Free Republic

The fix is in. Did you know, corporations like General Electric Co. (GE) spend more money on lobbyists than they pay in taxes? The federal government currently taxes corporations at 35 percent. While many argue the rate is too high, you don’t hear companies like GE complaining about it. That’s because they aren’t paying it. Over the past 15 years, GE’s federal income tax rate averaged only 5.2 percent. General Electric paid no federal taxes in 2010, despite earning $5.1 billion in U.S. profits. Instead, the company claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion. Meanwhile, GE executives awarded themselves more...

Jack Ma is working the White House, with a promise to reduce the number of unemployed workers by 14%. Jack Ma was destined to live an ordinary life. He failed the Chinese university entrance exam several times before being accepted by the worst school in Hangzhou, and he was rejected from a dozen jobs – even selling chicken at KFC. Ma was ready to settle into a quiet life as an English teacher in eastern China, a position with few advancement prospects, when, during a trip to Seattle in 1995 working as a translator for a trade delegation, everything changed....

Many students believe that the next natural step after graduating from high school is to go off to college. Secondary education has become such a common transition that many parents begin saving for college tuition as soon as their children are born. Although college can be the next chapter in a student's education, many teenagers still choose to attend trade school. Television personality Mike Rowe says the country is in the midst of a skilled labor shortage because workers lack the necessary training to fill the hundreds of thousands of available jobs. Lack of information may drive the notion that...

This is NOT fake news. This is big, big news. Joe Lee has just become the world’s first full-time Donald Trump bookmaker. The Sun’s Mike Ridley gives a Trump pinch with Paddy Power’s Joe In a rectangular – rather than oval – office on the fourth floor of Dublin’s Power Tower, Head of Trump Bets Joe spends his day working out the odds for punters’ bets on the US President. Donald J Trump is BIG business in the world of betting. More bets are placed on The Donald than on boxing, motor racing or even the President’s favourite sport golf....

HUBBARD, Ohio – An Ohio factory owner said Saturday that though she has blue-collar jobs available at her company, she struggles to fill positions because so many candidates fail drug tests. Regina Mitchell, a co-owner of Warren Fabricating & Machining in Hubbard, Ohio, told The New York Times this week that four out of 10 applicants otherwise qualified to be welders, machinists and crane operators will fail a routine drug test. In an interview Saturday with CNN’s Michael Smerconish, Mitchell said that her requirements for prospective workers were simple. “I need employees who are engaged in their work while here,...

Back in job market again after end of my current contract. I updated my listings (as a UNIX/LINUX C and C++ expert) on Dice and Monster the other day, and the phone began ringing off the hook. Well, one recruiter wants to know if I am interested in full time work, direct hire, in Detroit, for the process control of a steel mill whose business is reportedly burgeoning. This looks like a MAGA move to me, and the recruiter points out that it isn't all decay, there is rebuilding going on too. My rhetorical question: how crazy does a high...

If you've always wanted to work for Apple, but have ambivalent feelings about pants, you might have just found your dream job. Apple has put out the call for more than 60 "At Home" advisors and managers—customer service and support roles that let people work out of their house. "From your own home, you’ll be [people's] human connection to Apple: friendly, thoughtful, and real," the job listing reads. "You’ll answer questions about our products and services, enriching customers’ lives by helping them access the wonder they’ve come to expect from Apple. And every time you save someone’s day, you’ll be...

Ex-employees claim company wouldn’t let them delay meal break during Ramadan Sixteen Muslims “involuntary resigned” from their jobs at an automotive supplier in Warren because the company refused to accommodate their planned religious observance, their attorneys said Wednesday. The ex-employees of Brose Jefferson, who worked the afternoon shift, had requested they be allowed to take their unpaid, 30-minute meal break at 9 p.m. instead of the usual 7 p.m., during Ramadan. During Ramadan, which was celebrated worldwide from May 27 to June 25, Muslims observe strict fasting from sunrise to sunset. On Friday, May 26, the Muslim employees on the...

Modernizing Medicine, the medical records firm that is already one of the fastest-growing tech companies in South Florida, announced an expansion Thursday that will create more than 800 new jobs in Boca Raton. Gov. Rick Scott, who announced the jobs at the company at an event Thursday, said every time he visits Modernizing Medicine, there are more employees. “There are not many companies growing as fast as Modernizing Medicine — in the world,” he said. The Boca Raton-based company, which developed an electronic medical records and data system for specialty physicians, already employs 550 people, including 400 in Florida.....

Desktop Metal – remember the name. This Massachussetts company is preparing to turn manufacturing on its head, with a 3D metal printing system that's so much faster, safer and cheaper than existing systems that it's going to compete with traditional mass manufacturing processes. We've been hearing for years now about 3D printing and how it's going to revolutionize manufacturing. As yet, though, it's still on the periphery. Plenty of design studios and even home users run desktop printers, but the only affordable printing materials are cheap ABS plastics. And at the other end of the market, while organizations like NASA...

Amazon will make tens of thousands of job offers on the spot next week, including some at two Ohio warehouses. The offers are part of a nationwide, one-day job fair the online retailer is hosting in an effort to fill nearly 40,000 full-time positions and 10,000 part-time jobs, according to Amazon. People offered jobs on the spot will pack or sort boxes and help ship them to customers, the Associated Press reports. In Ohio, Amazon will be offering jobs at two facilities near Columbus.....

What's up with FR?

CAMERON PARISH, LA (KPLC) - The face of Cameron Parish will soon be changing. A massive, 500-acre port will be built over the next four years on the Calcasieu Ship Channel, creating close to 4,000 permanent jobs - doubling the employment in the parish. Peterson Offshore Group, a Dutch international energy logistics management company, signed a letter of intent Wednesday with Port Cameron to lease 1.2 million square feet in Part Cameron's Logistics Center. Peterson will co-manage the port. For Ted Falgout, executive director of Port Cameron, Cameron Parish is the perfect location for this project. "I think seeing these...

President Donald Trump is set to make a big jobs announcement Wednesday afternoon at the White House. He's expected to appear with Foxconn CEO Terry Gou to announce a new factory in Wisconsin that will make liquid-crystal displays, or the screens that eventually get turned into flat-screen TVs, according to reports from The Associated Press, CNBC, and Bloomberg. Foxconn is best known as Apple's primary manufacturing partner, and it assembles products like the iPhone. Apple spent $75 billion with Foxconn in 2016. Foxconn does most of its manufacturing in Asia, though it has facilities in Brazil, India, and other countries....

130 new high paying manufacturing jobs are coming to Toledo. The Cliffs Natural Resources Corporation is building a new $700 million dollar iron processing facility. It will be built along Front Street right next to the Oregon/Toledo city lines. "We will hire locals," says Cliffs President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves, "The jobs will start at $90 thousand and some will pay over $100 thousand." The project is also expected to create over 1,200 construction jobs when the company breaks ground in 2018. The facility is expected to open in 2020. "This can be extremely exciting for Toledo" says Goncalves "The...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S consumer confidence jumped to a near 16-year high in July amid optimism over the labor market while house prices maintained their upward trend in May, which could boost consumer spending after recent sluggishness. The reports on Tuesday underscored the economy's strong fundamentals, expected to keep the Federal Reserve on course to raise interest rates for a third time this year. "This brightens the outlook for the economy as we enter the second half of the year," said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York. "We expect Fed officials will continue with their gradual pace...

As I read the headline on the Democrats’ new slogan, “A Better Deal: Better Jobs, Better Wages, Better Future,” I couldn’t help but wonder who would fall for a party with a “lipstick on a pig” mentality. The party is what it is and no amount of PR, marketing or rebranding is going to change who it is and for what it stands. Maybe more importantly, the Democrats can’t market their way out of the sheer contempt many of us feel toward its party. Schumer and Pelosi can talk until they’re blue in the face, and they still are going...

BREWTON, AL (WSFA) - Hundreds of jobs are coming to South Alabama after the city of Brewton secured a million-dollar deal with a leading tech company. According to Brewton City Clerk, Alex McDowell, about 300 jobs will be coming to the city after it secured a $6.5 million deal with Provalus and its parent company Optomi, LLC. The 15-year agreement was finalized Monday and the site will serve as Optomi's 'flagship U.S. facility' according to Provalus/Optomi President Chuck Ruggiero. The partnership with Optomi, LLC, a tech-staffing firm, includes the construction of three buildings on 10 acres of the former Dogwood...

President Donald Trump told The Wall Street Journal that Apple is moving forward with three big U.S. factories in an interview published on Tuesday. Apple CEO Tim Cook called Trump to share that the iPhone-maker would do more manufacturing domestically, Trump told the Journal. "I spoke to [Mr. Cook], he's promised me three big plants -- big, big, big," Trump reportedly said. Apple has already said that it would start a $1 billion fund to promote advanced manufacturing jobs in the United States. The company was not immediately available to comment on the report and did not comment to The...

WXII LEXINGTON, N.C. — A European business plans to create more than 700 jobs over the next 15 years in Davidson County. Gov. Roy Cooper and the Davidson County Economic Development Commission announced Monday afternoon in Lexington the completion of a long term agreement with EGGER Wood Products, one of Europe’s leading wood-based materials supplier for the furniture, wood construction and the flooring industries. The company’s development plans include creating 770 manufacturing jobs over the next 15 years with a proposed $700 million investment. The first phase, creating 400 jobs, will happen over the next six years, and an additional...