Free Republic

The six fully enclosed cabins for its Boeing 777 jets feature seats that recline into flat beds and a 32-inch television. These virtual windows - which are used in some cruise ships - project the view from outside the aircraft using real-time camera technology. "Emirates pioneered the First Class private suite concept back in 2003, and today it's the industry benchmark when it comes to first class travel". Emirates, the largest airline in the world, unveiled a new first class suite on the first day of the Dubai Air Show for its Boeing 777 fleet- and said it is rolling...

KITTTERY, Maine — Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is seeking 160 individuals with experience in industrial work and is hosting a job fair at the Regatta Conference Center in Eliot to help find them. The Tuesday, Nov. 14 job fair will be held from noon to 8 p.m. Public affairs officer Jeremy Lambert said the shipyard is looking to fill roughly 160 positions in fields such as chemistry, electrical work, engineering, insulation, mechanics, pipefitting, radiological work, sheet metal work and many others. The shipyard is asking applicants to bring copies of their resumes, professional certificates, academic transcripts and for former members of...

WILLIAMSBURG, Ky (LEX 18) - One Kentucky company is hoping to change the lives of struggling families in a small Kentucky town by bringing the job opportunities to them. "It gives our younger generation an opportunity. They don't have to leave our small town. They can stay home, live local and work local," said Michelle Irvin, who works at the East West gas station. Williamsburg businesses are hoping to reap the benefits of people working locally. "It would help our small town. It would help our local economy. Especially with this gas station just, within the past 6 months or...

TAMPA — MetLife plans to add 430 new jobs and spend $25 million upgrading its existing campus in New Tampa, the nonprofit Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corp. announced Friday. The company has committed to hire for a range of new positions that will pay an average of at least $74,561 a year, according to city and county records. That’s 150 percent of Hillsborough County’s average private sector wage. MetLife, whose arrival in the 1970s raised Tampa’s national profile as a potential landing spot for corporate expansions and relocations, already has more than 1,500 employees in Tampa. The company will be...

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, met with small business owners who are using the social network to grow their business in Viet Nam and internationally on the sidelines of APEC Summit 2017 in the central city of Da Nang on Thursday. “Small businesses are at the heart of our economies – and create the majority of new jobs all around the world. We recently teamed up with MorningConsult for an Economic Impact Survey to understand how small business owners are growing their companies, hiring more employees, and contributing to their communities,” Sandberg said. “In Asia and the Pacific region,...

Bitcoin, along with many other cryptocurrencies, has recently taken the world by storm. Bitcoin’s devoted investors believe that the blockchain technology behind the currency will usher in an era where currencies are free from government manipulation. However, large governments of the past and present have not taken kindly to competitors of any sort. A competitor to the government’s greatest mechanism of power (currency issuance) is a threat the government will not ignore. There are numerous examples of the US government going to great lengths to make sure the US dollar is the most used currency in the world. If the...

Washington, DC – Today, Club for Growth President David McIntosh issued the following statement as the House Ways and Means Committee continues to mark up the “Tax Cuts and Jobs” bill:“While the corporate tax cut will lead to some increase in our nation’s GDP, the rest of the provisions on individual taxpayers fails the pro-growth test,” Club for Growth President David McIntosh stated.“Republicans must correct at least four serious shortcomings of the House bill to follow through on campaign promises and to bring our nation closer to a tax reform proposal that is truly pro-growth.“1: millionaires’ tax rate: House Republicans...

Point #1Like a broken record, Republican promotors of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act insist that by raising the 2018 standard deduction for single filers from $6,500 to $12,200, for couples from $13,000 to $24,400, and by lowering selective tax rates, that their plan will usher in a huge tax cut for the middle-class. It, in fact, does no such thing. Whenever challenged with the reality that their proposal will result in a tax increase on many of their constituents, they exclaim, “Yes, but we are doubling the standard deduction!” Yet, not one of them ever mentions that they are,...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell expressed concerns that the House proposal to make corporate tax cuts take place immediately "has sparked apprehension among our Democratic colleagues that such precipitous action would put their Party's candidates at an unfair disadvantage during the 2018 election. They fear that the repatriation of corporate money currently held outside the country that such a tax cut would initiate would lead to too big of an increase in investment and jobs and that it would essentially ensure a Republican sweep of all competitive races for House and Senate seats." "Rather than tilt the playing field against...

Swarms of drones buzz overhead, while robotic vehicles crawl across the landscape. Orbiting satellites snap high-resolution images of the scene far below. Not one human being can be seen in the pre-dawn glow spreading across the land. This isn’t some post-apocalyptic vision of the future à la The Terminator. This is a snapshot of the farm of the future. Every phase of the operation—from seed to harvest—may someday be automated, without the need to ever get one’s fingernails dirty. In fact, it’s science fiction already being engineered into reality. Today, robots empowered with artificial intelligence can zap weeds with preternatural...

In her powerful new book, “Nomadland,” award-winning journalist Jessica Bruder reveals the dark, depressing and sometimes physically painful life of a tribe of men and women in their 50s and 60s who are — as the subtitle says — “surviving America in the twenty-first century.” Not quite homeless, they are “houseless,” living in secondhand RVs, trailers and vans and driving from one location to another to pick up seasonal low-wage jobs, if they can get them, with little or no benefits. The “workamper” jobs range from helping harvest sugar beets to flipping burgers at baseball spring training games to Amazon’s...

As marijuana legalization continues across the country, weed is becoming increasingly mainstream. However, as much as the stoner stereotype has evolved into a broader label that also encompasses CEOs, educated millennials, and the Spicolis of the world, it still has a negative connotation. Industry leaders have quickly learned that destigmatizing marijuana use begins with educating the public, but Adrian Sedlin of Canndescent has figured out that, as with anything, it's really all about branding. Sedlin's luxury cannabis company offers premium flower alongside sophisticated packaging that no other company in the current market rivals. One look and I can almost guarantee...

The original camp was intended to be used by workers in the Third Reich - and was said to be the Nazi leader's idea of a 'dream resort' A Nazi holiday camp built by Adolf Hitler before World War II broke out has been turned into a luxury resort - boasting apartments worth more than £500,000. The Prora resort on Rugen, a German island in the Baltic Sea, had been left abandoned for decades after building work was halted in 1939.....

Saudi Arabia’s reports about declining crude oil inventories were instrumental in the buildup of trust on the market that OPEC’s—and the Kingdom’s specifically—efforts to rebalance crude oil’s fundamentals were working. Now, a satellite imaging company, Orbital Insights, is challenging these reports, suggesting that OPEC’s leader may have well been lying to get prices higher. While this would not exactly be a surprise, it would throw a stone in the quiet waters of the official OPEC narrative that has played a lead role in several oil price rallies so far this year. And here’s the size of this stone: Orbital satellite...

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Officials say packaging manufacturer M&M Industries plans to create 110 jobs with a $42 million expansion of its operations in southeast Tennessee. Gov. Bill Haslam and Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe said Tuesday that M&M will purchase and retrofit a building in Chattanooga and expand its current manufacturing facility in the city. M&M makes plastic pails, plastic containers and custom packaging for the chemical, pharmaceutical, health care and construction industries. Officials say the expansion will allow the company to support growing demand for its products....

When Canada’s federal government issued a five-year moratorium on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic at the end of last year, the environmentalist community rejoiced, just as it did in the United States, when the Obama administration did the same. Everyone seemed sure the move would bring benefits to everyone. Or perhaps they just didn’t really care that there are communities heavily dependent on the oil and gas industry for their livelihood. Now, the Prime Minister of Canada’s Northwester Territories has slammed Ottawa for its decision, along with others concerning the northern province, saying what we are witnessing today...

In mid-October, Upwork, a global freelancing platform where businesses and individual freelance workers connect and collaborate online, released the results of a new study on the gig economy, in conjunction with Freelancers Union, titled “Freelancing in America: 2017” — the most comprehensive measure of the U.S. independent workforce. This is the fourth annual study of the 57.3 million American freelance workers, which amounts to 36 percent of the U.S. workforce. This chunk of the world’s top economy contributes around $1.4 trillion per year, an almost 30 percent increase year-over-year, per Upwork’s report. The amazing takeaway from the world’s largest freelancing...

As I predicted, Northam won the Virginia governorship.  Some takeaways.  Some say it is a referendum on Trump, and that is indeed why Northam won.  Obviously, anti-Trump sentiment played a part in that.  However, I don't believe Trump himself is necessarily the primary reason that he won because Trump himself lost the state, and this wasn't a Trump guy.  Here is some analysis: 1. Trump lost the state of Virginia by 5% points.  This was in an election where people stayed home because they weren't enthused about Hillary.  Trump's approval rating is very low in Virginia (low 30s).  More Democrats...

Harbor Freight Tools is planning a one million-square foot expansion of its East Coast distribution facility in Dillon County, SC. The expansion is projected to create more than 500 new jobs, bringing the company’s total investment in South Carolina to more than $200 million. “Since we opened our first facility here in 2001, the company has continued to grow and so has our need for a larger distribution center,” said Harbor Freight Tools Founder and CEO Eric Smidt. “We’ve made an investment in Dillon, becoming part of the community, and we’re proud to expand our presence in this region. Dillon...

eCommerce has been shaping much of the world’s economy recently. One of those that are profiting from this is the global luxury industry. Further helping are Chinese travellers. This industry is seen to have a recent growth of six percent, after a rather stagnant 2016. Total market value of the industry is at a cool $304 billion. This is in part due to much activity in the Chinese market. China leads the way for global luxury spenders. Also helping this growth are the global millennialMillennials are also known as Generation Y, Echo Boomers or Millenniums. They encompass the age group...