Free Republic

Founding myths tend to be mired in obscurity, and like many other investment trends, the roots of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) philosophies are unclear. The founding of the World Economic Forum is one origin. Stakeholder theory is another of ESG’s clear antecedents, especially as formalized in R. Edward Freeman’s 1984 book Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. In 2004, the World Bank report “Who Cares Wins: Connecting Financial Markets to a Changing World” is another contender, providing as it did guidelines for firms to integrate ESG practices into their daily operations. And the publication of the reporting framework United Nations...

“There is no way we can get there," Bakhmut's deputy mayor Oleksandr Marchenko said, referring to the intense battle ongoing in the town situated in Donetsk. Ukrainian fighters are now withdrawing from the frontlines of the battered industrial town of Bakhmut or the Artyomovsk region in Donetsk in numbers ranging from five to ten, Bakhmut's deputy mayor Oleksandr Marchenko told American broadcaster, CNN. “The enemy blows everything to the ground, strikes at multi-story buildings, and the residential sector. There are air raids, artillery shelling, and mortar shelling," the deputy mayor said in televised remarks. Russia's PMC Wagner fighters are striking...

Forty-fifth President and leading 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke to reporters and a huge crowd of supporters on Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and promised to “abolish” the Department of Education.Before speaking on stage, Trump told reporters, “I would like to end the Department of Education. It’s time. The country does very well in some ways, but badly in others. We did fantastically in everything.”“We did as good as you can do in education, but you have to get rid of the Department of Education. Close it up,” Trump added.“When you look at the list of...

Filmmaker Michael Moore has called for a nationwide boycott of Walgreens after the pharmacy chain announced it would not sell abortion pills in 20 states. In February, 20 Republican state attorneys general wrote to Walgreens Corp. threatening legal action if Walgreens provides the abortion pill, mifepristone, to consumers in their pharmacies across the U.S. On Thursday, Walgreens shifted its plan, sharing that it will not dispense mifepristone in their states and is not planning to ship the drug to consumers either. Following the announcement, Moore, on his website, urged readers to boycott Walgreens, characterizing them as a pharmacy chain that...

According to five Republicans familiar with the discussions, the governor’s top lieutenants have quietly recruited a network of conservative social media influencers as part of a broader attempt to circumvent the mainstream press and appeal directly to GOP primary voters nationwide. And who are, according to the three Republicans who received the initial pitch, among the ranks in DeSantis’ digital army? Jack Murphy, a podcast host and self-described “alpha-male giga chad” involved in a quasi-professional cuckolding porn scandal. John Cardillo, a former Newsmax TV host and unregistered arms dealer who allegedly stiffed the Ukrainian government for $200,000 worth of body...

Russian soldiers executed an unarmed Ukrainian military man - a prisoner of war - for the words “Glory to Ukraine.” The video of this crime has appeared on various social media. Ukrainska Pravda, a Ukrainian online newspaper, wrote on Monday, that it is unclear where and when the video was made. The video shows a military officer being taken into Russian captivity. As he utters the words “Glory to Ukraine,” a Russian military officer shoots him with a machine gun.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold a hearing on March 22 to discuss the pricing of the COVID-19 vaccines. Pfizer and Moderna are preparing to offer their vaccines in the private sector, without the federal government covering the cost. This will be necessary, given that the COVID-19 national and public health emergencies will expire on May 11. This will also shift the cost burden to health insurance companies, or for some people, be an out-of-pocket expense, although Moderna has indicated they will provide their vaccine at no cost to the uninsured and underinsured. The federal...

Parents protest over suspected poisoning of Iranian schoolgirls More at link.

A Southwest Airlines plane carrying 147 passengers to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, sustained engine trouble after hitting birds, forcing it to return to Havana for an emergency landing Sunday, according to NBC News. Officials said Southwest Airlines Flight 3923 "experienced bird strikes to an engine and the aircraft's nose shortly after takeoff," resulting in smoke filling the cabin. According to Cuban Aviation Corporation S.A., Cuba's civil aviation authority, pilots became aware of the Boeing 737 engine issues after the collision with the birds. A cellphone video filmed in the cabin made its way through social media, showing passengers panicking as the...

Mike Pompeo is openly casting doubt on the conservative bonafides of his one-time boss, former President Donald Trump, ahead of a potential face-off in 2024. During an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Pompeo talked about how a conservative president is needed to tackle the nation’s budget deficit and debt after years of neglect, including during the Trump administration. Anchor Shannon Bream then asked Pompeo if he was saying Trump was not a “true conservative leader,” using her guest’s words to describe the kind of president he argued is necessary to attain fiscal responsibility. Fox's Shannon Bream: "Are you saying that...

2 Honduran migrants charged with misdemeanor after killing an American bald eagle with intention to eat itA Nebraska sheriff is calling on federal authorities to act after two Honduran migrants allegedly killed an American bald eagle in the state with the intention of eating it.Stanton County Sheriff Mike Unger told "Fox & Friends First" Monday that he has yet to get an answer from federal officials on their handling of the incident that has the community in an "uproar.""We find this very alarming, I'm sure nationwide, but locally it's been very alarming to the citizens," Unger said.The Stanton County Sheriff's...

See twitter link above and post below.

Former first lady Michelle Obama’s said Monday in a preview of her new Audible podcast that “there weren’t that many people” at former President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2016. Obama said, “We were at the inauguration, and we know whose inauguration we were at. That day was so emotional for so many different reasons. We were leaving the home we had been in for eight years, the only home our kids really knew. They remembered Chicago, but they had spent more time in the White House than anywhere, so we were saying goodbye to the staff and all the people...

With King Charles' Coronation just weeks away, the Palace is scrambling to secure big-name musicians to perform on the big day. According to reports from The Sun, the royal team is struggling to secure artists for His Majesty’s big Windsor Castle concert on May 6th, after three more acts have reportedly turned down the royal gig. Elton John, the Spice Girls and Harry Styles had all been invited to perform, but have had to turn down the offer due to conflicting tour schedules. A source tells The Sun, “Organisers are working against the clock to pull together an exciting line-up...

A network of bots have been busily singing the praises of former President Donald Trump while targeting his political rivals Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — as well as trolling critics like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, according to a report on Monday. The fake accounts — estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands — are behind popularizing the suggestion that DeSantis, 44, would be unable to defeat Trump, 76, for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination but would make a good running mate. They also attacked Haley, the former US ambassador to the United Nations in the...

Our crisis was not the next generation of foreign Hitlers and Stalins. It was not earthquakes, floods, or even pandemics. It was not endemic poverty and want. It was not a meager inheritance from past generations of incompetents. Nor was it a dearth of natural resources or bounty. Instead our catastrophe arose from our most highly educated, the wealthiest and most privileged in American history with the greatest sense of self-esteem and sanctimoniousness. Sometime around the millennium, they felt their genius could change human nature and bring an end to history—if only they had enough power to force hoi polloi...

The founding member and guitarist, who provided the seagull-like slide guitar leads to Skynyrd’s signature “Free Bird,” survived the band’s infamous 1977 plane crash. GARY ROSSINGTON, A founding member of Lynyrd Skynyrd whose ethereal slide guitar helped make the Southern rock band’s song “Free Bird” an indelible anthem, died Sunday at the age of 71. “It is with our deepest sympathy and sadness that we have to advise, that we lost our brother, friend, family member, songwriter and guitarist, Gary Rossington, today,” the band wrote on Facebook. “Gary is now with his Skynyrd brothers and family in heaven and playing...

As the University of Idaho community reels from the shocking slayings of four undergrad students in an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, this past November, school officials have already announced plans to tear the building down. “The owner of the King Street house offered to give the house to the university, which we accepted,” University of Idaho President Scott Green said last week. “The house will be demolished. This is a healing step and removes the physical structure where the crime that shook our community was committed.” Landlords almost always seek an address change in similar situations. But communities...

Dr Anthony Fauci commissioned and edited the report he cited to disprove the lab leak theory, House Republicans found Many media outlets then started to dismiss the lab leak theory, only to later suggest that it may be possible In January, a government watchdog agency blasted the NIH for failing to keep tabs on US-sponsored virus experiments in China ~~~ Dr. Anthony Fauci commissioned a February 2020 paper to disprove the possibility that COVID originated in a lab — before publicizing the study at a White House news conference weeks later. Newly-released emails uncovered by House Republicans probing the COVID-19...

Radio giant SiriusXM is slashing hundreds of jobs in what the company says is a cost cutting measure. In a note to SiriusXM employees on Monday, CEO Jennifer Witz said the company will cut eight percent of its workforce, amounting to some 450 jobs, after a recent review of the outlet’s business. “We are entering into a new phase for our Company. The investments we are making in the business this year, coupled with today’s uncertain economic environment, require us to think differently about how our organization is structured,” Witz said. The CEO said SiriusXM in recent months had identified...