DELEITURAS

A rare penny found by high schooler in 1947 may sell for as much as $1.7 million at auction after the then-teen who found it, Don Lutes Jr., died in September.

The rare penny is one of about 15 copper coins that were accidentally minted by the Department of the Treasury in 1943. That year, the Treasury stopped using copper to mint pennies to save the metal for the war effort. The Treasury switched to minting pennies out of steel.

But Some copper managed to get into the minting presses in 1943, resulting in “the most famous error coin in American numismatics,” according to the New York Daily News.

A similar coin auctioned in 2010 sold for $1.7 million.

Copper was named a strategic material in the lead-up and during World War II. The metal was used in the production of bullets, telephone wires and other wartime necessities, Fox News reports.

After the Treasury switched minting metals for pennies, rumors swirled about the creation of a few rare copper pennies, despite denials from the Treasury Department. Lutes even tried to get the authenticity of his penny verified by the Treasury Department.

“In regard to recent inquiry, please be informed that copper pennies were not struck in 1943,” the Treasury’s response to Lutes said. “All pennies struck in 1943 were zinc coated steal [sic].”

Lutes took the Treasury statement for fact and kept the penny in his personal collection.

Lutes’s coin, now verified, will remain on auction until Jan. 10, according to Fox News.

A new survey revealed that the overwhelming majority (95 percent) of employers are adding more shifts this summer and more than half (58 percent) plan to hire more summer workers than last year. This parallels the continued and steady climb of U.S. jobs due to the booming economy under the Trump administration’s “America First” policies. Most employers (82 percent), according to the survey by Snag (formerly Snagajob), plan on filling all seasonal summer positions by May this year, up from 71 percent in 2017.

With record low unemployment at 3.9 percent, employers are vying to stay competitive with more employers willing to offer the maximum hourly wage they feel their business can afford (46 percent in 2018 versus 31 percent in 2017) rather than the minimum required by law (12 percent in 2018 versus 18 percent in 2017). A result of this is that 74 percent plan to pay an hourly wage of at least $11, compared to last year when only 53 percent of employers planned to pay the same or more.

“We’re thrilled to see nearly all employers are adding extra shifts this summer on top of hiring more hourly workers. This is doubly good news because it likely indicates that current employees are getting more hours,” said Peter Harrison, CEO of Snag. “Wage growth is super important but on its own not enough to combat the staggering underemployment that still persists in America.”

While summer hiring is substantially up with 58 percent of employers expecting to hire more seasonal employees this year, the pace of growth has decelerated slightly. Last year, 67 percent of employers expected to hire more seasonal workers. On average, employers anticipate new hires will make up nearly a quarter (23 percent) of their summer workforce versus 41 percent in 2017. There has also been a giant surge in interest for on-demand workers with 81 percent of employers planning to utilize on-demand workers within the next 12 months, up from 62 percent last year and 31 percent year-over-year.

Employers plan to try different strategies to help attract and retain quality talent for the summer months. Snag’s survey showed employers are offering more full-time opportunities, health care and PTO benefits. This is consistent with what hourly workers want. According to the company’s State of the Hourly Worker report, more job seekers are focused on full-time work and are looking for jobs with paid time off, health insurance and 401K packages. Since 2015, Snag has seen a 43 percent increase in full-time job searches and a 27 percent decrease in part-time job searches.

Roughly 25 percent of summer job applications in 2017 were submitted by Gen Z. To keep up, employers are becoming more mobile friendly. Nearly one in two employers (43 percent) are now texting applicants to schedule interviews. Surprisingly, the data reveals a drop (41 percent) in job posts on social media platforms.

“One has to imagine the privacy issues with social media in the news has had some bearing on the massive decline in social media job posts. There’s more negative sentiment out there today than there was even 60 days ago,” added Harrison.

Additionally, the report uncovered an uptick in E-Verify, which confirms the identity and employment eligibility of job applicants. Nearly 40 percent of employers plan to use E-Verify to evaluate summer applicants, up from 25 percent last year. The turn to enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws benefits legal immigrants and American citizens as employers increasingly reject illegal aliens in the workforce.

Additional findings from the survey include:

• Even with low unemployment, employers aren’t worried about getting enough applications this year. In fact, 60 percent anticipate getting more summer applicants than last year.
• Employers anticipate one in five (21 percent) of their summer workforce will be made up of rehires compared to 26 percent in 2017.
• Employers are using mobile or app-based applicant tracking systems (ATS) more than in the past. Usage increased 167 percent year-over-year.
• The majority of employers (90 percent) use technology and automation to complete certain employee tasks, yet nearly 70 percent don’t expect it will impact the number of summer staff they plan to hire.

What has happened to society? Why, when someone suffers a personal loss, are so many jumping to criticize, scorn, and generally offer hate filled messages? Where is our compassion?

This morning websites in the United Kingdom opened their pages for readers to offer condolences and tributes with the death of their former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. But before the day’s end, The Daily Telegraph closed their web pages to comments as Editor Tony Gallagher tweeted: We have closed comments on every #Thatcher story today – even our address to email tributes is filled with abuse.

There is no doubt that Thatcher’s iron fist and union breaking government caused many from the 80’s to dislike her policies but is there no room for even one day of remembrance before striking out?

In another sad event, closer to home, this weekend well known Evangelical Pastor Rick Warren’s son committed suicide. As Pastor Warren wrote and friends suggested, the son struggled many years with mental illness and depression. Yet, almost before the news was out the criticisms of Warren and his Christian religion were spread across the social media.

Would we be so quick to hate in real life? Or is it through the anonymity of the internet that so many feel free the boundaries of civility and able to spew vitriol without having the least bit of compassion for a family facing such a loss?

Are we not allowed ideological differences? Where is our compassion?

The clip below is from FNC’s Megan Kelly on American Live as she discusses the appalling comments towards the Warren family with Father Jonathan Morris of the Catholic Church and Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. As Perkins said, “There was a time when, even when we differed ideologically, we would take a break when a family suffers such a great tragedy.” And as Father Jonathan recommends, let’s offer our prayers and positive affirmations in large numbers to keep the negative comments in context.

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.comRead more at Washington Times

Luke Combs performs “Hurricane” from his album “This One’s For You”.

James Powell, a superintendent for Century Aluminum expresses his thanks to President Donald Trump for protecting American workers against unfair European and Asian trade practices that threaten his profession.

Each week I am inundated with emails from people all over the country with stories that are “out of this world.” Some are so deep in conspiracy theories that, if compiled, we would have a great science fiction novel. But let’s deal with a little reality, truth, and fact!

Look at what’s happening on our college campuses. Jewish students being arrested at a peaceful protest for inciting a riot. They did nothing. The opposition started the violence because they wanted the Jewish students to stop “spreading their propaganda.” Wow, really!? On our college campuses, where free thought and free flow of ideas are openly welcomed? REALLY? Or recently, at a California college, a Jewish student was denied acceptance to a committee. Not because she was unqualified, but because she was Jewish. Yep. So much for a institutes of higher learning and reason.

Where are the professors and administrators while all this is going on? Sitting around their little Lib think-tanks, or should I say, “Devoid of Rational Thought Tanks.” There is little to no pushback from the Liberal academia. Why? From what I have read, it’s because they are smarter than us! It’s because we are too uneducated to work it through without their help and anyone from “their world.” Any professors who take a more Conservative stance on issues are immediately ridiculed and pushed out. Once again I say, so much for freedom of thought and free flowing ideas on campus.

It seems most of these campuses have become little Liberal concentration camps to reprogram those who have lost their way and gone down the Conservative thinking path. They have to be reprogrammed and brought back to a more Liberal way of thinking. Those already in the Liberal Camp are reinforced that all is good in their world.

No, you say?

Read more at TRS

Based on a story from Stephen King’s collection Skeleton Crew, Spike’s THE MIST centers around a small town family that is torn apart by a brutal crime.

As they deal with the fallout, an eerie mist rolls in suddenly cutting them off from the rest of the world and, in some cases, each other. Family, friends, and adversaries become strange bedfellows, battling the mysterious mist and its threats, fighting to maintain morality and sanity as the rules of society break down. THE MIST stars Morgan Spector, Alyssa Sutherland, Gus Birney, Danica Curcic, Okezie Morro, Luke Cosgrove, Darren Pettie, Russell Posner, Dan Butler, Isiah Washington, Jr. and Frances Conroy.

Fear. Human. Nature. “The Mist,” from a story by Stephen King, premieres Thursday, June 22nd on Spike.

• President Donald Trump has tapped seven of Justice Clarence Thomas’s former clerks for appeals court nominations since taking office.
• An eighth former Thomas clerk, Neomi Rao, will likely be confirmed in the near future.
• The justice actively mentors his closely knit network of acolytes. 

One credential, in particular, has been a boon to candidates President Donald Trump considers for judicial appointments: a clerkship with Justice Clarence Thomas.

As of this writing, the president has appointed seven Thomas clerks to the federal appeals courts, while an eighth is expected in the near future. As such, Thomas’s legal approach — sometimes branded unusual or idiosyncratic — can claim adherents among a new generation of judges.

“At this point, Justice Thomas is clearly the leading intellectual force on the conservative side of the bench,” said Carrie Severino, a former Thomas clerk who leads the Judicial Crisis Network, an advocacy group that supports Trump’s efforts to recast the judicial branch.

“His principled approach to the law is very much in the ascendency and those are the kind of judges that this president has pledged for the courts,” Severino added.

Thomas generally hires law clerks who share his originalist judicial philosophy. Among the court’s conservatives, he is somewhat unique in that respect: former Justice Antonin Scalia periodically hired liberal “counter clerks” to sharpen his work, while the hiring practices of other conservatives like Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh appears slightly more varied.

“I’m not going to hire clerks who have profound disagreements with me,” Thomas said during a 1999 lecture at the National Center for Policy Analysis. “Someone said that it’s like trying to train a pig. It wastes your time, and it aggravates the pig.”

As such, the Thomas chambers are an incubator for elite conservative legal talent, producing a pool of candidates for executive and judicial appointments in Republican administrations.

The Thomas clerk who most recently took the bench is Judge Allison Rushing, who was confirmed to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday. Democrats and civil rights groups opposed her nomination.

The six other Thomas clerks confirmed to the federal appeals courts under Trump include Judge Allison Eid, who took Justice Neil Gorsuch’s seat on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Judge Jim Ho for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Judge David Stras for the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Judge Eric Miller for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Judge Greg Maggs for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and Judge Greg Katsas for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Thomas, who has served on the court for over 25 years and will turn 71 in June, may well be succeeded by one of his own clerks. Eid and Stras are on the president’s list of possible nominees for the Supreme Court. Judge Margaret Ryan of the Armed Forces appeals court, a Thomas clerk whom former President George W. Bush appointed, is also listed.

Neomi Rao, who clerked for Thomas in the 2001 term, is currently awaiting confirmation to the D.C. Circuit. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell teed up a cloture vote on her nomination Thursday, meaning a final confirmation vote will likely come next week.

Social conservatives met Rao’s nomination with skepticism, prompting several Republican lawmakers to consult privately with Thomas, though the substance of those discussions has not been made public.

Thomas’s own thinking has already appeared in the written work of his proteges. Ho’s first opinion on the 5th Circuit was a dissent from the court’s refusal to review a decision upholding a $350 limit on campaign donations for Austin City Council races in Texas. Ho opened with a reference to a Thomas opinion that accused the courts of elevating certain constitutional protections over others. Additional Thomas citations recur throughout the opinion.

Severino said Thomas actively embraces his mentorship role, regularly holding court with former clerks and dispensing advice on professional matters. Among the other justices, reunions with clerks are common but generally infrequent. For example, retired Justice Anthony Kennedy convened clerk reunions once every few years.

“Justice Thomas is an exceptional mentor,” Severino told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “He is someone that doesn’t just view his clerks as a great source of bright young labor for a year, but really as almost members of his family. He takes on a role in helping them and advising them on their careers.”

Perhaps most importantly, the justice also encourages his alumni to assist one another as a mutually supportive network. Recalling his own bitter confirmation, he hopes his acolytes will never want for allies.

“He encourages his clerks to get out of Dodge as fast as they can,” Severino told TheDCNF. “But for those of us who stay [in Washington], he wants to make sure that there’s always someone who will have your back in what can be a very dog-eat-dog town.”

Prepare for another week of White House press releases where the Trump administration correctly points out they have truly made America great again, because now even a European study group says so.

The United States is once again the most competitive economy in the world and the top in tech.

The USA leads the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2018 followed by Singapore, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland. Rising from the 3^rd spot, the USA overtakes Singapore and Sweden to top the ranking.

and [emphasis added]:

The top five most competitive economies in the world remain the same as in the previous year, but their order changes. The United States returns to the first spot, followed by Hong Kong, Singapore, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The United States improves three positions from last year while Hong Kong drops one spot and Singapore remains 3^rd. The return of the United States to the top is driven by its strength in economic performance (1^st) and infrastructure (1^st).

Of note is that the previous report had the U.S.A. at #4 which demonstrates that the Trump administration’s policies have had a dramatic effect on the American economy and have literally put America first.

The US also jumped two spots from #3 to #1 in the digital competitiveness ranking:

In 2010, at the equivalent time period in Obama’s first term, the US dropped from first to third in its ability to compete with the world. By the end of his administration, his progressive policies had pushed the American economy to #4 in competitiveness while he oversaw the slowest economic recovery in decades.

For the first time in decades, Singapore (1) and Hong Kong (2) have topped the US (3) in IMD’s [2010] World Competitiveness Yearbook rankings.

Yeah, America isn’t really missing Mr. “You didn’t build that!” Ok, well maybe Obama’s Education Secretary is:

“We’re not top ten in anything!” Arne Duncan exclaimed Sunday on CBS “Face the Nation.” He apparently missed the IMD reports … among other things.

Pretty sure CNN, NBC, The New York Times and Washington Post will also downplay America’s amazing accomplishment, but that’s why we’re here.

America is exceptional. America is first again. America is great again. America … is back!

The contortions to which those in the Obama Administration will submit themselves in order to avoid calling Islamist terrorism just that would be comedic if the subject matter weren’t so deadly serious. Case in point comes to us in an announcement by the White House that a “summit on how to counter violent extremism” will be held next month amid fears amongst the American populace that Islamist terror attacks on US soil are all but certain.

The Washington Times reports:

“The White House on Sunday announced it will host a summit next month on how to counter violent extremism amid renewed fears among Americans that terror attacks on the homeland are inevitable.

 

 

“A Rasmussen poll released Sunday shows that 65 percent of Americans believe it is at least somewhat likely an attack ‘on those critical of Islam’ in the US will occur over the next year. Just 26 percent said such an attack is not likely, the survey shows…

 

 

“‘The [ani-extremism] summit will include representatives from a number of partner nations, focusing on the themes of community engagement, religious leader engagement, and the role of the private sector and tech community,’ White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement Sunday. ‘Through presentations, panel discussions, and small group interactions, participants will build on local, state, and federal government; community; and international efforts to better understand, identify, and prevent the cycle of radicalization to violence at home in the United States and abroad.’”

Missing in this grand overture was the words “Islamist” and “terrorism”. Go figure.

The Rasmussen poll cited as the catalyst for this “summit” (as Mr. Obama would say, “Just words. Just speeches…”) centered on the American population’s concern about terror groups executing attacks on institutions of free speech here in the United States. It didn’t ask about “extremist groups,” which the Obama Administration has bastardized to include TEA Party groups and Second Amendment groups. It focused solely on Islamist terrorism, period. But, as then Obama Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel famously (or infamously) said, one should never let a good crisis go to waste. So, the Obama Administration widens the focus area from Islamist terrorism to “extremism” providing a wider blanket of topic coverage, and purely for political gain. It is sickeningly disingenuous.

It is sad, really, that the American people possess the courage to call Islamist terrorism what it is, even as their elected President bobs-and-weaves to avoid even using the terminology, all the while conniving, manipulating and distorting the issue at hand to affect marginalization of his political foes. His actions are not only beneath the dignity of his office and a stain on American history, they are a harsh and wicked slap in the face to everyone affected by Islamist terrorism, and especially those affected by the slaughter at Charlie Hebdo and the people of France, America’s oldest ally.

I would identify Mr. Obama as a coward for his refusal to state the obvious where Islamist terrorism is concerned. But I fear his motives are much more nefarious that cowardice. They are political. I don’t really know which is worse.