Free Republic

In fiscal 2022, 70 percent of the largest cities in the U.S. did not have enough money to pay their bills. In the latest comprehensive analysis of the fiscal health of the 75 most populous cities in the U.S., 53 did not have enough money to pay all of their bills, according to a Truth in Accounting analysis of the latest annual comprehensive financial reports from 2022. In its eighth annual Financial State of the Cities report, TIA found that the 75 largest cities in the U.S. had $307.4 billion worth of assets available to pay bills but their debt,...

The Supreme Court has struck down President Joe Biden's $400 billion student loans forgiveness plan in another bombshell decision. The justices ruled 6-3 against Biden's controversial plan to wipe out debts for around 20 million Americans, which the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked in October. .....

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on the US to give Ukraine “what they need as fast as possible” a day after President Biden ruled out the possibility of sending F-16 fighter jets to the war-torn nation. “This is not the moment to delay any support for Ukraine. This is the moment to double down on our support. Give them what they need, whether it’s the tanks or the long-range artillery fires. They need to kick Putin out of the whole of the territory,” Johnson told Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier Tuesday during an interview on “Special Report.” Biden,...

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said over the weekend that she wants to eliminate the homeless encampments that are plaguing the city’s streets through the state of emergency that she declared on her first day in office. Bass made the remarks during a Sunday interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” with host Chuck Todd. Bass claimed that 95% of the city’s 40,000 homeless people would accept taxpayer-funded public housing if it was offered to them. When asked by Todd if she would allow LAPD and sanitation officers to continue doing sweeps of the encampments, she said, “no” and that...

LUGANO, Switzerland (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday the reconstruction of his war-battered country is the “common task of the entire democratic world,” as his prime minister laid out a $750 billion recovery plan once invading Russia’s guns fall silent.“The reconstruction of Ukraine is not a local project, is not a project of one nation, but a common task of the entire democratic world — all countries, all countries who can say they are civilized,” Zelenskyy told hundreds of attendees in Lugano. ”Restoring Ukraine means restoring the principles of life, restoring the space of life, restoring everything that...

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense just published a promotional video offering each Russian pilot a reward if they defect to #Ukraine with their aircraft. USD 1 million per aircraft and USD 500,000 per helicopter.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Monday announced 60 finalists for $1 billion in economic development grants tied to the Biden administration’s coronavirus relief package and aimed at improving job training and regional industry partnerships. There were 529 applicants for the grants. That means roughly 11% of submissions made it to the next round, which will ultimately choose 20 to 30 regional coalitions for up to $100 million in grants that could shape manufacturing, clean energy and life sciences hubs around the country. Twelve of the finalists were from places tied to the coal industry. The finalists were...

Government is considering payments of $450,000 per person affected by Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy in 2018 WASHINGTON—The Biden administration is in talks to offer immigrant families that were separated during the Trump administration around $450,000 a person in compensation, according to people familiar with the matter, as several agencies work to resolve lawsuits filed on behalf of parents and children who say the government subjected them to lasting psychological trauma. The U.S. Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services are considering payments that could amount to close to a million per family, though the final numbers could...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s campaign committee has repeatedly promised her donors she would personally match their financial contributions, but so far she has not matched a single cent, according to a report. Pelosi has been using a popular deceptive tactic that is used in political fundraising to gather more donations. The tactic, which promise donation-matching, has been under intense scrutiny according to a report by Axios Pelosi’s campaign has reportedly gone a step further by the speaker promising the contribution matching would come from her personal fortune. But, reports show Pelosi has not made a single contribution from herself. According...

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Monday the Trump administration is prepared to back additional stimulus money to blunt the economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic if necessary. "If we need to put more money out to support American business and American workers, the president is absolutely prepared to do that," Mnuchin told FOX Business' Maria Bartiromo on Monday.

Eat to Live, the food cooperative on the city's South Side, has closed again. It's the second time in about four years the member grocery store - which was built with more than $1 million dollars in donations from Syracuse University and other area foundations - has shut its doors. The Dec. 31 closure comes after New York state also invested more than $400,000 into the project, money meant to jumpstart the store's operations and create enough work for four full-time employees.... troubles plagued the market from the beginning. Within a couple of weeks of opening, the general manager at...

A customer dining at D.C.’s Oceanaire restaurant noticed an unusual line at the bottom of his receipt: “Due to the rising costs of doing business in this location, including costs associated with higher minimum wage rates, a 3% surcharge has been added to your total bill.” Brian, who asked The Washington Post to use only his first name to avoid conflicts with his employer, was surprised to see the additional charge. He snapped a picture and sent it to local blog Popville, which posted a picture of his receipt. The outraged comments started rolling in. “Just raise prices if you...

llinois is like Venezuela now, a fiscally broken state that has lost its will to live, although for the moment, we still have enough toilet paper. But before we run out of the essentials, let's finally admit that after decade upon decade of taxing and spending and borrowing, Illinois has finally run out of other people's money. Those "other people" include taxpayers who've abandoned the state. And now Illinois faces doomsday. So as the politicians meet in Springfield this week for another round of posturing and gesturing and blaming, we need a plan. And here it is:

The price tag is in: It would cost $400 billion to remake California’s health insurance marketplace and create a publicly funded universal heath care system, according to a state financial analysis released Monday. California would have to find an additional $200 billion per year, including in new tax revenues, to create a so-called “single-payer” system. The estimate assumes the state would retain the existing $200 billion in local, state and federal funding it currently receives to offset the total $400 billion price tag. Employers currently spend between $100 billion to $150 billion per year, which could be available to help...

Donald Trump announced Friday he raised $6 million for veterans at his fundraiser in Iowa the night before. Iowa was amazing last night. The event could not have worked out better. We raised $6,000,000 for our great vets. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) > But this would appear a significant increase from what he's given to the cause before, according to some reports which questioned whether the billionaire businessman has been a consistent donor to vet groups. Showbiz 411 reports that the Donald J. Trump Foundation gave a total of $2.6 million in charitable donations in the last three years,...

FAIRFIELD, Conn. - General Electric will leave its mark on this town beyond more than four decades of supplying hundreds of steady, high-paying jobs, and millions of dollars in property tax revenue. But it also leaves residents with many tough questions. The giant industrial conglomerate has made significant donations to local nonprofits, while its employees shop at local businesses and volunteer their time coaching youth sports teams and working at local charities. Workers, raising families near the company's 68-acre campus in the town's Stratfield neighborhood, are active members of civic and community organizations. The company "has always been a part...

In November 2008, California voters narrowly approved Proposition 1A, which provided $9.95 billion in government money for a statewide bullet-train network. The initiative passed, even though the California High-Speed Rail Authority had been legally required to release a detailed, updated business plan by October 1 of that year, so that voters would have time to learn exactly how the state planned to finance what was then billed as a $43 billion project—and no updated plan was in view. Rail officials failed even to release a preliminary report before the election, claiming that state legislators’ long delay in passing the fiscal...

(CNN)Dean Jones, the go-to Disney actor whose films included "The Love Bug," "The Million Dollar Duck," "That Darn Cat!" and "The Shaggy D.A.," died Tuesday, according to his publicist. Jones was 84. The cause of death was Parkinson's disease, according to publicist Richard Hoffman. Jones made his film debut in 1956's "Somebody Up There Likes Me," which starred Paul Newman as boxer Rocky Graziano. The next year he appeared in the Elvis Presley movie "Jailhouse Rock." He also starred on Broadway in such works as "There Was a Little Girl," with Jane Fonda, and the hit "Under the Yum-Yum Tree,"...

All the lady wanted was some chicken. But in shortage-plagued Venezuela, she waited in line five hours, only to go home empty-handed. "I got here at 5:30 am and came away with nothing! It is just not fair that you have to work so hard -- and then put up with these lines," said an exasperated Lileana Diaz, a 49-year-old receptionist at a hospital emergency room. Venezuelans have been enduring shortages of the most basic goods, such as toilet paper, for more than a year.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Leading U.S. CEOs, angered by the Obama administration's challenge to certain "workplace wellness" programs, are threatening to side with anti-Obamacare forces unless the government backs off, according to people familiar with the matter. Major U.S. corporations have broadly supported President Barack Obama's healthcare reform despite concerns over several of its elements, largely because it included provisions encouraging the wellness programs. The programs aim to control healthcare costs by reducing smoking, obesity, hypertension and other risk factors that can lead to expensive illnesses. A bipartisan provision in the 2010 healthcare reform law allows employers to reward workers...