Free Republic

The battle over where New Mexico’s electricity will come from after Public Service Company of New Mexico shuts down half of the coal-fired units at San Juan Generating Station near Farmington is growing. Environmentalists and renewable energy advocates adamantly oppose a PNM proposal to increase its share of coal-generated electricity from San Juan by 132 megawatts after some of the plant’s other co-owners abandon it. They fear PNM is committing New Mexico consumers to another two decades of coal-fired electricity despite rising costs from federal environmental regulations, while squandering an opportunity to double down on renewable energy for the future....

Following a merger between Mountain West Bank and First Interstate Bank, several Mountain West locations will be closing across the state ... While the merger of the two well known Montana banks is still pending, Interstate Bank has announced a list of banks that will be closing or relocating

IRS Deputy Associate Chief Counsel Thomas Kane said in transcribed congressional testimony that more IRS officials experienced computer crashes, bringing the total number of crash victims to “less than 20,” and also said that the agency does not know if the lost emails are still backed up somewhere. The new round of computer crash victims includes David Fish, who routinely corresponded with Lois Lerner, as well as Lerner subordinate Andy Megosh, Lerner’s technical adviser Justin Lowe, and Cincinnati-based agent Kimberly Kitchens.

Please explain how the national and international Left accomplished this bipolar feat: The two most hated national identities in the world are Hitler's Germany, and the tiny, beleaguered state the international community birthed in 1948 to harbor the survivors and refugees from Hitler's campaign. Tell us, Leftists. Can history's worst villains really be the Uber Predator and the determined, watchful. prospering remnant of the Predator's victims? I used to think populists who criticize the existence of public education were a little wacky. But here's the thing--the difference in world views and values among citizens is becoming sharper. And harsher. Bitter...

Income inequality has surged as a political and economic issue, but the numbers don’t show that inequality is rising from a global perspective. Yes, the problem has become more acute within most individual nations, yet income inequality for the world as a whole has been falling for most of the last 20 years. It’s a fact that hasn’t been noted often enough. The finding comes from a recent investigation by Christoph Lakner, a consultant at the World Bank, and Branko Milanovic, senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study Center. And while such a framing may sound startling at first, it...

I haven’t paid much attention to Hillary Clinton. Looking through my archives, I found a few posts criticizing her statist inclinations on issues such as taxation, geography, economics, the War on Drugs, class warfare, and financial privacy. Compared to other major political figures, that’s a pretty meager list. Moreover, to the best of my recollection, other than a few cartoons

Detroit neighbourhoods are being relit, its vacant homes are being sold off or torn down, its public transportation is cleaner and more often on schedule and the city has renegotiated some burdensome union contracts. In the little more than a year since the state-appointed emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, made Detroit the largest US city to seek bankruptcy protection, it has experienced a wide range of improvements that will factor into Judge Steven Rhodes's decisions during next month's bankruptcy trial. A major piece of the bankruptcy puzzle could fall into place on Monday, with the expected release of the results of...

Study: Minimum wage hikes don’t kill jobsBy Kevin McArdle July 21, 2014 5:14 AMA new study by the Center for Economic and Research Policy shows that job growth in states that increased their minimum wages this year is far more robust when compared to states that did not hike the minimum wage. Thirteen states increased their minimum wages in 2014, including New Jersey. According to the report, the average change in payrolls in states that implemented minimum wage hikes was 0.99 percent.  For states that didn’t see a minimum wage hike, it was 0.68 percent.However, the report said there is...

<p>Reader David sent an email and accompanying video that purportedly shows the Malaysian Flight 17 being hit by missile. Let's take a look.</p> <p>It appears as if the right engine and wing area took the hit. The camera operator is able to record the moment of impact in the first 2 seconds of this clip. Note the smoke burst left behind on impact with the #2 engine area. There is a 18 second delay (speed of sound delay) due to the distance and altitude of the explosion. Question: How did this video operator know to have his camera running just prior to the missile explosion? How many people run their camera in the sky looking for an airplane cruising at altitude so high that most are not visible to the human eye? Note that the pilots are maintaining wings level, the airplane and burning wing still intact, in what appears to be an uncontrolled descent from 33,000 feet when the video ends at 1 minute 19 seconds.</p>

Any sanguine prognosticators who may have predicted a decline in the average cost of attending college may need to rethink how they arrived at such an off-the mark conclusion. college grad hire me At least 50 American colleges and universities are now charging students more than $60,000 per year. This marks a significant increase from last year when only nine schools exceeded the 60K mark. What’s shocking about this year’s figures is that the data presented in the story from Business Insider does “not reveal the true financial burden of higher education.” Other fees not included in the story include...

I n a recent interview with ABC News, Attorney General Eric Holder spewed more racist nonsense. He claimed that some of his critics and the President's critics were motivated by "racial animus." According to Holder, "There’s a certain level of vehemence, it seems to me, that’s directed at me [and] directed at the president. You know, people talking about taking their country back. … There’s a certain racial component to this for some people." Using the race card is the last refuge for liberals who do not want to be held accountable for their poor performance. Holder is a specialist...

Despite the fact that I consider the prevailing majority of Facebook posts to be the single largest culprit of wasted broadband, I do hold a certain amount of awe for the internet. Shortly after Al Gore invented the technology, the instantaneous exchange of information became a global phenomenon. (Although, those early dial ups can hardly be considered “instantaneous.”) The internet might be, in most cases, the last beacon of relative freedom. Ideas can be spread, information disseminated, and cute kitten pictures shared… All with a simple click of a wireless mouse. While there is an amazing amount of debauchery...

The Barclays Center is usually associated with the Brooklyn Nets, not an active way to show deep political and social commentary. Unfortunately, this has recently changed due to the presence of performer Beyoncé and her husband, rapper Jay-Z. The couple is well known for their singing/performing collaborations, style inspiration, owning a portion of the Brooklyn Nets and their ascent to the Forbes “Highest- Paid Celebrity Couples List.” Good for them. Usually, the press does not associate them with misogyny and black power groups. Houston Rockets v Brooklyn Nets The couple was recently seen at a Brooklyn Nets Games wearing some...

When president Obama was lifted to the presidency promising hope and change, no community was more hopeful than the black community. And inside the black community, no city was prouder than Chicago. But not anymore. Today blacks are disenchanted with an administration—both Obama’s and the current one in Chicago—that has played them.The politicians, who have been so ready to write trillion dollar checks to Wall Street, auto companies and cronies haven’t spent a dime on addressing issues decimating the black community. Instead they have fostered more dependence, using money that rightly belongs in black pockets, to keep blacks servile and...

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) criticized Microsoft founder Bill Gates for calling on Congress to increase STEM worker visas while the company plans to cut 18,000 jobs next year. “Super billionaires aren’t happy apparently. … They declare we need to import more foreign workers,” Sessions said on the Senate floor Thursday. “Mr. Gates says we need to let more and more people into our country to take those kinds of jobs.” Sessions was referring to an op-ed in which Gates called on the House to pass the bipartisan Senate immigration reform bill. That legislation would increase the number of worker visas...

The Federal Reserve created a monster $4.3 trillion balance sheet, up by $3 trillion from 2008, through quantitative easing. QE ends this fall. Now the Fed is trying to figure out what to do with this monster. Their thinking seems to be that they can maintain control over it by paying banks more money to not make loans. So let's get this right. Households and businesses are attempting to borrow money from banks. But the Federal Reserve may eventually pay banks $100 billion per year not to lend to Main Street. Politicians will have a field day with that. The...

....On Monday, Transportation Security Administration fee hikes go into effect, and they will have the greatest impact on travelers who make nonstop flights or have long layovers between flights. Critics say the agency should call the fees what they really are: a tax hike. “Anyway you look at it, this is an increase in taxes,” said Charlie Leocha, chairman of the consumer group Travelers United. The old fee had been $2.50 for a nonstop and $5 for a connecting flight. The maximum fee for a round trip was $10. The new security fee for all flights is $5.60. Any layover...

As WSJ reports, last week's geopolitical chaos and distraction was ideal for a news dump, and the White House didn't disappoint: On no legal basis, all 4.5 million residents of the five U.S. territories were quietly released from ObamaCare. It seems the costs of healthcare soared in these five territories due to uneconomic mandates - which woul dhave been a disaster PR-wise for the administration and so, under cover of catastrophe, WSJ reports all of a sudden last week HHS discovered new powers after "a careful review of this situation and the relevant statutory language," that enabled them to 'selectively...

SAN FRANCISCO — Already locked in its third dry year, an ongoing drought could complicate California's battle against global warming and make it more expensive, officials said. For years, dams have been one of California's main sources of clean energy, generating power without spewing greenhouse gases into the air. "If there's less hydro, the power has to come from somewhere," said Victor Niemeyer of the Electric Power Research Institute. "You have to burn more gas, and that costs more money." A power plant operator that uses more natural gas, raising its emissions, must make up by buying "allowances" under the...

1. Anti-Aircraft Missile Proliferation Is Out of Control The Malaysia Airlines 777 shot down today was flying at about 33,000 feet. It takes a big rocket—one about 16 feet tall—to hit a plane at that altitude. There was a time when the missile proliferation threat everyone worried about was the shoulder-fired variety. Now it seems that more powerful mid-range missiles are falling into the hands of rebel groups and untrained paramilitaries. It's pretty scary to consider that three fighting forces in the area—Russian government forces, Ukrainian government forces, and separatist rebels—have the technology that could have taken down the airliner....