Free Republic

(Epic Economist)—Over the past four years, many of us have had the unpleasant surprise of learning that our go-to restaurant, coffee shop, or fast food joint was closing doors for good. Thousands of well-established companies have gone out of business since the pandemic accelerated the descent of the U.S. economy, and conditions have been particularly tough in the restaurant industry. Even during the best of times, managing a restaurant comes with plenty of uncertainty. Though a brand can be incredibly popular amongst consumers, there’s a variety of factors that can result in mass closings, and in some cases, bankruptcy. We...

A San Francisco lawmaker introduced a proposal that would require grocery stores in the city to provide six months of notice before closing a store and to explore a replacement supermarket at the vacated location. Dean Preston, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, introduced what he calls the Grocery Protection Act – which is based on a proposal the board approved in 1984 that was vetoed by then-San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein. Preston's proposal would require grocery store owners to provide six months written notice to the Board of Supervisors as well as the Office of Economic...

Macy’s announced Tuesday it will be closing 150 “underproductive locations” over the next three years as sales dip and the company looks to expand its higher-end luxury brands. The department store chain saw nearly a 2 percent drop in sales during the fourth quarter of last year when compared to its fourth quarter of 2022. In 2023 as a whole, its net sales dropped 5.5 percent and its digital sales dropped 7 percent Macy’s new CEO, Tony Spring, who stepped into the role this month, expressed optimism in a statement accompanying the sales report, which was released Tuesday alongside the...

The Times lamented the learning losses stemming from the closures after pushing for the closures during the pandemic's height. The New York Times editorial board penned a new editorial on Saturday stating that the school closures enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic "may prove to be the most damaging disruption in the history of American education." The editorial provided a reflection on the "significant" learning losses stemming from keeping around 50 million kids out of the classroom because of the virus, and urged elected officials and the education community to move quickly to heal some of the damage. The...

Our freedom to roam is under assault from a plan to close everything off and make us ask permission before we enjoy it.. There is a plan underway to close the great open spaces of the American West to you, me, our children, and our children’s children. The federal government — which owns most of this land — is determined to move from a “use and let use” system of accessing Western public lands to a permission-based system that will mean reservations, permits, and closures. Just last month, the Bureau of Land Management issued a final decision to close 317...

Former champion gymnast Jennifer Sey laughed at soccer all-star Megan Rapinoe over her recent comments shrugging off the ability of trans athletes participating in women's sports. ... 1986 U.S. National Gymnastics gold medalist .. cited a 2017 match between the U.S. Women's Soccer team and a team made up of 15-year-old high school boys and how the pro-athletes were defeated by the group of male adolescents. ... the best women's soccer team in the world lost to 15-year-old high school boys, how - why was that? How did that happen?" Sey posed to Rapinoe. "An average high school boys team....

West Virginia University leaders have recommended discontinuing 32 of its majors at its Morgantown campus as the school is feverishly working to make up for a multi-million budget shortfall. The preliminary recommendations, released Friday afternoon, said 12 of those programs are undergraduate majors and 20 are graduate-level majors. Other programs were told to reduce their faculty size — 169 faculty jobs are on the line for cuts. Programs marked for discontinuation included: master’s and doctorate in Mathematics; master’s and doctorate in Higher Education Administration; master’s of Public Administration; master’s of fine arts in Creative Writing; and a bachelor’s in Recreation,...

A more than century-old hat boutique will shutter a location in San Francisco's Union Square, the latest retail shop to close in the city in the aftermath of pandemic shutdowns and crime spikes. Goorin Bros. haberdashery opened in 1895 and specializes in fedoras and leopard print hats, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The hat shop currently has nine locations in operation across the country. The store's location at 111 Geary St. in Union Square closed on June 23, the outlet reported, noting the city has struggled to attract tourists and office workers following government-mandated lockdowns during the pandemic The...

There are many reasons why so many US public schools remained persistently closed for well over a year, but at the top of the list is Randi Weingarten. She is the President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and served as the self-appointed and media-anointed spokesperson for teachers’ unions throughout the pandemic. Weingarten appeared regularly across national media outlets for well over two years, relentlessly touting the dangers of public schools and the risk to teachers from in-person instruction. She also painted anyone who advocated for schools to open as heartless and cruel. Now that it’s become clear what...

Fast food chain Burger King is set to close up to 400 locations across the country this year, with the under-performing ones being the first to go. According to the Daily Mail, Burger King CEO Joshua Kobza confirmed the closures after the company announced its results for the first quarter of 2023. The earnings release noted that from the start of the year until March, Burger King closed 124 locations – leaving 6,964 restaurants still operating. This is a historic high, said Kobza, as the fast food chain usually closes a couple of hundred stores annually. However, the CEO clarified...

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention weaponized research itself by putting out its own flawed studies in its own non-peer-reviewed medical journal, MMWR... public health officials actively propagated misinformation that ruined lives and forever damaged public trust in the medical profession. ... Misinformation #1: Natural immunity offers little protection compared to vaccinated immunity.. A Lancet study looked at 65 major studies in 19 countries on natural immunity. The researchers concluded that natural immunity was . ... Since the Athenian plague of 430 BC, it has been observed that those who recovered after infection were protected ... Most Americans who were...

CDC said that increases in Strep A, flu and RSV cases are tied to lockdowns ... Leading US health officials have finally acknowledged that pandemic restrictions they supported may have fueled a boom in respiratory bugs currently overwhelming hospitals. Healthcare systems across the country have been pushed to the brink after an unseasonably high number of flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases with some pediatric units forced to erect inflatable tents to treat patients in parking lots. ... In a statement to DailyMail.com, the CDC said it was 'hearing from some doctors and state health departments about an apparent...

I provided no particular link because the fact is being generally reported.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz gave a bleak summary of the reasons why the company was shutting down 16 stores, and he specifically blamed local governments for their lack of law enforcement and treatment for mental illness. The comments were made at an internal meeting and leaked to the public. Schultz said that the stores were not unprofitable but that they were shut down because of safety concerns among the employees. “It has shocked me that one of the primary concerns that our retail partners have is their own personal safety,” he said on the leaked video. “America has become unsafe.”...

The iconic CBS Sunday morning news show “Face the Nation” edited out a network correspondent’s passionate criticism of COVID-19 policies for the harm they have caused children and teenagers who have a minuscule chance of suffering serious illness or death from the disease. Newsbusters reported the remarks of CBS correspondent Jan Crawford were axed seconds before they would have aired Sunday. “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, in a special year-end show with a reporter roundtable, pivoted the discussion, saying, Well, I want to get to underreported stories as well, Jan?” Crawford immediately responded, saying her to underreported story centered...

During a portion of an interview aired on Tuesday’s “NBC Nightly News,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) responded to people blaming him for business closures in California by saying that he takes “responsibility for trying to save as many lives as we possibly could” and that he thinks being the first to implement a stay-at-home order “put us in a position to recover faster than other economies.” NBC News National Correspondent Miguel Almaguer asked, “For those who blame you, what do you say to them?”

Union wants to know race of parents pushing for reopening The largest teachers' union in Los Angeles is working to prove that the battle lines in the fight to reopen schools are defined by race, going as far as contacting parents who speak out in support of opening schools to ascertain their race. Miryam Qudrat, a Los Angeles parent of a middle schooler, says a "research specialist" for United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) emailed her to ask how she racially identifies. The inquiry came, the union researcher said, because she was quoted twice in the Los Angeles Times, both times...

Joe Biden continues to lie about the impact of mandatory higher wages. Mumbling to President Trump and the American people at the third presidential debate, he had said that "there is no evidence that when you raise the minimum wage, businesses go out of business. That is simply not true." He and his team have since reiterated this claim. This is the same party that asserts that biological sex is a social construct, that the immutable race of a person should be the basis of his worth, and that climate change is an existential threat to the American people. Congratulations,...

Grocery company Kroger announced Monday it will be shuttering two of its stores in Long Beach — a Ralph’s location and a Food4Less store — in response to a city ordinance requiring a $4 “hero pay” salary boost for some workers. “As a result of the city of Long Beach’s decision to pass an ordinance mandating extra pay for grocery workers, we have made the difficult decision to permanently close long-struggling store locations in Long Beach,” according to a company statement. “This misguided action by the Long Beach City Council oversteps the traditional bargaining process and applies to some, but...

Better late than never. Perhaps because he believes Joe Biden will be inaugurated in January, Dr. Fauci is finally admitting that children do not get terribly ill from or transmit COVID-19 in any significant way. Weird, since Switzerland figured this out in April. Detailed genetic studies in Iceland showed that children were not passing the virus to adults in any significant numbers in June. And German researchers asserted that children could actually act as a brake on transmission within the community. ... Senator Paul correctly noted Sweden’s experience, which never closed their primary schools and did not see a spike...