Free Republic

Making ends meet is a concern for one-third of U.S. consumers, even those making $100,000 or more a year, according to a survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. This is up from 28.7% a year ago. Among those able to pay their bills in full, more than a quarter worry they will be able to continue to cover their bills in the next six months, up from one-fifth a year ago. Thirty percent of those making $150,000 or more are concerned about their finances in the next six months.

NATIONAL ICE CREAM CAKE DAY National Ice Cream Cake Day on June 27 each year brings two celebration favorites together under one delicious treat! And in the height of summer, an ice cream cake creates the perfect dessert for just about any occasion. #NationalIceCreamCakeDay Ice cream cake makers build these treats out of any flavor of ice cream into the shape of a cake. And they can add many different ingredients, too. Whether you like cookie crumbs, sponge cake, fudge, fruit, or caramel between the layers, they make delicious things happen. Then they take it a step further with the...

MATTESON, Ill. (WLS) -- A train derailed Thursday morning in far south suburban Matteson, a spokesman for the village said. Chopper 7 was over the scene about 11:30 a.m., and multiple cars were derailed in the area of 21740 Main St. The spokesman said the train involved is from the Canadian National Railway Company. There were no immediate reports of injuries, but officials were looking at a leaking train car. It was not immediately clear what was leaking from the train car. The village spokesman said a white powdery substance seen leaking from one car was tested by CN, who...

On this date in 1740, the Russian politician Artemy Volynsky was beheaded in St. Petersburg. Volynsky, as famously corrupt as he was famously able, had worked himself up from Peter the Great’s dragoons into the circles of high statecraft but lost a power struggle in the notoriously cruel court of Empress Anna. He’d made it all the way to Anna’s cabinet, but there made himself the rival of powerful Baltic grand chamberlain Ernst Johann von Biron: in political terms, Biron and the fellow Balt who ran foreign policy had a west-facing, German orientation, while Volynsky looked east to Central Asia,...

Patrick Webb @RealPatrickWebb BREAKING: White House press correspondents are formally petitioning CNN to open the presidential debate studio for on-scene coverage. Currently, reporters must view a feed from a building across the street due to concerns of a potential “medical emergency” involving one of the presidential candidates.

Moscow must find other ways to pay for exports or its sanctions-hit economy faces "ruination" one of President Vladimir Putin's top bankers has said, following moves by Chinese lenders to suspend transactions with Russian banks. ICBC, China CITIC Bank and most other Chinese banks have made similar moves, worried about falling foul of Western sanctions, which have been stepped up to choke off the funding for Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this month, the U.S. and other countries unveiled a new wave of sanctions that targeted Russian financial institutions and entities and individuals who do business with them. "If...

A migrant from Ecuador who entered the US illegally is accused of suffocating a 21-year-old Syracuse woman on her birthday and then burying her body in a shallow grave in an upstate New York park, authorities said. Jhon Moises Chacaguasay-Ilbis, 21, is charged with killing Joselyn Jhoana Toaquiza, a fellow Ecuadorian, after arranging to meet the victim for her birthday at his Airbnb in Syracuse on June 18, The Post-Standard reported. The pair, who are believed to have attended elementary school together in Ecuador, were captured on surveillance cameras entering the rental property just before 4.30 pm., cops said. Just...

Two top Democratic congressmen have called out President Biden for omitting mention of rapes committed by Hamas terrorists from a recent White House fact sheet on international sexual violence. Jewish Reps. Adam Schiff of California and Dan Goldman of New York wrote in a letter Wednesday that they wanted “to express our deepest concern” about the fact that the unspeakable Hamas sexual violence had been left off the June 17 fact sheet on the “Biden-Harris Administration’s Actions to Address Conflict-Related Sexual Violence.” “Given the evidence of these horrific incidents, the brutal and vicious sexual violence committed by Hamas must not...

Chinese battery giant CATL says it's successfully flown a 4-ton plane using its ultra-high density "condensed batteries." It now expects to have an 8-ton electric aircraft with a range of 2,000 to 3,000 km (1,240-1,865 miles) operating in 3-4 years. Contemporary Amperex Technology Company Limited (CATL) is the current world leader in manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles, owning 37% of the entire market share. Nearly every major car manufacturer, from Ford to Tesla, is using CATL batteries. In April of 2023, CATL announced its "condensed battery" packing over twice the energy density of nearly anything else on the market at...

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) says Joe Biden is a “good guy,” breaking with former President Trump’s repeated efforts to villainize the president as the corrupt mastermind behind schemes to steal elections and persecute political opponents. But McConnell, who has endorsed Trump, says there are plenty of compelling policy reasons to oust Biden from office, and has laid out a road map for Trump to use at Thursday’s debate and on the campaign trail to attack Biden’s record in office. “I know Joe Biden pretty well. He’s a good guy; I like him personally,” McConnell told an audience in...

The number of continuing applications for unemployment benefits hit its highest level since November 2021 last week, furthering signs the labor market is cooling as unemployed workers struggle to find new jobs. New data from the Department of Labor showed nearly 1.84 million claims were filed in the week ending June 22, up from 1.82 million the week prior. Meanwhile, the 4-week moving average of weekly jobless claims ticked higher by 3,000 to 236,000, the highest rate since September 2023. LPL Financial chief economist Jeffrey Roach reasoned the data is "sending a warning sign that the labor market could be...

Harris County’s Democratic district attorney slammed the “broken system” that allowed the two illegal immigrants accused of brutally murdering 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray loose in the US with only ankle monitors to keep track of them. “They should have never been released when they crossed over into El Paso, but we have a broken system and Jocelyn’s death resulted. And it’s just hard when you know something could have been prevented like a child’s death,” Kim Ogg told local channel KPRC on Thursday. She said the ankle monitors have proved completely ineffective. Both Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel, 21, and Franklin Jose Peña...

Explanation: Jets of material blasting from newborn stars, are captured in this James Webb Space Telescope close-up of the Serpens Nebula. The powerful protostellar outflows are bipolar, twin jets spewing in opposite directions. Their directions are perpendicular to accretion disks formed around the spinning, collapsing stellar infants. In the NIRcam image, the reddish color represents emission from molecular hydrogen and carbon monoxide produced as the jets collide with the surrounding gas and dust. The sharp image shows for the first time that individual outflows detected in the Serpens Nebula are generally aligned along the same direction. That result was expected,...

BREAKING: CNN will implement a 1-2 minute delay for tonight’s presidential debate instead of the standard 7-second delay, potentially allowing time to edit parts of the broadcast

A migrant from Turkey was arrested in Albany last week for raping a 15-year-old girl he forced into the backseat of his car after threatening to beat her with a metal pole, authorities said. Sakir Akkan, 21, is accused of attacking the teen on Arch Street in the state capital in the early hours of May 14, court records obtained by The Post show. Akkan allegedly told the girl, who was in the passenger seat of his Toyota Prius, that he’d pummel her if she didn’t get into the back, according to the filing. Once she was inside his car,...

Thunderbird Italien Ford Ford CEO Jim Farley stopped by The Smoking Tire podcast earlier this month to talk vintage sports car racing, EVs, and driver assistance, so if you’re a fan of events like the Rolex Monterey Motorsport Reunion, you should give it a listen. We also took note of some of Farley’s comments about the new car market—comments specifically about cars rather than SUVs. “I do not like generic cars and trucks,” said Farley as he railed against “appliance-like vehicles” while defending Ford’s decision to leave the sedan market. It’s a segment that Ford hasn’t completely written off for...

Can anyone summarize what is going on in Bolivia? I heard there is a coup - but the news is all incomplete.

If Biden was a drug, advertised: Do you feel irritable? Anxious? Fearful? Less financially well-off? Do you feel like you are alone in a basement with no one around? Well maybe its time you really tried Biden(tm). Boden helps all tyese potential things by ignoring them. None of that matters when you're on Biden. Biden comes with internet filters to censor bad things and only show you good things. Biden also comes with a number of yes-men and women to shield your safe space from dangerous misinformation, so you can blissfully go about your day in complete ignorance. Do not...

Has anyone hear ever heard about an air conditioner soft start module ? A sure-start made by hyper engineering in Australia. It takes sort of an electrician mind to install this. Module is used to stop electrical surges that flicker lights when a big a/c starts up. Can also be used if you are a prepper and want to run stuff off-grid with an inverter. Mine is only 4 years old and not working right anymore. But one can't tell when there is a good utility power source. It fails when one is off-grid for a power failure. Sort of...

An aircraft mechanic who was contracted to repair Boeing planes has alleged he was labelled a "snitch" and then sacked for speaking up over safety concerns. Richard Cuevas claimed he witnessed substandard manufacturing and maintenance work on a crucial section of Boeing 787 aircraft. Boeing, which has been dogged by questions over whether its safety culture is rigorous enough, said the issues had been investigated and "did not present a safety concern". Lawyers representing Mr Cuevas alleged he reported critical issues that could create a serious public safety risk and has filed complaints with the Federal Aviation Administration and the...