Free Republic

Ex-Democrat Illinois governor turned “Trumpocrat” Rod Blagojevich said he believes current Gov. J.B. Pritzker tried to keep him in jail because the Democrat establishment is “afraid of what he knows” and “what [he] will say soon.” In a video obtained exclusively by Breitbart News, Blagojevich, who was Illinois governor from 2003 to 2009, can be heard talking about his relationship with the current governor, some of the events leading up to his time in federal prison, and his standing with the party he left behind.

President Joe Biden’s $1.85 trillion social spending bill includes a provision that, if it becomes law, would mark the first time the federal government has offered targeted support in response to the decline of local news. The help would come in the form of a payroll tax credit for companies that employ eligible local journalists. The measure would allow newspapers, digital news outlets, and radio and television stations to claim a tax credit of $25,000 the first year and $15,000 the next four years for up to 1,500 journalists. -snip- But the credit, which would cost $1.67 billion over the...

Leading journalists acknowledge that it's awkward to receive financial assistance from a government they cover independently. President Biden's $1.85 trillion social spending bill includes a provision that, if it becomes law, would mark the first time the federal government has offered targeted support in response to the decline of local news. The help would come in the form of a payroll tax credit for companies that employ eligible local journalists. The measure would allow newspapers, digital news outlets and radio and television stations to claim a tax credit of $25,000 the first year and $15,000 the next four years for...

Tucked into President Joe Biden’s proposed nearly $2 trillion social spending bill is a provision to boost local media through tax incentives meant to help an industry battered by the COVID-19 virus. The Local Journalism Sustainability Act (LJSA), first introduced in July, would provide a local media advertising credit of up to $5,000 in the first year and up to $2,500 in the next four years, covering 80% of advertising costs in the first year and 50% in the following four years. Other elements of the bill would provide a federal tax credit to local media outlets that hire local...

President Biden is proposing to give a major tax break to local media outlets as part of the $1.85 trillion reconciliation being considered by Congress. The tax break would allow eligible local media organizations, including newspapers, digital news websites and television stations to receive a tax credit of $25,000 per journalist they employ, and $15,000 for the following four years. The tax break can be claimed for up to 1,500 journalists. While the measure is aimed at helping smaller local news outlets, bigger media organizations like Gannett will benefit from the tax break and could receive as much as $127.5...

The wife of a major Democratic donor who landed in hot water for contributing to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s controversial “pay-to-play” nonprofit is in line for a plum post as US ambassador to Portugal — after helping raise more than $100,000 for President Biden’s campaign last year. Randi Charno Levine’s nomination to be the top-ranking diplomat to the scenic Mediterranean country was sent to the US Senate for confirmation earlier this month following Biden’s announcement of her appointment on Oct. 29.... ...It’s unclear when the Senate will take up Randi Levine’s nomination, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has reportedly been...

More than 100 young people in Louisiana will receive $3,500 next year under a financial literacy program from the City of New Orleans. City officials said Thursday that 125 residents between the ages of 16 and 24 will receive 10 payments of $350 starting next spring. The money will be loaded onto an ATM card provided by Black-owned online bank Mobility Capital Finance. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said.. The goal, city officials said, is to address the "unbanked" problem plaguing the Big Easy. The "unbanked" is a term the financial services industry has adopted to describe adults who earn...

Days after it was dropped from the House version of the budget bill, a tax credit to help pay the salaries of local journalists is back in. The measure still needs to win inclusion in the Senate’s version and survive any further reduction of the $1.75 trillion target total. Still, the move represents a big improvement in prospects for the subsidy. Steven Waldman, president and co-founder of Report for America, and Dean Ridings, CEO of industry association America’s Newspapers, both credited the turnaround to publishers and owners communicating the severity of the financial crisis in local news to their representatives....

Republicans moved this week to block $450,000 payments to illegal immigrants who were part of family separations during the Trump administration, but they saw their first attempt quashed by Senate Democrats. The payments are being pondered by President Biden’s task force assigned to help reunify and compensate families snared by the Trump zero-tolerance border policy, which led to thousands of family separations.... ...Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma Republican, proposed an amendment to cancel the payments during debate on a human trafficking bill in the Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday, saying if the government does follow through, it will spark an even...

The lucrative $50,000-per-year journalist tax break that Democrats have tucked within President Biden’s multi-trillion dollar social welfare bill is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $1.6 billion over the next decade. A new analysis of the legislation by the Joint Committee on Taxation, a special congressional panel made up of 10 senior lawmakers from both chambers of Congress, found that taxpayers would be on the hook for more than $1.6 billion if the tax credit becomes law. The credit would allow “local news” outlets to receive a quarterly tax credit, “equal to 50%” of a journalist’s wages up to a...

A rough estimate of the price tag is $1 billion the first year. Days after it was dropped from the House version of the budget bill, a tax credit to help pay the salaries of local journalists is back in. The measure still needs to win inclusion in the Senate’s version and survive any further reduction of the $1.75 trillion target total. Still, the move represents a big improvement in prospects for the subsidy. Steven Waldman, president and co-founder of Report for America, and Dean Ridings, CEO of industry association America’s Newspapers, both credited the turnaround to publishers and owners...

The Facebook CEO planted left-wing activists into local election administration offices, Hemingway tells Tucker Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway sat down with Tucker Carlson to discuss how Big Tech swung the 2020 election for the Democrats, and why her new book "Rigged" exposes Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as the mastermind behind it all. In the latest episode of "Tucker Carlson Today," Hemingway describes a strategic effort by the tech billionaire, who she says bought left-wing activists access to local government administration election offices, enabling partisan staffers to organize massive get-out-the-vote efforts in largely blue cities from the inside.... ... He...

(Reuters) - An estimated 30 million to 50 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine made early this year sits idle in Emergent BioSolutions Inc's plant in Baltimore awaiting a green light from U.S. regulators to ship, two sources familiar with the matter said. The exact number of doses sitting idle cannot be determined, the source said, because Emergent only makes raw vaccine substance and does not fill vials with finished product. The FDA in April halted operations at Emergent's production facility after J&J's vaccine was found to be contaminated with material from AstraZeneca's (AZN.L) COVID-19 shots, which were...

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed a quartet of former senators and widows of former senators to key ambassadorial posts, in a rare move by the chamber to approve some of President Biden’s diplomatic nominees. The Senate unanimously confirmed former senator Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) as U.S. ambassador to Turkey; former senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) as ambassador to New Zealand; Victoria Reggie Kennedy as ambassador to Austria; and Cindy McCain as ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, which encompasses three U.N. agencies.... ...Tuesday’s votes came as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) has threatened to delay the confirmations of dozens...

Recent statements and court documents indicate that when Vice President Kamala Harris was Attorney General of California, her office colluded with prominent abortion providers as she pursued a criminal case against pro-life journalist David Daleiden, his attorneys argue. As attorney general, Harris took the unprecedented step of charging Daleiden with violating a state eavesdropping law. Part of the investigation entailed seizing a variety of materials from Daleiden's apartment — including then-unreleased undercover video footage of Planned Parenthood. Daleiden's attorneys argue that one of Harris' appointees, Deputy Attorney General Johnette Jauron, effectively admitted in May 2021 that she abused the powers...

Los Angeles' political and community leaders were stunned by the corruption indictment handed down Wednesday against Mark Ridley-Thomas, one of the city's best-known and longest-serving officials. Ridley-Thomas is accused of conspiring with Marilyn Louise Flynn, who at the time was dean of USC’s School of Social Work, to steer county money to the university in return for admitting his son Sebastian into the graduate school with a full-tuition scholarship and a paid professorship. Ridley-Thomas was on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors at the time... ...Ridley-Thomas, 66, is the third L.A. City Council member to face federal corruption charges...

The California attorney general's office has filed felony charges against the executive director of the state's largest labor union, alleging that an investigation into possible campaign finance violations revealed that Alma Hernández and her husband underreported their income by more than $1.4 million to evade taxes.... ...Named one of Capitol Weekly's Top 100 California politicos, Hernández is a seasoned political operator who helped activate an army of SEIU volunteers to fight the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom last month. SEIU California President Bob Schoonover said the organization is deeply concerned about the allegations and will continue to fully cooperate with...

Man shot, killed in Chevron gas station shooting Senate approval extends transportation funding amid debate over infrastructure… Several San Francisco city departments have accepted gifts from restricted organizations — groups with which the city does business — and distributed those gifts to city employees, actions that undermine the city’s rules regarding gifts, according to a new report by the city’s Ethics Commission. The 41-page report released on Thursday details “problematic” conduct related to gifts, including the awarding of tickets to events such as concerts and shows and the receipt of benefits and funds to pay for private parties, dinners and...

As the homes of millions of renters across the U.S. were threatened this week by the White House's and Congress's refusal to extend the eviction moratorium put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Democrats' inaction was directly benefiting some of the party's biggest backers in the real estate industry. As Andrew Perez and Joel Warner reported in The Daily Poster on Tuesday, the chairman of both the real estate brokerage firm Marcus & Millichap and the real estate investment trust Essex Property Trust donated $1 million to the House Majority PAC on June 1, days...

When newly filed records showed the brother of a top adviser to President Joe Biden lobbied the National Security Council for a major automaker, it became the latest concern for ethics experts who see a porous firewall despite the president's ethics pledge. Jeff Ricchetti, whose brother Steve Ricchetti is a counselor to the president, was paid $60,000 during the second quarter of 2021 to lobby the council on "issues related to China" on behalf of General Motors, according to a recent disclosure. Under the Trump administration, the automaker sought to have tariffs removed from their Buick Envision, which is made...