Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) demanded yesterday that the Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler make public the details of the proposed net neutrality regulations that will regulate the Internet under the same rules as the old AT&T monopoly.
The California Energy Commission is honoring ex-Governor Schwarzenegger’s dream by spending another $20 million to build the supposedly non-polluting ‘hydrogen highway’ through most parts of the Golden State. A high school freshman math class could figure out that the reason
With tech workers still expected to log 70-hour work weeks, shuttle drivers for Facebook voted to become a union affiliate of the Teamsters. After getting a leg in the tech industry door, the Teamsters intend to unionize Silicon Valley and have already scheduled union elections for workers at Apple, Yahoo, eBay, and others.
With the West Coast ports labor dispute involving 13,600 unionized dockworkers inflicting pain on 318 million Americans by causing billions of dollars a day in losses to the U.S. economy settling yesterday, now 30,000 unionized refinery workers across America intend to play the same leverage game by cutting off two-thirds of all U.S. diesel and gasoline supplies.
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs has been involved in a scandal regarding the failure to process valid benefit claims, forcing General Eric Shinseki to resign as Secretary of the department on May 30, 2014. In the latest depressing news, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) published “Review of Alleged Mismanagement of Informal Claims Processing at VA Regional Office Oakland,” confirming allegations by Congressman Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) that the Oakland VA Regional Office had not processed nearly 14,000 benefit claims dating back to the mid-1990s.
Apple Inc. on Friday leaked that the iconic smartphone maker is on a crash program to design an electric vehicle and is bidding big bucks to recruit Tesla employees. Court filings also disclose that electric-car battery maker A123 Systems is suing Apple for illegally poaching top engineers to build a large-scale battery division.
Federal Reserve data published late on February 18 reveals China dumped about $75 billion in US bonds in the last six months of 2014. The action explains why interest rates on US Treasury bonds jumped by 23 percent since January, and economic indicators show the US economy growth is slowing and worldwide deflation is accelerating.
Although the ink is barely dry on the $485.6 million venture capital funding for Snapchat that valued the company at about $10 billion, Bloomberg reports that Snapchat is looking to raise another $500 million at a valuation of up to $19 billion. That would make the messaging platform the third-most-valuable venture startup on the planet, just behind Xiaomi and Uber. It also would value the company at 92.5% of what was considered a jaw-dropping value of $22 billion paid by Facebook to buy WhatsApp.
Google has been reconsidering its iconic motto, “Don’t Be Evil,” which the company adopted for its 2004 public offering. According to the founders, the company has grown so large and diverse that it has expanded beyond its original mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” As a demonstration of its new horizons effort, Google allowed its staff in Budapest, Hungary to design new office space in a very cool aquatic bathhouse theme celebrating the nation’s Cold War triumph.
Another 100-plus tanker oil train carrying crude from North Dakota’s Bakken Field derailed Tuesday morning, causing an explosive fire near the West Virginia state capital of Charleston. Local residents were forced to flee their homes in frigid weather as firefighters battled the blaze.
The increasingly bitter labor strife at West Coast ports between employers represented by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), whose members command average wages and benefits of about $1,200 a day, is causing California’s agricultural sector to watch its labors rot away.
On June 12, 2014, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on the company’s web site that “All Our Patent Belong to You.” In adopting an “open source” policy to allow others to use the company’s patented intellectual property for free, Tesla’s stock (NASDAQ-TSLA) went up and the company got lots of publicity. But the statement preserved patent rights by requiring “good faith”, which is definitely not “open source.” Now, in a bizarre move, Musk has announced unlimited free-use of Tesla’s patents. Twenty-four hours later, Apple leaked that it is designing an electric vehicle and is now bidding to recruit Tesla employees.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) unveiled its first commercial drone use regulation for unmanned aerial vehicles under 55 pounds on Sunday, 46 days later than promised. Not to be left out of the headlines, the White House issued a Presidential Directive requiring federal agencies to begin disclosing where they fly drones in the U.S. and what they do with the blizzard of surveillance data they have been collecting.
Breitbart reported in November that in the six years since California legislature approved the High-Speed Rail Authority (HSRA), just 7% of the 1,100 pieces of land needed for the first leg to travel 130 miles across farm country had been acquired.
America’s best-paid union members caused another four day shut-down of the 29 West Coast ports that move 43% of U.S. imports and exports. About 80% of heavy crane operators have been calling in sick in an apparent scheme to delay port activity until the union can force employers to pay double-time for work on the four union contract holidays for “Lincoln’s Birthday” and “President’s Day.”
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock price plunged by -7.4% in premarket trading on Thursday after the company announced that deliveries had fallen short, problems had affected production, and a strong dollar had hurt earnings. Those earnings turned out to be a real
Diana Choyleva of Lombard Street Research, who produces an “unmassaged” calculation of China’s true economic growth, just reported that China’s fourth quarter GDP growth plummeted to 1.7 percent, versus the official 7.4 percent rate.
With the aging B-2 Stealth Bomber’s design dating back to the 1970 disco days of the Carter Administration, the Air Force just opened a competition to build the next strategic bomber. The “B-3” pits teams from Northrop Grumman that built the B-2 versus Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which built the B-52 bomber and F-35 strike aircraft. No matter who wins the bid, the plane will be designed in California’s Antelope Valley.
Ajit Pai, one of two Republican Commissioners on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), inferred in a tweet that President Barack Obama’s secret, 332-page “Net Neutrality” document is a scheme for federal micro-managing of the Internet to extract billions in new taxes from consumers and again enforce progressives’ idea of honest, equitable, and balanced content fairness.
The Labor Department announced that 235 union multi-employer-multi-employee pension funds are “endangered,” meaning they lack the assets to pay 80 percent of their promised benefits.
Each member of the Los Angeles City Council now earns more than Governor Brown and more than every U.S. Congressional member, according to a study from the Pew Charitable Trust.
The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) announced that loading and unloading operations at all 29 West Coast ports would temporarily be suspended this weekend in response to union slowdowns that brought freight movements at the ports to a near standstill.
For the last four months, the International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union has been involved in a “work slow-down” to shake-down employers for higher wages. But with 29 West Coast ports handling 43.5% of U.S. containerized cargo shipments and the movement of 12.5% of America’s GDP, a looming strike could cost billions of dollars per day and severely injure the U.S. economy.
Acalanes Union High School in Lafayette, California, is facing infuriated parents after freshman students were reportedly singled out–with the tacit support of teachers–and humiliated if they didn’t subscribe to politically correct views on gay and lesbian issues.
Germany is getting hit with the nasty combination of deflation and higher energy costs as it follows California’s lead in shifting to renewable energy. Although other factors may be contributing to its economic decline, Germany’s transition from coal and nuclear energy to wind and solar renewable energy sources is forcing industries and consumers to pay substantially higher prices.
