Navy awards $5 billion frigate contract to Fincantieri Marinette Marine, creating at least 1,000 jobs

https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/2020/04/30/fincantieri-marinette-marine-wins-5-billion-navy-frigate-contract/3061250001/?

MARINETTE - The U.S. Navy has awarded Fincantieri Marinette Marine a contract to build the service's new frigate.

The contract for the lead ship and options for up to nine others would be worth $5.5 billion if all options are exercised.

"This is a massive win for northeast Wisconsin, for America, and for the free world," said U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Green Bay, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, called it a "big win for our made-in-Wisconsin economy right now and it will support thousands of skilled workers at the Marinette Marine shipyard."

RELATED: Marinette Marine plans to showcase present, hopefully future, of shipbuilding for Pence's visit

The move will bring an additional 1,000 jobs to Marinette, Baldwin said.

Gallagher said it will create more than 5,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Fincantieri’s guided missile frigate, FFG(X), is designed as a multi-mission small, surface combatant, Gallagher said in a news release. It is based on the FREMM European multi-mission frigate, according to USNI News.

Marinette Marine has a history of shipbuilding contracts with the Navy, having built at least 10 Freedom variant littoral combat ships. Vice President Mike Pence visited the shipyard in November as he pushed for passage of a North American trade deal.

For more than a decade, Marinette Marine and another shipyard in Mobile Alabama have built littoral combat ships — small speedy, shallow watercraft. That work has supported thousands of jobs, and Marinette recently delivered its 10th littoral combat ship, or LCS.

Since its inception more than 15 years ago, the littoral program has been dogged by criticisms ranging from cost overruns to the ships lacking firepower and survivability for naval warfare.

The $360 million littoral ships have fallen out of favor as the United States faces increased risks of open-ocean warfare with China and Russia and the program has been cut back.

The decision to curtail the LCS program could also result in the decommissioning of the first four vessels — USS Freedom, Independence, Fort Worth and Coronado.

The Navy has set its sights on acquiring frigates, a bigger and more combat-capable warship. The frigates are estimated to cost $900 million each.

Fincantieri Marinette Marine was competing with three shipbuilders in Alabama, Mississippi and Maine to win frigate orders that, over time, could easily top $10 billion.

LCS is one of the largest shipbuilding programs in the history of Marinette Marine, which has built ships in northeast Wisconsin since the 1940s. The company was acquired by Italian yacht-maker Fincantieri in 2009, and its proposed frigate design is based on an Italian warship — but with more than 95% American-made materials and components.

Menards to require shoppers wear protective masks

https://www.wsaw.com/fox/content/news/Menards-to-require-shoppers-wear-protective-masks-570110301.html?

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WSAW) – Menards will now require customers to wear masks while shopping.

WITI-TV reports if a shopper doesn't have a mask, Menards is offering them up for $1.

A statement from the company obtained by FOX 6 states:

"While hoping for the best, we have to assume the worst, that being that everyone may potentially be infected, and act accordingly."

With no way of knowing who has the virus, the company calls the move a simple, common-sense precaution.

Hence the problem which will soon be………………………….

Store owner does not require masks and someone gets CV-19 BUT may not have even happened in the store…..

Ambulance chasing lawyer file lawsuit because Menard's has deep pockets and insurance.

1. Does Menard's pay a nuisance fee to get rid of lawsuit????

1. Does it fight the lawsuit and piss away bucks????

Remember the ambulance chasing lawyers are a arm of the Demoncratic party. They will be pressed into service this summer as 45 takes away more funds from the higher up Demoncratic operatives.

Other solutions????????

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/tom-perez-dismisses-call-to-investigate-biden-sexual-assault-claim-concludes-nothing-there/?

Tom Perez Dismisses Call to Investigate Biden Sexual Assault Claim, Concludes ‘Nothing There’

Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez dismissed calls to search Joe Biden's University of Delaware Senate archive for evidence of Tara Reade's sexual-assault allegation, saying there is "nothing there."

"When you ask the University of Delaware to take a look at something, you're asking them to look for something that doesn't exist, and the fact of the matter is that the president of the United States, the former president Barack Obama, conducted an exhaustive search," Perez said Sunday on ABC's This Week. "Joe Biden has been an open book."

The New York Times editorial board on Friday called on the DNC to form an "unbiased, apolitical panel" to investigate Biden's Senate papers, saying "the American people deserve at least the confidence that [Biden], and the Democratic Party, have made every effort to bring the truth to light."

The Biden campaign previously said an April 12 Times investigation of Reade's accusation concluded that the alleged sexual assault did not occur. The paper later challenged the campaign talking points, saying, "Our investigation made no conclusion either way."

Biden donated his Senate records to the University of Delaware in 2011 with the stipulation that the archive could not be released until two years after he left public office. The agreement was later updated so that the records would not be released until after Biden leaves public life.

Biden repeatedly rejected calls to release the archives during an interview with MSNBC's Morning Joe anchor Mika Brzezinski.

"There are no personnel records in the Biden papers at the university," Biden said.

Perez compared Biden's Senate archive with the "Hillary emails" on Sunday, saying any evidence of a sexual assault would have surfaced during the Obama campaign's vetting of the former vice president.

"I'm very familiar with [the] vice presidential vetting process. They look at everything about you. They looked at the entire history of Joe Biden, his entire career," Perez said. "I'll tell you, if Barack Obama had any indication that there was an issue, Barack Obama would not have had him as his vice president. Barack Obama trusted Joe Biden. I trust Joe Biden."