Free Republic

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- New statistics show the number of births declined in 2008 as the economic downturn began to take hold. The figures lead to a grim prediction, supported by significant circumstantial evidence surfacing in the last 12-18 months, showing abortions are likely on the rise.The National Center for Health Statistics indicates the nation saw 4,247,000 births last year, which is a 68,000 drop from the 2007 figures.Although they both added more people during that time, California and Florida saw the largest drop in the birth rates.Carol Hogue, an Emory University professor of maternal and child health and epidemiology,...

The resistance is well underway. Affluent Americans – defined as the top 20 percent of U.S. households by income – spent about 10 percent less in 2008 than they did in 2007, according to a study by luxury-goods researcher Unity Marketing. And those households with incomes of $250,000 or more are cutting back on spending even more than all affluent households overall. 54 percent of these consumers are spending even less in 2009 than in 2008. Those $250,000+ earners, threatened and demonized by President Obama, are retaliating with their most powerful and damaging weapon: not spending. It is a quiet,...

Voting rate dips as older whites stay home About 63.6 percent of the nation's eligible voters cast ballots in November WASHINGTON - For all the attention generated by Barack Obama's candidacy, the share of eligible voters who actually cast ballots in November declined for the first time in a dozen years. The reason: Older whites with little interest in backing either Barack Obama or John McCain stayed home. Census figures released Monday show about 63.6 percent of the nation's eligible voters, or 131.1 million people, voted last November. Although that represented an increase of 5 million voters — virtually all...

For all the attention generated by last year's presidential race, census figures show the share of eligible voters who actually went to the polls in November declined from 2004. According to the data, more older whites opted to stay home compared with 2004, citing little interest in supporting either Barack Obama or John McCain.

Preliminary results of a study on presidential campaign donations shows that President Obama had more than 3.7 million donors compared with 827,000 who donated to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) And while Obama had a substantial lead over McCain in small donors -- $200 or less -- Obama also led in the number of individuals who gave at or near the legal limit of $4,600, researchers at Brigham Young University said. Donors gave Obama $700 million to Obama (sic) and $316 million to McCain. Donations from individuals giving $200 or less represented nearly a quarter ($178 million) of Obama's fund-raising total...

Worldwide production of cocaine and heroin dropped in 2008, with the sharpest reductions in Colombia and Afghanistan, the UN said in a report Wednesday. Cultivation of opium poppies – from which heroin is derived – fell by 19 percent in Afghanistan, which is the largest producer of the drug. In Colombia, the largest exporter of cocaine, coca production declined by 18 percent, the report said. Antonio Maria Costa, director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said that increases in seizure levels combined with higher prices and unstable consumption markets have contributed to the drop in cocaine supplies. “The...

Conservation Efforts Benefit from 31 Percent Jump in Excise Taxes Firearms and ammunition excise tax collections for fourth quarter of calendar year 2008. SALES REMAIN STRONG FOR MANUFACTURERS . . . Firearm and ammunition manufacturers paid more than $98 million in excise taxes in the fourth quarter of 2008, up 31.2 percent over the same period in 2007, according to figures released earlier today by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. From Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, $27.6 million was collected for pistols and revolvers, $35 million for long guns and $35.5 million for ammunition. Compared to the same period...

WASHINGTON (BP)--Planned Parenthood, the country's No. 1 abortion provider, increased its count of the lethal procedures to 300,000-plus per year and again totaled $1 billion in revenue, according to its latest annual report. Affiliates of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) recorded 305,310 abortions in 2007, the latest year for which statistics were reported. In 2006, PPFA accounted for 289,750 abortions. Its total revenue reached $1.04 billion, with $349.6 million of that in government grants and contracts. Those figures are based on the financial year from July 2007 to June 2008. PPFA's abortion figures include those performed by surgical...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Regulators closed banks on Friday in Missouri and Nevada, bringing the total of U.S. bank failures this year to 25 and matching the number that failed throughout all of 2008, as the struggling economy and falling home prices take their toll on financial institutions. Last year, 25 U.S. banks were seized by officials, up sharply from only three in 2007. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said Great Basin Bank of Nevada had assets of $270.9 million and deposits of $221.4 million. The failure is expected to cost the FDIC deposit insurance fund an estimated $42 million. Nevada...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama is one taxpayer who filed his returns on time. Tax returns released by the White House show Obama and his wife, Michelle, together made $2.7 million last year. While that's far more than the U.S. median household income of about $50,000, it's also far less than the Obamas made the previous year. In 2007, they made $4.2 million.

Planned Parenthood's Annual Report Shows Record Net Assets, Increased Abortions Monday, April 13, 2009 By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer (Correction: This story as first published reported that the Planned Parenthood Federation of America had $1.014 billion in profits in 2007-08 when, in fact, the organization had that amount in net assets.) (CNSNews.com) – The Planned Parenthood Federation of American released its annual report for 2007-2008 last week, revealing record net assets of $1.014 billion and an increase of 15,560 more abortions in 2007 than the previous year.* The American taxpayer also contributed more than ever before, with $349.6 million...

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) has released its official 2007-2008 report, which shows that 305,310 unborn children were killed in chemical, medical, and surgical abortions by PPFA in the space of a year, up from 289,750 in 2006. The report also reveals that the total taxpayer money received by PPFA affiliates increased to $350 million.... ~Snip~ Despite a growing collection of data from sting operations showing Planned Parenthood employees evading the law, the total government grants and contracts received by PPFA affiliates increased from $337 million in the 2006-07 cycle to...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. households suffered a record-large 9 percent drop in wealth and pared debt in the fourth quarter as a deepening recession battered confidence and finances, Federal Reserve data showed on Thursday. Household net worth dropped by $5.1 trillion from the prior quarter to $51.5 trillion. For the full year, net worth dropped by $11.2 trillion, reflecting steep declines in the housing and stock markets. The declines in household net worth were the largest since quarterly and annual records began in 1951 and 1946, respectively, the Fed said. Since a second-quarter 2007 peak of $64.4 trillion, household wealth...

Warren E. Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway investment fund and holding company and possibly still the world's richest person, released his annual shareholders letter moments ago, in which he says, "during 2008 I did some dumb things in investments." "I made at least one major mistake of commission and several lesser ones that also hurt," he said. "Furthermore, I made some errors of omission, sucking my thumb when new facts came in that should have caused me to re-examine my thinking and promptly take action." That "major mistake," Buffett writes, was the purchase of millions of shares of ConocoPhillips oil...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Troubled US mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae said Thursday it lost almost 60 billion dollars last year and expected to suffer more losses in 2009, and asked for a further 15.2 billion dollars in government aid. The US government-controlled Fannie Mae reported a loss of 25.2 billion dollars in the fourth quarter driven mainly by the effects of a prolonged housing slump and a global financial crisis. It had a third-quarter loss of 29.0 billion dollars. For the full year of 2008, the company posted a loss of 58.7 billion dollars, almost 27 times higher than the...

Though George Soros has been vocally bearish at various points over the last year, the hedge fund he founded was finding a lot of places to buy as 2008 closed out. Soros' portfolio value, as reported on SEC filings, actually increased by 20% between the end of Q3 and the end of Q4. Soros' funds managed to ride out 2008's carnage with aplomb. According to Foreign Policy magazine, Soros's Quantum funds returned 10% in 2008, and according to Bloomberg, the Quantum Endowment Fund returned 8% last year. [snip] The fund's holdings have generally been quite eclectic and, looking at Soros'...

Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

In December 2008, Michigan and Rhode Island reported the highest jobless rates, 10.6 and 10.0 percent, respectively; Wyoming posted the lowest unemployment rate among the states. The Rhode Island rate was the highest in its series. (All state series begin in 1976.) Four additional states recorded rates of 9.0 percent or more: South Carolina, 9.5 percent; California, 9.3 percent; Nevada, 9.1 percent; and Oregon, 9.0 percent. Wyoming posted the lowest unemployment rate, 3.4 percent, followed closely by North Dakota at 3.5 percent. Overall, 10 states and the District of Columbia registered significantly higher jobless rates than the U.S. figure of...

HOUSTON (AP) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday reported a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008, breaking its own record for a U.S. company, even as its fourth-quarter earnings fell 33 percent from a year ago. The previous record for annual profit was $40.6 billion, which the world's largest publicly traded oil company set in 2007. The extraordinary full-year profit wasn't a surprise given crude's triple-digit price for much of 2008, peaking near an unheard of $150 a barrel in July. Since then, however, prices have fallen roughly 70 percent amid a deepening global economic crisis. In the fourth quarter...

President-elect Barack Obama brought in nearly $750 million for his presidential campaign, a record amount that exceeds what all of the candidates combined collected in private donations in the previous race for the White House, according to a report filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission. Underscoring the success of his fund-raising, Obama reported that he had nearly $30 million in the bank as of Nov. 24, despite spending furiously at the end of his campaign.