Free Republic

The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police has implemented a new response policy. Beginning March 11, officers will only respond to calls of in-progress emergencies, WPXI reported. The policy is part of Chief Larry Scirotto’s efforts to reduce the bureau’s call volume from about 200,000 calls to about 50,000 calls this year, according to the report. Calls for criminal mischief, theft, harassment and many others will be handled by the telephone reporting unit or by online reporting. “That allows our officers to be engaged in community in a way, now they’re at the YMCA instead of sitting on the 10th Street bypass...

Some Chinese-made cranes used at US ports contain communications equipment with no clear purpose or record of their installation, according to a new congressional investigation that will heighten US concerns that the cranes could be used for surveillance or sabotage. The investigation by the House Committee on Homeland Security and House select committee on China focused on the more than 200 Chinese-made cranes installed at US ports and related facilities. It comes amid heightened US-China tensions over national security and as the Coast Guard last month ordered the ports to better secure the Chinese-made cranes. House lawmakers found that the...

Cash Jordan delivers are cold, hard evaluation of events happening "underground," on the NYC Subway system. The impact crime is having on people and the financial viability of the massive public transportation system. YouTube Video Update

Many millennials are currently grasping in frustration at long-held American Dreams like homeownership, a steady job and an affordable cost of living. However, over the next twenty years, Millennials are poised to inherit some $90 trillion of assets and become the richest generation in history – but only the ones who already come from affluent families, potentially deepening wealth inequality further. Between now and 2044 in the US, the Silent Generation and Baby Boomers are expected to hand over the reins of their significant wealth to Millennials, according to The Wealth Report, a periodic report from global property consultant Knight...

Israeli press say AAE-1, Seacom/TGN, and Europe India Gateway (EIG) damaged by rebels; Seacom confirms issues but not cause Several subsea cables have reportedly been damaged off the coast of Yemen, with some press suggesting terrorist groups are to blame. One cable operator has confirmed damage to a cable in the region, but said it didn’t know the cause yet. Israeli press including the Jerusalem Post and Globes suggest four cables - AAE-1, Seacom, Europe India Gateway (EIG), and TGN systems - have been damaged in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen (though Seacom and TGN are actually...

Two sources briefed on the situation told ABC News that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), among other agencies, are now urgently investigating to determine whether the AT&T outages are the result of a cyber attack or a hack, or simply some sort of technical malfunction. More than 73,000 AT&T customers reported outages on digital-service tracking site DownDetector. That's not a comprehensive number: It tracks only self-reported outages. Although outage reports fell a bit in the 5 am ET hour, they bounced back in the 7 am ET hour and continue to surge. Several local governments said AT&T's...

Basically he is highlighting what is already happening, that we are already under attack, and that NOBODY is coming to help you when it all finally goes down.

Faced with a nearly $20 million budget deficit, Baldwin Wallace University yesterday announced layoffs, program cuts and other measures it will undertake to bring its books into balance. "Like many universities across our country, both large and small, BW must always work to maintain a balanced budget," the university said in a release. "During the past two years we have operated with budget deficits, which we cannot continue to do. To address the operating deficit, we have looked at every area of the university over the past few months to ensure that we are operating as cost-effectively as possible. As...

Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin told a defence conference "there could be war in Sweden". His message was then backed up by military commander-in-chief Gen Micael Byden, who said all Swedes should prepare mentally for the possibility. (snip) Children's rights organisation Bris said that its national helpline did not usually receive calls about the possibility of war. But this week, it had seen an increase in worried calls from youngsters who had seen news reports or posts on TikTok talking about it. "This was well prepared, it wasn't something blurted out," Bris spokeswoman Maja Dahl told the BBC. "They should...

What Every Small Business Needs to Know About the Corporate Transparency Act The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is going into effect on January 1, 2024, impacting millions of small businesses across the U.S. Knowing the intricacies of this act and its potential impact is essential for small businesses. Otherwise, they may incur criminal or civil penalties for not filing or updating this report. What is the Corporate Transparency Act? Enacted in 2021, the CTA aims to combat illicit activity including tax fraud, money laundering, and financing for terrorism by capturing more ownership information for specific U.S. businesses operating in or...

Multinational investment bank Morgan Stanley downgraded the outlook for the U.S. dollar from ‘Bullish’ to ‘Neutral’ on Friday. The global bank cited that the Federal Reserve initiating interest rate cuts led to the decline of U.S. Treasury yields. Morgan Stanley’s outlook for the U.S. dollar is now officially ‘Neutral’ and downgraded from its previous stance of ‘Bullish’. The downgrade comes at a time when the BRICS alliance is advancing to uproot the U.S. dollar’s global supremacy. Surprisingly, Morgan Stanley was the only bank that provided fodder to the U.S. dollar terming the currency ‘Bullish’ last year. The bank has now...

Both the Dutch military and society as a whole need to brace themselves for the possibility of a war with Russia, said Lieutenant-General Martin Wijnen, the departing Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army. "Our society should be preparing themselves for this," he told the Telegraaf in an interview published on Thursday. Wijnen said that the Netherlands should follow the examples set by countries like Sweden, Finland, the Baltic nations. Those countries which border Russia, or are close to it, are better prepared for the outbreak of war. "The Netherlands needs to learn that the entire society needs to be prepared...

For the past two weeks, I’ve been using a new camera to secretly snap photos and record videos of strangers in parks, on trains, inside stores and at restaurants. (I promise it was all in the name of journalism.) I wasn’t hiding the camera, but I was wearing it, and no one noticed. I was testing the recently released $300 Ray-Ban Meta glasses that Mark Zuckerberg’s social networking empire made in collaboration with the iconic eyewear maker. The high-tech glasses include a camera for shooting photos and videos, and an array of speakers and microphones for listening to music and...

More than two dozen high-value targets have been attacked in the last year alone as China seeks to inflict 'societal chaos' in the event of war Beijing is by-passing hi-tech firewalls by targeting ordinary employees It comes as tensions grow over Taiwan, with targets in Hawaii and Guam at the top of the Chinese hit list Chinese hackers are positioning themselves inside critical US infrastructure by targeting careless office workers in a bid to cause 'societal chaos' from within should war break out. Beijing's military have burrowed into more than 20 major suppliers in the last year alone including a...

Dec 4, 2023 1 in 10 New Yorkers struggle with hunger, and due to recent budget cuts, food pantries and other city funded nutrition programs may experience shortages. It is going to get very scary in NYC soon.

France joins Denmark and the Netherlands in reporting increased cases of pneumonia among kids Officials in France are reporting an increase in pediatric pneumonia cases, the third European country to report such an outbreak in recent days. It comes after China reported some of its children’s hospitals have been overwhelmed by pneumonia cases, causing global alarm. Europe 1, a French radio station, reported that there was a 36% increase in medical visits for pediatric pneumonia cases last week. Many of these infections have been tied to Mycoplasma pneumoniae. Increased attention has been placed on M. pneumoniae in recent weeks, after...

About 60 credit unions in the US are experiencing outages because of a ransomware attack on an IT provider the credit unions use, a federal agency said Friday. The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the agency that insures deposits at federally insured credit unions, said in a statement to CNN that it was “coordinating with affected credit unions” in the wake of the hack. The full extent of the outage and its impact on credit unions was unclear Friday evening. One of the affected credit unions, New York-based Mountain Valley Federal Credit Union, said that technicians from the hacked IT...

As part of his Bidenomics agenda to lower costs for American families, President Biden is announcing nearly 30 new actions to strengthen supply chains critical to America’s economic and national security. These actions will help Americans get the products they need when they need them, enable reliable deliveries for businesses, strengthen our agriculture and food systems, and support good-paying, union jobs here at home. President Biden will announce these actions alongside members of his Cabinet and other senior Administration officials at the inaugural meeting of the new White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience. The Council, which President Biden is...

An unauthorized vehicle attempted to enter the headquarters of U.S. Strategic Command (Stratcom) Thursday night, prompting gunshots and a lockdown before the driver backed away and left the base. Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, which is home to Stratcom, said the unknown vehicle tried to enter the main gate of the facility at 10 p.m. Offutt security forces activated a barrier system that prevented the vehicle from entering, forcing the individual to turn around. Security also fired shots at the vehicle before it fled the scene, according to the base, and a lockdown was initiated out of an abundance...

The London Metal Exchange (LME) won a legal battle with U.S. financial firms on Wednesday which brought a case demanding $472 million in compensation after the exchange cancelled billions of dollars in nickel trades last year following a surge in prices. Hedge fund Elliott Associates and market maker Jane Street Global Trading brought the case after the world's largest metals marketplace cancelled $12 billion in trades when prices shot to records above $100,000 a metric ton in a few hours of chaotic trade in March 2022. In its written ruling, London's High Court said the LME could cancel trades in...