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You expect a certain sort of magic from a car like Toyota's Mirai, the world's first mass-market, hydrogen-powered all-electric named after the Japanese word for "future." It maxes out at 300 miles, refuels in five minutes and spits out zero emissions except for water, all for tens of thousands of dollars less than Tesla's electric Model S. But behind the wheel of the four-door Mirai, which California drivers can buy in October for around $50,000, what you get is something much more, well, boring: a smooth, quiet, mid-size sedan you wouldn't find out of place in a school pick-up circle....

May 11, 2015 (BreakPoint.org) -- In the first century, Jesus was asked whether the Jewish people, who were under pagan, Roman occupation, should pay taxes to Caesar. The Lord, of course, said we are to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s. But in 21st century America, Caesar is angling for a better deal—and he’s getting it.Our old friend Chuck Colson sounded the alarm several years ago when certain political figures on the Left—including former secretary of state Hillary Clinton—began downsizing the First Amendment’s guarantee of our God-given right to freedom of religion into a more...

The White House and Senate Republicans are scrambling to win enough support for a key procedural vote Tuesday to move forward with President Obama’s trade agenda. The vote is shaping up to be one of the most dramatic roll calls of this Congress and could be a stinging rebuke of the president by members of his own party. It may also doom a sweeping Pacific trade agreement that is a top priority for the Obama administration. Trade bills traditionally pass the Senate with ease and face stiffer winds in the House. But this time around, there are major hurdles in...

Tuesday will mark exactly 30 days since Hillary Rodham Clinton launched her official presidential bid for the White House, yet she still hasn’t done a formal sit down interview with national media ... [Snip] Unlike Clinton, GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina has been on what CNN coined a “media blitz” introducing herself to voters. “Carly has actually answered 322 questions since her announcement on Monday,” said Anna Epstein, spokesperson for Fiorina. “In the last eight days, Carly has been interviewed almost 30 times and answered well over 300 questions.”

WASHINGTON — At 5 a.m. Tuesday, with 618 days left in office, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle will announce that the Obama library, museum and presidential center will be in Chicago. Just after sunrise in Chicago, a video with the first couple will be released, and for the first time, the Obamas in their own words will comment on their post-presidential legacy projects. At noon, Martin Nesbitt, the Obama friend who is chairman of the Chicago-based Barack Obama Foundation, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who was Obama’s first chief of staff, will hold a press conference at the Gary...

When the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, commonly known as the "doc-fix" legislation, becomes law, some Medicare participants will pay 30% more for their Part B premiums. The legislation, which was decisively passed by the House on March 26 and the Senate on April 14 is expected to be signed by President Obama soon. The bill replaces the current physician Medicare reimbursement schedule with payment increases for doctors for the next five years. It will be financed by higher Medicare Part B premiums for individuals whose income exceeds specified thresholds beginning in 2018.

(JTA) — A 30-year-old man from suburban Boston was indicted on charges of extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from a leading Boston-area Conservative rabbi. Rabbi Barry Starr resigned a year ago from Temple Israel, a Conservative synagogue in Sharon, Mass., after allegedly paying nearly half a million dollars — taken from synagogue funds and borrowed from his congregants — to hide his two-year affair with a 16-year-old male. Much of the money came from the rabbi’s discretionary fund including checks that the rabbi altered. He also borrowed thousands of dollars from an elderly congregant, a Holocaust survivor. Nicholas Zemeitus,...

resident Obama’s promise “to rescue the economy” and “[lay] a new foundation for lasting economic growth” in 2009 has rung hollow for the millions of young Americans still struggling five years into the economic recovery. Millennials are the first modern generation to have their potential for success obstructed by government policies, a little-discussed topic analyzed in “Disinherited: How Washington Is Betraying America’s Young,” a forthcoming book by the Manhattan Institute’s Diana Furchtgott-Roth and Jared Meyer. The authors credit the bleak prospects of millennials to the decades-long trend in Washington of expanding regulations and benefits that favor older generations while disregarding...

Summary •Puerto Rico's borrowings represents an exceptionally complex set of credits in the (already arcane-enough) municipal bond market. •The Legislature's recent rejection of the Governor's tax reform proposal leaves fewer options to balance the budget and raises liquidity concerns. ~ snip ~ Puerto Rico released its most recent quarterly financial report on May 7. The report's list of risk factors includes the possibility of the Commonwealth running out of cash and defaulting on debt payments as soon as September. As organizations go, state and local governments are hideously illiquid. Even in the best of times, their political constituents do not...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. Patriot Coal Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday for the second time in three years. The company made the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. It had emerged from an earlier bankruptcy case in December 2013 in Missouri. Patriot said it is involved in active negotiations for the sale of its operating assets to a strategic partner. Patriot said it will continue shipping and mining operations and it has received a commitment for $100 million in debt financing from secured debt holders that it did not identify.

Once upon a time, back in the mid-1960s, George Wallace, the Democratic governor of the great state of Alabama, considered the possibility of making a run for the Presidency of the United States as an Independent Party candidate. Wallace commenting on the similarities between the Democratic and Republican platforms of the time famously remarked, “There’s not a dimes’ worth of difference between them.” The political historians and journalists can debate the significance of Wallace and his statement until the donkeys and the elephants come home, but last week Congressional Quarterly, the venerable recorder of Capitol Hill news and happenings, analyzed...

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush believes he can convince conservative primary voters that illegal immigrants should be “punished”–by being granted a path to amnesty. In an interview from Liberty University that aired Monday on Fox News, host Megyn Kelly told him, “you know that there’s a core wing of the party for whom this will be a deal breaker.” Bush replied, “I don’t know that.” “I’ve been traveling over the last three months. I get a sense that a lot of people can be persuaded, to be honest with you,” he said. Polls, though, have shown conservatives in early primary...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 11, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- The GOP's only female presidential candidate says that she supports gay civil unions and religious liberty -- and that "government shouldn't discriminate" when it comes to benefits.Speaking to the blog Caffeinated Thoughts, former HP CEO Carly Fiorina also said she would not support an amendment to overturn whatever decision the Supreme Court makes this summer. "I think the Supreme Court ruling will become the law of the land, and however much I may agree or disagree with it, I wouldn’t support an amendment to reverse it," explained Fiorina. "I very much hope that we...

Here’s some seriously bad news for lovers of man’s best friend. A leading animal welfare researcher has claimed that the rise in global population will lead to real animals becoming the reserve of the extremely wealthy, meaning that the rest of us will turn to ‘robot dogs’ for companionship.

Opposing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants is going “over the line,” according to former Florida Governor and likely GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush. In an interview that aired Monday on Fox News, Bush, who supported granting in-state tuition for illegal immigrants when he was governor, noted that Florida’s version of the DREAM Act was recently passed by a “conservative Republican legislature led by a very courageous Speaker of the House” and signed into law by Republican Governor Rick Scott. “I supported that,” he said. “If you’ve been here for an extended period of time, you have no nexus to the...

One fellow senator calls David Vitter’s years-long crusade to scrap health care subsidies for lawmakers and their staffers “disingenuous.” Another says it’s obviously being done “for political purposes.” “I just don’t think he’s made a lot of progress on this issue,” a third senator says. And those are just fellow Republicans talking. Within the chummy confines of the U.S. Senate, Vitter has emerged as one of the most disliked members. The second-term senator’s effort to kill the federal health care contribution, worth several thousand dollars to lawmakers and their staffers, is a big part of it.

On May 6, 2015 Fox News reported, “Purported ISIS warning claims terror cells in place in 15 states.” Here is how that ominous report began: A grim online warning from a self-described American jihadist said Sunday’s terror attack in Texas was the work of ISIS and that the terrorist group has scores of “trained soldiers” positioned in 15 states, awaiting orders to carry out more operations. The warning, which was posted on a file-sharing site, could not be verified, but was signed by Abu Ibrahim Al Ameriki. That name matches the moniker of a shadowy American known to have joined...

Republican leaders are considering bringing the Iran nuclear measure — overwhelmingly approved by the Senate last week — and a proposed overhaul of the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance program to the floor this week under special rules that would limit lawmakers’ ability to offer changes to the bills. The strategy is intended to hold off amendments — so-called poison pills — that could cause backing for the measures to fall apart. Though the bills would each need a supermajority to pass, both measures enjoy strong bipartisan support and would most likely be approved, sparing amendment headaches for the leadership....

A tax increase that would raise alcohol prices by 10% is among the most effective means of countering excessive consumption, which reduces economic output in most developed countries and contributes to early death and disability, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Tuesday. The Paris-based research body said in a report that while alcohol consumption has been declining in most countries over the past two decades, it is heavily concentrated, with the majority accounted for by the heaviest-drinking 20% of the population. “Hazardous” and “binge” drinking is on the rise among young people, and especially young women. The...

You might have another notion entirely. I prefer to see the fruits of Raul Castro's semi-conversion to Catholicism before reaching conclusions as to his sincerity. "I read all the speeches of the pope, his commentaries," said Raul on Sunday, following a meeting at the Vatican with the hugely popular Pope Francis, "and if the pope continues this way, I will go back to praying and go back to the church. I'm not joking." Magnifico! And then how quickly do the Cuban peoples' shackles fall off? Freedom of speech returns ... when? Not to mention, in the present context, freedom of...