Author: Tony Ricardo Chambers

PANAMA — Crouch’s Garage, a car service garage in the village of Panama for the past 40 years, has been sold. Current owners Shelly Johnson and her husband, Phil, took over the business from Johnson’s parents — Warren and Cindy Crouch — in 2015. The Crouchs first opened the garage at 2 E. Main St. in 1983. During this time, Johnson said the fact that they were able to continue the business this long is one of the things they are most proud of. “Our proudest achievement is that we have been in Panama for 40 years and continued to…

The strains on the global economic system that became apparent during the Global Financial Crisis have worsened with the intensification of geopolitical tensions over the war in Ukraine and the high-tech rivalry between the US and China. This final column in a series of three discusses how the rules-based multilateral system needs to adapt to changes in the global economic landscape to preserve the benefits of global economic integration and avoid runaway fragmentation. After decades of deepening global economic integration, the world has become more interconnected and interdependent, but also more diverse and multi-polar. Growing global wealth and declining extreme…

Peak employer association Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) has released its pre-budget submission urging the South Australian Government to balance immediate headwinds with the investment needed to capitalise on the AUKUS submarine project. “While the full benefit of the largest single investment into our economy won’t be fully felt for a decade or more, what we do now matters,” Ai Group SA Head Jodie van Deventer said. “Businesses are dealing with rising inflation, skills and labour shortages, major industrial relations shifts, soaring energy costs and geopolitical and technological changes that are reshaping South Australia’s trade and business relationships with the…

Some 785 million people worldwide lack a basic drinking water supply. Experts came together at the UN to find solutions to our planet’s worsening water crisis. The Great Salt Lake in the U.S. state of Utah is drying up. In Pakistan, millions lack safe water as a result of floods. In Kenya, the government is looking for ways to clean the polluted Nairobi River which its residents depend on to irrigate food crops. Meanwhile coastal communities and island nations grapple with ever-rising sea levels that eat at their shorelines. Delegates from 196 countries and international organizations addressed these and other…

Moscow — Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said that the defense alliance AUKUS (AUKUS, USA-Great Britain-Australia) is directed against China and Russia. “The US Indo-Pacific strategy is an attempt to create an Asian NATO. The new alliance will become another aggressive bloc directed against China and Russia, and at the same time to pacify the now independent states,” Patrushev said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta . “The rearmament of the Australian fleet within the framework of the new AUCUS alliance, including the supply of nuclear submarines, military support for Taiwan and South Korea have a long-term goal -…

Crescent House The United States has intensified its cooperation with its partners in the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance, in addition to Japan, with the aim of enhancing intelligence sharing, information warfare and monitoring in the Indo-Pacific region, in light of the escalation of tensions with China in recent years. Lieutenant General Kelly Eichbach, Commander of Signal Forces in the US Navy, said that there is active cooperation and effective dialogues currently being discussed on best practices and exercises with members of the “Five Eyes” coalition, which includes, in addition to the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United…

ILE – White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients speaks during a press briefing at the White House, April 13, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)Patrick Semansky WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced Jeff Zients as his next White House chief of staff on Friday, tapping an experienced technocrat who headed his administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as Biden prepares for a reelection bid while facing an onslaught of investigations from a newly empowered House Republican majority. Zients succeeds Ron Klain, a longtime fixture in Biden’s political orbit who led the White House through its highs —…

The 2024 Corvette E Ray is displayed, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023, in Milford Mich. The fastest corvette ever made comes out next year, and it’s not powered soley by the traditional howling V8. The E Ray is a gas electric hybrid, the first all wheel drive version of the storied sports car with the front wheels running on a battery. Aimed at affluent buyers who want new technology in the top-line Chevrolet sports car, the $104,000 E Ray jerks your head back as it goes from zero to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)Carlos Osorio DETROIT (AP) —…

Text of Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s inauguration speech given on Jan. 16, 2023. Remarks as prepared: My fellow Alabamians: Today, as we mark the start of a new chapter in our state government, we are reminded of how fortunate we are to call Alabama and the United States of America our home. Four years ago, in this very spot, I said our people are our greatest resource and the fabric that holds our state together during, both our best days and the more difficult ones. Folks, standing here four years ago, I could never have imagined what was to come,…

The unemployment rate has dropped to a nearly 50-year low in 2022. However, aggressive rate hikes by the Fed are expected to cool the jobs market next year. The United States experienced its highest level of unemployment since the Great Depression in April 2020 hitting 14.7 percent. The economic stimulus measures implemented by the government helped drive the fastest economic recovery in the nation’s history. The US began 2022 with an unemployment rate of just 4 percent and it is currently hovering between 3.5 and 3.7 percent. However, next year it is expected that the unemployment rate will again increase as the Federal Reserve maintains…