North america district of columbia

As abruptly as Amazon announced in September that it was hunting for a place to build a second full-sized headquarters, the Seattle conglomerate on Thursday announced 20 cities that made it to the next level, including Denver. The city was one of 238 proposals submitted to Amazon, which said it would invest $5 billion to build a second campus in North America. It needed a future site that could house around 50,000 employees in about 8 million square feet — the size of Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle. “We are absolutely excited to have made the shortlist. The work continues,” said Sam Bailey, who oversaw the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.’s effort. Bailey said that Amazon’s economic development team notified his staff early Thursday morning. “The email was four sentences, thanking us for the submission, discussing the next steps and a focus on learning about the community, the talent and potential real estate,” Bailey said. He expects to begin discussions with … [Read more...] about Denver makes Amazon’s HQ2 finalist list — along with 19 other cities

close Video Pandemic stimulus gives big bailout to blue states Republicans feel red states are being penalized for remaining open for business during COVID-19; GOP Rep. Greg Steube weighs in. Democrats in Washington are charging full speed ahead on a hastily crafted, nearly $2 trillion spending package. The goal is to satisfy a political agenda and bail out political allies. The guise is COVID-19 relief. Regardless, their plan means tremendous harm to America’s working-class. It is the wrong plan, at the wrong time, for all the wrong reasons. Video On Monday, the Democrat majority on the House Budget Committee continued what has been a completely partisan process by holding debate and a vote on a legislative package that represented the work of nine separate committees two weeks earlier. During the nine committee markups that preceded Monday’s House Budget Committee activities, Republicans offered 229 amendments. Only two, or less … [Read more...] about Reps. Smith & Comer: Dems’ $1.9T COVID relief bill – wrong plan, wrong time, wrong reasons. Here’s why

Small business organizations are speaking out against a potential minimum wage hike, saying the plan will only cause more small businesses to shutter amid a fragile economy. The National Federation of Independent Business said that “Congress should not saddle [small businesses] with a costly new mandate that will further damage the fragile economic recovery,” in a statement . “More than doubling the federal minimum wage while small businesses across America are barely surviving shutdowns due to an unprecedented pandemic is a recipe for more shuttered businesses and millions more job losses,” the American Farm Bureau Federation said in a statement. “On behalf of Main Street employers across America, we strongly oppose the Raise the Wage Act of 2021.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposed the minimum wage hike, noting it does “not reflect a data-driven approach that incorporates wage-rate differences between business sectors and business locations,” in a statement. The … [Read more...] about ‘Recipe For More Shuttered Businesses’: Small Businesses Speak Out Against Minimum Wage Hike

Several of President Biden ’s Cabinet nominees are experiencing tough confirmation hearings in the Senate. Many Republicans and even some Democrats have voiced opposition to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) pick Neera Tanden , and nominees such as Deb Haaland for secretary of the Interior and Xavier Becerra for secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) will most likely be approved by slim partisan margins. These are qualified individuals, and depending on one’s politics, the opposition to their nominations is regrettable. But even more regrettable is the assumption that such opposition is based in racism or sexism, as some Democrats and activist groups have maintained. Regardless of whether one supports the nominees or not, their nominations have been controversial from the start for lawmakers in both parties for reasons rooted in politics and policy positions. Labelling any critique or questioning of these individuals as examples of racial or gender bias makes it … [Read more...] about Politics, not racism or sexism, explain opposition to Biden Cabinet nominees

Connecticut’s Rosa DeLauro is spearheading the return of earmarks in her House Appropriations bailiwick. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag One of the few real trophies of the late, unlamented Tea Party movement was the decision by House Republicans upon taking power in 2011 to ban congressional “earmarks” — specific projects identified in congressional appropriations bills, designated by and to benefit individual members of Congress and their states or districts. In a characteristic misunderstanding, many Tea Folk blamed earmarks for out-of-control federal spending; they were really more like lubricants for big spending on more general programmatic needs from our massive defense infrastructure to the “entitlement” programs conservatives loathe but are afraid to openly attack. A few bad-sounding and heavily publicized examples of earmarks gave the whole phenomenon a bad name, as Vox’s Tara Golshan later explained : The practice resulted in some notable … [Read more...] about Much-Maligned Congressional Earmarks Are Coming Back