With Fuel Prices Plummeting, Why Do Airfares Remain High?

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Credit - Fox News

Credit – Fox News

First time in more than five years, you can actually smile when you fill up, as gas prices fall below $2.80 per gallon.

You aren’t smiling, though, when you go online or call a travel agent to book an airline ticket these days. Prices seem to know only one direction: up. It’s not just the price of the ticket, as consumers get hit with a myriad of fees that know no limit.

If you want to board early you’ll have to pay up. Want a seat that won’t crush your knees and you’ll have to pay up again. How about food? There’s a fee there too.

With airlines earning record profits this year, while their fuel costs are plummeting, you’d think you might actually get a break on your next flight. Think again…

There’s a little bit of hope on the horizon as airfares are forecast to drop in 2015, but don’t get too excited. We are looking at an average drop in fares of 5 percent after some markets have seen their fares go up by 70 percent or more over the past two years.

Read more from this story HERE.

How 'Grey's Anatomy' Just Elevated the Value of Life

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Photo: Bob D’Amico/ABC

Photo: Bob D’Amico/ABC

It’s one of the longest-running, popular dramatic televisions shows of all time.

“Grey’s Anatomy” has been a cultural staple in the lives of millennials for the past 10 years. Many of us feel like we’ve grown up with Meredith Grey, McDreamy and friends—and the show has had some truly unbelievable story lines over the years.

And now, the show’s writers took on a real-life emerging medical procedure—fetal surgery.

It’s a rare but increasing practice that is saving the lives of babies with birth defects such as spina bifida and brain tumors—while still inside their mother’s womb.

There is an underlying message in any conversation about human life before birth. That is the intrinsic value of life at all stages, including the tiniest of humans just trying to make it through pregnancy.

In a country where it’s legal to end that life without consequence, fetal surgery raises an uncomfortable reality for supporters of abortion.

Read more from this story HERE.

Poll: More Americans Hearing Good News About Jobs

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Photo Credit: Tax Credits/flickr

Photo Credit: Tax Credits/flickr

For the first time since the financial crisis began, as many Americans are hearing good news about the job market as bad news, according to a poll released Tuesday.

Twenty-six percent of people surveyed by the Pew Research Center said that they were hearing mostly good news and 25 percent said they were hearing mostly bad news about the nation’s job situation. Forty-five percent said they were hearing a mix of both good and bad news.

It marks the first time that roughly the same number of Americans have said they are hearing good news as bad about jobs since the poll question was introduced in 2009.

The poll comes as the unemployment rate sits at 5.8 percent and gas prices continue to fall. President Obama is touting the economic rebound as a key part of his legacy. Republicans, though, say that millions of Americans have given up looking for jobs and are no longer in the workforce.

See poll results HERE.

Read more HERE.

Wash Post: And the Biggest 'Pinocchios' of the Year Go To…

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Screen Shot 2014-12-16 at 2.30.35 AMIt’s time for our annual round-up of the biggest Pinocchios of the year.

The midterm elections, of course, dominated our coverage of false claims, as an avalanche of negative ads tumbled across televisions screens. Some of those ads, which made it onto our list of the worst campaign ads, have the dubious honor of also appearing on this list.

This year, we are also highlighting the bipartisan failure of politicians in both parties for failing to accurately describe the impact of the Affordable Care Act. Democrats such as President Obama and Republicans such as House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) either inflated or deflated the numbers to a ridiculous extent. (Before anyone asks, Obama’s “if you want to keep your plan” was on last year’s list)…

Obama: “Republicans have filibustered 500 pieces of legislation”

President Obama, a former senator, got quite a few things wrong here. He spoke of legislation that would help the middle class, but he was counting cloture votes that mostly involved judicial and executive branch nominations. Moreover, he counted all the way back to 2007, meaning he even included votes in which he, as senator, voted against ending debate — the very thing he decried in his remarks. At best, he could claim the Republicans had blocked about 50 bills, meaning he was off by a factor of ten.

Read more from this story HERE.

Texas to Become an Open Carry State?

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Credit - AP

Credit – AP

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Long depicted as the rootin’-tootin’ capital of American gun culture, Texas is one of the few states with an outright ban on the open carry of handguns.

That could change in 2015, with the Republican-dominated Legislature and Gov.-elect Greg Abbott expected to push for expanded gun rights.

“If open carry is good enough for Massachusetts, it’s good enough for the state of Texas,” Abbott said the day after his election last month.

And if Texas, which allows concealed handguns, embraces open carry — rolling back a 140-year ban — it would be the largest state to have done so.

Open carry drew wide support in the 2014 statewide election, and at least six bills have already been filed for the upcoming session, which starts in January. Abbott has already pledged to sign one into law if sent to his desk.

Read more from this story HERE.

Senate Approves Obama's Anti-Gun Surgeon General Nominee

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Credit - Newsy

Credit – Newsy

The Senate on Monday approved President Obama’s nomination of Dr. Vivek Murthy to serve as U.S. surgeon general, despite opposition from Republicans and some Democrats over his support for gun control and past statements that gun violence is a public health issue.

Murthy, 37, a physician at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and instructor at Harvard Medical School, won confirmation on a vote of 51-43. He’s a co-founder of Doctors for America, a group that has pushed for affordable health care and supports Obama’s health care law.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said most of Murthy’s career has been spent as an activist focused on gun control and other political issues, rather than on treating patients. “Americans don’t want a surgeon general who might use this position of trust to promote his own personal campaign against the Second Amendment of the Constitution,” Barrasso said.

Supporters said Murthy is well-qualified and noted his promise not to use the position as a bully pulpit for gun control.

The nation has been without a Senate-confirmed surgeon general since July 2013. The surgeon general does not set policy but is an advocate for the people’s health.

Here is the Roll Call.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rand Paul Introduces Bill to Undo Executive Amnesty

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has filed a bill seeking to repeal President Obama’s executive order that delays deportation of five million immigrants, the Courier Journal reported Saturday.

Paul’s bill, “Preventing Executive Overreach on Immigration Act,” is companion legislation to a House bill passed last week from Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.)

The Kentucky Republican’s proposal, posted on his website Friday, prohibits the president from using discretion when determining who to deport.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Senator Paul Introduces Legislation to Prevent President Obama’s Executive Amnesty

Senator Rand Paul today introduced the Preventing Executive Overreach on Immigration Act. This is companion legislation to Congressman Ted Yoho’s bill (H.R. 5759) that passed the House of Representatives on December 4, 2014 on a 219-197 vote.

This legislation would end President Obama’s executive action on immigration and restore the Congress’ constitutional role as the body to craft legislation. Article I of the Constitution places the legislative powers in Congress. The President does not have the power under the Constitution to rewrite immigration laws to exempt classes of people from a law that was passed by Congress and signed into law.

“I believe that the Constitution is clear that the legislative power resides in Congress. The President is not a king and he does not have the power to enact laws then execute his own laws. Our Constitution is being violated by this executive order and other actions by the Obama Administration to govern by executive fiat,” Sen. Paul stated.

A copy of the legislation can be found HERE.

Read more from this story HERE.

Russian Bear Back on the Prowl: Is NATO Ready?

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Photo Credit: CNN

Photo Credit: CNN

BRUSSELS AND STOCKHOLM — A famous 1984 Ronald Reagan presidential campaign commercial warned voters that “there is a bear in the woods.”

It was a reminder that the Soviet Union was a dangerous adversary and that America needed a strong military to oppose the Russian “bear.”

In 2014, there is a bear in the woods again. But this time, NATO and Western Europe seem unprepared.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Western Europe began to disarm. Now, it’s scrambling to rearm.

When a suspected Russian sub was found lurking in Swedish waters in October, Sweden, a NATO “partner,” was unable to find it, perhaps because it scrapped its anti-submarine helicopters.

Read more from this story HERE.

Falling World Oil Prices Wreak Havoc With Alaska State Budget

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Getty Images

Getty Images

As Allen Newton, 58, filled his ice-caked Ford Expedition for $3.15 a gallon, he happily tried to remember the last time gasoline was so cheap here in Alaska’s biggest city.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Newton said Sunday afternoon, breath steaming outside a downtown gas station.

At the same time a few blocks away, freshly elected Gov. Bill Walker met with his new bipartisan Cabinet. He was talking about oil prices too.

A crash in Alaska North Slope crude prices that echoes a worldwide drop in the price of oil has raised the possibility of multibillion-dollar deficits in a state where 88 cents of every dollar spent by state government comes from oil production.

Alaska crude hit a four-year low of $60.80 a barrel Thursday, a collapse that threatens jobs, public services and some of the ambitious infrastructure projects needed to harness and navigate the state’s vast natural landscape. State officials are now projecting a $3.5-billion shortfall in funding the state’s original spending plans. (Read more from this story HERE)

DeMint: Gruber Should Be Given a Medal for Honesty

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Credit: KEVIN DIETSCH/UPI/Newscom

Credit: KEVIN DIETSCH/UPI/Newscom

Key Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber has been under a hot spotlight recently for disparaging comments he made about his fellow citizens.

In a series of videos taken at various conferences and lectures between 2010 and 2013, Gruber claimed that the effects of Obamacare had to be hidden from Americans because of “the stupidity of the American voter.” The Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor said that “lack of transparency is a huge political advantage” in writing such legislation and likened its critics to “my adolescent children.”

Adding, well, injury to the insult, it’s been discovered that Gruber received almost $6 million in taxpayer dollars for his various services in designing and consulting on Obamacare.

This rolling disgrace culminated Tuesday in a particularly stern hearing by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which gave the penitent Gruber a thorough dressing-down.

Ouch.

While I hate to disagree with the formidable Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., I think Gruber should be given a medal for honesty!

Don’t get me wrong: Gruber’s erstwhile opinions about his fellow Americans are despicable. But he was only echoing a common sentiment among the American Left: You are too stupid to run your own life. It’s just rare that they tell us directly.

Read more from this story HERE.