Free Republic

The stick's getting a lot bigger — but it's not clear that many more people will choose the carrot as a result. Households that opt to go without health insurance in 2016 are set to get hit with an average Obamacare fine of $969. That is 47 percent higher than the average $661 penalty per uninsured household for this year, a new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed Wednesday. And households without insurance that earn too much to qualify for financial aid to buy Obamacare plans will pay an even larger fine for 2016 — an average of $1,450,...

Tucson — Santa isn’t the only one keeping track of who is naughty and who is nice! Better Business Bureau is warning consumers to beware of these common holiday scams: Look-alike websites: When shopping online, make sure to use only legitimate websites. Watch out for URLs that use the names of well-known brands along with extra words. Fake shipping notifications: These can have attachments or links to sites that will download malware on your computer to steal your identity and your passwords. Don’t be fooled by a holiday phishing scam.

The United Nations body that oversees greenhouse gas reductions is reeling from another cap-and-trade scandal that may have put 600 million tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere — roughly speaking, the annual CO2 output of Canada or Britain — while the emissions were ostensibly suppressed, according to an independent study. In the process, the fraudsters, largely in Russia and Ukraine, were likely able to transfer credits for more than 400 million tons of their apparently bogus greenhouse savings by April 2015 into Europe's commercial carbon trading system — the largest in the world — thereby undermining that continent's ambitious...

California's aggressive push to increase renewable energy production comes with a catch for people with solar panels on the roof: You don't count. If a home or business has a rooftop solar system, most of the wattage isn't included in the ambitious requirement to generate half of the state's electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind by 2030, part of legislation signed in October by Gov. Jerry Brown. That means rooftop solar owners are missing out on a potentially lucrative subsidy that is paid to utilities and developers of big power projects. It also means that utility ratepayers...

(Sorbonne, Paris) CFACT will hold the world premiere of its long-awaited Climate Hustle skeptical documentary film at an invitation-only red carpet event in Paris during the UN’s COP 21 international summit on climate change. Featuring interviews and comments from more than 30 renowned scientists and climate experts, Climate Hustle lays out compelling evidence that devastates the global warming scare. Film host Marc Morano, founder and publisher of CFACT’s award-winning Climate Depot news and information service, leads viewers on a fact-finding and often times hilarious journey through the propaganda-laced world of “climate change” claims. The film is the first climate documentary...

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernard Sanders’ economic plan triggered Gmail’s “phishing scam” antenna, with the mail system saying the senator’s liberal campaign promises — including lower prescription drug prices and free college for all — sound like frauds. “Be careful with this message. It contains content that’s typically used to steal personal information,” Gmail said in a bright red warning box that appeared at the top of a message sent by Mr. Sanders’ campaign Friday, laying out his “Agenda for Working Families.” [snip]

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernard Sanders’ economic plan triggered Gmail’s “phishing scam” antenna, with the mail system saying the senator’s liberal campaign promises — including lower prescription drug prices and free college for all — sound like frauds. “Be careful with this message. It contains content that’s typically used to steal personal information,” Gmail said in a bright red warning box that appeared at the top of a message sent by Mr. Sanders’ campaign Friday, laying out his “Agenda for Working Families.”

The UN climate conference in Paris starting Nov. 30 will be getting under way.... For many of the 40 ,000 attendees , the goal is to ensure that climate change stays on the global economic agenda for the next 15 years. [We must] think carefully about the economic impact, in particular the staggering costs of the measures they are contemplating. Bolivia's official material submitted for the talks proposes a “lasting solution” for climate change [was]: “We must destroy capitalism.” [snip] There is no official cost estimate for Mr. Obama’s promise to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 26% - 28% below...

A Shakopee couple pleaded guilty to federal charges Monday in what authorities characterized as a wide-ranging, multimillion-dollar income tax refund scheme that preyed on immigrants in Minnesota and Florida. Mark Arlin Hammerschmidt pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and has agreed to cooperate with authorities investigating the scam. He faces up to nine years in prison. He also agreed to pay more than $1.8 million in restitution to victims.... ark Hammerschmidt obtained official identification papers for the Guatemalan victims and used them to obtain taxpayer identification numbers, then filed multiple years’ worth of fake tax returns in their names supported with...

Obesity is still rising among American adults, despite more than a decade of public-awareness campaigns and other efforts to get people to watch their weight, and women have now overtaken men in the obese category, new government research shows. For the past several years, experts thought the nation's alarming, decades-long rise in obesity had leveled off. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report Thursday that the obesity rate has climbed to nearly 38 percent of adults, up from 32 percent about a decade earlier.

Mother of boy shot dead denies spending donated funds on new car WLS By Evelyn Holmes Saturday, November 07, 2015 10:56PM CHICAGO (WLS) -- The mother of a 9-year-old boy shot to death earlier this week is being accused of spending money donated through a "Go Fund Me" effort intended for funeral expenses on a new car. Karla Lee is strongly denying the claim Saturday night and commenting on those who have taken to social media to criticize her. The mother of slain Tyshawn Lee says it's simply not true. She said she did not use money donated to help...

The United States Department of Education has given Palatine, Illinois School District 30 days to reach a “solution” that allows a “transgendered” boy who says he is a girl to shower with the girls. Failure to comply could result in the loss of federal Title IX funds.The young man in question “identifies” as a girl. The school district has allowed him to play on the girls’ sports team. He is called “she” by school staff who refer to him by a female name. He says his “rights” are being violated because the school district asks him to change clothes behind...

The global elite has little idea what afflicts the poor, says Pope Francis. He's right ---but that observation sometimes applies to him, too. In his US visit, the pope is already creating headlines about the urgent need to respond to climate change. Invoking the need to "protect the vulnerable in our world," he calls for an end to humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels. But do the world’s poor believe that carbon cuts are a top priority? Since March 2013, the United Nations has sought citizens’ ranking of 16 policy priorities. More than 8 million people have participated, with nearly 3...

After years of delays and failed launches, Obamacare has finally taken hold, and with it the economic and financial implications from this mandatory tax are finally being felt. We have extensively covered how Obama's Affordable Care Act will end up being a failure, observing both the economic implications in "In Latest Obamacare Fiasco, Most Low-Income Workers Can't Afford "Affordable Care Act" as well as its operational shortcomings in "Obamacare Is A Disaster: Co-Op Insurers Across America Are Collapsing, And Now There Is Fraud", paradoxically even as Obamacare - a tax - was according to the BEA the single biggest contributor...

Remote assistance is becoming more and more popular to troubleshoot computer issues without the hassle of bringing the problematic machine to a store. Indeed, from the comfort of your own home you can let a Certified Technician remotely log into your PC and have them fix the issues you are facing.Apple offers a screen sharing service part of its support center that puts you in touch with a remote advisor. The process is secure and requires a unique session key to authenticate into the system that the customer needs to enter at the following URL: https://ara.apple.comIn today’s post we will talk...

It’s usually the first warning to someone who’s about to enter into a complicated legal agreement: Be sure to read the fine print. Looks like President Obama and the team that negotiated the disastrous nuclear deal with Iran didn’t do that. Or, worse still, they did — but hoped no one else would. Too late for that. Fox News’ James Rosen reports some senior US officials involved in the negotiations have concluded that a key element of the deal conflicts with federal law and can’t be implemented. Unless Congress changes the law, that is. But since majorities in both houses...

At least it was sustainable fair trade carbon neutral corruption. John Ashe, the UN General Assembly president, has been busted on corruption charges. A former president of the U.N. General Assembly "sold himself and the global institution he led" by allegedly pocketing more than $1 million in bribes to finance a luxury spending spree, according to a federal prosecutor. Ashe, 61, is accused of tax fraud in an alleged conspiracy involving five others, including a billionaire Chinese businessman and a former deputy U.N. ambassador from the Dominican Republic, according to a criminal complaint. Ashe is accused of underreporting his income...

Gov. Jerry Brown will visit Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles Wednesday to sign legislation mandating that half of the state’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2030. The ambitious mandates of SB 350, championed by Senate President pro tem Kevin de Leon of Los Angeles, were outlined by Brown in his inaugural address in January. But de Leon’s legislation was significantly watered down last month in the state Assembly, which stripped away a requirement that the state slash its gasoline use by 50 percent in the next 15 years. That provision sparked heated debate in Sacramento, thanks to opposition from...

Recently, it was revealed that Volkswagen had been duping diesel-emissions tests on some of its high-end environmentally friendly cars. People were outraged. The CEO resigned. About the same time, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley told the Alberta Chambers of Commerce that her province had better get its environmental house in order or it would have measures imposed upon it. She also said that Alberta has “bad air.”Really? I challenge that statement. In 2011, Canada’s air was judged to be the third highest quality in the world. In 2006, Environment Canada reported that Red Deer was an unusual hot spot for poor...

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 26 (Reuters) - The United Nations high commissioner for refugees said on Saturday the world waited far too long to respond to the refugee crisis sparked by the wars in Syria and elsewhere, though rich countries now appear to understand the scale of the problem. "Unfortunately only when the poor enter the halls of the rich, do the rich notice that the poor exist," U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly. "Until we had this massive movement into Europe,...