Germany was once the industrial engine of Europe, but years of disastrous climate change policies, high energy costs, and left-wing economic mismanagement have battered its manufacturing base. This pressure has been roiling the country's auto industry, where struggling carmakers are restructuring operations through workforce reductions, production cuts, and capacity reductions.
Germany's top financial newspaper, Handelsblatt, reports that Porsche is preparing another round of deep job cuts at its main factories as the sports car maker grapples with weak demand.
The company is considering eliminating as many as 4,000 additional jobs at its Zuffenhausen plant, the outlet said, citing people familiar with the matter. These reductions would come on top of previously agreed cuts impacting 3,900 jobs.
Porsche's Zuffenhausen plant in Stuttgart is home to the brand's core sports car production lines, including the 911, 718, and Taycan.
Administration and management roles are expected to be reduced the most, while Porsche may also cut capacity at its Weissach development site by up to 30%.
Last month, Porsche CEO Michael Leiters said the company plans to produce at a lower capacity than the roughly 280,000 cars sold last year. He stated that the company must "make money with fewer cars."
Porsche's profit eroded further in the first quarter as the automaker faced mounting pressure from tariffs, geopolitical turmoil, and gaps in its model lineup. The emergence of Chinese EV giants like BYD and Chery in Europe is another troubling development for EU automakers.
Porsche is part of the Volkswagen Group, where the VW CEO recently warned that more than 100,000 jobs could be eliminated in a massive overhaul.
Police in Greenfield, Indiana, arrested a California truck driver after officers recovered nearly $2.9 million worth of tungsten oxide powder that police said thieves stole during a cargo theft in Pennsylvania.
According to a June 28 news release from the Greenfield Police Department, officers received an alert around 6 a.m. Saturday regarding a wanted semi tractor-trailer traveling eastbound on Interstate 70 into Hancock County. Police said the truck was connected to a cargo theft that occurred in Pennsylvania on June 25. Officers located the truck and trailer just west of the Greenfield exit at mile marker 104, confirmed the information and conducted a traffic stop.
Police identified the driver as 31-year-old Deepak Kumar of Fresno, California. Authorities said Kumar used fraudulent documents to obtain a load of nearly 40,000 pounds of tungsten oxide powder. Police valued the shipment at $2,857,500 and said it was headed to Mitsubishi Materials Corporation in Japan.
Greenfield police arrested Kumar at the scene on an active arrest warrant issued by the state of Pennsylvania. According to police, the warrant charges Kumar with theft by unlawful taking of movable property and criminal use of a communication facility.
Officers transported Kumar to the Hancock County Jail following the arrest. Police said the Hancock County Prosecutor’s Office will determine whether Kumar will face criminal charges in Indiana related to the traffic stop and evidence recovered during the subsequent search warrant.
Police said officers impounded the truck and trailer through Inman’s Towing of Greenfield following the traffic stop. Investigators held both as evidence while they requested a search warrant. After a judge issued the warrant, officers searched the trailer and confirmed it contained the reported stolen cargo.
According to police, a representative of Mitsubishi Materials Corporation traveled to Greenfield on Sunday and took possession of the recovered shipment.
The Greenfield Police Department has not identified the Pennsylvania business where investigators allege the cargo theft occurred. Authorities also have not released additional information describing the fraudulent documents investigators said Kumar used to obtain the cargo.
Police have not identified additional suspects or released court documents describing the alleged cargo theft. The department said the Hancock County Prosecutor’s Office will determine whether Kumar will face additional criminal charges in Indiana related to the traffic stop and the evidence recovered during the search warrant.
Officials had no idea 16 ‘almost feral’ children were living in feces-filled house of horrors till unrelated warrant
Authorities were unaware there were 16 “almost feral” children living in a feces-filled house of horrors in Ohio and only stumbled on them last week while serving a man in the home a warrant for indecent exposure.
Police faced shock and horror when serving the warrant against Gary Siders II at the Vinton County home and finding the 16 children ranging in age from 18 months to 18 years — raising questions about how the situation went unnoticed for so long.
It is now a challenge to unravel the case, given that the children — allegedly kept isolated in a 12-foot by 12-foot room — can barely speak properly, NBC4 reported.
Police arrested (clockwise from top left) Gary Siders Sr., Christine Siders, Gary Siders Jr. and Elizabeth Siders. Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail via AP
The family allegedly crammed 16 children into a small room inside their Vinton County, Ohio, home.
“One of the investigative challenges is that [the children] are limited. They can communicate, but it’s extremely limited, and some not at all,” said county Sheriff Ryan Cain.
The oldest child — the 18-year-old — is developmentally disabled and unable to even write her name, according to authorities.
Siders, his wife, Elizabeth Siders, 33, and his parents, Gary Sr., 73, and Christina, 66, were arrested last week and face multiple charges of endangering children.
Siders was 18 years old and had only finished ninth grade when he married Elizabeth in 2008, who was 15 at the time, according to records in Mason County, W. Va.
Police were serving a warrant against Siders Jr. when they found the 16 kids, many of whom have trouble communicating and were described by officials as “almost feral.” WSYX ABC 6
Because Elizabeth was underage, both her parents, Brian Russell and Lori Ann Raines, had to sign the marriage certificate along with Siders’ parents.
Their 18-year-old was born two months after the marriage, NBC4 reported.
Along with the oldest girl, court records show the other children’s ages as 16, 15, 14, 13, 11, 10, 8, 6, and 5, along with 4-year-old twins, 2-year-old twins and 1-year-old twins.
Police say the home was kept in deplorable conditions, with human feces filling the room where the children stayed. WSYX ABC 6
The children have never been enrolled in school, and it remains unclear exactly who all their parents are, as Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson described it as an “intra-family case.”
Officials said the children were living in squalor for at least four years cramped in the 12-by-12 room that was littered with human waste.
“It really looked third world. It is not something we are used to seeing in America. I cannot get the smell off of me,” Wilson told reporters Wednesday.
Seven of the children were hospitalized in the Columbus area, including two who were taken to trauma centers.
Siders is due in court Tuesday over the initial indecent-exposure warrant, with all four suspects facing up to 16 counts of child endangerment and $300,000 bonds each.
If found guilty of all charges, the defendants each face a maximum sentence of up to 192 years in prison.
Russia accused of dumping anthrax-infected cattle carcasses in Ukraine: ‘ Biological terrorism’
Russia is allegedly littering Ukraine with anthrax-infected livestock, dumping cattle carcasses less than a mile away from residential areas in what Ukrainian officials have described as “biological terrorism.”
Occupying Russian authorities are placing the tainted carcasses in burial sites in Ukraine’s Kherson region, with as many as 50 locations reported — including 10 that are considered “particularly dangerous“ to the local population, the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) reported.
“The deliberate or negligent creation of conditions for an anthrax outbreak is yet another crime committed by the aggressor state of Russia and constitutes an act of biological terrorism against civilians living in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine,” the agency said in a statement.
It's worse than what's described in the article. The third party contractor hired by SB County to collect the 1% assessment takes a 40% cut of the collected dues. Then there are the salaries and administrative expenses for the Santa Barbara County Vintners Association. I figure they'll be lucky if half of the money collected actually goes to promoting wine tourism in SB County.
In addition, the 1% assessment only applies to direct to consumer sales (DTC), such as wine club members and tasting room sales. Sales via distributors to liquor stores and restaurants aren't taxed. The impact to small producers who depend on DTC sales is much greater that the big guys.
California’s winery shakedown tests limits of free speech, association
A California county is trying to force businesses to pay dues to a trade association they may not support — just like unions that once forced workers to join and to pay dues.
And the precedent could hurt businesses across the Golden State.
Most Californians have never heard of Flying Goat Cellars, a family winery in Lompoc. They should.
I have spent plenty of time tasting my way through Los Olivos, Solvang and the Santa Ynez Valley over the years, and I’ve had Flying Goat’s wine.
Santa Barbara County’s newest mandate is troubling. California Outdoor Properties
These are not faceless corporations. They are small businesses where the owner may be the person pouring your tasting flight and telling you the story behind the bottle.
That makes Santa Barbara County’s newest mandate so troubling.
Last year, Santa Barbara County’s Board of Supervisors created a Wine Business Improvement District. Wineries selling directly to consumers must pay a 1% assessment on their sales.
Another tax? Nobody is shocked when California finds a new way to take more money.
Flying Goat Cellars disagrees with the association’s priorities, marketing strategy and advocacy efforts. Instagram/@flyinggoatcellars
What makes this so insidious is that it isn’t a tax in the traditional sense. The money doesn’t fund roads, police, parks or public programs. It funds the Santa Barbara County Vintners Association, a private trade organization that controls how the money is spent.
But even that isn’t the whole problem. The issue is compulsion.
Wineries don’t just pay the assessment — they must join the association, too.
No opt out. No choice. Pay the assessment. Join the organization. Fund the speech.
Flying Goat Cellars disagrees with the association’s priorities, marketing strategy and advocacy efforts. Santa Barbara County says that doesn’t matter.
As Flying Goat co-owner Kate Griffith put it in a recent interview, “[I]t’s just absurd that we are having to opt-in without a choice.”
The legal question is straightforward: Can government force a business owner to financially support speech he or she disagrees with? Can government compel membership in a private organization against someone’s wishes?
The Goldwater Institute argues the answer to both questions is no. Goldwater is a national public-interest legal organization that takes cases where government has overreached, and ordinary citizens or small businesses need serious legal firepower.
Goldwater attorney Adam Shelton put it this way: “The Supreme Court has consistently held that private businesses and individuals cannot be forced to subsidize the speech of other private businesses. But that’s exactly what’s happening here.”
Goldwater has filed suit in federal court against Santa Barbara County and the Vintners Association on behalf of Flying Goat Cellars and its owners.
The lawsuit argues that forcing wineries to fund a private trade association violates First Amendment protections against compelled speech and freedom of association. It also raises Fifth Amendment concerns about redirecting private money to a private organization.
Supporters argue the district benefits everyone through regional marketing. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. That is not the issue.
The issue is whether government gets to make that decision for you.
This should concern every California business owner: it isn’t staying in Santa Barbara County.
Similar wine districts already exist in Temecula, Livermore, Lodi, Amador County and the Santa Cruz Mountains. More regions are watching closely.
That is how government programs spread in California. One county tries something. Another copies it. A third expands it. Soon everyone acts as though it has always existed
Government has an unfortunate habit of treating successful revenue mechanisms the same way viruses treat hosts. They replicate.
If this lawsuit fails, don’t expect this to stay confined to wineries. Every struggling trade association in California will notice: mandatory membership, guaranteed funding and government enforcement.
But something may finally end this scheme before it becomes the next California industry standard.
One winery owner in Santa Barbara County was willing to become a plaintiff.
That matters, because constitutional rights mean very little if only billion-dollar corporations can afford to defend them.
And in my opinion, Flying Goat Cellars is likely to prevail.
The Supreme Court has already told government it cannot force someone to subsidize another party’s speech just because officials believe that speech serves a worthy purpose — that was the core holding in Janus v. AFSCME, when the Court struck down mandatory union agency fees for public employees in 2018.
If that principle held for a government worker’s paycheck, it is hard to see why it should bend for a small winery’s cash register.
A 1% cut of a family business’s sales, sent to a trade group whose marketing priorities that business rejects, is compelled subsidization with a different letterhead.
No lawsuit is guaranteed, but this one deserves to win. Because if government can force wineries to join organizations today, there is very little preventing government from forcing other businesses to do the same tomorrow.
Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.
The Goals of Communism
(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
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