Free Republic

A Washington teenager was arrested after investigators found a large cache of weapons and writings about 'mass shooting scenarios' in his home. The alleged would-be killer, who has not been named, was obsessed with 'previous mass shooters' and 'idolized' them as he hatched a chilling plot to carry out his own murder spree, cops said. The Pierce County Sheriff's Office said they descended on the boy's home in Tacoma, Washington after being notified on Friday afternoon that he was 'making threats to kill.' Following a sweep of his home on Saturday morning, authorities said they seized a 'large quantity' of...

A London-based Muslim cleric was arrested by anti-terrorist officers on Monday amid allegations that he urged Muslims to kill Jews and non-believers, police sources said. Abdullah el-Faisal, 38, was seized by Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch officers in a dawn raid at his home in east London on Monday. Born in Jamaica and a convert to Islam, he had been touring Britain urging followers to kill Jews and non-believers, police said. Members of parliament had called for action to be taken against the cleric after it was reported that video tapes carrying his message were on sale in Islamic bookshops in ...

LONDON - A Muslim cleric accused of inciting followers to murder "nonbelievers" was granted bail on Wednesday, after a judge ruled that prosecutors had not released documents to his defense team quickly enough. Prosecutors say Abdullah el-Faisal, 38, circulated cassettes of his sermons in which he called on Muslims to kill Hindus, Jews and other nonbelievers. He was arrested in February and denied bail after a judge ruled there was a chance he would go into hiding and commit further offenses. But sitting at London's Old Bailey criminal court on Wednesday, Judge Peter Beaumont granted el-Faisal bail, on condition he...

Independent bookstores are free to cater to the demands of their customers. It’s fine to specialize. What is so irritating is the pretentious virtue-signaling done by small leftist bookstores. They claim to be places of light-filled wisdom, diversity and enlightenment. In fact they are politically correct propaganda mills. It’s the smugness that is so grating.

...Labor action has surged in many industries over the past two years, including in bookselling, a business where unions had been rare. Since 2020, employees have unionized or are attempting to do so everywhere from Printed Matter in New York City to Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle and Bookshop Santa Cruz in California. In Minnesota, workers at four Half Price Books stores have announced plans to affiliate with locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. "I think COVID-19 was a rude awakening for bookstore workers, and really anyone who works with the public,” says Owen Hill, a...

Ditching Amazon Prime and looking for alternative websites to purchase things. For example, I now get most of my clothing directly from LL Bean. What is a good place to buy books online? I still buy a lot of books. An obvious choice is Barnes & Noble but looking to see if there are any other book-buying websites I should be aware of.

The Strand Bookstore, a New York City icon home to 2.5 million books and 92 years of storefront history, was commemorated by the city and chosen as a historic city landmark this week. Nancy Bass Wyden, the store's third-generation owner, isn't taking it as a compliment. "Some people have congratulated me and I said, 'No, this is no congratulations. This is a punishment,' " Bass Wyden tells NPR's Scott Simon. Bass Wyden feels that the designation is counterproductive. "We don't need the city to come in and just put red tape and bureaucracy and take control over decision-makings of the...

It has become another improbable victim of the culture warsAs it happened, on my last trip The Strand had none of the books I was looking for. I wasn’t searching for any viciously right-wing tracts. The store had simply decided to go big and long on the ‘improving’ literature that it seeks to push on New Yorkers (Kendi, Coates, DiAngelo and all the rest) and it had done so at the expense of the variety and pluralism it once displayed. For instance near the front entrance on my last visit there stood a considerable quantity of the book (notorious to...

It is time to support your local bookstore. https://t.co/77zkQR5HFz— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) October 15, 2020

Uncle Hugo's and Uncle Edgar's were legendary among the community of science fiction, fantasy, and mystery readers—and now they're gone. Venerable Minneapolis science fiction and fantasy bookstore Uncle Hugo’s and its sister store in the same building, Uncle Edgar’s, which specialized in mysteries, were both burned to ruins last Friday night by rioters. The store took its name from two major awards in the genre fields, science fiction’s Hugo awards, and mysteries Edgar’s. Independent bookstores are a threatened American institution, and Uncle Hugo’s was considered a flagship operation. Owner Don Blyly was noted for his ability to adapt to modern...

"In a round of company-wide layoffs, Barnes & Noble (BKS) has cut lead cashiers, digital leads and other experienced workers. Workers discovered the news when they showed up to work on Monday only to learn they no longer had jobs, CNBC reports."

More than 3,000 employees in 36 states will be laid off in the liquidation of one of the world’s largest Christian retailers. More than two years ago, suppliers forgave Family Christian Stores $127 million in debt so that it could remain open. Today, the chain—which bills itself as “the world’s largest retailer of Christian-themed merchandise”—announced it is closing all of its stores after 85 years in business. Family Christian, which employed more than 3,000 people in more than 240 stores across 36 states, blamed “changing consumer behavior and declining sales.” “We had two very difficult years post-bankruptcy,” stated president Chuck...

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Campus bookstores hate the idea, and even some college students are skeptical of the new effort by a former California lawmaker to help them save money on textbooks for hundreds of classes on nearly every campus from Alabama to the Yukon Territory. It's a free price-check that lets students compare textbook prices and rentals, and buy from the source they like best. The new online tool comes from former state Sen. Dean Florez, president of the 20 Million Minds Foundation in Sacramento, which lobbies for low-cost textbooks and is behind legislation, SB1052, to create a low-cost digital textbook library in...

Michael Moore: missing from bookstores… compared to a couple of years ago.1. Bestsellers by the repulsive Michael Moore (sporting his “smart casual” look in the photo above).2. An endless selection of Don’t-You-Hate-Dubya books.3. Brown-nosing biographies of Barack Obama. Even the book-buyers of the West Village, Santa Monica and Madison, Wisconsin, have worked out that he’s *not a very good president*.

Borders Group Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection Wednesday and said it will close about 30% (about 200) of its stores nationwide in the coming weeks. (Click on WSJ link for complete list)

WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) - Borders Group Inc, the second-largest U.S. book chain, may file for bankruptcy later this month, a source familiar with matter said. The struggling chain, which operates, 500 stores, will likely close at least 150 stores, according to a separate report by Bloomberg News. Several private equity investors are considering whether to provide a junior loan to the company, according to the report. Bloomberg cited unidentified sources for its story. Borders said on Sunday it would seek to preserve cash by delaying its January payments to vendors and landlords as it tries to complete a debt restructuring....

ON a balmy fall evening in the Mission District of San Francisco, hundreds of people spilled onto Valencia Street, where they chatted happily for a few minutes before pouring back into bookstores, cafes and theaters. ... ....Valencia Street around 20th Street is an excellent place for a visitor to begin. A cluster of shops — 826 Valencia; Borderlands, a science fiction and fantasy bookstore and connected cafe; Modern Times, a bookstore collective; and the used-book store Dog Eared Books — is surrounded by cafes and bars that host regular literary events..... ....John Durham, the owner, sat at a desk surrounded...

...my generation is the bridge between the golden years of print newspapers and now, for better or worse, news by iPhone. Nothing in publishing is as consistently unchanging as change... America was built on competition and innovation. Challenges are meant to be embraced and met. And when I hear independent booksellers complaining about big-box retailers pushing them out of business, I am reminded of a great bit of wisdom my mother dispensed once... In the town where I live, I heard retailers decrying a move by Wal-Mart to put a store on the outskirts of town. "They'll kill business!" was...

CHICAGO (AP) - Adam Brent knew his 11-year-run selling best sellers and new releases was over when mail carriers started walking into his building to deliver books from Amazon.com to the tenants upstairs. "Literally, they didn't walk downstairs or take the time to make a phone call," Brent said of the neighbors of Brent Books & Cards in the city's business district. Brent's experience is shared by scores of independent bookstores around the nation that have been knocked out of business by huge chains like Borders Group Inc. (BGP) and Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS), massive retailers like Wal-Mart Stores...