Category: Economy

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Winning. Reuters: Newsmax Is Top US News Brand

Newsmax is growing. Getty Photo

Winning. Reuters: Newsmax Is Top US News Brand

A new Reuters study found that Newsmax is one of the influential news brands in the U.S.

Earlier this week, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism released its annual Digital News Report, surveying 100,000 people across 47 countries.

The Reuters U.S. survey found Americans are turning to just 12 news brands offline for news.

And Newsmax was one of them.

Reuters found that 8% of Americans — about 25 million Americans — turn to Newsmax for their news at least weekly.

Newsmax ranked close to well-known news brands like The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and The New York Times.

“Newsmax’s rise is even more stunning considering the newness of our brand, Big Tech efforts to thwart us, and several virtual TV distributors still keeping us from their subscribers,” Chris Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax, said.

Newsmax started as a digital media company in 1998 and a decade ago launched a cable news channel.

Today, the cable channel is available on all major cable systems and through its proprietary app on Newsmax+.

Newsmax also launched Newsmax2, a streaming news channel.

The Reuters study also found that Newsmax is taking close to 30% of Fox News’ total audience.

The Reuters study did not include Newsmax’s significant reach online through its popular app, its website Newsmax.com, and its massive social media following on platforms like Facebook, X, and Truth Social.

Newsmax estimates it reaches 40 million American regularly through all its platforms.

Other surveys have also found Newsmax’s brand is rising and resonating among U.S. consumers.

Last year, the Economist/YouGov annual survey of Trust in Media found Newsmax was among the most trusted cable news brands, ranking with outlets like CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and Bloomberg.

Last week, Newsmax announced that it plans to make a public offering later this year with a listing on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq.

The company cited significant investor interest and its strong growth in ratings and revenues as helping to make the decision to go public.

Newsmax said its revenues have grown over 330% since 2019 and its cable TV and online ratings have been strong.

Nielsen reported that in 2023 Newsmax was the only cable news channel to see significant ratings growth across all dayparts, making it the fourth-highest-rated cable news channel in the nation.

Article originally was found on Newmax

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Biden Biden Cartel California. Economy Education Elections Government Overreach Lies Links from other news sources.

California stories that are being ignored.

News You can use.

California stories that are being ignored.

Stories that need to be covered by the MSM.

  1. CA Democrats Plan Mass Release of Criminals from Prison in State Budget
  2. WATCH: CA Democrats Propose Massive Release of Criminals!
  3. Latest FBI 2022 Stats Prove Massive Crime Wave in California
  4. WATCH: CA Says Criminals Can’t Be Asked to Do Work in Prison?!
  5. Alarming Spike in Terror Risk at Border in California

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America's Heartland Biden Biden Cartel Commentary Economy Links from other news sources. Unions

Yes Virginia, you have a right to Unionize, and a company has a right to close down. Winning.

Losers force company to close three locations.

Yes Virginia, you have a right to Unionize, and a company has a right to close down. Winning.

Let me see if I got this straight. Company pays between $20- $25.00 an hour, offers hospitalization and dental, and the employees vote to unionize.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

Feibush, who met with available staff in person Monday afternoon, called the shutdown a difficult decision, citing rising costs, reduced sales, and the expiration of leases for a business that he said was never profitable during its 13 years.

”But we pushed forward because we understood the positive impact we were making in our communities and the importance to maintain a level of compensation and benefits … that you each deserved,” he wrote in an email announcing the decision to staff who did not attend Monday’s meetings.

Combined with financial and logistical headwinds, however, “the administrative and legal costs associated with your desire to organize has regrettably moved us beyond any cost that we could sustain,” he wrote.

Employees at a Philadelphia coffee chain may now be regretting their decision to form a union.

Just one week after staff at the OCF Coffee House informed him of their intention to unionize, owner and real estate developer Ori Feibush confirmed that he would be closing all three locations down.

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Stories the MSM sometimes ignores.

MSM ignoring articles.

Stories the MSM sometimes ignores. We see articles that at times are ignored by the MSM or are spun in a way that don’t give you all of the facts. Below are ten of these articles.

#10 – Mainstream outlet features “excess deaths” and “COVID vaccines” in the same headline.

#9 – Trump hater crumbles on air when confronted with one simple question.

#8 – Reporter catches Biden campaign in a lie and brings all the receipts.

#7 – Ex-CDC director says vaccine mandates were a “terrible idea,” along with a number of other stunning COVID admissions.

#6 – Laughter erupts as Dr. Phil stuns Trump critic with one clear fact.

#5 – Biden’s allies officially freak out as his mental decline proves to be very real and serious.

#4 – Arizona GOP files bombshell lawsuit after discovering up to 1.3 million illegal voters.

#3 – Tucker Carlson gives the most reasonable explanation ever on why he chose not to get vaccinated.

#2 – Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs gets busted in massive $400,000 bribery scandal.

#1 – The World Health Organization warns a “new strain” of bird flu “has jumped” to humans with “potential for high public health impact.”

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Yes Virginia, If Trumps court cases are allowed in the debates, so are Biden’s China contacts and his sons charges.

Biden joins an elite class.

Yes Virginia, If Trumps court cases are allowed in the debates, so are Biden’s China contacts and his sons charges. Below is what some say is a partial list of what Trump and Biden want covered in the debate.Biden’s campaign made public their wish list last week:

  1. The Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade
  2. Trump’s claim of a rigged 2020 election
  3. Trump’s economic plan

That’s a far different wish list than Trump’s campaign:

  • Biden’s response to a porous southern border
  • The lack of law and order in America’s cities
  • Rampant inflation

I would like to see the corruption in the DOJ covered. Also if Trumps court cases are brought up, then so should the Hunter laptop and Hunter and Joe’s family cases and Chinese business dealings.

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But Joe said the economy is growing. GDP continues to tank.

Economy is tanking. AP Photo/Alex Brandon

But Joe said the economy is growing. GDP continues to tank.

Joe keeps on telling us how good things are, but the numbers tell another story. GDP was revised for the first quarter. See below.

The U.S. economy grew less than previously thought in the first three months of the year, expanding at an annual pace of just 1.3 percent, revised government data showed Thursday.

The downward revision was primarily driven by data showing that consumer spending grew by significantly less than previously estimated.

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Life in 1960s America, By the Numbers.

Smoke um if you got them. redit: PhotoQuest/ Archive Photos via Getty Images

Life in 1960s America, By the Numbers.

The 1960s were some of the most significant years in American history. The decade saw the Civil Rights Movement and a rising counterculture that reimagined the shape of the American social fabric. Pop music exploded like never before with the British Invasion led by the Beatles and Rolling Stones, but the ’60s were also an intense era of war and political violence.

The decade’s most monumental moments tend to be widely covered, and the sheer number of historic events during this time almost create the impression that every moment was imbued with turbulence. But while the tumult of the decade played out on the evening news in homes across America, many people were still living normal everyday lives — albeit lives that looked quite different from our modern lifestyle. The following numbers offer a snapshot of day-to-day life in 1960s America.

Credit: PhotoQuest/ Archive Photos via Getty Images

42% of Adults Were Smokers

Smoking was still widespread in the middle of the 20th century. The smoking rate in the U.S. reached a peak of 47% of adults (including 50% of doctors!) by the end of 1952. Though cigarette sales declined somewhat in 1953 and 1954 amid growing health concerns, the introduction of the filtered cigarette created a rebound. Through the early years of the 1960s, the smoking rate held steady at 42% of adults. On January 11, 1964, Surgeon General Luther L. Terry published the first report of the Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health, a landmark event that brought the link between smoking and disease front and center in the American consciousness. Smoking has been on an overall downward trend ever since: As of 2021, smoking has declined to 11.5% of adults.

Credit: Bettmann via Getty Images

The Average Price of a Haircut Was $2.05

In 1966, the national average for the price of a men’s haircut was $1.95 ($19.03 in today’s currency). For women, it was $2.16 ($20.79 today) — unless an extravagant “permanent wave” was desired, which cost an average of $12.15 ($118.57 today). The permanent wave (or “perm”) was a multi-step process to make long-lasting curls, which required additional materials and could take between six to eight hours to complete, hence the premium cost. Chicago was the most expensive city for men to get a haircut in; the average price there was $2.48 ($24.20 today), while Dallas was the least expensive at $1.79 ($17.47 today). But interestingly, Chicago was the cheapest city for women’s haircuts — $2.08 ($20.30 today) for a conventional cut, and $11.27 ($109.98) for the permanent wave. The most expensive city for women was Washington, D.C., at $3.31 and $18.19 ($32.30 and $177.51, respectively).

Credit: H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/ Archive Photos via Getty Images

72% of Adults Were Married

At the beginning of the 1960s, marriage was still a fairly unquestioned rite of passage into adulthood. The median age for brides in 1960 was 20.1, while the median age for grooms was 24.2, and the percentage of adults who were married was a large majority: 72% in 1960. But the decade brought about sweeping social changes in attitudes toward divorce, sexuality, and parenthood, creating a downward trend in marriage that persisted into the 21st century. Data collected in 2023 shows that the current median age at first marriage is 28 for women and 30 for men, and 53% of American adults are married.

Related:Revealing Facts About 5 Celebrated Painters
Credit: Harold M. Lambert/ Archive Photos via Getty Images

The Average Price for Most Groceries Was Under $1

A single dollar bill had a lot of buying power throughout most of the 20th century. The national average price for most grocery staples in the ’60s was less than a buck: A 5-pound bag of flour was 61 cents; a dozen eggs cost 66 cents; a pound of ground beef (which was broadly referred to as “hamburger” even when not formed into a patty) was 55 cents; and a box of generic corn flakes was 32 cents. In today’s dollars, these prices equate to $5.95, $6.44, $5.37, and $3.12, respectively. With the notable exception of eggs (which have infamously inflated in cost since 2020), these equivalent prices are right in line with what we’d expect to see at a grocery store today.

Credit: Three Lions/ Hulton Archive via Getty Images

A Three-Minute Phone Call to Someone Across the Country Cost $2

Though many aspects of daily life are more expensive today than they were in the past,  phone service is one item that’s actually more affordable today than it was in the 1960s. During most of the landline era, phone calls to different regions incurred long-distance charges, based on the duration and distance of the call. In 1960, the cost for a three-minute call from New York to San Francisco was $2.25; it dropped to $1.75 by the end of 1967. With inflation, the $2 average for that three-minute call would be the equivalent of $19.89 today. A lengthier conversation could easily incur enough long-distance charges to surpass the cost of an entire month of cellphone service today.

Credit: Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields/ Archive Photos via Getty Images

75% of Typewriters Sold Were IBM Selectrics

For most of the 20th century, the typewriter was the quintessential office item. In 1946, leading manufacturer IBM set out to improve the typewriter design that had been standard since the late 19th century. IBM engineer Horace “Bud” Beattie developed a mushroom-shaped type element to replace the basket of individual typebars that manual typewriters were equipped with; it solved the problem of typebars jamming if keys were pressed in too rapid succession. Beattie and a team of engineers refined the “mushroom printer” to a spherical shape about the size of a golf ball, which allowed for a pivoting motion that made the page more stable and less prone to small shifts that could result in unwanted slanted text.

In 1954, the team at IBM developed a prototype of the new design. The type sphere was designed to be easily replaceable, allowing for switching out typefaces, thus giving the machine its name: Selectric. The Selectric was capable of printing 186 words per minute and accommodating keystrokes as quick as 20 milliseconds apart with no risk of jamming. It included ergonomic keys, and was available in eight color combinations. It took seven years from the completion of the prototype for the product to go to market, but when the Selectric went on sale on July 31, 1961, the buzz around it was instant. First-year sales hit 80,000, topping projections by 400%. For the rest of the decade and beyond, it became the new standard in offices, comprising 75% of all typewriters sold, and eventually a 94% market share for electric typewriters.

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How much have fast-food prices gone up since 2020? Price hikes at 6 popular chains.

Sacramento's favorite. Anderson, US - October 24, 2016: Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Fast Food Restaurant. Popeyes is known for its Cajun Style Fried Chicken III

How much have fast-food prices gone up since 2020? Price hikes at 6 popular chains.

The carefree days of the “Dollar Menunaire” are a distant memory. Five-dollar footlong? Forget it. As any fast-food fanatic knows, the drive-thru is no longer the greasy bastion of value it once was.

Inflation affects all consumer products and services, but each business make its own decisions when it comes to raising prices. And while some companies’ price hikes have been in line with rising wages and increasing supply costs, certain businesses — including many in the fast-food industry — have increased prices at unprecedented rates that have outpaced inflation by a significant margin.

Consumers have noticed these supersized prices at the drive-thru, and they aren’t happy. Fastflation, as it’s come to be known, refers to outsized inflation at fast-food establishments — businesses that have historically aimed to maintain low prices relative to other eateries to better serve working folks on a limited dining budget.

Fast-food price hikes by company: 2020–2024

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator, prices in general went up by around 21.5% between December 2019 (prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic issues that followed) and March 2024 (the latest month for which CPI data was available as of this article’s last update).

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  • Smaller Products, Higher Prices - What Can You Do?

  • Fast food prices soar under Biden

We looked at the prices of popular menu items at six popular fast-food chains over this same period (McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Chick-fil-A, In-N-Out Burger, Burger King, and Jack in the Box) and found that only 3 of the 30 menu items we checked didn’t go up in price by more than the inflation rate (and only a single item didn’t go up in price at all).

Below are tables listing menu prices of five popular products from McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Chick-fil-A, In-N-Out Burger, Burger King, and Jack in the Box fast-food restaurants from the end of 2019 and mid-2024, along with percentage increases.

Note:

Most of the end-of-2019 prices in this article come from archived versions of pages from fastfoodmenuprices.com, an independent company whose human team has been visiting restaurants and collecting real fast-food menu prices in person since 2013. It’s important to note that the data collected by this company may not be 100% accurate.

2024 prices are sourced directly from restaurants’ online menus where possible. For those that required a specific restaurant to be selected to view prices, a Los Angeles location on or near Figueroa Street was selected.

McDonald’s dollar menu was once the go-to option for bargain-hungry fast-food fans, but the chain’s prices have gone up more than most in recent years. Brett Jordan via Unsplash© Brett Jordan via Unsplash
McDonald’s price increases
Menu itemEnd-of-2019 priceMid-2024 pricePercentage increase

Medium French Fries

$1.79

$4.19

134.1%

McChicken

$1.29

$3.89

201.6%

Big Mac

$3.99

$7.49

87.7%

10 McNuggets

$4.49

$7.58

68.8%

Cheeseburger

$1.00

$3.15

215%

Average price increase across these 5 items: 141.4%

2024 source: McDonald’s app (Figueroa Street Los Angeles location selected)

Taco Bell’s value menu still boasts plenty of under-$2 options, including the Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito and Spicy Potato Soft Taco, both $1.19 in many locations. PJ Gal-Szabo via Unsplash© PJ Gal-Szabo via Unsplash
Taco Bell price increases
Menu itemEnd-of-2019 priceMid-2024 pricePercentage increase

Beefy 5-Layer Burrito

$1.69

$3.69

118.3%

Nachos Bellgrande

$3.29

$5.89

79%

Spicy Potato Soft Taco

$1.00

$1.19

19%

Cheesy Bean And Rice Burrito

$1.00

$1.19

19%

Crunchwrap Supreme

$3.49

$5.29

51.6%

Average price increase across these 5 items: 57.4%

2024 source: Taco Bell website (didn’t require location to be specified)

Chick-fil-A’s prices haven’t gone up quite as much as some other fast-food chains’ have, but the restaurant’s price hikes have still exceeded the rate of inflation by a significant margin. Brad via Unsplash© Brad via Unsplash
Chick-fil-A price increases
Menu itemEnd-of-2019 priceMid-2024 pricePercentage increase

Deluxe Chicken Sandwich

$3.65

$6.55

79.5%

8 Chick-fil-A Nuggets

$3.05

$5.99

96.4%

4 Chick-n-Strips

$4.39

$7.85

78.8%

Medium Waffle Fries

$1.65

$2.99

81.2%

Large Milkshake

$3.15

$5.19

64.76%

Average price increase across these 5 items: 80.1%

2024 source: Chic-fil-A website (didn’t require location to be specified)

In-N-Out has been able to keep prices lower than most fast-food chains by offering just a few products, many of which share ingredients. Kyle Smith via Unsplash© Kyle Smith via Unsplash
In-N-Out Burger price increases
Menu itemEnd-of-2019 priceMid-2024 pricePercentage increase

Double Double

$3.45

$5.65

63.8%

Cheeseburger

$2.40

$3.95

63.6%

Hamburger

$2.10

$3.50

66.7%

French Fries

$1.60

$2.30

43.8%

Shake

$2.15

$2.95

37.2%

Average price increase across these 5 items: 55%

Burger King’s iconic Whopper went up in price by 85.9% between the beginning of 2020 and the middle of 2024. Nazrin Babashova via Unsplash© Nazrin Babashova via Unsplash
Burger King price increases
Menu itemEnd-of-2019 priceMid-2024 pricePercentage increase

Whopper

$4.19

$7.79

85.9%

Bacon Double Cheeseburger

$2.29

$4.99

117.9%

Original Chicken Sandwich

$4.09

$7.59

85.6%

French Fries

$2.19

$3.89

77.6%

Shakes

$3.09

$4.99

61.5%

Average price increase across these 5 items: 85.7%

2024 source: Burger King website (Figueroa Street Los Angeles location selected)

Jack in the Box raised the prices of the five items we looked at less on average than the other five restaurants we examined. TaurusEmerald, CC-BY-SA-4.0 via Wikimedia Commons© TaurusEmerald, CC-BY-SA-4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Jack in the Box price increases
Menu itemEnd-of-2019 priceMid-2024 pricePercentage increase

Jumbo Jack Cheeseburger

$3.19

$4.99

56.4%

Homestyle Ranch Chicken Club

$4.99

$7.49

50.1%

Medium French Fries

$2.09

$3.29

57.4%

Two Tacos

$0.99

$0.99

0%

Oreo Cookie Shake

$2.79

$4.49

60.9%

Average price increase across these 5 items: 45%

2024 source: Jack in the Box website (Figueroa Street Los Angeles location selected)

Key takeaways

Below are some of the key insights we gleaned from the data examined above. Keep in mind that the following statements apply only to the 30 menu items and six restaurants listed above — not to the fast-food industry in general.

How much have fast-food prices gone up since 2020?

Prices of the items we looked at at the six restaurants listed above went up an average of 77.4% between late December 2019 and mid 2024.

Which fast-food chain raised prices the most?

Across all of the menu items listed for each of the six restaurants checked, McDonald’s raised prices more on average (141.4%) than any of the other five restaurants included in this list.

Which fast-food chain raised prices the least?

Across all of the menu items listed for each of the six restaurants checked,, Jack in the Box raised prices less on average (45%) than any of the other five restaurants included in this list.

Which item went up in price the most?

Of the 30 items checked across all six restaurants, McDonald’s Cheeseburger had the highest percentage price increase, at 215%.

Which item went up in price the LEAST?

Of the 30 items checked across all six restaurants, Jack in the Box’s Two Tacos had the lowest percentage price increase, at 0%.

Which items’ price hikes didn’t outpace inflation?

Only three items out of the 30 checked went up in price by less than the overall inflation rate between the end of 2019 and mid-2024 — Taco Bell’s Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito (19%) and Spicy Potato Soft Taco (19%), and Jack in the Box’s Two Tacos (0%).

Article was originally found here.

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Will the Chinese flag fly over a Chinese EV battery plant in Michigan? You make the call.

China rules Michigan. Feng Shufeng/VCG via Getty Images

Will the Chinese flag fly over a Chinese EV battery plant in Michigan? You make the call. This article first was posted on Breitbart.

The Michigan community of Green Charter Township on Friday lost a court battle to block Chinese-linked electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturer Gotion Inc. from building a factory near the town.

Michigan is generally friendly to Chinese investments and the Gotion project in Green Charter Township was specifically endorsed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who called it “the biggest ever economic development project in Northern Michigan.”

Gretchen Whitmer

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) delivers remarks at the SelectUSA Investment Summit on May 04, 2023, in National Harbor, Maryland. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Gotion pledged to spend $2.36 billion on the factory, which is supposed to create 2,350 jobs. The company settled on Green Charter Township, a rural community northwest of Detroit that acts as a self-governing district of Big Rapids, as the location for its battery plant. The township signed a development agreement with Gotion in August 2023.

Sentiment among the township’s residents soon turned against the factory project, in part because Gotion Inc. is a U.S. company that is wholly owned and controlled by a Chinese firm called Hefei Gotion High-Tech Power Energy Co. Ltd.

Gotion Inc. was obliged to describe this relationship in detail in its filings under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA). In those filings, and in subsequent statements by Vice President of North American Manufacturing Chuck Thelen, the company has denied being controlled by agents of the Chinese government and insisted the Chinese Communist Party will not have offices in its proposed Michigan factory.

Gotion Inc.’s planned $2.4 billion EV battery plant is to be built near Big Rapids. (Gotion, Inc.)

However, skeptical politicians and reporters in Michigan uncovered Gotion corporate documents that said the company is required to “set up a Communist Party of China organization” and ensure the implementation of Communist Party guidelines within all corporate operations. Investigative journalists discovered Hefei Gotion High-Tech employs hundreds of Chinese Communist Party members, and its CEO is a high-ranking Party official.

Thelen insisted these company documents were misunderstood or misrepresented by critics and their practical meaning was simply that the American subsidiary of Gotion was not allowed to do business in China. Somewhat awkwardly for the American branch and its CEO, Chinese state media enthusiastically celebrated the Gotion plant as a major step toward the Communist regime’s worldwide domination of the EV industry.

A controversy erupted over whether Gotion had misrepresented its relationship with the Chinese government or not, especially since the new factory would be located within a hundred miles of Camp Grayling, the largest U.S. National Guard training facility. Concerns were also raised about the plant’s compliance with wetlands regulations, and the heavy water use anticipated for large-scale battery manufacturing.

The Gotion project received the blessing of the U.S. Treasury Department Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), but that only added fuel to the controversy, as critics claimed CFIUS was derelict in its oversight duties, allowing the Gotion project to pass without full transparency by declaring the company was operating outside of its jurisdiction.

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No Virginia there’s no gas shortage. Biden admin to release 1 million barrels of gas, hoping to lower prices.

Americans losing jobs.

No Virginia there’s no gas shortage. Biden admin to release 1 million barrels of gas, hoping to lower prices.

So now out of the blue, the Biden Administration is again hitting the oil reserves because we are going in to the summer months where his policy on gas will effect Americans the most. When was the last time this was done by Biden?

During the 2022 election, President Joe Biden drew considerable scrutiny for repeated tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a bid to drive down prices. U.S. Oil and Gas Association President Tim Stewart, at the time, accused him of using the reserve “as a campaign credit card to buy down political risk for the midterms.”