Free Republic

The shift to remote work is costing New York City more than $12 billion each year. Office workers are spending $4,661 less per person in the areas near their offices than before the pandemic began, according to a Bloomberg analysis of a Feb. 12 WFH Research study. The Big Apple has seen the largest reduction in spending across the country, with a deficit of $12.4 billion a year. "Less spending by workers in the central areas means a lot less sales tax revenue," Jose Maria Barrero, a professor at Mexico’s Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo and a member of the WFH Research...

Conservative Republican Rep. Bob Good of Virginia says the threat of a government shutdown should be used as “leverage” to force “fiscal responsibility.” But another Republican, Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida, is more cautious: “I think it should be considered as something of last resort. I don’t think it should be something that’s out there, it’s one of the first things that we’re going to do,” Giminez told Fox News’s Neil Cavuto on Monday. “That’s why I believe that there should be, along with any — any passage of any of the appropriations bills that come out of the House,...

The senior Democrat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee is warning that government shutdowns are all but inevitable if the newly empowered Republicans insist on dropping federal funding back to 2022 levels, as some conservatives have demanded. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) emphasized that any spending bills will need the support of Democrats in both Congress and the White House, and vowed that they’d never back proposals that revert funding to last year’s levels. “You cannot pass appropriations bills without them being both bipartisan and bicameral. The president will not sign,” she said during a press briefing in the Capitol on...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Congress continued to conduct its final pieces of business before the holiday break, lawmakers warned that a total government shutdown could ensue if an agreement to send an additional package of tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine is not made by Friday. "This situation is dire," Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said to reporters gathered at the U.S. Capitol. "Our government is facing a shutdown, and the only way to avoid it is for us to send $45 billion to Ukraine by the end of the week. Life as we know it in the United...

The U.S. Senate on Dec. 15 passed a one-week spending bill to keep the government open as negotiations over a larger spending bill for fiscal year 2023 continue.The bill, known in legislative parlance as a “continuing resolution,” passed the upper chamber in a 71-19 vote.The passage of the bill came less than 36 hours before the government was set to shut down.The short-term measure gives lawmakers more time to work out the details of a larger omnibus spending package for FY 2023. However, such a measure could face trouble in passing.Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has expressed openness to...

The House on Wednesday passed a short-term funding bill to avert a government shutdown, kicking Friday’s funding deadline to next week to allow lawmakers more time to strike a deal on spending for the remainder of fiscal year 2023. The continuing resolution passed in a 224-201 vote. It now heads to the Senate, where it must pass and be sent to President Biden’s desk before midnight on Friday to avoid a shutdown.

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow,” Senate Minority Whip Sen. John Thune (R-SD) responded to a question on the possibility of a government shutdown by stating that “anything right now is on the table” and whether a deal is reached largely depends on how badly Democrats “want to get a deal to not blow it up with all kinds of new non-defense-related spending.” Thune also argued that the massive increase in spending “has contributed to and been largely responsible for the run-up that we’ve seen in inflation.”

President Biden on Monday called on Congress to pass legislation to avert a rail shutdown before Dec. 9, warning of major disruptions to the U.S. economy if lawmakers don’t act. He said Congress should pass a bill “immediately to adopt the Tentative Agreement between railroad workers and operators — without any modifications or delay — to avert a potentially crippling national rail shutdown.” Biden’s plea to Congress comes amid an ongoing labor standoff that could shut down crucial shipments of food and fuel. The tentative Biden-backed agreement in September was approved by labor and management negotiators, but not every rail...

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Hallie Jackson Reports,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) reacted to the prospect of Republicans using funding bills to get concessions on things like money for the border or defunding the expansion of the IRS under the Inflation Reduction Act by stating that while numbers and “some of our priorities” can be negotiated, it’s crucial that “we don’t use threats of a government shutdown to get priorities that are not priorities of the American people.” Host Hallie Jackson asked, “House Republicans will likely use some of these funding bills to try to extract concessions on stuff like...

Biden just went to California and announced he will shut down coal plants all across AmericaYou hear that, PA? https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1588638393344352256

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia — A current FBI special agent and a former bureau analyst who both served on Robert Mueller’s team testified that the special counsel’s office declined to investigate and never interviewed Charles Dolan, the Clinton-allied business associate of the main source for Christopher Steele, despite their urging. Supervisory special agent Amy Anderson and former FBI intelligence analyst Brittany Hertzog both testified Friday that, as members of Mueller’s team who were specifically tasked with scrutinizing the allegations within the Trump dossier, they believed the FBI should interview and further investigate Dolan, a longtime ally of Bill and Hillary Clinton, partly...

Minnesota’s teachers union, one of Gov. Tim Walz’s top political allies, has donated nearly $2 million to state Democrats so far this election cycle. According to new campaign finance reports, Education Minnesota’s political action committee gifted $513,000 each to the House and Senate DFL caucuses, and another $900,000 to the DFL State Central Committee, for a total of $1.9 million. All of the donations were made in August and September. Emails previously obtained by Alpha News show the union was given inside access to the Walz administration throughout the pandemic and its president, Denise Specht, had a close working relationship...

Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor and U.S. Senate hopeful John Fetterman is no stranger to violent or intimidating behavior. For much of his life, Fetterman sported a tattoo on his right arm that read, "I will make you hurt." He also made appeals to gangs. Since then, he's had the tattoo blacked out. He now sports a black bar on his arm. But now, a story from Fetterman's time as mayor of Braddock has resurfaced. Fetterman vandalized a local business in order to send the message that "we are going to shut you down." He admitted to the damage.

Russia's Gazprom said on Friday that natural gas supplies via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would remain shut off after the main gas turbine at the Portovaya compressor station near St Petersburg was found to have an engine oil leak during a joint inspection with Siemens Energy, which maintains the turbine. It said the turbine could not operate safely until the leak was repaired, and gave no timeframe for the resumption of gas supplies via the pipeline, which had been due to return to operation early on Saturday after a three-day maintenance break. Gazprom said in its statement on Telegram...

Outgoing National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday on FNC’s “Your World” that he was not responsible for the COVID shutdowns. Host Neil Cavuto said, “You had said a number of times, doctor, on this show as well, that your response to COVID might not have been perfect, but it was in the times and the fast moments in which you lived and were making those decisions. So, looking back at some of those decisions, including masks – you were first opposed to them and then embraced them – the severity of the epidemic...

Unexplained excess deaths outstrip those from virus as medics call figures ‘terrifying’ The effects of lockdown may now be killing more people than are dying of Covid, official data suggests. Figures for excess deaths from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that around 1,000 more people than usual are dying each week from conditions other than the virus. The Telegraph understands that the Department of Health has ordered an investigation into the figures amid concern that the deaths are linked to delays to and deferment of treatment for conditions such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Over the past...

In an interview Monday on The HillTV's Rising, Dr. Anthony Fauci claimed that he "didn't recommend locking anything down" through the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci is, of course, free to claim what he wants and spin history however he pleases, but he's not entitled to his own facts.

The world's largest gambling hub, Macau, will shutter almost all casinos and non-essential businesses for a week from Monday as an outbreak of COVID-19 spreads across the autonomous region on the south coast of China. AFP quotes Macau's top city official Andre Cheong in a press conference Saturday who said the gambling hub would enter "static management" between July 11-18, during which casinos will be closed. Only essential businesses like supermarkets, gas stations, and pharmacies will remain open.The measure comes as Macau on Saturday reported 71 new COVID infections. A total of 1,374 infections have been recorded since June 18,...

The picture painted is one of working-class destruction.. Founding father and the second president of the United States John Adams once said that “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” What he meant was that objective, raw numbers don’t lie—and this remains true hundreds of years later. We just got yet another example. A new data analysis from Harvard University, Brown University, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation calculates how different employment levels have been impacted during the pandemic...

The ruling on Wednesday is the first win in appellate court for a restaurant seeking business interruption insurance losses.. Oceana Grill, Bourbon Street’s tourist-centric restaurant loved by New Orleans hotel concierges, has won the country’s first victory in appellate court for an insured business seeking damages related to COVID-19 shutdown losses. A split Louisiana court found the policy’s definition of “direct physical loss or damage” ambiguous, ruling in favor of the restaurant on Wednesday, June 15. Cajun Conti, the company that owns Oceana Grill, among other French Quarter tourist haunts, sued Lloyd’s of London on March 20, 2020 — the...