Free Republic

The Wyoming Democratic Party’s State Central Committee is operating at a loss and could be left with about two weeks worth of funding by the end of the year, its treasurer said during a Sunday meeting in Rock Springs. In its federal and non-federal accounts, the state party had $36,580.20 as of May 1, Party Treasurer Dudley Case said at the meeting. But the party has been spending more money than it has been raising each month, which has led to a $21,795.32 loss this year. That's about a $5,000 loss per month, in the first four months of the...

Hunter Biden fled last week to South Africa for a luxury vacation — with round-the-clock Secret Service protection — avoiding a grueling deposition scheduled for this week in a California lawsuit. California District Court Judge Herman Vera granted Hunter’s motion to dismiss the case Thursday after the former first son claimed he was too broke to continue suing former Trump staffer Garrett Ziegler and his nonprofit Marco Polo. But photographs show Hunter was already in Cape Town the day the case was dismissed, staying in a $500-a-night beachfront villa described on its website as an “ultra-luxurious designer home with spectacular...

A federal judge dismissed Hunter Biden’s lawsuit filed against a former Trump administration staffer in California after Biden requested the case end because of his financial difficulties. U.S. district judge Hernan Vera terminated Biden’s lawsuit against Garrett Ziegler Thursday over the public database Ziegler made with emails and images from the younger Biden’s infamous laptop hard drive and iPhone server. An appointee of Hunter Biden’s father, former President Joe Biden, Vera tossed Biden’s legal challenge with prejudice, meaning he cannot bring the lawsuit again at some point in the future “To be clear, the Court does not express any opinion...

The UK could be set to dodge US tariffs with work to begin on a new US-UK trade deal, it was revealed during Sir Keir Starmer’s visit to US President Donald Trump.Following discussions with Sir Keir, the President told a press conference on Thursday: “We’re going to have a great trade agreement, one way or another.“We’re going to end up with a very good trade agreement for both countries and we are working on that as we speak.”“We’ll see if we can do something pretty quickly. But we’re going to make some great trade agreements with the UK and with...

After multiple attempts to remain open, Northland College announced they will close at the end of the academic year. ... the Northland College Board of Trustees voted to close the College. “Despite the collaborative efforts of the entire Northland family, we no longer have the resources needed to navigate the economic and demographic storms endangering small, liberal arts institutions today,” said Ted Bristol, Chair of the Northland College Board of Trustees. “With declining enrollment and soaring costs, it takes more to operate the College than we raise in tuition. Even after enacting aggressive measures to cut costs and raise revenues,...

The program is not insolvent, but there’s a growing gap between revenue and expenses. Changing demographics are one big reason.. Medicare has a money problem. Or it will in about 10 years. It’s the sort of problem Dwight Eisenhower might have called important but not urgent, like a balloon payment on a mortgage or a roof that only leaks once in a while. Such problems are easy to ignore until it’s too late to fix them. Yet anything costing $1 trillion a year will inevitably become urgent soon enough, and Medicare’s funding shortfall will demand attention and action by 2036...

“Extraordinary measures” will be needed to keep the US from defaulting on its obligations if the nation’s debt ceiling isn’t raised or suspended by mid-January, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Congress Friday. Yellen, in a letter to House and Senate leaders, noted that the nation’s debt ceiling — the total amount of money the federal government is authorized to borrow to pay for obligations such as Social Security and Medicare benefits — was suspended in June 2023 but will once again be in effect on Jan. 1. ***. “Treasury currently expects to reach the new limit between January 14 and...

Wokeness is in retreat, but its stench will be hard to eliminate. Consider the curious case of the bone-headed “Nasdaq diversity rules” — edicts by the stock market giant to force every company that “lists” there to choose a board of directors that stresses intersectionality — racial, sexual and gender diversity — as opposed to competence.*** Forcing it on corporate boards as Nasdaq has been doing since 2020 is particularly scary. And now it’s illegal. *** Nasdaq turned decades of corporate law on its head at the height of the so-called social justice movement. It came at a particular hysterical...

The State of California, which is suffering from massive budget deficits, will spend $1.4 billion to expand a network of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to assist drivers of the cars that Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to require by 2035. As Breitbart News noted earlier this week, Newsom’s EV mandate is in trouble, with sales falling far below targets. In addition, as the Los Angeles Times reported, Newsom is raising eyebrows by continuing to propose new spending — even though the state is suffering under massive budget deficits, despite lavish coronavirus relief from the federal government under President Joe Biden’s...

I've written recently about the serious budget problems with San Francisco's schools and its public transit system. But things appear to be even worse in nearby Oakland. Last week the city accidentally published a budget report on its website which said the city was in danger of insolvency unless serious cuts were made immediately. One report, published early Friday morning in connection with a City Council agenda, warned Oakland must take immediate action to “maintain the solvency of the General Purpose Fund and avoid the Chapter 9 process.” The report, which had the signatures of the city’s top officials on...

Things might look gloomy at CNN with layoffs, salary cuts and a new digital programming model that may or may not work. But On The Money has learned that private equity firms have been crunching the numbers on a possible acquisition of the ratings-challenged network. Don’t exactly hold your breath for anything happening soon, my sources both at CNN and in the private equity business tell me. The network’s parent, Warner Bros Discovery, isn’t yet shopping CNN. Indeed, no firm has made a bid, my sources tell me: the PE people I spoke to don’t really know how to really...

The City of Los Angeles is not only “broke” and has spent half its reserves this year, as reported by City Controller Kenneth Mejia in September, but now is seeking to borrow at least $80 million, and thus at least $20 million in additional interest to cover liability payouts from lawsuits. “The City has spent $141 MILLION on Liability Payouts in the FIRST FOUR MONTHS of the new fiscal year,” said Mejia on X. “The City is looking to borrow $80M + pay additional interest up to $20M to pay liability payouts.” “As we've mentioned before, if there is no...

Job Creators Network, America’s largest small business advocacy group, is back with another massive billboard in the heart of Times Square New York, this time reminding Empire State residents and passersby that the issues facing the nation, from rampant crime to illegal immigration, the crushing cost of food and energy, didn’t exist when former president Donald Trump left office but all exploded under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. “With one week left before Election Day, we are making the closing case to American voters that Kamala Harris is the status quo candidate that has kneecapped the economy,...

George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School will have incurred more than $38 million in losses over five years by the end of its 2025 fiscal year, according to budget projections shared with the wider university's board of visitors at a meeting Thursday. The amount the Virginia-based law school is poised to lose by next year eclipses $30 million in naming gifts the school received in 2016 from an anonymous donor and the Charles Koch Foundation in honor of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The financial challenges come amid fallout over bombshell allegations against a former longtime...

The bloodbath keeps getting worse at the Walt Disney Company, with a new round of layoffs expected to impact hundreds of corporate employees this week. An estimated 300 people are affected by the layoffs that started Tuesday and are continuing at least through Thursday .. The employees affected are all in the U.S., with multiple divisions impacted, including legal, human resources, finance, and communications ... The layoffs represent the latest round of cutting at Disney, which has been trying to right its financial ship amid continued cord-cutting as well as pessimistic consumer sentiment tied to record inflation under the Biden-Harris...

It's one of the wealthiest states in America, with residents of its fanciest zip code luxuriating in $3 million red-brick apartments. But the writing is on the wall for Massachusett, says an alarming new study. The 50,000 non-legal migrants who've entered the state since Joe Biden became president are putting a costly strain on schools, healthcare, and other services. Jessica Vaughan, author of the report for the Center for Immigration Studies , says the state is destined for bankruptcy. That's because migrants will drain state coffers of a staggering $1.8 trillion over the next two years. Even though some non-legal...

Farm equipment maker John Deere says it will no longer sponsor “social or cultural awareness” events, becoming the latest major U.S. company to distance itself from diversity and inclusion measures after being targeted by conservative backlash... John Deere also said it would audit all training materials “to ensure the absence of socially-motivated messages” in compliance with federal and local laws. It did not specify what those messages would include... John Deere added “the existence of diversity quotas and pronoun identification have never been and are not company policy.” But it noted that it would still continue to “track and advance”...

University hired 6 new DEI deans in 1 year The Massachusetts Institute of Technology added more than 1,200 new administrative/support staff positions in less than a decade – including six “diversity, equity, and inclusion” assistant deans in one year, a College Fix analysis found. Meanwhile, between 2013 and 2022, undergraduate student enrollment remained basically flat. The administrative hiring increase coincides with concerted efforts by the research university to “advanc[e] diversity, equity, and inclusion” throughout its programs. During the 2022-23 school year, the most recent data available, the university employed 6,693 full-time administrators and support staff, according to information the school...

Unless you are living under a bridge or you are eagerly drinking the kool-aid that the mainstream media is dishing out, you probably understand that the economy has been struggling. Survey after survey has found that the American people are deeply dissatisfied with how the economy has been performing, and as a result it has become the number one issue this election season. But even though a large portion of the population is not happy about how things have been going, the truth is that the situation is far more dire than most people realize. Just this week we have...

Schools in the progressive haven of San Francisco are facing a major budget crunch. Things are so dire that the district may have to actually close some schools. It’s amazing that these schools are having cash flow problems when you consider the taxes people pay to live there. Officials from the school district recently met with some financial experts who gave them some tough love. ... Late last week, two fiscal experts — appointed a few years ago to give guidance to the district — were authorized to suspend or reverse financial decisions made by the superintendent or school board....