Free Republic

The debt trap is ensnaring many of China's cities. While Americans properly worry about the ballooning federal debt, China is already beginning to experience a crisis due to debts incurred by local governments. Bloomberg has a long article focusing on the city of Hegang, in the northeast province of Heilongjiang. Hegang, with a population of nearly a million, is in decline along with its coal industry and experiencing brutal spending cuts in order to keep up with its interest payments.Hegang's residents are now feeling the brunt of the fiscal clampdown. During a recent visit to the city, locals complained about...

The Ukrainian government on Thursday ordered restrictions on nationwide electricity use following a series of Russian missile and drone attacks that struck one-third of the country’s power plants. President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on Wednesday night three energy facilities were destroyed in the last day alone. “We assume that Russian terror will be directed at energy facilities until, with the help of partners, we are able to shoot down 100% of enemy missiles and drones,” he said. “Please limit your electricity consumption.” Under the new energy-reducing program, power supply across Ukraine is restricted between 7 a.m. and...

The US Army is to cut 40,000 soldiers from its ranks over the next two years at home and abroad, a defense official said Tuesday, in a move that will raise doubts about its ability to fight wars. Under the cost-cutting plan, the Army will be down to 450,000 soldiers at the end of the 2017 budget year, even though in 2013 it argued in budgetary documents that going below 450,000 troops might mean it could not win a war, USA Today said. By comparison, the Army swelled to 570,000 men and women during the peak of fighting in Iraq...

Governor Scott Walker and the GOP-controlled state legislature freed government employees from involuntary forced union membership, enabling them to choose or not choose to pay dues. The results have shown that roughly two-thirds have not chosen union membership when given the opportunity. And that has meant big cutbacks for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), one of the most left wing and biggest political contributors to Dempcrats among American unions. Steven Verburg of the left wing Wisconsin State Journal of Madison, attempts to soft sell the bad news for lefties: Wisconsin’s three AFSCME councils are merging...

One water district manager says the plan fails to account for water-saving measures already in effect in some California communitiesCalifornia cities are pushing back against Gov. Jerry Brown's order for mandatory water use reductions, but it's not likely that regulators will retreat with the state in its fourth year of drought. The State Water Resources Control Board's proposal to meet Brown's order has some cities slashing water use by more than a third, and it will be updated in the coming days. Dozens of affected agencies say the expected reduction targets are overreaching, unrealistic and unfair. Calif. Sets Water Use...

The disastrous smoking habits of the Irish have been highlighted in two new studies—we are far more prone than other Europeans to continue smoking after suffering a stroke and one in 10 of us cut back on food to fund our craving. […] Just what lengths smokers will go to to feed their habit is borne out in a separate study by Pfizer Ireland, which found: 10% cut back on buying food35% said they cut down on eating out24% pulled out of social engagements22% also said that they cut back on holidays to avoid cutting their smoking budget.More than half...

When Regal Entertainment Group (RGC) in April blamed ObamaCare for the fact that it was cutting some of its workers' hours, backers of the law mounted a furious backlash against the theater chain, among other things filling its Facebook page with boycott threats. Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/061913-660419-local-governments-cut-hours-to-avoid-obamacare-mandate.htm#ixzz2WiSoRbw2 Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook

LEOMINSTER — About 50 full-time jobs will be eliminated at the HealthAlliance Hospital — Leominster Campus, and one of two planned expansion projects may be cut back. Mary Lourdes Burke, chief communications officer for the hospital, said yesterday the job cuts do not mean 50 layoffs, because some were vacant positions that will not be filled, and some were positions that had hours reduced. Also, she said, some union contracts required moving employees into other posts. The cuts were made from the main Leominster Campus, the Burbank Campus in Fitchburg, and the HealthAlliance Homehealth & Hospice on Tucker Drive in...

No matter how bad the news, no matter how grim the headlines, you could always count on a smile from at least one corner of the daily newspaper: the comics. But in this day when we could use a laugh more than ever, the reality facing the comics section is anything but funny. With the newspaper business hemorrhaging readers and money, newspapers are slicing the number of strips they carry. Artist and filmmaker Mark Tatulli said he has seen 30 newspapers drop his strip "Lio" in the last 18 months. "Newspapers are saving money wherever they can, and they are...

The Bee announced another round of staff cutbacks today due to what its publisher called "a prolonged period of revenue declines." The paper said 25 jobs will be eliminated as of Jan. 29, and the paper hopes almost all of the cuts can be achieved through voluntary buyouts within specific departments. If the paper can't get enough workers to agree to buyouts, then it will resort to layoffs to reach the goal. The cutbacks are the fourth and smallest to hit the newspaper in the last 18 months, and the first since last March. They will affect 2.7 percent of...

If the holiday shopping sea son gets off to a bad start today, maybe we should blame all the blessings we were thankful for yesterday. It's heresy to say this -- what with retailers looking to sell Americans a lot of stuff this Christmas -- but sometimes people just have enough things. So, as families sat down at their Thanksgiving table yesterday, the decision-makers probably looked around the room and saw gadgets galore that were bought during better times. And since said decision-makers are petrified about the job market -- and are about to be even more scared next week...

For all of his lavish new spending plans, President Obama is making one major exception: defense.

Untouchable or expendable? Most still shell out for Internet -- but not posh purses Thursday, February 19, 2009 3:25 AM By Margaret Harding THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Hard times, choices In tough times, consumers are willing to chop some expenses, but not others, according to a survey by BIGresearch. A look at what people said they had to have or were willing to give up, and the percentage of those surveyed who said so: Must-haves Internet service: 80.9 percent Cell-phone service: 64.1 percent Basic cable/satellite: 60.5 percent Discount apparel: 43 percent Haircuts, colors: 40 percent Expendables Luxury handbags: 92.2 percent Satellite...

By BARBARA HOBEROCK World Capitol Bureau Published: 1/16/2009 9:56 AM Last Modified: 1/16/2009 5:59 PM OKLAHOMA CITY - Lawmakers will have about $600 million less to spend on the state budget for fiscal year 2010, Gov. Brad Henry said. “There are going to be some cuts,” Henry said Friday. “State agencies need to be aware of that. They need to brace for the cuts. It is going to be a very challenging fiscal environment and many tough decisions will be made.” The governor said he will do everything he can to preserve jobs and avoid layoffs or furloughs. The state...

U.S. Highway 281 Presentation >> Priority 1: Spend $75 million to build five overpasses in Falfurrias.>> Priority 2: A $13 million Ben Bolt overpass at Farm-to-Market Road 2508 is proposed to create a safer school zone and eliminate another traffic barrier.>> Priority 3: Dedicate anywhere from $40 million to $104 million to build tolled relief route around Premont or upgrade the existing route with tolled freeway lanes.>> Priority 4: A $50 million project in George West to build connectors to U.S. Highway 59 and Interstate 37.McALLEN -- Whether the route is eventually called Interstate 69 or the Trans-Texas Corridor, four...

Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson wants to curb government spending by halting federal hiring. If elected, Thompson said, he would stop government agencies from acquiring new personnel for one year and his administration would perform senior-level assessments of agency priorities. “This will give a new administration time to assess its personnel requirements in order to ‘right size’ the federal workforce,” according to a statement posted earlier this week on Thompson’s campaign Web site. Two other candidates have promised to reshape the federal workforce. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he would not rehire half the positions that will...

Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer have been complaining for a week now about an $80 million cutback in New York City's anti-terrorism funding by the Department of Homeland Security. But it turns out that they both voted to make substantial cuts in the city's terrorism funding last year. According to Newsday, the Democratic duo backed a $95 million cut last December in funding from the Centers for Disease Control for bioterrorism programs around the nation. Of that amount, approximately $3 million would have gone directly to New York City. Mrs. Clinton and her Democratic co-hort actually wanted to cut...

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's plan for the Navy calls for buying fewer ships, while China, a potential security hot spot, is increasing and repositioning its fleet. It's a prospect that concerns some lawmakers. The plan is contained in Bush's 2006 budget proposal, which Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Thursday defended, saying the military was closely watching China's moves but that the U.S. Navy remains the pre-eminent fleet. "The United States Navy ... is the Navy on the face of the Earth that is a true blue water navy," Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "On the other hand,...

National NFRA: US Government Votes to Raise Oil Prices in OPEC CIA AND OTHER U. S. INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES HELP OIL CARTEL OPEC IN OIL PRODUCTION CUTBACKS TO SKYROCKET OIL PRICES WORLDWIDE By Carl Olson U. S. intelligence agencies have a duty to assist occupied Iraq and its oil cartel Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. "The President and Congress should reveal what help American spy agencies have provided to OPEC in causing skyrocketing oil prices," stated Carl Olson, Chairman of State Department Watch, a nonpartisan foreign policy watchdog group headquartered in Washington, D. C. "The American public does not deserve to...

<p>Welfare-to-work grants, therapy for developmentally disabled people and projects to relieve traffic congestion would all take cuts under a proposal that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to submit to the Legislature today.</p> <p>Overall, the Republican governor's proposal would save the state $1.9 billion this year and about the same amount in the following fiscal year.</p>