Free Republic

Bob Iger (R), CEO of Walt Disney Co. and Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corp. Disney to buy 21st Century Fox assets in a deal worth more than $52 billion in stock 54 Mins Ago | 03:52 Disney on Thursday announced a deal to acquire many parts of Twenty-First Century Fox for $52.4 billion in stock. The company will get Fox's movie studios, network Nat Geo, Asian pay-TV operator Star TV, stakes in Sky and Hulu and regional sports networks. The acquisition bolsters Disney's plans to become a dominant streaming service platform, making it a bigger threat to...

Lawmakers put the finishing touches this week on military funding legislation that contains a provision that stands to significantly benefit Amazon. The amendment, Section 801 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), would help Amazon establish a tight grip on the lucrative, $53 billion government acquisitions market, experts say. The provision, dubbed the “Amazon amendment” by experts, according to an article in The Intercept, would allow for the creation of an online portal that government employees could use to purchase everyday items such as office supplies or furniture.

Uber Technologies, Inc. has filed 986 labor condition applications for H1B visa and 167 labor certifications for green card from fiscal year 2014 to 2016. Uber Technologies was ranked 124 among all visa sponsors. Please note that 23 LCA for H1B Visa and 3 LC for green card have been denied or withdrawn during the same period.

Uber Technologies, Inc. has filed 986 labor condition applications for H1B visa and 167 labor certifications for green card from fiscal year 2014 to 2016. Uber Technologies was ranked 124 among all visa sponsors. Please note that 23 LCA for H1B Visa and 3 LC for green card have been denied or withdrawn during the same period.

After a half century of travel and trade embargoes against Cuba, American businesses will soon be able to return the island nation and establish offices there. Today, the U.S. government announced a new slate of revised Cuba-related regulations that will ease restrictions on commerce and tourism. Starting on Monday, according to the Treasury Dept.’s Office of Foreign Assets Control [OFAC], a variety of American business types “will be allowed to establish and maintain a physical presence, such as an office, retail outlet, or warehouse, in Cuba.” Among the allowed types of businesses: news bureaus; exporters of authorized goods, including agricultural...

Pathetic video and stupid damage control. How awful that she keeps talking about "injection". http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/277473/perrycare-katrina-trinko

Professors offer more than $10,000 for proof that Bachmann’s story about HPV is true By Chris Moody Political Reporter Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's story about a woman who claimed that her daughter suffered "mental retardation" after receiving a vaccine against HPV could fetch the woman's family thousands of dollars. But the family can only collect if Bachmann or the unnamed woman can prove the story is true. Two bioethics professors have offered to pay more than $10,000 for medical records that prove the anecdote Bachmann told after Monday night's Republican presidential debate is true, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports: Steven...

When Rick Perry joked last night that the $5,000 he had received from Merck wasn’t enough to buy him off, the line failed to charm the audience as he’d expected. Turns out, the line also significantly low-balled how much he’d received from Merck. “Merck PAC—the company’s D.C.-based political action committee—has given Perry $28,500 since 2001, according to Texas Ethics Commission filings. The bulk of that money came prior to 2007,” the Los Angeles Times reports today. Even so, that doesn’t make Merck one of Perry’s top donors: the LA Times notes that he’s received over the years donations totaling more...

The parent company of Fox News — News Corp. — paid the U.S. government $4.8 billion in taxes over the last four tax years (2007-2010). GE, which owned most of MSNBC until late last year, paid zero taxes in 2010.In fact, GE received a $3.2 billion welfare check from Uncle Sam.From Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: (Reuters) — Readers, I apologize. The premise of my debut column for Reuters, on News Corp’s taxes, was wrong, 100 percent dead wrong.Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp did not get a $4.8 billion tax refund for the past four years, as I reported. Instead,...

While the House class of 2010 is regarded as the "Tea Party Congress", it is quite obvious that not all 87 freshmen Republicans are conservative.  All of the bills and resolutions so far have been over fundamental issues and were all supported unanimously by the Republican Conference.  Over the next few months, we will see if cracks begin to form in the conservative armor of the freshmen class. We have seen the first signs of RINO life this past week when Charlie Bass (NH-2) and Charlie Dent (PA-15) convened their first Tuesday Group lunch of RINOs.  Bass's efforts are not...

The subject of ethics has increasingly been present in economic analysis,1 although not without considerable debate. Some economists believe that the importance of economics is purely technical. Others believe that moral considerations in economic analysis provide a more accurate picture of possible outcomes since it takes into consideration the human aspect of economic actors--that is, people.I confess that, as an economist, it makes me nervous to insert subjective measures such as morality and ethics when I do my own analysis, both because my conclusions may be applicable only to a few cases and because morality and ethics are hard to...