Free Republic

An InsiderAdvantage poll shows President Donald Trump’s job approval rating has surged to 55 percent approve while only 44 percent disapprove and a mere one percent remain undecided. “These results are not a surprise,” InsiderAdvantage pollster Matt Towery writes. “Other pollsters who accurately polled election cycles where President Trump’s name appeared on the ballot have been showing his approval ratings moving into the fifty-percent-plus range.” This is accurate. Currently, Harvard-Harris has Trump at 47 percent approval. He sits at 49 percent approval with Rasmussen. Even Morning Consult shows him at 48 percent. In a previous InsiderAdvantage survey (conducted with Trafalgar...

British police forces have been accused of being afraid of getting called racist as the recording of criminal ethnicity fell to the lowest rate in at least 15 years. According to Ministry of Justice data unearthed in Freedom of Information requests by former Tory minister Neil O’Brien, the percentage of instances in which British police failed to log the ethnicity of child sex offenders stood at 28.7 per cent last year, up from 11.6 per cent in 2010. For sex crimes as a whole, police failed to record the ethnicity of 29 per cent of perpetrators, up from 15 per...

(The Center Square) – The latest federal numbers show the U.S. deficit is soaring as President Joe Biden heads out of office. The U.S. Congressional Budget Office released its monthly budget review on Monday, which showed that in the first two months of this fiscal year, the federal government has run up a deficit of $622 billion. “That amount is $242 billion more than the deficit recorded during the same period last fiscal year,” CBO said in its report. That figure means the deficit is nearly 40% higher than this time last year. “The most alarming turkey in November was...

Under new ownership, Pan American World Airways has announced the first in a series of planned themed journeys that harken back to its heyday. For decades, the Pan Am brand and its distinctive blue and white logo symbolized the excitement and elegance of air travel's golden age. Even after the airline ceased operations in 1991, memories of its attentive service, gourmet meals, impeccably dressed crew, and spacious seating endure.

When it comes to the economy, Americans are feeling invigorated by holiday spirits and hopes for next year’s election. The University of Michigan’s barometer of consumer sentiment soared to a preliminary December reading of 69.4, the best reading since August. Economists had been predicting only a mild pick-up to 61.9 after sentiment had sunk to a six-month low of 61.3 in November.

Seniors face more than $50 billion in unpaid medical bills, many of which they shouldn’t have to pay, according to a federal watchdog report. In an all-too-common scenario, medical providers charge elderly patients the full price of an expensive medical service rather than work with the insurer that is supposed to cover it. If the patient doesn’t pay, the provider sends the bill into collections, setting off a round of frightening letters, humiliating phone calls and damaging credit reports.

After indulging in a Thanksgiving feast, Americans are waking up and heading to the stores in search Black Friday bargains — but this year inflation is weighing on shoppers heavier than last night’s turkey. In Chesterfield, Missouri, on Thursday evening, there were no customers lined up behind the barricades set up outside the Best Buy in anticipation of lines for doorbuster deals. “I see nothing. I’m surprised,” Jeremy Pritchett told news station Fox2Now. “Normally, it’s wrapped all the way around the building, today no one.” Sky-high prices for food, rent, gasoline and other household costs have taken a toll on...

The ruble appreciated to 83 to the dollar intraday on Tuesday against a record low of 139 on March 7.The ruble has recouped most of its losses and become the top-performing currency globally. It continues to gain and is up 60 per cent against the US dollar from its lows in the first week of March. The ruble appreciated to 83 to the dollar intraday on Tuesday against a record low of 139 on March 7. Thanks to the recent rally, the ruble is only about 10 per cent lower than what it was before the Russian invasion of Ukraine...

The national average price for diesel fuel on Wednesday reached an all-time record high, impacting 3.5 million American truckers throughout the nation. Rising 84 cents in one week, Wednesday’s national average hit $4.883, up 13 cents overnight, according to AAA.

In small but politically significant ways, the economy under President Trump has favored regions and constituencies that supported him in 2016. These are the men and women whom Trump called forgotten Americans. The emerging pattern of economic growth reverses a trend that held from the 2008 recession to 2016, in which Democratic-leaning states and counties far outpaced Republican-leaning sections of the country. Now, under a Republican administration, job growth rates in Trump country are rising faster than they are in Democratic America. As the national unemployment rate hovers at just below 4 percent, far more red states than blue states...

The correlation between stock prices and margin debt continues to rise (to new records of exuberant "Fed's got our backs" hope) as NYSE member margin balances surge to new record highs. Relative to the NYSE Composite, this is the most "leveraged' investors have been since the absolute peak in Feb 2000. What is more worrisome, or perhaps not, is the ongoing collapse in investor net worth - defined as total free credit in margin accounts less total margin debt - which has hit what appears to be all-time lows (i.e. there's less left than ever before) which as we noted...

(11-29) 12:56 PST San Francisco -- Things are looking up for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's controversial plan to transform the old tank factory and postal facility at 390 Main St. into a suitable place for regional agencies to cohabit - particularly the price tag. The estimated cost now stands at $218 million, which is $38 million higher than the original estimate from July 2011 but $51 million more than the most recent estimate, adopted in November 2011. (The projected cost fell after the agency bought the building at a lower price.)

Production of opium and the illicit crop's value soared in Afghanistan last year, the United Nations said in a report released Thursday. According to the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime, farmer income derived from Afghanistan's opium crop in 2011 was $1.4 billion (1.09 billion euros), representing nine percent of GDP. "Opium is therefore a significant part of the Afghan economy and provides considerable funding to the insurgency and fuels corruption," Yury Fedotov, executive director of the UN office, said in a statement. Afghanistan grows about 90 percent of the world's opium. The UN said poppy-crop cultivation covered more than...

For the second time since voters approved California's massive bullet train project, the state on Tuesday raised the total price tag for the first stretch by several billion dollars -- and now the cost for the entire rail line is on pace to skyrocket to an eye-popping $60 billion to $80 billion or even more. The latest estimates put the cash-strapped state even further behind in bankrolling its biggest, and one of its most polarizing, public works plans ever, as California struggles to secure funds from shy investors and broke governments. Still, project officials are ramping up to spend billions...

Sacramento, Calif. (AP) -- The estimated cost of California's high-speed rail project is rising by billions of dollars. Environmental impact studies released Tuesday and obtained in advance by The Associated Press put the cost of building the initial segment at anywhere from $10 billion to $13.9 billion. That's sharply higher than the $7.1 billion estimate from 2009 for the Merced-to-Bakersfield section. Rail board executives say the higher costs include more elevated tracks in the Central Valley and more specific data about property values. Construction is scheduled to start next year. ...

NHS bosses in charge of hospitals being forced to sack thousands of staff have seen their pay soar by up to 50 per cent in the past five years, it has emerged. The chief executives at trusts facing the worst cutbacks are now on lucrative salaries far higher than the Prime Minister’s, with some earning more than £200,000. And most handed themselves comfortable pay rises last year even though hundreds of their own staff were being made redundant to reduce costs.

Stocks continued to advance Thursday, helped by the successful launch of General Motors stock, in addition to a batch of positive economic reports and news that Ireland may agree to a bailout package. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up more than 180 points, following a lackluster trading session on Wednesday that ended with the blue-chip index slightly lower. Most Dow components were higher, led by Alcoa [AA 13.48 0.54 (+4.17%) ], Caterpillar [CAT 83.16 1.99 (+2.45%) ] and DuPont [DD 46.658 0.998 (+2.19%) ], while Intel [INTC 21.0201 -0.0599 (-0.28%) ] fell. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were...

Like many Jews, as a youngster I associated Holland with windmills and tulips and a heroic people which bravely defended Jews during the Nazi occupation. Alas, I subsequently learned that the record of the Dutch towards the Jews was nothing of the sort. There were tens of thousands of Dutch righteous gentiles who risked their lives to save Jews but there were far more collaborators, over 25,000 of whom even volunteered for the Waffen SS. Overall, the Dutch authorities willingly assisted in the deportation of the Jews. Anne Frank and her family were amongst those denounced to the Nazis. Of...

<p>IIllinois' January unemployment rate rose to 12.2 percent -- it's highest level in 27 years -- as the country's economic woes pressured the state's job market last year.</p>