Free Republic

Things are not OK in Realtorland. The US housing market is still reeling from pandemic-era shocks, home sales are stuck in a rut, and mortgage rates, while inching downward, are still near two-decade highs. It's a bad time to be a buyer, and maybe a worse time to be a seller. Despite all this upheaval, there's another story brewing in which the stakes for everyone in real estate, from agents to the average consumer, are even higher. It won't have anything to do with the debate over whether you should put your hard-earned cash toward rent or a down payment....

Both Ford and GM are directing their dealers to stop charging so much for autos, according to a new report by the Wall Street Journal. Dealerships have been marking up vehicles over sticker price as a result of a drought of inventory, attributable to supply chain issues and the semiconductor shortage, combined with increased demand. But Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley said this week that dealers who gouge prices will “face consequences” that may include losing supplies of future models. “We have very good knowledge of who they are,” he said on his company’s earnings call, talking about these dealerships....

Desperate Democrats are looking to employ the prosecutorial dirty trick of overcharging President Trump with multiple articles of impeachment, reports the far-left Washington Post. What we have here, although the fake Washington Post will never say so, is Democrats once again playing politics with something as serious as impeaching a duly elected president, something as consequential as overturning a national election.

U.S. airlines have received some well-deserved criticism lately for their routine mistreatment of customers. But maybe it’s time air travelers also look in the mirror to see why so many jetliners have become venues for Mile High cage fights. Those folks might see a reflection of the Ugly American. The whiny American. The entitled American. Just this week, we’ve been treated to a fight night on a plane at Burbank Bob Hope Airport in California that ended with a Southwest Airlines flight attendant buried somewhere in the scrum. At Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida, passengers started duking it out...

This story links to "Wired"

Cue the outrage button. A South Florida woman got a shock when she opened a recent cell phone bill: she owed $201,000. Say what! It was no mistake. Celina Aarons has her two deaf-mute brothers on her plan. They communicate by texting and use their phones to watch videos. Normally, that's not a problem. Aarons has the appropriate data plan, and her bill is about $175. But her brothers spent two weeks in Canada and Aarons never changed to an international plan. Her brothers sent over 2,000 texts and also downloaded videos, sometimes racking up $2,000 in data charges. T-Mobile...

In a mind-boggling ripoff that went undetected for years, thousands of city cabbies overcharged nearly 2 million passengers by at least $8.3 million, according to a shocking disclosure yesterday by the Taxi & Limousine Commission. Officials said 35,558 of the city's 48,300 taxi drivers -- or three-quarters of all the licensees -- were caught overcharging at least once by secretly changing the meter's rate setting. A staggering 3,000 drivers swindled passengers more than 100 times each. A total of 1.9 million trips were overpriced. The scale of the thievery over the last 26 months was flabbergasting even to hardened veterans...

Washington, DC -- The head of a pro-life philanthropic firm is calling for a federal government probe of Planned Parenthood. The call for an investigation comes after Planned Parenthood affiliates in California were accused of overcharging the state by millions for birth control.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - A fee of 25,500 euros ($32,000) is way too much for a woman to charge a man for fondling her bosom, a Finnish district court ruled. The court jailed a couple in their twenties for more than a year for charging a 74-year-old who suffers from dementia a total of 25,500 euros to enjoy the woman's breasts on 10 occasions...

SALEM, Mass. (AP) - A Marine accused of firing a shotgun into a noisy crowd of late-night revelers was arraigned on reduced charges and allowed to return home for the first time since the incident. Sgt. Daniel B. Cotnoir was initially charged with attempted murder after he fired a single shot out the window of his second-floor apartment Aug. 14. The case went to a grand jury, which returned the lesser charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and discharging a shotgun within 500 feet of a building. He pleaded not guilty to those charges Thursday. Under previous...