Free Republic

McDonald’s chief executive left the company after violating company policy by engaging in a consensual relationship with an employee, the corporation said Sunday. The fast food giant said former president and CEO Steve Easterbrook demonstrated poor judgment. McDonald’s forbids managers from having romantic relationships with direct or indirect reports. In an e-mail to employees, Easterbrook acknowledged he had a relationship with an employee and said it was a mistake. ‘‘Given the values of the company, I agree with the board that it is time for me to move on,’’ Easterbrook said in the e-mail.

Graphic cell phone footage has emerged of brutal attack on a school girl that took place in Brooklyn after class on Monday afternoon. The three minute clip shows an unfair fight that begins with a small girl in a light blue hoodie being set upon by at least four other students. As the girl is mercilessly pummelled by the gang her blonde hair extensions are ripped from her head as she is repeatedly punched and kicked.

Punches aren’t the only thing a Bonita Springs woman is accused of throwing Monday night. Deputies say she also threw pancakes at men in a McDonald's parking lot. Mariel G. Goodrich, 21, of the 8800 block of Colonnades Court, was arrested Monday by Collier deputies at the 700 block of Vanderbilt Beach Road. According to a Collier County Sheriff’s Office report: While a few unidentified men were purchasing food from a McDonald's drive-through, they began a conversation with Goodrich and her friend who were sitting in a gray Honda Ridgeline truck. Goodrich then threw her pancakes out the car window...

McDonald's logo is going green to promote a more eco-friendly image in Europe. It is swapping its traditional red backdrop for a deep green. The company says about 100 German McDonald's will make the change by the end of the year. Some franchises in Great Britain and France already have started using the new color scheme. And our last word in business today: emerald arches.

The map above is a visualization of the contiguous United States, colored by distance to the nearest McDonald’s, courtesy of Stephen Von Worley (via Felix Salmon): For maximum McSparseness, we look westward, towards the deepest, darkest holes in our map: the barren deserts of central Nevada, the arid hills of southeastern Oregon, the rugged wilderness of Idaho’s Salmon River Mountains, and the conspicuous well of blackness on the high plains of northwestern South Dakota. There, in a patch of rolling grassland, loosely hemmed in by Bismarck, Dickinson, Pierre, and the greater Rapid City-Spearfish-Sturgis metropolitan area, we find our answer....

With oil now hitting record highs and gold well off mid-May levels, the gold-oil ratio continues to shrink. Today, one ounce of gold only buys 8.57 barrels of oil - a ratio of 0.11.Oil hit a fresh record high of $75.78 a barrel today, boosted by strong demand in the United States and global tension ranging from Iran's nuclear work to North Korea's missile tests. Prices drew early support from a U.S. government report yesterday showing gasoline demand grew by 1.4% in the last four weeks from a year ago, with summer driving months still head. But rebel attacks in...

Gold bugs' only problem on Monday was trying to find which of a myriad of bullish factors to pick to explain yet another move to fresh 25-year highs. The usual suspects -- inflation, geopolitical tensions, and a weak dollar -- were all present at the open of trading after a three-day weekend. Most visibly, crude oil topped $70 a barrel amid heightened concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions. In recent action, crude was gaining 68 cents to trade at $70 a barrel. Gold for June delivery was recently up $13 at $613.80 an ounce, off an earlier 25-year high at $614.30....

Gold and silver on a tear overseas. Also, oil seems to be breaking $70 a barrel. Anticipating problems tomorrow or just commodities on an upswing?

A HIGH probability of a sharp slowdown in US economic growth and a slide in the dollar are likely to continue driving investment in gold this year, says precious metals consultancy GFMS in its Gold Survey 2006, launched yesterday. The main reason for gold’s current strength is investment demand rather than jewellery manufacturing, says GFMS chairman Philip Klapwijk. Inflationary pressure and political tension in the Middle East should also boost demand for gold. As the gold price performed well, it would attract new investors. “We’d only need to see a tiny slice of mainstream assets diverted into gold, which comparatively...

MCDONALD'S IS CELEBRATING ITS 15TH anniversary in Russia. Its sales have risen steadily, reaching $310 million in 2004. The company reports that it is serving more than 200,000 customers daily in more than a hundred Russian locations. Well, three cheers for McDonald's, but what's the big deal?Why is McDonald's such a success when all they're selling is a Russian staple, a kotlety as they call it? It was once a puzzle to me, but there's a story behind this McDonald's success story.Some years ago I was staying at one of Moscow's most luxurious hotels, just built by private German investors,...

<p>News item: McDonald's seeks to serve you in less generic settings. That was all it took to get our writers' imaginations cooking.</p> <p>It used to be that no matter where you were in the world, you always knew what to expect when you walked into a McDonald's. The most noticeable difference between a franchise menu in New Bedford, Mass., and one in Bedford, England, was the change from dollars to pounds. McDonald's always has prided itself on its red-and-yellow plastic seating and the predictable formula of its products. All together now: "Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun."</p>