Free Republic

Back in February, when we commented on the unprecedented hyperinflation about the be unleashed in the Latin American country whose president just announced that he would expand the "weekend" for public workers to 5 days...... we joked that it is unclear just where the country will find all the paper banknotes it needs for all its new physical currency. After all, central-bank data shows Venezuela more than doubled the supply of 100-, 50- and 2-bolivar notes in 2015 as it doubled monetary liquidity including bank deposits. Supply has grown even as Venezuela has fewer U.S. dollars to support new...

Donald Wolfe said he would walk there from his apartment on West 50th Street in Manhattan — 38 steps to the elevator, 54 steps through the lobby, 75 steps down the block to the corner and 37 steps across Eighth Avenue. First he put the jug with the water on his wheelchair. His oxygen tank was already in place, on the back. Off he went, pushing the wheelchair, a transport device for the garden supplies if not, at the moment, the gardener. He was not shuffling. Not shambling. But not speedwalking, either. “We’re so dry right now,” said Mr. Wolfe,...

[...] Sanders is wrong about the New Deal "putting people to work" since their government-funded activity did nothing to create wealth or end the depression. The Depression lasted until 1945. And the New Deal certainly isn't "the foundation of the middle class" which grew and thrived in the second half of the 19th century. However, when he classifies the New Deal programs that dominate US policy today as "socialist," Sanders is absolutely correct. In fact, if a democratic socialist of the 19th century were to get into a time machine and travel to the modern United States, he'd be forced...

Lawyers for residents of Flint, Michigan, have filed a $220.2 million damages claim alleging negligence on the part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency contributed to dangerous lead levels in the city's water supply. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Michael Pitt said his firm Royal Oak, Michigan's Pitt McGehee Palmer & Rivers, along with others, had filed an administrative complaint on Monday with the EPA alleging injuries to over 500 people. They said they would file a similar complaint next week covering 250 more Flint residents. Federal law requires that such complaints be filed as precursors to actual lawsuits...

The Donald Trump effect: Ford will invest $1.6 billion in two U.S. factories. Ford Motor Co will invest $1.6 billion in two U.S. factories to start making a new automatic transmission and expand output of certain commercial trucks, the company said on Tuesday. Ford said the moves would support a total of 650 jobs but would not say how many new ones would be created. The announcement comes three weeks after Ford said it would spend $1.6 billion to build a new vehicle assembly plant in Mexico, drawing fire from Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump. Ford has countered that...

A convoy of self-driving trucks recently drove across Europe and arrived at the Port of Rotterdam. No technology will automate away more jobs — or drive more economic efficiency — than the driverless truck. Shipping a full truckload from L.A. to New York costs around $4,500 today, with labor representing 75 percent of that cost. But those labor savings aren’t the only gains to be had from the adoption of driverless trucks. Where drivers are restricted by law from driving more than 11 hours per day without taking an 8-hour break, a driverless truck can drive nearly 24 hours per...

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AND NOW... amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke... it is time for... that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-The-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up, and he's not retiring until every American agrees with him - do NOT doubt him - with shrieks of joy at the mere mention of his name (that's Rush, for those in Rio...

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's socialist government ordered public workers on Tuesday to work a two-day week as an energy-saving measure in the crisis-hit South American OPEC country. President Nicolas Maduro had already given most of Venezuela's 2.8 million state employees Fridays off during April and May to cut down on electricity consumption. Water shortages and electricity cuts have added to the hardships of Venezuela's 30 million people, already enduring a brutal recession, shortages of basics from milk to medicines, soaring prices, and long lines at shops.

Norwegian authorities are offering a "bonus" 10,000 kroner (£1,000) to asylum seekers willing to leave the country voluntarily. The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) says the measure is less expensive than keeping refugees in immigration centres in the country. Launched on Monday, the scheme will run for six weeks, state broadcaster NRK reported UDI saying. The money will be paid to the first 500 asylum seekers to apply on a first-come, first-served basis. “We need to entice more [people] to voluntarily travel back by giving them a bit more money on their way out. This will save us a lot...

BALTIMORE - The immense new CVS dominates the corner of Pennsylvania and West North avenues. It's a contrast that shows what's changed and what hasn't in the past year, since Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died of injuries sustained in police custody, unleashing days of protests. But if 2015's protests emphasized police brutality and race relations, the absence of more stores like CVS that are easily accessible to people in impoverished, predominantly black neighborhoods underscores Baltimore's other persistent inequities. Scarcity defines life in Sandtown-Winchester, the 72-block neighborhood where Gray lived for part of his life. Its roughly 9,000 residents...

Half a century ago, harvesting California’s 2.2 million tons of tomatoes for ketchup required as many as 45,000 workers. In the 1960s, though, scientists and engineers at the University of California, Davis, developed an oblong tomato that lent itself to being machine-picked and an efficient mechanical harvester to do the job in one pass through a field. The battle to save jobs was on... ...These days, the battle to save American jobs has a different flavor... ...In America’s factories, jobs are inevitably disappearing, too. But despite the political rhetoric, the problem is not mainly globalization. Manufacturing jobs are on the...

OXFORD — The City Council on Tuesday made it illegal for anyone to use a public bathroom that doesn’t align with the gender they were born with. The new law, approved unanimously by the council’s members, restricts a person’s use of public bathrooms and changing rooms to the facilities designated for use by those of the gender listed on his or her birth certificate. The law applies within both the city’s limits and police jurisdiction. After members approved the new city ordinance, Council President Steven Waits read from a prepared statement. Waits said he and the council sought the law...

PERMIAN BASIN In the midst of a downturn in the oil industry, Chevron is set to invest billions. According to a report by the Hobbs News-Sun, Chevron is planning on bringing massive, billion-dollar oil and gas projects to West Texas and eastern New Mexico. Chevron CEO John Watson announced the company will put more of its budget in the Permian Basin while cutting costs elsewhere. During an annual analyst meeting Watson predicted by 2020 Chevron could pump 350,000 barrels a day in West Texas which is almost triple their current 125,000 barrels a day.

San Francisco would have to stop entering into contracts with companies based in states that bar civil-rights protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people under legislation introduced Tuesday at the Board of Supervisors. The proposed ordinance, by Supervisor Scott Wiener, is another effort to increase pressure on North Carolina and Mississippi to rescind recently enacted laws to limit transgender rights.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) sent a letter Monday, together with 73 of their colleagues to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Robert Califf, expressing concern and seeking information regarding the recent loosening of regulation of the abortion-inducing drug Mifeprex or RU-486. The FDA announced a change in their guidelines for Mifeprex in March. The new guidelines reduce the dosage from 600 milligrams to 200 milligrams, decrease the number of required doctor’s visits from three to two, and allow the pill to be taken later in pregnancy, at 10 weeks of pregnancy from 7 weeks. “We...

A New York judge decided Tuesday that a fraud case against Donald Trump over his former school for real estate investors will go to trial – raising the possibility that the Republican presidential primary front-runner could testify during campaign season. New York County Supreme Court Judge Cynthia Kern made the decision at a hearing Tuesday, though it remains unclear whether the case will be weighed at a jury trial – which is what Trump’s team is seeking. Trump attorney Jeffrey Goldman said it’s possible the trial could be held this fall, and Trump could testify. In the case, New York...

A New York judge decided Tuesday that a fraud case against Donald Trump over his former school for real estate investors will go to trial – raising the possibility that the Republican presidential primary front-runner could testify during campaign season.

Insurance companies would not be allowed to discriminate against transgender patients under a bill passed by the Hawaii Legislature. The bill passed Tuesday by the House of Representatives prohibits denying, canceling or limiting coverage based on a person’s gender identity. The bill was already passed by the Senate, so it now goes to Gov. David Ige. Kaleo Ramos, a transgender teacher, says people in Hawaii have been denied coverage for things like mammograms or screenings for prostate cancer because of the gender on their driver’s license. …

United States Steel Corp. has filed a complaint with U.S. regulators against the biggest Chinese steel producers, accusing them of conspiring to fix prices, stealing trade secrets and skirting duties on imports in the U.S. with false labeling. The big steelmaker is alleging illegal unfair competition by the Chinese producers and their distributors, and is seeking “the exclusion of all unfairly traded Chinese steel products from the U.S. market.” U.S. Steel announced Tuesday that it lodged the complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission. Normally the independent federal agency decides within 30 days whether or not to act. The case...