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The Bureau of Labor and Statistics released the January consumer price index today .. reflecting what you already know. The overall inflation rate stands at 6.4%, after the anniversaries of the first two waves of price increases have now tolled. Inflation is the measure of price increases over time. Following two years of massive jumps in price, we are now cycling through and comparing current prices to the previous period when prices had already skyrocketed. This gives a false impression of price moderation (hindsight inflation); however, the price of goods and services is significantly higher, and those prices will not...

Explanation: This unusual sky was both familiar and unfamiliar. The photographer's mission was to capture the arch of the familiar central band of our Milky Way Galaxy over a picturesque medieval manor. The surprise was that on this January evening, the foreground sky was found glowing in a beautiful but unfamiliar manner. The striped bands are called airglow and they result from air high in Earth's atmosphere being excited by the Sun's light and emitting a faint light of its own. The bands cross the entire sky -- their curved appearance is due to the extremely wide angle of the...

On Tuesday, Democrats in the New Mexico House of Representatives voted 43-24 for H.B. 31 to allow children under 14 to change their legal name without parental consent or public notice. “If the court finds that notice to one or more legal parents or legal guardians of a child who is under fourteen years of age will jeopardize the child’s or the applicant’s personal safety, the court shall not require notice,” the bill reads. The bill, however, does not say what would constitute “jeopardizing” the child’s safety. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Christine Chandler (D-Los Alamos), said during the debate that...

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources contracted with a company in 2017 to develop a system, known as WV PATH, to help the agency better manage programs including Medicaid, food assistance and its child welfare system. With less than four years left on the contract, the project still isn’t complete. Senate Finance Committee Chair Eric Tarr, who has questioned DHHR about the missing database, said the project has cost $173 million as of July 2022 based on information from DHHR. “The first risk is harm to kids,” Tarr, R-Putnam, said. “The larger risk is that the feds...

MONROE COUNTY, FLa.- Two suspected members of the Pagans motorcycle gang were arrested in separate incidents — one for having an outstanding warrant and another for illegal weapon possession. “Anyone who comes to the Florida Keys and commits crimes will be on my radar,” said Sheriff Rick Ramsay. “I am committed to the safety of this community.” • Nicole Marie Fortier, 45, Springhill, Florida, was arrested for possession of methamphetamine (.4 grams), possession of a concealed weapon without a permit (a 9mm pistol), and possession of drug paraphernalia following a traffic stop on U.S. 1 near 17th Court in Marathon....

In the wake of the latest shootdown of an unidentified object over North American airspace, we now have audio recordings of the in-cockpit communications from the two F-16 fighter jets involved in yesterday afternoon’s intercept over Lake Huron. What’s immediately striking on listening to them, is that the pilots in question also seem to be perplexed as to what they are actually observing and the precise nature of the craft that they ultimately dispatched. The object was “decommissioned” over Lake Huron by a pair of 148th Fighter Wing “Bulldogs” F-16CMs. The fighters launched out of Madison, Wisconsin at around 10:30...

Laura Rosenberger, President Joe Biden’s top adviser on matters related to China and Taiwan, will step down in March, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing White House officials. Rosenberger serves as a special assistant to the president and senior director on the National Security Council and has guided the president amid Washington’s increasing tensions with Beijing and will see out her term as the administration grapples with fallout from the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon in America’s coastal waters on Feb. 4. However, Rosenberger’s plans to step down preceded the balloon invading U.S. airspace and sparking bipartisan concern in Congress...

Despite recently passing legislation that will impose hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes on America’s job creators, my Democratic colleagues are using a new Government Accountability Office report as justification for a push to raise taxes even further on businesses they think aren’t paying their “fair share.” But the report, which examines the average effective tax rates of large corporations before and after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, argues more in favor of the GOP reforms than Democrats admit.Issued on the request of the Democratic leaders of the Senate Finance and Senate Budget committees, the report...

"We now estimate 97% of the whole Russian army is in Ukraine," Wallace told the BBC on Wednesday. "We haven't actually seen this massing of a single force to punch through in a big offensive," Wallace told BBC. "We've just seen an effort to advance, and that has come at a huge cost to the Russian army."...Western officials are skeptical of Russia forging an all-out offensive next week, partly because it has already activated the vast majority of ground forces inside Ukraine territories.

Flaco, a Eurasian eagle owl who escaped from the Central Park Zoo in New York earlier in February, has been seen hunting and eating his own food, officials said. Photo courtesy of the Central Park Zoo Feb. 14 (UPI) -- A Eurasian eagle owl who escaped from the Central Park Zoo in New York earlier this month is now hunting for his own food, officials said. Flaco, an owl that escaped from his enclosure at the zoo after his exhibit was vandalized in early February, has been spotted in the park on numerous occasions since his escape, but has evaded...

Chinese state media continued having a field day with the Ohio train disaster on Tuesday and Wednesday, crowing that the calamity has become a viral sensation on Chinese social media because it exposes the corruption, incompetence, and hypocrisy of the U.S. government. “Many netizens, when criticizing the U.S. for not properly handling the disaster, also questioned if the U.S. government is trying to deliberately withhold information, and hype a balloon incident involving China to divert domestic media attention,” the state-run Global Times said on Tuesday, hammering Beijing’s favorite new talking point about how President Joe Biden’s administration targeted China’s harmless...

After Michigan leaders pledged $1 billion in taxpayer subsidies to Ford’s new electric vehicle plant in Marshall, Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is calling for an investigation into the agreement between Ford and its Chinese partner CATL. Rubio sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, calling for an immediate Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States review of the licensing agreement between Ford and CATL. Rubio asked the Biden administration not to support Chinese Communist Party efforts by providing tax credits.....

This Miami Florida woman learned why you should always read the fine print. And now she’ll always be connected to an Erotic Novel Titled ‘His Big Childhood Sweetheart’. Christian Demeritt of Miami shared her story on Tik Tok which all started when she graduated college back in 2010. Fresh off her theater degree, she needed some new headshots. So she met up with a recommended photographer at the park at Bayside. They took pictures in some different tops, she paid him $100 and everything seemed good. She was hoping to use the new pics to find work as an actress....

“The cause of a gambling problem is the individual’s inability to control the gambling.” So says the National Council on Problem Gambling, an organization funded by the gambling industry to help people who have become addicted to its products. This attitude—that anyone who falls into gambling addiction has only themselves to blame—has allowed state lawmakers to ignore arguments that more access to gambling might make it easier for people to lose control. Since the Supreme Court struck down previous restrictions on sports betting in 2018, 36 states have legalized it (26 of which allow mobile betting), and new ballot initiatives...

A man is dead after he was run over by the driver of a car from which he was allegedly trying steal a catalytic converter in Palmdale.

DeSantis is so good at this sort of thing one wonders if he's an artist. Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, is starting to look like an artist right now. A sculptor perhaps, a bas relief sculptor, yet one whose lacy carvings cut all the way through. Because against the great marble wall of woke which forms the establishment, he's carving out something else for Floridians, and it's a thing of beauty: According to Crankers, cited by news aggregator Whatfinger: Ron DeSantis continues his war on the woke. Slamming ESG as an “elite-driven phenomenon” that seeks to impose policies that would otherwise...

A "rigged election" is equivalent to war since both "put into power" a "victor," argues plaintiff, and therefore allegations of a rigged election must be investigated. The Supreme Court is set to reconsider whether to hear a lawsuit alleging President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former Vice President Mike Pence, 291 House members, and 94 senators violated their oaths of office by refusing to investigate evidence of fraud in the 2020 election before certifying Biden as the victor on Jan. 6, 2021, allowing for Biden and Harris to be "fraudulently" inaugurated. The plaintiff, Raland J. Brunson, seeks the defendants' removal...

Scientists are reporting a breakthrough discovery: A $3-per-pill epilepsy drug may be used to “switch off” autism symptoms in mice, according to a new peer-reviewed study published Tuesday in Molecular Psychiatry journal. Autism spectrum disorder is a complex developmental condition that impacts how an estimated 5.4 million (2.2% of) adults — and one in 44 children — in the United States perceives and socializes with others. It is often accompanied by abnormalities such as epilepsy or hyperactivity, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. A team of experts at Germany’s Hector Institute for Translational Brain Research found that...

Former President Donald Trump's campaign is examining ways to win over the mail-in vote after the Democrats' performance in the 2020 presidential and 2022 midterm elections. The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump's staff is examining state laws on absentee and mail-in voting, as well as ballot harvesting techniques. Trump, who was famously critical of mail-in votes following the 2020 election, is changing his tune following comments by some GOP 2024 presidential hopefuls, like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who have criticized the party for not capitalizing on opportunities in recent elections by focusing too...

Raquel Welch has died at the age of 82. The iconic 1960s sex symbol passed after a struggle with a brief, unknown illness, according to TMZ. Her family confirmed the news to the site on Feb. 15, stating that she had passed away that morning.