Free Republic

Electrifying the car market may be getting more difficult, with the share of Americans who say they’re “very unlikely” to consider an EV for their next vehicle purchase growing in each of the first three months of the year, according to a new report. In March, 21% of new-vehicle shoppers said they were “very unlikely” to consider an EV, up from 18.9% in February and 17.8% in January, consumer analytics firm JD Power said in a monthly EV report. In contrast, the percentage of car shoppers who say they are “very likely” to consider an EV was 26.9% in March,...

Russia is in the midst of a historic population decline as it continues to grapple with low birth rates, high emigration, staggering health statistics and a deadly war in Ukraine. The growing crisis has been described by some as a "silent war" against its own human capital. Russian President Vladimir Putin has listed Russia’s declining population as a matter of national security, but his recent war in Ukraine has not only led to hundreds of thousands of additional deaths among fighting-age men but has pushed a mass exodus among Russia's younger populations. Western defense officials have estimated that as many...

America’s Christian majority has been declining for years and if the trend continues, Christians could make up less than half the U.S. population within decades, a study from the Pew Research Center shows. The religion’s demographic has reportedly been dwindling since the 1990s, as many adults embrace an identity of atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.”

The percentage of coronavirus deaths in the country has been declining for ten straight weeks. Coronavirus deaths in the country have nearly reached a level where the virus will cease to qualify as an epidemic under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rules, the federal agency reported on Friday. The CDC qualifies a disease outbreak as an "epidemic" if the number of deaths attributable to the disease exceeds a certain percentage of total deaths per week. That threshold for pneumonia, influenza and COVID-19 fluctuates slightly depending on the time of year, ranging from around 7% at the height of flu...

Quality of life in an American city often depends on the neighborhood one lives in, as abject poverty and crime can be found just blocks away from prosperity. Still, as much as a city can be judged on the whole, some cities face widespread problems that detract from their residents’ overall quality of life. Americans take into consideration a number of factors when deciding where to live, including the quality of schools, the strength of the local economy and job market, the area’s safety and culture, as well as its climate. Cities that perform well by these measures are more...

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is losing a record number of its membership. A new report quotes an LDS general authority who said more members are falling away today than any time in the past 175 years. At meetings like General Conference, Utahns may be used to seeing members of the LDS Church show up in record numbers. But according to a recent Reuters article citing LDS General Authority Marlin K. Jensen, for the church as a whole, the record in going in a different direction. Elder Jensen told the...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The number of Americans who believe that climate change is real has declined in the last year, but a majority do see convincing evidence of global warming, according to a new poll. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found 57 percent of Americans see "solid evidence of warming," compared to 71 percent in April 2008, and 77 percent in August 2007. The poll, which surveyed 1,500 people between September 30 and October 4, also found a decline in the number of Americans who think global warming is a very serious problem. Just 35...

They were once a symbol of success and a love of music.Giovanni Lovatelli and his family lucked into a long-term loan of a 1948 baby grand piano when a friend moved to New York years ago. Five-year-old Giacomo began taking lessons, practicing diligently for a year or so. "We had to keep pushing a little bit," Lovatelli said, adding that he promised a basketball hoop if his son persevered through his teacher's recital.

The dollar is taking a pounding. With the US sinking deeper into recession, the greenback recently hit an all-time low against the euro and a 12-year low against the yen. Last week, America's currency fell again - dropping more than 2 per cent in euro terms, to $1.5779. On a trade-weighted basis, the dollar is now south of its late-70s low point and close to its historic nadir of the mid-1990s. The markets sense the US Federal Reserve, having already slashed interest rates by 300 basis points to 2.25 per cent since the credit crunch erupted last summer, will soon...

FRIDAY, Oct. 27 (HealthDay News) -- The testosterone-fueled American male may be losing his punch. Over the past two decades, levels of the sex hormone in U.S. men have been falling steadily, a new study finds. For example, average total testosterone levels in men aged 65 to 69 fell from 503 nanograms/decileter (ng/dL) in 1988 to 423 ng/dL in 2003. The reasons for this trend are unclear, said researchers at the New England Research Institutes in Waterdown, Mass. They noted that neither aging nor certain other health factors, such as smoking or obesity, can fully explain the decline. "Male serum...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Moody's Investors Service on Friday placed New York Times Co.'s (NYT) A2 senior unsecured long term debt, and P-1 commercial paper ratings on review for possible downgrade. The agency said the review is prompted by Moody's growing concerns about the media company's high financial leverage, deteriorating operating margins and weak free cash flow available for debt reduction, combined with concerns over intensifying cross media competition, including the Internet, and growing event risk in the newspaper sector. A multi-notch ratings transition will be considered in light of the company's financial and operating challenges, Moody's said.

In 2005 California increased the education budget by $3 billion and poured $50 billion into schools at the rate of more than $10,000 per pupil. Yet there is little to show for these efforts. Student achievement remains low and the dropout rate is high. Teacher quality varies widely from school to school and the state lacks an accurate way to measure student progress. Throughout this past year, California missed crucial opportunities to enhance accountability and boost achievement. Not giving more choice to parents and students trapped at low-performing schools. Federal legislation gives parents whose children are in failing schools the...

Union riveter Chester A. Riley would know what to say: What a revoltin’ development this is. Two major unions broke away from the AFL-CIO this week with others likely to follow. When the dust settles, the labor federation stands to lose a third of its membership. After 50 years of dominance in representing unionized workers, the AFL-CIO will now confront that which it abhors, competition. Union power is predicated on monopoly. Use our members or go out of business, Mr. Employer. Pay our dues or go without a job, Mr. Worker. Protect us from overseas competition, Mr. President. AFL-CIO boss...

On Sunday they packed 'em in -- a circumstance you wouldn't have noted for some long while in English churches, which, like European churches in general, seem to resound mainly with historic echoes. But there was praying to be done, and it seemed to the English people meet, right and their bounden duty -- as the Book of Common Prayer would have it -- to lay their sorrows and perplexities before the Lord. And so, three days after the explosions and screams that scarred a London morning, something like the old European civilization popped back into view. I didn't say...

Politicians from Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Howard Dean have recently contended that abortions have increased since George W. Bush took office in 2001. This claim is false. It's based on an opinion piece that used data from only 16 states. A study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute of 43 states found that abortions have actually decreased. Update, May 26: The author of the original claim now concedes that the Guttmacher study is "significantly better" than his own. Analysis A number of politicians and organizations have been circulating an interesting and surprising idea: that abortions have gone up under...

Craig Newmark already has tormented newspapers by creating a Web site where anyone can post ads at little or no cost, capturing an ever-growing share of the classified advertising market that had been one of the industry's most dependable sources of revenue. Now, the founder of Craigslist.org is pondering ways to improve upon newspapers. He smells an opportunity, convinced that publishers are more interested in preserving short-term profits than pursuing online audiences who still passionately care about journalism but don't read newspapers. ``There is a lot of change coming and I want to make whatever contribution I can. I'm just...

Budget Office Lower Deficit Prediction Friday May 7, 2004 8:46 PM By ALAN FRAM Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The Congressional Budget Office says it believes its March projection for a federal deficit of $477 billion this year was too high, though the red ink still seems all but certain to set a new record. The budget office, Congress' nonpartisan fiscal analyst, provided no new figure and won't formally update its estimate until summer. Nonetheless, the improved outlook paralleled Wall Street firms that have revised their forecasts for the better, marking the first time in several years that experts...

Pound surges to a five year high against US currency. Buffett also said to be betting against greenback The pound surged against the dollar yesterday amid speculation that Warren Buffett and George Soros, the world's most famous speculators, are betting the US currency will plummet. Sterling powered to a five-year high against the dollar for a second day as concerns over the US current account deficit continued to outweigh evidence of a rebounding economy. Traders believe selling the dollar is a one-way bet, and some latched on to rumours that speculators were building "short" positions on the dollar - betting...