Free Republic

Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester said Friday that she doesn't see ample evidence that inflation has peaked and thus is on board with supporting a series of aggressive interest rate increases. "I think the Fed has shown that we're in the process of recalibrating our policy to get inflation back down to our 2% goal. That's the job before us," Mester said in a live interview on CNBC's "The Exchange." "I don't want to declare victory on inflation before I see really compelling evidence that our actions are beginning to do the work in bringing down demand in better...

One of Australia’s largest regional food processors says energy costs are “out of control”, with already elevated gas prices tripling since the company signed new contracts in early 2022. Consumers will inevitably cop higher prices on their products with other costs also on the rise, including a jump of as much as 40% for raw materials such as tomatoes, carrots and apples in the past year, Jason Fritsch, the chief executive of Kagome, said. Kogame produces about 200,000 tonnes of tomatoes, 30,000 tonnes of carrots, 10,000 tonnes of apples and 7,000 tonnes of beetroot annually. The firm’s gas bill will...

California: come for the poo-covered streets, stay for the crippling gas prices. That’s right, while the national average gas price hit $4.76 per gallon this week according to AAA, Californians are now paying a record $6.24 average per gallon after the state saw prices surge past the $6 mark for the first time in history last week. Via the Daily MailAt one station in coastal Mendocino, prices are just pennies away from $10 – the highest ever in history, according to the Daily Mail. Breaking it down by city, San Francisco motorists are paying an average of $6.50, while San...

Turkey's inflation climbed to its highest level since 1998, hitting an annual 73.5% in May, official data showed Friday, an issue dogging President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of elections next year. Critics have blamed the country's economic woes on Erdogan's unorthodox economic policy of pushing for lower interest rates to combat price rises. The central bank refused again last week to raise its main rate, keeping it at 14%. Soaring food and energy prices pushed inflation even higher last month. Transport prices jumped by 107.6% in May while food was up 91.6%. Rumours of a military intervention in northern Syria...

News anchor Norah O’Donnell’s salary was reportedly slashed by more than half at CBS Evening News as the struggling news program continues to make substantial budget and cost cuts, Radar has learned.According to The Post, CBS News re-signed the 48-year-old news anchor in April for a yearly salary of $3.8 million – which is a remarkably less sum than the $8 million she was previously making to host the evening news program. But while O’Donnell accepted the new pay package, an insider familiar with the negotiations revealed that CBS executives offered the anchor a “low ball” sum that they “expected...

A pair of federal programs compensating people who suffer injuries from vaccines and pandemic treatments are now facing so many claims that thousands of people may not receive payment for their injuries any time soon. A second program designed for vaccines and other treatments created or used during pandemics has seen unsustainable growth. Between 2010 and 2020, the Countermeasure Injury Compensation Program received 500 complaints. In the two years since Covid-19 appeared, it has received over 8,000 complaints. Yet the pandemic fund has paid zero claims, in part because officials are waiting for people to submit detailed medical records and...

Douglas K. Uhde, the 56-year-old felon who is accused of murdering retired Wisconsin Judge John Roemer in his own home, urged people to vote for President Donald Trump and advocated against gun confiscation on Facebook. He also posted graphics that referred to both Hillary Clinton and Janet Reno as a “b****” Online records show that Douglas Keith Uhde, also known as Doug Uhde and Douglas K. Uhde, most recently lived in Saint Helen, Michigan, but had previous Wisconsin addresses in Adams, Marshfield, and Friendship, Wisconsin. Uhde had multiple Facebook pages. Some of them contain innocuous photos of cats or trucks....

No one has ever known quite what to make of Job. The title character of the Book of Job is a confounding figure for Christians, Muslims, Jews, and those of any faith who have tried to incorporate the story over millennia. The tale goes like this: Job is a perfectly righteous and God-fearing man whose good deeds have brought him prosperity—children, an estate, good health. But then God enters a wager with a member of the Heavenly Host, haSatan (“the Adversary”), who claims he can make even goodly Job curse the deity. Soon, Job’s servants are killed. His children are...

Bill Maher has argued Republicans could easily 'steal' the issue of federal marijuana legalization by making it an issue about freedom after Democrats inserted 'too much stuff' about racial 'equity' in the House-passed measure aimed to decriminalize pot. The comedian, argued Friday night that legalization of marijuana swings in the favor of Republicans and is 'something we ought to do.' 'Republicans are gonna steal the issue. I think eventually,' Maher told former Attorney General Eric Holder after being asked why President Joe Biden hadn't yet pushed for federal legalization of pot. 'I mean, it could be one of those freedom...

Hong Kong authorities on Saturday detained several people as they pounced on any attempt at public commemoration of the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, while around the world tributes were paid to the victims of the bloody event. As night fell, candles appeared in the windows of several foreign countries' missions to Hong Kong -- in defiance of a warning not to do so -- and on various street corners around the city. Discussion of the events of 1989, when China set troops and tanks on peaceful protestors, is all but forbidden on the mainland. Semi-autonomous Hong Kong had...

Archaeologists have unearthed the ancient burial of a woman lying on a bronze bed near the city of Kozani in northern Greece. It dates to the first century B.C. Depictions of mermaids decorate the posts of the bed. The bed also displays an image of a bird holding a snake in its mouth, a symbol of the ancient Greek god Apollo. The woman's head was covered with gold laurel leaves that likely were part of a wreath... The wooden portions of the bed have decomposed. Gold threads, possibly from embroidery, were found on the woman's hands, Chondrogianni-Metoki said. Additionally, four...

It's inevitable that, sooner or later, some pivotal moment in your life – a cultural or political event that changed what you did or thought – will become history. In that moment you realize not just that (a lot of) time has passed, but that your memory of that moment is wholly subjective, and open to interpretation – or misinterpretation. In my young life, that moment was punk rock, and I was naïve enough to believe for years that it was a wholly subcultural event, and hardly likely one day to become a six-part miniseries streamed by Disney. (If I...

When Oregon voters approved a ballot measure in 2020 to decriminalize hard drugs, they were promised the lives of everyone would be improved and funds would be diverted to addiction recovery centers for which $300 million was allotted. But after more than one year, the rate of overdoses has spiked, and few offenders have used the treatment centers, DailyMail.com reported. At a legislative hearing Thursday, Steve Allen, Oregon's behavioral health director, acknowledged a "dramatic" increase in overdoses and overdose deaths statewide. One Republican state lawmaker said that her Southern Oregon community of Grants Pass has suffered a 700% increase in...

But will “Radio Soros” be a commercial and political success, though? Hard to tell. The former Univision America launched and folded at a time when Hispanics trusted their media institutions and the sitting Democrat president enjoyed the support of over 70% of Hispanics. This is not that time, and Joe Biden’s Hispanic support is nearly inverted in comparison to that of Barack Obama. Furthermore, “Radio Soros” can’t fill shelves with baby formula, bring gas prices down to $2/gallon, fix the border crisis or reduce crime in the cities. In sum, the move appears to be primarily fueled by panic over...

President Biden on Friday declined to rule out Ukraine having to cede part of its territory to Russia in order to end this standoff with Moscow. Biden claims he won’t tell Ukraine what to do within their own borders but it’s OK to call for the assassination or overthrow of Putin inside Russia. This whole thing makes no sense. I have had personal friends in the Donbas and in Kyiv for more than 10 years. They are both friendly people but if you dared to bring a bottle of Russian Vodka to dinner in Kyiv, it’s an insult. Both sides...

Explanation: On May 31 tens of parallel meteor streaks were recorded in this 8 degree wide field of view of planet Earth's limb from space. The image is one of a series of 5 minute long observations by the orbiting Yangwang-1 space telescope. It was captured at 03:43 UT, near the peak of the Tau Herculid meteor shower. As predicted, the meteor shower was an active one this year, caused as Earth swept through a relatively dense stream of debris from disintegrating Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, but was lacking bright meteors. Nearly all of the Tau Herculid meteors in the Yangwang-1...

President Joe Biden was bundled off to a secure location on Saturday after an unauthorized airplane entered the airspace around Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The president and first lady Jill Biden were hustled off to a fire station, according to Fox News. First, a small white private plane was seen above Biden’s beach house, according to a report from CBS. The Secret Service later explained what took place. “Shortly before 1 p.m. today a privately owned aircraft entered the restricted airspace over Rehoboth Delaware after mistakenly entering a secured area,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement, according to...

Families from across Florida and other states gathered at the Florida Parent-Educators Association (FPEA) 34th convention this past Memorial Day weekend to share knowledge, inspiration, and support for home education. From infants to grandparents, generations of families attended the conference, which offered lectures, an extensive list of exhibitors, and activities including a prom and graduation ceremony. Homeschooling across the state is on the rise, with data from the Florida Department of Education showing a 9.10% increase from the 2018/2019 school year to the 2019/2020 school year. This number tripled with a 35.17% increase in home education students across Florida for...

As restaurants across the country feel the squeeze from rising inflation, a tight labor market, and minimum wage increases on an industry with notoriously thin margins, owners are passing along the pain in the form of various fees tacked onto the tab, according to the Wall Street Journal. Fees for a “noncash adjustment,” “fuel surcharge,” or “kitchen appreciation” have been showing up on more bills lately. Industry analysts say this wave of surcharges is mostly being driven by restaurants trying to cope with the impact of rising inflation and a tight labor market on their bottom lines. In addition, Mastercard...

"And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." Matthew, Chapter 14 1 At that time...