Free Republic

A horrifying series of videos shared Friday showed the moment a window panel off an Alaska Airlines flight, and it turns out there were already concerns over the aircraft before takeoff. ... there was a significant concern over the aircraft’s safety well before the incident occurred, ... The aircraft was not being used for flights to Hawaii because a warning light already indicated there were pressurization problems on three different trips before the one where the door panel blew off. Alaska Airlines had apparently restricted longer flights over water so it “could return very quickly to an airport” if the...

Alaska flight 1282, a Boeing 737-9 MAX bound for Ontario in California, left Portland just after 5pm local time on Friday when a deactivated emergency door used as a regular cabin window blew out at 16,000 feet. The controversial jet was carrying 171 passengers and six crew. ...ripping a child's shirt off and sucking passengers phones out of the plane. The Boeing 737-9 MAX rolled off the assembly line just two months ago, receiving its certification in November 2023, according to FAA record posted online Miraculously, no injuries were reported on the plane, which had only gone into service in...

New York City's new coronavirus cases are dropping, but Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that he is concerned that the city will have difficulty reopening considering the money that has been lost while being slammed by the disease. "How are we going to afford to restart our city if right now we are literally out of money?" the mayor said on CNN's "New Day." "(We are) $7.4 billion in the hole because we've lost so much revenue. It's only going to get worse. How do we pay for all the basic services we need, all the people who have...

“Free trade” means uncontrolled, unrestricted access to our economy for goods often made at less than $4 per hour, tariff- and duty-free. This has devastated our economy and put some of our best companies out of business. “Free trade” has been incredibly costly for the United States. We have seen a steadily rising trade deficit as a result of these failed policies. The United States has not had a trade surplus in 37 years!

1/3 of South Carolina's Manufacturing Jobs Have Disappeared Since NAFTA AP Photo/Paul SancyaAP Photo/Paul Sancya by JULIA HAHN 19 Feb 2016 919 At a CNN town hall Thursday, businessman and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump once again put the issue of manufacturing front and center in the 2016 race. When CNN's Anderson Cooper pressed Trump on whether a U.S. president ought to be sending cease and desist letters and whether he would continue to do so as president, Trump said, "maybe to China" -- pointing out the extraordinary job losses Americans have experienced through trade policies: No... I would be...

Si Se Puede!It’s not just China and Mexico that are taking US jobs… Now, thanks to Barack Obama, Cuba will be building American tractors.Cleber Tractors is building a tractor plant in Cuba.USA Today reported: The Obama administration approved the first U.S. factory to be built and operated in Cuba in more than 50 years, in the latest sign of the rapidly changing relationship between the United States and the communist nation.Cleber LLC, an Alabama-based company that builds tractors for small farms, was notified by the Treasury Department that it could open a facility in Cuba. Co-founder Saul Berenthal said the...

Remittances sent home by Mexicans working outside the country surpassed petroleum revenues in 2015 for the first time. There was a 4.75% increase in money sent from abroad, most of which comes from the U.S., to total US $24.8 billion last year, up from $23.6 billion in 2014, said the Bank of Mexico. An important factor in the increase in remittances is the jobs created by economic recovery in the U.S. Some 11 million Mexicans are believed to be living in the U.S. and many work in construction. Remittances, 97% of which are sent electronically, averaged $292 last year. We...

Published reports are saying that Ford plans to build a new auto plant in Mexico, with plans to more than double production there Ford plans to build a new assembly complex in San Luis Potosi and expand an existing facility near Mexico City, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Journal says the Dearborn, Michigan, carmaker will add 500,000 units of annual capacity there, beginning in 2018. That would be more than double last year's production in that country. The newspaper cites unnamed people briefed on the plan. Costs for the project likely will exceed $1 billion, people familiar with...

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - An Indianapolis manufacturing facility is moving operations to Mexico, impacting 1,400 jobs. Carrier, currently located on West Morris Street, will be moving operations to Monterrey, Mexico beginning in 2017. The move is expected to be complete in 2019. A release by the company said there would be no immediate impact on jobs. The company says the proposal to move is subject to "discussions with local union representatives." "This decision is difficult and we recognize the impact on employees, their families and the community. We are committed to ensuring that our employees are treated respectfully and to working...

Remittances sent home by Mexicans working outside the country surpassed petroleum revenues in 2015 for the first time. ADVERTISEMENT There was a 4.75% increase in money sent from abroad, most of which comes from the U.S., to total US $24.8 billion last year, up from $23.6 billion in 2014, said the Bank of México. The bank said it was the first time remittances had totaled more than petroleum revenues since it began tracking them in 1995. Oil revenues last year totaled $23.4 billion. - See more at: http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/remittances-totaled-oil-income/#sthash.ZQr2Jt6S.apJQe72y.dpuf

Auto giant Ford is planning a new assembly plant south of the U.S. border, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, and will sharply increase factory output from Mexico just months after signing a labor deal. Citing people familiar with the matter, The Journal reported that Ford will add half a million units of annual capacity from Mexico starting in 2018, which is double the amount it built in 2015. The new assembly complex will be based in An Luis Potosi, and Ford will expand an existing facility near Mexico City, the publication added.

Full title: My critics are foolish, I'm not a bigot and I regret nothing: Trump stands by call to ban Muslim immigration despite nationwide fury - as GOP descends into chaos while he hints at independent run Donald Trump labeled individuals who oppose his plan to ban Muslim immigration into the United States 'foolish' on Tuesday. Trump also said in an interview with Barbara Walters on Tuesday he is not a bigot and does not regret his proposed ban on Muslims. He said he has 'tremendous relationships' with many Muslims who completely agree with him on this issue. Latest poll...

Stop the music. All the merriment over the California recovery may have been a bit premature. Tax revenues are way down this year in the Golden State, and this could throw the books back into the red. Not so Golden State Here is the sobering analysis released last week from the Rockefeller Institute of Government, which monitors state spending and revenues: "After four years of uninterrupted growth, states' tax collections saw a decline in the first quarter of 2014. Preliminary figures for the second quarter of 2014 indicate further declines in personal income-tax collections and possibly in overall state taxes."...

The last major athletic shoe brand manufacturing in the United States is watching closely as the Obama administration negotiates a free-trade agreement with Vietnam and seven other countries, and it is unclear whether the company can stand up to a flood of shoes from overseas. NORRIDGEWOCK, Maine — At the factory here owned by New Balance, the last major athletic shoe brand to manufacture footwear in the United States, even workers on the shop floor recognize that in purely economic terms, the operation doesn’t make sense. The company could make far more money if, like Nike and Adidas, it shifted...

Work Forces Shrink at Home, Sharpening Debate on Economic Impact of Globalization U.S. multinational corporations, the big brand-name companies that employ a fifth of all American workers, have been hiring abroad while cutting back at home, sharpening the debate over globalization's effect on the U.S. economy. The companies cut their work forces in the U.S. by 2.9 million during the 2000s while increasing employment overseas by 2.4 million, new data from the U.S. Commerce Department show. That's a big switch from the 1990s, when they added jobs everywhere: 4.4 million in the U.S. and 2.7 million abroad. In all, U.S....

{snip} “I hate what’s happening to the country,” said Mr. Trump, a real estate tycoon and host of the NBC show “Celebrity Apprentice.” He will not formally make a decision until June, however, when this season of his television show is over. “I can’t run during the airing of that show,” Mr. Trump said, “I’m not allowed to.” But he said he would make an announcement “by June” and his candidacy looks increasingly likely. Mr. Trump’s candidacy would complicate matters for the GOP as it looks to front someone who can unite the fractious party and mount a serious challenge...

Via WaPo, a week that began with a stupid soundbite ends with an even stupider one. Skip ahead to 3:00 for presidential oratorical glory. This really is the new meme among his supporters, believe it or not, per the fact that the video below comes from the White House itself: Not only shouldn’t our global messiah be expected to plug the damn hole — he’s not Superman, people! — but evidently he shouldn’t be expected to find out if there’s any containment boom sitting in a warehouse somewhere waiting to be used either. What he’s supposed to do, apparently, is...

As part of the Fiat - Chrysler alliance, the Italian carmaker will bring several new models in the United States but the 500 mini car will be the only one to be sold under the Fiat badge. The car is going to be produced by Chrysler in Mexico and, according to people close to the matter, the US-based former bankrupt automaker has already required suppliers to make sure that their parts are enough for around 100,000 Fiat 500. The Fiat 500 produced in Mexico will be sold in the US, Canada and South America, Bloomberg reported, with initial production goals...

Canada added a better-than-expected 27,100 jobs in August, one of the biggest gains since the recession began in the country last fall. But according to Statistics Canada all of the jobs are part-time. The agency said Friday that Canada's unemployment rate edged up to 8.7 percent from 8.6 percent in July, as more Canadians began looking for work.

SELMA, Ala. (AP)—A national cigar maker has announced it will close its factory in Selma, laying off more than 200 workers. The company, Altadis USA, is shutting down the plant on Dec. 5. Plant manager Vlencon Brown told The Selma Times-Journal that the 213 employees will be paid through Dec. 15. Richard McKenzie, senior vice president of human resources for Altadis, said Nov. 14 is the last production day at the plant, which began making cigars in Selma in 1941. Employees received notices Tuesday morning. The company cited government regulations, smoking restrictions, rising taxes and a decrease in demand for...