Free Republic

Shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) fell 3 percent on Friday after Bloomberg quoted a mid-level executive's email as saying the world's largest retailer had the worst sales start to any month in seven years in February. Wal-Mart executives blamed the poor sales performance on increased payroll taxes as well as delayed tax returns, Bloomberg said. Higher payroll taxes this year are seen as a potential problem for Wal-Mart and other discount retailers that try to attract lower-income customers who have less disposable income. "In case you haven't seen a sales report these days, February (month-to-date) sales are a total...

Piers Morgan believes that he is now a pin-up for both men and women, as he even gets underwear sent to him in the post. In an exclusive interview with TV Magazine, the 47-year-old broadcaster revealed that his fame has attracted some unusual attention. "I've always been a huge sex symbol, so it comes as no surprise to me that I've now got a fan club from the opposite sex and the same sex as a matter of fact," the Sun quoted him as sasying. "I've had the odd pair of knickers sent to me. It's a perk of the...

On Tuesday there was an event that underscored the problems facing the Republican Party. I'm not talking about the media's take on Marco Rubio and his need for a sip of water, I actually think he did a great job and being human is an attractive trait. The news actually came from Lay's Potato Chip and the results of its newest contest. Potato Chips & America Last year Lay's began a contest that will ultimately allow the public to create a new flavored chip. This is the first time in 76 years and a smart move in this age of...

The European Union and the United States agreed on Thursday to implement the new global Basel III capital adequacy rules for banks as soon as possible, EU financial services chief Michel Barnier said after a meeting in Washington. The Basel rules are the world’s main regulatory response to the 2007-09 financial crisis, aimed at preventing a repeat crisis where banks had to be bailed out by their governments. … An EU official said ambassadors from the 27 member states meeting on Thursday also backed proposals for a capping of bankers’ bonuses to no more than the equivalent of their fixed...

Good morning cool kids! What’s poppin’? Star Wars, man! I still can’t believe there is going to be another another trilogy. I’m not going to lie, I was one of those who were of the opinion that all the recent Star Wars news was a tad overkill. I wanted to disconnect my internet until 2015. I thought lots of folks felt the same way I did. Boy was I wrong. I took an informal twitter poll and asked my followers if they wanted Star Wars scoops. The response was overwhelming. Even my inbox got bombed like never before. Man, y’all...

AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) – A school principal said no white children were allowed at an after-school tutoring program, and now some parents call it discrimination. The principal at Mission Viejo Elementary in Aurora sent a letter telling parents the program is only for students of color. Parents CBS4 talked with said they were shocked to see, in this day and age, what they consider to be segregation. “I was infuriated. I didn’t understand why they would include or exclude certain groups,” said parent Nicole Cox, who is white. Cox’s 10-year-old daughter needs tutoring. After receiving the notice, other parents complained...

WASHINGTON — As the Senate edged toward a nasty filibuster vote on Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be defense secretary, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, sat silent and satisfied in the corner of the chamber — his voice robbed by laryngitis — as he absorbed what he had wrought in his mere seven weeks of Senate service. Mr. Hagel, a former senator from Mr. Cruz’s own party, was about to be the victim of the first filibuster of a nominee to lead the Pentagon. The blockade was due in no small part to the very junior senator’s relentless pursuit of...

The Republican fear of being “primaried” has infected the Lone Star State at high levels. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the second-ranking Senate Republican, is going to lengths to preempt a primary challenge from the right by sticking close to his colleague, tea party-backed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who has been in the chamber for all of a month. The wise-guy joke going around Austin: Cruz is the only freshman in Congress with two votes. How inflamed are conservatives looking at four more years of Obama? One longtime Texas congressman even said he expects every GOP member of the delegation to...

CARACAS—The Venezuelan government Friday released the first images of ailing President Hugo Chávez since his departure more than two months ago to Cuba to resume his battle with cancer. The photos show the smiling president in a blue and white track suit, lying down and flanked by two of his daughters. In one image, he is holding a copy of the Cuba state newspaper Granma, which Venezuelan officials said was the Feb. 14 edition of the publication, apparently to prove that the photos were taken recently. The 58-year-old leader, who announced his battle with cancer in June 2011, appeared to...

A half-billion-dollar Obama Administration program to help nations comply with United Nations-sanctioned governance reform has rolled out its first round of awards to several government-contracting behemoths. The International Rule of Law Technical Assistance Services program, which Obama unveiled through the U.S. Agency for International Development, will assist governments around the globe in reforming their justice, educational, and other systems based on U.N. “rule of law” principles.

Late last year, I shared a very powerful article by an admitted liberal who concluded that gun control was impractical and illogical. Now I want to share a New York Times column from another leftist. Justin Cronin also supports the right of gun ownership, but he offers a more personal reason for his support of the Second Amendment.Here are some of the key excerpts from his column.I am a New England liberal, born and bred. I have lived most of my life in the Northeast — Boston, New York and Philadelphia — and my politics are devoutly Democratic. I am...

The problem isn't Hollywood, it's real life, where killing long predates film. What we see on the silver screen can be helpful. By Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times Film Critic February 15, 2013, 7:00 a.m. I abhor violence. As a rookie police reporter years ago I saw the damage guns, knives, broken bottles, metal pipes, hands — humans — can inflict. From the terrifyingly premeditated to the unfortunately accidental, those images still have the power to shake me to the core. They will never leave me. I don't, however, believe the movies are to blame for these acts. As good...

The New York Times report noted that options trading in Heinz soared this week before the deal was announced Thursday morning. Call options let investors can place a bet on a stock without committing to buy the shares. Investors instead have the option to buy the shares later for a set price. The report noted that the SEC often opens inquiries into trading activity after major deals without bringing charges later on. Heinz and the buyers haven't been accused of any wrongdoing.

The renowned doctor reacts to the furor over his National Prayer Breakfast speech. Dr. Ben Carson, a renowned pediatric neurosurgeon who helped lead the first surgery separating twins joined at the head, has received a fair amount of attention in his 61 years. But none of it before begins to compare to the response he has gotten since he spoke at the February 7 National Prayer Breakfast with President Obama sitting five feet away. While most of his remarks were motivational or spiritual, he made some pointed political comments about the need for freer markets in health care and a...

Resolution 006-2013 in support of the Second Amendment and the Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms ... NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Board of Supervisors of the County of Siskiyou supports all discussions seeking new ideas to protect our citizens from violence but cannot abide by any order, provision, law or agency initiative that violates the protections of the Second Amendment. See pdf here: http://eldorado.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=1273909&GUID=CCC279CE-9092-4B0F-8523-5A6BEC8852F6

In one of President Barack Obama first acts in the White House, he ordered the closure of the CIA’s so-called “black-site” prisons, where terror suspects had been held and, sometimes, tortured.  The CIA says it is “out of the detention business [1],” as John Brennan, Obama’s pick to head the agency, recently put it. But the CIA’s prisons left some unfinished business.  In 2009, ProPublica’s Dafna Linzer listed [2] more than thirty people who had been held in CIA prisons and were still missing. Some of those prisoners have since resurfaced, but at least twenty are still unaccounted for....

Though she's not getting much credit for it, it's just a fact that most of the important media scoops of late have been coming from Betsy Rothstein at FishbowlDC. Today marks another scoop and, better still, another moment to savor in the slow-motion collapse of the mainstream media. According to Rothstein's reporting, a round of 54 layoffs are planned at the once-legendary Washington Post. It's amazing how quickly a left-wing newspaper will turn into the stereotypically evil corporate maven. The Post is not only trying to hush-hush the layoffs, but also using cold, calculated words like "inefficiencies" to describe the...

PHOENIX (AP) — Should illegal immigrants using false documents to work face stiffer charges than college

Ohio AG Mike DeWine is releasing evidence from an incident involving Cleveland police officers that took place in November. It started with a car chase. Then, it escalated. Badly. CLEVELAND, Ohio — A November car chase ended in a “full blown-out” firefight, with glass and bullets flying, according to Cleveland police officers who described for investigators the chaotic scene at the end of the deadly 25-minute pursuit. But when the smoky haze — caused by rapid fire of nearly 140 bullets in less than 30 seconds — dissipated, it soon became clear that more than a dozen officers had been...

This German concern has proven to be well founded, as the recent spate of French economic data has been truly horrific. Auto sales for 2012 fell 13% from those of 2011. Sales of existing homes outside of Paris fell 20% year over year for the third quarter of 2012. New home sales fell 25%. Even the high-end real estate markets are collapsing with sales for apartments in Paris that cost over €2 million collapsing an incredible 42% in 2012. Since the EU Crisis began in 2008, France and Germany have been the two key countries backstopping the implosion. The fact...