Free Republic

I'm going to get some mileage out of this "not impressed" meme...

For the first time in its nearly 100-year history, Orlando Health is reducing its workforce by up to 400 positions starting immediately, hospital officials announced this morning. The elimination of 300 to 400 jobs will occur in two phases, and represents a 2- to 3-percent decrease in the system's 16,000 employees, said Orlando Health spokeswoman Kena Lewis. The reductions affect all departments and all eight of its hospitals, including Orlando Regional Medical Center and Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children. The first wave of employees affected by the "labor expense reduction" portion of the initiative received their notices Friday, said Lewis....

One good thing about President Obama’s re-election: It seems to have prompted some sober thinking by Republican Party leaders and allies. Oh sure, there’s been some loose talk of secession, but mostly what you’ve found is top GOP leaders trying to figure out how to broaden the GOP’s appeal and shed its reputation for anti-intellectualism while staying true to their conservative values. This is a good thing. One sure way for Republicans to blow it: If Sarah Palin runs for president. You might’ve thought Palin’s political career pretty much ended when she decided not to run for president against a...

Police are investigating an incident at a Berks County hunting club in which someone on the hunting grounds allegedly targeted a mechanical flying object rather than a living and breathing one. SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) are in the midst of a campaign against the Wing Pointe commercial hunting grounds in Hamburg, Berks County and its live pigeon shoots in which the birds are shot down. SHARK began to use an “Octocopter,” a remote controlled flying machine with a high tech video camera, to secretly record the pigeon shoots as they happen. "The pigeon shooters are basically going into...

They come for the sea, sun, for peace and quiet ... and business opportunities. Taking advantage of old historical and cultural ties, more and more Russians are settling the former Yugoslav republic and EU member candidate Montenegro. For the Russian Vadim Soendoekov every working day starts in the same way: with a cup of coffee on the beach. "The beach, the sun and the sea, what more could you want?" he asks from under his straw parasol. The beach on which Soendoekov enjoys his morning coffee lies at the foot of the centuries-old ramparts of Budva, a picturesque town that...

Searchlight, NV- Nevada Senator Harry Reid issued the following statement after Nevada’s unemployment rate decreased from 11.8 percent to 11.5 percent in October: “The continued reduction in Nevada’s unemployment rate is promising. Nevadans are getting back to work, but small businesses in our state still need opportunities to expand and hire new workers. We must do more to ensure Nevada’s middle class is made stronger. “Nevadans and Americans across the country agree that we can strengthen the middle class by adopting a balanced fiscal policy that requires millionaires and billionaires to pay a little more. In July, the Senate passed...

National Geographic:Doomsday Preppers Video Interview with Doomsday Preppers Megan Hurwitt, The Young Urban Prepper “I’m prepping to survive a catastrophic oil crisis.” Producer's note from Nick Weissman: "Preppers come in all shapes and sizes. Such is the case with Megan Hurwitt, a metropolitan party girl living in the fourth largest city in the country: Houston, Texas. To see her driving through the sunny downtown streets in her Mustang convertible, one might not suspect that in her nearby apartment Megan has an impressive gun collection, a seed bank, and an intricate plan for evacuating the city. Megan revealed that she carries...

Although “only” three Israelis have been killed as a result of the ongoing Hamas terror rocket attacks against Israel, hundreds of thousands of people are suffering – perhaps none more than residents of immigrant absorption centers in southern Israel. Unlike veteran Israeli families, these new immigrants – many of them olim from Ethiopia – have no family elsewhere in the country to take them in, and hence nowhere to go. On Monday, Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky visited one of these centers. Accompanying a delegation from the North American UJA-Federation, Sharansky visited the Ivim Absorption Center in the Sha'ar Hanegev...

The health-care law’s treatment of larger employers is almost laughably complicated. If you’ve got fewer than 50 employees, nothing is asked of you, and if you’re willing to provide insurance for your employees, you get a giant tax credit, at least for awhile. But if you’re a business with more than 50 full-time employees, matters become considerably more complex. If you’ve got more than 50 full-time employees and you already offer them health insurance, you can stop reading now. You’re in the clear. If you’ve got more than 50 full-time employees and you don’t offer them coverage and you don’t...

President Rafael Correa of Ecuador received Fr. Roy Bourgeois, founder of Surveillance in his office June 27 2012 in Quito. Credit: Santiago Armas-Presidency of the Republic. Vatican City, Nov 19, 2012 / 03:52 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican canonically dismissed Roy Bourgeois from the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers on Oct. 4, for disobedience and preaching against Church teaching on women's ordination. The decision, made by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, dispenses him from both the bonds of priesthood and religious life. On Aug. 8, 2008, Bourgeois preached a homily at the simulated ordination of a woman...

An “anti-Thanksgiving potluck” planned for Monday night is stirring controversy on the University of Virginia (UVA) campus. The event, hosted by the American Indian Student Union (AISU), aims to “discuss Thanksgiving from a Native American perspective” over a potluck dinner. Students at the University of Virginia are holding an ‘anti-Thanksgiving’ potluck on Monday night. The anti-Thanksgiving celebration will provide a “contrast…with the typical American view of Thanksgiving,” AISU president Katelyn Krause promised an NBC affiliate. Krause declined an interview with Campus Reform. Nicole Bailey, Executive-in-Chief of the conservative newspaper, The Virginia Advocate, however, told Campus Reform that she understands the...

In the film "My Brother the Serial Killer," set to air Wednesday on the Investigation Discovery network, Clay Rogers, the brother of convicted serial killer Glen Rogers, claims Glen murdered Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman—the pair Simpson was accused—and controversially acquitted—of slaying in 1995.

A reply by stimulus recipient ($115 million of a $249 million grant paid out)A123 Systems to an inquiry by Republican Sens.Charles Grassley (Iowa) andJohn Thune (S.D.) showed theelectric vehicle battery manufacturer received nearly $1 million in Recovery Act funds on the day it declared bankruptcy. The money flow is not likely to stop. A123 as a whole, or in pieces, is going to be sold to the court-approved buyer(s). That is likely to be eitherJohnson Controls, which is the lead bidder for the company’s automotive business, or Wanxiang Group, which wants to buy the whole company. A123 had an agreement...

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. Still Has Capitol Hill Allies, but Support is WaningAs allegations mount, Illinois politicians are standing with Jackson -- for now By Lauren Fox November 19, 2012 **SNIP** Fellow Democratic Illinois Rep. Danny Davis says that while Jackson faces mounting problems, it's hard to believe his long-time friend would have engaged in such behavior. Jackson is accused of purchasing a $40,000 Rolex and redecorating his home with campaign finances. "If he were functioning not in an altered mental or emotional state, he would not have committed those acts," Davis says. "They don't seem like something that a...

-- Preliminary Second Quarter Fiscal 2013 Net Sales of Approximately $136 Million, Up 48% Year-over-Year -- Preliminary Net Income from Continuing Operations Per Diluted Share of Approximately $0.23 to $0.24 versus $0.01 for Same Quarter Last Year -- Company Reiterates Full Year Fiscal 2013 Financial Guidance

A nine-year-old boy with appendicitis was made to wait more than 20 hours for surgery at the emergency ward of a Stockholm-area children's hospital before his appendix finally burst. "The only treatment he received was morphine and paracetamol tablets so he didn't die from the pain," Jesper, the father of nine-year-old William Strömgren, told the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper. William arrived at Astrid Lindgren Children's Hospital in Stockholm last Thursday after suffering stomach pains for days. He was immediately diagnosed with appendicitis, but then nothing happened. After having his operation repeatedly pushed back by doctors, William's desperate parents were told...

In the latest round of union aggressiveness that has marked the short post-Obama re-election era, officials at the Port of Portland are prepping for a strike by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union beginning November 25. Thanks to the strike, shippers will begin bypassing Portland altogether. Meanwhile, unions are also threatening to strike at grain terminals in Portland, Vancouver, and Puget Sound, driving up the price of grain across the country. As The Oregonian

Fewer than a dozen European leaders have so far accepted an invitation to attend next month's Oslo ceremony to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union, this year's controversial winner, the Nobel Institute said on Wednesday. "Between eight and 10 have said they would come and and somewhat fewer have responded in the negative," the director of the institute, Geir Lundestad, told AFP. After the unexpected awarding of the peace prize to a crisis-stricken EU on October 12th the bloc's President Herman Van Rompuy invited all the leaders of the 27 member states to attend the ceremony, which...

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (RGR) announced today that its Board of Directors voted to declare a special dividend of $4.50 per share on the Company’s issued and outstanding shares of common stock. This cash dividend will be paid on December 21, 2012 to shareholders of record as of December 7, 2012. Chief Executive Officer Michael O. Fifer commented on the special dividend, “The decision to return this cash to our shareholders was based on an analysis that indicates we can continue to fund our high rate of organic growth, including expected increases in both working capital and capital expenditures,...

Brothel owner who employs 80 prostitutes wins election as county commissioner in Nevada... and he's a Republican Lance Gilman is a thriving businessman with dozens of employees. That those workers include a good many prostitutes didn't faze the people of a rural Nevada county who recently elected him as a Storey County commissioner by a wide margin. The Mustang Ranch brothel owner is the first such owner to win election to public office in Nevada since prostitution was legalized here in 1971, Nevada historian Guy Rocha said. And he's believed to be the first to do so in the state's...