Free Republic

As Congress moves ahead with climate-change legislation touching almost every corner of the energy industry, a number of lawmakers shaping the debate have investments in companies that would be affected by the results. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D., Mass.), one of the lead authors of a House bill that would favor alternative-energy sources, had investments of between $51,000 and $115,000 in the Firsthand Technology Value Fund at the end of last year. Three of the top 10 holdings in the Ohio fund are solar-energy manufacturers. Some House and Senate leaders also held stakes in the energy sector. In 2008, House...

My Friends, Health care is a problem of growing importance across America. From kitchen tables, to state governments, to our government here in Washington, the growing cost of health care and the shortcomings of the current system are issues of extreme concern. With polls showing that a majority of Americans now support Congress enacting a major overhaul of the U.S. health care system, it is clear that we must begin working towards a bi-partisan solution to address the need for reform. In the coming weeks, Congress will begin the hard work of debating health care legislation that will provide all...

http://standourground.org/2009/06/eminent-domain-or-theft-city-of-less-than-3000-people-condemns-235-acres-of-farmland-for-city-use/

Bank of Lincolnwood becomes the 37th bank to be closed by regulators this year. BY BEN ROONEY NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Bank of Lincolnwood was shuttered by Illinois regulators Friday, bringing the number of failed banks this year to 37 and costing the Federal Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s deposit insurance fund $83 million. The two offices of Lincolnwood, Ill.-based bank will reopen Saturday as branches of Republic Bank of Chicago. Bank of Lincolnwood customers will retain their deposit insurance coverage, the FDIC said. As of late last month, Bank of Lincolnwood had total assets of about $214 million and total...

Open Space Authority to Return Assessment Funds San Jose, CA, May 29, 2009 – Property owners who have property within the jurisdiction of the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority will soon be able to claim refunds of an assessment charged by the Authority on their real estate tax bills between 2002 and 2008. In 2001, the Authority approved a $20 annual assessment on single-family homes located within the Authority’s territory to help purchase and maintain open space and parkland. Higher amounts were charged for multi-family and commercial properties. The Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and...

Regulators slapped Greater Atlantic Bank with a prompt corrective action directive, warning the troubled bank that it will be seized if it does not quickly find capital or a merger partner, according to a Wednesday securities filing. The Reston-based bank, a subsidiary of Greater Atlantic Financial Corp. (Pink Sheets: GAFC), has been in hot water with its regulator, the Office of Thrift Supervision, since April 2008, when it was hit with a cease and desist enforcement order. The bank was undercapitalized in the fourth quarter of 2008 and the bank said it was “critically undercapitalized” as of March 31. The...

The uses for the Title I stimulus money outlined to the school board Tuesday include: * $214,300 to hire a coordinator and half-time bookkeeper to help administer Title I programs started with stimulus money. * $642,675 for professional development programs, including Quantum Learning, which applies brain-based research to student learning, and a program to help teachers promote social and emotional growth. * $450,000 to hire three social workers to join the 14 the district now employs. * $200,000 to contract with mental health agencies to work with students with mental health issues. * $1.05 million to hire math coaches, kindergarten...

Standard and Poor’s decision to downgrade its outlook for British sovereign debt from “stable” to “negative” should be a wake-up call for the US Congress and administration. Let us hope they wake up. Under President Barack Obama’s budget plan, the federal debt is exploding. To be precise, it is rising – and will continue to rise – much faster than gross domestic product, a measure of America’s ability to service it. The federal debt was equivalent to 41 per cent of GDP at the end of 2008; the Congressional Budget Office projects it will increase to 82 per cent of...

Selling any used cribs or playpens at your upcoming garage sale? Children’s clothes with drawstrings or zippers? Pre-1985 books? Rubber duckies or pool floaties? Better check them twice. Just like megasize toy manufacturers and stores that sell products from China, the notoriously broad and confusing federal Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act applies to you and your front yard

FAYETTEVILLE, Ohio -- A broken road reflector cost Paul Holden the price a new tire, and now it could cost him his home. That's the threat from the Ohio Attorney General if Holden doesn't pay another $24.66 the state says it spent investigating his claim for the flat tire. > Then more bills started coming from the state. The first was for an additional $22.00 for the state's investigation. Ohio officials were even charging Holden more than $6.00 in postage for letters they sent to him, including the bills. Each subsequent bill added more fees, and a few cents in...

The Office of Thrift Supervision on Thursday closed BankUnited of Coral Gables and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as receiver. BankUnited was "critically undercapitalized and in an unsafe condition to conduct business," the OTS said in a statement. The bank reported losses of $1.2 billion in 2008. BankUnited had $8.7 billion in deposits and 85 branches, including 23 in Broward County and 16 in Palm Beach County.

Why U.S. Treasuries look increasingly unattractive. BY TIERNAN RAY OOOF! It's a tough day for sovereign credit. Rating agency Standard and Poor's this morning lowered its outlook on the U.K.'s debt from Stable to Negative on concerns that the Kingdom's borrowing could reach 100% of its gross domestic product by 2013. This is a potential prelude to an eventual cut in the U.K.'s triple-A rating. The U.S. may not be as close to the U.K. at getting its credit spanked, but the U.S.'s ballooning deficits and heavy borrowing make U.S. Treasuries increasingly look unappealing.

Thousands of Home Valley Bank customers recently learned that their Presidential Guarantee accounts have become decidedly less presidential. Instead of paying a promised 3 percent interest yield annually on the special checking accounts, the southern Oregon bank in mid-April unilaterally cut the rate to 2.02 percent. Don't blame us, Home Valley executives said. Blame the FDIC. In February, the federal agency that insures deposits approved a one-time special assessment that will increase the annual charge paid by many Northwest banks by three times or more. That leaves Home Valley and the other 8,300 banks across the country facing a significant...

On a vote that was so close that Farmington Mayor William Standley had to cast the tie breaker, officials of the Four Corners community rejected installing red-light cameras ... There are three municipalities in the state that use or are planning to use red-light cameras to enforce traffic laws: Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Santa Fe.

Farmington attorney who opposes red-light cameras in Farmington is fighting two tickets he received after his cars were caught on camera zipping through Albuquerque intersections. He contends Albuquerque’s ordinance violates state law and the federal constitution. He says he wasn’t driving but purposely hasn’t asked family members who was.

Government obligations for Social Security and Medicare may soon exceed the combined net worth of every household and nonprofit organization in the country. Prices dropped last year. But we still need to invest to protect ourselves from inflation. That's why our retirement-plan investing needs an inflation "tilt." You'll understand why in a few paragraphs. How bad will future inflation be? I don't know. Neither does anyone else. It could be a normal inflation of 3% to 4% a year. It could also be a banana-republic 10% a month. What we know is that all governments make promises they can't fulfill....

The U.S. Department of Education has just released the latest findings from the “Nation’s Report Card,” the leading nationwide measurement of educational outcomes. The findings contained good news for critics of the 2001 federal education law No Child Left Behind (NCLB). But supporters of the law got good news of their own. The good news for the critics is that the Nation’s Report Card shows reading and math scores still have not substantially changed since 1971. The good news for supporters is that the Nation’s Report Card shows reading and math scores still have not substantially changed since 1971. Welcome...

Regulators seized a Bremerton, Wash., bank late Friday as the financial crisis claimed its 33rd federally insured financial institution of 2009. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. estimated that the failure of Westsound Bank would cost its deposit-insurance fund $108 million. Westsound is the second Washington bank to be closed by regulators so far this year. Westsound had total assets of $334.6 million and total deposits of $304.5 million as of March 31.

(snip) SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Well, first of all, Neil, they should not be eligible for any benefits. That would be crazy. But the major point here is that President Obama, with great fanfare, announced the closure of Guantanamo Bay, the prison at Gitmo, as we know it, and then, nothing. In other words, they did what, you know, that everybody would like to see done at least around the world, et cetera, but then no addressing of the fundamental issues associated with it. What do you do with the detainees? What sort of system of trials do you...

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