U.S. hospitals charged nearly $120 million over five years for sex-change procedures performed on around 14,000 children, according to new data compiled by medical watchdog Do No Harm.
The first-of-its-kind database, which logs sex-change procedures given to children nationwide between 2019 and 2023, catalogs a total of 5,747 minors who underwent sex-change surgeries, along with 8,579 who obtained puberty blockers or cross sex hormones.
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Professional sports teams and government officials promise tax revenue benefits when taxpayer subsidies are used to build new or renovation stadiums and arenas.
But those benefits consistently do not come to fruition, according to a report from the Tax Foundation.
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The songwriter, actor, country/western singer, musician, U.S. Army veteran, helicopter pilot, accomplished rugby player and boxer, Rhodes scholar, Pomona College and University of Oxford degreed, and summa cum laude literature graduate, Kris Kristofferson, recently died at 88.
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Arizona is home to a dynamic small business ecosystem — nearly one-fifth of which are Hispanic-owned. This entrepreneurial community — along with the state’s 2.3 million Latino residents — will have a big voice in the upcoming election. As a Hispanic small business owner myself, it’s obvious which candidate’s policy agenda will foster more economic opportunity.
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Former EPA administrator and climate advisor Gina McCarthy was a key backer of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The law set the country on an aggressive march toward greenhouse gas emission reductions, including advancing wind and solar. By some estimates, the green energy credits in the law alone will cost $3 trillion over their lifetimes.
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Farmer pessimism about the economy is at its lowest in nearly a decade. That’s according to a recent survey conducted by the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture.
The Purdue University-CME Ag Economy Barometer Index for September was at 88. That’s down 12 points from the August survey and 25 from July’s results. It’s also down 18 points from where the index was a year ago, with growers’ concerns for both the future and present leading to steep drops in both subcategories.
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In September, thousands pagers and walkie-talkies held by members of Hezbollah exploded. The incident appears to have been the result of explosives hidden within the batteries of the devices by Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad, and the Israeli military, then triggered remotely.
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Vice President Kamala Harris gave a speech last week to accompany the release of her 82-page economic planning document. While her words were intended to evoke optimism, the implications of the plan are troubling for America’s future.
To begin with, the plan must be placed in context.
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Seattle employees making the minimum wage will see a mandatory raise starting next year, making them the highest paid minimum wage workers in the country.
Starting at the beginning of 2025, all employers regardless of size will be required to pay their employees at least $20.76 an hour.
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More than 800,000 fewer native-born Americans are employed than last year as job gains among Americans continue to lag behind those of foreign-born workers, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The number of foreign-born workers employed increased by approximately 1.2 million year-over-year in September, while 825,000 fewer native workers were employed, BLS data shows. The large annual difference is in spite of the roughly 920,000 upward employment fluctuation for native-born workers in September compared to August, after a 1,325,000 drop from July to August.
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Ohio would need $1,600 from every taxpayer in the state to pay off all of its bills, a figure worse than a year ago, according to a new report released Thursday.
Ohio ranked 28th and was given a “C” grade with a $1,600 burden per taxpayer in Truth in Accounting’s Financial State of the States report.
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The U.S. added 254,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in September as the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data released Friday.
Economists expected 150,000 jobs to be added in September, slightly higher than the initially reported 142,000 job gain in August, and the unemployment rate to remain at 4.2%, according to MarketWatch. Meanwhile, previously reported job gains for July and August were revised up by 55,000 and 17,000, respectively, breaking a trend under the Biden-Harris administration of overestimating employment growth in initial estimates, with the cumulative number of new jobs reported in 2023 roughly 1.3 million less than previously thought.
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The coalition negotiating on behalf of employers in the ongoing dockworkers strike includes a Beijing-based shipping company, raising concern over potential Chinese economic and political influence.
Thousands of dockworkers at 14 different major ports along the East and Gulf Coasts went on strike shortly after midnight Thursday, with experts claiming the move could wreak havoc on U.S. supply chains and cost the economy as much as $5 billion a day. China Ocean Shipping Company’s (COSCO) membership in the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) — the group responsible for hammering out a deal with the port workers — means China could wield significant influence over the labor negotiations, according to experts who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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The White House has remained firm in its position that it will not intervene in negotiations between port workers and dock employers as trade flows screech to a halt and the lead union boss threatens to “cripple” the economy less than 35 days before the presidential election.
A general strike spread across most of the major ports on the U.S. East Coast Tuesday as the labor union representing the workers, International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), said dock employers failed to give in to their demands.
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Swing state voters are feeling the pain of high prices and want to hear more from presidential candidates about their energy policies, newly released polling data shows.
A new Morning Consult/American Petroleum Institute poll obtained exclusively by The Center Square surveyed registered voters in the key swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
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The electric truck company Terraline Trucks is expected to create 30 jobs in the Phoenix Metropolitan area.
A news release from the Arizona Commerce Authority noted that the jobs are “skilled engineering” roles for the plant intended for batteries.
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U.S. car sales remain stuck below pre-pandemic levels amid a struggling auto market, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Higher borrowing costs and increased prices on new vehicles are two key factors steering consumers away from buying, according to the WSJ. Many customers have looked to lease cars to avoid out-of-pocket costs and have turned to purchasing smaller and more affordable vehicle models.
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Some 50,000 International Longshoremen’s Association members went on strike Tuesday against the East and Gulf Coast ports, snarling the flow of goods in what some predict could be the most disruptive strike in decades.
The strike, which extends from Maine to Texas, could affect everything from bananas to European beer and automobiles.
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Six hundred people are unaccounted for, and one of North Carolina’s hardest-hit counties by the remnants of Hurricane Helene on Monday said at least 35 have died.
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Republican California Rep. John Duarte unveiled his plan to save American farmers from possible financial ruin due to long-standing Chinese tariffs in an exclusive interview Wednesday with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Ohio continues to buck a national trend of job gains after the latest numbers from the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services showed the state lost jobs in August.
According to figures released from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the state’s unemployment rate was unchanged from July to August at 4.5%. The labor force participation rate was also steady at 62.3%.
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Gross domestic product rose at an annual rate of 3% in the second quarter of 2024, showing economic growth and increased consumer spending, according to a report.
The report, released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, shows gross domestic product over the last five years.
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The Philadelphia 76ers will pay the entire $1.3 billion to build the new 76 Place at Market East Arena, but will benefit from not having to pay property taxes.
Instead, the team will use a payment in lieu of taxes model.
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The International Association of Machinists (IAM) union strike against Boeing is expected to result in a $1.05 billion loss for the company and its shareholders, as well as a significant loss for its workers and suppliers, according to an analysis by consulting firm Anderson Economic Group (AEG) released Thursday.
Boeing and company shareholders are set to lose an estimated $1.05 billion, with workers and suppliers losing $351 million from Sept. 13 to Friday due to the IAM union strike, according to AEG’s analysis of the company’s lost wages and shareholder earnings. The firm’s report does not estimate separate damages to consumers or customers for the first two weeks of the strike.
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If current trends persist, the Biden-Harris administration will have made over $1 trillion in improper payments by the time President Joe Biden leaves office, according to a report released by the watchdog organization Open The Books on Thursday.
An improper payment is a disbursement “made by the government to the wrong person, in the wrong amount or for the wrong reason,” per federal guidelines. The Biden-Harris administration, between 2021 and 2023, oversaw $801.4 billion in such payments after adjusting for inflation, according to the report.
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Vice President Kamala Harris and her presidential campaign did not respond to The Tennessee Star when asked whether she regrets her role in passing the Corporate Transparency Act of 2021, which could result in severe fines or imprisonment for 33 million small business owners in the United States next year.
Harris was one of the 86 senators who voted in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2021 in December of 2020, which included the Corporate Transparency Act after Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) successfully included the bill that failed to pass as standalone legislation in 2019.
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Fueled by massive federal subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), solar developers are looking to the wide open spaces of rural lands as the best places to site their projects. This is also where much of America’s farm and range land is located, as well as communities that like the existing look and character of their neighborhoods.
Last week, President Biden said of the IRA, “I’m proud to announce that my, uh, my investments, that through my investments, the most significant climate change law ever. And by the way, it is a $369 billion bill. It’s called the — uh, we, we should have named it what it was.”
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Plans to meet electricity demand for the next 25 years by the Tennessee Valley Authority are out, open to a public comment period, and already drawing the ire of multiple advocacy groups.
The Integrated Resource Plan, as it is known, also has an Environmental Impact Statement drafted alongside. Public comments are being taken through Nov. 26.
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The Republican majority in the United States House of Representatives is now planning to vote on a stopgap spending bill that will not include a critical election integrity measure that conservatives have been desperately trying to pass.
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Automakers have continued to backpedal on electric vehicle (EV) targets over the last year as a slackening of consumer demand has hampered growth despite the billions in subsidies lavished on the industry by the Biden-Harris administration.
A wide array of auto manufacturers have abandoned key EV goals since February, with Volvo, Ford and Mercedes-Benz all dialing back electric quotas or dropping previously planned product lines. The shifts in corporate strategy suggest the EV transition — once touted by auto executives like Ford CEO Jim Farley as the industry’s future — may not be as feasible as once thought due to consumer aversion to lower mileage ranges, a lack of charging infrastructure and higher prices, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Existing home sales fell in August, while sale prices continued to climb, according to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors.
Existing home sales fell 2.5% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.86 million. That’s down 4.2% from one year ago.
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After months of discussion and the adoption of similar programs by some of its neighbors, Loudoun County leadership voted down a guaranteed income pilot program.
In a surprising turn of events, Loudoun County’s Board of Supervisors abandoned the pursuit of a new economic mobility pilot in a 3-5-1 vote. Months earlier, in May, the board had voted 6-2-1 in favor of appropriating $2 million of county fund balance dollars to the program’s development.
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As some of the worst drought conditions in more than a generation continue to spread across Ohio, state and federal governments have offered help to struggling farmers.
Earlier this week, the Ohio Department of Agriculture announced its developing an Ohio Hay Directory to help farmers struggling to feed livestock.
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As we outlined in Part One, here in California, we have an economy that would be the fifth largest in the world if it were to be separated as a standing nation. Home to Silicon Valley, Hollywood, world-class agriculture, and medical schools, California is an economic powerhouse.
Yet we, in California, have the highest poverty rate in the nation. We have a majority of the nation’s homeless people. We have the highest overall tax rates in the nation. Our energy costs are double that of the national average. Our per-student spending in schools is well above the national average, yet our students consistently have below-average grade-level test scores. Our major cities are crime-ridden, our power grid is woefully vulnerable, and our beaches are regularly closed due to raw sewage contamination.
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Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dave McCormick on Friday visited Charleroi, Pennsylvania, which has seen a 2,000 percent increase in the arrivals of migrants to the community, to attend an event with residents affected by the closure of a glass plant.
“I’m here today to stand in solidarity with these workers in the fight to keep these jobs here, to build a vibrant economy for our Commonwealth, and to ensure that these Pennsylvania communities are not left behind,” said McCormick during a Charleroi stop on his Poor Leadership Tour that included a joint appearance with workers affected by the closure of a Corelle glass plant owned by Anchor Hocking.
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On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump promised to implement a 200% tariff on all Chinese auto imports from Mexico, with the goal making them “unsellable” in the United States and thus forcing a return to American manufacturing.
As reported by Fox News, the former president made his pledge during a campaign event in Flint, Michigan.
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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggested migrants are helping drive rising unemployment during a press conference on Wednesday.
Powell spoke to reporters after the Fed announced it would lower its federal funds rate by 0.50% following disappointing job growth in both July and August. Unemployment currently sits at 4.2% — up from 3.4% in April 2023 — in what Powell suggested was largely a product of migrants crossing into the United States.
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The Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Wednesday for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. Many observers of Fed activity had predicted a quarter-point reduction but the central bank wound up cutting rates by a half-point.
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A new report put out by the Arizona Common Sense Institute has found that allowing employers to pay tipped workers 25% less than the state minimum wage could actually help secure jobs for employees in the restaurant and service industries.
The report is an analysis of Proposition 138, an amendment that would allow for tipped workers to be paid 25% less per hour than the minimum wage if any tips received by the employee were not less than the minimum wage plus $2 for all hours worked. Arizona voters will decide the measure’s fate in the upcoming general election.
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Cryptocurrency scams and fraud in 2023 contributed to an estimated $5.6 billion in losses, a report from one of the federal government’s top law enforcement agencies says.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Cryptocurrency Fraud Report for 2023 found that the vast majority of losses – about $3.9 million – were related to cryptocurrency investment scams.
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Years after the passage of federal COVID-era relief and the subsequent loss of likely hundreds of billions of those taxpayer dollars, lawmakers are still unsure where that money went, how to get it back, and seemingly have done little to prevent it from happening again.
Federal watchdog and other reports estimate anywhere from $200 billion to half a trillion was lost to waste, fraud and abuse across various federal and state COVID-era programs.
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The federal government borrowed $1.9 trillion in the first eleven months of fiscal year 2024, including $380 billion in August, a startling amount as federal watchdogs sound the alarm on spending.
Those borrowing figures come from the latest Monthly Treasury Statement from the Treasury Department.
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The Maricopa County Air Quality Department is being allocated $15 million in federal taxpayer dollars for electric vehicle charging stations that will be publicly available.
The funds are coming through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, specifically the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program.
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Ohio gas prices continue to plummet, dropping more than 50 cents in the past month and more than $2 from an historical high two years ago.
According to the American Automobile Association, the state’s average price per gallon is $2.97 for the first time in nearly a year.
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Reports in the legacy media regularly claim that we are rapidly eliminating fossil fuels, and the energy transition is steamrolling its way to success. Data, however, appears to show a different picture.
According to the Energy Policy Research Foundation, fossil fuels remain critical to keeping the lights on. In 2023, coal, natural gas and oil-fired power plants produced 18 terawatt hours of electricity, which was 60% of the total. This was a decline of 62% in 1993.
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A select group of Loudoun County residents may soon receive an extra “no strings attached” $500 per month from the county.
Loudoun County’s Board of Supervisors voted in its most recent finance committee meeting to move forward with plans to establish a guaranteed income pilot project, as several other Virginia localities have done — along with more than 150 other localities across the country, according to Mayors for a Guaranteed Income.
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Glendale residents will have the opportunity to decide whether or not to raise minimum wage and benefits for hotel and event workers this November. The Hotel and Event Center Minimum Wage Protection Act, proposed and funded by the Worker Political Action Committee, will be on the ballot this year and while it seems to stem from good intentions, a report from the Common Sense Institute of Arizona says it could have detrimental economic impacts.
The initiative not only states that hotel and event centers workers must earn a minimum of $20 per hour, but it would also set a limitation on the amount of square feet a room attendant is required to clean before the employer must pay twice the hourly wage, it would require employers to distribute service charges to the employees who performed those services and lastly, the city of Glendale would be required to enforce these rules.
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Ohio small business owners’ optimism dipped in August, a month after showing positive signs.
The National Federation of Independent Business Optimism Index fell 2.5 points in August, easing July’s gains and continuing a 32-month stretch below the 50-year average.
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Former President Donald Trump on Thursday pledged to eliminate taxes on overtime wages if he is elected back to the White House in November.
Trump has previously promised to eliminate taxes on tips, and social security benefits. All three proposals appear to be part of an effort to woo working-class and senior voters, groups that could be crucial in November’s election.
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Thousands of Boeing factory workers went on strike shortly after midnight on Friday in another blow to the beleaguered airplane maker, which has spent months battling a wave of quality control crises, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) rejected a tentative agreement between Boeing and union leaders that would have established a 25% wage increase over four years, the WSJ reported. Roughly 94% of the union’s 33,000 members voted to reject the contract and 96% voted in favor of the strike — significantly more than the two-thirds majority needed for the work stoppage to move forward.
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