970's and then the war on drugs," so there might be a specific reason for that extremely low median home value (~$30k).

Edit: It looks like almost all of them on the cheapest list have barely increased in price at all or even decreased when adjusted for inflation, but almost all of them are towns that started dying in the 1970's and 1980's because they were reliant on one specific industry that shrank or left and they never recovered - including the ironically named "Industry" in Indiana.

Nervous posted:

You have the Bills stadium, there's probably an extra restaurant on the owners level that's open on game days.

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

Seems like best move is to convince all your friends and family to move to Madison or Pittsburgh and open a radical bar/skate park for you to work at.

Solves the housing cost, "nobody there," entertainment, and employment problems all in one fell swoop.

quote:

WASHINGTON — Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., is being investigated by the Justice Department for her campaign's spending on security services, she confirmed in a statement Tuesday.

“We are fully cooperating in this investigation,” Bush said, denying any wrongdoing.

As a former Black Lives Matter organizer and high-profile progressive on Capitol Hill, Bush has faced what she called “relentless threats to my physical safety and life” since her election in 2020.

"As a rank-and-file member of Congress I am not entitled to personal protection by the House, and instead have used campaign funds as permissible to retain security services," Bush continued in her statement. "I have not used any federal tax dollars for personal security services. Any reporting that I have used federal funds for personal security is simply false."

The Justice Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

DOJ had recently issued a grand jury subpoena to the House sergeant at arms for documents, a development that was made public on the House floor on Monday. But the focus of the federal probe was not revealed at that time.

Two sources confirmed Monday night that DOJ was probing a Democratic lawmaker's use of security funds, but the member remained unidentified. PunchBowl News first reported Tuesday that Bush, who represents St. Louis, is the Democrat under investigation.

Bush, who ousted longtime Rep. Lacy Clay in the 2020 Democratic primary, came under scrutiny last February when she married her security guard, Cortney Merritts, then kept him on her campaign payroll for providing security services, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Conservative watchdog groups filed at least two complaints against Bush with the Federal Election Commission. While federal law bars lawmakers from paying family members to work in their official offices, they are allowed to pay relatives for campaign work so long as “the family member is providing bona fide services to the campaign.” However, payments "in excess of fair market value" are prohibited, the law states.

Bush, in her statement Tuesday, acknowledged that she retained her husband as part of her security team “because he has had extensive experience in this area, and is able to provide the necessary services at or below a fair market rate.”

An NBC News review of Bush's campaign expenditures found that she has spent $756,748.42 on security since her first run for Congress in the 2018 cycle.

The congresswoman accused "right-wing" opponents of lodging "baseless complaints against me," and noted that the independent Office of Congressional Ethics had investigated the matter and unanimously voted to dismiss it. However, the bipartisan House Ethics Committee has not closed the case.

“I am under no illusion that these right-wing organizations will stop politicizing and pursuing efforts to attack me and the work that the people of St. Louis sent me to Congress to do: to lead boldly, to legislate change my constituents can feel, and to save lives," Bush said.

The clerk publicly informed lawmakers of the subpoena request when the House opened its session Monday, but few details were provided.

“This is to notify you formally pursuant to rule 8 of the rules of the House of Representatives that the office of the sergeant at arms for the House of Representatives has been served with a grand jury subpoena for documents issued by the U.S. Department of Justice,” House Reading Clerk Susan Cole said, reading a notification from House Sergeant at Arms William McFarland.

“After consulting with the House General Counsel I have determined that compliance with the subpoena is consistent with the rights and privileges of the House,” McFarland's statement, read by Cole, continued.

Representatives of both Republican and Democratic leaders in the House declined to comment.

Asked about Bush at a leadership news conference, House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said Tuesday he had no comment and called it "something for the Justice Department."

"I haven't talked to her," Aguilar said.

mobby_6kl posted:

This is apparently Homewood, PA:



Although it doesn't seem to be completely run down, not sure what I'd do there other than commute to... Beaver Falls?


Yeah it's the same everywhere, housing is cheap in the middle of nowhere where nobody wants to live because there's nothing to do (both work and like for fun) but the top cities are skyrocketing

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

More info on the DOJ investigation into Cori Bush's use of congressional office money.

There's no charges yet, and there may not end up being any, but they have opened an investigation.

The issues they are investigating seem to be:

- Members of congress are not allowed to pay family members to work in their office.

- However, they can technically pay family members to work for their campaign if they charge at or below market rate and provide bona fide services.

- Cori Bush married a member of her security detail that was being paid with congressional funds.

- She kept him on the payroll, but moved him from her official office staff to her "campaign staff" and he kept providing security.

- She says she kept him on “because he has had extensive experience in this area, and is able to provide the necessary services at or below a fair market rate.”

- Her campaign has spent $756,748.42 on security and about some of that was paid directly to her now husband.

- Two conservative political groups have filed complaints that she was using public funds to pay her now husband for security services for a period and then switched over to using campaign funds, but paid him at an above market rate.

https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1752398419820175384

socialsecurity posted:

How long a period did he receive that 75k because that for a year in DC for being security doesn't really seem that high.

quote:

Both its complaint and the second one make note that Merritts does not appear to have a private security guard license in either Washington or Missouri.

The complaint also questions the propriety of Merritts being employed for security services at the same time Bush also employs Peace Security, a St. Louis firm that has been paid more than $305,000 in the last 18 months.

haveblue posted:

I like how that map screenshot has both "Humane Animal Shelter of Pittsburgh" and "Teacup puppies for sale"

Main Paineframe posted:

Doesn't really look like a place where housing is in demand. It's not wonder you can scoop up homes like these for cheap (though you might have to pay a fair bit to render them liveable!). And these aren't even the worst of them! There's some homes further down the road whose yards are so overgrown that you can barely even see the house - just some concrete steps poking out beneath a bush and some glimpses of boarded-up windows through gaps between tree branches. There's some side streets where it looks like nature has reclaimed half the houses - these aren't places that have been sitting empty for just a year or two.

Failed Imagineer posted:

Good to see the Biden campaign going all-out to rescue their tanking Muslim voter outreach

https://twitter.com/npl_palestine/status/1752371248473186670?t=7JBTtwi1njQg2HdYj9oE_g&s=19

KillHour posted:

It's true I live in Buffalo and there's only one restaurant and no culture. Only poverty and meth additions for miles. Cars rust here the first year and the only doctor died in a blizzard making house calls.

Star Man posted:

Come to Pittsburgh or any other city outside of the like three that matter in this whole country and half-rear end it. Enjoy having fewer amenities, the food never being quite as good, and knowing that things are better somewhere else. You can afford to live here, but you'll complain about it constantly until you finally accept it and settle.

poop chute posted:

I'm from Fulton and this is actually unironically true. When the hot dog truck shuts down for winter people starve.

Star Man posted:

Come to Pittsburgh or any other city outside of the like three that matter in this whole country and half-rear end it. Enjoy having fewer amenities, the food never being quite as good, and knowing that things are better somewhere else. You can afford to live here, but you'll complain about it constantly until you finally accept it and settle.

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

Controversial Opinion: Most people's day-to-day lives (besides weather) would be at least 85% identical at 60% the price if they lived in Pittsburgh instead of Palo Alto.

ummel posted:

So Cori Bush started a relationship with a subordinate, married him, and put him on the nepo payroll (according to allegations)? Amazing lol.

ummel posted:

So Cori Bush started a relationship with a subordinate, married him, and put him on the nepo payroll (according to allegations)? Amazing lol.

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

The nepo payroll might not technically be illegal and he was doing security before she married him, so it may not be an actual crime.

Still, it's not a great look.

reignonyourparade posted:

The people who make the best food also can't afford to live in these places people claim make the best food

ummel posted:

So Cori Bush started a relationship with a subordinate, married him, and put him on the nepo payroll (according to allegations)? Amazing lol.

KillHour posted:

This is the most objectively true thing in the thread. You know what is in Victorville, California? Nothing. It's the middle of nowhere. There's a prison. There's also a Mexican restaurant run by a little old lady who called me Mijo and made me the best goddamn chilaquiles in the world.

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

That's also why the best barbecue is from places so rural the only fun thing to do is spend a whole goddam weekend cooking a whole rear end pig in a pit you dug yourself with firewood you cut yourself

More importantly the best food is regional cuisine from a specific region with a culture and history. Which almost definitionally is not the big city melting pots.

PhazonLink posted:

I think Alton Brown said that once a place gets the rep for having good thing, they stop trying.

oh and then tourists come because they heard they had good thing and there's a decent chance that culinary gentrification happens because a certain type white person said it was tooo spicy or ethnic so they dumbed it down for those well paying demographics.

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

Controversial Opinion: Most people's day-to-day lives (besides weather) would be at least 85% identical at 60% the price if they lived in Pittsburgh instead of Palo Alto.

Failed Imagineer posted:

Good to see the Biden campaign going all-out to rescue their tanking Muslim voter outreach

https://twitter.com/npl_palestine/status/1752371248473186670?t=7JBTtwi1njQg2HdYj9oE_g&s=19

Rebel Blob posted:

Same, but for eating dog food and with even greater savings.

Jaxyon posted:

Oh we food derailin'?

I've heard it said that Korean cuisine is the least compromised here in LA.

haveblue posted:

If what was posted earlier is accurate, he was on payroll before their relationship status update and she failed to push him far enough away on the org chart to keep it legal

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

The (potential) issues aren't about his position on the org chart. She is allowed to employ her family and pay them with campaign funds under certain scenarios.

The potentially illegal things are:

- She paid him partially with public funds and not campaign funds at some point (alleged in the complaint, but we don't know)

and

- He was not providing bona fide services or services at or below market rate.

The second one is the part that seems especially iffy. Since he was still employed as security after they were married despite her also hiring an entire private security company along with her husband and her husband apparently not having any license for private security.

If you are hired directly by the person you are providing security for, then you don't technically need a license, but that sort of raises the question of why they were hired in the first place and alongside another private security company.