(04-10-2024, 01:04 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Biden in last 2 National polls head to head versus Trump is winning, 1 by 3% and Reuters out today by 4%.

Good news for Biden supporters and bad news for Trump's.

(04-10-2024, 01:32 PM)Goalpost Wrote: I really think a couple of Fed rate cuts would help Biden, but the report this morning on consumer prices was crappy.

(04-10-2024, 01:32 PM)Goalpost Wrote: I really think a couple of Fed rate cuts would help Biden, but the report this morning on consumer prices was crappy.

(04-10-2024, 07:07 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I had a big red banner at the top of my browser news feed this morning announcing that inflation is up, again.  That's not going to work well for the incumbent President. RFK Jr. is looking like a more attractive candidate to working class Americans who are fed up, on both sides of the traditional aisle.

(04-10-2024, 07:19 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Trump's inflation over 4 years was one of the in history. Biden's huge policy mistake was going after fossil fuels causing gasoline prices to skyrocket. Gasoline impacts everything from food to new automobiles to the extra gasoline costs for people to drive back and forth to work. 

Biden knew the economy was already facing a major headwind in 2021 coming out of the pandemic. He threw gasoline on the fire and flat out killed the economy for over 24 months. The problem with Bidenomics is inflation is year over year, while Trump had year over year 5% inflation over 4 years, Biden has closer 25% or 20% higher than Trump. 

Quote:Feeling the pinch of inflation? Here’s where Florida ranks among worst states

Florida's inflation rate nearly 4%, highest in nation
C. A. Bridges
Daytona Beach News-Journal

Inflation increased for a third straight month in March, according to the Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI). Overall prices were up 3.5% from March 2023 and up from February's 3.2% increase.


On a monthly basis, costs on core prices — which leave out items with volatile prices such as food and energy items — rose 0.4%. Inflation remains dramatically lower than the 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022. Used cars, furniture and appliances have dropped in price as supply chain bottlenecks during the COVID pandemic have resolved (although goods prices rose in February) but rent, car insurance and transportation costs continue to rise.


And nowhere are they rising more than Florida.

Florida has highest inflation rate in U.S.


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The Sunshine State has the nation's highest inflation rate, 3.91%, according to an analysis of index data by Moody’s Analytics based on a three-month moving average. 

While Florida has long been a popular destination for workers and retirees, a large number of Americans have migrated down south to Florida over the past few years. Some came because during the pandemic they could work remotely and decided to do so from a warmer climate. Some came for the lack of state sales tax. Some people wanted to live in a state controlled by Gov. Ron DeSantis' conservative policies. But that influx also helped jack up prices.

The state gained 194,000 more residents than it lost last year, according to Moody’s and Census Bureau figures, driving up the cost of single-family homes and rent, food, furniture and other goods and services. Meanwhile, hurricanes and other disasters drove up insurance prices to record levels for the companies that didn't just leave the state.


What is minimum wage in 2024?When will minimum wage go up again in Florida and how much?

How much do Floridians spend on groceries?


According to the U.S. Census Bureau, you can expect to spend an average of $287.27 a week on groceries in Florida, the fifth most expensive state in the nation after California, Nevada, Mississippi and Washington.

With children in the house, Floridians spend, on average, $341.40 a week.

While we're not the priciest state at the checkout, we do have the most expensive city. The average household in Miami spends about $327 a week on groceries, according to an analysis from HelpAdvisor of the Census Bureau data. That's about 14% higher than Florida's statewide average, which is about 6% higher than the national average.
How much is insurance in Florida?



The Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) reported that the average insurance premium for Florida homeowners in 2023 was $4,231 per year, nearly triple the average national costs.


Why? Lots of reasons. In October 2022, Triple-I revealed that Florida led the country in homeowners' insurance-related litigation, making up 79% of the lawsuits across the U.S. while accounting for just 9% of the total claims. The state also sees record amounts of roof-replacement scams. Legislation passed in 2022 made it harder to sue insurance companies but may have increased rates for consumers with new state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. requirements. And that was before the state was ravaged by hurricanes Ian and Nicole

Companies continued to stop offering policies with some shutting down or leaving the state completely, further driving up remaining rates. However, in January six new insurance companies announced they were coming to the state.


2024 Hurricane Season:Florida tops US for home insurance rates. What's ahead as 'explosive' hurricane season nears

Florida lawmakers finally took aim at premiums in the 2024 legislative session, passing HB 7073/SB 7074 to eliminate certain homeowner taxes and fees and funding the My Safe Florida Home program which helps homeowners harden their homes against hurricane damage and lower insurance costs. Gov. DeSantis has not yet signed either bill.

Vehicle insurance in Florida at the end of 2023 was $2,917 or $243 a month for an average annual full-coverage rate, according to virtual insurance agent Insurify. That was 44% higher than the U.S. average and the third-highest in the nation, after New York and Nevada, largely due to severe weather events (hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding), the skyrocketing cost of auto parts, multiple insurers halting new policies or leaving the state completely, and rampant insurance fraud, Insurify's report said. And it's likely to go up again in 2024.

Insruance hikes:As premiums continue to skyrocket, Florida residents ask: Do I need home insurance?


What states have the highest inflation?

Percentage change over years ago, 3-months MA as of Feb 2024.
According to the CPI report, the state with the highest 12-month inflation rates are:

• Florida: 3.9%
• Tennessee: 3.8%
• Virginia: 3.8%
• South Carolina: 3.6%
• Alabama: 3.6%
  

Quote:What will the next consumer price index report say about inflation?

The country’s 3.2% annual inflation rate – based on the Labor Department’s consumer price index – masks notable differences among the states since pandemic-related product and labor shortages sparked a run-up in consumer prices starting in 2021. On Wednesday, Labor is expected to report that yearly inflation jumped to 3.4%, though that’s still down from a 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022.

Florida is saddled with the nation’s highest inflation at about 4% while Pennsylvania has the lowest at about 1.8%, according to an analysis of index data by Moody’s Analytics that’s based on a three-month moving average. Although BLS doesn’t conduct surveys on state inflation numbers, it does publish metro area and regional data that Moody’s used to roughly estimate the state figures.
Protect your assets: Best high-yield savings accounts of 2023


S&P Global Market Intelligence compiles a similar ranking that looks broadly similar to Moody’s despite some differences.


Before the health crisis, "You didn't see the big differences (among states) in inflation that you're seeing now," says S&P regional economist Karl Kuykendall.


What places have the lowest inflation?
For eight northeastern states, yearly price gains are already below 2.5% and for about a quarter of the U.S., they’re under 2.7%, according to Moody’s analysis.


“A big part of the country already has worked its way back to (prices) people would be very comfortable with,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics.

That could move the needle in the November presidential election, Zandi says. President Joe Biden may get a boost in swing states with yearly inflation rates below the U.S. average – such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan – especially if they edge close to 2% by November.


Yet Georgia, another swing state, still grapples with relatively high inflation, possibly aiding former President Donald Trump. And while price increases have slowed in Arizona, its cumulative gain since early 2021 is among the nation's largest.

Generally, inflation has been higher in the South and West because Americans have flocked to those regions for favorable climates and lower costs, pushing up consumer demand and prices, especially for housing. It’s been lower in the Northeast and Midwest, with many residents leaving those areas, easing cost pressures.


Which states did people move to during the pandemic?
Those decadeslong migration trends were intensified by the pandemic as people bolted from densely populated cities like New York and Chicago for smaller towns with open spaces and lower costs, such as Boise, Idaho, and Nashville, Tennessee.


Now that many companies are requiring staffers to return to the office, at least some of the time, price pressures have partly swung back, says Moody’s regional economist Adam Kamins.




[url=https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/money/2024/03/13/here-are-the-16-states-you-need-a-million-dollars-to-retire/72964711007/]Inflation in Mountain West states like Utah, Idaho and Arizona led the nation at more than 10% in June 2022, according to Moody’s. But skyrocketing housing costs, along with return-to-office mandates, have dampened migration to the area. In February, inflation in the region was among the nation’s lowest at about 2.5%.

By contrast, price increases in California, Hawaii and New York peaked at a relatively modest 7% to 8% in June 2022. People were leaving cities like San Francisco, New York and Honolulu in droves for less expensive and less hazardous areas. But as the pandemic has faded, many people have returned to those cities and fewer are departing, renewing cost squeezes. Inflation is about 3.6% in California and 3.5% in Hawaii, based on Moody’s estimate of the three-month average. 
 
Mountain West residents may feel better now that inflation is softening and those in California and Hawaii may be more frustrated. 


Yet perceptions may be shaped more by cumulative price increases since early 2021, Kamins says. On that basis, Utah’s prices, for example, are up 19.3% – above the 18.5% U.S. average – while California’s have risen 16.7%.

(04-10-2024, 07:02 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: The Arizona abortion ruling by the Arizona SC while correct, as like the SC the courts do not make the laws, they enforce the laws. Trump said it today and I agree, Arizona needs to revisit and work together for a new abortion law. It is over the top. But lawmakers and the people of Arizona make the laws, so they need to get to work. 

As for the economy, inflation increased for the 3rd month in a row and now heading towards 4%. The price of gasoline has doubled since 2021 when Biden took office. The fed rates can't be lowered until inflation is in check, may be better chance of interest rates going up versus going down in next 6 months. Biden still promising interest rates will come down, big lift right now. 

(04-10-2024, 08:23 PM)pally Wrote: Its rather ironic he wants the Democratic Governor of Arizona to clean up Republicans mess...as usual

(04-10-2024, 08:23 PM)pally Wrote: Its rather ironic he wants the Democratic Governor of Arizona to clean up Republicans mess...as usual

(04-11-2024, 12:05 AM)Luvnit2 Wrote: A law established a very long time ago. I have not done the research, for all we know it could have been Democrats who passed this law. Regardless, it is a bad law and needs fixed. Do you disagree with Trump and feel the Arizona abortion law should stand? 

Trump agrees with your position, it is a bad law, and you find a way to bash Trump for saying the state of Arizona needs to fix it.

I know why, Trump is taking abortion off of the federal level and it is now it is a state issue. 

(04-11-2024, 01:28 AM)pally Wrote: He wants to brag that he killed Roe but then washes his hands of the consequences expecting others to clean up the messes left

Every American should have equal access to healthcare regardless of what state they live in

(04-11-2024, 07:25 AM)Dill Wrote: Seems Luvnit is disconnecting these abortion law extremes from Trump, Trumpism and Trump supporters. 

Anyway, Democrats could have passed that law back in the 19th century. So don't blame today's Republicans for reviving it. 

(04-11-2024, 12:05 AM)Luvnit2 Wrote: A law established a very long time ago. I have not done the research, for all we know it could have been Democrats who passed this law. Regardless, it is a bad law and needs fixed. Do you disagree with Trump and feel the Arizona abortion law should stand? 

Trump agrees with your position, it is a bad law, and you find a way to bash Trump for saying the state of Arizona needs to fix it.

I know why, Trump is taking abortion off of the federal level and it is now it is a state issue. 

Quote:April 10, 2024 at 7:53 p.m. EDT

An organizer carries a clipboard with petitions for a ballot initiative to enshrine abortion rights in the Arizona constitution after the state's Supreme Court revived a law dating to 1864 that bans abortion in virtually all instances. (Rebecca Noble/Reuters)

Listen
5 min


The time has come to reflect on the life and times — especially the times — of William Claude Jones.

Jones was a “prevaricator, a poet, a politician and the pursuer of nubile young females,” according to a 1990 article published in the Journal of Arizona History, which appears to be the most comprehensive biographical report published on the life of the 19th-century rogue.


His pursuit of such nubility began with a marriage to Sarah Freeman, who bore him two children in the 1840s, when Jones would have been in his 20s or early 30s. He was a sitting member of the Missouri state legislature at the time, but his family followed him to Arkansas and then Texas as he searched for more prominent government appointments. In 1854, President Franklin Pierce eventually named him U.S. attorney for the New Mexico territory, and it was hereabout that Jones’s first wife filed for divorce.

His next wife was a girl whose name was believed to be Maria v. del Refugio, writes L. Boyd Finch, the author of the journal article. New Mexico’s delegate to Washington, Miguel Otero, was bothered by the union. He “declared that the bride was twelve years old,” Finch writes, “and that Jones had ‘abducted’ her.” Otero petitioned President James Buchanan to fire Jones for the moral failing, but Jones resigned instead.

William Claude Jones. (Wikimedia Commons)

No matter! The mid-19th century was, by any standard you or I would recognize, a hideous place for women. The predatory relationship did not end Jones’s political career; he merely moved farther west, to the Arizona territory. There, Jones supported secession from the Southern states in the impending Civil War. He also landed upon his third wife, Caroline Stephens, who was 15 years old. Claude, by this time, was around 50.


Ah, well. They were married for only a year, anyway, because in 1865, Finch writes, Jones “left Caroline. She never saw or heard from him again.”

He had boarded a train for California, and then a boat for Hawaii, where he again entered local politics, winning a seat in the kingdom’s lower house. By 1868, a local girl named MaeMae Kailihao — “reportedly a princess from a noble family” — was pregnant with his child. She was 14.

Jones and Kailihao married and had several children together until she died at the age of 28 in 1881. Then Jones wed for a fifth time, a woman named Mary Akina — age unknown — only to file for divorce two years later. Shortly after that, Jones died on the island of Maui.

Finch, Jones’s biographer, is careful to say that there is a lot about W. Claude Jones’s life that has been lost to time. We know very little about his early upbringing, or how much he might have exaggerated some of the military exploits he was known to boast about. We also, it almost goes without saying, know very little about his wives, their inner lives, and what they thought of their unions and the times they lived in.

By now you are probably wondering why in God’s name I am writing about this lecherous caricature of a man — a man whose compatriots in the 19th century recognized that he was problematic.

Here’s why:
While Jones lived in Arizona, he was elected to represent Tucson in the 1st Arizona Territorial Legislative Assembly. And then, when that legislature convened in 1864, he was elected speaker of the House.

And it was that legislature — the one Jones presided over in 1864, after he had already abandoned his first wife, and married a 12-year-old and was just weeks away from marrying a 15-year-old, though still a few years away from marrying a 14-year-old — it was that legislature that passed a law reading, “Every person who shall administer or cause to be administered or taken, any medicinal substances, or shall use or cause to be used any instruments whatever, with the intention to procure the miscarriage of any woman then being with child, and shall be thereof duly convicted, shall be punished by imprisonment in the Territorial prison for a term not less than two years nor more than five years.”

And it was that piece of legislation that, earlier this week, was reinstated as law of the land in Arizona. It represents a near-total ban on abortion in the state. The state’s Supreme Court voted 4-2 that the 160-year-old law, put into place nearly five decades before Arizona was a state, should supersede the previous rule, which guarded the right to an abortion up to 15 weeks’ gestation. The new — and by new, I mean very old — law is scheduled to go into effect in two weeks’ time.

William Claude Jones sauntered into the wide expanse of a Southwestern territory more than 150 years ago, and this man’s morals are now the benchmark for the reproductive rights of the 7 million people who live in Arizona. Good night.

(04-10-2024, 07:19 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Trump's inflation over 4 years was one of the best in history. Biden's huge policy mistake was going after fossil fuels causing gasoline prices to skyrocket. Gasoline impacts everything from food to new automobiles to the extra gasoline costs for people to drive back and forth to work. 

Biden knew the economy was already facing a major headwind in 2021 coming out of the pandemic. He threw gasoline on the fire and flat out killed the economy for over 24 months. The problem with Bidenomics is inflation is year over year, while Trump had year over year 5% inflation over 4 years, Biden has closer 25% or 20% higher than Trump. 

(04-11-2024, 09:22 AM)GMDino Wrote: Wanted to add DeSantis complaining about inflation when his state has the highest.

(04-11-2024, 01:28 AM)pally Wrote: He wants to brag that he killed Roe but then washes his hands of the consequences expecting others to clean up the messes left

Every American should have equal access to healthcare regardless of what state they live in

(04-04-2024, 01:24 AM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Feel free to look up your own favorite place for polling. Biden has seen a small bump after his state of the union address. Biden also has a ton of money so thigs are likely to tighten as get closer to November.

Trump leads in 6 of the 7 swing states, he is tied with Biden in the 7th Wisconsin.

RFK Jr. appears to be impacting Trump and Biden votes.

Trump is only up 1% Nationally which is within the margin of error in Clear Politic polling. At this point in 2020, Biden was up 3.8% Nationally.

Long way to go but looking to be another very tight race again.

(04-11-2024, 11:44 AM)Mike M (the other one) Wrote: Interesting, but if Kennedy can take some swing states or even some Blue ones, it could result in no one getting enough Electoral votes needed to win POTUS outright. Thus pushing the decision to the House where the GOP will obviously choose Trump. It's a big reason why Dems are attacking RFK Jr.