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December brought the U.S. healthcare industry's largest monthly spike in the number of new hires since at least February 1990. Healthcare added 50,200 jobs last month, the largest numeric increase in new hires in Modern Healthcare's monthly jobs data, which stretches back to February 1990. Hiring in the industry jumped 56% from November, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' December jobs report released Friday. While more than 50,000 new jobs was "an unexpectedly high number," Total nonfarm employment rose by 312,000 jobs in December, and the unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage points to 3.9%. Overall in 2018,...

In an interview Thursday evening, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called for a top tax rate of 70 percent, pushing a "Green New Deal" that she admitted is "radical." "You're talking about zero carbon emissions, no use of fossil fuels within 12 years?" CBS correspondent Anderson Cooper asked Ocasio-Cortez in an interview for 60 Minutes. "That is the goal," the newly minted Congresswoman admitted, calling her plan "ambitious." Cooper asked how such a plan could be possible, and Ocasio-Cortez said, "It's going to require a lot of rapid change that we don't even conceive as possible right now." She admitted that...

Stocks rallied on Friday after two positive pieces of news for the market. At 8:30 a.m., the Labor Department said the U.S. economy added 312,000 jobs in December. That blew past an expectation of 176,000 jobs. Later on Friday morning, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank will be patient in raising rates, quelling fears of tighter monetary policy in the near future. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 800 points, or 3.5 percent. The S&P 500 rallied 3.5 percent, with the tech sector gaining more than 4 percent. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 4.3 percent. This was a...

The government shutdown could delay your tax refund this year, but if you owe the IRS money, then you may still have to pay on time regardless. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the Internal Revenue Service is one of the federal agencies without funding and is being run with one-eighth of its normal staffing as the government shutdown continues. While the IRS does conduct some business during shutdowns, it generally does not issue refunds, answer taxpayer questions outside the filing season or conduct audits. The Treasury Department considers these non-excepted activities during a shutdown and positions that...

Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. told the Washington Post that it’s “immoral for” evangelical leaders “not to support” Donald Trump in a lengthy interview regarding his right-wing religious views and his love of the president. After the Washington Post‘s Joe Heim asked Falwell about faith leaders who have criticized his pro-Trump views, he pointed to minority unemployment rates and argued that all Christians should back the president. “It may be immoral for them not to support him, because he’s got African American employment to record highs, Hispanic employment to record highs,” Falwell replied. “They need to look at what...

In his second year in office, the list of extraordinary things President Trump has done, for good and ill, continued to grow. Today, I offer my annual list of the 10 best things Trump has done in office. (In my next column, I will give you my list of the 10 worst.) 10. He has secured the release of 19 people, including 16 Americans, from foreign captivity. When Pastor Andrew Brunson was freed by Turkey, he became the 19th captive released thanks to Trump. Others include: four held by North Korea; an aid worker and her husband held by Egypt;...

LITTLETON, Colo. — Pedro Gonzalez has faith in Donald Trump and his party. The 55-year-old Colombian immigrant is a pastor at an evangelical church in suburban Denver. Initially repelled by Trump in 2016, he’s been heartened by the president’s steps to protect religious groups and appoint judges who oppose abortion rights. More important, Gonzalez sees Trump’s presidency as part of a divine plan. “It doesn’t matter what I think,” Gonzalez said of the president. “He was put there.” Though Latino voters are a key part of the Democratic coalition, there is a larger bloc of reliable Republican Latinos than many...

It never ceases to amaze me how the populist Right, or what speaks in its name, overestimates its strength both here and in Western Europe. One needn’t be an enemy of these activists to recognize the exaggerated nature of their claims. Those in the media who now demand a border wall insist that the “people” want this goal achieved immediately if not sooner. In fact, according to Ann Coulter, Trump “scammed the American people” by not giving them the wall they’re clamoring for. But according a nationwide poll by The Hill, 51 percent of American voters oppose Trump’s project, while...

Let’s spend some time talking about what it is to be an American. For we are all a very unique and special breed of person. This is a truth that should be obvious to anyone who has the ability to think. After all, what would the 20th century look like were America not to have existed? That being said, the sad reality is that we take this role for granted. Oh, we certainly say that “America is the best”, and we wave the flag around a lot, but we do not really and truly appreciate just how spectacular we actually...

**SNIP** Climate activists expressed disappointment. "Without a mandate to create a plan and a requirement that its members don't take fossil fuel money, we are deeply concerned that this committee will be just another of the many committees we've seen failing our generation our entire lives," said Varshini Prakash, the Sunrise Movement's spokeswoman. The push reflects the increasing power and visibility of liberals on Capitol Hill. Poised to be the largest of the values-based caucuses next year, the Congressional Progressive Caucus has already received a jolt of energy from members such as Ocasio-Cortez, whose political celebrity and regular posts to...

New York (CNN Business)Holiday sales grew at their fastest pace in six years, buoyed by rising wages and a drop in gas prices. Retail spending from November 1 through December 24 increased 5.1% from a year ago, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse. Shoppers spent more than $850 billion during the holidays. Unfazed by volatility on Wall Street, consumers flooded into stores and bought clothes and home decor online. Gas prices have dropped by more than 20 cents a gallon over the past month, giving shoppers extra cash for the holidays. "Consumer confidence translated into holiday cheer for retail," said Steve Sadove,...

Stocks rose sharply in volatile trading on Wednesday as surges in retail and energy shares helped Wall Street regain the steep losses suffered in the previous session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 657 points higher as of 3:05 p.m. ET, while the S&P 500 gained 3.05 percent. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed, rising 3.96 percent. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were on track for their biggest one-day gains since Aug. 26, 2015 and erased Monday's losses. The Dow also recovered all of its losses from Monday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average skyrocketed more than 1,000 points on Wednesday, its largest one-day point gain in its history, as rallies in retail and energy shares helped Wall Street regain the steep losses suffered in the previous session. Loading... The 30-stock Dow closed 1,086 points higher, or 4.98 percent. Wednesday’s gain also marked the biggest upside move on a percentage basis since March 23, 2009, when it rose 5.8 percentage points. The S&P 500 also catapulted 4.96 percent — its best day since March 2009 — as the consumer discretionary, energy and tech sectors all climbed more than 6...

Dec. 24, 2018 - 5:48 - Democrats look to open several investigations into he Trump administration once the new Congress is sworn in; panel reaction on 'Your World.'

The Real Roots of American Rage <...>America has always been an angry nation. We are a country born of revolution. Combat—on battlefields, in newspapers, at the ballot box—has been with us from the start. American history is punctuated by episodes in which aggrieved parties have settled their differences not through conversation, but with guns. And yet our political system was cleverly designed to maximize the beneficial effects of anger. The Bill of Rights guarantees that we can argue with one another in the public square, through a free press, and in open court. The separation of powers forces our representatives...

It's one thing for Joe Scarborough to criticize President Trump regarding various controversies. But when Scarborough brazenly boasts about the "Obama recovery," and thanks President Obama for it, you know that the former Republican has gone all-in with the Democrats. Playing off the recent drop on Wall Street, Morning Joe opened today by mocking Trump for his positive comments on the market back in August. Fine. But Scarborough then took things a servile step further, declaring: "This tax cut that was passed, was promised, actually, pump the prime [sic] and, you know, we're going to put another $1 trillion or...

Crickets from Washington Zzzzzzz

The U.S. economy will likely fall into a recession next year, according to Liz Ann Sonders, the chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab. “Well there's 100 percent chance we're going to get another recession,” she said on Friday during an interview on "WSJ at Large with Gerry Baker." “In the next year, I do think trade holds the key.”

Number of the week: A new Fox News poll finds that only 38% of voters said they would re-elect President Donald Trump if the election were held today. A majority, 55%, said they would vote for someone else. That's in line with previous Fox News polls, which also found that a majority of voters wanted someone else to be president. What's the point: The findings of Fox News are no surprise. The President has consistently had a negative net approval rating (approval rating minus disapproval rating). The re-election question is merely an offshoot of that and indicates that voters are...

Thanks to President Donald Trump’s slashes to the federal government’s Obamacare advertising budget and his administration’s “sabotage” of Obamacare, hundreds of thousands of clueless people have been left in the dark and aren’t enrolling in Obamacare—at least, that’s what countless reporters and pundits would have you believe. However, the truth is this issue is far more complex that what many on the Left suggest.There’s no doubt that 2019 Obamacare enrollment has dropped compared to enrollment figures from one year ago. The Associated Press reports enrollment in the federal Obamacare exchange—the health insurance exchange used by 39 states—has fallen by nearly 20...