Free Republic

Florida earned its reputation as the retirement capital of the US.. A fixed income in retirement can go a lot further in some states than others .. ... To make the most of your retirement savings, you should retire in a state where the cost of living and tax rates are friendly to retirees, if you have the resources to. You should also consider factors like the quality of the state's healthcare system and the abundance of activities that you enjoy.' Colorado, which ranked second for the best state to retire in 2024, offers similarly taxpayer-friendly conditions, with no estate...

Democrats are still challenging congressional district maps nearly four years after they were drawn, hoping that the next court-ordered maps will favor them over Republicans. It looks like they will succeed in New York but fail in North Carolina. The state Democratic legislature will eventually draw the map which will take at least four Republican seats and give them to Democrats In North Carolina, three Democratic seats have been gerrymandered into extinction. The upshot from all this maneuvering is that it's a wash and neither party gains more than one or two seats. There are 28 Democrats who have already...

WASHINGTON—House lawmakers rushed to the exits just ahead of Thanksgiving, with a surge of announced retirements from members fed up with drama and partisanship on Capitol Hill. A dozen lawmakers—six Democrats and six Republicans—have said in November that they don’t plan to continue serving in Congress, the most in any month since at least 2011, based on data compiled by news site Ballotpedia. Just Tuesday, Republican Rep. Bill Johnson of Ohio, 69 years old, announced he would leave office early next year to lead Youngstown State University. The pickup in retirements comes as Republicans continue to fight a wrenching intraparty...

Family members of Keenan Anderson, a Black man who went into cardiac arrest and died earlier this month after Los Angeles police tased and shackled him following a traffic collision, gathered with several local elected officials in front of City Hall Tuesday calling for several LAPD reforms.At the briefing, organizers called for police to not be sent for minor traffic accidents, and for restrictions on the use of tasers.They also sought the release of unedited footage of Anderson’s death, an end to qualified immunity for officers and the removal of Police Chief Michel Moore, who is seeking re-appointment for a...

House Republicans are scheduled to pick up at least ten House seats due to Democrat retirements alone, according to an analysis by left-leaning Punchbowl News. Republicans are only in the minority by five seats with 30 total Democrat retirements, the largest mass exodus in three decades.

Two longtime House Democrats announced that they will retire from Congress at the end of their terms rather than seek reelection in 2022, adding to a growing number of Democrats who are leaving Congress as anxiety grows about Republicans winning back the House in 2022. Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Doyle, 68, and North Carolina Rep. David Price, 81, made retirement announcements on Monday. Doyle is the longest-serving member of Pennsylvania’s current congressional delegation, having first been elected to Congress in 1994, and was also a longtime coach for the Democrats in their annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity. “I believe the...

Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) announced Friday that he will not seek reelection, making the six-term lawmaker the latest House Republican to head for the doors. "After prayerful consideration, I have decided to retire at the end of the 116th Congress," Roe said in a statement. "Serving East Tennesseans these past 11 years has been the honor of my life, and I will be forever grateful for the trust my friends and neighbors put in me to represent them," said Roe, the top Republican on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. "As someone who practiced medicine for over 30 years, I said...

Republican Rep. Ted Yoho of Florida announced Tuesday that he will not seek another term, saying he never meant to spend more than eight years in Congress. Democrats seized upon the news as a sign of weakening morale among the GOP. Yoho, who aligned himself with the Tea Party faction of the Republican Party and has been a fierce supporter of President Donald Trump, joins at least 27 House Republicans in announcing their departures from the U.S. House. Of those, 23 aren't seeking reelection, while three have resigned and already left Congress. And one — California Rep. Duncan Hunter —...

Independent Michigan Rep. Justin Amash speculated Tuesday that some retiring Republican lawmakers may seek office again once President Trump leaves office. Amash, theorizing that numerous White House officials who have defended President Trump’s call to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN’s Erin Burnett they “feel trapped in that position.” “I hear that from my colleagues on the House floor” he added. “They wish they weren’t doing this, and frankly I think a lot of the retirements that we hear about as well are just trying to ride out this president and they might think of coming back into public office...

It has been amazing to watch the national media’s coverage of the 2020 congressional elections so far. Virtually all the coverage has contained the same message: Republicans are retiring in droves, and this must mean 2020 will be a tough election for the GOP. Headlines, such as CNN’s “Here's why members of the House GOP keep abandoning ship” and USA Today’s “More than a dozen Republicans are leaving Congress. Here are the lawmakers who aren't running again in 2020” are prefect examples of the national media narrative. The problem with this narrative is it’s misleading and incomplete. What the trivia-focused,...

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — The superintendent of the Virginia State Police is retiring, but the agency’s spokeswoman says his departure is unrelated to this summer’s violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. Governor-elect Ralph Northam made the announcement along with other administration appointments Tuesday afternoon at Richmond’s Fire Station No. 17. Colonel W. Steven Flaherty’s retirement marks the third departure in two days of a public official who had a role in responding to the deadly rally. State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said, however, that Flaherty’s retirement is unrelated. She says he had been planning to step down at the end...

BERLIN—As his convoy sliced lights flashing through the busy streets of Berlin on a recent morning, Gen. Martin Dempsey could see a good part of his own career. He could see through the tinted windows of his limousine the bombed out ruins of the World War II-era Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, and the Brandenburg Gate where the Iron Curtain once placed Germany on the front lines of the Cold War—and where as a young Army lieutenant Dempsey helped guard the border against massed Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces. Soon the convoy would arrive at the German Ministry of Defense where...

Former Pacific Fleet chief: We need full disclosure on Benghazi — now POSTED AT 9:31 AM ON OCTOBER 30, 2012 BY ED MORRISSEY Retired Admiral James A. Lyons likely pulled few punches as commander in chief of the US Pacific Fleet during his career … and he hasn’t started pulling punches now, either. In a blistering column at The Washington Times, the former commander blasts the lack of action from the US when the administration learned our consulate in Benghazi had come under attack, writing that “courage was lacking” that might have saved at least some of the four American...

As Washington looks to squeeze savings from once-sacrosanct entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, another big social welfare system is growing as rapidly, but with far less scrutiny: the health and pension benefits of military retirees. Military pensions and health care for active and retired troops now cost the government about $100 billion a year, representing an expanding portion of both the Pentagon budget — about $700 billion a year, including war costs — and the national debt, which together finance the programs. Making even incremental reductions to military benefits is typically a doomed political venture, given the public’s broad...

SANDPOINT, Idaho (AP) — About 50 trains chug through Sandpoint each day, night and day. Almost all carry cargo grain, windmill turbines, airplane fuselages, even Barnum and Bailey circus elephants. Near midnight, and then again at 2:32 a.m., Amtrak’s “Empire Builder” drops and collects passengers; Sandpoint boasts the only Amtrak stop in Idaho. “Railfans” from throughout the world travel to Sandpoint to train-watch and photograph trains roaring across the bridge over Lake Penned Aureole. It’s a magnificent meeting of water, mountain and machine. Sandpoint traces its vital beginning to the railroads, and the railroads might be one key to its...

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters today that the Tea Party movement is making some members of Congress mull retirement. “Do I think the negative atmosphere that has been created by the Tea Party and by others certainly goes into the thinking of members? I think it does. I think you have to honestly point out that it does,” he told reporters Tuesday. Hoyer was responding to questions about Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak’s decision last week to retire rather than seek another term.

Sure looks like a lot of the Democrat incumbents have seen the handwriting on the wall, and have realized that their days in Congress are numbered. They have been weighed in the balances by their constituents, and are found wanting. As a result, Democrat incumbents are dropping like flies. The latest? Illinois Sen. Evan Bayh,who joins Patches Kennedy of RI, Chris Dodd of CT, and Sen. Byron Dorgan of ND in unexpected retirement. Next on the list could be my own representative, William Delahunt of Massachusetts, who, after Scott Brown swept to a Senate victory last month, and amid some...

U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s abrupt announcement that he’s not seeking re-election to Congress has gleeful Republicans eyeing incumbent New England Democrats and asking, “Who’s next?” “Long-term incumbents who don’t have a fire in their belly are in trouble,” said GOP consultant Ron Kaufman, in response to news the Rhode Island congressman is stepping aside. “There’s an anti-incumbent fever, and that helps Republicans.” In Massachusetts, the National Republican Congressional Committee - tasting victory after the come-from-behind Senate win of Scott Brown last month - has targeted U.S. Rep. William Delahunt and U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas - both from districts where Brown...

Cannot post. Here is the link:http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&sid=aFJd7ViPkXQg

The Federal Aviation Administration. The Social Security Administration. The National Science Foundation. The Treasury Department. All could lose as much as a quarter of their employees by 2012, mostly because of retirements. They are not alone. Across the government, about a third of full-time employees will retire in the next five years, according to estimates prepared by the Office of Personnel Management. The turnover could be even higher in the ranks of federal executives and supervisors. From the start of the Bush administration, agencies have been preparing for the churning that will be caused by the baby boom retirement wave....