Free Republic

During an interview with Univision that took place last Wednesday and aired on Tuesday, President Joe Biden said that he hopes his legacy is that he kept his word and did what he said he would do and that the reason he ran for office “was to help the life of ordinary people and reduce the prospect of war and — because of Vietnam.” Interviewer Enrique Acevedo asked, “Do you think a lot about legacy, because we’re talking about over 50 years of public service, and, regardless of the outcome, this might be your last political campaign, you’ve done a...

The mayor of the ultra-liberal, near-north Chicago suburb of Evanston wants to apply for a slice of a $20 million county grant to turn an abandoned office building in his city into a new migrant shelter in a bid to help take migrants off the hands of officials in Chicago. Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss (D) announced his intention to apply to Cook County’s recently created $100 million-dollar “disaster response and recovery” fund, of which $20 million is set aside for migrants, to help him rehab an empty office building near Church Street and Oak Avenue. Biss wants to turn the...

Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) had choice words for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Saturday comments, calling him a “maniac” who “needs” to be removed from office. The progressive Democrat initially discussed the Biden administration transferring 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs, 500 MK82 500-pound bombs and 25 F-35A fighter jets to Israel without notifying lawmakers, an arms package reported exclusively by the Washington Post on Friday.

More than two-thirds of managers report that they’re under immense pressure to squeeze more out of their workers, according to a recent Slack survey of 18,000 knowledge workers. Amid major concerns about stagnant or declining worker productivity in the post-COVID era, one would think government and corporate leaders might ask whether they themselves aren’t the ones doing something wrong. One thing many of them ignore to their own disadvantage is the extensive evidence that flexible hybrid work is more productive than forced in-office work for the same roles. For example, according to the annual report by the Office of Personnel...

Across the country, deals are starting to pick up, revealing just how far real estate prices have fallen. That’s spurring widespread concern about losses that can ripple across the global financial system — as underscored by the recent turmoil unleashed by New York Community Bancorp, Japan’s Aozora Bank and Germany’s Deutsche Pfandbriefbank as they took steps to brace for bad loans. In Manhattan, brokers have started to market debt backed by a Blackstone-owned office building at a roughly 50% discount. A prime office tower in Los Angeles sold in December for about 45% less than its purchase price a decade...

resident Biden is facing criticism after a bombshell report revealed that all federal agencies are less than 50 percent occupied - wasting billions in taxpayer dollars - over a year after he declared the COVID-19 pandemic over. According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) memo to Sen. Joni Ernst, obtained by DailyMail.com, not a single federal agency has over half of its workforce in the office. That's a staggering statistic since federal agencies spend about $2 billion taxpayer dollars per year to operate and maintain federal office buildings - and over $5 billion annually in leases. The shocking findings comes...

According to a survey from Resume Builder of over 1,000 decision-makers, 90% of companies plan to urge employees back to the office by the end of 2024. Almost 30% of these leaders say they will threaten to terminate employees who don’t oblige with the new return-to-office plans. These sentiments couldn’t be more at odds with the preferences of employees. In a Bankrate survey of 2,000 workers, roughly 68% of full-time employees prefer a hybrid work schedule. Ultimately, I believe the real reason leaders are trying to force workers to return to the office is not because they actually believe it...

Canada's largest pension fund sold a stake in a New York building for $1. Crashing office values have led investors to turn cautious on the sector. Office buildings have suffered from the pandemic's work-from-home boom. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the biggest pension in Canada, has completed a string of recent deals at discounted prices, including a sale of its stake in a New York building for $1, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.Commercial real estate concerns have escalated thanks to the pandemic's work-from-home boom and high interest rates in the wake of the Federal Reserve's inflation fight, and the gravest fears...

Twenty percent ($929 billion) of the $4.7 trillion of outstanding commercial mortgages held by lenders and investors will mature in 2024, a 28 percent increase from the $729 billion that matured in 2023 ... “The lack of transactions and other activity last year, coupled with built-in extension options and lender and servicer flexibility, has meant that many loans that were set to mature in 2023 have been extended or otherwise modified and will now mature in 2024, 2026, 2028 or in other coming years,” said Jamie Woodwell, Head of Commercial Real Estate Research at MBA. “These extensions and modifications have...

The developer that knocked down a landmark hotel opposite Madison Square Garden may build a temporary recreational space that could include tennis and basketball courts after scrapping plans for a shiny new skyscraper — a sign of the “office apocalypse” in the commercial real estate market. Vornado Realty Trust had initially planned to build a 56-story, 2.7 million-square-foot office tower on the site where the Hotel Pennsylvania once stood at 15 Penn Plaza. The century-old building in the Central Business District (CBD) near Penn Station was demolished last year. However, demand for commercial office space has been slow to recover...

Office building prices in the United States have experienced a substantial downturn, witnessing a significant 40% drop from their peak over the past two years. The past year alone has seen a massive 30% decline, leaving one in five office buildings vacant across the nation. The gravity of the situation is exacerbated by the substantial debt burdens carried by most of these empty office spaces.

Ever since San Francisco hired a pricey PR firm to help improve the city’s image by placing positive spin in papers like the NY Times, you see a lot fewer articles speculating that the city is in the midst of an urban doom loop. And yet, the PR firm can’t actually stop the bad news from getting out. Case in point, the city’s commercial real estate vacancy rate just jumped up to another record high.San Francisco’s amount of vacant office space has reached the highest level ever recorded in the city’s history.According to preliminary fourth quarter data provided by real...

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said Monday on NBC’s “Today” that she believes that if former President Donald Trump wins the 2024 election, he will attempt to stay beyond the end of his second term. Anchor Savannah Guthrie asked, “You think this a vote about whether or not we still have democracy in this country?” Cheney said, “It certainly is. Donald Trump told us exactly what he will do. He will not abide by the rulings of the courts. He will certainly appoint people to office whether or not they can be confirmed by the Senate. He has talked about...

Is it sundown for the US commercial real estate market? According to Trepp, the volume of CMBS delinquency increased 49.4% during 10 months through October. Looking for more? This piece has been taken from Trepp and Commercial Real Estate Direct’s Q3 2023 Quarterly Data Review. Access the magazine here. The volume of CMBS loans that are classified as delinquent increased by 49.4% during the 10 months through October to $27.91 billion. That volume amounts to 5.07% of the $601.98 billion universe tracked by Trepp. In contrast, delinquencies at the end of last year amounted to 3.03% of the $616.15 billion...

When you’re a huge, publicly-traded company with more than eight million square feet of offices in a struggling market, it helps to have a world-famous Observatory on top of your most famous building. Empire State Realty Trust’s third-quarter results revealed a solid overall leasing performance including 90.5% occupancy in Manhattan and comfortable liquidity.

The Office 365 at one of my work computers will soon expire. Office 365 Family for 6 devices is about $99 Office 365 Business for 1 device is about $150 It is tempting to get Office Family (less money and works with more computers) but if I do, will Microsoft bust me and send me to the gulag? The other temptation is to work with Open Office. Any experience with that?

WASHINGTON, DC: Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib found herself at the center of controversy on Monday, October 9 after a January photo resurfaced showing her proudly posing alongside a Palestinian flag outside her office in the US Congress. The image had originally been shared in response to Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir's efforts to ban the Palestinian national symbol in Israel. However, it gained renewed attention in the wake of recent attacks by Hamas in Israel. In her January post, Tlaib had emphasized her Palestinian heritage and railed against what she referred to as an apartheid system in Israel. "Palestinians...

Acting Speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry ordered Nancy Pelosi to vacate her Capitol hideaway office by Wednesday. ... Jeffries staffers tossed Pelosi’s belongings in bags and hauled them away as the room was re-keyed.“This eviction is a sharp departure from tradition. As Speaker, I gave former Speaker Hastert a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished,” Pelosi whined.

In a new development on Capitol Hill, acting speaker Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) has mandated former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to vacate her office at the Capitol by Wednesday. What Happened: According to Politico, an email was sent to Pelosi’s office ordering the former speaker to leave her office space. The email, written by a senior aide from the Republican-led House Administration Committee, explained that the room needed to be cleared for use as a speaker’s office. "Please vacate the space tomorrow, the room will be re-keyed," wrote the aide, according to the report. Following the removal of McCarthy on...

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said interim speaker, GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry, has ordered her to vacate her office in the Capitol building. She maintains her regular office in the Cannon House building. CNN viewed an email that was sent just after 6 p.m. ET from McHenry’s office to Pelosi’s office: “Going to reassign h-132 for speaker office use. Please vacate the space tomorrow.” "Sadly, because I am in California to mourn the loss of and pay tribute to my dear friend Dianne Feinstein, I am unable to retrieve my belongings at this time,” Pelosi said in a statement, referring...