Free Republic

At just 11 years old, Caleb Wilburn has some big business ideas, and now DeSoto city leaders hope he'll make his bright future in their city. "I asked my parents if I could get some money, and they told me to start making money. I set up a concession stand right outside the door and made $300," Caleb said. Caleb is the founder and CEO of Okie Dokie Shaved Ice. He's trying to put a new twist on an old favorite. "What makes our shaved ice different is that it's a mixture of Hawaiian, Scandinavian and traditional shaved ice," he...

People love Chick-fil-A, the poultry-centric fast-food chain whose corporate purpose is to “glorify God,” and whose strict Sunday closure means that every employee gets at least one day of rest. People love the carnival-like waffle fries, the neonatal ward-like hospitality, the cleanliness on par with a Silicon Valley chip manufacturer, the fresh-squeezed lemonade spiked with soft-serve ice cream, the aromatic peach shakes, the admirably bare-bones fried-chicken sandwich, the viral fan song set to the tune of the Beatles’s “Yesterday,” and the famous Polynesian sauce, an agrodolce condiment that looks like what would happen if a stop sign were melted down...

Legendary investor Jim Rogers sat down with Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget on this week's episode of The Bottom Line. Rogers predicts a market crash in the next few years. One that he says will rival anything he has seen in his lifetime. Following is a transcript of the video. Blodget: One of the things I’ve always admired about you as an investor is that you don’t talk about what should be. You figure out what is going to be and then, you do that. So what is going to be with respect to the stock market? What’s going to...

Here is a proposal for a new reality show that could not only help President Trump do his job, but could help millions of other Americans gain or keep theirs. I'll tell you how in a minute. But first, some background: For a small-business entrepreneur to be successful, he or she must not only come up with an idea and execute it, but then navigate the paperwork and bureaucratic processes involved in getting a business off the ground. It's not enough to make and sell your product and service. You also have to acquire business licenses, open bank accounts,...

Britain’s foreign secretary​ ​on Tuesday​ said​ ​there is “no reason” to cancel​ Donald Trump’s planned visit even though​ ​the president is embroiled in a running feud with the London mayor. “The invitation has been issued and accepted and I see no reason to rescind that,” Boris Johnson told BBC radio. “I do not wish to interpose myself between the Mayor of London and the President of the United States.”

There were not many open seats at a pair of meetings last week over proposed routes that would send Interstate 11 through the Tucson area. Many of those in attendance were there to speak against two of the alternatives, which run west of Saguaro National Park West in the Avra Valley.“I understand the need to provide ways for people to move around," said Kimberly Baeza, "But it doesn't have to come at the expense of our open landscapes and beautiful Sonoran Desert.”The meeting is part of the second step in selecting the route I-11 could take through Arizona. The freeway...

Listen to the responses from participating EU corporate comptrollers discussing climate and the entire purpose of the Paris Treaty becomes self-evident. Example: “The preservation of our competitive position is the precondition for successful climate protection. This correlation is often underestimated.” ~ Matthias Wissmann, President of German Auto Industry Group VDA The preservation of Germany’s competitive auto manufacturing position is contingent upon the U.S. exporting it’s wealth and handcuffing itself to a faux-climate treaty. Do not take my word for it, read Wissmann’s own interview. The Paris Treaty is nothing about climate, and everything about economics and multinational corporate interests.

The European Union has rejected Donald Trump’s offer to renegotiate the Paris Treaty, proving it was always about bleeding the U.S. dry and appointing globalists as our governing bodies. The Paris climate agreement is written so as to be an endless drain on the U.S. economy. If they cared about the climate, they’d work with us. It doesn’t help that we have traitors within our own country. The leftists in this country will be not be dissuaded. A corrupt deal has been worked out with U.S. states and major corporations who will betray the President of the United States. New...

HBO late-night host Bill Maher apologized for using a racial slur during an interview on his show, “Real Time,” which led to a firestorm of criticism, including from the cable network. In a statement sent to media outlets, HBO called Maher’s comments “inexcusable and tasteless” and said the cable network will remove that segment from future airings of the show. Others, including Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson and Jack Posobiec, a Trump supporter who writes for the right-wing site Rebel Media, have called for Maher to be fired. #FireBillMaher is circulating on Twitter.

Speaking to workers and business people in Italy’s port city of Genoa Saturday, Pope Francis surprised his hearers by praising entrepreneurship and touting the importance of healthy businesses for the economy. “There can’t be a good economy without good businessmen, without their capacity to create and to produce,” he said, shattering his reputation as an enemy of the free market economy. The Pope recognized that the essential value of work and employment is only possible when companies are sound and successful. Without denouncing unemployment benefits, Francis insisted that state intervention wasn’t a real solution. “A monthly check from the state...

After facing a backlash for pulling advertisements from Fox News’ host Sean Hannity’s show, USAA will no longer run ads on liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow’s show. The insurance company originally claimed that it would no longer run ads on “Hannity” because of a company policy against airing ads on “opinion shows.” The Media Research Center then revealed that the company had placed ads on MSNBC shows hosted by Maddow, Chris Hayes and Lawrence O’Donnell, all of whom present the news from a liberal viewpoint. (RELATED: USAA’s Excuse For Pulling Ads From ‘Hannity’ Is Full Of Holes) USAA told ABC...

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the mainstream press is full of fake news, a sentiment that is held by a majority of voters across the ideological spectrum. According to data from the latest Harvard-Harris poll, which was provided exclusively to The Hill, 65 percent of voters believe there is a lot of fake news in the mainstream media. That number includes 80 percent of Republicans, 60 percent of independents and 53 percent of Democrats. Eighty-four percent of voters said it is hard to know what news to believe online. “Much of the media is now just another part of the...

Fox News’ Sean Hannity has been losing advertisers thanks to a targeted campaign by the far-left Clinton-supporting attack dog Media Matters. Two days ago they published a full list of Hannity’s television advertisers, encouraging their readers to take action and contact those advertisers. Thus far, the advertisers who’ve dropped out include Cars.com, Casper, Crowne Plaza, Leesa Sleep, Peloton, and Ring.com. The names of those mentioned above who’ve already dropped advertising on Hannity aren’t exactly big names – but the latest to drop out is turning heads. The odd-one-out on the list of advertisers who’ve dropped out of advertising on Hannity’s...

or eight years, President Obama endlessly talked about "middle class" economics. All the while, middle-class family incomes were stagnant. Now they are on the rise. Could Trumponomics be the reason? In April, real median household income reached $59,361, according to the latest report from Sentier Research. That's up 2% since January, and is as high as it's been since February 2002. Expressed as an index, median household income was 100.9 in April, which is the first time this index has topped 100 since December 2008.

No back-channel discussions kept hidden from allies out of a concern for their political opinion of impact. No mysterious hidden transactions kept shrouded from the American electorate. No nuanced details tucked away only to be discovered later. No secret transfers of pallets of cash handled through third-parties to avoid fingerprints. No need for the construction of plausible deniability or mysterious parseltongue terminology. Open and frank discussion of benefits and costs. Openly transparent details of every deal and every participant in the structure therein. Direct, plain-spoken language outlining the value and purpose of the agreement. Every moment and consequential encounter conducted...

It’s now six months since the Presidential election which was held on November 8th, 2016 and almost four months since President Trump’s Inauguration on January 20th. How is President Trump doing? The main stream media (MSM) and Democrat Party insist that President Trump should be impeached. But is this reasonable? Perhaps the best measurement of President Trump’s first few months in office is to compare President Trump with President Obama, the MSM’s ideal and perceived greatest President. So here it is – a comparison between Presidents Trump and Obama in their first six months since their respective election wins and...

There’s a revolution coming to your supermarket, and it’s going to start in the tomato aisle. After more than a decade of study, researchers at the University of Florida have identified the chemical compounds responsible for giving a great tomato its distinctive sweet, earthy, slightly grassy taste. They have also determined the genes that code for these chemicals and where they can be found in the tomato genome. Their results, published Thursday in Science, could help breeders create tomatoes that are hardy enough to survive the often long and arduous journey from field to store without sacrificing flavor. Experts say...

HUGER, S.C. — Safely stationed in the control pulpit, Chris St. Amand is watching the pot boil. Working the day shift at the sprawling Nucor Steel plant along the Cooper River here, Mr. St. Amand monitors a four-foot-wide lasagna noodle of steel as it is dunked into a molten broth of protective shimmering zinc. He tracks every step of this galvanization process — from the caldron’s 865-degree temperature to the line speed — on a bank of flashing screens. Except, that is, for the screen at the bottom right. “I watch our stock and the Dow Jones on that one,”...

Senator McConnell asked unanimous consent to allow committees to meet during today’s session of the Senate. Senator Durbin objected because of the decision last night by the President of the United States to terminate the Director of the FBI and the questions that it’s raised. Barring further action, committees have until 11:30am to meet. (From what I seen happen was the Democrats left the Senate Room and Senator McConnell said they can't do business unless they have the votes to continue to do so, the Democrats are upset over what happened with Comey)

Money is a feminist issue — and yet, women are still reluctant to talk about it. According to a recent Bustle survey of more than 1,000 Millennial women, more than 50 percent of people said they never discuss personal finances with friends, even though 28 percent reported feeling stressed out about money every single day. That's why Bustle launched Grown-A$$ Finances, a series that gets real about what Millennial women are doing with their money, and why — because managing your money should feel empowering, not intimidating. A lot of people have side jobs in addition to their full-time ones,...