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AUSTIN — Maybe Texas’ transportation problems are a lot simpler to understand than recent fights over toll roads make it seem, North Texas leaders told state senators Wednesday. “My first recommendation: You need to provide a lot more revenue for transportation,” Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, told the Texas Senate transportation committee. That was hardly the only suggestion from Mr. Morris or the many others who spoke to the committee, which is seeking input as it readies an approach on toll roads, TxDOT and more for the next legislative session. But it might...

Can we just stop whining about gasoline prices and oil-company profits? Do I enjoy paying $3.50 a gallon for gasoline? Of course not. I’d like it to be under $2 as it was a few years ago. I’m sure we’d all like it better if it were under $1 like the good old days. But what about those profits? Are they really that “huge”? Or “obscene”? Or “enormous”, or whatever adjective the congressional windbags and assorted crybabies are using. Let’s look at some numbers, shall we? Assume $100 per barrel for crude oil. The standard oil barrel contains 42 gallons....

One major concern I discussed a few weeks ago regarding the Trans Texas Corridor is where the land will come from. Another concern is where the money will come from. Official government websites for the TTC assure that public-private partnerships will shield the taxpayer from bearing too much of the cost burden, but a careful reading shows the door is definitely open to public funding sources, while at the same time there is no doubt of the intention to charge tolls on the road. Taxpayers already pay for their transportation system through hefty gasoline taxes, vehicle registration fees, and other...

I covered this on the Information Overload portion of the Boortz show yesterday. Web Guy and Cristina tell me that there have been hundreds of email requests to put the information here in the Nuze. Happy to oblige. The issue here is the profit figures for Exxon Mobile. This oil company has been a favorite target for leftist, anti-capitalist politicians. I'm sure you remember Hillary screeching about wanting "to take those profits" so that she could spend them. Recap: In 2006 Exxon reported profits of $39.5 billion. Politicians went nuts. In 2007 those profits went to $40.6 billion. Politicians went...

WASHINGTON - Missile technology, fighter jet parts, night vision goggles and other U.S. wartime equipment increasingly are being illegally smuggled to potential adversaries, such as China and Iran, the federal government said Thursday. Last week, two Utah men were arrested for allegedly trying to sell parts over the Internet for F-4 and F-14 fighter jets — which are only flown by Iran. The week before, two engineers were indicted in San Jose, Calif., on charges of stealing computer chip designs intended for the Chinese military.

Auditor under fire reaps big profitsFirm has been criticized for rejecting many hospital Medicare claims in state. By David Whitney - Bee Washington Bureau Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, August 3, 2007 WASHINGTON -- PRG-Schultz International, the Atlanta auditing company under fire for its sweeping rejection of claims for California Medicare patients cared for by rehabilitation hospitals, announced soaring second-quarter profits Thursday. The announcement came a day after members of the California congressional delegation met with audit overseers in a heated meeting in which they complained that PRG-Schultz's wholesale rejection of claims is enriching its bottom line while jeopardizing health...

Stock market bulls like myself were on the losing side of this week’s trading, as the Dow gave back roughly 4 percent from its 14,000 peak. The big story was a wave of high-anxiety credit fears over the value of corporate and housing loans. Credit circuits blew a fuse, lending markets temporarily froze, and a number of buyout deals were postponed as analysts and traders worked through their problems. But this is no time to lose faith. The economy has found its legs with a 3.4 percent GDP report for the second quarter — a much-needed surge from only 0.6...

The government is on track to approve a new antibiotic to treat a pneumonia-like disease in cattle, despite warnings from health groups and a majority of the agency's own expert advisers that the decision will be dangerous for people. The drug, called cefquinome, belongs to a class of highly potent antibiotics that are among medicine's last defenses against several serious human infections. No drug from that class has been approved in the United States for use in animals. The American Medical Association and about a dozen other health groups warned the Food and Drug Administration that giving cefquinome to animals...

In "Profit of Doom" at http://www.acton.org/blog/index.html?/archives/1525-Profit-of-Doom.html they explain: Gore is chairman of the firm and, presumably, draws an income or will make money as its investments prosper. In other words, he “buys” his “carbon offsets” from himself, through a transaction designed to boost his own investments and return a profit to himself. [so he is] profiting from hyping the “global warming” crisis. In a nutshell, Gore consumes large amounts of carbon-based electricity while he trumpets a growing “global warming” crisis that drives up the value of “green” companies like the ones in which he buys carbon offsets invests in their...

Dynamic Materials Corp., which sells explosion-welded clad metal plates, beat analysts' expectations when it reported net income for the fourth quarter of 2006 rose 90 percent to $6.6 million, or 54 cents per share. Dynamic is an international metalworking company. Its products, which are typically used in industrial capital projects, include explosion-welded clad metal plates and other metal fabrications for use in a variety of industries, including upstream oil and gas, oil refinery, petrochemicals, hydrometallurgy, aluminum production, shipbuilding, power generation, industrial refrigeration and similar industries. Yvon Cariou, Dynamic's president and CEO, said in a statement, "The fourth quarter was an...

Link only per FR hosted.ap.org policy:IBM Posts Big Fourth-Quarter Profit Rise

U.S. companies are about to wrap up their fourth consecutive year of spectacular profit growth, filling corporate coffers with cash and keeping the bull market alive on Wall Street. Total earnings of the blue-chip Standard & Poor's 500 companies have risen at double-digit percentage rates for 18 consecutive quarters, an unprecedented streak. But to many rank-and-file workers, the booming bottom line may only serve as a reminder of what has been missing from their own paychecks. Wages of average workers have just begun to improve in recent months after badly lagging behind inflation for most of this decade. Amid the...

Last month, Target recalled 10 of its Kool Toyz-brand play sets, citing hazards like "lead paint," "sharp points," and "puncture wound potential." The toys, which included plastic aircraft carriers, dinosaurs, and tanks, all appeared harmless enough. But according to the killjoys at the Consumer Product Safety Commission, children—at least those prone to eating plastic objects as big as their head—were at serious risk. A week later, Mattel recalled 4.4 million Polly Pocket dolls and accessories because kids were swallowing the toy's magnets. The Associated Press reported, "If more than one magnet is swallowed, they can attach to each other and...

Microsoft posted dazzling numbers for the past quarter Thursday, besting analyst expectations and its own guidance for the three big barometers: revenue, profit and earnings per share. But the big show is still to come, with the wave of major products set to launch beginning next month. With profit of $3.48 billion on sales revenue of $10.81 billion — both up 11 percent from a year ago — it was a "blissfully boring" start to Microsoft's 2007 fiscal year, said Charlie Di Bona, senior equity analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. Microsoft turned in earnings per share of 35 cents, handily...

Tesco's half-year profits top £1bn (Filed: 03/10/2006) The £1 billion profit accumulated by Tesco over just six months has drawn renewed attacks on the impact the supermarket chain is having on the environment and town centres. Britons spent an average £289 in Tesco stores Tesco said today it took £17 billion from British shoppers in the first half of its financial year, or £289 for every Briton. Profits were bolstered by the group's expansion from food products to electrical goods, insurance and even computer software. But campaigners said Tesco's success is coming at an unacceptable cost. "Tesco's booming profits are...

by Mark Finkelstein August 30, 2006 - 08:59 The Globe didn't go totally Mel Gibson's 'Passion' on us this morning. But Dan Wasserman's cartoon does show workers being hung by the hands on rising corporate profits. This was the Globe's subtle way of commenting on news it reported yesterday that wages aren't rising as fast as profits. The Globe predictably overlooks the fact pointed out in this Investor's Business Daily article that: "Most of us aren't paid just in "wages" but in wages and benefits. And when the two are put together, total compensation is up 8.7% since 2003, for...

by Mark Finkelstein July 28, 2006 - 08:27 MRC's Brent Baker has noted ABC News' hyper-ventilation over Exxon's 'breathtaking' profits. This morning it was NBC's turn. As everyone knows, the way to decrease the price of a product is . . . to raise taxes on it? As contradictory as the notion might sound, it appears to be the Today show's preferred solution to $3/gallon gas. It was the news of Exxon's $10.3 billion second-quarter profit that gaveToday the opening to air its n-th iteration of the 'soaring gas prices' story. In an innovative bit of demagoguery, Today even displayed...

Business loves profits. The public loves competition. The good news for economic matchmakers and the public alike is that the two often combine in a highly successful union. High profits encourage new businesses to enter the profitable industries, and the entrance spawns competition. This elementary piece of common sense is also an economic law that states that high profits, in general, tend to encourage competitive entry into a market. Where profits are made, in other words, competition generally follows. This is a good thing. But it's not always the case, of course.

Operating profit dropped dramatically for the broadcasting side of NBC Universal during the second quarter. In an earnings report Friday, parent company General Electric didn’t disclose a lot of detail but said that operating profit at NBC’s primetime, station and TV-production units plunged 45% from the same period last year. NBC has been hammered in the ratings, and its audience has shrunk 30% over the past two years. Ad sales at the network and its stations have followed suit. NBC’s problems were enough to offset the strong results at its sibling cable-network and movie divisions and cut profits for GE’s...

Unexpected tax revenue to shrink U.S. budget deficit By MarketWatch Last Update: 3:35 PM ET Jul 8, 2006 NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- An unexpected spike in revenue from corporate taxes, individual stock market profits and executive bonuses is curbing the projected budget deficit this year, according to a media report. The White House on Tuesday is expected to say that tax receipts are about $250 billion higher than they were a year ago, rising twice as fast as the administration forecast, the New York Times reported Saturday. As a result, the budget deficit will be about $100 billion less than...