Free Republic

Jenny Craig will close its doors after four decades in the weight loss and nutrition business, according to internal communications to employees reviewed by NBC News. In an email sent to employees late Tuesday, the company said it will close “due to its inability to secure additional financing.” Jenny Craig corporate and salaried field employees' last day will be Friday, and hourly center employees’ last day working was Tuesday. The company operated about 500 company-owned and franchised stores in the United States and Canada, according to H.I.G. Capital when it acquired Jenny Craig for an undisclosed amount in April 2019....

LANSING, MI -- Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is shutting down Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline, citing multiple violations by the company of the 1953 easement with the state, along with a duty to protect the Great Lakes. Enbridge now has until May 2021 to stop the flow of oil and natural gas through the Great Lakes, according to a statement from Whitmer. “Here in Michigan, the Great Lakes define our borders, but they also define who we are as people,” Whitmer said in a statement. “Enbridge has routinely refused to take action to protect our Great Lakes and the millions of Americans...

They're 'protected by the First Amendment and Texas law,' A.G. says. The attorney general of Texas yesterday ordered local authorities to cease any attempts to shut down churches and private religious schools, stating that those institutions are protected by both the U.S. Constitution and Texas statute. .. A.G. Ken Paxton said that "the robust constitutional and statutory protections unique to religious individuals and communities at all times" prohibit local governments from closing them down, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. ... local public health officials have [recently] begun to issue orders restricting or limiting in-person instruction" in private schools. In the...

A new Brookings Institution report indicates that businesses are shuttering their doors more quickly than new ones are popping up. From the Washington Post: The American economy is less entrepreneurial now than at any point in the last three decades. That's the conclusion of a new study out from the Brookings Institution, which looks at the rates of new business creation and destruction since 1978. Not only that, but during the most recent three years of the study -- 2009, 2010 and 2011 -- businesses were collapsing faster than they were being formed, a first. Overall, new businesses creation (measured...

Energy industry analysts say there's no relief in sight at the nation's gas pumps. While prices jumped 6 percent in February, market experts said many of the nation's refineries have been idled or shut down permanently because their owners claimed they were losing money on them. According to the Wall Street Journal, Sunoco is expected to close another of its large refineries this July, "taking another 335,000 barrels per day in production capacity off the market."