Free Republic

Labor unions representing construction workers have sent an infrastructure priority list to President Donald Trump at his request, as his White House searches for projects to greenlight that require little if any federal funding. North America’s Building Trades Unions sent the White House the wish list of 26 projects, including more than $80 billion worth of energy transmission lines, water and wind projects, and pipelines across the country. More than half of the projects on the list given to Trump aide Stephen Miller are privately financed. All but one are in the midst of permitting and could use the Trump...

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A bill that has already passed the Maryland House of Delegates would fine drivers up to $250 for lingering in the left lane of a highway after passing another vehicle.House Bill 1451 was sponsored by Frederick County Republican Delegate William G. Folden and is now pending in the Senate.Folden says the aim of the bill is to prevent traffic congestion.When it passed in the House last week, he posted the following statement on his Facebook page: “By the slimmest of margins and probably the most bi-partisan voting sheet I’ve seen, my bill for “Left Lane Passing Only”...

On The View today, the women discussed CBS’s Ted Koppel telling Fox News’s Sean Hannity he’s bad for America. “I actually do think he’s good for America in the same way that I think Rachel Maddow is good for America, Bill Maher is good for America,” said former Fox employee Jedediah Bila. “The more opinions the better, and that doesn’t mean that I’m going to watch him and I’m going to agree and I’m going to form my opinions based on what he’s saying…” Whoopi Goldberg said she doesn’t think Hannity uses many facts on his show and asked if...

The Los Angles Times‘ Ryan Faughnder reports that the traditional Hollywood film business faces several key challenges as a by-product of disruptive technology and changing distribution methods, resulting in a high level of executive turnover at the major studios as the industry attempts to adapt to evolving consumer tastes. From the outside, Hollywood looks like a thriving town with massive blockbusters and growing box-office revenue. But pull back the curtain and the legacy movie business is under siege, contributing to the highest level of executive churn in years. Three of the six major studios — Paramount, Sony and Fox —...

Application and acceptance season is underway at America's colleges and universities. But this year, some institutions of higher learning may see a noticeable dip in attendance from one group purposely choosing to stay home: foreign students. Applications from international students from countries such as China, India and in particular, the Middle East, are down this year at nearly 40 percent of schools that answered a recent survey by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Educators, recruiters and school officials report that the perception of America has changed for international students, and it just doesn't seem to be...

Subprime auto loans, a big force behind booming car sales in recent years, are getting crushed by defaults, particularly those originated between 2013 and 2015 when the proportion of subprime loans began to surge while underwriting standards became loosey-goosey, as private-equity-backed auto finance companies with a ravenous appetite for risk, subprime, and securitization elbowed into the market, amid the exuberance of the greatest credit bubble in history. “Bad deals are made in good times,” says the old banking saw. Auto lenders package their loans into asset-backed securities (ABS) and sell them as bonds to yield-hungry institutional investors. Fitch Ratings, which...

Two Bay Area tech executives are accused of filing false visa documents through a staffing agency in a scheme to illegally bring a pool of foreign tech workers into the United States. An indictment from a federal grand jury unsealed on Friday accuses Jayavel Murugan, Dynasoft Synergy’s chief executive officer, and a 40-year-old Santa Clara man, Syed Nawaz, of fraudulently submitting H-1B applications in an effort to illegally obtain visas, according to Brian Stretch, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California. The men are charged with 26 counts of visa fraud, conspiracy to commit visa fraud, use of false...

Swarthmore College — a fancypants, politically-correct hothouse bursting at the seams with wealthy white kids — has announced that it may punish five students for their role in a four-hour takeover of an administrative office last month. The students facing the prospect of punishment for breaking school rules have reacted with disappointment and confusion. The demonstrating students are part of Swarthmore’s Mountain Justice group, a campus organization which is perpetually demanding that Swarthmore’s trustees sell all the fossil-fuel stocks in the school’s luxurious $1.9 billion endowment portfolio. The latest divestment protest occurred on Swarthmore’s campus on Feb. 24, reports The...

In one fell swoop, every utility’s claim of “smart meters do not spy on you” is now dissolved. Their myth is now shattered. In a cutesy marketing video, shown below, global data analytics company Onzo admits to helping utilities surveil and profile their customers — and sell direct surveillance access to their customers’ homes. “We use this characterized profile to give the utility… the ability to monetize their customer data by providing a direct link to appropriate third-party organizations based on the customer’s identified character.” Watch Onzo’s rather jaw dropping 90-second marketing video: [see video and more at source article]

Environmental activists vowed over the weekend to fight the Keystone XL oil pipeline to the bitter end, insisting the Trump administration’s approval of the long-delayed project will not be the final word. Powerful green groups are launching a two-pronged strategy to block the pipeline in the streets and in the courts. First, they intend to use a state review process in Nebraska — where Keystone still does not have a legal route, despite federal approval of the project — to delay any movement forward. Nebraska state officials charged with approving the pipeline’s path say a decision shouldn’t be expected until...

The world "cries out for American and European leadership" through the EU and Nato, US senator John McCain said on Friday (24 March). In a "new world order under enormous strain" and in "the titanic struggle with forces of radicalism … we can't stand by and lament, we've got to be involved," said McCain, a former Republican presidential candidate who is now chairman of the armed services committee in the US Senate. Speaking at the Brussels Forum, a conference organised by the German Marshall Fund, a transatlantic think tank, he said that the EU and the US needed to develop...

This is an excellent example of why it is important to have the presidency in sane hands: (EPA chief: Trump to undo Obama plan to curb global warming) President Donald Trump in the coming days will sign a new executive order that unravels his predecessor’s sweeping plan to curb global warming, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Sunday. EPA chief Scott Pruitt said the executive order to be signed Tuesday will undo the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, an environmental regulation that restricts greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants. The 2015 rule has been on hold since...

Boulder City is planning a beautification project for Nevada Highway, and several local merchants are concerned with how it could affect their businesses. As part of the Boulder City Parkway complete street project, the plan is to widen the sidewalks, create bike lanes, improve pedestrian and bike crossings, improve the median, and create bus turnouts from Gingerwood Street to Buchanan Boulevard. All these additions will take away space from the businesses along that portion of the roadway. Chris Gatlin, owner of Woodchuck’s, is concerned about the lack of space he’ll have once the sidewalk and road are widened. Woodchuck’s, at...

On Tuesday, President Trump will announce new executive orders that target EPA regulations that hindered electricity production in the United States. The regulations were created by the Obama administration as part of an anti-fossil fuel strategy to combat global warming. With the installation of a new EPA chief, Scott Priutt - a confirmed global warming skeptic - the electricity production sector of the economy is about to receive a much needed shot in the arm. Pruitt says that the White House plan is both "pro-jobs and pro-environment" and, unlike the Obama plan, will not be "tethered" to the Paris Climate...

Buried deep inside a very long Washington Post article about Barack Obama’s post-presidency is the revelation that his is supposedly writing his memoir during his month-long South Pacific retreat to French Polynesia. (hat tip: Caitlin Yilek) …he jetted off in a Gulfstream G550 to Tetiaroa, a South Pacific island once owned by Marlon Brando. He plans an extended stay there to start writing his White House memoir, according to a person familiar with his plans who asked for anonymity to discuss them. As ever long time reader of this site knows, Jack Cashill has covered the authorship of Dreams from...

Two teenage girls wearing leggings were barred from boarding a United Airlines flight on Sunday because they did not meet a dress code for special pass travelers, a company spokesman said amid a furor on social media. The two girls, who were traveling with a companion, would not have been turned away for wearing leggings had they been paying customers, United spokesman Jonathan Guerin said as the airline responded to the backlash. "(The two girls) were instructed that they couldn't board until they corrected their outfit. They were fine with it and completely understood," Guerin said, adding that all three...

President Trump plans to unveil a new White House office on Monday with sweeping authority to overhaul the federal bureaucracy and fulfill key campaign promises — such as reforming care for veterans and fighting opioid addiction — by harvesting ideas from the business world and, potentially, privatizing some government functions. The White House Office of American Innovation, to be led by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, will operate as its own nimble power center within the West Wing and will report directly to Trump. Viewed internally as a SWAT team of strategic consultants, the office will be...

U.S. economic growth is expected to accelerate this year and next, yet remain modest, even if President Trump’s promised tax cuts and infrastructure spending are implemented, a survey found. The economy will grow a solid 2.3 percent this year and 2.5 percent in 2018, according to 50 economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics. Those rates would be up from 2016’s anemic pace of 1.6 percent. Still, those rates are below the 3 percent to 4 percent growth that Trump has promised to bring about through steep corporate and individual tax cuts and more spending on roads, airports...

New York has a problem: buying an apartment here is way too expensive. Mayor de Blasio has grouchily ambled along with a solution: make apartments even more expensive. That makes no sense. But it’s the principle of the mayor’s proposed “mansion tax.” Last week, de Blasio went up to Albany to push his idea: forcing home buyers to pay a “paltry” 2.5 percent tax on the value of purchases above $2 million. The tax would raise $336 million a year. That would be enough to subsidize 25,000 poorer elderly folks’ rent by a little more than $1,000 a month, as...

Washington, D.C. will lose thousands of jobs as the district's plan to raise the minimum wage to $15 goes into effect, while the higher wages will primarily benefit workers in the surrounding suburbs, according to a new report by the city's chief financial officer. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser spearheaded the effort for a $15 minimum wage, more than double the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Analysis by the city's Office of Revenue Analysis, however, says the plan could cost the district 2,500 jobs by 2026, the Washington Times reports. The district's minimum wage is currently $11.50 an hour...