Free Republic

HARTFORD - A broad coalition of environmental, economic, regional and construction groups urged Connecticut's gubernatorial candidates Tuesday to conduct a debate focused on transportation issues, and to consider higher taxes and tolls to pay for the state's dire transportation needs. The activists put out a four-point program they said the state's next governor must consider, and expressed concern about the possibility that massive federal funding for highways and mass transit might dry up in the next few years. The coalition's key issues are: •Making certain that state revenue that is supposed to be devoted to transportation - such as gas...

Those little bundles of joy are going to cost you — big time. A child born in 2013 will drain an average of $245,340 from his or her middle-class parents over the kid’s first 18 years on Earth, a federal study revealed on Monday. And that doesn’t even include the cost of college. The figure is up $4,260, or almost 2 percent, from the year before, according to the report from the annual United States Department of Agriculture. Factoring in inflation, the total cost will turn out to be closer to $340,480 in actual greenbacks spent. The latest figures blow...

Imperial Presidency: Secret scheming between the White House and Big Business on immigration is all about political cover for unconstitutional executive action. Cheap labor now isn't worth socialism tomorrow. If high-tech giants such as Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle and Accenture endorse President Obama's impending executive orders giving amnesty to multitudes of illegal aliens without congressional assent, America will in essence have become the corporatocracy the Saul Alinskys of the world have always claimed they fear. Politico reports that some of these firms and others are talking with high-ranking Obama aides, the White House's goal being these companies' public backing for...

The government anti-corruption campaign has prosecuted more high-ranking thieves recently, and a lot more lower-ranking officials as well. This campaign has been going on longer, and taking down more people than any previous effort. The government also insists that this campaign will not, as in the past, simply diminish and fade away as past anti-corruption efforts have. This worries a lot of Chinese, even though most admit that the corruption is the greatest threat the current communist government faces. The potential problem is the growing risk that corrupt businessmen and officials who fear prosecution will get organized and fight back....

Stop the music. All the merriment over the California recovery may have been a bit premature. Tax revenues are way down this year in the Golden State, and this could throw the books back into the red. Not so Golden State Here is the sobering analysis released last week from the Rockefeller Institute of Government, which monitors state spending and revenues: "After four years of uninterrupted growth, states' tax collections saw a decline in the first quarter of 2014. Preliminary figures for the second quarter of 2014 indicate further declines in personal income-tax collections and possibly in overall state taxes."...

The average price for all types of ground beef per pound hit its all-time high -- $3.884 per pound -- in the United States in July, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That was up from $3.880 per pound in June. A year ago, in July 2013, the average price for a pound of ground beef was $3.459 per pound. Since then, the average price for a pound of ground beef has gone up 42.1 cents--or about 12 percent. Five years ago, in July 2009, the average price for a pound of ground beef...

The World Trade Center Has A New, Very Confusing Logo Cramming in a mind-melting series of visual allusions, the $3 million WTC logo is also an ad. The World Trade Center has a new logo. Part of a $3.57 million branding endeavor, it's a riff on space and negative space, presence, and absence. It’s like a Rubin vase test, playing tricks on the eye and asking viewers to see what they want to see. Which would almost be poetic if not for the fact that it could also be read as an ad for a luxury shopping mall. To be...

Pickens: Brent crude will be above $100 forever Jackie DeAngelis | @JackieDeAngelis 4 Hours AgoCNBC.com 72 SHARES                         39COMMENTSJoin the Discussion Oil and gas entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens thinks international oil prices will stay high indefinitely—over $100 a barrel—despite recent declines in the futures market. Adam Jeffery | CNBC T. Boone Pickens At the Investools 4th Annual Investor Education Conference in Dallas, Pickens reminded investors that OPEC's largest producer, Saudi Arabia, needs oil prices to remain elevated in order to maintain its social spending programs; therefore, the Organization...

WASHINGTON -- Private car-hailing service Uber has hired President Barack Obama's former campaign manager David Plouffe to be its senior vice president of policy and strategy. Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick said Plouffe will oversee all global policy and political activities, communications and branding efforts. The company has faced resistance from taxi companies in cities including Miami and Washington.

Food prices are rising in parts of Russia and experts say the state embargo on imports of Western food appears to be making things worse. Since the ban was imposed on 7 August imported pork used in processed meat in Moscow has gone up by 6%, Russian business daily Kommersant reports. In St Petersburg food prices have risen 10%. That inflation occurred even before the impact of sanctions.

On August 18 Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America launched its latest shame campaign to pressure Kroger – which owns Fred Meyer Grocery and QFC – to ban open carry of guns in its stores.

December 3, 1934, Time Magazine, Plot Without Plotters, From Straight Dope One frosty dawn in November 1935, 500,000 War veterans rolled out of their blankets in the pine barrens around the CCC camp at Elkridge, Md. The brassy bugle notes of "Assembly" hurried them to the camp's parade ground, where, mounted on a white horse and surrounded by his staff, they found their leader, Major General Smedley Darlington ("Old Gimlet Eye") Butler, U. S. M. C., retired. "Men," cried General Butler, "Washington is but 30 miles away! Will you follow me?" The answer was a mighty shout: "We will!" Squad...

The National Guard rolled in to protect a status quo. But racism set a status quo of inequality long before Michael Brown died.The National Guard will essentially protect the legal looting of black people – much as it was protected when Missouri became the last slave state admitted to the union. The symptoms of structural racism stain America everywhere, but its execution is particularly perverse in places like Ferguson. It’s not just that black drivers are stopped more often for alleged crimes than white drivers, despite the Missouri attorney general’s report that white people break the law more often. It’s...

December 3, 1934, Time Magazine, Plot Without Plotters, From Straight Dope One frosty dawn in November 1935, 500,000 War veterans rolled out of their blankets in the pine barrens around the CCC camp at Elkridge, Md. The brassy bugle notes of "Assembly" hurried them to the camp's parade ground, where, mounted on a white horse and surrounded by his staff, they found their leader, Major General Smedley Darlington ("Old Gimlet Eye") Butler, U. S. M. C., retired. "Men," cried General Butler, "Washington is but 30 miles away! Will you follow me?" The answer was a mighty shout: "We will!" Squad...

5 Things Pioneer Natural Resources’ Management Wants You to Know By Matt DiLallo | More Articles | Save For Later August 18, 2014 | Comments (0) Pioneer Natural Resources' (NYSE: PXD  ) management team earlier this month spent nearly 75 minutes discussing its second-quarter results with analysts and investors. The company believes it is sitting on more than 10 billion barrels of recoverable oil and gas in the Permian Basin. Here's what management wants investors to know about its plans to create value from that massive resource. No. 1: The water issue is slowly drying upOne reason for Pioneer Natural Resources' large...

...The bull-by-the-horns approach taken by Quebec’s Philippe Couillard. Less than two months after his April election as Premier, his government tabled legislation to tackle the almost $4-billion deficit facing municipal sector pension plans. This means taking on the powerful police and firefighter unions, which have staged loud protests and, bizarrely, worn skirts to work to show their defiance. But while he’s open to amending the bill, on which the government will hold hearings this week, the Premier insists the objective of 50-50 cost-sharing between employees and employers is non-negotiable. Active employees will be required to bear half the cost of...

China’s president has promised to rein in “unreasonably high” pay for executives at government-owned companies in an apparent effort to mollify public frustration at the wealth of state industry. President Xi Jinping’s announcement, carried by the official Xinhua News Agency, comes as the ruling Communist Party is pressing government officials to cut spending on limousines, banquets and other trappings of office. …

Death estimates range from 1,000 to 28,000 per year The $2.2 billion plant, which launched in February, is at Ivanpah Dry Lake near the California-Nevada border. Unlike many other solar plants, the Ivanpah plant does not generate energy using photovoltaic solar panels. Instead, it has more than 300,000 mirrors, each the size of a garage door. Together, they cover 1,416 hectares. Each mirror collects and reflects solar rays, focusing and concentrating solar energy from their entire surfaces upward onto three boiler towers, each looming up to 40 stories high. The solar energy heats the water inside the towers to produce...

<p>Pro-Palestinian activists for the second day blocked an Israeli-owned ship from docking at the Port of Oakland in a protest against Israel’s military action in Gaza.</p> <p>Dockworkers at the Port of Oakland honored a picket line for the second day in a row Sunday as San Francisco Bay Area protesters gathered to stop a Zim Integrated Shipping Services vessel from docking and unloading, the San Jose Mercury News reported.</p>

Imagine discovering a secret language spoken only online by a knowledgeable and learned few. Over a period of weeks, as you begin to tease out the meaning of this curious tongue and ponder its purpose, the language appears to shift in subtle but fantastic ways, remaking itself daily before your eyes. And just when you are poised to share your findings with the rest of the world, the entire thing vanishes.This fairly describes my roller coaster experience of curiosity, wonder and disappointment over the past few weeks, as I’ve worked alongside security researchers in an effort to understand how “lorem ipsum” — common placeholder...