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* Farmington State Bank had 3 staff and was the 26th-smallest bank in America out of a total 4,800. * Then FTX bought an $11.5 million stake in the bank, it has emerged during FTX's bankruptcy case. * That stake was more than twice the bank's previous net worth. The town of Farmington has just 146 residents, and is so small that Google Street View doesn't cover the whole town. For a decade, Farmington's bank held around $10 million in deposits. In the third quarter this year, deposits jumped to $84 million – 85% of which came from just four...

Remember "funemployment?" That was a concept introduced during the Obama administration during 2009 to make people feel better about rampant unemployment by portraying it as a fun thing.Well, flash forward to the inflationary era of 2022 during the Biden administration and National Public Radio has come up with something similar. Not the "Whip Inflation Now" (WIN) of the 1970s but more of an upbeat version that makes inflation sounds like a creative challenge or Winflation. And as part of the Winflation challenge, NPR has come up with what they think are creative ideas for whipping inflation during Thanksgiving dinner. Picture...

PLYMOUTH COLONY — Celebration descended into disaster today when what began as a meal of thanksgiving for bountiful blessings erupted into anger due to an attendee wearing a hat emblazoned with the words "Make America Great Someday." As citizens of the Plymouth Colony gathered together with their invited guests from the venerable Wampanoag tribe of natives, spirits were high and joy abounded. Things soon took a turn for the worse, however, with the arrival of colonist Donald Hartford Tumpington, long viewed as a politically outspoken firebrand. "This is to be the greatest and most beautiful among nations," said Tumpington loudly,...

We all know Thanksgiving is a time of family and delicious food, but is your Thanksgiving historically accurate? Tap into your heritage and spice up your holidays by making your Thanksgiving more true to history than ever before this year! Here are some tips: Wait for half your relatives to die in the harsh winter before celebrating: You'll have less drama. Invite famous Native American Elizabeth Warren to bring you a deer carcass: Delicious! Make the women do all the cooking over an open hearth: And have them ditch the pumpkin pie for a historically authentic eel pie. Ask Uncle...

We know that honest citizens defend themselves with firearms thousands of times a day. These defenders also save strangers. What is more unusual is that sometimes those heroic events are reported in the news. Here is how Kelcey Willis saved a five-year-old boy last week in Warner Robins, Georgia. What do you do on the weekend? Kelcey Willis, the defender in this tale, was taking his car to Walmart to change the oil that Sunday. It was about 2 pm when Willis and a friend talked to the technician at the auto center. They were distracted by a child’s scream...

Twitter has closed down its office in Brussels, Belgium, according to the Financial Times. The office was a small one, with under 10 staff, but was vital because of its relationship with the European Union, which last week introduced new laws for social media companies. Twitter's two digital policy chiefs in Europe — Julia Mozer and Dario La Nasa — left the company last week, five people familiar with the situation told the FT. It was unclear if they resigned or were laid-off, but they left the company after Musk issued an ultimatum to all staff, telling them to work...

(Daily readings from the USCCB)“And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.” Luke 21:27-28Only three days left in this current liturgical year. Sunday begins Advent and a new liturgical year! Therefore, as we move closer to the end of this current liturgical year, we continue to turn our eyes to the last and glorious things to come. Specifically, today we are presented with the glorious return of Jesus “coming in a...

PALO ALTO, U.S. -- Twitter's new owner Elon Musk has reportedly said the social media platform should look to replicate its success in Japan and consider basing engineering teams in India and Indonesia as well. "It may seem as though Twitter is U.S.-centric, but if anything it's Japan-centric," Musk said during a company meeting Monday, online tech magazine The Verge reported. "There are roughly the same number of daily active users in Japan as there are in the U.S., despite the fact that Japan has one-third of the population of the U.S.," the Tesla chief and SpaceX founder was quoted...

If there’s one thing we’re thankful for here at Twitchy, it’s the opportunity to laugh with you, every day. With that in mind, we thought we’d help kick off Thanksgiving by sharing some Thanksgiving-themed humor from the good folks of Twitter. I have ratioed PETA in advance of Thanksgiving pic.twitter.com/gLve7rSjSy — Three Year Letterman (@3YearLetterman) November 22, 2022 Now how can you not be thankful for that? LOL. When you try to follow that YouTube video on how to decorate a Thanksgiving dessert… (h/t @kimmie_c_) pic.twitter.com/kDfUZwBK9W — Carol Roth (@caroljsroth) November 23, 2022 LOL! Dead. I just made this for...

Russia's lower house of parliament passed a discriminatory law that bans Russians from promoting "LGBT propaganda" in the third reading on Thursday. The move by Russia's State Duma, the lower house of parliament, expands a 2013 law that banned people from discussing gay relationships and issues with children to apply to people of all ages. The bill needs to be reviewed by Russia's upper house of parliament and signed by President Vladimir Putin before becoming law. Russia to fine people if they promote LGBT relationships Russian lawmakers agreed all individuals could be fined up to 400,000 rubles ($6,600, €6,346) and...

Moscow (AFP) – Russian lawmakers unanimously approved a bill banning all forms of LGBTQ "propaganda" in a final reading on Thursday, as Moscow presses ahead with its conservative drive at home while its troops fight in Ukraine. The legislation passed by the lower house of parliament, the Duma, bars all mention of what authorities deem "gay propaganda" in the media, cinema, books and advertisement. It also prohibits "the propaganda of paedophilia and sex change". If also approved by the upper house of parliament and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, rights groups say it effectively bans all public promotion...

It must become crystal clear to the Left that what goes around, comes around. As Republicans prepare to take charge of the U.S. House of Representatives, it is important to recognize the sea change that has recently occurred in America. Things are fundamentally different now than they were just a little while ago and are unlikely to change back in the near future, if ever. In international relations there are three ways countries interact with each other. Some are friendly, sharing common interests and goals. Examples include the United Kingdom and United States, the vaunted "special relationship." Others have little...

Employees are leaving a vast Foxconn iPhone factory in central China over working conditions and Covid restrictions, relieved to be taking pay-offs home after angry protests at the Taiwanese tech giant's plant. The workers are leaving the plant in Zhengzhou in the wake of bloody clashes with police, in which more than a dozen protesters were hurt, furious about Foxconn's failure to deliver promised bonuses, employees told AFP. "The contract suddenly changed and everyone was unhappy, in addition the previous incidents at Foxconn made everyone lose trust, so the protests happened," one female worker who wished to remain anonymous told...

A Texas woman, 23, was arrested after she allegedly set her boyfriend's house on fire during a jealous rage after discovering another woman had answered their Facetime call - the mystery female turned out to be the boyfriend's relative. Senaida Soto was taken into custody on Monday and faces felony charges for burglary and arson. Her bond was set at $165,000. No one was hurt in the blaze, but the fire caused more than $50,000 in property damage. The bizarre ordeal happened on Sunday when Soto became enraged that her beau may have been two-timing her, broke into his San...

TOKYO — One of the worst-kept secrets in global central banking is the extent to which Chinese officials are swapping dollars for gold. Governor Yi Gang’s team at the People’s Bank of China isn’t admitting as much. The PBOC doesn’t have to, though, given the clear policy trajectory Chinese leader Xi Jinping has pursued in recent years: internationalizing of the yuan as the top rival to the dollar. Xi’s position hasn’t changed so much as other governments are catching on that trust is waning in the global reserve currency and an alternative to the dollar is badly needed. Particularly as...

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Do a mental flyover of the COVID pandemic, and you’ll see these dots I mention. In mid-March 2020, we got the gift of a 5-alarm virus, one that nobody had noticed during its first four to six months of spread. The terror of COVID began when it was suddenly hyped as dire and deadly. From nothing, it came to dominate all the news. Nobody was more quoted than Doctors Fauci and Birx. The race to spread gasoline on the fire had begun. But there was always a method to the madness. Remember the shortage of ventilators? The governors who housed...

Voters Organized for Trusted Election Results in Georgia (VoterGA) reports it has identified significant abnormalities in the 2022 Georgia general election, including results that show over 20,000 votes were “inexplicably subtracted” from the vote totals for U.S. Senate Republican candidate Herschel Walker.

Despite all the renewable-energy investments and installations, actual global greenhouse gas emissions keep increasing. That’s largely due to economic growth: While renewable energy supplies have expanded in recent years, world energy usage has ballooned even more – with the difference being supplied by fossil fuels. The more the world economy grows, the harder it is for additions of renewable energy to turn the tide by actually replacing energy from fossil fuels, rather than just adding to it. The notion of voluntarily reining in economic growth in order to minimize climate change and make it easier to replace fossil fuels is...

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