Free Republic

After Erik Budde mortgaged his San Carlos home 2 1/2 years ago and launched his latest startup, RVParking.com, he kept a laser-like focus on efficiency. [...] So Budde kept direct employment to a minimum and used lower cost, Web-based workers whenever possible. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/22/BU0D1F0IJ7.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0xP4BvBFm

The US trade deficit unexpectedly narrowed in March for a second month as exports climbed to a record and the value of petroleum imports declined. The shortfall in goods and services trade shrank to $62bn, the smallest since August, the Commerce Department said in Washington. The price of goods imported to the US in April jumped by the most in seven months, the Labor Department said in a separate report. Stronger European and Asian economies, along with a decline in the dollar, may spark greater demand for US exports in coming months, economists said. The smaller deficit prompted economists to...

BIRTHS TO UNMARRIED MOTHERS ARE at a record high in the United States--almost 1.5 million in 2004 alone, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. While the rising trend is of long standing, one novel factor driving up childbearing outside marriage is the growing popularity of single motherhood by donor insemination. The incidence of this "assisted reproduction," as it is called, has more than doubled in the last decade.Most public discussion of donor insemination for single women has been carried on in a neutral, positive, or breathlessly celebratory tone. Isn't it great, the thinking seems to be, that these...