Free Republic

VIDEOWho out there would actually pay $4.50 for the weekday edition of a newspaper consisting of only 26 pages total? That is an even bigger mystery than how newspapers think they can get away with charging that much for their ultra-thin newspapers. Oh, and I would love to know the TRUE circulation numbers of the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. I've seen the "official" circulation figure and no way does the real circulation come close to what they are pretending for the benefit of the few advertisers they have left.

About 150 new cars with a plug are coming to US showrooms between now and the end of 2026. That might be a record expansion for the industry -- and a record opportunity for you to either find the perfect EV or get completely overwhelmed. Below are the 18 plug-in cars that I'm most looking forward to in 2023, because they're likely to make a mark on the electric car landscape. This list includes pure electrics and hybrids, but does not get into the weeds on range, as that's becoming less different between pure electric cars at roughly 225-300 miles,...

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, issued a bizarre string of Tweets this week in which offered to trade 100 cows for the right to marry likely Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and threatened war should the "Romans" refuse his offer. "For my Italian friends, these are Nkore cows," Kainerugaba wrote. "The most beautiful cows on earth. I know Europeans give girls they like flowers? I have never understood it. In our culture you give a girl you like a cow." "I would give her 100 Nkore cows immediately! For being fearless and true!!" he wrote in a separate...

AT&T Inc. is exploring parting with its DirecTV satellite unit...a move that would mark a mark a sharp course correction in strategy for Chief Executive Randall Stephenson, who billed his $49 billion bet on the satellite provider as a key to the phone giant’s future...AT&T acquired DirecTV in 2015 for $49 billion. The company’s shrinking satellite business is under a microscope after activist investor Elliott Management Corp. disclosed a $3.2 billion stake in AT&T last week and released a report pushing for strategic changes. Elliott has told investors that AT&T should unload DirecTV...

Finally, some positive news for iconic guitar company Gibson as their devastating slip into bankruptcy is set to come to an end. For over 100 years one of the forewords in the guitar industry was Gibson. Their iconic guitars have been played by some of the biggest rock stars all around the world and, for some considerable amount of time, it looked as though the company was in ruins having declared for bankruptcy. ....it has now been revealed that the global investment company KKR will become the majority owner of Gibson. To coincide with the news, the new investors have...

It’s not just luxury-home listings that are piling up in New York City. Even units for less than $1 million — within reach of far more people than a Billionaires’ Row penthouse — are hurting for buyers. In Manhattan, the inventory of sub-$1 million apartments surged 27 percent in June from a year earlier to 3,087, the most for the month since 2013, according to StreetEasy. Such listings jumped 17 percent to 2,738 in Brooklyn, and climbed 6 percent to 2,314 in Queens, a borough usually sought out for its relative affordability. Buyers at all price points are taking their...

Starbucks earnings hit Wall Street's target in the latest quarter, but shares fell 3.5 percent in aftermarket trading on Thursday after the company posted its lowest same-store sales growth since 2009...

What's the deal with Trump Wine? by Aaron Smith @AaronSmithCNN Donald Trump doesn't drink but he owns his own vineyard - Trump Winery - with a landing pad for his helicopter. CNNMoney (New York) First published March 11, 2016: 9:18 AM ET he site says the winery has 50,000 square feet of winemaking facilities, tank capacity of 100,000 gallons, and a 750-barrel cave. Trump also operates the vineyard's Albemarle Estate, a 26,000-square foot, 45-room mansion, as a hotel that can fetch up to $999 per night. The winery produces 40,000 cases annually and receives 100,000 visitors a year who taste...

Red Lobster's turnaround just got a major boost from Beyonce. [...] Red Lobster's sales soared 33% on February 7, one day after Beyonce released a new song that included a reference to the seafood chain. "We had no idea Beyonce was going to give us that amazing shoutout," Red Lobster CEO Kim Lopdrup told Business Insider in a phone interview. "We were completely surprised and delighted. It has been an incredible weekend following the release of Beyonce's new song." In the song, called Formation, Beyonce refers to Red Lobster as a reward for sex. ...

Judging by the fundamentals--things like revenue, earnings, assets, cash flow, profit margins, and growth--Apple had a very good year.However shares in the world’s most valuable company finished 2015 down 4% from the beginning of the year and off nearly 22% from their 52-week high.Why the disconnect?In my comment stream yesterday, a longtime reader who calls himself Merckel spoke for many frustrated shareholders when he boiled it down to six reasons: Heavy option activity. Institutions are content with making bank off of selling lotto tickets (options) to weekly gamblers. Approximately 90% of all Apple AAPL options expired worthless in 2015....

One of the most common reasons someone might be tempted to purchase counterfeit product is price — fakes are likely to be much cheaper than the real thing, hence the appeal. So the choice by popular musician Taylor Swift to fight back against counterfeits by selling $60 T-shirts is well, a bit of a head scratcher. (Report of wsj story)

(Reuters) - Apparel retailer Gap Inc (GPS.N) said it would close a quarter of Gap specialty stores in North America over the next few years, including 140 this year, potentially affecting thousands of jobs as the company struggles with a slump in sales at its namesake brand. San Francisco-based Gap also said it would cut 250 jobs at its headquarters. The company did not say how many employees would be laid off as a result of the store closures. As of Jan. 31, Gap had about 141,000 full- and part-time employees in about 3,700 company-owned and franchise stores worldwide.

So much for browser security. Researchers who participated in the Pwn2Own hacking contest this week demonstrated remote code execution exploits against the top four browsers, and also hacked the widely used Adobe Reader and Flash Player plug-ins. On Thursday, South Korean security researcher and serial browser hacker JungHoon Lee, known online as lokihardt, single-handedly popped Internet Explorer 11 and Google Chrome on Microsoft Windows, as well as Apple Safari on Mac OS X. He walked away with US$225,000 in prize money, not including the value of the brand new laptops on which the exploits are demonstrated and which the winners...

A study from the Texas Association of Realtors shows international buyers pumped more than $11 billion dollars into the Texas economy between March of 2013 and 2014. One Austin Realtor says people from outside of the U.S. are looking for a secure investment. “An international client can come into the Austin market, get a great value for what they’re buying and almost be insured that there’s profitability in that and that’s unique to the world as a whole,” said J Kuper, owner of Kuper Sotheby’s International Realty.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) announced that $1.55 billion in new federal tax dollars will be allocated for the first-ever Hawaiian Transit Rail system on the island of Oahu, which will serve downtown Honolulu, at a total federal and state cost of $5.1 billion.The train circuit will be 20 miles long, with 21 stops on an island that is 30 miles wide. … An additional $4 million has been obligated from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the “stimulus”), and $209.9 million is coming from other sources within the DOT. Both the $1.55 billion and the $209.9 million are proposed...

Morgan Stanley analyst Kathryn Huberty upped her sales projections for the tablet computer market Thursday, and argued that Microsoft will grab the number two spot in the market, after Apple iPad and ahead of tablets running Google‘s Android software, with the launch of Windows 8 later this year. Huberty and the tech team at Morgan Stanley are now estimating shipments of 133 million tablets in 2012, up 57% from their original estimates; and 216 million tablets in 2013, up 112%. No surprise there, tablet sales have been growing fast — despite high-profile stumbles by Hewlett-Packard and Dell — thanks to...

As tuition costs skyrocket and graduates walk away saddled with ever-rising amounts of debt, American colleges now face a choice: Remain a part of the problem, or begin contributing to a solution. The average cost to attend a public university shot up 8.3 percent this year, while private institutions raised their prices 4.3 percent. Over the past decade, tuition rates have risen 72 percent, and universities are now taking more heat than ever from government officials, education specialists and middle-class families, all of whom think the higher-education sector hasn’t done enough to reverse the trend. If the current trajectory continues,...

A statement by Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors as listed in a report on existing home sales caught my eye today. "From a consumer's perspective, only the local market information matters and there are no changes to local multiple listing service data or local supply-and-demand balance, or to local home prices" said Yun. On the surface, the statement seems incredulous. How can the national data be completely screwed up, in need of major revisions, if the local data is accurate? I had a chat with Calculated Risk today regarding that statement by the NAR. Calculated...

Want Gingrich To Speak? He Needs ‘First Class Expenses’ and 2 Bathrooms By Dan Eggen December 7 Newt Gingrich, the Republican presidential candidate with a penchant for luxury jets and Tiffany & Co. jewelry, also appears to demand top-notch accommodations when he travels for a speech. The Smoking Gun Web site, which specializes in unearthing revealing documents, has posted a copy of a speaking gig contract apparently signed by Gingrich for an appearance at Missouri Western State University in October 2010. The contract called for payment of “first class expenses,” including the hotel of Gingrich’s choice, and “first class airfare.”...

<p>The RoboCop look is coming nationwide, a law enforcement supplier says, and Johnson County deputies are on the cutting edge as they test cameras they wear on their ears.</p> <p>Executives at Taser International Inc. hope the company’s new device spreads as quickly among police as its zappers did in the 1990s.</p>