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There are always things in life that I don’t understand. I bet you a lot of people feel that way. How did that happen? Why did that happen? Or it makes no sense. Somehow we have to accept these decisions, even if we don’t like them or understand them. So here’s a couple.

The Supreme Court ruled that President Biden’s appointee to the Federal Trade Commission could be fired by President Trump. Justice Neil Gorsuch, concurring in the court’s decision, said “independent agencies are not so independent after all.”

Well that I like. Makes perfect sense. As Mr. Trump put it, it reverses a bad decision made by the Supremes 91 years ago back in 1935. It gives the chief executive true executive authority. He defines quote “cause.” Yet what I don’t understand is how the Supremes let Governor Lisa Cook off the hook regarding the Federal Reserve. They decided that at least one so-called independent agency was truly independent and cited a way-long-ago, more or less 200 years ago precedent for the First and Second Bank of the United States. A long time ago.

By the way President Jackson didn’t think the Second Bank of the United States was so independent because he stopped their charter from being extended. Anyway, today’s court also cited the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. That’s a long time ago. Yet many people believe that central bank charter was highly ambiguous. And if presidents have the authority to appoint chairs and governors, they should have the same authority to fire them.

And then Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a concurring opinion, writes quote “today’s interim ruling does not decide whether the President may lawfully remove Governor Cook for cause.” And he goes on to say “the ultimate decision about why the President may remove Governor Cook for cause will largely depend on the facts regarding the governor’s actions. And those facts have yet to be determined.”

Justice Clarence Thomas called the ruling “incorrect” in his dissenting opinion. “Although the Court expresses concern that the President removed a Board member for ‘the first time in the Federal Reserve’s 111-year history,’” he wrote, “it expresses no such concern that it today upholds an injunction against the President’s removal of an executive officer for the first time in the Constitution’s 237-year history.”

Well Ms. Cook has been accused of mortgage fraud because she apparently or allegedly took out mortgages in three different states, Michigan, Georgia, and Massachusetts. And then she labeled each one her primary residence.

So if she can’t count or if she can’t read, why are we entrusting her with the monetary power of our currency? Her case was referred to the Justice Department, which I guess opened a criminal investigation into mortgage fraud back in August 2025. Almost a year ago.

Yet nothing’s happened since then. So far as we know, no charges have been brought, no grand jury has been convened, or maybe stuff is going on that we don’t know about. Justice Kavanaugh’s comment suggests Ms. Cook may yet get busted, tossed off the court.

The president wrote on Truth Social that the Supremes just sent it back on a strictly procedural basis, but the issue of firing her for cause was not settled. Sounds like he’s right. Yet here you have an independent agency that’s not so independent, and then you have an independent agency that may be independent, but we don’t actually know. So for now, acceptance is the answer to all my prayers, but I don’t really understand any of it.

By Jennifer Nash

The Dallas Fed released its Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey (TMOS) for June. The general business activity index fell 0.4 points to 0.0, indicating slower growth of manufacturing activity and stable business conditions perceptions.

TUCSON, Ariz. — A former FBI agent says the latest anonymous ransom note in the Nancy Guthrie case may be less about money and more about self-preservation, suggesting whoever sent it understands they could be facing a capital murder charge in Arizona if caught.

Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, has been missing since the early hours of Feb. 1, after being dropped off at her Tucson home by her son-in-law the previous night around 9:50 p.m. The new note, sent to TMZ last week, claims Guthrie is dead and was “buried with nature,” language consistent with a second note investigators received earlier in the case.

Former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer addressed the latest correspondence during a Sunday appearance on “NewsNation Prime,” telling host Hena Doba that she believes the note’s author understands the legal stakes have shifted dramatically now that Guthrie is presumed dead.

“They have a murder on their hands as opposed to a kidnapping,” Coffindaffer said.

Coffindaffer characterized the note as functioning less like a genuine ransom demand and more like an attempt by the sender to get ahead of the consequences before any arrest, framing it as a kind of preemptive apology aimed at softening how the person might eventually be perceived if identified. She suggested the writer is motivated by a desire for attention and a need to control the public narrative around the case, while still holding out hope of receiving a cryptocurrency payment if possible. Coffindaffer also said she suspects the timing of this latest note may have been driven by renewed media coverage following the disclosure of an earlier, previously undisclosed note’s contents earlier in the week.

As for whether Guthrie is still alive, Coffindaffer was unequivocal in her own assessment, saying she believes the notes sent so far are authentic and that the sequence of events described, in which the people responsible apparently did not intend for Guthrie to die before they could establish proof of life and collect a ransom, points to a plan that went catastrophically wrong for those involved. She said she believes Guthrie is no longer alive, while cautioning that no suspects have been arrested and that she believes investigators are working the case intensively behind the scenes, even if the public cannot see most of that activity.

The note Coffindaffer was discussing is the latest in a string of ransom communications that have surrounded the case since Guthrie’s disappearance. According to investigators who have reviewed the correspondence, two notes sent in early February are believed to have come from the same person or group, likely from the same computer IP address. The first, sent Feb. 2 to two local Tucson television stations and to TMZ, demanded a payment in bitcoin and contained unusually specific details about Guthrie’s home, including the location of an Apple Watch with a white band on her bedroom floor and a broken light on her back porch. The second note, sent four days later, was similar in tone and style but made no financial demand, instead indicating that Guthrie had died and that her abductors had not intended for that to happen.

Savannah Guthrie addressed the broader landscape of ransom claims in a March interview, distinguishing between the notes her family considers credible and the many other claims that have surfaced since her mother’s disappearance.

“There are a lot of different notes, I think, that came,” Savannah Guthrie said.

That distinction has become increasingly important as additional claims have continued to surface in the months since. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos addressed one such claim directly during a radio interview on a Tucson station’s Buckmaster Show last Friday, responding to a newer message sent to TMZ from someone claiming to possess video footage showing “the main guy” with Guthrie on what the sender described as the day she likely died, along with photographs, names and addresses tied to two alleged kidnappers. Nanos voiced clear skepticism about the claim’s authenticity, drawing on the case’s history of false reports.

“I think the FBI has done a number of arrests for false or fake ransom notes,” Nanos said.

The sender of that particular video claim also denied being responsible for an earlier tip that pointed to a possible burial site near Nogales, Mexico, and disputed reports that the previously revealed second ransom note had been written by a woman. That Mexico-related tip, which came through a Mexican volunteer search group called Buscando Corazones Nogales, prompted an unsuccessful local search effort earlier this month after it suggested Guthrie’s remains might be located near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Throughout the investigation, authorities have said they have ruled out Guthrie’s children and their spouses as suspects in her disappearance. Investigators have previously disclosed finding drops of Guthrie’s blood on the front stoop of her home, evidence that has reinforced the working theory that she was taken against her will rather than having left voluntarily. A reward of up to $100,000 from the FBI remains in place, supplemented by an additional $1 million reward offered by the Guthrie family, and the FBI’s tip line, 1-800-CALL-FBI, remains open for anyone with information.

Guthrie, born in Fort Wright, Kentucky, had lived in the Tucson area for more than five decades before her disappearance. She failed to log on to a scheduled online church service the morning after she went missing, prompting a church member to alert her family. Relatives went to check on her home around 11 a.m. that day, found no sign of her, and called police around noon after discovering her phone and other personal belongings still inside the house.

Savannah Guthrie has since returned to her duties on “Today,” though producers have reportedly put strict internal procedures in place for handling any breaking developments related to the case that might surface during the broadcast. She has repeatedly pleaded publicly for anyone with knowledge of her mother’s whereabouts or what happened to her to come forward, expressing hope that her family might finally find closure after nearly five months of uncertainty.

As the investigation continues without a confirmed suspect, authorities have not publicly verified the authenticity of any of the ransom notes received by media outlets, leaving the case in a familiar pattern: a steady stream of unconfirmed claims, competing theories from outside experts, and a family still waiting for the kind of definitive answer that, five months in, remains frustratingly out of reach.

Alan and Katie are part of a small but growing global movement called Fire, which stands for “Financially Independent, Retire Early”.

From a little-known concept 15 years ago, there are now almost a million members of the main Fire discussion board on social media site Reddit, and mainstream financial institutions now publish numerous guides on the topic.

The central tenet is that you live extremely frugally during your working life, so that you can retire as soon as possible.

For most of us, being able to quit working life early is just a dream. From the current high cost of living, to elevated property prices and student debt, we will be working longer not less. The statistics back this up.

Last year, average retirement ages in the UK hit record highs of 65.8 years for men and 64.7 for women, official data showed., external

It is a similar situation in the US, where the average retirement age for men and women has increased steadily since the 1990s, to 64.8 and 63.3 respectively in 2025, according to one long-term study., external

Yet Fire devotees such as 49-year-old Amy Minkley are committed to their goal. The American middle-school teacher was able to retire when she was just 44.

To help achieve this she worked abroad at international, private schools in Japan, Singapore, India and Thailand, where Minkley says she was able to earn more money and enjoy much lower living expenses than back home in Texas.

She also spent as little as possible. “I wasn’t interested in keeping up with a certain expat lifestyle,” says Minkley.

“I rarely bought expensive clothing, kept electronics until they gave out, cooked most of my meals at home, and paused before any significant purchase.

“Having a housemate while living in Singapore and India allowed me to save even more, and in several countries I didn’t need a car, which kept my expenses low,” she says.

Minkley now lives in Bali where her retirement income goes further than if she had moved back to the US.

Three in five homes listed for sale since January remain on the market, according to property portal Zoopla, as high mortgage rates frustrate potential buyers.

A lack of demand from buyers, as well as some high asking prices from sellers, have left homes in some areas unsold.

Agreed sales were 7% below last year, Zoopla said, but the picture varied across the country with sales down 12% in Wales and 11% in the East Midlands.

First-time buyers were most exposed to high mortgage rates, although there are now signs of greater competition among lenders who are lowering rates.

A jump in mortgage rates in April – prompted by financial upheaval caused by the US-Israeli war with Iran – added an average of £125 a month to a typical mortgage at its peak compared with January.

In London, the peak saw £232 a month added to the average first-time buyer’s costs.

The average two-year fixed rate jumped from 4.83% at the start of March to a peak of 5.90% on 12 April, according to the financial information service Moneyfacts. It has since dropped to 5.54%.

The increase was a major factor in pushing down demand from buyers in the UK by 15% compared with a year earlier, according to Zoopla’s report which considers the market to the end of May.

However, in the north east of England mortgage costs for first-time buyers were only £66 a month higher over the same period.

“The national picture can only tell you so much,” said Richard Donnell, executive director at Zoopla.

“For sellers still waiting for an offer, the conversation to have is about price. Correctly priced homes are selling, while overpriced homes are sitting.”

However, he pointed out that recent cuts in mortgage rates were a positive for buyers.

“For buyers, rates are falling, there is more choice of homes for sale than a year ago and motivated sellers are willing to negotiate. If you are ready to move, conditions are more favourable than they were three months ago,” he said.