Free Republic

Meet New York City’s good neighbor. For the last year, Sean Feeney, a finance veteran turned restaurateur, has been quietly padding out his resume with some major dirty work: garbage. It’s an unsavory business. But in our city where trash is so ubiquitous it’s starting to feel like a coordinated street art project designed to offend the senses, the 43-year-old owner of Brooklyn’s Fini Pizza has taken a personal interest in its disposal. Instead of flooding 311 with futile complaints about the muck, Feeney opened his cash register to help clean up his section of Williamsburg and now Downtown Brooklyn...

Many small businesses continue to struggle and now a growing number of pizza shops in the Grand Rapids area are closing. Just over a year after Rico Nelson took over Franco’s Pizzeria on Alpine Avenue in Walker, he had to shut the store down. He’s far from the only one. "Business usually takes a while to get your niche and get it figured out," Nelson said. "But it’s just so hard with the uncertainty of the future right now, you know?" It’s the perfect storm facing small businesses right now: employee shortages, rising food and gas prices and supply chain...

So, who’s this Alix Bryan person? Well, as she puts it in her Twitter bio, she’s “1/3 of a kick-ass web and social media team @CBS6” in Richmond, Virginia. -snip She’s also a model citizen who took it upon herself to report the wildly successful GoFundMe campaign for Memories Pizza for fraud — despite the fact that she had no evidence whatsoever: Alix Bryan        ✔ @alixbryan Are you kidding me? Indiana pizzeria raises $17k in an hour by being bigoted? http://www.gofundme.com/MemoriesPizza  7:33 PM - 1 Apr 2015 Alix Bryan        ✔ @alixbryan I have reported the GoFundMe for Memories Pizza for fraud. Just in case. http://www.gofundme.com/contact?t=donation_page_report&url=MemoriesPizza … 7:46 PM -...

A high school golf coach in Indiana has been suspended after she threatened to burn down a local pizzeria when she heard its Christian owners say earlier this week that they'd refuse to cater gay weddings if asked to do so. The pizza shop has temporarily closed amid safety concerns after its owners received death threats this week.After Gov. Mike Pence signed into law Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act last Thursday, the O'Connor family, which has owned Memories Pizza in Walkerton, Indiana, for over nine years, told a local ABC television news reporter on Tuesday that they agree with the...

Memories Pizza, a takeout restaurant in Walkerton, Indiana, has closed its doors following outrage over remarks the shop owner made regarding same-sex marriage...

Crystal O’Connor co-owns a pizzeria in Indiana but they may close their doors permanently after being attacked for putting forth their Christian faith. When she said she would not cater a gay wedding, the shop’s website was hacked, their Yelp profile was plastered with insults and obscene pictures, and they even received death threats. A supporter has begun a “GoFundMe” profile for the Pizzeria owners to help them weather the gay mafia storm, and they have so many people angry that they’ve received over $18,000 in donations in just two hours!

Michael Nuzzo and his two older brothers learned from their father, Fred, the intracacies -- and hard work -- involved in making Italian pies at the New Haven pizzeria he started in 1955. All three eventually started their own restaurants. Today, a third generation of Nuzzos, Michael's three children -- ages 13, 11 and 8 -- for years have spent Friday nights and Saturdays learning the business at their father's Grand Apizza restaurant in Clinton. That is until two weeks ago, when a Connecticut Labor Department investigator -- apparently acting on an anonymous tip -- showed up May 12 at...

Nobles: Aage Bjerre, for serving freedom, one slice at a time. In February 2003, as the West debated the invasion of Iraq, Mr. Bjerre closed the doors of his pizzeria to German and French tourists visiting the Danish island of Fanoe. Why the Germans and French? Well, it might be remembered that as the United States was presenting its case against Iraq to the U.N. Security Council, France and Germany said they would veto any resolution that called for war. Mr. Bjerre was eventually arrested, found guilty of discrimination by a Danish court and ordered to pay a $900 fine....

A Danish pizzeria owner has gone to jail for refusing to pay a fine imposed after he barred German and French customers from his restaurant. Aage Bjerre acted in protest against the French and German governments' opposition to the US-led war in Iraq. He will now serve an eight-day sentence at a minimum security prison, the Associated Press reports. "I'm doing it to show my sympathy with the United States," he said. He refused to pay a 5,000-kroner (£461;$800) fine. In June 2003 a Danish court convicted of him of racial discrimination. The 46-year-old was forced to sell his pizzeria...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - A Danish pizzeria owner was jailed Tuesday for refusing to serve French and German tourists in protesting their countries' opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. A Danish court found Aage Bjerre guilty of discrimination and fined him $900. Bjerre refused to pay, and will now serve an eight-day sentence. "I'm doing it to show my sympathy with the United States. It shows how seriously I mean it," he told The Associated Press by telephone. "But one should also remember that eight days is a small price to pay when American soldiers go to Iraq and...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Soldiers in Baghdad are able to get a taste of home, thanks to Walid Mahmoud. He owns a pizzeria in the Iraqi capital. Most Iraqis have no idea what pizza is, and certainly wouldn't know how to make one. But Mahmoud has worked in a family-owned pizza shop in Rome. When the Americans came to town, he scrapped together enough money to open his own pizzeria. The Wall Street Journal reports on a good day he sells nearly 200 pizzas. But orders can drop to a handful depending on terrorist activity. He hopes after the American soldiers...

EditorialSecond Thoughts By: William W. Lawrence 11/04/2003Aage Bjerre, the Danish pizzeria owner who refused to serve French and German tourists because of their governments' opposition to our war against Saddam Hussein's tyrannical regime, sent me the following letter. The envelope also contained a picture of a parchment copy of our Declaration of Independence that I had sent him.Mr. Bjerre had it framed and had it hanging in what I believe is his pizzeria.He was fined 5,000 kroner (U.S. $780) for refusing to sell pizzas to German and French tourists, calling them "anti-American."I made a few minor edits to his letter,...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- A Danish pizzeria owner who refused service to French and German tourists because their governments didn't back the U.S.-led war in Iraq was convicted of discrimination Tuesday. Aage Bjerre, who owns a pizzeria on western Denmark's Fanoe island, was investigated by police after he wouldn't serve Germans and French. He called them "anti-American." In February, Bjerre displayed two homemade pictograms with bars through images of people colored in the hues of the French and German flags. He also reprinted his menus to eliminate German translations. A Danish court fined Bjerre 5,000 kroner (U.S. $780) or said he...