Free Republic

Saks Global Enterprises, the parent company of luxury department store chain Saks Fifth Avenue, is considering a potential Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing as a last-resort option to address mounting liquidity constraints and near-term debt obligations, according to a Bloomberg report. The publication reported that Saks is evaluating bankruptcy as part of a broader effort to manage its balance sheet rather than as an imminent filing. The company faces a debt payment of more than $100 million due by the end of December, limiting its financial flexibility. According to the report, which cited people with knowledge of the matter, Saks has...

PHOENIX, AZ — Following her surprising appearance onstage with Erika Kirk at Turning Point USA's AmFest, rapper Nicki Minaj revealed that her hit song "Anaconda" was actually about how the federal government needs to reduce deficit spending. The music superstar caused a stir throughout social media and entertainment circles by not only taking the stage at a prominent conservative event but also explaining that the true meaning behind one of her most popular tracks was a right-wing rant against big government. "It's right there in the lyrics, plain as day," Minaj told several confused conservative journalists after she shut...

Metcalf's money did not vanish, but his safety net did.DK Metcalf's physical confrontation with a Detroit Lions fan Sunday will see him miss the rest of the regular season and forfeit more than $555,000 in salary. But the impact could go beyond that. The two-game suspension for what the NFL terms "conduct detrimental" to the league now voids at least $45 million in future guaranteed money for the Pittsburgh Steelers receiver. Metcalf would still be able to earn that money over the next two years. His four-year, $132 million contract from March, reviewed by CBS Sports, notes that if he...

Video game developer and ‘Call of Duty’ creator Vince Zampella, 55, was killed in a horrific car crash in Southern California on Sunday. Video posted to social media shows Zampella speeding out of a tunnel in his Ferrari in the San Gabriel Mountains before crashing into a concrete barrier. The Ferrari burst into flames as onlookers screamed in horror. Several witnesses ran across the windy mountain road and dragged the ejected passenger away from the fiery wreckage. Zampella died at the crash site. The unidentified passenger died later at the hospital. NBC Los Angeles reported: Video game developer Vince Zampella,...

The latest recall impacts Washington state-based Direct Source Seafood LLC products sold at various locations. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed a recall of more than 83,000 bags of raw frozen shrimp for potential radioactive contamination, expanding actions taken against shrimp products that were imported from Indonesia. According to an announcement last week, Washington state-based Direct Source Seafood LLC is recalling 83,800 bags of frozen raw shrimp sold under the Market 32 and Waterfront Bistro brand names “because they may have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with” radioactive cesium-137,...

In the 1988 movie “Cocktail,” Tom Cruise’s character Brian Flanagan had the enduring quote that, “Everything ends badly, otherwise it wouldn’t end.” Well, Kansas City Chiefs fans who are actually in Missouri… that line appears to hold true today as it did all those years ago. At the tail end of what’s been a brutal year (the team lost superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes to a torn ACL, and star tight end Travis Kelce officially appears to be losing the battle with Father Time) where the Chiefs will finish with a losing record, the team gave its local fans one last...

At the center of this debate lies approximately 210 billion euros ($246.42 billion) in Russian state assets .... The EU’s financial system has benefited for decades from a reputation for stability, predictability, and political restraint. Sovereign investors from Asia, the Gulf and the Global South have viewed European financial infrastructure as relatively insulated from geopolitical turbulence. The perception that sovereign reserves can be repurposed under political pressure threatens to erode that trust. This is not a hypothetical concern. Efforts to diversify reserves, reduce exposure to Western financial systems and develop alternative clearing mechanisms have been accelerating for years. The frozen...

When the U.S. dollar loses its monopoly on pricing the world’s critical resources, Americans’ purchasing power weakens The dollar losing monopoly power is a slow leak, not a blowout. But slow leaks still leave you flat. If the 21st century runs on anything besides oil, it runs on African rocks.

What about propane for rural folks? Do we have to give up gas furnaces and stoves? Who will pay? Will electric bills go way up? Flames emerge from burners on a natural gas stove, Wednesday, June 21, 2023, in Walpole, Mass. Gas and construction trade groups sued to block New York state’s controversial ban on gas stoves and furnaces in new buildings. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) Credit: AP ================================================================================ News that Colorado has set hard target dates for an end to burning natural gas in our daily lives prompted many “wait, what?” questions from Colorado Sun readers. And we are here...

If you have been following this blog closely, you know that I have been participating, along with two excellent colleagues, in the rate proceeding of our local utility, Con Edison. A rate proceeding is the mechanism by which a utility goes before a regulatory body, in our case the New York Public Service Commission, seeking to increase the rates charged to consumers. Our purpose in the proceeding has been to object to and disrupt having the ratepayers charged for the building of infrastructure in pursuit of the futile and infeasible “climate” goals of our deluded politicians. One of the rules...

A county run by a construction industry magnate with a net worth to rival Trump's, a magnate whose tainted son-in-law keeps getting re-elected Sheriff on the Republican ticket with never any serious opposition in the primary. A county illegal aliens stick to like iron shavings to a magnet, because there's tons of construction jobs just waiting for them here and law enforcement (there's an oxymoron for ya) looks the other way, and where the cost of labor for that magnate I was telling you about is negligible because of his cheap labor pool protected by the son-in-law. Try visiting one...

A ranking of 193 countries shows that human development is stalling almost everywhereIN THE THROES of the covid-19 pandemic—when hospitals overflowed, schools and offices shut, and economies seized up—many asked when the world would recover. Five years later, the data show that the setback to living standards could endure. The Human Development Index (HDI), produced by the UN, tracks progress in life expectancy, education and income. After GDP it is one of the most widely used measures of development. The global score fell in 2020 and 2021—the first declines since the index began in 1990. It recovered somewhat in 2022....

A staggering $9 billion may have been stolen in Minnesota’s sprawling social-services scam orchestrated mainly by members of its Somali community — a figure nearly equivalent to the entire economy of Somalia. The enormous new estimate is a nearly nine-fold increase from the swiped $1 billion previously suspected, according to federal prosecutors. It also accounts for roughly half of the $18 billion in total federal funds provided to the Minnesota-run services since 2018, the feds said — as Democratic Gov. Tim Walz continues to take heat for his handling of the debacle. By comparison to the $9 billion figure, Somalia’s...

Air travel has grown more chaotic in recent years, and one trend stands out for its brazenness: passengers requesting wheelchair assistance to board early, only to walk off the plane unaided at their destination. Social media has dubbed these “miracle flights,” with the sudden recoveries credited to a tongue-in-cheek figure called “Jetway Jesus.” The practice exploits a system meant to help those with genuine mobility needs, and it’s drawing sharp criticism from fellow travelers and industry observers. The issue gained fresh attention this Christmas season with reports of passengers faking mobility problems to skip security lines and claim priority boarding....

Minnesota’s sprawling fraud crisis has garnered national headlines in recent weeks, but several critics say the problem festered for years, aided by local media that appeared uninterested in holding people in power accountable. “In newsrooms, they’re told, ‘We can’t run that because we’re going to be accused of being racist,’” Townhall columnist Dustin Grage recently told Fox News Digital about news outlets in Minnesota essentially enabling the fraud by not calling out shocking taxpayer waste occurring primarily within the local Somali community. The outlet that is considered by many the top news source in the region, the Minnesota Star Tribune,...

Brace for another government shutdown early in the new year, as the GOP’s narrow majorities and the Democratic base’s deep desire to derail the Trump presidency makes it near-impossible for Congress to get anything done. The first piece of coal in Americans’ stockings: The short-term funding bill that Democrats finally allowed to pass last month, ending the record-long shutdown, only runs through Jan. 30. The federal Fiscal Year 2026 started Oct. 1 this year, yet the House and Senate have so far passed only three of the 12 appropriations bills to fund various parts of the government. And they’re not...

This mom reflects what most Americans think.

Americans should expect to be flush with cash next year, with fat tax-refund checks and more take-home pay in their pockets, says a top contender to become President Trump’s next Federal Reserve chair. “We are going to see the biggest refund cycle ever in the history of America, and people are going to get massive refund checks,” boasted National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett this week in an interview on FOX Business’ “Varney & Co.” “We’re expecting just that part of it alone to be worth a couple-thousand-dollar refund … the numbers are striking.” Hassett’s comments Thursday came a day...

The designation highlights Italy’s long-standing communal foodways, from regional harvest traditions to daily cooking practices passed down through generations.Key points: -UNESCO officially recognized Italian cuisine as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, marking the first time an entire national cuisine has received this distinction. -The designation highlights Italy’s culinary traditions as a communal, daily practice rooted in seasonality, regional identity, and shared rituals that extend far beyond individual dishes. -Italian officials and experts say the recognition strengthens efforts to protect authentic Italian products from imitation while acknowledging the global influence and widespread popularity of Italian food. -Rome’s Colosseum glowed with...

<p>Democrats’ fear-mongering about the Trump economy is looking more and more like sour grapes.</p><p>Yesterday’s CPI report, showing inflation of 2.7 percent — well below the expected 3.1 percent — was bad political news for Democrats. Since “Liberation Day” in April, when President Trump rolled out tariffs aimed at resetting global trade in favor of U.S. companies, the left and their media allies have warned voters that the White House’s actions would clobber our economy and set inflation soaring.</p>