Larry Langford was sentenced to 15 years in a federal prison in 2010 for his role in it. "It’s unclear how much Langford actually understood. Later he told the Securities and Exchange Commission that he wouldn’t know a swap advisor from a rubber band."

Yesterday, Jefferson County in Alabama declared bankruptcy, the largest municipality to do so. "The filing means the county has declared war on its creditors. " [more inside]
posted by dig_duggler on Nov 10, 2011 - 48 comments

Straight outta the Department of Obscure and Unlikely Covers, here's Hank Crawford's version of Johnny Paycheck's Take This Job and Shove It. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite on Apr 24, 2011 - 59 comments

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has sponsored the most detailed ever look at county-level American health data. Access to the data--including a ranking of health in each state by county--was made available today at CountyHealthRanking.org [more inside]
posted by jefficator on Mar 30, 2011 - 15 comments

Orange County tea party members protest and hurl epithets at a local muslim organization's relief dinner to raise money for women's shelters and raise aid for homelessness and hunger in the US Here is the video. Watch as members of congress show their support for this extreme show of xenophobia and racism.
posted by wooh on Mar 3, 2011 - 364 comments

The greedy ghost of market fundamentalism. Oxfordshire county council is planning to close just under half of all of its libraries, and has invited locals to set up new ones on a voluntary basis. Philip Pullman, ironically criticised for having a profit motive, objects.
posted by Summer on Jan 25, 2011 - 111 comments

Curt Teich (1877-1974) was a printer who immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1896. Curt Teich & Company, opened in 1898 in Chicago, was the world's largest printer of view and advertising postcards. Teich is best known for its "Greetings From" postcards with their big letters, vivid colors, and bold style. Flickr user amhpics has archived nearly 2000 Teich linen postcards in his set Vintage Curt Teich linen postcards 1930s-1950s. [more inside]
posted by netbros on Nov 28, 2010 - 5 comments

Video of University of Maryland student John McKenna being punched, kicked, and beaten with clubs by Prince George's County police. McKenna was charged with disorderly conduct and assaulting a police officer; the police report claims that he had punched the officers and their horses, and that his injuries were due to being kicked by the horses. The video shows otherwise.
posted by Optimus Chyme on Apr 16, 2010 - 121 comments

The Decline: The Geography of a Recession Flash animated map showing county unemployment rates from Jan 2007 until Sept 2009
posted by hippybear on Nov 25, 2009 - 48 comments

Politicians and citizens alike are struggling with the decision to bail out the under-performing American automakers. But what will happen to the cities and towns of the Midwest if the automakers fail? Flint, Michigan provides an interesting template. In the 1960s and 70s, Flint had a population of 200,000 and was home to some 80,000 autoworkers. Today, after many plant closures, relocations, and worker buyouts, only 8,000 autoworkers remain. So, what are we to do with cities like Flint? There have been lots of ideas, like demolishing dilapidated houses, renovating brownfield sites like Chevy-in-the-Hole [pdf], downtown business renovation, and increasing community participation by giving ownership of vacant lots to local homeowners. [more inside]
posted by billysumday on Dec 5, 2008 - 54 comments

September 14, 1998 "the Tan Canary" passes away. He started out as a gospel singer but went on to perform blues, soul, county, and jazz. In 1968 he covered the country standard "Release Me" and it became a hit. His audience grew, but stardom outside of his home in New Orleans was not to be his. [more inside]
posted by nola on Jul 6, 2008 - 4 comments

In the United States, most counties conduct local legal business in a centrally-located courthouse, which tends to be located in the county seat. Here is a flickr photo set of nearly all the county courthouses in the United States. From the [oldest] to the [most densly populated] to the [most populous], from the [ugly] to the [ornate], county courthouses present a remarkable variety of architectural styles. In some ways, these buildings seem to be the equivalent of European cathedrals -- they often represent the local community's largest and most expensive building, and they're designed with that in mind. Given our remarkable capacity for observer list keeping, I wonder why more people aren't courthouse spotters.
posted by one_bean on Jan 15, 2008 - 34 comments

This map displays county-to-county migration data for 2000-2005 from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. In, out, staying put, median household income. [via]
posted by tellurian on Aug 16, 2007 - 19 comments

Kraken comes to The O.C. More dead jumbo squid are washing up along Orange County's coastline, and although that's bad news for the creatures, it's good news for scientists eager to learn more about the mysterious deep-sea dwellers. If your calamarical appetite hasn't been quenched: Squidblog! Also, classical irony with Electra killing the Kraken.
posted by Dante5Inferno on Mar 23, 2005 - 13 comments

Those OLD states are totally 2004. I should wait until Thursday, but: If you're fed up with the idea of living in America OR Canada, consider moving to The State of Jefferson, a county on the Cali/Oregon border with big dreams and a kickass flag. Of course, they haven't seceded yet, but when they do, it's only going to be a matter of time before we can all live in the utopian Republic of Cascadia, where, as Jefferson residents, we'll run on Metric Time and help strengthen Cascadia's southern border against Californian incursions.
And hey! Public radio!
posted by dougunderscorenelso on Jan 29, 2005 - 20 comments

"They have no business debating the efficacy of gay marriages, any more than they should be debating the pullout of troops from South Korea" North of Detroit, a county commissioner and avowed Christian Conservative pushed a resolution supporting an amendment to the Michigan state constitution, declaring marriage to be a strictly man-and-woman affair. It passed in Oakland County's Board by a narrow margin. But the county executive, a longtime prominent conservative, won't let it go without a fight, and says that with an urban county seat, Pontiac, they should have better things to do-- like their jobs. Is a county board seat an appropriate forum to push another agenda, or should they be more concerned with fixing roads and economy? Does such a resolution at such a low level of goverment even mean anything? Meanwhile, some couples are saying heck-with-it and making that trip 'cross the Ambassador Bridge.
posted by marzenie99 on Sep 18, 2003 - 14 comments

Essex is the New Jersey of England, but is trying to change the public perception of my beautiful home county. Not all Essex girls are slappers and it's not all industrial wasteland. But why tell the rest of England about our beautiful secrets?
posted by essexjan on Aug 30, 2002 - 31 comments