Why on earth would anyone think rates are going down? This has been a freebie for the fed. Normally it would have taken five years to inch back up to normal rates.

If the speed limit is lowered on a road in your area, it usually doesn't go back up again.

You obviously haven't had a tongue-lashing from Tony "two-times" Guterres.

Khan The Soup Merchant

It wasn't only this though. The police made way too many mistakes. The vehicle wasn't found for way too long. Now it would be found same day.

In 1999, this should have been a red flag about Baltimore PD corruption/incompetence. Since the murder, there has been two full-blown federal/state investigations of BPD with 100+ page reports, a riot, an award winning seven season HBO mini-series, and the mayor was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the government over using a children's book to enrich herself. That was after she fired one of the better police commissioners, who went next door and became police chief.

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/police/chief

Paris (AFP) – French authorities raided five banks on Tuesday as part of an investigation into suspected cases of massive tax fraud and money laundering, prosecutors said.

Some 150 investigators conducted searches in Paris and the financial district La Defense, the financial prosecutor's office (PNF) said in a statement.

The raids follow five preliminary investigations that were opened in December 2021 in connection with suspected money laundering and aggravated suspected tax fraud related to dividend payments, the statement said.

The operation "required several months of preparation", the statement said, and involved 16 investigating magistrates and more than 150 financial investigators.

Prosecutors from Germany, where similar tax frauds came to light in recent years, were also involved in the raids, the statement added.

A spokesman for Societe Generale confirmed to AFP that the French bank was being searched by authorities, but he said he did not know the reason.

French rival BNP Paribas and its Exane unit, financial group Natixis and British banking giant HSBC are the other targets of the raids, according to Le Monde newspaper. Disappearing dividends

A group of European news outlets published an investigation dubbed the "CumEx-Files" into the tax fraud in 2018.

Its title referred to trading of shares with ("cum" in Latin) and without ("ex") dividends.

The amounts involved are suspected to have reached 140 billion euros ($151 billion) over a period of 20 years, the media group said in 2021.

Tuesday's raids stem from so-called "Cum-Cum" tax fraud.

"The fraud involves a foreign shareholder in a company listed in France temporarily transferring the shares he owns to a French banking institution, around the date the dividend is paid out," the PNF said.

The aim is "to avoid paying the tax applicable to the payment of this dividend," it added.

Banks are suspected of acting as intermediaries in the practice and even charging a commission to the investors taking part.

A German court in December sentenced lawyer Hanno Berger to eight years in prison over the "cum-ex" tax scam, convicting him of three counts of aggravated tax evasion.

The regional court found that the 72-year-old -- believed to be the original mastermind of the scheme -- helped arrange fraudulent transactions at German bank M.M. Warburg between 2007 and 2013 that cost Berlin's treasury 278 million euros.

In addition to the jail time, the court ordered 13.7 million euros ($14.8 million) of personal revenues from the scheme to be confiscated from Berger's accounts.

Berger only partially admitted wrongdoing during the proceedings, insisting that some of the transactions were legal at the time.

Well, there's also losing at the supreme court. At that time called the court of appeals. He is out because the prosecutor made a procedural motion to vacate the conviction and nolle prosequi for the court to dismiss the charges.

Yep. It's all about procedure. If the state makes a mistake on the procedure, that can result in a reversal. The truth is secondary.

Not in the US. Two new plants under construction in SC went bust at a cost of $9 billion.

A lot of humans have the same response. Water isn't disappearing

That's probably a good spot for a small child to sleep when the car isn't moving. I've driven that parkway many times. At night or raining isn't a good road for the unfamiliar.

https://www.westernmassnews.com/2023/03/21/community-members-heartbroken-over-deaths-5-derby-ct-children/

Apparently the vehicle was consumed in a fire. One child was pulled out and survived.

The Brits have the driest sense of humor.

The first amendment protects people who lie from actions by the state. When the first amendment was ratified in 1791, it was intended specifically to protect people who would say outrageous things during elections, including lying. I believe two states voted against it. It was not about "journalism", which as we know it today did not exist at the time. Colonists enjoyed saying vile things about their adversary, knowing it would have resulted in their imprisonment in England.

Given the number of prominent politicians in the US that are serial liars, it is unlikely to change anytime soon. They can pursue civil actions for damages, but attempts to "regulate" or prosecute information would be a political death sentence.

It's ok to say bad parents

The government allocates plenty of money for cybersecurity. If you would like to tell us what you think the numbers are, go ahead.

Environmental review is supposed to occur before construction. Obviously very few occurrences where governments go back and change this. This stopped being about the environment when the price tag came in. If Norway was serious about eating €300 million to compensate the owners they should vote on it, pay for it, and move on.

https://www.rferl.org/a/moldova-expels-foreigners-destabilization-plot/32290712.html

The family that preys together makes soup together

Never happen. Even if it did, it would become the equivalent of putting Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court. It would be as popular as reconstruction in the south.

There's a half billion guns. Only about one percent of gun owners are The Complete Angler type.

There is still scientific debate about gender transitioning children. It apparently will be resolved in the courts.

https://nypost.com/2022/05/27/left-wing-critics-says-bill-maher-should-be-canceled-over-lgbtq-comments/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puberty_blocker

He probably saw the huge list of reports on child maltreatment in Alaska native communities and said not my constituents.

A "career" can be ended with a single warning. Once they are passed over the career is over.

Russia sugar dick takes a while to break the habit

Unfortunately there will be a lot of sad, butt-hurt Russians that will need to be "dealt with" when Ukraine kicks them out.

One giant leap for mankind.