Free Republic

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...

Rich countries can’t say they weren’t warned. For almost as long as Covid-19 has been around, scientists, academics and campaigners have called on wealthy nations to share vaccines around the world — not only to protect people in those countries, but also to reduce the risk of new mutant variants emerging that could evade vaccines for everyone. Those sounding the alarm have repeated the same mantra: No one is safe until everyone is safe. Despite these warnings, this is exactly what appears to have happened, some of these experts say. The new omicron variant emerged in southern Africa with a...

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed a new state law Thursday that focuses on students' access to school meals, with provisions around free breakfast and lunch as well as unpaid meal debt. The new law also takes aim at a practice known as "lunch shaming," prohibiting schools from publicly identifying or taking punitive action against students who have unresolved debt for school meals. "The new law is both timely and critical because it boosts federal nutrition dollars to schools across Massachusetts, and keeps children out of what should be an 'adult only' conversation on school meal debt," said Patricia Baker, a...

If the Biden Administration were in a back room somewhere, thinking about the things they could do to destroy the economy, they probably wouldn’t be doing much different than the things they have been pushing.They either have very little understanding of economics. Or they deliberately want to hurt the country. Take your pick.Now, they are trumpeting another thing that will do grievous harm to the American economy — the global minimum tax.We wrote previously how Biden’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had been championing this idea.Yellen said that the Biden administration wants to end a global “race-to-the-bottom” on corporate tax rates...

Paris (AFP) - A hundred billion dollars every year –- that's the aid promised more than a decade ago to help developing nations curb their carbon pollution and adapt to devastating climate impacts. But rich countries have not delivered on that pledge, a failure that could undermine a critical COP26 climate summit in Glasgow next month already riven with tensions, experts say. The vow to gradually ramp up aid for the Global South to $100 billion (86.5 billion euros) per year by 2020 was first made at the 2009 UN climate summit in Copenhagen. A decade later, wealthy nations were...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Californians could have higher cellphone bills after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two laws on Friday aimed at giving the state more money to build high-speed internet connections in unserved areas. California is one of 41 states that collect a tax on phone bills and uses the money to build high-speed internet connections. The laws Newsom signed Friday make sure the state will keep collecting that tax — and collect more of it. The laws don’t increase the tax, but it extends the tax, which was scheduled to expire at the end of next year. The laws...

A government-sponsored program, One Hectare in Siberia, provides free distribution of real estate, about 2.5 acres, to anyone who would put it to use, and after a five year period the land is converted into one’s private property. There had been no church in the village of Kotikovo, Khabarovsk Province. The residents had little chance to build one – but when this program was put into effect, they procured a lot in the village center with an abandoned building on it and set out to make it their church. Today, the renovation is over, the new roof and dome are...

Since ascending to the position of most powerful man in China back in 2012, President Xi Jinping has demanded that Communist Party members and non-members alike study the Communist Manifesto and other Marxist texts. Now, he's reintroducing some good ol' fashioned communism into his ruling policies. On Tuesday, Chinese media reported that President Xi had put the country's wealthiest citizens "on notice" that he was planning some redistributive policies to aid in the "common prosperity". These policies will include income "regulation and redistribution", according to Xinhua.During a Tuesday meeting of the Communist Party's Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs,...

A bill for a guaranteed income program proposed by progressive Democrats in Congress is calling for ongoing $1,200 monthly stimulus checks for adults plus $600 for each child in the household. The program, called the Sending Unconditional Payments to People Overcoming Resistances to Triumph (SUPPORT) Act, was introduced in the U.S. House by Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, and co-sponsored by Reps. Cori Bush, D-Missouri, Dwight Evans D-Pennsylvania, Jamaal Bowman D, New York, and Pramila Jayapal D-California. “Poverty is a choice. For too long we have prioritized endless growth while millions are homeless, hungry or without healthcare” Omar said in...

In a House floor speech last night, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) compared Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Harvey Weinstein to President Biden in being [unable to] "give money away," a ding against Biden as 25 states reject enhanced unemployment benefits. See video at link.

Several of the richest U.S. corporate executives have either paid a fraction of their cumulative wealth in federal taxes of nothing at all, according to a new report from the nonprofit media outlet ProPublica.What Happened: In its coverage, ProPublica said "America's billionaires avail themselves of tax-avoidance strategies beyond the reach of ordinary people. Their wealth derives from the skyrocketing value of their assets, like stock and property. Those gains are not defined by U.S. laws as taxable income unless and until the billionaires sell."However, ProPublica did not offer evidence that the executives being spotlighted were violating the U.S. tax code.The...

Amazon is working on a shared low-bandwidth network and it needs your help – specifically your Wi-Fi. By pooling neighbor's Wi-Fi together, the Seattle-based e-commerce giant says its Amazon Sidewalk network can extend the low-bandwidth working range of devices, ultimately helping them stay better connected to the internet. The shared network works off of Sidewalk Bridge devices – including select Echo and Ring devices – together. Sidewalk launched on eligible Ring devices last year, but will launch on eligible Echo devices on June 8. "These Bridge devices share a small portion of your internet bandwidth which is pooled together to...

Meritocracy has become a leading social ideal. Politicians across the ideological spectrum continually return to the theme that the rewards of life—money, power, jobs, university admission—should be distributed according to skill and effort. The most common metaphor is the ‘even playing field’ upon which players can rise to the position that fits their merit. Conceptually and morally, meritocracy is presented as the opposite of systems such as hereditary aristocracy, in which one’s social position is determined by the lottery of birth. Under meritocracy, wealth and advantage are merit’s rightful compensation, not the fortuitous windfall of external events. Most people don’t...

States that consistently grew faster than the national average over the past ten years are in line to gain representation in Congress. Democrats will work to undermine people's vote with their feet.The U.S. Census Bureau released its once-in-a-decade national census on April 26. Most of the discussion about the census has focused on states losing or gaining seats in the U.S. House, a process known as reapportionment.For the 2022 midterms, seven states will be down one member of the House: California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon each gained one...

The video message was delivered to participants at an international online conference, 'A Politics Rooted in the People,' and included Catholic groups in the United States, European Union and United Kingdom.VATICAN CITY (RNS) — In an online message to grassroots community organizers on Thursday (April 15), Pope Francis criticized a modern form of politician that he said “turns their back on the poor,” and he laid out his vision for a “politics with a capital P.” “Popularism,” what Pope Francis calls his alternative to populism, “is about finding the means to guarantee a life for all people that is worthy...

Pope Francis on Sunday argued that having received mercy, Jesus’ apostles became merciful themselves, sharing ownership over everything, calling such an arrangement “not communism, but pure Christianity.” “The Acts of the Apostles relate that ‘no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.’ This is not communism, but pure Christianity,” he said. The pope’s words came as he marked Divine Mercy Sunday in a Roman church dedicated to the devotion. Given COVID-19 restrictions, the Church of Santo Spirito was half empty, yet filled with a group of male and female prisoners from three...

President Biden will outline his massive $3 to 4 trillion infrastructure plan Wednesday, which will create four tax increases worth around $1.8 trillion, the White House revealed. The commander-in-chief’s “Build Back Better” proposal, a centerpiece of his post-COVID campaign message, will be split into two packages for Congress to pass. The first, the White House said, will focus on infrastructure investments specifically. The second will focus on funding domestic policy areas of Democratic concern, such as providing universal pre-kindergarten and tuition-free community college, as well as health care.

As NBA ratings have declined over the current season, a new poll shows that more than 30 percent of Americans say they have watched less sports over political and social justice messaging. The poll, which was conducted by Yahoo News/YouGov, found 34.5 percent of respondents saying they have watched less sports due to social justice campaigns. According to the poll, 11 percent of people said they have watched more sports as a result of the social justice messaging, and 56.3 percent said they have watched the same amount. Looking at the different political party affiliations, 19 percent of Democrats said...

Democrats stipulated in their $1.9 trillion spending bill that none of the $350 billion going to states and localities could be “deposited into a public pension fund.” That always looked like a trick, and Vermont is the first state to prove the point. Vermont’s Democratic Legislature broke the code when it dared to propose pension reforms while the state is flush with federal bailout money. Vermont’s pension funds are 35% to 50% underfunded, and rising payments are squeezing government services.

A plan by Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) would redirect excess profits from multinational corporations allowed to remain open during the Chinese coronavirus crisis to small businesses that have been forced to close due to economic shutdowns. Gabbard released legislation on Friday, known as the Pandemic Crisis Excess Profits Tax, to ensure that corporations such as Amazon, Facebook, Walmart, and Google are not profiting off economic shutdowns that have helped clear the market of their competition. “Big tech corporations and big-box retailers are among those who have made excessive profits during the COVID-19 pandemic, while mom and pop shops are being forced...