economic Trends

Police Leave Explosive On Airplane

"Transit police who were using explosives to train bomb-sniffing dogs left one of the bombs aboard an Air Canada 767 that later carried passengers, a taxpayers group reported this week. The incident happened about two years ago, in January 2011, and was only confirmed after the group filed a Freedom of Information request. The dog handler noticed the device was missing two days after the training session, and reported it. Air Canada inspected the airplane 14 times, but the bomb was never found." Continue reading →

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Man with walking stick puts three Sapulpa schools on lockdown

"An hour long lockdown at three Sapulpa schools is over after a man was spotted walking near the school with a rifle. Sapulpa Police officers located the man and determined that the rifle was, in fact, a walking stick. Walking with a walking stick isn't a crime in the City of Sapulpa so the man was questioned and released." Continue reading →

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Police Shoot, Kill Dog When Going To A Home By Mistake

"Jeff Fisher said deputies went to his house by mistake. He said when they forced their way through the door his dog Ziggy ran outside and an Adams County Sheriff’s deputy shot and killed him. '(He went to the door) to see who it was and the police officer shot him three times,' Fisher said. 'They killed my dog for no reason.' Fisher said he wants that deputy to be held accountable. 'I’m on the ground crying hysterically and the police officer says, ‘You need to calm down, you can get a new dog,'' said Fisher." Continue reading →

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Texas Attorney General Invites New York Gun Owners To Move To Texas

"On Tuesday, New York became the first state to pass gun legislation in response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December. The measures include bans on assault weapons and magazines that hold more than 7 bullets, and a requirement that gun owners in homes with mentally ill people must properly lock up their firearms. Texas attorney general Greg Abbott (R) has extended an open invitation to any New Yorkers who feel threatened by the new gun violence protection measure. Abbott launched an Internet ad campaign targeting New Yorkers shortly after Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) signed the law." Continue reading →

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Gun Violence is Not a Republican Problem

"67% of firearm murders took place in the country’s 50 largest metro areas. The 62 cities in those metro areas have a firearm murder rate of 9.7, more than twice the national average. Among teenagers the firearm murder rate is 14.6 or almost three times the national average. Those are the crowded cities of Obamerica. Those are the places with the most restrictive gun control laws and the highest crime rates. And many of them have been run by Democrats and their political machines for almost as long as they have been broken." Continue reading →

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The Best American Cities for Economic Growth

"So, you want to live in a place that is likely to grow. You want to own a home there. You want to own 20 more in 20 years. Where should you move to? If you want a large city, you should move here. If you want a smaller city, you should move here. Are a lot of them in Texas? Of course. Does Texas have a state income tax? No. Is the weather good? Yes. Is real estate cheap? Yes. Are people armed? Yes." Continue reading →

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Indian Jeweler Becomes Billionaire as Gold Price Surges

"T.S. Kalyanaraman opened a shop in the southern Indian state of Kerala in 1993 and taught customers how to test the purity of their gold to expose cheating craftsmen. He was also the first jeweler in town to attach price tags to his gold and gem collection, angering competitors who accused him of ruining the trade. Two decades later, the 65-year-old has become a billionaire as a 12-year rally in gold prices fails to damp demand in India, the world’s largest consumer of the precious metal. He owns 44 stores in India and plans to open 36 more by March 2014, including five in the Middle East." Continue reading →

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Cuba, part one: first impressions

"My wife and I traveled to Cuba with 22 other Americans (January 9-16) on a tour organized by Road Scholar; a Boston based nonprofit travel agency formerly known as Elderhostel. Road Scholar has a license issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Treasury Department to conduct People-to-People interactions. On January 9 we took an early morning one-hour charter flight from Miami International Airport to Cienfuegos, a port city of about 100,000 in the southern central part on the island. In addition to our group dozens of Cuban Americans were on board to visit their families." Continue reading →

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It might not get weirder than this: Sophie Schmidt in North Korea

"Ordinary North Koreans live in a near-total information bubble, without any true frame of reference. I can't think of any reaction to that except absolute sympathy. My understanding is that North Koreans are taught to believe they are lucky to be in North Korea, so why would they ever want to leave? They're hostages in their own country, without any real consciousness of it. And the opacity of the country's inner workings--down to the basics of its economy--further serves to reinforce the state's control. The best description we could come up with: it's like The Truman Show, at country scale." Continue reading →

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North Korea grants rare citizenship to American businessman

"The US boss of a joint venture run by North Korea and the Unification Church of South Korea said Tuesday he has been granted rare honorary citizenship by Pyongyang, in a bid to encourage new investment by him. Park Sang-Kwon, CEO of Pyeonghwa Motors told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency that he received the citizenship in Pyongyang last month. 'This means that North Korea has acknowledged the trust they had put in me. They were also encouraging me to start new projects in the North, more freely and aggressively,' Park was quoted as saying." Continue reading →

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