| Middle-class autoworkers cling to way of life amid benefit cuts
Just two weeks after his 18th birthday, Randy Horter started his first factory job, helping make clutches and air conditioning systems at an auto parts plant. Since then, the 49-year-old Chrysler line worker has cobbled together a career working at various manufacturing plants and made a nice, middle-class life with his wife, Candace, who works at the same Chrysler plant in Belvidere, Ill. The couple earns about $75,000 a year, unless one or the other is laid off. They own two used cars and their home. Between them, they raised five children, now grown, and were hoping to start preparing for retirement. .
Colorado can lead the way on warming
Ritter could bomb Colorado back to the stone age and completely and totally destroy our economy by cutting the state's CO2 footprint to 0 and have zero effect on the global climate.2. Coal is our largest energy resource. Cheap reliable energy is the key to economic power and job creation. One of the poor developing counties that you lament is China. China is driving up the global price of coal because they are using so much coal that they must import. So the US will get less competitive and China more competitive with zero effect on Global Warming.3. US hydro power plants over 30MW are not considered renewable and cannot claim CO2 credits. China and other countries around the world are able to sell CO2 offset credits from their large hydropower plants. Again China will be economically enriched by large scale hydro development when the USA is afforded no such opportunity.
Key West: The southernmost slump
The weather has been cold and snowy in parts of the North and Midwest,'' she said. ``We're hoping they are getting tired of it by now and will come visit.'' Some already have, like Tina and David Cosworth of Wisconsin, who said they decided just last month to come to Key West because ``it looked warm on the map.'' ''Tourism is our lifeblood,'' Panico said. ``This should make us appreciate our visitors, and be kinder to them.'' .
The incredible, edible ice cube?
When Kyle Burkhalter gets up in the morning, he goes into the kitchen and fixes himself a nice cup of ice. The 24-year-old director of research for a Web site chews the ice in the car on his way to work in Atlanta. He downs two or three more cups before lunch. He orders ice from drive-thru windows and dips into the office ice machine. Sometimes, his tongue gets so numb he can barely talk to clients. Still, he munches on. "It's something that you want to do and you think about doing on a constant basis," he says. Ice isn't just for chilling drinks anymore, or for packing fish and treating sprains. It's a hot snack. Some Sonic Drive-In franchises sell it in cups and in bags to go. Ice-machine makers are competing to make the best chewable ice, with names like Chewblet, Nugget Ice and Pearl Ice.
Illegal Alien Advocates Ignore the Real Problem
Two United States Catholic bishops have written to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, asking the agency to adopt policies aimed at assisting families and communities affected by immigration raids. Normally I do not engage in discussions relating to religion, but this issue should be important for all Americans, regardless of their religious orientation. I recently testified before the Indiana State Senate about a bill (SB 335) that would enable the state of Indiana to revoke the business license of any business that repeatedly hires illegal aliens, and provides other measures to enable that state to do the job the federal government won't do where immigration is concerned. During the hearing, I listened to a representative of the Catholic Church talk about the need to honor the dignity of the "undocumented immigrants." For the Catholic Church to take a stand on an issue that has such extreme implications for national security is outrageous. What is also outrageous is the fact that while the Church decries the lack of dignity that the arrest of illegal aliens represents (in the Church's judgment), why is the Church conspicuously absent at those factories and other work sites where illegal aliens are horribly treated? Why is the Church not showing up to protest the terrible conditions under which illegal aliens often live and work? During my long career at the former INS, I found (on many occasions) illegal aliens living in abject squalor.
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