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Source URL: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/dec/05121302.html LifeSiteNews.com Tuesday December 13, 2005 Costco Fires Catholic Who Denied Knights of Columbus Hall for Lesbian "Marriage" Man Stuggling to Support Three Small Children Faces Loss of Home LifeSiteNews.com Exclusive PORT COQUITLAM, BC, November 30, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A member of the Knights of Columbus who is in charge of renting the fraternity's hall for weddings and other events alleges he was fired from his day job at Costco for his involvement in denying two lesbians the facility for their same-sex "wedding." The human rights case in which the lesbian couple successfully sued the Knights of Columbus...

Washington DC, Dec. 09, 2005 (CNA) - Intervening in the heated debate about the mention of Christmas on the public square, Concerned Women for America (CWA) presented a first Christmas list showing which businesses are honouring the Reason for the Season (the birth of Jesus), which ones are not, and which have mixed records. It first lists the corporation ‘Nice’ or friendly to the Original Christmas tradition.  This year Macy's joins the NICE list because it has returned the explicit mention of Christmas and Merry Christmas to its stores and its ads. L.L. Bean, on the other hand, just barely...

Below find a list of the major department stores across the country and where they stand on using Christmas in their holiday advertising and other promotions. JCPenney: "Christmas" mentioned in print ads & other advertising Federated Department Stores (Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Lord & Taylor, Filene's, Marshall Fields): "Christmas" mentioned in print ads & other advertising Employees are free to use any holiday greeting that they feel is appropriate Dillard's: "Christmas" mentioned in print ads & other advertising FAO Schwarz: Using "Holiday" this year in advertising materials Employees are free to use any holiday greeting that they feel is appropriate Toys 'R'...

Laguna Niguel - Costco shoppers who glance left as they trudge toward the exit at this south-county store come face-to-face with a fact of life: death.The casket display, while modest, often provokes a reaction. Caskets at Costco? Mouths drop. Some giggle, others say, "Cool!"A few are offended. "Oh. My. God," said Loui Cronholm, 62, of Beaumont. "It just gives me the creeps. I come here to buy bulk food - not to see that when I walk out the door."Costco, the membership warehouse that sells everything from $4,000 plasma-screen televisions to bulk toilet paper, has sold the caskets online for just...

Oliver North was interviewed on the Mark Larson show today and stated he would be in San Diego on Friday, October 7, 2005. This day also happens to be Col North's birthday. Col North will be here for a book signing - his new book, "Assassins".

... Some Wall Street analysts assert that CEO Jim Sinegal is overly generous not only to Costco's customers but to its workers as well. Costco's average pay, for example, is $17 an hour, 42 percent higher than its fiercest rival, Sam's Club. And Costco's health plan makes those at many other retailers look Scroogish. One analyst, Bill Dreher of Deutsche Bank, complained last year that at Costco "it's better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder." Mr. Sinegal begs to differ. ...Good wages and benefits are why Costco has extremely low rates of turnover and theft by...

ISSAQUAH, WASH. - Jim Sinegal, the chief executive of Costco Wholesale, the nation's fifth-largest retailer, crows about Costco's private-label pinpoint cotton dress shirts. "Look, these are just $12.99," he said while lifting a crisp blue button-down inside Costco's cavernous warehouse store here in the company's hometown. "At Nordstrom or Macy's, this is a $45, $50 shirt." Combining high quality with stunningly low prices, the shirts appeal to upscale customers — and epitomize why some retail analysts say Sinegal just might be America's shrewdest merchant since Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart.

Render Unto Caesar Author: Deborah Baxtrom Publishing date: 12/31/2002 7:32 am Illustration by Jack Slattery Religion squared off with consumerism in Cypress, California, last May when the Cypress City Council voted unanimously to seize, through use of the city’s power of eminent domain, 18 acres of land owned by the Cottonwood Christian Center in order to build a Costco discount store. “The city is trying to feed its voracious appetite for property taxes,” said Patrick Korten, a vice president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, an organization helping to represent Cottonwood in the case. “If they get away with...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court gave local governments broad power today to bulldoze homes and other private property to make way for business development, a ruling that could encourage more city-backed plans to replace small stores with big-box retailers. The 5-4 ruling upheld a plan by officials in a coastal Connecticut town to condemn nine homes of longtime residents that would be replaced with an office complex and a marina. The dispute between the homeowners and the city officials became a classic test of government power versus individual rights. It pitted a community's hopes for economic rebirth against an individual's...

ATLANTA - As the price of gasoline has gone up, the way it's marketed has changed. ... But with the price shock of the 1970s, we started pumping it ourselves. And from then on, only one thing mattered: Cost. Today, once again, price is dramatically changing the market. Supermarkets like Kroger and discount stores like Wal-Mart and Costco have plunged in, offering gasoline that consumer advocates agree is as good as anything being sold by the big names, and selling it 2 to 7 cents cheaper than nearby stations. Volume is what allows them to buy gasoline at a better...

Ron Siddell (RD1), a Navy vet in the Lynnwood, WA area forwarded this to me. We served together supporting Swift Boat ops in Qui Nhon, RVN. ------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Sarge6000 Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 4:03 PM To: Sarge6000 List Subject: Hanoi Jane Protest Report Well, I got my satisfaction if nothing else. There really is not much to report. I tried to rally the troops to protest Hanoi Jane's book signing event today. A long time veterans advocate and buddy of mine showed up as did 2 Vietnamese. I can assure everyone that I no longer want to hear any...

WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - A woman who was fired by Costco in 2001 for refusing to remove her eyebrow ring has accused the company of religious discrimination, saying she is a member of the Church of Body Modification. Kimberly M. Cloutier said she wears her eyebrow ring as a sign of faith. She has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider hearing the case. The church, established in 1999, counts about 1,000 members who participate in practices such as piercing and tattooing, according to a December ruling by the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld a trial judge's...

On February 22nd, the future of property rights in America will be at stake as the Supreme Court begins oral arguments in the case of Kelo v. New London. The central question at issue is: should the government be able to use its power of eminent domain to seize property from one private party and transfer it to another? The seven property owners on the side of Kelo are the last remaining of more than 70 families whose homes and businesses were targeted for demolition several years ago by the city of New London, Connecticut, to make room for a...

All’s fair in love and war, but not in Washington’s liquor monopoly. The state’s Liquor Control Board (LCB) is running into problems again, this time with the nation’s largest membership warehouse chain, Costco. Issaquah-based Costco has filed a lawsuit to do away with Washington’s antiquated law that prohibits the company from purchasing alcoholic beverages from out-of-state distributors. Costco believes the LCB regulations violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution and the federal Sherman Antitrust Act. The state’s monopolistic liquor laws also violate a sense of basic market fairness. Currently, Washington does not allow companies to buy liquor from out...

Progressive's growth continues to slowBy Alistair Barr, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 11:38 AM ET Jan. 20, 2005 SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Progressive Corp., the third-largest auto insurer in the United States, said Thursday that premium growth slowed in December compared with the previous month, continuing a trend that began last year. Progressive (PGR: news, chart, profile) , which reports results monthly, said net written premiums came in at $1.14 billion in December. Excluding an extra week that the insurer included in its December results, net written premium growth was 5 percent last month compared with December 2003, the company said....

Costco has put a hold on plans to develop a new store in Kalispell, or new stores anywhere in Montana, because of a proposed tax on "box stores" that will be considered by the state Legislature, a Costco executive said Friday. "We feel this proposal is punitive against Costco and we are going to hold off on any additional investment in Montana until this is resolved," said Doug Schutt, chief operating officer for Costco's Northern Division. Costco has yet to break ground on its new store at the Spring Prairie Center on U.S. 93 north of Kalispell, and construction probably...

BUY BLUE? I DON'T THINK SO. Now here is an interesting website for you to take a look at. The title says "Choose the Blue." By searching the various categories through this website you can discover which political party PACs are supported by various corporations and corporate employees in several fields of business. The object of the website is to get loyal Democrats to stop spending their money with companies that lend the greater support to the Republican party. Some examples: In the auto insurance category, Progressive Insurance shows a 91% support for Democrats while State Farm shows an 81%...

For despondent Democrats there's a new treatment, if not a cure, for their lingering Election Day blues. Think retail therapy. A Web site called Choose the Blue is offering shopping advice this holiday season, providing information about which companies' employees give to Democrats and which prefer Republicans.

Saw enough "Costco" Topics here, figured there would be some interest: Received this from Chad Baus of OFCC yesterday: The following was sent to OFCC - writer isn't a CCW-Talker, but said I could post this sans his name: Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 13:27:56 -0500 Subject: Costco To: info@ofcc.net Hello, Costco as a CPZ yesterday. I also e-mailed them to find out why. I am forwarding their response. Thanks, XXXXXXX >From: customerservice@costco.com >Subject: RE: Warehouse Questions or Suggestions [APZ2004120900003499] >Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 08:47:42 -0800 > >To reference this e-mail in the future, please make >note of the...

...Desperate for tax revenue, cities and towns across the country now routinely take property from unwilling sellers to make way for big-box retailers. Condemnation cases aren't tracked nationally, but even retailers themselves acknowledge that the explosive growth of the format in the 1990s and torrid competition for land has increasingly pushed them into increasingly problematic areas -- including sites owned by other people... [A] shareholder resolution: "adopt a policy for land procurement and use that incorporates social and environmental factors," particularly, the wishes of local property owners and community groups.... "If the company continues to operate in this manner, with...