Free Republic

New Mexico’s unemployment rate was the highest of any state in January, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. The unemployment rate for New Mexico stood at 5.9%, according to the data, with the District of Columbia coming in last at a rate of 6.3%. Nationally, the unemployment rate stands at 4%. “There’s tons of jobs out there,” said Ruby Quintana, branch manager for Express Employment Professionals in Albuquerque. “I don’t know of (any company) that is paying minimum wage anymore.” (New Mexico’s statewide minimum wage increased to $11.50 in January.) Barachin acknowledged that job seekers...

BRUSSELS/LONDON, March 25 (Reuters) - The United States will work to supply 15 billion cubic metres of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the European Union this year to help it wean off Russian energy supplies, the transatlantic partners said on Friday.The EU is aiming to cut its dependency on Russian gas by two-thirds this year and end all Russian fossil fuel imports by 2027 due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia supplies around 40% of Europe's gas needs.

Black News Channel, a cable news network that went on the air two years ago to provide an alternative look at news from Black Americans’ perspective, is shutting down, the outlet’s chief executive told employees on Friday. “Due to challenging market conditions and global financial pressures, we have been unable to meet our financial goals, and the timeline afforded to us has run out,” Princell Hair, who has been chief executive since July 2020, wrote in a memo to staff. “Effective immediately, BNC will cease live production and file for bankruptcy.”

Ukrainian forces have retaken control of parts of the strategically crucial city of Kherson, the Pentagon said Friday. Kherson — which sits at the mouth of the Dnieper River that bisects Ukraine and is directly north of the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014 — was the first and only major population center that had been taken by Russian forces since the start of the invasion last month. “Kherson is contested territory again,” a senior US defense official said, adding that Russian forces no longer control the area and Ukrainians were continuing to wage a fierce fight there.

@EricGreitens I want to tell you directly, Karl Rove and Mitch McConnell. Hear me now. You are disgusting cowards. And we are coming for you. I will no longer allow you to attack me and attack my kids and to destroy this country. Video...

U.S Defense Officials are reporting that Russian Forces have begun to Lose Control of the Southern Ukrainian City of Kherson after Ukrainian Offensives began yesterday, Ukrainian Para-Military and Military Forces are Claimed to be advancing on the City from Multiple Directions. Russian Forces have been seen Falling Back from the City and the areas near the City en-masse over the Last few Days as Ukrainian Force have very quickly advanced on them, Defense Officials now believe that Russian Forces are moving East to try and Take/Hold the Donetsk Region.

Americans still want to believe that the country’s most powerful law enforcement agency handles its authority with care rather than recklessly ruining lives to advance a political agenda. It doesn’t. ============================================================================ In the spring of 2020, or so the government’s story goes, an Iraq War veteran named Dan Chappel was scouring social media to find like-minded libertarians devoted to the Second Amendment when algorithms prompted him to a Facebook group called the Wolverine Watchmen, an online “militia group” formed just a few months earlier. Chappel reportedly became alarmed at violent “anti-law enforcement” rhetoric posted by some members of the Watchmen,...

➡ The problem: Hal and Carol accept an invitation to a house party. Hal sees that there will be 30 people attending the party and says to Carol, “I bet you $100 that at least two people will have the same birthday there!” Should Carol take that bet? (Assume that birthdays are distributed equally over a 365-day year.) . . . . . . . . . --------- Don't look at the solution until you figure your answer .................

Russia has abducted hundreds of thousands of civilians into its territory and could seek to use them as leverage in peace talks, Kyiv has claimed. Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine's ombudsman, said 402,000 civilians - of which 84,000 are children - have been taken 'hostage' by Vladimir Putin's army.Russia gives almost the exact same figure, but says the civilians have been 'relocated' to its territory after volunteering to go there. Ukraine also says those sent to Russian travel via 'filtration camps' designed to wheedle out those with links to the armed forces or emergency services.

Senate Democrats say they were able to eliminate a “bailout for Big Oil” to help secure a bipartisan agreement on a $2 trillion coronavirus economic relief package Wednesday. Democratic leader Chuck Schumer released a summary of the agreement that says it no longer contains $3 billion to fulfill President Trump’s order to buy low-priced oil to restock the nation’s emergency Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Conservative Disney employees have had enough abuse from their progressive colleagues. They feel as though they are under attack for their beliefs as the controversy over H.B.1557, Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Bill continues to play out. They published an unsigned letter this week slamming their colleagues for creating an ‘increasingly uncomfortable’ work environment. The bill is also known as the Don’t Say Gay bill by its opponents. Conservative employees asked that the company remain politically neutral in the open letter. They are frustrated by CEO Bob Chapek’s flip flop over getting in involved in the opposition to the bill....

The woman accused of killing two Pennsylvania state troopers and a third man in a crash on Interstate 95 Monday was pulled over for speeding minutes before the crash, sources say. Those sources say Jayana Tanae Webb was stopped by the same troopers she is accused of killing minutes later, FOX 29 Philadelphia reports.

Australia's parliamentary system does not allow a brilliant individual to come down a golden escalator, dominate party primaries and then go onon to become the leader of the nation's government. But what United Australia Party chairman Clive Palmer has managed to do is swing the result of the 2019 election with party preferences and to position his party to.have a chance at winning the balance of power in the Senate in 2022. He goes to the electorate with libertarian pro business policies in a country whose national economy has been burdened with massive debt by inhumane lockdowns. He is bringing...

HOUSTON - The Harris County Toll Road Authority now has an expensive plan to fix design flaws in its billion-dollar replacement of the Ship Channel Bridge. The original structure was finished in 1982. But, with just two lanes in each direction and no shoulder for emergencies, construction on a replacement was started in 2018. HCTRA’s Executive Director Roberto Trevino was hired after flaws were discovered in the design, and he says the danger could have been catastrophic. "It could have collapsed," he says. Trevino says the county wanted the new bridge to be sleek and iconic, resembling the Fred Hartman...

President Biden said Friday that he wanted to cross the Polish border into Ukraine, but “they will not let me” — without clarifying who exactly told the leader of the free world he wasn’t allowed to thumb his nose at Russia’s invasion. “I’m here in Poland to see firsthand the humanitarian crisis and quite frankly, part of my disappointment is that I can’t see it firsthand like I have in other places,” Biden said at a briefing on humanitarian operations in Rzeszow, southeastern Poland.

A Russian army commander has been killed by a group of demoralised soldiers fed up with the scale of losses during the invasion of Ukraine, Western officials have said. The commander of the 37th rifle brigade, named by officials as Colonel Medvechek, is understood to have been run over by one of his own soldiers who had grown frustrated by his unit's heavy losses.

A US “Doomsday” plane that would act as an emergency command center in case of nuclear war was flown to Europe with President Biden’s fleet this week, a new report said. The ultra-tricked-out Boeing 747, aka “Nightwatch” jet, was spotted landing Thursday at the Royal Air Force base of Mildenhall in Suffolk, England, the Times of London reported.

Pending legal approval, armed civilians involved in neutralizing terrorists will be issued a temporary replacement handgun in an expedited procedure Police have said they will implement a new gun policy for civilians involved in neutralizing terrorists, following an attack in the southern city of Beersheba that killed four Israelis on Tuesday. Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Qi’an, 34, killed two women and two men in the attack in the southern city before he was shot dead by armed civilians. A former schoolteacher from the Bedouin town of Hura, he had served time in prison for plotting to join the Islamic State jihadist...

Who’s funnier—Siri or Cortana? It may be a contest you’ll never be able to judge as your allegiance lies with Mac. But by installing Parallels PC on that Mac of yours, you can run most Windows apps, setting the stage for a voice assistant joke-off. If you’re a tried and true Mac user, from your iPhone to your MacBook, from your iPad to your Apple Watch, we know that switching operating systems is not likely in your cards. But it does seem that there are some applications that just run better, or are only available using Windows. Popular programs such...

Number 9. According to Fed Funds Futures data, The Federal Reserve is now forecasting 9 rate increases over the next year. Fed Funds Futures are pointing to 8.924 rate hikes by the Fed FOMC meeting on February 1, 2023. The US Treasury 10Y-2Y curve flattened by 5.5 bps today with the entire curve downshifting. The Federal Reserve reminds me of The Office episode “Malone’s Cones.” They can’t really explain why they kept rates so low for so long (policy error) and seem to risk collapsing the market with rapid rate hikes without much sensible explanation.