Seeking Alpha – by John Engle

With every tax bill there are winners and losers. Given the complexity of any major tax overhaul, it can take months or even years to figure out who those winners and losers actually are. Yet there is one indisputable winner we can point to immediately: commercial real estate investment.

On a range of points, real estate makes out like a bandit under the new law. Let’s take a look at a few of the provisions that will likely fuel the ongoing boom in commercial real estate.   Continue reading “The Big Winner Of The Tax Bill: Commercial Real Estate”

Reuters

LINCOLN, Nebraska (Reuters) – Nebraska regulators on Tuesday denied TransCanada Corp’s request to amend its route application for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline through the U.S. state, a potential setback for the company as it seeks to head off legal challenges.

The Nebraska Public Service Commission (PSC) issued an approval for the line in late November, removing what appeared to be the last big regulatory obstacle for the long-delayed project, which has been backed by U.S. President Donald Trump.  Continue reading “Nebraska regulators deny TransCanada request on Keystone XL route”

The Hill

The House on Tuesday approved the final version of the GOP’s bill to overhaul the U.S. tax code, bringing Republicans closer to getting their first big legislative win with full control of government.

The Senate is expected to pass the bill later on Tuesday, sending it to President Trump’s desk and allowing the GOP to achieve its goal of rewriting the tax code in Trump’s first year in office.

Continue reading “House passes final tax bill, edging GOP closer to win”

Wall Street Journal

U.S. fuel makers are poised to reap billions under a sweeping Republican overhaul of the tax code. But don’t expect them to expand, go on a hiring binge, or lower prices at the pump.

Refiners haven’t built any major new plants in the U.S. since the 1970s. Instead, they have been returning profits to shareholders en masse in recent years, because the country has more gasoline and diesel than it can consume.   Continue reading “Why Refiners Are Expected to Give Their Tax Savings Right Back to Shareholders”

The Oregonian – by Maxine Bernstein

LAS VEGAS — Ammon Bundy was at times on the brink of despair behind bars but said Monday he’s now at peace as he awaits a judge’s ruling on whether the stalled federal conspiracy trial against him, his father, older brother and a friend will proceed.

The 42-year-old has been staying at a relative’s home in Las Vegas, supervised with GPS monitoring and a curfew, after spending a year and 10 months in custody following his arrest in Oregon.   Continue reading “Ammon Bundy: Not surprised prosecutors under fire in Nevada standoff case”

Anti-Media – by Jake Anderson

In an interview with Bill Clinton in 2015, Jimmy Kimmel asked the former president about UFOs. “If I were President–and I never will be,” he said, drawing laughter, “the first thing I would do after putting my hand on the Bible and taking that oath to serve the country, I probably wouldn’t finish the oath, I would run to the White House, I would demand to see all the classified files on UFOs….did you do that?”

Clinton, ever the politician, gave an earnest answer, admitting that he’d always had an interest in the subject of extraterrestrials and had invested considerable effort into discovering whether they had ever visited the Earth. His answer: they haven’t. Would he tell us if they had? He would.   Continue reading “The Pentagon’s Secret UFO Research Program May Have Found Something”

Activist Post – by Nicholas West

As we continue to chart our path down the slippery slope of biometric identification for human beings, we’ve had to speculate about how far we could slide. Well, it appears that China is providing an early example that we would all be wise to take notice of.

It is now a fact that nearly all areas of the modern world have adopted some form of surveillance camera apparatus. Meanwhile, biometric identification technology has advanced to a degree where it’s now possible to merge the two and create not only a pervasive surveillance network, but a nearly real-time identification system that police can use to act upon.   Continue reading “China Accused of Using Biometric Surveillance to Send Thousands to Political Detention Camps”

Washington Post – by Laurie McGinley

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday proposed a tougher enforcement policy toward homeopathic drugs, saying it would target products posing the greatest safety risks, including those containing potentially harmful ingredients or being marketed for cancer, heart disease and opioid and alcohol addictions.

Homeopathy is based on an 18th-century idea that substances that cause disease symptoms can, in very small doses, cure the same symptoms. Modern medicine, backed up by numerous studies, has disproved the central tenets of homeopathy and shown that the products are worthless at best and harmful at worst.   Continue reading “FDA takes more aggressive stance toward homeopathic drugs”

NPR

The National Transportation Safety Board says an Amtrak passenger train that derailed from an overpass south of Tacoma, Wash., leaving at least three people dead, was traveling at 80 mph in a 30 mph zone.

At a news conference late Monday Pacific Time, NTSB board member Bella Dinh-Zarr said that the speed of the train at the time of the accident had been determined by downloading the Event Data Recorder from the train’s rear locomotive.   Continue reading “NTSB: Amtrak Washington Train Doing 80 MPH In 30 MPH Zone”

Just two weeks ago, the mayor of Lakewood (just north of Dupont where the Amtrak train derailed) warned there would be accidents if this were to go through.

KOMO News, December 4, 2017

LAKEWOOD, Wash. – City leaders gave a chilly reception to a new high-speed rail plan for Amtrak trains that starts running later this month.

The idea is to use the Sound Transit tracks that cut through the city and open them up to Amtrak trains. However, huge safety concerns remain.   Continue reading “Two weeks ago: Lakewood, WA mayor predicts deadly accidents from high-speed train service”

KOMO News

TACOMA, Wash. – An Amtrak train making the first-ever run along a new route hurtled off an overpass Monday near Tacoma and spilled some of its cars onto the highway below, killing at least six people authorities said.

Seventy-eight passengers and five crew members were aboard when the train derailed about 40 miles south of Seattle before 8 a.m., Amtrak said. An official who was briefed on the investigation also says preliminary signs indicate the Amtrak train may have struck something on the track before going off the track, according to the Associated Press.   Continue reading “At least 6 dead, scores injured after Amtrak train plunges off bridge onto I-5”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

It’s not just the ultra rich, as well as a dazed and confused Bob Corker who is set to reap a $1+ million windfall from the passage of a tax bill which he opposed until just days ago, who will benefit from the passage of tax reform: according to Goldman Sachs among the biggest beneficiaries from the GOP tax cuts are, drumroll, the big banks. In an analysis from Goldman’s Richard Ramsden, the FDIC-insured hedge fund writes that based on its “preliminary analysis of the current tax bill under consideration by  Congress, our EPS estimates for our coverage would increase by 13% on average if the US statutory rate were to be reduced to the proposed 21%, all else being equal.”  Continue reading “Goldman Finds Tax Reform Will Greatly Benefit The Big Banks”

Freedom Outpost – by Tim Brown

Washington State Representative Matt Shea met with Shari Dovale of Redoubt News and dropped a bombshell concerning the sealed hearings that are currently taking place in the Bundy Ranch trials, informing Americans about the “unethical and potentially illegal behavior” of the Bureau of Land Management when it came to dealing with the Bundy family.

Shea began by putting forth a type of disclaimer, presumably in the event that he would end up dead or “suicided.”   Continue reading “Washington State Rep Matt Shea on Sealed Hearings in Bundy Ranch Trial & Why This Could Get The Bundy Case Tossed”

Breitbart – by AWR Hawkins

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson (D) is reacting to the rising crime in her city by offering to give people groceries in exchange for their firearms.

She will do this via the kind of buyback program that Democrats in other cities have unsuccessfully implemented around the country.

On December 8, 2017, KSDK reported that St. Louis had witnessed more murders in 2017 than in any year since 1995. On December 11 the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department listed the number of murders, year-to-date, at 197.  Continue reading “St. Louis Mayor: Give Us Your Guns, We’ll Give You Groceries”

The Independent – by Tom Embury-Dennis

A 93-year-old woman was handcuffed and jailed after refusing to leave a care home she claimed was no longer accepting her rent.

Juanita Fitzgerald, from Lake County, Florida, was arrested on Tuesday after she said the National Church Residences’ Franklin House housing community had decided to “put her out” after blaming her for mould in her apartment.   Continue reading “93-year-old woman handcuffed and jailed after refusing to leave her care home”

Tech Crunch – by Devin Coldewey

Despite overwhelming opposition from Congress, technical experts, advocacy organizations, and of course the American people, the FCC has voted to eliminate 2015’s Open Internet Order and the net neutrality protections it established.

The order passed today, “Restoring Internet Freedom,” essentially removes the FCC as a regulator of the broadband industry and relegates rules that prevented blocking and throttling content to the honor system. The FTC now ostensibly has that role, but it is far from an expert agency on this topic and cannot make preemptive rules like those that have been in place for the last few years.   Continue reading “The FCC officially votes to kill net neutrality”

Fox News

The Argentinian submarine that vanished last month was being chased by a British helicopter and Chilean ship shortly before disappearing, one of the doomed vessel’s sailors told his sister in a “strange” message that was one of the last sent from the sub.

The sister’s account, made public Wednesday, was immediately blasted by Argentinian military officials as “completely untrue.” But Jessica Medina, whose brother Roberto Daniel Medina served aboard the sub, told Argentina’s La Gaceta newspaper in an exclusive interview that she received the message on WhatsApp just days before the vessel vanished Nov. 15.   Continue reading “Argentina submarine chased by British helicopter before vanishing, sailor’s sister claims”

Fox 2 News

ST. LOUIS, MO — Two police officers were shot at Thursday around 7:30am in north St. Louis County. They were hit in the chest. Their bulletproof vest may have saved their lives.  The officers are conscious and speaking.

The incident occurred in Bellefontaine Neighbors at the intersection of Chambers and Bellefontaine roads.  One suspect is barricaded in a home in the 10100 block of Bellefontaine.  He may be armed with an AR-15 rifle.  Police appear to be negotiating with him.   Continue reading “Two police officers shot in north St. Louis County; Suspect barricaded”