Free Republic

Bed Bath & Beyond didn't pay severance to thousands of workers. The company laid off more than 1,000 workers in New Jersey days before a new severance law took effect. In early February, Diane Zaccagna learned that the Bed Bath & Beyond store in New Jersey where she had been working for 18 and a half years was closing and she would be laid off. "We knew Bed Bath was in trouble, but we thought we would have at least a couple more years," said Zaccagna, 50, who started out as a part-time employee and climbed her way to a...

“Get woke, go broke,” has become a rallying cry of the political right whenever they see a brand make the slightest effort to align itself with liberal or progressive values. It’s a meme that allows MAGA country to believe that there is ongoing, massive backlash to products that acknowledge and celebrate marginalized communities. But the supposed boycotts never seem to be reflected in the bottom line. Besides, by the time we would expect to notice any effect, conservatives have already moved on to the next outrage. Kid Rock and Travis Tritt declared war this week against brewer Anheuser-Busch for a...

Wellesley College, an all-women’s school that has long prided itself as a place for “women who will make a difference in the world,” has truly lost the plot. Currently, the school’s policy is that students who were “assigned female at birth who identify as men are not eligible for admission,” but students who were “assigned male at birth who identify as women are eligible for admission.” ... Wellesley hasn’t truly been an all-women’s college since 2015, when it last updated its policy to accept applications from biological males who identify as women. But even that policy allowing biological men to...

The U.S. Army’s new brand and ad campaign largely omits reference to woke identity politics and could be just what the service needs to overcome historic recruiting obstacles, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Prior advertising efforts alienated conservative families that once served as the Army’s primary recruiting base, according to experts. They “forgot that the primary market for Army recruiting is young men from traditional families, looking for a challenge,” Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, told the DCNF. The Army’s new branding campaign, unveiled Wednesday, shied away from social justice and diversity themes as...

While Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, top executive pushed ‘woke’ programs A head of risk management at Silicon Valley Bank spent considerable time spearheading multiple “woke” LGBTQ+ programs, including a “safe space” for coming out stories, as the firm catapulted toward collapse. Jay Ersapah, the boss of Financial Risk Management at SVB’s UK branch, launched initiatives such as the company’s first month-long Pride campaign and a new blog emphasizing mental health awareness for LGBTQ+ youth. “The phrase ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’ resonates with me,’” Ersapah was quoted as saying on the company website. “As a queer person of...

Get Woke, Go Broke: Washington Post Staff Meeting Erupts Into Chaos As Layoffs Announced After losing more than half a million subscribers in the past two years, did the far-left writers and employees at the Washington Post really think they would avoid any consequences? It would appear that they are exactly as oblivious as many people suspected. A recent hidden camera video has surfaced of the latest Washington Post employee “town hall” meeting, in which CEO Fredrick Ryan delivers the bad news that the company will be executing worker layoffs after subscription revenues plummeted. Not surprisingly, the employees (presumably made...

BlackRock’s focus on the latest Wall Street craze—environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing—has turned into a risky affair for the world’s largest asset manager, a UBS analyst recently stated. Brennan Hawken, an analyst at the bank, downgraded the stock of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) from Buy to Neutral and slashed the stock price target from $700 to $585 over growing pushback to its ESG efforts. “We are downgrading BLK to Neutral based on environmental pressure to earnings and risk from the firm’s ESG positioning,” he said in a note, adding that BlackRock could face increased regulatory inspection and the possibility of...

Scientific American found itself taking heat this month after the scholarly, 176-year-old magazine published an opinion piece titled “Health Care Workers Call for Support of Palestinians.” The screechy diatribe accused Israel of “vaccine apartheid” and “war crimes” among other alleged abuses. The piece blasted “Israeli settler colonial rule” and called on US healthcare and academic institutions to condemn “long-standing oppression” against the Palestinians and adopt the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign against the country. The piece was written by Harvard University research fellows Osaid H. K. Alser and Asmaa Rimawi; Seattle Children’s Hospital Dr. Sabreen Akhter; Mayo Clinic Dr. Nusheen...

Stephen Curry is one of many NBA players who is facing a heavy financial hit over the next few months. As a result of COVID-19 and the way contracts are structured, the 32-year-old could lose nearly $20 million in 2020-21.