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Austin's ranking on a list of best places to live in the United States has dropped for the third consecutive year. The capital of Texas ranked No. 40 of 150 cities on U.S. News & World Report's "Best Places to Live in the USA" list for 2023-2024, which was released this week. Austin ranked No. 1 on the list from 2017 to 2019. It dropped out of the top 10 for the first time last year as the city's growth made it more expensive and increasingly prone to violent crime and homelessness.

Ann Arbor, Mich., was ranked the best place to live in the United States, according to a new review of cities most frequently cited on national lists. The city, located to the southwest of Detroit, is home to around 121,000 residents and the public University of Michigan. The region’s low crime rates, diverse job market, and growing technology industry helped push Ann Arbor to the top of the list. The Michigan city was followed by Raleigh, N.C.; Huntsville, Ala.; Fayetteville, Ark.; and Colorado Springs, Colo., respectively. Researchers based the list on 10 different rankings compiled by Business Insider, Travel +...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Denmark’s prime minister announced Friday that theaters, cinemas, concert halls, amusement parks, museums and art galleries across the country will be closed down under new restrictions to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the measures also require stores smaller than 2,000 square meters (21,528 square feet) and restaurants to limit their number of customers. Restaurants must serve their last meals and alcoholic beverages at 10 p.m. and close at 11 p.m.

Council President Lisa Bender told CNN that with the nine votes the city council members would have a veto-proof majority of the council's 13 members. Sunday's pledge was an acknowledgment that the current system is not working, Bender said. "(We need) to listen, especially to our black leaders, to our communities of color, for whom policing is not working and to really let the solutions lie in our community," she said. Pressed for details on what the dismantling might look like, Bender told CNN she was looking to shift police funding toward community-based strategies and that the city council would...

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — At least two Orange County polling locations ran out of GOP primary election ballots, voters reported Tuesday. The Errol Estate polling location in Apopka ran out of ballots at about 9:30 a.m., but was later restocked, Orange County Elections Supervisor Bill Cowels said. The Word of Life Church, also in Apopka, ran out and frustrated voters worried they would not have time to vote later if the problem wasn’t resolved quickly.

New York - The United States is stepping in to help bail out another American industry -- chicken farmers and meat processors. The nation's chicken industry is having a difficult year. Chicken producers are struggling with higher costs of running their business at the same time that consumers are buying less meat. This has created a glut of chicken products in the market. Total chicken production in the first half of 2011 rose 4% compared to the same period a year ago, while demand for chicken has cooled, (Snip) The Department of Agriculture, keenly aware of these issues, announced Monday

Well, Florida pastor Terry Jones has gone and done it. The evangelical minister, who threatened last September 11 to burn a copy of the Koran and then backed down in the face of public pressure, has made good on his incendiary promise. With 30 people present as witnesses, he set fire to a copy of the embattled religious text. And, as happens in the event of real or imagined slights, the other shoe summarily dropped. No sooner had Jones fired up his Bic than an Islamic “court” in Pakistan found him guilty of the crime of desecrating the religion’s most...

In their latest Business Review, Harvard, that fashion-obsessed place a quick private plane ride north of us, had an analyst assess the monetary value Michelle Obama has on fashion labels she wears publicly. Apparently when Michelle wears something, that company's stock spikes upward. If it's not the label seeing a gain, stores that carry the labels, like Saks, stand to benefit. From November 2008 to December 2009, David Yermack counted that Michelle made 189 public appearances, and wore items by or sold at 29 publicly traded companies, including J.Crew, the Gap, Dillard's, and DSW.

"Welcome to Relocate America's TOP100 Places To Live! 2009 marks our twelfth year compiling our annual list of the best places to live in the United States. Relocate America helps home buyers and sellers access relocation resources that make moving easier. The Relocate America team reviews local economy, housing and other essential statistics important to making key real estate buying decisions. Throughout the calendar year, we accept nominations for cities & towns throughout the country to be considered as a "top place to live". The nominating parties must include their own reasons why they feel their city should make the...

Great jobs, schools, housing—these 10 small cities have all that and more Chances are, you love the corner of the nation your family calls home. And that’s exactly as it should be. But let’s face it: Certain towns have more of the things that make a place great for raising a family and building a rich life—like plentiful jobs, excellent schools, scenic beauty and houses that won’t suck away your last dime. As we do every year, we set out to identify those communities that just seem to have it all. We analyzed the nation’s small cities, those with populations...

This is a video about a true story that happened many years ago in the late 50’s. The place was a small town in Rhode Island, called Chepachet. The song in the video is, I Have Everything, sung by Evangelist, Ezekiel Cash.

Al-Qa'eda places recruiting ads By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor (Filed: 08/10/2005) Al-Qa'eda is advertising on the internet for recruits to boost its "virtual jihad", where the terrorist group recruits fighters, shares tactics and spreads its extremist message. Its propaganda arm, the Global Islamic Media Front, says it has "vacant positions" for those wanting to help with producing videos and assembling footage of militants in war zones, including Iraq. A website showing attacks on US troops with jokey sound effects It also seeks candidates with "excellent" language skills in English and Arabic, the London-based Arabic daily, Asharq Al Awsat, reports....

WHO DIED AND left Cindy Sheehan in charge? Not her son, Casey. When he was killed in Iraq, he left only a bereaved, bereft mother. We put her in charge — the press, the politicians, the people. We put her in charge not just of her own message and her mission, which is all she had asked for, but we cranked up her voice to equal volume with the man she's calling out: POTUS himself, George W. Bush. "We" are the TV bloviators who prefer talking-head chatter to the shoe-leather work of reporting; the only shoe leather some of them...

Macedonia's Megalithic Kokino Observatory Places 4th on NASA List 11/05/2005 Kokino Observatory in Macedonia, discovered two and a half years ago, has placed fourth on the NASA list rating old observatories. Explorations aimed at learning more about the observatory resume next month. By Marija Lazarova for Southeast European Times in Skopje -- 11/05/05 Macedonia's Megalithic Kokino Observatory is more than 3,800 years old. NASA has ranked it the fourth oldest in the world. Macedonia's Megalithic-era Kokino Observatory is located 1,030m above sea level on the Tativec Kamen Summit near Kumanovo. Archaeological and astronomical analyses have shown that the observatory is...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Americans had a brand new view of the world just in time for Geography Awareness Week November 14-20. The National Geographic Society, which hosts the annual event, has just published the eighth edition of its Atlas of the World. The Society made more than 15,000 changes from the previous version, issued five years ago. In addition to traditional maps, the book contains country-by-country profiles of political and economic data, as well as maps of cultural aspects - such as religions and languages. Chief cartographer Allen Carroll says the new edition had to venture beyond the customary political maps. "I’ve always...

Firebomber Shot and Wounded in Burka (IsraelNN.com) A firebomber was shot and wounded by IDF troops in the Arab village of Burka in the Shomron on Monday night. There were no reports of injuries to soldiers.

TAMPA - No one lives on the island anymore. The tiny, mangrove-covered speck of land near the Little Manatee River in Ruskin once bustled with bodies and saw blades, as workers bled pines for turpentine and hacked them for timber.Many of these workers, local experts think, were black convicts sent by the state to labor without pay in the hellish turpentine camps of the early 20th century.For as long as many locals can remember, the island has served chiefly as a landmark for boaters navigating local bays, its history and official name, Negro Island, largely forgotten.But like equally obscure swamps,...

G'day, The leftist rabble is planning huge anti-war protests across the nation next weekend. Their propaganda state that Bush is in this for the oil, to finish off his daddy's war, they want to free Mumia, they state that SUV's are evil, they employ signs that say "F*** Bush", they use signs w/ pics of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and label them "the real axis of evil." Another fairly prevalent sign is "Regime change begins at home." Counter these with the following: No blood for oil? Drill ANWR. Keep a Caribou warm. Give Pizza Chants. Fry Mumia! One Iraqi Nuke Can...

25 Signs You're in Wisconsin 1.   Cheeseheads.2.  At least two or three watering holes per community, no matter how small.3.. And the bars by the paper mills open for business at 6:30 AM. 4.  The new Wal-Mart is right by a large dairy farm.5.  4 seasons: Winter, Waiting for spring, Almost summer, and Deer Season.6.  Snowmobiles crossing the highway 3 feet in front of oncoming traffic.7.  The local spices are salt, pepper, and ketchup.8.   Cheese curds.9.  They start the kids on beer at age 510.  The frozen lake is wall-to-wall with fishing shanties.11.  A lot of people know...