Free Republic

CHICAGO (CBS) – In the past nearly year-and-a-half, Chicago has spent nearly $300 million responding to the ongoing migrant crisis, according to the city's latest numbers. That number does not include the cost incurred by other agencies like Chicago Public Schools, the Department of Streets and Sanitation, or Cook County Health. About $206 million of the total has gone to Favorite Healthcare Staffing to operate the city-run shelters. The group has come under scrutiny by some aldermen who have said the city was paying them too much.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston announced the city’s decision to scale back migrant services by consolidating shelters to save millions of dollars. The plan involves closing one shelter per week over the next month to reduce the budget deficit by nearly $60 million. Johnston emphasized that no one will be kicked out, but rather moved to other shelters.

The United States Senate has passed a stop-gap piece of spending legislation meant to buy legislators another week, as Congress seeks to hammer out details of a second set of appropriations bills in March. via ABC News:The final vote tally was 77-13. The measure now heads to the president's desk.[...]The new funding deadlines for the government spending bills are now March 8 and March 22.Congress will now return next week to finish working on the first tranche of six funding bills that are due by March 8.As we wrote earlier on Thursday, the House passed a similar bill by Republican...

Afederal judge on Tuesday ruled that the Nancy Pelosi-led House of Representatives acted unconstitutionally in December 2022 when it passed a $1.7 trillion federal budget. U.S. District Court Judge James Wesley Hendrix ruled that Pelosi, then speaker of the House, violated the Constitution by allowing members to vote without actually being at the Capitol for the Dec. 23 session at which the budget was adopted, according to Reuters. At the time of the budget’s passing, CNBC referred to the action as “the final major achievement” of Pelosi’s term as speaker of the House. The budget passed 225-201. At the time...

Congressional leaders in the House and Senate have reached a deal on a spate of appropriations bills, clearing the way for a short-term spending patch that would extend funding deadlines further into March. Appropriators finalized the agreement on Wednesday, two sources told the Washington Examiner, just three days before the government is set to enter a partial shutdown. The proposal would maintain the two-pronged deadlines Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has advocated but would extend the dates slightly to give lawmakers time to finalize the legislative text and bring them to the floor for votes. “We are in agreement that Congress...

New York City Democrat Mayor Eric Adams said this week that illegal alien crime in the city is getting so bad, officials need to look at modifying the city’s sanctuary status so that local law enforcement can cooperate with federal immigration officials to deport violent criminals.“We should not be allowing people who are repeatedly committing crimes to remain here and we cannot collaborate with ICE in the process,” Adams said on Monday. “Those who are committing crimes, we need to modify the sanctuary city law. If you commit a felony, a violent act, we should be able to turn you...

A cash-strapped Colorado city signaled it would not support any more migrants shipped to the Denver suburb from around the country — with one official stressing, “We just don’t have the money.” The Aurora City Council approved a resolution 7-3 that made clear the city of close to 400,000 people would not provide housing or other resources to migrants, as well as homeless people, who are bused to the district, the Denver Post reported. The action came the same week that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott boasted about sending about 16,500 migrants from the Lone Star State to Denver, which is...

Hundreds of migrants were dropped off on the side of the road in San Diego, California, on Friday after funding for a reception center ran dry, according to The Associated Press. Border Patrol buses dropped off hundreds of migrants from places like China, Kazakhstan, Ecuador and Rwanda, among other countries, at a San Diego bus stop instead of a county-funded reception center that closed down Thursday after running out of funds, the AP reported. The reception center was run by SBCS, a local nonprofit formerly known as South Bay Community Services, which San Diego County gave $6 million to provide...

@ChadPergram 1) Johnson: Despite the counterproductive rhetoric in Leader Schumer’s letter, the House has worked nonstop, and is continuing to work in good faith, to reach agreement with the Senate on compromise government funding bills in advance of the deadlines. 2) Johnson: Our position is that of the American people and our mission is to take steps to rein in Democrats’ overspending and policies that are harming the economy, raising prices, and making everyday life harder for our constituents. 3) Johnson: Leader Schumer’s letter fails to mention that many of the points still being debated come from new Democrat demands...

The aftermath of a record-high influx of migrants coming into the country via the southern border is straining budgets in some of the nation’s big cities — and putting pressure on the federal government to chip in. An analysis from S&P Global Ratings found that of the 100,000 immigrants Texas has transported since 2022, 84% were sent to Denver, Chicago and New York. Denver, which has more migrants per capita than any other U.S. city, has tapped into 2024 saving and is pulling at least $5 million from its budget to cover services for them — with more reductions likely,...

A San Diego migrant center announced it will be forced to close its doors Thursday after running out of funds to assist the overwhelming number of asylum-seekers who have illegally crossed into the county. The mayor of nearby El Cajon, Calif., told Fox News Thursday that he fears the welcome center’s closure will quickly become a “serious problem” for his community. “Over the past few months, we’ve seen 100,000 migrants come across the San Diego border,” Mayor Bill Wells told “Fox & Friends First.” “A lot of those have been absorbed by this county shelter that used taxpayer money. They...

A majority of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. A majority don’t have enough money to pay for a thousand-dollar emergency. Home ownership is a rapidly dissipating aspect of the American dream. Americans’ credit card debt is at a record high because of high inflation and the cost-of-living, and they’re falling behind on debt payments. People don’t have enough money for retirement. So what is the solution? Well for some economists, it’s time to take away the tax benefit for 401(k) plans because the government is short of revenue to pay for their exorbitant spending. See here, from USA Today:What if the...

A fourth-generation farmer and president of the National Black Farmers Association, John Boyd, Jr., joined Stuart Varney on Fox Business’s “Varney & Co.” to discuss the devastating impact of Joe Biden’s policies on American farmers.He criticized the administration for prioritizing others, including illegals and foreign governments, over Americans.All farmers are suffering under Biden, but Boyd asserts Black farmers are ‘facing extinction.’Boyd told Varney there are now only 40,000 black farmers in the United States, down from a million at its peak. And while American farmers are suffering, with land ownership drastically declining, Biden launched a $100 million initiative to provide...

State records show that Massachusetts is spending about $64 per migrant per day to feed those in state care, a cost that is contributing to the expected one billion dollars in expenses to be spent by the Bay State by 2025. The latest numbers show that the state is paying out $16 for breakfast, $17 for lunch, and a whopping $31 for every dinner every day, according to WBZ-TV. All of this is an commercial for Donald Trump at this point. Illegal immigrants are living good while taxpayers have to get up at 6:30 in the morning to go jobs...

Newsom’s Fiscal Inferno! When Arnold Schwarzenegger was Governor California, his budget chief, a former high school pal of mine, called me to look at California’s budget. He sent me his spreadsheets with forecasts and asked me what I thought. Even back then, I called back and said “California is on an unsustainable fiscal path and seems to be committing suicide.” He agreed, but noted that Schwarzenegger would not like that conclusion. I told him to blame me for the report, as an unpaid consultant to The Golden State. But even back then, I could foresee the absolute mess that the...

A majority of America's largest cities are broke and unable to meet their liabilities, according to a new analysis. In its eighth annual Financial State of the Cities report, the right-leaning think tank Truth in Account determined that as of 2022, 53 of the country's 75 largest cities have fewer assets than liabilities. The report notes:At the end of the fiscal year 2022, 53 cities did not have enough money to pay all of their bills. This means that to claim their budgets were balanced—as is required by law in the 75 cities—elected officials have not included the actual costs...

The conservative House Freedom Caucus is actively pushing House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to attach a House-passed border security bill that's sitting in the U.S. Senate to the next spending bill that Congress must pass to avoid a government shutdown. H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act of 2023, passed the House in May. The bill would end the Biden administration's "catch and release" policy at the border as well as force the administration to restart construction of the border wall along open areas of the border, among other actions."I think we ought to be willing to have a fight...

During an interview aired on Friday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston responded to a question on Denver residents who are frustrated that the city is cutting services due to budget shortfalls caused by the influx of migrants in the city by stating that “The dilemma is when you have values on both sides and you have to manage those values. We have a value of being a welcoming, compassionate city.” And there are some cuts to migrant services. Johnston said, “We’ve asked every agency in the city to take a look at what they could do...

CHICAGO (CBS) -- New data shine a light on just how much Chicago has been spending to support the migrant mission so far. Just over 13,000 asylum seekers are living in city shelters – and city officials said they are preparing for a spike. But it not clear how the city would pay for such a spike. If it feels confusing tracking the spending – the amount of money the city has spent, the amount the state has given, and how much the federal government has contributed – that is because it is, in fact, confusing

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly 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...