Census vet weighs in

John Kuczek says the Census Bureau thanked him for taking part in what is known as the National Crime Victimization Survey that is conducted on behalf of the Justice Department.

In fact, Kuczek — who lives in Vero Beach, Fla. — says he was thanked three times by Census’s Atlanta office for doing the survey, which is “designed to obtain detailed information about people victimized by certain types of crimes such as theft, burglary, motor vehicle theft, robbery, assault, rape and purse snatching/pocket picking.”

The only problem is that Kuczek says he never took the survey. And he could never get an explanation as to why he was being thanked for something he hadn’t done.

“Why are you telling me I already participated?” Kuczek said he told people at the Atlanta Census office, when he could finally reach someone by phone. “Why did I get a thank you letter?”

Kuczek and I spoke by phone after he reached out to me. He provided documentation that Census had the nature of his participation all wrong.

As my readers already know I’ve spent the last two years looking into data falsification by Census Bureau workers who are pressed to meet quotas in order to achieve higher personal ratings. There have also been accusations that some of the falsification was done for political reasons — to make the economy and crime situation look better than it really is.

Up until now whistleblowers inside the Census have detailed cheating in five of the six Census regions. The last one — Atlanta — continued to achieve an unusually high number of completed surveys compared to the rest.

No whistleblower ever came forward with accusations against Atlanta.

Kuczek’s experience, which spanned a two-year period, might give investigators a clue as to how Atlanta’s Census region has been so successful in getting surveys completed. Remember, each falsified survey counts as the response of hundreds of people in these kinds of scientific polls.

I already broke the news that the Commerce Department’s Inspector General is again looking at data falsification and financial mismanagement at the Census Bureau, especially as it relates to the Crime Survey.

And I’ve also reported that the Justice Department has a private company looking into doing a “companion” survey to the one done by Census.

Kuczek’s information might make a messy situation even messier.

Every now and then I need to take stock in what I’ve accomplished. And this is as good a time as any to do so.

During a two year investigation of the Census Bureau my whistleblowers and I have:

— Caused the Justice Department to look into whether crime data is being falsified and whether the budget for that survey is being misused. That investigation is still ongoing.

— Found one verified, massive case of data falsification in the Philadelphia region of Census that could have changed national economic statistics. This resulted in an Inspector General and Congressional investigations.

Congress said its probe was “obstructed” by the Commerce Department, which is in charge of Census, so it couldn’t look into the full scope of the cheating.

Whistleblowers in five of the six Census regions stepped forward to report falsification of economic data. This cheating has probably led to incorrect readings of important data, including the national unemployment rate that is relied upon by the Federal Reserve and used by the White House for political purposes.

— Caused several higher ups in the Census Bureau to suddenly retire. Inspector General Todd Zinser also left office under pressure, partly due to my probe.

— Discovered that Census paid comedian Dick Gregory to give what many considered an offense presentation to workers last February.

— Have caused an ongoing investigation into many millions of dollars in “sole source” contracts awarded by Census. Congress and the Inspector General of the Commerce Department are now looking into these no-bid contracts. And I’m continuing to do so as well.

— And I discovered that more than a hundred data-gathering computers were missing from the Philadelphia region of Census the month before the last Presidential election. Some were supervisors’ computers that could have easily been used to change economic results, including the unemployment rate.

Census has refused to explain how the computers went missing. And Congress hasn’t bothered to look into the matter.

Census has blocked my Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests for emails concerning that incident.

In fact, the Commerce Department has stonewalled me on dozens of FOIA requests. Congress is already looking into the Commerce Department general refusal to turn over information requested under FOIA.

The government can keep playing its FOIA fames. I have plenty of other things to look into since the whistleblowers willing to talk about Census Bureau mismanagement seem endless.

You might soon be hearing an “Oops!” from the Federal Reserve.

Just two weeks after the Fed finally decided to raise interest rates it looks like the economy is slowing again. And it’s quite possible that the rate hike could put us back into a recession.

That’s the conclusion that can be drawn from the latest report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, which said the economy in the fourth quarter of 2015 was growing at just a 1.3 percent annual rate.

That’s miserable growth and down from an almost-as-bad 1.8 percent that the Atlanta Fed previously reported. Third quarter growth was officially revised down to just 2 percent last week.

As I already predicted there should be some awful economic numbers in the next couple of months, offset by some statistically-aberrant good ones. It’ll all be very confusing by springtime.

Until Washington adopts my plan to use personal retirement plans to boost the economy growth is going to remain weak or non-existent. We will be having this same discussion five years from now.

Well, what do ya’ know: New Jersey is thinking of enacting my recommendation that marijuana be allowed at Atlantic City casinos.

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, a Democrat from Mercer County, recently introduced a bill that would let hotel and casino patrons smoke a joint in those joints.

The Asbury Park Press wasn’t too impressed. “Don’t gamble with doobies,” was its editorial. As someone who doesn’t smoke the stuff let me just say that some “Reefer Madness” and other adult forms of entertainment may be exactly what AC needs before it blows away into irrelevance.

As Sinatra might sing: “Dooby, dooby doo.”

Are you one of duds who keeps buying dud products?

You know if you are. And so does MIT.

The university just released an interesting study that shows that some people have a tendency to buy newly-introduced products that are doomed to fail. “These harbingers of failure have the unusual property that they keep on buying products that are taken from the shelves,” says MIT market professor, Catherine Tucker, one of the study’s co-authors.

So are you one of the duds? If you bought Diet Crystal Pepsi, Frito Lay Lemonade, Watermelon flavored Oreos and coffee-flavored Coca-Cola then you probably are.

Or may you just had a discount coupon and figured “how bad could they be?”