Free Republic

(NEXSTAR) — Decades ago, buying a home for $100,000 or less was the norm. Today, you need to earn at least $100,000 just to afford a “typical” home, according to a new analysis. Data tracked by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows the average sales price for homes sold in the U.S. was $492,300 last quarter, down from $552,600 a year prior. While there are signs of improvement, home sale prices are nowhere near where they were 40 years ago: in Q4 of 1984, the average sales price for houses sold nationwide was $97,800.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish, but in July he approved a law moving Christmas in Ukraine from January 7, the date in the Eastern Orthodox calendar, to the Western celebration day of December 25. See that, Moscow? All the indications are, however, that while Christmas may come sooner in Ukraine this year, it is going to be a bleak one. Mike McCord, the comptroller of the U.S. Department of Defense, informed Congress on December 15 that $1 billion of military aid will be released by the end of the month but, without legislative authorization, there is no more money...

A new Zillow study discovered it takes four people to cover the cost of rent for an apartment in Raleigh. Chelsea Byrd went out on her own in a one-bedroom apartment, paying $700 a month. Since then, she has become a mom with a growing family, paying $1,400 for two bedrooms in Raleigh. "Where we are now, it’s pretty tight," she said. But the search for something bigger brings a more costly bill. "Everywhere else we’re looking right now is exponentially higher," she said. "These are things that should not be so hard for the average working person to attain."...

Nationally, it takes nearly four full-time minimum wage workers to reasonably afford a two-bedroom rental. Affordability for minimum wage workers is tightest in Austin. There would need to be over five full-time minimum wage workers to afford a two-bedroom rental in Austin. In cities with a $7.25 an hour minimum wage, an average of over 3.5 full-time workers are needed to make the typical two-bedroom rental affordable.In cities with minimum wages set higher than that, an average of 2.5 full-time minimum wage workers are needed to make the typical two-bedroom rental affordable, despite many of these cities having higher-than-average rents....

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) said on Monday that he “won’t rest” until lawmakers pass national voting rights legislation, renewing his push for further reforms on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. “Nobody’s about to silence me on this issue of voting rights,” Warnock said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “We’re going to get this done.” In the last Congress, Democrats tried and failed to pass sweeping voting rights legislation that sought to fight back against state laws in a number of GOP states that had curtailed access to the ballot.

Holding defendants in jail because they can't afford to make bail is unconstitutional, the Justice Department said in a court filing late Thursday — the first time the government has taken such a position before a federal appeals court. It's the latest step by the Obama administration in encouraging state courts to move away from imposing fixed cash bail amounts and jailing those who can't pay.

Quinn, AFSCME and those pandering Blagojevich giveaways **SNIP** So: Is this a contract the state can afford? Yet to be determined. Remember, Illinois will end this fiscal year roughly $8 billion behind in paying its bills. Unfunded pension obligations? An additional $96.8 billion and counting. Total debts and obligations? The state treasurer says $200 billion. But Quinn evidently bargained harder than his predecessor did. Here are some comparisons: In 2004 the then-governor, Rod Blagojevich, signed off on a four-year AFSCME contract that included 13 percent wage hikes during the final three years of the deal. Blagojevich was pandering for continued...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration adopted a strict definition of affordable health insurance on Wednesday that will deny federal financial assistance to millions of Americans with modest incomes who cannot afford family coverage offered by employers. In deciding whether an employer’s health plan is affordable, the Internal Revenue Service said it would look at the cost of coverage only for an individual employee, not for a family. Family coverage might be prohibitively expensive, but federal subsidies would not be available to help buy insurance for children in the family. The policy decision came in a final regulation interpreting ambiguous language...

The meats were like a bad joke gone bad. $7-10 for a small package of chicken breasts. I got enough food for a week and it was $107. The cashier lady told me some woman (when she noticed) milk at $4 a gallon asked if there was s milk shortage. Are people this stupid? I am truly afraid for this country in so many ways and as the cashier lady said she told the ditz lady it will get far worse before it gets better. And the cashier was in her 20's and she figured this out- so there is...

After almost 100 years, the State Compensation Insurance Fund is pulling 755 of its 830 jobs out of town, having determined that San Francisco is just too expensive - and its workforce too dumb - for the agency to continue doing most of its business here. Workers called to a recent meeting at the Herbst Theatre were told that 293 jobs will move to Pleasanton, 422 to Vacaville and 40 to Sacramento, with 75 employees remaining in the city. "It's part of a whole geographic strategy to reduce our footprint in high-cost areas like San Francisco," said agency spokeswoman Jennifer...

WASHINGTON – The nation cannot afford the spending Democrats have enacted or the tax increases they propose, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said Wednesday in the Republican response to the State of the Union address. McDonnell, in excerpts of his speech released in advance, said Democratic policies are resulting in an unsustainable level of debt. He said Americans want affordable health care, but they don't want the government to run it. "Top-down, one-size-fits-all decision-making should not replace the personal choices of free people in a free market, nor undermine the proper role of state and local governments in our system of...

WASHINGTON – One of President Barack Obama's top economic advisers says the nation can afford to spend hundreds of billions of dollars in an attempt to jump-start a weak economy. But Larry Summers warns that fiscal discipline will be necessary once the economy recovers. He says the government must spend money now to revive an economy that shed more than 2 million jobs last year.

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Austria's government said Thursday it cannot afford to buy back five Gustav Klimt paintings that a court has ordered returned to a California woman who says the Nazis stole them from her Jewish family. Elisabeth Gehrer, Austria's minister in charge of education and culture, said the government wanted to acquire the masterpieces but decided it could not afford the $300 million pricetag. Last month, an arbitration court awarded the paintings to Maria Altmann of Los Angeles, who says they were looted from her family by the Nazis. "Therefore the paintings are immediately available for her to...

<p>While conceding that active and reserve forces are straining to meet the potentially lengthy U.S. commitment in Iraq, the Pentagon still strongly opposes attempts to increase the number of people in uniform. As usual, it boils down to money. Even as many analysts predict U.S. forces will be in Iraq for years, defense officials are looking beyond that mission — and don’t want to be stuck with post-Iraq costs of a larger force.</p>

Chelsea pet regs force families from homes by Marie Szaniszlo Saturday, July 27, 2002 The notice arrived yesterday giving Stanley and Eileen Green 30 days to leave their Chelsea home of 45 years. Their crime? Having two cats. Frank and Dianne Stephenson and their three children are expecting a similar letter any day. Their crime? Having a cat and a 66-pound German shepherd - 46 pounds over the limit. They are two of dozens of Chelsea families who have suddenly found themselves faced with a terrible choice: give up pets they consider members of their families, or give up the...