Free Republic

Friday, May 12, 2017 IL GOP Senator Brady serves as coal-mine canary with his proposed "Grand Bargain 2.0" SPRINGFIELD - Republican state Senator Bill Brady - once the favorite of social conservatives when he ran twice for Illinois governor in 2010 and again in 2014 - has now willingly stepped in as a tax-hike canary in the Illinois Republican coal mine by making a daring call for tax hikes in the governor's newest "grand bargain" budget proposal. And it's not just one tax hike the Bloomington senator wants Illinoisans to inhale along with him, it's two or maybe three new...

On March 24 in 2015, in Cleveland, Brian Bridges shot a man in self defense. He had a concealed carry permit from Ohio, and was never charged with a crime.  But the accomplice of the man who was shot was charged.  From clevescene.com: That trial wasn't to be— the defendant pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in October 2015. But now, in 2017, Bridges still hasn't gotten his handgun and other items back, the complaint alleges. From courthousenews.com:  Bridges claims Cleveland police unlawfully seized his property, “including a Glock 21 semiautomatic handgun, ammunition, holsters and a redcherry piccolo,” to be...

Could Apple be gunning for an acquisition or merger with Tesla? A Citigroup analyst believes it's a possibility—especially with Apple's huge cash reserve that has recently surpassed a quarter of a trillion dollars. With big things on the horizon for Tesla Motors, and cash burning a hole in Apple’s pocket, it’s an angle to consider. It's fair to say that Tesla wasn't the only company to appear in this forecast, made by Citigroup analyst Jim Suva. Netflix and Disney are two other big names tossed around in addition to the automaker. But Apple is currently working on a self-driving vehicle...

The company once hailed as Europe’s largest solar panel producer filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, blaming cheap Chinese panels for flooding the market. “The ongoing price erosion and the development of the business” has left the company “over-indebted and thus obliged to file for insolvency proceedings,” SolarWorld, which is also the largest U.S. solar panel maker, said in a statement. The filing comes after SolarWorld was forced to lay off employees earlier this year. The company employs around 3,000 people, including 800 in Hillsboro, Oregon, and was one of the few German-based solar companies to survive a recent market downturn. SolarWorld...

Here’s why some of the economy’s hottest new jobs are as old as time Craft beer makers. “Mixologist” bartenders who have far more up their sleeves than a gin and tonic. Barbers who hark back to a bygone era of style. Butchers who slice and dice their way through entire animals, with a modern focus on sourcing and sustainability. Are these the types of jobs—in fields that have been around for decades, but which have lately taken on a more specialized, artisanal focus—that can power the economy in the coming years? Richard Ocejo may not quite go that far, but...

Student loan lenders are skimming tens of billions in profits guaranteed by the taxpayers. "Legal" rackets have two essential components: a public-relations "cover" that obscures the racket and the mechanism that extracts the wealth from the "marks." The Higher Education Racket qualifies on both counts: 1. The PR cover is "you all need a college diploma, and we're here to make that happen." Yea for more education! 2. The extraction mechanism is student loans. Here's a chart that shows what happened relatively recently: your federal government began guaranteeing obscene profits to student-loan lenders and debt-serfdom for tens of millions of...

BEIJING - When the sister of White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner promoted investment in her family's new skyscraper to investors in Beijing earlier this month, she was pitching a controversial American visa program that's proven irresistible to tens of thousands of Chinese. Over the last decade, more than 100,000 Chinese have poured at least $24 billion into "golden visa" programs across the world, an Associated Press analysis has found. These programs offer residence in exchange for investment in a country's businesses. Nowhere is Chinese demand greater than in the United States, which has taken in at least $7.7 billion...

Carlo Style Submachine gun found after attack on Israeli Car in January, 2017 In many places around the world, where firearms are very difficult to obtain legally, small shops manufacture simple submachine guns for the black market. They are common in Brazil, Israel, the Philippines, and increasingly in Australia,  Canada, and even the United States, where submachine guns are highly regulated. In Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces have turned their attention from the private owners of black market guns to the small shops that produce them. The crackdown started in 2016. From timesofisrael.com: Save for members of the Palestinian...

Ald. Arena's Section 8 development means more crime, lower property values in Jefferson Park, says expert Crime Glenn Minnis James Bovard warns residents of Jefferson Park that they need look no further than the opposite side of the city to see what a proposed low-income, subsidized housing complex could mean for their neighborhood. The plan, backed by 45th Ward Alderman John Arena, would nearly double the amount of subsidized housing in the neighborhood. “It could be the Chatham aftermath all over again,” Bovard, a noted libertarian author and lecturer, told the Chicago City Wire. Chatham is a South Side neighborhood...

Taco Bell, the Yum Brands Inc. YUM, +0.36% fast-food Mexican chain, said Tuesday that it will fill 3,500 newly-created jobs in May, and seeks to fill 50,000 more jobs by the end of the summer. The hiring spree is part of a previously-announced plan to create about 100,000 U.S. jobs over the next five years through an additional 1,000 U.S. locations. Yum Brands shares are unchanged in premarket trading, and up 17.4% for the past year compared with a 16.6% rise in the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.22% [continued]

Implosion: The law was, after all, just a "step on the path to single payer." Last year, you may recall that one of the nation’s largest insurers, Aetna, announced it had suffered major losses under the failing Affordable Care Act. As a result, it was pulling out of many ACA exchanges. The company said it intended to soldier on in just four states - Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska, and Virginia. Back then, Aetna claimed losses of almost $450 million. A few weeks ago, they announced that number has risen to $700 million since 2014, and they trimmed Iowa and Virginia from...

Job seekers will be able to apply for work at some 30 area employers Thursday during a job fair from 3-7 p.m. at Walker County Civic Center, 10052 U.S. Highway 27. The job fair is co-sponsored by the Georgia Department of Labor along with the Chattooga, Dade and Walker counties chambers of commerce. Employers who have registered and offer a variety of jobs include: Amedisys Home Health and Hospice Care, Audia Plastics, Clumpies Ice Cream, Coca Cola, Dixie Collision, Dollar General, EnviroGuard, Hammer Down OC, Hayes State Prison, Jimmy Simpson Foundation, Komatsu America Corporation, Lake Winnepesaukah and Lookout Mountain Community...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (News release)- Chairman Yafu Qiu (pronounced “Chew”) and leaders of Shandong Ruyi Technology Group (Ruyi) today joined Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and local officials at the State Capitol to announce that the company will invest $410 million in the former Sanyo manufacturing facility in Forrest City, Arkansas. Ruyi, headquartered in Shandong Province, China, will create up to 800 new jobs at the facility, where Arkansas cotton will be spun into yarn for textile use. This is Ruyi’s first facility to locate in North America. “Ruyi Group, as the largest textile manufacturer in China, has been expanding globally,”...

A company is set to open what Governor Cuomo's office says will be the biggest commercial hydroponic facility in the nation in Rochester. The governor says Clearwater Organic Farms will build a 15 acre, 650,000 square-foot facility at Eastman Business Park, creating 137 new jobs. About half of those positions will be reserved for veterans and the unemployed, the state says. The project is expected to be completed by the end of the year. "The new Clearwater Organic Farms facility will drive innovation, create jobs for New Yorkers who need them most, and bolster economic growth throughout the region," Governor...

OPEC and its cartel of friends must be sweating condensates in advance of their May 25th meeting. The oil price war, triggered almost three years ago, is far from over. Calling a truce with production cuts has been an ineffective strategy. In fact, it’s been a feeble strategy and nobody in the business should rely on its extension to be effective. Price wars are often triggered by the arrival of a new entrant into an entrenched market clique. American light tight oil began flowing into petroleum supply chains in 2010. By 2014, output from plays like the Bakken, Eagle Ford...

Councilman Gil Cedillo said Tuesday he plans to introduce a motion that would require companies seeking contracts with the city to publicly disclose if they are also submitting bids to build President Donald Trump’s controversial border wall. The measure would impose strict penalties and fines on any company that fails to disclose the information. Cedillo said he plans to introduce the motion at Friday’s Los Angeles City Council meeting and discuss it at a news conference Thursday with a coalition of immigration rights, community and labor leaders, including Rusty Hicks, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor....

During last year’s presidential campaign, Jared Kushner reportedly made a deal with Sinclair Broadcast Group: The Trump campaign would provide Sinclair’s local news stations with intimate access to the candidate, in exchange for “fair” coverage of the GOP nominee. Here are some of the ways that Sinclair kept its broadcasts fair and balanced, according to the Washington Post: Sinclair-owned stations and its Washington bureau scored 15 “exclusive” interviews with Trump over the past year, including 11 during the final three months of the campaign in critical states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio. They did 10 more with Trump’s running mate,...

Money is a feminist issue — and yet, women are still reluctant to talk about it. According to a recent Bustle survey of more than 1,000 Millennial women, more than 50 percent of people said they never discuss personal finances with friends, even though 28 percent reported feeling stressed out about money every single day. That's why Bustle launched Grown-A$$ Finances, a series that gets real about what Millennial women are doing with their money, and why — because managing your money should feel empowering, not intimidating. A lot of people have side jobs in addition to their full-time ones,...

FRANKFORT, Ky. (May 9, 2017) – With ground turned today during a ceremony at LINAK U.S. Inc.’s plant, which manufactures linear actuators for hospital beds, office desks, farm equipment and other uses, Gov. Matt Bevin congratulated the company on its $33 million expansion that will create 413 full-time jobs. “Since locating in the commonwealth more than 20 years ago, LINAK has steadily grown its business and presence, in Louisville,” Gov. Bevin said. “We are witnessing another great investment in Kentucky as ground breaks today on the expansion of LINAK’s Louisville-based manufacturing facility. Kentucky is on the rise, and I thank...

Research Triangle Park, N.C. — Credit Suisse is adding 1,200 jobs at its technology hub in North Carolina, which approved more than $40 million in tax breaks on Tuesday to lure the jobs away from the New York City area. The financial services giant is reorganizing operations and sharply reducing its workforce after two years of losses, cutting up to 6,500 jobs this year after slashing its overall headcount by 7,200 last year. The announcement comes five weeks after North Carolina lawmakers repealed House Bill 2, a controversial state law that limited the rights of gay and transgender people. Passage...