Free Republic

Mayor Eric Adams made his first public visit to a Big Apple pot shop and walked away with a free “weed bag” — but not the kind with marijuana in it. Adams was gifted a customized leather tote bag branding him “The Cannabis Mayor Eric Adams” as he cut the ribbon at the grand opening of Matawana Dispensary in Park Slope — the city’s 36th legal marijuana store and the first owned by a black woman. “What’s in it?” Adams said as he shook the empty bag, which was covered with images of marijuana buds.

The oldest toy store in San Francisco, which was the inspiration for the movie Toy Story, is shutting its doors for good due to rampant crime and other issues. Jeffrey’s Toys said Friday it will be permanently closed by the end of February after 86 years of serving customers, the New York Post reported Saturday. Attorney Ken Sterling said, “The store has been struggling for a number of years, due to the perils and violence of the downtown environment, inflation, the decrease in consumer spending and the demise of retail across the world.”

Emma Roberts and former president Bill Clinton are both looking for their next summer read. The duo were spotted shopping at the same bookstore in the Hamptons on Thursday. Emma, 32, emerged from the shop juggling two iced beverages, two tote bags, and a grey sweater slung over her shoulder. The American Horror Story star looked fabulous in a black scoop neck tank top, animal print biker shorts, and a retro pair of white sunglasses. Her pedicured feet were slipped into Birkenstock sandals and her hair was scooped up into a messy top knot with a glossy clip.

As school funding became a matter of standardized test scores in reading and math, the budget tightened for classes that taught woodworking and printmaking. From the 1990s to the early 2010s, students took fewer credits in shop class — or as it is now called, Career Tech Education — according to data from the National Center of Education Statistics. Instead, the priority turned toward securing students spots in four-year degree programs. But with more job openings in the trades and more questions around the value of a four-year college degree, high schools are turning their attention back to equipping the...

A small business owner in San Francisco was punched in the face by a man after asking him to stop urinating on the street outside his restaurant, according to police. Peterson Harter, who owns and operates Sandy’s on the city’s iconic Haight Street, told KTVU that he was attacked around 5 p.m. Wednesday after confronting the public urinator.

This is an obituary about a dead communist lawyer, not particularly thrilling; but you must read it to see who interned at his radical firm back in 1971. Amazing what gets printed in the New York Times: December 2, 2001Robert Treuhaft, Lawyer Who Inspired Funeral Exposé, Dies at 89 By PAUL LEWIS Robert Treuhaft, a crusading radical lawyer who inspired his wife, Jessica Mitford, to write her best seller "The American Way of Death," died in New York on Nov. 11. He was 89. As a union lawyer representing longshoremen in the San Francisco area in the 1950's, Mr. Treuhaft ...

<p>The Dayton Board of Zoning Appeals has approved the city's request to demolish a 129-year-old historic building that once was the site of the Wright brothers' first bike shop.</p><p>The city wants to tear down the site because the building has deteriorated to a point where it can no longer be maintained and redeveloped, the Dayton Daily News has reported. Public safety concerns have also been raised by some who fear the building could collapse.</p>

Supermarkets across the U.S. are launching seniors-only shopping hours for older people looking to avoid larger crowds during the coronavirus pandemic. But some public health experts are split on whether the benefits outweigh the risks. A few big chains, including Whole Foods and Stop & Shop, as well as some mom-and-pop stores, announced this week that they are blocking off the first hour or two of the business day for only people 60 or older to shop. The special hours afford seniors, one of the populations most vulnerable to the coronavirus, a chance to navigate a store thatÂ’s hopefully been...

Per my report published Friday at The Shooter’s Log, actors were used to portray customers in a fake gun shop “public service announcement” produced by States United Against Gun Violence. That information comes from the New York City Mayor's Office of Media in its response to a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request submitted in March. Additionally, all replica firearms used were evidently “authorized” without official documentation to ensure legality and inventory accountability. Except, per the NYC permit, the "gun buyers" were actors... States United to Prevent Gun Violence-You Tube video screen shot “Actors are interviewed on camera in a...

ORLANDO, FL — Deputies and state regulators aggressively raided Orlando-area barbershops, roughing up innocent staff and handcuffing them on the floor in an effort to check if the barbers had acquired government permission to legally cut hair. A series of these raids has recently come to light, one of which is making its way through the litigation process in the federal court system. This was the raid of the Strictly Skills barbershop in Pine Hills, Florida, in which government agents warrantlessly stormed in the establishment with as many as 25 customers and 6 staff members present.

Mango the cat who made a local supermarket his second home four years ago, has now many fans and admirers. He came to a Tesco store in Tiverton, Devon one day and decided to make it his second home.

In a speech at Boston's Faneuil Hall on Wednesday afternoon, President Barack Obama discarded his now-infamous broken promise: "If you like your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance." Instead, he offered a new promise: "You will be getting a better deal," the president told health insurance consumers. He blamed insurance companies, not Obamacare, for the canceled policies: Now, if you had one of these substandard plans before the Affordable Care Act became law, and you really like that plan, you were able to keep it. That's what I said when I was running for office. That was part...

U.S. consumer sentiment retreated this month after reaching its highest in nearly six years in May, a survey released on Friday showed, as household optimism about employment and housing faded slightly. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's preliminary reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment fell to 82.7 in June, below a near six-year high of 84.5 in May. Economists polled by Reuters had expected it to hold at 84.5 this month. June's reading, however, was the second highest in the last eight months, suggesting Americans were far from gloomy about their long-term prospects. While the barometer of current economic...

A Barnado’s charity shop has been forced to close after the front was smashed during a party celebrating the death of Baroness Thatcher. A gaping hole was left in the window of the store in Brixton, south London, where around 150 people gathered for a street party following the news that Lady Thatcher had died of a stroke. Similar celebrations in Bristol left six police officers injured after an anti-Thatcher crowd turned violent and began throwing missiles at police.

Under pressure from large health insurance companies, the Obama administration last week announced it would delay implementation of a key aspect of its signature health reform law that will provide affordable health insurance to small businesses and their employees. Although the federal and some state governments must still set up Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) exchanges to allow small business employees access to lower rates, the SHOP exchanges will not be required to offer a choice of plans to individual employees by January 1, 2014, as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) had contemplated. That mandate will be pushed back...

A Florida school district is investigating whether a teacher violated safety procedures after a student's hair was ripped out by a wood shop machine, MyFoxOrlando.com reported. Deltona High School senior Kayla Carrera, 17, was in wood shop class when her long brown hair got stuck in a drill press machine.

The Second Amendment Foundation, the CalGuns Foundation, and the California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees have filed suit in US District Court against Alameda County, California due to the county's use of a zoning law to present a gun shop from opening. They are joined in the suit by John Teixeira, Steve Nobriga and Gary Gamaza who had attempted to open a gun shop there. The County of Alameda requires that all gun shops be 500 feet away from the nearest residence, liquor store, or school. The location chosen by the businessmen above had met that standard until the county...

This Iowa Coffee Shop owner doesn’t mess around. When Occupy Iowa goons invaded her shop, Java Joes, Friday morning, they were given the boot immediately. Via The Morning Spew, Chris Moody of Yahoo News reports:

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.west-midlands.police.uk/latest-news/press-release.asp?id=2915 Birmingham man sentenced to three years for terrorism offences 12 December 2011 Updated: 13 December 2011 A bookshop owner from Birmingham has been sentenced to three years in prison for possessing and distributing terrorist publications, following a nine-week trial at Kingston Crown Court. A jury yesterday (Monday 12) found the 32-year-old Ahmed Faraz guilty of seven counts of dissemination of terrorist publications and four counts of possession of information likely to be of use to a person committing or preparing for an act of terrorism. Seven other similar charges will lie on...

A south St. Louis man was charged today in the shooting death of the operator of a home repair business on Friday. James Blakey, 36, of the 3100 block of Ivanhoe Avenue, was charged with voluntary manslaughter, armed criminal action, and unlawful possession of a firearm in the death of Robert Hartzell Sr., 74, of the 6600 block of Sutherland Avenue. The business was located in the same block as Blakey's apartment, and Hartzell was shot in the neck as he attempted to pull away. The incident happened at about 6 p.m. Police said Hartzel had a dispute with another...