Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Marine Corps' top aviator flew to an Arizona air base this week as part of a final effort to certify the combat-readiness of an initial squadron of 10 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35B fighter jets, their pilots and technicians. Marine Corps officials were due to brief Lieutenant General Jon Davis, deputy commandant for aviation, on a week-long review which included operational and simulator flights in five core mission areas, an inspection of the maintenance department, and academics for both pilots and technicians. If Davis is satisfied, he will brief Marine Corps Commandant General Joseph Dunford, who...

Delays in the construction of the first two of three next-generation Zumwalt-class (DDG-1000) guided missile destroyers at the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works shipyard are partially to blame for slowing work on two Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) destroyers being built at the Maine yard, USNI News has learned. Several sources told USNI News that due to myriad reasons — including the size of the yard, the composition of the workforce at BIW and continued setbacks in the delivery of the first two next-generation Zumwalts — production of the future Burkes Rafael Peralta (DDG-115) and Thomas Hudner (DDG-116) have been delayed by...

Three years behind schedule and some $200 billion over its original budget, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is finally set to become operational this month. The fighter jet has been in development for nearly 15 years, weathered half a dozen years of testing and experienced myriad hardware malfunctions and software glitches along the way. Once it's declared ready for combat, it will be the most expensive weapons system in world history. It will also be the most advanced in the sky. The F-35, also referred to as the Joint Strike Fighter, is touted as the most lethal and versatile...

The city of St. Petersburg in Florida is to gain an exciting new public space. The St. Petersburg Pier will be redesigned as a hybrid pier-park accommodating a variety of outdoor activities and facilities for entertainment and public events. The Pier-Park is located in the city of St. Petersburg in Florida, US The Pier-Park will retain the inverted pyramid that already exists The Pier-Park will have a large welcome plaza The Pier-Park will be a redevelopment of the existing St. Petersburg Pier Although unusual, the pier-park concept is not unprecedented. New York's planned Pier 55, for example, is designed to...

When a revolutionary new product is launched, the first instinct is to understand it by relating its most obvious features to what we already know. In time, it becomes apparent that the analogies we formed, to understand the device, failed to properly inform us of the new way of doing things invited by the product._______________________Source: Apple _______________________ Nowhere is this more obvious than with the Apple Watch. To understand it as a wristwatch that has some fancy features is to miss the relationship it has with the iPhone. The proper, elegant partitioning of tasks is one key area that is...

Mark Levin 12 hrs · THE TPA BOONDOGGLE IS BACK AND ... I am told that John Boehner is telling the GOP members that if they vote to pass the TPA, a bill later with restrictions on immigration, among other things, will be passed to reign in Obama's actions. Boehner pulled the same trick against Congressman Marlin Stutzman not long ago, when Kevin McCarthy promised if he voted to let the massive budget bill go to the House floor, the GOP leadership would replace the bill on the floor with a smaller spending bill. But McCarthy lied to Stutzman. The...

The political class -- they build themselves new office buildings and such -- live in a different universe from the rest of us, and the rest of us are getting routinely pickpocketed. No greater proof of this truth exists than the remarks of St. Paul's own City Council Member Dave Thune last week after Metro Transit released the financial figures for the first six months of the Green Line. Passengers boarding the Green Line from its debut in June, 2014 through the end of the year paid $6.21 million into the farebox, or about 35.8 percent of what it costs...

State regulators approved Minnesota's first industrial-scale solar energy project Thursday, a mammoth 21-site setup that will dot the Twin Cities exurbs and beyond with acres of solar panels. The unanimous vote by the Public Utilities Commission advances the ramp-up phase of large-scale solar energy in Minnesota, with this single $250 million project promising up to 100 megawatts of power by 2016. Currently, fewer than 15 megawatts of solar power are estimated to be generated in Minnesota -- so the swift addition of 100 megawatts would represent more than a six-fold increase, with other huge projects on deck. The project is...

While Metro Transit's Green Line isn't exactly paying for itself through passenger fares, it's doing a better job than most other Minnesota public transit options. Passengers boarding the state's second light-rail line from its debut in June through the end of 2014 paid $6.21 million into the fare box, or about 35.8 percent of what it costs to operate the 11-mile route. "I think 35 percent is a really good percentage," said St. Paul City Council member Dave Thune. "I love it. I think it has been a success. The kind of traffic it's seeing, going from one end of...

As recently as 2010, the estimated cost for the Southwest Light Rail Transit line was estimated to be $1.2 billion, or about the cost of a new football stadium. Then the cost jumped to $1.7 billion because somebody spun the magic wheel. Now the cost is projected to be $2 billion. OK, $1.994 billion, but if they find an endangered earthworm or an especially exotic cattail, all bets are off and the project will shoot over $2 billion in a European minute, for the Metropolitan Council loves to keep playing Europe. The train stops are called Royalston, West Lake, Blake...

Light rail is controversial because of its price tag -- the recently finished Green Line linking downtown St. Paul with Minneapolis cost $957 million. Supporters, though, say it's justified along dense routes where it can move many people more efficiently than buses can. <<>> Taxpayers shoulder the majority of the cost. In the metro area, fares account for about $100 million in revenue last year -- about 30 percent of the operating cost of transit. Federal grants play a big role in paying for new transitways and vehicles -- 55 percent of capital costs last year. But federal taxpayers covered...

Engineers are trying to fix the F-35’s software package after it was discovered the sensors for the Joint Strike Fighter malfunction when detecting targets when the aircraft flies in formation. Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, Program Executive Officer, F-35, said he didn’t have a date when the correction would be made. However, he said the problem would not delay the declaration of the Marine variant of the aircraft, the F-35B, ready for combat. “When you have two, three or four F-35s looking at the same threat, they don’t all see it exactly the same because of the angles that...

Around 25 business owners and supporters of Fresno’s Chinatown gathered Sunday afternoon to share their concerns about the imminent high-speed rail construction along Kern and F streets. Chinatown Revitalization Inc. listed many concerns including that Spanish and Chinese speaking business owners have not been notified of the construction. Verta Gonzalez, who runs Floreria Rubi at 1515 Tulare St., said she had no idea about the coming construction. Gonzalez said business owners who speak English perhaps are able to defend themselves better. “It’s like they think Mexicans don’t matter,” she said of the rail authority. Rail authority spokeswoman Lisa Alley said...

WASHINGTON — Conservatives’ next disappointment will at least be a validation. The coming reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank will confirm their warnings about the difficulty of prying the government’s tentacles off what should be society’s private sphere. The bank, which exists to allocate credit by criteria other than the market’s preference for efficiency, mirrors the market-distorting policies of foreign governments. These policies favor those countries’ exports that compete with America’s. Much of what the bank does is supposedly to “level the playing field.” When Fred P. Hochberg, the bank’s chairman and president, defends it, an old joke comes to mind:...

General Dynamics Corp will deliver two Zumwalt-class destroyers a year later than planned, U.S. Navy officials said, blaming complications related to new technology. The Navy is adjusting its official baseline for the $22 billion DDG 1000 ship program to reflect the new delivery dates but the change will not trigger a mandatory review since the resulting cost increase will be under 15 percent, a defense official told Reuters, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Today’s release of the review of MNsure from the Office of the Legislative Auditor leaves a big question for MNsure’s board of directors and the Commerce Department: What were you thinking when you put such incompetence on the payroll? This one page in the report concerning the development of the technological infrastructure by MNsure is a how-to on developing something that is sure to fail. MNsure rejected the auditor’s finding on this point, saying it contradicts the facts. It contends the I.T. agency’s participation was robust, although it acknowledges its expertise “was not utilized in the early stages of the...

Most of the debate over the building of the nation's first bullet train, in California, has focused on the economics of such a monumental undertaking and its projected $68-billion first-phase price tag. Largely ignored amid the excitement over the railway's recent official groundbreaking is the physical impact and design challenges that cities will need to grapple with as they prepare for high-speed rail. California should look to rail systems across Europe to fully understand the challenge of building a transportation hub that connects to the community. To make the most of California's once-in-a-lifetime chance at building a thriving transportation network,...

Jan 15 (Reuters) - U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus on Thursday said the Navy would rename the modified Littoral Combat Ships it plans to build in coming years as "frigates," given their enhanced capabilities. "One of the requirements of the Small Surface Combatant Task Force was to have a ship with frigate-like capabilities. Well, if it's like a frigate, why don't we call it a frigate?" Mabus told the annual conference of the Surface Navy Association. Mabus said the changed designation would apply primarily to the next 20 ships to be built, but 32 earlier Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) that...

Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne–who claims to be an “unabashed supporter” of high-speed rail–reviews Anaheim’s new train station and finds it “oddly antiseptic.” Hawthorne doesn’t care that taxpayers spent $2,764 per square foot for what is essentially a big glass tent. He is a little disturbed that the design is so dysfunctional that train passengers “exit onto an uncovered platform, take the elevator or stairs [up] to a pedestrian bridge, and then enter the building at its highest interior level” only to have to go back down again to get to ground level. ... While Hawthorne’s critique is...

The U.S. Navy’s DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyers are extraordinarily expensive. Since 2009, the cost of the ships has increased 34.4 percent, according to the Congressional Research Service. Each of the three Zumwalt’s being built will cost taxpayers around $3.4 billion. And, that’s on top of the more than $9 billion in research and design funding that has gone into this program. Are they worth the price? The Navy didn’t think so in 2009 when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced the program would end with the procurement of just three ships, down from the 32 ships the Navy had initially planned...