Free Republic

(MOUNT LAUREL, N.J.)--Campbell Soup Co. is putting Godiva up for sale, saying the decadent Belgium chocolate does not fit with the company's focus on healthy, down-home foods. The Camden-based company announced Thursday that it has hired Centerview Partners LLC to advise it on what to do with Godiva Chocolatier, which the company has owned for more than 40 years, but says has never fit squarely into any of its main business units. Analyst Mitch Pinheiro, who follows the company for Janney Montgomery Scott, said the company would need to get around $900 million for Godiva to avoid diluting earnings. Pinheiro...

Bethel, N.Y. (AP) -- The famous farm near the alfalfa field that drew 400,000 people to Woodstock for three days of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll is up for sale. The asking price: $8 million. Roy Howard, the current owner, is packing it in after years of tangling with local officials over permits for reunion gatherings to mark the 1969, three-day Woodstock music festival that helped ignite a generation. Up for sale is the 2,000-square-foot house that belonged to dairy farmer Max Yasgur, along with a larger farmhouse, a barn and 103 bucolic acres about 80 miles north of...

Last year, candidates for state supreme court seats spent a combined $40 million nationwide. Earlier this month, a whopping $6 million was spent to win a single vacant seat on Wisconsin's state Supreme Court... ...The outlays in the Badger State came after a remarkable string of state Supreme Court decisions showing that the court didn't recognize many limits to its own power. And these decisions came as an extension of a long-standing battle between conservatives and liberals in the state. ...The contest for the vacant seat was between Annette Ziegler, a county judge favored by business groups, and Linda Clifford,...

Even as it tackled a long-term $20 billion gap in funding for the state's school employees, the California State Teachers' Retirement Board found time at its meeting last week to plug another hole: the millions of dollars that firms which handle, or want to handle, pension fund investments have donated to board trustees who are also elected officers. The state treasurer, the controller and the superintendent of public instruction, each of whom by virtue of the office sits as a CalSTRS trustee, all run for election or re-election statewide. That takes money. If they decide to run for higher statewide...

'Gilligan's Island' boat up for sale PARKSVILLE, British Columbia, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- The S.S. Minnow, which gained notoriety for its role on U.S. TV's "Gilligan's Island," is being sold by a Canadian boat broker for just under $100,000. The New York Post said George Schultz is selling the 37-foot boat for $99,000 in British Columbia for its owner Scotty Taylor, who is parting with the large piece of TV memorabilia due to his increased age. Originally built in 1960, the wooden Wheeler Express Cruiser was visible in the popular TV comedy's opening credits starting in 1964 and Taylor, its...

Maine’s largest newspaper could have a new owner in the next two years Union officials negotiating new contracts at three Maine daily newspapers — the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, the Waterville-based Morning Sentinel, and the Augusta-based Kennebec Journal — have begun to assume that the papers will soon be for sale, given the magnitude of the cutbacks sought by management. If the union position were substantially weakened, that would make the papers — which are struggling financially — far more appealing to outside buyers. The papers are owned by the same family-run company that controls a majority interest in...

Well while thankfully things are quiet in the Mid East, I will take advantage of this and post the following ad which I saw while perusing the Jerusalem Post which speaks for itself. For Sale Jerusalem Israel 25 years selling exclusive property in the better neighborhoods www.property.co.il

WILLIAM Jefferson Blythe III was born on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Ark. After his mother remarried, he took the family surname, Clinton. Clinton was a good student. He enjoyed playing the saxophone and even considered a professional musical career. While in high school, a fortuitous meeting with President John Kennedy led him to choose a life of public service.

The American Association of Retired Persons began as an organization dedicated to improving the lives of our elderly. These days it is being run by leftists. When you become a member, part of your dues go to support their political agenda. It was Winston Churchill who said (in other words) that liberalism is a natural state for the young, and conservatism a natural state for the same people, only a few decades farther down the road. This is a true statement, as all population group surveys prove. The reason for the evolution is time and experience. Life drives out fairy...

MARTHASVILLE, Mo. (AP) - For sale: Portion of historic farmstead. Asking price: $1.2 million. May or may not be burial place of storied frontier explorer. No one disputes that Daniel Boone and his wife, Rebecca, were buried on the Bryan farm, near the Missouri River west of St. Louis. The 32-acre tract that is now on the market includes the original brick farmhouse and the Bryan family cemetery. But in 1845, 20 years after Daniel Boone's death, the couple's remains were supposedly reburied at Frankfort, Ky., in the state that Boone helped open to settlers. Some believe, though, that another...

The gridlock in Sacramento has become so bad that the people's business has been turned over to the big money fund-raisers and the manipulators of public opinion. Last week, a Superior Court judge ruled that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can raise unlimited amounts of cash so he can put directly to voters reform measures that the Democrat-controlled Legislature won't even consider seriously. It essentially sanctions both sides to engage in an unfettered cash-fest from special interests and to spend these fortunes on what almost certainly will be false and misleading advertisements. California is giving up the pretense of a representative democracy....

When Jerald R. Klein, a Manhattan housing court judge, got a call from a reporter yesterday morning, he had no idea why he was being bothered at home on the weekend. He did not know that his face was all over eBay. He did not know that he was for sale. "What are you talking about?" he said. "Yes, I am a housing court judge. But I'm not for sale." According to a posting on eBay, an online auction house, the 55-year-old judge would go to the highest bidder. After four days, the best offer was $127.50. The eBay advertisement,...

PLEASE PRAY FOR GRANDMA C's (My website is free, if it gets too many hits I have to pay. Please only go there if you are really interested in more information by clicking on the Miracles) 2003 will be a year I won't soon forget. Last year (actually Christmas Eve 2002) I went to care for my Father who had had 3 strokes, cardiac & renal failure. I was up and down all night. I rarely got a break, you just could not leave him. Anyone who has cared for someone who is very ill for a long time, knows...

Andy Hoyle advertised his 30-year-old wife Mel on eBay.co.uk where the top bid was £640, but husband Andy said: "I couldn't let her go for that...really she's priceless. "I also had a man who wanted to swap Mel for a 1000cc Honda VTR SP1 motorbike, and he said he'd throw in the boots, gloves and leathers as part of the deal." The idea for putting Mel, a hairdresser up for sale came when the Wrexham couple were looking at a the eBay website where contributors put up goods for auction. "I asked Mel what we could put up and she...

<p>Jaye Dyer, who was part of the group that sold the Minnesota Vikings to Red McCombs for $245 million four years ago, takes a thoughtful pause when asked how much the team is worth today.</p> <p>"Maybe $400 million," said Dyer, former CEO of Dyco Petroleum. "I think anything above that is a very chancy investment."</p>