Free Republic

As OPEC’s efforts to balance the oil market bear fruit, U.S. producers are reaping the benefits - and flooding Europe with a record amount of crude.

Unlike other food establishments that have static menu options, pizza is highly variable: Domino’s offers consumers 34 million different combinations of pizza. (iStock Photo) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ As the owner of 18 Domino’s stores in Texas, I do not cut corners, whether on pizzas or complying with the law. Unfortunately, on May 7 the law will become especially burdensome and unhelpful to my customers. That day, President Trump’s FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb will implement a nationwide, Obama-era menu-labeling rule requiring restaurants with 20 or more locations to post in-store menu boards listing the calories of every item sold. I fully support efforts...

A prominent environmental activist took the unusual road of not only blaming rising electricity costs squarely on renewable sources, but also for deriding the mainstream media for ignoring the connection. Michael Shellenberger, the president and founder of Environmental Progress, explained in a Forbes blog post Monday how the unreliability of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, is the main reason why electricity bills around the world have been getting higher. Despite renewable energy technology slowly becoming more affordable, Shellenberger notes, electricity costs are still rising because of the unpredictable nature of wind and solar. Both sources produce excess...

On April 21 Breitbart News reported on a NRA-ILA statement which said Yeti Coolers had cut ties with the NRA Foundation. The statement, written by former NRA president and USF executive director Marion Hammer, said, “Suddenly, without prior notice, YETI has declined to do business with The NRA Foundation saying they no longer wish to be an NRA vendor, and refused to say why. They will only say they will no longer sell products to The NRA Foundation.”

The Congressional Budget Office’s budget and economic outlook released this month projects that real Gross Domestic Product will grow by 3.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2017 to the fourth quarter of 2018. That would mark a 15-year high. “In CBO’s projections, real GDP expands by 3.3 percent this year and by 2.4 percent in 2019,” says the CBO report. “It grew by 2.6 percent last year.” The last time real GDP grew by more than 3.3 percent from the fourth quarter of one year to the fourth quarter of the next was in 2003, when it grew by...

HUNTERDON COUNTY, N.J. (CBSNewYork) – A tiny parasite could become a big problem this year in New Jersey. It’s an exotic tick that’s never been seen before in the United States. It was first spotted on a sheep in Hunterdon County, and efforts to wipe it out have failed. New Jersey has always been home to different species of ticks – five to be exact. But a new variety of the bloodsucking bug is now in the mix. It’s the East Asian tick, sometimes called a longhorned or bush tick. Originally found in Asia, thousands of them are now in...

THE United States is flooding the European markets with record amounts crude oil as US producers seize on Russia and the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) pact to cut output resulting in soaring oil prices. US crude oil is seen as the cheaper option as the OPEC and Russia pact begins to bite after agreeing jointly to oil output jointly by 1.8million barrels per day (bpd) help rebalance the market and to help elevate the benchmark Brent prices. Now, the relatively high prices brought about by that pact, coupled with surging US output, are making it harder to...

The consumer confidence index climbed to 128.7 in April from 127 in March, the Conference Board said Tuesday. Two months ago, the index hit the highest level since the end of 2000. The present situation index, a measure of current conditions, rose to 159.6 from 158.1. The future expectations index advanced to 108.1 from 106.2. Americans were more optimistic about their own finances and they think jobs are easy to find, the survey showed.

New statistics released by the Congressional Budget Office projected record breaking GDP growth throughout 2018; smashing expectations and signaling a robust US recovery under President Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress. According to CNS News, the strong data shows Gross Domestic Product growing by at least 3.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2017 to the fourth quarter of 2018; the highest level of growth seen in at least 15 years. “In CBO’s projections, real GDP expands by 3.3 percent this year and by 2.4 percent in 2019,” says the CBO report. “It grew by 2.6 percent last year.” “In our economic...

A Gallup poll shows a very mixed reaction by Americans to the GOP tax cut, creating another November problem for the establishment wing of the GOP. “Republicans have been increasingly more positive about their federal income taxes since [President Donald] Trump took office last year … [but] independents’ and Democrats’ views have not changed much,” Gallup reported April 16 about its survey of 1,015 adults, which was conducted early April. That’s bad news for the GOP leadership, which is hoping that the tax benefits will spike turnout by GOP voters, help with independents and mute Democratic opposition. Without strong voter...

Mexico and the European Union agreed to a new trade deal over the weekend, and the timing is no accident. With the French and German leaders in Washington this week, and the Nafta talks getting serious, America’s trading partners are showing that the world won’t stop if the U.S. goes protectionist. The EU-Mexico deal is the sort of trade opening that is increasingly common beyond America’s shores. The two sides have agreed in principle to remove protections on a long list of agricultural goods, and to expand two-way trade in services such as travel and telecommunications. The pact also will...

This is a story about love and betrayal. Andrea Barone was barely 18 months old when he first set out on the ice, his tiny legs shaking and pushing behind a chair along the cold surface. If, in Montreal, hockey is religion, then this was baptism by ritual, every morning practice, every unsteady drag of his skates drawing him closer to the game he was falling for. .... Barone is sure of two things about himself: He is a hockey man, and he is a gay man. In the sport he has devoted his life to, this has proved an...

<p>Georgia Power says completion of the two new nuclear units being built in Waynesboro faces skilled labor shortages, despite the project being ahead of its revised schedule.</p> <p>A report filed by the company to the Georgia Public Service Commission ahead of Vogtle construction progress hearings next month identified difficulties in meeting craft labor requirements at the plant as one challenge that could hamper efforts to meet its completion forecast of 2021 and 2022.</p>

All companies we boycott have received a 2ACheck rating of “F” for their lack of respect for the rights of gun owners. Your experience with some of these companies will vary based on location, however, the boycott is based on the corporate policy toward responsible gun owners. We believe guns in the hands of good people make everyone safer. We encourage freedom loving Americans to boycott anti-gun companies until they improve their policy. Please share this page. We also strongly recommend everyone know the firearms laws applicable in their own state, and states they travel through. We recommend something like...

<p>MILWAUKEE (AP) - MILWAUKEE (AP) - Harley-Davidson is offering free motorcycles for those who join its summer internship program.</p> <p>Eight college students or recent graduates will have the enviable task of being paid to ride a Harley and share their adventures on social media. And the best part? They'll keep their bikes at the end of the 12-week internship.</p>

At Business Insider's IGNITION conference, Scott Galloway gave a blistering presentation on why "The Big Four" — Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google — should be broken up. Galloway is a professor of marketing at the NYU Stern School of Business and the author of "The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google."

French President Emmanuel Macron told “Fox News Sunday” that he hopes President Donald Trump won’t impose new tariffs on aluminum and steel for the European Union, a key U.S. ally. “When the president announced new tariffs on aluminum and steel for the European Union, you said, we will not negotiate with a gun pointed at her head. There is now a May 1st deadline. Who is going to blink, President Trump or you?” Fox News host Chris Wallace asked. “I hope — I mean, he will not implement these new tariffs and he will decide for an exemption for the...

BONN, Germany (Reuters) – That the personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users fell into the wrong hands is troubling politicians, but Germany’s top competition regulator is questioning the sheer volume of information that the social network harvests. Andreas Mundt, president of the Federal Cartel Office, is awaiting Facebook’s response to his findings, published in December, that it abuses its market dominance by gathering data on people without their proper consent. That includes tracking visitors to websites with an embedded Facebook ‘like’ or share button – and pages where it observes people even though there is no obvious...

Workers at one of Russia's biggest aluminium smelters say their Siberian town is doomed unless Moscow mitigates U.S. sanctions against aluminium giant Rusal, a predicament mirrored across the company's sprawling operations. Trapped by mortgages for apartments built on barren steppe under communism, residents of Sayanogorsk, one of a string of towns dominated by Rusal, have few options if a loss of customers for its aluminium leads the firm to cut jobs. "The entire life of this city depends on Rusal," said Evgeny Ivanov, until recently a foreman at the plant in Sayanogorsk, where pockmarked asphalt recalls the harsh winters endured...

Environmental activists rode buses up to Albany from New York City to tell Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to mandate the use of 100 percent green energy and move the state away from fossil fuels … wait, what? That’s right. Activists affiliated with the group Food & Water Watch will converge on New York’s capital to “demand 100% renewable energy & a ban on fracking infrastructure,” the group tweeted. Food & Water Watch backed New York’s ban on fracking in 2014, and now wants the state to get off all “fracked” gas — that’s pretty much all their gas. Food &...