Free Republic

Indian government sources told Reuters on Tuesday that New Delhi is considering $23 billion in tariff reductions on U.S. imports to stave off President Donald Trump’s threatened reciprocal tariffs, which will affect at least $66 billion in Indian exports if they take effect on April 2. According to Reuters’ sources, the Indian government ran the numbers and concluded it will fare much better by lowering its tariffs, even though it will lose a great deal of income: In an internal analysis, New Delhi estimated such reciprocal tariffs would hit 87% of its total exports to the United States worth $66...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) — A new bill under consideration in the Illinois House would allow individual municipalities to impose their own, local motor fuel tax on top of the state’s gas tax. House Bill 1283 would create the Municipal Motor Fuel Tax Law, allowing cities, towns and villages to impose their own gas tax, at a rate not to exceed 3 cents per gallon. The bill was introduced by Rep. Anthony DeLuca (D-80th). Illinois residents currently pay the second-highest gas tax in the country besides California, at 66 cents per gallon.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) — A new proposal in Springfield would change how Illinois funds its roads, by charging drivers by the mile instead of a gas tax. The proposal, filed by Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) and Sen. Christopher Belt (D-East St. Louis), calls for starting a pilot program to study the effectiveness of charging drivers by the mile, something the state is considering due to the prevalence of more fuel-efficient and electric vehicles on Ilinois roadways. Since fuel-efficient cars use less gasoline, fewer tax dollars will be available for road infrastructure. Electric vehicle owners currently pay a $100 premium on...

resident Donald Trump’s concerns about South Africa’s recent legislation on expropriation were vindicated Wednesday when news emerged of new legislation to allow land to be redistributed along racial lines. The Freedom Front Plus, a small right-wing party in the South African parliament that represents a primarily Afrikaans-speaking constituency, warned that the new proposal would seek to bring land ownership patterns — currently dominated by whites — into line with the demographic reality of a black majority in South Africa. In a statement, the party said: The Department of Land Reform and Rural Development today announced to the relevant parliamentary Portfolio...

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions is slated to hold a hearing Thursday morning regarding a standard 32-hour work week. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday introduced a bill to establish a standard four-day workweek in the United States without any reduction in pay. The bill, over a four-year period, would lower the threshold required for overtime pay from 40 hours to 32 hours. It would require overtime pay at a rate of 1.5 times a worker’s regular salary for work days longer than 8 hours, and it would require overtime pay at double a worker’s regular...

The United States' missile strikes on a military airfield in Syria violates international law and represents an act of aggression against a sovereign state under a far-fetched pretext, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday. MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The US launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Syrian military airfield in Ash Sha'irat near Homs late Thursday. US President Donald Trump said the attack was a response to the alleged chemical weapon use in Idlib on Tuesday, which Washington blames on Damascus. President [Vladimir] Putin regards the US attacks on Syria as an aggression against a sovereign state in violation of...

British military chiefs are drawing up plans to help American airstrikes in Iraq, the Times reports. Senior figures are considering sending a spy plane to provide intelligence on ISIS positions, while Royal Air Force aircraft capable of refuelling U.S. fighter jets in mid-air will also be sent. The UK government, which has welcomed American intervention in the fight against ISIS, has also not ruled out conducting its own airstrikes if the humanitarian situation worsens. MPs are also discussing the possibility of using British special forces, who have long experience in the Kurdish region, to offer help in pinpointing targets. Former...

Annapolis Alderman Ross Arnett insists the City Council's decision to take another look at making the mayor's job a more ceremonial role has nothing to do with party politics. But if the Democrat-majority council acts to remove the mayor's power, the timing will coincide with the election of Annapolis' first Republican mayor in nearly two decades, Mike Pantelides, who defeated the incumbent Democrat, Mayor Josh Cohen, last week.

White House communications staffers are investigating using social media sites beyond Facebook and Twitter to broaden the Obama administration's public engagement and, perhaps, to communicate in different ways, a White House aide said Tuesday. That investigation is driven partly by a belief that social media changes so rapidly the government must be willing to experiment with new platforms, and because outside advisers to the administration already are using newer platforms, White House New Media Director Macon Phillips said. Former America Online Chief Executive Officer Steve Case, who serves on President Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, for example, uses Quora.com,...

San Francisco - The first vision was simple and straightforward: To curtail puppy mills and kitten factories, the sale of cats and dogs should be banned in San Francisco, where the loving guardians of animal companions come to regular blows — politically — with the loving parents of children. The ban was put on hold last year after animal advocates broadened it to include anything with fur or feathers. Now it's back, with a new name and a new strategy: More is more. The Humane Pet Acquisition Proposal is on its way to the Board of Supervisors, and it hopes

Alec Baldwin, the US actor, has said he has lost interest in acting and considers his film career a failure. "I consider my entire movie career a complete failure," he told the magazine. "The goal of moviemaking is to star in a film where your performance drives the film, and the film is either a soaring critical or commercial success, and I never had that." Baldwin has expressed interest in politics in the past but did not say in the interview what he intended to do if he quit acting.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is weighing a possible temporary expansion of the US army to ease the strain from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, his press secretary said on Wednesday. Gates was discussing the idea, backed by Senator Joseph Lieberman, with senior officers to add 30,000 troops to the active-duty army, press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters. The possible expansion from the current strength of 547,400 would be designed "to get them through what is still a stressful period as we draw down in Iraq and continue to plus-up in Afghanistan," Morrell said.

It seemed appropriate that a panel examining ways to overhaul the state's tax structure met Thursday in the academic confines of UC Davis rather than the politically charged Capitol. The discussion focused on the theoretical, from examining the merits of a flat income tax to considering a "split-roll" property tax system that treats commercial businesses differently from homeowners. The daylong meeting occurred largely in a political vacuum, for now ignoring the difficulty of getting such ideas through a divided state Legislature where special interests hold great sway. But Chairman Gerald Parsky said the state's current fiscal woes may allow for...

NEW YORK - Civil rights activist Al Sharpton said Monday he is seriously considering a run for president. "I don't hear any reason not to," Sharpton, 52, said in an interview during an urban affairs conference sponsored by another civil rights leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson. "If we're talking about the urban agenda, can you tell me anybody else in the field who's representing that right now?" Sharpton asked. "We clearly have a reason to run, and whether we do it or not we'll see over the next couple of months." Sharpton mounted a long-shot bid for the White House...

WASHINGTON - House leaders are creating a bipartisan task force on whether to establish an independent ethics panel to police the House, Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. Pelosi, D-Calif., said Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio has agreed to the idea. The task force has not been set up yet, but it will be expected to report back in March, she said. Pelosi offered no details on what the outside ethics group might look like, saying that would be up to the task force. "There is no question that the ethics process in the last couple of years has lost...

Australia considers test for would-be citizens By Nick Squires in Sydney (Filed: 18/09/2006) Australian immigrants will have to show they are "fair dinkum" — or genuine — by taking a tough citizenship test and waiting longer before applying for a passport, the government said yesterday. The proposal has divided Australians with some welcoming it as a way of blocking potential Islamic extremists and others dismissing it as an act of embarrassing jingoism. The prime minister, John Howard, wants a test to assess applicants' knowledge of Australian history, values and customs. "Most people who come to this country are fair dinkum...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is considering using emergency powers to ease crowding in the nation's largest state prison system, after lawmakers rejected his $6 billion prison building plan this week. That could mean contracting with other states to take as many as 10,000 inmates and opening some buildings that are unused, such as a women's prison in Stockton and a youth detention center in Whittier. Schwarzenegger also could take money from other areas in the state budget to add prison beds at existing prisons. "The administration has not ruled out any solution for the overcrowding problem," his communications director, Adam Mendelsohn,...

A hospital that has faced a series of financial setbacks is considering closing its emergency room, potentially forcing thousands of additional patients onto another emergency unit about 1 1/2 miles away. Centinela Freeman HealthSystem said it will decide within 30 days whether to shut the emergency room at its Memorial campus, leaving only its Centinela unit operating in the working-class city. It would be the ninth emergency room to close in Los Angeles County in recent years and the prospect could be "devastating," said Carol Meyer, director of the county's emergency medical services agency. "This is going to be the...

WASHINGTON - Just in time for the fall elections, government regulators are weighing whether to ease restrictions on when interest groups can run political ads within weeks of the voting. The Federal Election Commission on Thursday began circulating a proposal by Commissioner Hans von Spakovsky that would grant an exemption on airing ads outside a specific timeframe. The commission plans to take up the matter at an Aug. 29 meeting and could vote that day. If the commission approves the change, it could unleash a flood of election ad spending and open a new legal battle over the 2002 campaign...

Blair considers rethink on human rights law (Filed: 13/05/2006) Tony Blair is considering an overhaul of human rights law over fears that public safety is being put at risk, according to a leaked letter from No 10. Tony Blair That could involve new legislation to overrule human rights judgments by the courts. Mr Blair has asked the Home Secretary, John Reid, to "ensure that the law-abiding majority can live without fear". The move comes after a judge ruled that nine Afghan refugees who hijacked a plane to Britain could not be deported, on human rights grounds. And an official inquiry...