Free Republic

It's not just California that's dragging the country down. Did you know Wisconsin was in trouble? A new report by the Pew Center on the States, called Beyond California: States In Trouble, shows us the 10 that are weighing the country down. The ranking looks at budget gaps, foreclosure rates, lost state revenues, unemployment, money-management practices, and where "super-majority" requirements are killing efforts to fix the financial mess. Scores for each category are tallied for an overall ranking. We bring you the top 10, counting down from bad to worst. The higher score, the bigger the crisis. California gets a...

The same economic pressures that pushed California to the brink of insolvency are wreaking havoc on other states, a new report has found. And how state officials deal with their fiscal problems could reverberate across the United States, according to the Pew Center on the States' analysis released Wednesday.The 10 most troubled states are: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.Other states -- including Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, New York and Hawaii -- were not far behind.The list is based on several factors, including the loss of state revenue, size of budget gaps, unemployment and...

The September unemployment stats for Michigan came out this week and they are high — as expected. Mlive.com highlighted the statistics on a municipal level, showing the five cities with the highest jobless rates are all over 25 percent. The cities of Highland Park and Pontiac, which leaned heavily on auto-related employment, had the highest unemployment with 35.2 percent of residents reportedly jobless. Both cities have declared bankruptcy in the recent past. Highland Park recently emerged from state receivership and Pontiac just slipped under state control last year. While the overall state’s unemployment rate is the highest in the nation...

Link only to AP. Rush mentioned this today. 80% of 0bama's travel inside US is to democrat states.

Since its entry into the Union, in the aftermath of war and the midst of gold fever, the state has seemed an improbable colossus. But again and again, California has made its way through hours of challenge – not only surviving intact, but emerging as a model for the rest of the nation. In the 19th century, despite immense geographic, ethnic, political, and social differences, Californians managed to form a cohesive identity, resisting numerous efforts to divide the state. They overcame the "curse of natural resources" that so long afflicted other commodity-rich states (and still afflicts some, like Alaska), laying the groundwork...

Fellow Republican blogger, and proud linker Dan Cirucci is pondering over the seemingly surprising poll which shows that New Jersey voters are tending anti-Obama on several key issues, while it may be surprising due to the fact New Jersey is thought of as a liberal blue state, an investigation would show that New Jersey is a blue state, but not like New York or Massachusetts is.

Teddymandering is the practice of changing a law to benefit your political party, then reversing the change when your political party will benefit from the original rules to which you objected. Named for former Massachusetts Senator Edward M. "Teddy" Kennedy. Senator Kennedy influenced the Massachusetts state legislature to change the Senatorial succession law during the 2004 election. His reasons were strictly because Senator John Kerry, if elected President, would be replaced by an appointee of (then) Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican. At the time, Kennedy was against any interim appointment until a special election could be held. In 2009, as...

Unemployment insurance payment of $90 surging to at least $1,040 per worker

IT’S A sad testimony to the political state of affairs when elected leaders shrug their shoulders and advance a remarkable “no can do’’ attitude toward the reality of population loss in Massachusetts. When Representative Michael Capuano states he doesn’t “think there’s anyone around who has figured out how to stop the population flow to the Southwest,’’ one has to wonder what is the value of these long-term incumbents. These are our representatives who are “particularly well positioned with their committee assignments,’’ as Representative Richard Neal stated with a curiously disconnected implication. If they’re so well positioned why are they not...

At the very moment of blue state electoral triumph, it is the blue states that suffer most from the economic downturn, with the worst prospects of recovery. In The Blue-State Meltdown and the Collapse of the Chicago Model. Joel Kotkin of the American Enterprise Institute examines what ails the blue states, how the ordinary people in those states have been ill served by their leadership and how they how they saw Obama as their saviour. It isn't working out very well for those who thought a Democrat administration would invest in badly needed infrastructure in Blue states neglected by a...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Michigan became the first state in 25 years to suffer an unemployment rate exceeding 15%, according to a report released Friday by the government. The state's unemployment rate rose to 15.2% in June. It was the highest of any state since March 1984, when West Virginia's unemployment rate exceeded 15%. Friday's report from the U.S. Labor Department also showed that unemployment topped 10% in 14 other states and the District of Columbia. Over the month, jobless rates increased in 38 states and the District of Columbia. Unemployment rates decreased in 5 states and 7 states had...

Michigan's unemployment rate for June of 2009 jumped to 15.2%. That's a 1.1% increase over the prior month. Rates usually climb or fall by a few tenths of a percent. It's rare to see such a substantial increase or decrease. But experts say the struggling economy combined with the ailing auto market means Michigan has been hit harder than other states. We'll have much more on the numbers and what it means for Michigan tonight on 6 News at 5 and 6.

This is CRAZY!! http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/24863.html Our global competitors are laughing their a**es off. How are we supposed to get small businesses to hire and lead us out of recession when they face a more than 50% tax on every last dollar they earn?

Fiscal Policy: The $787 billion "stimulus" was supposed to stimulate all of America equally, right? As it turns out, as in George Orwell's "Animal Farm," all areas may be equal, but some are politically more equal than others.A report in USA Today says that "billions of dollars in federal aid delivered directly to the local level to help revive the economy have gone overwhelmingly to places that supported President Obama in last year's presidential election." Got that? Money that's supposed to "stimulate" our economy is in fact lining the pockets of Democratic Party supporters. In 2008, 872 counties supported Obama...

Having had the pleasure of living several years in Houston earlier this decade, I was constantly amazed at the many things that Texas gets right that other states routinely bungle (see here, for starters). Friends' eyes have been known to glaze over as I tell them that cities like Houston and Dallas are poised to be the powerhouse cities of the 21st century, and in tandem, that Texas is going to blow away most, if not all, other states in economic performance in the next few decades.

  William P. Ruger - assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Texas State University. He is currently on military leave, serving in the U.S. Navy in Afghanistan. Ruger earned his PhD in politics from Brandeis University and an AB from the College of William and Mary. Jason Sorens - assistant professor of Political Science at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. He received his doctorate in political science in 2003 from Yale University, and his research focuses on secessionism, ethnic politics, and comparative federalism. His work has also appeared in Regional and Federal...

snip... "On the other end of the spectrum, it was traditionally Democratic states that earned the title of "least free," according to the study. Rhode Island, New Jersey, and New York-all of whom voted Democratic in the past three presidential elections-came in at 48th, 49th and 50th, respectively. However, it is important to note that the study's findings do not all fall along these predictable party lines. Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana, for example, all fall in the bottom eleven among states with the most Personal Freedom. Arkansas, Texas, and Missouri, meanwhile finish fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively in...

Here is a point lost on the soak-the-rich liberals. Did you ever wonder why the states with the highest taxes always seem to have the biggest deficits that have to be "closed" with new, higher taxes? Of course, high spending, which must never be cut, is one reason. But the other is that when all of your producers have moved out and taken their jobs and tax base with them, all you have left is unemployed workers and government programs supporting them, but nobody to pay for it.

The governor of Maine on Wednesday signed a law making the northeastern US state the fifth to allow gays to marry. Governor John Baldacci, a Democrat, signed the law after the upper chamber in the state legislature voted 21 to 13 in favour. "In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions," Baldacci said in a statement on his website. "I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage." Maine joined its fellow New...

Democratic Gov. John Baldacci today signed into law a bill allowing gay marriage, making Maine the fifth state to allow same-sex marriage. The governor's signature came barely an hour after the measure won final approval in the state Legislature, with a final 31-8 vote in favor in the Maine Senate. Baldacci said in a statement that while he has opposed gay marriage in the past, "I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and ofequal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage. "This new law does not force...

The next time you take your family to visit the American Museum of Natural History, be sure to make time to see their collection of fossil remains of extinct creatures. These include the dodo bird, the Tasmanian tiger, the Caspian tiger … and the Northeast American Republican. Laymen tend to think the mass extinctions surrounding the last ice age happened fairly rapidly, but some animals such as the short faced bear lingered on in small numbers for thousands of years. By comparison, the once robust herds of United States Republicans roaming the territories north of Virginia and east of Ohio...

Enrollment in Vermont's public schools is down for the 13th straight year. Public schools in Vermont have lost nearly 13 percent of their students since a high of more than 106,000 in 1997. recent reports showing Vermont with one of the lowest birth rates in the country, it could be some time before the number of students reverses.

For Republicans, Sen. Chris Dodd isn’t the only vulnerable Democrat in Connecticut. They see potential in several congressional districts despite the Democrats holding all five House seats and the state turning a darker shade of blue in the last two cycles. “From a big-picture perspective,” said Chris Healy, the chairman of the Connecticut GOP, “the legislative actions by this Congress in concert with the Obama administration are causing many people to express serious doubts about what they voted for in the last election.” The GOP already has two House candidates lined up and a top contender in state Senate Minority...

Vermont Lawmakers Consider Same-Sex Marriage Bill By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE Published: March 17, 2009 Vermont legislators are holding hearings this week on a measure that could make the state the third to allow same-sex marriage. The state pioneered civil unions, becoming the first to grant them in 2000, but advocates of same-sex marriage have said civil unions are inadequate, and they are pressing for the further rights and recognition that such marriages could bestow. Democratic leaders, who control both chambers of the Vermont Legislature, pledged earlier this month to pass a same-sex-marriage bill before adjournment in May. The State Senate...

From Vice, a post-apocalyptic photoessay of public schools left abandoned in Detroit. The above image is captioned: A box elder tree grows from a soil made of ash and pulp from science textbooks in the Detroit Public Schools' Roosevelt Warehouse. A man's body was discovered in a frozen lift shaft here. It is assumed he had been there for some months as his face had decomposed. More Detroit gothic here. More on the failure of the Detroit public education system here. More money for the city's schools here.

Gallup has set up a very cool site that breaks down data from its "well-being index" by congressional district -- and you can browse by map or in list form. So, I decided to take it out for a spin. And there seems to be a partisan pattern. Seven of the 10 most content districts were represented by Republicans -- nine of the 10 unhappiest were represented by Democrats.

In mounting an aggressive push toward universal health care, President Barack Obama is exposing one of the central ironies of offering insurance to all: The states most likely to profit are the ones that voted against him last November and whose congressional leaders are least likely to support it. Red states across the South, which now offer limited benefits to low-income residents, stand to receive billions of dollars to cover large populations of uninsured citizens. Blue states in the North and Midwest, which are wealthier and already offer insurance to many, are likely to take a financial hit. Obama may...

Hartford, Conn., Mar 10, 2009 / (CNA) -- A new study on American religion finds that Catholicism is facing a “stunning” decline in the northeast United States as the population center of U.S. Catholics shifts towards the southwest. Secularism continues to grow in all regions, while mainline Protestant denominations face the most significant population decline. The study, titled the “American Religious Identification Survey” (ARIS), was conducted by the Program on Public Values at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. According to the ARIS report, Catholic numbers and percentages rose in many states in the South and West mainly due to immigration....

Hartford (WTNH) - Members of the Catholic church are making their voices heard today in Hartford. A bill that would tell Catholic churches how to oversee the handling of their money has been taken off the table for now, but they still showed up in droves to support the church. Chief Capitol Correspondent Mark Davis talked with the Archbishop of Hartford, the Most Reverend Henry Mansell, to get his take on the issue. "This is an outrageous attack on religious freedom, religious liberty," Mansell said. "We believe the people bringing this forward were woefully misinformed."

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that Northern New England has surpassed the Pacific Northwest as the least religious part of the country. ...

WEST PAWLET, Vt. – Four years ago in this remote valley hamlet, the last eight members of the financially strapped United Church of West Pawlet voted to disband the congregation. Tad Perry remembers the wrenching vote as “one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.” But now on a nine-degree Sunday morning, a steady plume rises once again from the chimney behind the steeple. Inside, nearly 50 people singing catchy hymns with piano accompaniment help make the tiny sanctuary feel close to full. And the voice from the pulpit bespeaks what’s taking place—not only here, but in formerly...

From the Executive Summary: "This paper presents the first-ever comprehensive ranking of the American states on their public policies affecting individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres. (snip) ...defining individual freedom as the ability to dispose of one’s own life, liberty, and justly acquired property however one sees fit, so long as one does not coercively infringe on another individual’s ability to do the same." Freedom in the 50 States

1. District of Columbia % of Households Earning $200K+: 8.4% Total Households: 251,039 Median Income: $50,318 Households Earning $200K+: 21,194 Election Results: Obama: 93% McCain: 7% 2. Connecticut % of Households Earning $200K+: 8.0% Total Households: 1,320,714 Median Income: $64,158 Households Earning $200K+: 105,433 Election Results: Obama: 61% McCain: 38% 3. New Jersey % of Households Earning $200K+: 7.5% Total Households: 3,149,910 Median Income: $65,249 Households Earning $200K+: 235,278 Election Results: Obama: 57% McCain: 42% 4. Maryland % of Households Earning $200K+: 6.9% Total Households: 2,082,458 Median Income: $65,552 Households Earning $200K+: 142,694 Election Results: Obama: 62% McCain: 37% 5....

Here’s a quick and dirty guess: Upper-middle-class families in blue states–those President Obama calls “the rich”–will soon be paying 20% more a year in state and federal taxes. If you pay $100,000 off of a $300,000 income now, look for $120,000 in a couple of years. Federal income taxes are going up, and deductions are going down. That much we know. What we don’t know yet–but I would bet money on it–is if the 7.65% Social Security and Medicare tax ceiling will be lifted from $102,000 to $150,000 or so. Taxes are headed up at the state and local level...

Here’s a quick and dirty guess: Upper-middle-class families in blue states–those President Obama calls “the rich”–will soon be paying 20% more a year in state and federal taxes. If you pay $100,000 off of a $300,000 income now, look for $120,000 in a couple of years. California spends more than it takes. The state is on the verge of bankruptcy and just passed a budget with $12 billion of new taxes. The trend of higher taxes has not escaped California taxpayers. For each of the last five years, California has led the nation in the outflow of its residents to...

"Oregon," enthused Hoell, president of LibertyBank, the state's largest privately owned bank, from his office in Eugene, "is America's best-kept secret. If quality of life matters at all, Oregon has it in spades. It is as good as it gets. It's just superb." As developer Shelly Klapper, a rare skeptic in the Beaver State, reminded me: "This is a state that buys its own hype." Hype or not, however, Oregon is hurting – something that's clear to even the most self-respecting narcissist. Over the past year, Oregon's economy has fallen off a cliff just about as fast as any state...

If Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is serious about restoring the GOP’s power in the Northeast, he should keep his eye on developments in Massachusetts, where beleaguered Governor—and Barack’s best buddy—Deval Patrick could face a strong Republican challenger next year. Bay State Republicans—short on numbers, long on hope—felt their spirits rise this week after Harvard Pilgrim Health Care CEO Charles Baker announced that he was considering a gubernatorial run. Baker, who served admirably in the administrations of former Republican Governors William Weld and Paul Cellucci, told the Boston Herald that a run would be an “uphill climb”; however, considering...

A recent poll of more than 350,000 Americans on the importance of religion revealed that the nation is separated into enclaves of widely divergent viewpoints on faith, with some states and regions clearly religious and others significantly secular. Gallup conducted a telephone poll of 355,334 U.S. adults, asking the question, "Is religion an important part of your daily life?" As one might suspect, states from the "Bible Belt" scored the highest, with 85 percent of Mississippians and 79 percent of Tennesseeans, for example, answering yes. The poll also revealed, however, that in addition to the Bible Belt, the U.S. also...

Hawaii could be the next state to legalize civil unions for homosexuals. A majority in the state House recently signed the bill, sponsored by Majority Leader Blake Oshiro, giving it a good chance for passage this year. According to the Honolulu Advertiser, a presiding or retired judge as well as a clergy member could perform the civil unions for the same-sex couples. If the ordinance is passed, Hawaii would also recognize legal same-sex "marriages," domestic partnerships, or civil unions from other states. OneNewsNow discussed the topic with Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel. "Civil unions are just same-sex marriage by a...

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Nine years after becoming the first state to permit civil unions, Vermont moved a step toward legalizing gay marriage Friday.

What do the "Blue States" of Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and California have in common recently? They are all in dire need of Federal taxpayer-funded "bailout" bucks. This is no coincidence. These states are also leaders in adoption of public assistance and other "entitlement" programs - - the very types of measures that President Obama and the Congressional Democrats want to adopt on a national scale. Who bails us out when that house of cards collapses?

In December 2008, Michigan and Rhode Island reported the highest jobless rates, 10.6 and 10.0 percent, respectively; Wyoming posted the lowest unemployment rate among the states. The Rhode Island rate was the highest in its series. (All state series begin in 1976.) Four additional states recorded rates of 9.0 percent or more: South Carolina, 9.5 percent; California, 9.3 percent; Nevada, 9.1 percent; and Oregon, 9.0 percent. Wyoming posted the lowest unemployment rate, 3.4 percent, followed closely by North Dakota at 3.5 percent. Overall, 10 states and the District of Columbia registered significantly higher jobless rates than the U.S. figure of...

This list is compiled with data from the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan tax research group. Using statistics from the 2007 U.S. Census American Community Survey, it calculated, by county, median property taxes paid on homes, median home value, taxes as a percentage of home value, homeowner median income and taxes as a percentage of income. Our rankings are based on the last measure.

On Thursday, the DELEG released the jobless rates for the state's 83 counties, and the numbers continue to shoot higher and higher. The unemployment rate increased in every county in the state.

Washington, D.C. (January 28, 2009) -- Can't afford a new High-Definition TV? Well, steal one. If they catch you, you'll still be able to watch it in prison. At least in Massachusetts, that is. The Boston Herald reports that the Massachusetts Department of Corrections has purchased 117 new High-Definition TVs for inmates to watch this Sunday's Super Bowl. The sets, which include 32-inch LG sets and 26-inch Sharp LCDs, cost the state $76,958 at a time when Massachusetts is laying off workers and cutting social programs. The sets are being installed in the common areas of all state DOC prisons...

BOSTON - Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick today proposed generating $587 million in new state revenue by increasing taxes on everything from hotel rooms to alcohol in an effort to fill a budget hole created by declining state revenues. Governor Deval Patrick The spending plan includes $1.6 billion in spending cuts and savings; withdraws $586 million from the rainy day fund; and anticipates $711 million from federal stimulus package that has yet to be approved by Congress. The governor also announced midyear budget cuts that include slicing $191 million from state government spending and cutting $128 million from local aid, which...

On Jan. 24, 1848, James Wilson Marshall found gold at Sutter's Mill, in Coloma, Calif., sparking a mad rush of some 300,000 people desiring to strike it rich. San Francisco grew from a tiny hamlet to a boomtown in no time, and in 1850 California entered the Union as the 31st state. With this history at their back, state leaders might have understood that people have a propensity to get up and move when a better life is to be had elsewhere. But no. After more than 150 years of being a destination, California is becoming a place entrepreneurs, investment...

<p>ST. LOUIS - Michigan saw the nation's most outbound migration in 2008, with 67.1 percent of interstate moves heading out, according to a migration study released Wednesday.</p> <p>It marked the third straight year that Michigan, hard hit by the economy and layoffs in the auto industry, has seen the highest percentage of outbound migration.</p>

ST. LOUIS - Michigan saw the nation's most outbound migration in 2008, with 67.1 percent of interstate moves heading out, according to a migration study released Wednesday. It marked the third straight year that Michigan, hard hit by the economy and layoffs in the auto industry, has seen the highest percentage of outbound migration. Americans continue to head west - and to the Mid-Atlantic states - while many are leaving the Great Lakes region behind. St. Louis-based United Van Lines, the nation's largest mover of household goods, has been tracking moves since 1977. Company vice president Carl Walter said the...

As the nation braces for Democrats to take unbridled control of the federal government, some lessons about how big a mistake that really is are already coming to light. Just as no non-union manufacturer is asking for a government bailout, only Democrat run states are begging for federal funds to avoid the inevitable bankruptcy of the states they have run into the ground. In addition to Bush’s trillion dollar nationalization of the financial industry, and in addition to Barack Obama’s trillion dollar “stimulus package” (aka affirmative action welfare initiative), another trillion dollars in new national debt is being demanded by...