In a major breakthrough for Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Jeff Bezos, the Federal Aviation Administration has granted a commercial space launch license for its New Glenn rocket. This development paves the way for the company's entry into the fiercely competitive field of national security space missions. Blue Origin joins a select group that includes Elon Musk's SpaceX and Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance, as contenders for crucial Department of Defense projects. The move represents a significant step forward for the company in securing a foothold in the lucrative market segment. The license affirms Blue Origin's readiness to challenge established leaders in the sector and reflects growing confidence in its capabilities to deliver on large-scale, government-backed space initiatives. (With inputs from agencies.)The American experiment can be summed up in one big idea: Don’t put too much power in one place. That is why the federal government has three branches — executive, legislative and judicial. Unfortunately, the modern presidency undermines that separation of powers and concentrates as much power as possible in itself. The best thing President Joe Biden can do as he leaves office is to cut the presidency back down to size. Presidential scholar Gene Healy says the public imagines the president as “a combination of guardian angel, shaman and supreme warlord of the earth.” People expect the president to say healing words at every tragedy cure diseases, manage business cycles and fight injustice worldwide. He is supposed to create millions of jobs and reimagine entire industries. No human being can meet those expectations. No wonder presidents often leave office deeply unpopular. As Biden experiences the downside of this cycle, his parting legacy could be a legitimate effort to restore the presidency and break this unpopularity curse. Biden did the same thing most presidents do: He gave himself more power. That meant more spending and regulations, which didn’t solve problems. The national debt is more than $36 trillion. Inflation is still too high, and annual regulatory burdens are now more than $15,000 per household, according to a report by my organization, the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Biden would win the lasting respect of the people with a bold parting gesture: returning legislating powers back to Congress. The executive branch now does most of the legislating. Congress passed 65 bills in 2023, but executive branch agencies issued 2,018 regulations. Additional executive branch edicts comes from utterances from regulatory agencies: guidance documents, notices and news releases. The regulatory system is opaque, expensive and counterproductive. Congress’ lack of involvement is part of the reason. Biden should return judiciary powers to courts. More than 40 regulatory agencies have their in-house court systems called administrative courts that operate outside the proper judicial branch. These agencies select their judges and pay their salaries. They set the rules for procedure and evidence and, perhaps not surprisingly, stack the deck in their favor. In these in-house agency courts, the government wins 90% of the time, compared with only about 60% of cases in regular courts. That is what it looks like when the president takes over other branches’ powers. We have checks and balances for good reason. They prevent abuse of power. Where there isn’t abuse, there is incompetence. Washington can’t even build what a bill might require because the regulatory permits and environmental reviews can take years to finish before a shovel breaks ground. Another problem is mission creep. Executive branch agencies may start with a clear purpose but can’t resist expanding those missions. Biden initiated a “whole of government” management philosophy. That meant the Federal Reserve was tasked with slowing climate change and the Environment Protection Agency with addressing economic inequality, for example. Neither agency is suited to those new tasks. Realistically, Biden won’t want to lose face by acknowledging this was a bad idea. So forcing agencies to stick to their original missions must be left to the Trump administration. Still, Biden should encourage people to expect less from their politicians. This cultural shift will take far more than a speech, but it must start somewhere. It might as well be now. The more power a president has, the more damage he can do. Each party warns about this when the other side takes power, but neither does anything about it. The least-followed rule in politics is not giving yourself any power you don’t want your opponents to have. Trump’s rhetoric on executive power is even grander than Biden’s. He has made it plain that he will use his powers to raise import taxes, go after political opponents, pressure the Federal Reserve to loosen monetary policy and grow federal debt even more. Here is a novel idea: Triumphing Roman generals traditionally had a slave stand behind them on parade who whispered into the general’s ear that he was a man, not a god. U.S. presidents could use a similar aide. So, too, could the public. Young is a senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He wrote this for InsideSources.com . Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Destination XL Group, Inc. Confirms Receipt of Non-Binding Proposal from Fund 1 Investments, LLC
Letter: United Way supports librariesThe ( ) share price has had a torrid time in 2024, falling by more than 33%. But, do regularly go through cycles, so it's possible the iron ore price could bounce back in 2025. It's impossible to predict with certainty how long the iron ore price cycle will remain deflated. China is the dominant buyer of iron ore, so the Asian superpower is a major influence on what will happen next for iron ore miners and, specifically, Fortescue shares. Let's look at the latest going on with the iron ore market for an indication of what's been happening recently. According to , the iron ore price climbed above US$106 per tonne in early December, supported by the belief of some that China will launch more financial stimulus measures during important political meetings this month. Trading Economics reported that the to "skip a readout of its regular November meeting has fuelled speculation that stimulus support could be on its way". This, as the world's second-largest economy "braces for the return of [incoming US president] Donald Trump". Trump has threatened to initiate import tariffs, including a possible on a bloc of nine nations in the Brics alliance. Turning to commentary on the steel market, Trading Economics said strong steel exports and destocking in China have also boosted steel margins, which is supporting higher production. The economics website also reported that the latest Chinese data revealed that Chinese manufacturing activity expanded for the second consecutive month in November, "further strengthening the demand outlook for iron ore." According to its global macro models and analyst expectations, the iron ore price is projected to be US$103.91 by the end of this quarter and US$97.09 in a year's time. It's notoriously difficult to predict with any certainty what will happen with the ASX mining share, but there are predictions out there. The broker UBS is pessimistic about where the Fortescue share price may trade over the next year. UBS currently has a sell rating on the ASX iron ore share, with a price target of $17.60. This implies the broker believes Fortescue shares could decline 10% within the next year. The broker adverse weather. Additionally, the sold price for its iron ore was "weaker than expected". UBS had this to say about what's next and the key catalysts for the foreseeable future: 1) Iron ore: China's policy pivot remains key, with more support expected. We do not expect a large, steel intensive stimulus, and forecast US$100/95/90t for iron ore prices [in] 2025/26/27. 2) Dec-Q: Given lower production, higher strip, higher cost; the Dec-Q takes on increased significance to determine if FY25 guidance can be met. 3) Iron Bridge: realised price will be watched given weakness mid-year. 4) Energy: FIDs [final investment decisions] [are] unlikely on major projects until the appropriate policy settings are in place. UBS has also made some projections of what financials Fortescue may achieve in the current financial years. The broker suggested and a per share of 86 cents. That projected dividend translates into a fully franked of 4.4% and a grossed-up dividend yield of 6.3%, including , at the current Fortescue share price.
CES 2025 is looming around the corner, and while the annual tech show is usually full of high-tech goodies, this year is going to be especially important for gamers. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang is hosting the big CES keynote this year, so you can expect Team Green to be going big. Likewise, we haven’t seen new graphics cards from AMD, so it’s a very strong possibility that CES is going to usher in an entirely new generation of graphics hardware . CES 2025 officially kicks off on January 7, 2025. However, the real show starts a day earlier, on January 6, when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang takes the stage for the CES 2025 keynote at 6:30pm PST. CES 2025 will wrap up around January 10. We expect announcements to happen throughout the week, as the hundreds of tech companies all vie for attention. Companies like Intel, AMD, Samsung and Sony all have their own keynotes scheduled, likely brimming with announcements of their own. There’s going to be a lot of stuff. CES, or the Consumer Electronics Show, is an annual tech convention, where tech companies big and small show off concepts and new products for the new year. Unlike some other trade shows, a big part of CES has always been concepts that give a glimpse into the future, rather than just the products we’ll see at our local Best Buy later in the year – though the latter is still a huge part of the show. You can expect everything from gaming laptops to flying cars to make an appearance at CES, though this year we suspect the former is going to be the star of the show. While CES usually has a wide variety of technology on offer, and likely will this year too, the thing we’re most interested in is new GPUs. After all, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang is hosting the big keynote that kicks the event off, and I couldn’t imagine Team Green not taking that opportunity to announce something big. We’re overdue for new graphics cards anyway. Typically, new graphics cards – both from AMD and Nvidia – release on a roughly two-year cycle. Given that the RTX 4090 launched in October 2022 and the Radeon RX 7900 XTX launched in December of the same year, we’re officially overdue for a new generation of graphics cards. It doesn’t hurt that Intel beat both of these companies to the punch with its new graphics card, the Intel Arc B580, either. With the Intel card already out in the wild, and with the company’s disappointing Core Ultra 200S processors already out, it’s less clear what Intel will have to bring to the table. The Lunar Lake architecture behind AI PCs has been out since September, and it's unlikely that Team Blue will have a follow-up to that architecture already. However, we are still waiting on a new generation of H-series processors from the company. H-series processors are typically reserved for gaming laptops, and offer substantially better performance than the chips behind your thin and light devices. If AMD does announce new graphics, it’s possible that we might at least get a sneak peak at the AMD Z2 – or whatever the follow-up to the Z1 Extreme will be called. Handheld gaming PCs have blown up over the last year or so, with hits like the Asus ROG Ally X and the Lenovo Legion Go really taking the idea popularized by the Steam Deck and running with it. MSI is heading into the show with the MSI Claw 8 AI already up for preorder, and we can’t imagine it’s the only manufacturer with a handheld to show. After all, we’re still waiting for Alienware to make its Concept UFO from CES 2020 a reality. Given that it’s been 4 years, we wouldn’t be surprised to see it make an appearance. Beyond PC gaming, though, Sony and Samsung both have major press conferences at the show. While it’s exciting to see Sony at the show, it’s likely that the company is going to focus primarily on their non-gaming segments – think TVs, audio, etc. Likewise, I don’t expect Samsung to announce new phones at the show, though with the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra being nearly a year old at this point, we could be surprised. Like any year, though, there’s no way to predict everything that will be at the show. There are hundreds of companies showing off what they’ve been cooking up, and there is always something huge that takes everyone by surprise. Luckily, because we’ll be on the ground, we’ll be updating this article with all the cool stuff we see in Las Vegas in January, so be sure to keep this page bookmarked. Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @JackiecobraSuspended Luton midfielder apologises to Hatters fans for letting them down twice
Democrats voted for more of the same on Tuesday , electing 74-year-old Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly to lead the House Oversight Committee, beating out Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , 35, despite violating existing stock trade law, according to a report. Connolly, who will oversee investigations into allegations of fraud and corruption in the federal government when President-elect Donald Trump starts his second term next month, violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act after he failed to disclose three stock transactions ahead of the 45-day reporting deadline in January 2023, a Raw Story analysis found. All three stocks Connolly failed to disclose have government contracts. They were Dominion Energy Inc ., a power generation company that provides service to several government agencies, Science Applications International Corporation , an information technology (IT) company and key contractor for the Department of Homeland Security, and Leidos , another major IT company and contractor for the Pentagon. The Virginia rep. later told the publication he was late because his financial advisers did not notify his wife, who files his congressional disclosure reports, on time about the stock sales. Another controversial report from ProPublica also found that Connolly, who championed the HEROES Act, a $3 trillion COVID-19 relief package, included "a section that will funnel money to defense and intelligence companies and their top executives." The report asserted the legislation was a "stealthy way to bail out the defense and intelligence government contracting industry and their executives at taxpayer expense," Mandy Smithberger, former director of the Center for Defense Information at the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group, told ProPublica. Originally published by Latin Times
La Salle defeats Stetson 92-77
HAMZA IGAMANE was the hero for Rangers at Fir Park as he clawed back two goals in the second half to secure a much-needed away point. But one pundit reckons the Moroccan has one of his Rangers team-mates to blame for allowing Motherwell to take a shock lead in North Lanarkshire in the first place. Advertisement 2 The ball appeared to struck the Motherwell star's arm 2 The goal was allowed to stnd following a VAR check Ibrox boss Philippe Clement is now under serious pressure in the dugout after the stalemate at Fir Park leaves his side 14 points behind Celtic . It all started to go wrong for the manager against Stuart Kettlewell's men when Apostolos Stamatelopoulos opened the scoring for the hosts, before Tawanda Maswanhise made it two before the break. It was two moments of brilliance from the Well duo which led to them gaining a shock two-goal advantage. But Hamilton Accies boss John Rankin reckons Motherwell would never have found the net through the Aussie - if Robin Propper was on his A-game. Advertisement read more rangers stories OUT OF TUNE Bizarre moment Rangers fan SINGS to Philippe Clement live on radio FIRM OFFER Football free bets for Rangers and Celtic games PLUS bonuses and sign-up offers Discussing the first goal on BBC Sportscene , Rankin has pinpointed the moment where it all went wrong for the Gers. And that was when the Dutch defender attempted to clear the ball with a header in the lead up to Stamatelopoulos' strike . The ball appeared to strike the arm of the striker from Propper's header but no free-kick was awarded by on-field referee Kevin Clancy. The whistler was then not sent to the monitor by Steven McLean in the VAR room and the goal which was eventually scored was allowed to stand. Advertisement Most read in Football DUGOUT RETURN Barry Robson appointed manager of SPFL club - 11 months after Aberdeen axe 'I'M NOT CONCERNED' Rangers boss Clement breaks silence on future after latest bad result GER WRONG I'm not a stupid manager says Philippe Clement as he shoots down 'foolish' claims 'YOU WILL LOSE YOUR JOB' Kris Boyd issues stark warning to Clement over sports science But Rankin believes Propper was adamant the Aussie international WAS going to be punished for the incident and that's why he briefly hesitated during the passage of play. The defender could be seen appealing for a free-kick, while his team-mate Dujon Sterling threw his hands up in the air as well. Addressing the incident, Rankin said: “It was the split second in the delay - Propper heads it and is almost convinced it has hit his arm. Then he has lost that yard or two through hesitation. "He is adamant it’s a handball - I can see it, it does hit his hand but it’s tucked in.” Advertisement Ex-Motherwell defender Stephen Craigan defended the match officials, adding: “It’s allowed to hit his arm, as long as it’s not in an unnatural position. And it’s close proximity.” Keep up to date with ALL t h e latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
Bluesky finds with growth comes growing pains — and bots