A South Dakota Moderate

Cory over at the Madville Times is asking just that question based on the myriad of conflicting reports coming at us from all angles regarding our economy. It all came to a head when the jobs report came out and showed a hefty loss of over 17,000 jobs in January which was the first decline [...]

Yesterday Shell set a record for the highest profits ($27.6 Billion), and remember I said profits not revenue, ever recorded by a company in the UK. Low and behold, Exxon Mobile released their 4th quarter earnings this morning and unfortunately for Exxon, they were less than half of Shell but a record just the same.
CNBC [...]

While probably not a big deal here in union unfriendly South Dakota (a previous employer threatened to shut down rather than allow employees to unionize), John McCain joined his new BFFL Rudy Giuliani on the Jay Leno Show yesterday. That appearance which required crossing a Writers Guild of America picket line, falls in line with [...]

When Democrats talk subsidies, i.e. the recent attempts to pass the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, Republicans complain that the government shouldn’t be involved in the health care business or that it would benefit people that can afford to insure themselves but when the subsidies are in the name of business, they become necessary all [...]

Lodgenet has been the target of quite a bit of controversy lately because certain conservative groups have been complaining about some of Lodgenet’s content being served to hotels across the country. The South Dakota Family Policy Council has gone so far as to call for a Justice Department investigation into what they call the “Nations [...]

Sebastian Mallaby in yesterday’s WaPo tries to document his belief that Democrats are all of a sudden anti Wal-Mart in an apparent shift in away from the globalization ideals that they once fought for.
While it is true that many Democrats have in fact moved away from Wal-Mart as he so deftly describes, it isn’t Wal-Mart [...]

One year after President Bush promised that the Energy Policy Act would take pressure off gas prices for Americans, oil hit $76 dollars and BP announced it was shutting down shipments from Alaska’s largest oilfield due to refinery pipeline problems ensuring even higher prices yet to come.
But at least the Oil Companies are making record [...]

Late Friday night the House overwhelmingly passed the pension reform bill 279-131 in a rare showing of bipartisan support. The bill is Congress’s attempt to stop the horrible trend by companies to under fund or completely fold their pension plans at the expense of the companies employees and the taxpayers.
Part of this bill is written [...]

As prices at the pumps continue to soar, oil company profits are soaring as well. 2 major oil companies have released income figures for the second quarter and as has been the trend, both are doing just fine.
On Monday BP reported a $7.3 billion profit which is a 30 percent increase over the same period [...]

A Maryland law that would require all non-governmental businesses with 10,000 employees or more to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on employee healthcare or pay the difference in taxes was shot down in federal court.
The Maryland Fair Share Health Care Fund Act, dubbed the “Wal-Mart law” though not specifically mentioning Wal-Mart, was [...]

Add BellSouth and AT&T to the list of those mentioned in a lawsuit resulting from the NSA phone record tracking privacy issue. This brings the total to $200 billion for the suit against the 3 companies now being filed in a Manhattan District Court.
The amended lawsuit seeking class action status was filed on behalf of [...]

A lawsuit has been filed to prevent Verizon from turning over any more records to the NSA without a warrant in Federal District Court in Manhattan. 2 New Jersey lawyers filed the $5 billion dollar suit claiming that Verizon violated privacy laws when they provided the NSA with the call data.
This is the largest and [...]