Source: Town Hall
by Stephen Moore
“If the economy is so good, why do small business leaders feel so bad? The latest Small Business Optimism Index from the National Federation of Independent Business could hardly be more depressing. It finds that the men and women who run our 33 million small businesses and hire more than half of American workers are in a somber mood. The survey finds that small-business confidence has reached its lowest point in 12 years. Amazingly, small company CEOs are even more fearful of the future today than during the COVID-19 pandemic, when most businesses were shuttered. The confidence numbers have decreased every year President Joe Biden has been in office. … Why are small-business owners feeling so dour even at a time when the GDP is growing? I asked that question to David Malpass, former World Bank president and U.S. Treasury undersecretary under former President Donald Trump.” (04/23/24)
https://townhall.com/columnists/stephenmoore/2024/04/23/why-small-businesses-hate-bidenomics-n2638141
Source: New York Post
“A Swiss Air jet nearly crashed into four other planes at JFK Airport after a communications error put them on the runway at the same time. The Zurich-bound Swiss Air flight had been cleared for takeoff on April 17 and began rushing down the runway, but hit the brakes after noticing that air traffic control also cleared the path for four other planes, ABC 7 reports. Air traffic control audio from the airport captured the moment the Swiss Air plane was given the all clear for takeoff on runway 4L, only for the pilot to notice another plane taxiing nearby. Swiss Air praised its staff’s quick thinking in aborting the takeoff and avoiding a likely tragedy at the New York airport.” (04/23/24)
https://nypost.com/2024/04/23/us-news/swiss-air-jet-nearly-collides-with-four-other-planes-on-jfk-runway/
Source: Time
“Two Malaysian military helicopters collided and crashed during a training session on Tuesday, killing all 10 people on board, the navy said. The helicopters were rehearsing at a naval base in northern Perak state for the navy’s 90th anniversary celebration next month when the accident occurred, the navy said in a brief statement. … A video circulating on social media purported to be of the incident showed several helicopters flying low in a formation. One of the helicopters veered sideways and clipped the rotor of another helicopter, causing both to plunge and crash.” (04/23/24)
https://time.com/6969935/malaysia-navy-helicopters-collision-deaths-rehearsal/
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
“Right to Repair Catches the Car.” (04/23/24)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/04/podcast-episode-right-repair-catches-car
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Ivan Eland
“The tit-for-tat has ended for now, but Benjamin Netanyahu has many incentives to continue goading Tehran.” (04/23/24)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/iran-israel-war-2667838515/
Source: Fox News
“Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Police Department top brass condemned ‘outside agitators’ fanning the flames of anti-Israel protests at Columbia and New York University, as police made more arrests. At his usual Tuesday press conference from City Hall, Adams, a Democrat and former police officer, praised the NYPD’s response. ‘We can’t have outside agitators come in and be destructive to our city,’ Adams said. ‘Someone wanted something to happen at that protest at NYU.’ ‘People who peacefully protest for an issue, they’re not throwing bottles and chairs,’ the mayor added. ‘And so we know that we have acknowledged and saw across the country, there are people who come have nothing to do with the issue and they want to aggravate. Now, if those police officers didn’t show a high level of discipline, this could have been an ugly situation.'” (04/23/24)
https://www.foxnews.com/us/adams-nypd-blame-outside-agitators-fueling-anti-israel-protests-columbia-nyu
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“If you attend Oklahoma State University, you are, I hope, now free to speak. OSU will shut down a ‘bias response team’ instituted to harass speech on campus. We can thank a group called Speech First, which sued the school. … The settlement also requires the school to pay Speech First $18,000 for legal expenses. OSU had tried to get the lawsuit dismissed because Speech First protected the names of its plaintiffs, OSU students. Speech First’s reason for using pseudonyms is pretty commonsensical: to protect plaintiffs from retaliation. That a university with a policy of punishing students for renegade speech might also punish them for participating in a lawsuit to end this policy doesn’t seem like a farfetched concern.” (04/23/24)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2024/04/23/college-censors-squelched/
Source: Common Dreams
by Edward Ahmed Mitchell & Robert McCaw
“The spirit of Joseph McCarthy is alive and well in the halls of Congress. For proof, look no further than the Republican-controlled House education committee’s latest hearing focused on investigating allegations of antisemitism at American colleges and universities. During last week’s widely covered hearing, many committee members followed a predictable playbook: mischaracterize any pro-Palestinian student activism as antisemitic, ask incendiary ‘gotcha’ questions about imaginary incidents of antisemitism, and then pressure college leaders to silence young people who advocate for Palestinian human rights. House committee members like Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) have mastered this artform, which gives them an opportunity to go viral in right-wing media, smear pro-Palestinian students, and virtue signal that they oppose any form of bigotry even as their political party enables nearly every form of bigotry.” (04/23/24)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/house-gop-campus-antisemitism
Source: United Press International
“The city of Baltimore is blaming the the owner and manager of a merchant vessel that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge late last month of negligence. In a filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Northern Division, the city of Baltimore and its council said Grace Ocean Private and Synergy Marine ‘were grossly and potentially criminally negligent’ in their operations of the Dali container ship. The 985-foot Dali container ship is owned by Grace Ocean Private and it is managed by Synergy Marine. Early March 26, the vessel lost power shortly after leaving the Port of Baltimore and crashed into the bridge, causing it to immediately collapse.” (04/23/24)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2024/04/23/Baltimore-accuses-ship-firms-negligence/6261713860485/
Source: Antiwar.com
“US Preparing Major Arms Package for Ukraine, Attack on US Bases in Iraq and Syria, and More.” (04/23/24)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lirF-OE1jzA
