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April was not the cruelest month for investors—although the tariffmageddon-obsessed naysayers may be smarting. Despite a month of wild swings and gloomy forecasts, U.S. stock markets ended April nearly flat, brushing off predictions that Trump’s trade policies would trigger a historic collapse. The S&P 500 finished the month down just 0.8 percent. The Dow dropped 2.1 percent, and the Nasdaq edged lower by 0.3 percent. That mild performance stood in stark contrast to a mid-April Wall Street Journal article that warned of a “Trump rout” and suggested the Dow was on track for its worst April since 1932. It wasn’t....

Employers in the United States added 177,000 workers to their payrolls in April, the Department of Labor said Friday, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.2 percent, defying predictions of labor market sluggishness following President Trump’s announcement of tariffs. Economists had been expecting 130,000 jobs and an unemployment rate unchanged at 4.2 percent. The prior month’s jobs figure was revised down to 185,000 from 228,000

Some 3 million Americans may benefit from higher Social Security payments beginning in April. Why It Matters In January, two provisions—the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO)—that reduced Social Security benefits for millions of workers were repealed after bipartisan efforts in Congress. Signing the act into law, former President Joe Biden said it would boost Social Security benefits by an average of $360 a month for more than 2.8 million recipients. What To Know Beginning in April, these boosted payments will be made for all relevant recipients, the Social Security Administration confirmed in a news release...

Under the guise of cinematic artistry, the abortion industry loves the applause of abortion propaganda films. And the Sundance film, April, is no exception. Some films merely dip their toes into abortion themes, but not April. This award-winning film dives headfirst into the murky waters of abortion. The Sundance Film Festival aptly describes the plot: “April tells the story of Nina (la Sukhitashvili), an obstetrician in Eastern Georgia, whose unofficial side job provides women in the village with choices for pregnancy prevention and abortions. Following a complicated childbirth at the hospital, the infant dies, and the father of the infant...

The MONTHLY Gardening Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the...

According to FBI records from the National Instant Background Check System (NICS), April 2024 was the fifth highest on record for gun sales and background checks for that month. The month follows a pattern which has developed over the last five years. A gradual drop in sales and background checks from the record-level highs of 2020 and 2021 has become consistent.Even with the drop in sales, the numbers are still at or above the “new normal” established during President Obama’s second term. President Obama was given the honorary title of “the best gun salesman ever.” In the NSSF chart for...

The effects of a “snow drought” are still plaguing parts of the West, after a stretch of warm, dry weather last month accelerated the season’s snowmelt, federal meteorologists reported. While California’s Sierra Nevada has received sufficient snow this season to escape such a designation, the same cannot be said for areas in the northern Rocky Mountains and Washington State, according to an update issued Wednesday. In those areas, which are enduring “the most severe snow drought,” snowpack at many lower elevations has melted one to four weeks early, per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Integrated...

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) issued a proclamation on Saturday declaring April as Arab American Heritage Month. Newsom’s statement comes as anti-Israel protests and encampments have sprouted up on university and college campuses across the United States, calling for a ceasefire in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, for the U.S. government to stop arming Israel, and for colleges to divest from Israeli companies. Hamas, a U.S.-designated Islamic terror group attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, leaving 1,200 Israelis dead and more than 200 people taken as hostages.

The National Instant background Check System (NICS), run by the FBI, shows April of 2023 was the third highest number of gun sales for April on record, a slight increase from April of 2022.The estimate for April 2023 is 1.34 million gun sales. The estimate for April 2022 was 1.32 million gun sales. The number of background checks done in April of 2023 is also in third place, at about 2.86 million background checks done on the NICS system in April of 2023, compared to about 2.73 million done in April of 2022. Gun sales have consistently been over a...

The U.S. economy added 253,000 jobs in April, surpassing analyst forecasts of 180,000 new jobs, according to Labor Department data released Friday. The unemployment rate remained historically low at 3.4 percent, down from 3.5 percent the previous month. The jobs report reveals that the economy is slowing, but the labor market remains surprisingly robust. The unemployment rate for Black Americans dipped slightly to 4.7 percent, a record low. That’s a huge recovery from the onset of the pandemic, when the Black unemployment rate spiked to 16.8 percent in May 2020. Wage gains also came in slightly stronger than expected. Hourly...

(WJW) — Some Social Security recipients can expect a second payment before the end of the week. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients have received two benefit disbursements so far this month: the first SSI disbursement on March 1 and the regular Social Security payment on the second, third or fourth Wednesday, depending on their birth date. There’s typically only one SSI payment each month, paid out on the first of the month. But if that day falls on a weekend or holiday, it arrives on the last business day before the end of the month. This year, April 1 is...

I have a birthday this and every year around this time, I post a similar article, from about April 17 thru April 21 or so, some major world and local news events have occurred. For example, Adolf Hitler and Napolean were born on April 20. Other events. The Branch Dividians were incinerated by the Janet Reno and DOJ in Waco on April 19, 1993. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols bombed the Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. The Columbine School Shooting took place on April 20, 1999. The Deep Water Horizon Oil Well blew up in the...

Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chair of the House Select Committee investigating January 6, said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” that his committee had “information” that individuals were planning in anticipation of the election not going their way. Thompson said, “Clearly, a lot of us at this point feel that had January 6 been successful, this democracy would not be what it is today. So we came real close. So by getting this information, we think it will provide the necessary direction for us to correct it so that the military or no other branch of government can be...

The U.S. recorded more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday as numbers reach levels last seen in April, largely due to the highly infectious delta variant spreading rapidly throughout the country. The 1,017 coronavirus deaths reported on Tuesday equate to roughly 42 fatalities an hour, according to a Reuters tally of state data. The U.S. has recorded more than 620,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The U.S. economy added 266,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate rose to 6.1 percent, an unexpectedly poor showing falling well below expectations. The meager showing exposed unexpected gaps in a recovery that some economists were fretting would "overheat" by recovering too quickly. "For those who feared the US economy would overheat, the bigger risk may be that it is undercooked," said The Atlantic Council's Josh Lipsky.

HARPURSVILLE (WBNG) -- Animal Adventure Park has announced that April the Giraffe has died. Animal Adventure said in a news release that euthanasia was carried out at April's home Friday morning due to worsening arthritis, in accordance with her veterinary team.

The United States will reach a level of herd immunity to COVID-19 that will allow for a return to normal by April, according to Dr. Marty Makary, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Makary noted that the number of COVID-19 cases is down 77% in the last six weeks. He claimed this is due to natural immunity among people who have been previously infected and the 15% of the population already vaccinated. Depending on the estimate, herd immunity to the coronavirus is thought to be...

A Covid-19 vaccine may be widely available by April 2021, Dr. Anthony Fauci said in an interview with CBS News Wednesday. Fauci said researchers should know by “November or December” whether some vaccines trials have a safe candidate and that even in the event that a safe candidate is determined, initial quantities will likely only be a few million doses. Pushing back against an assertion made by the President that the US can expect 100 million doses by year’s end, Fauci said that the 100 million number is only possible if every vaccine candidate currently in trials is determined to...

Yesterday's thread here: http://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3831710/posts?page=1

Illinois' stay-at-home order has been extended until April 30, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Tuesday. Pritzker said he was signing an executive order that would extend Illinois’ Disaster Proclamation, stay-at-home order, and the suspension of on-site learning at schools across the state. "If we can end these orders earlier, I’ll be the first to tell you when we can start to make strides toward normal again," Pritzker said. The news comes one week before the initial order was set to end and just days after the state saw its biggest rise in cases of the coronavirus pandemic so far. Health officials...