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US headline inflation exceeded 7% in 2021. But rent increases put the Consumer Price Index to shame, soaring an average of 13.5%. And within that already-brutally-high average, there were some absolutely astounding outliers. Phoenix rents soared 25.3%, followed by Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Las Vegas, and Austin, all of which exceeded 20%. That means an Austin barista could receive a 10% salary bump and have most of it wiped out just by an increase in their rent. Add in the soaring costs of food and gasoline, and our hypothetical worker is actually losing ground despite their double-digit pay raise. A confluence...

It is truly a miserable time for many Americans as demonstrated by the Misery Index (inflation rate + unemployment rate). But rather than using the CPI YoY measure at 7.5%, I am using the FLEXIBLE CPI YoY to compute the misery index. And is it ever miserable! In January, the CORE flexible CPI YoY + U-3 unemployment rate hit a modern high at 22.99%. Or at least since 1967. Like the movie “50 Shades of Gray,” we have 50 shades of inflation. Examples? How about hardwood? Producer Price Index for hardwood is up 30.8% YoY. How about diesel fuel prices?...

DC should cut ties with shady Black Lives Matter organization Whatever good intentions there may have originally been behind Black Lives Matter, the organization has devolved into a scam. It is far past time for Washington to remove its slogan from outside the White House. Founded in 2013 after Trayvon Martin was shot while assaulting a policeman, BLM was little more than a hashtag and a website until George Floyd’s murder in May 2020. That's when the money spigot erupted. Corporations and celebrities became desperate to have their brands linked with BLM and sent tens of millions of dollars to...

MSNBC contributor and former Watergate lawyer Jill Wine-Banks said on this week’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Sunday Show” that former President Donald Trump taking documents to his Mar-a-Lago property could cause him to be banned from holding office. Capehart asked, “The National Archives confirmed that classified national security documents were among the items in the 15 boxes of White House records Trump brought with him to Mar-a-Lago.”

Being the Writer of My own Story. We had a friend in high school whose nickname was “Crash”. A few years after high school, after we were married, we visited our hometown and had the pleasure of taking him to the hospital after he crashed his dirt bike and split his nose open. Again, a few years later, after a stint in the Air Force, he became a private pilot and at a church/fly-in breakfast at the local airfield, he invited me to go flying with him. When I was being carried on the wind in his little plane I...

Two U.S. agencies have been quietly studying neurological problems that have appeared in people who have had COVID-19 vaccines, The Epoch Times has found. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been conducting separate research projects into post-vaccination neurological issues, which have manifested with symptoms like facial paralysis and brain fog and have been linked in some cases with the vaccines, according to emails reviewed by The Epoch Times. One attempt to gain understanding of a problem that experts around the world are struggling to understand is being carried out by Dr. Janet Woodcock,...

Today is the 60th Anniversary of John Gleens first US orbital Space flight. A proud American moment.

The U.S. has intelligence that Russian commanders have received orders to proceed with an invasion of Ukraine, with commanders on the ground making specific plans for how they would maneuver in their sector of the battlefield, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reported on "Face the Nation" Sunday.

"This is one battle in a larger war for our freedoms. This is not a white flag of surrender by any means, at all... Time to regroup and revaluate what's next for us."

Interact with the Data Recent updates to the dashboard make it easier to understand the state of COVID-19 in Mesa County. Explore the new data dashboard and click the buttons below for an expanded data set with historical information. Positivity Trends Current Case Trends

Canada delivered military aid to Ukraine on Feb. 19, amid tensions in Donbas and new warnings about upcoming Russian invasion. The delivery includes sniper rifles, automatic rifles, machine guns, night vision and surveillance devices.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” that if special counsel John Durham’s allegations in his recent legal filings were true, it is worse the Nixon-era Watergate scandal. Cruz said, “We have to see what the facts are, the allegations, what he filed in federal court, is deeply concerning. What he alleged as a federal prosecutor, a special prosecutor, is that a lawyer for the Hillary Clinton campaign conspired with a big tech executive to monitor and spy on Donald Trump, to spy on him at his home, to spy on him at his...

The Queen has tested positive for Covid, Buckingham Palace has said. The monarch is experiencing "mild cold-like symptoms" but expects to continue "light duties" at Windsor over the coming week, the palace said. "She will continue to receive medical attention and will follow all the appropriate guidelines," it added in a statement. The Queen, 95, had been in contact with her eldest son and heir, the Prince of Wales, who tested positive last week.

On Friday, Federal District Judge Amita Mehta ruled that a civil suit alleging a conspiracy to foment the Jan. 6 insurrection could proceed. In an extremely thorough and detailed 112-page ruling, Mehta concluded that the plaintiffs had made a “plausible” case that former President Trump himself was at the center of a conspiracy to stop the peaceful transfer of power. While plausibility is not the same as proven, Mehta’s ruling is the first time such a finding has been made in an official proceeding.

There is a word for secretly collecting information about enemies or competitors to use against them. According to the latest court filing by Special Counsel John Durham, the Hillary Clinton campaign surreptitiously and likely illegally reached into protected White House and Trump communications data to try and show some link between Trump and Russia. The Clinton campaign during the election hid from FBI, CIA and the media that it was the source of the information gathered. Durham doesn’t use the word “spy,” but that in no way changes what happened. The recent filing relates to Durham’s September indictment of Michael...

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is moving forward with plans of invading Ukraine, echoing President Biden's warnings last week. "Everything we're seeing tells us that the decision we believe President Putin has made to invade is moving forward," Blinken said while appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Update: The Felicity Ace, which caught fire near the coast of the Azores, will be towed to another European country or the Bahamas, the captain of the nearest port told Reuters on Friday. Lithium-ion batteries in the electric cars on board have caught fire, and the blaze requires specialized equipment to extinguish, captain Joao Mendes Cabecas of the port of Hortas said. The source of the fire is still unknown. "The ship is burning from one end to the other ... everything is on fire about five meters above the water line," Cabeças said. Tow boats were en route from...

Security officials will reinstall fencing around the Capitol next week ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address, Fox News can confirm. U.S. Capitol Police are bracing for a potential "Freedom Convoy" truck protest to Washington D.C. for the March 1 speech. "Freedom Convoy" truckers have been protesting in Canada for weeks against coronavirus restrictions and vaccine mandates and caused a temporary blockade of the busy Ambassador Bridge border crossing between Windsor and Detroit.

From Dr. Mike Yeadon (on Telegram): Dear friends, Please don’t celebrate prematurely. I’m very encouraged by U.K. pull back & other major changes in recent days, including the apology by the Danish newspaper. They’re not finished. There’s not the slightest chance that the trillions invested in control will be washed away. Please check the opening page of this “scenario planning document”, called SPARS pandemic, 2025-28. They give themselves away so early by referring to “use of medical countermeasures being frequently used in responding to global emergencies…..including vaccines..” No. No, you don’t. 1. We’ve NEVER had “a global emergency”. They exist...

President Joe Biden will convene the National Security Council on Sunday amid soaring international tensions over the expected Russian invasion of Ukraine, the White House announced. The meeting will take place one day after Russian leader Vladimir Putin oversaw missile drills in an apparent display of military might as violence was reported in Ukraine regions under the control of pro-Moscow separatists.