Free Republic

Nike shares on Friday tumbled nearly 20% after the company said it expected sales to decline in its new fiscal year, the latest sign of severe turbulence at Oregon’s biggest company. It was the biggest one-day drop in Nike history, wiping out roughly $28 billion in shareholder wealth. Even before Friday’s tumble, Nike’s stock had been heading steadily downward after climbing above $170 in November 2021. Shares closed Friday at $75.36. Under CEO John Donahoe, who started work in 2020, the sportswear giant bet heavily on direct sales and the popularity of Nike classics, like Air Jordans, Dunks and Air...

A family fishing company, Loper Bright Enterprises, was being driven out of business, because they couldn't afford the $700 per day they were being charged by the National Marine Fisheries Service to monitor their company. The thing is, federal law doesn't authorize NMFS to charge businesses for this. They just decided to start doing it in 2013. Why did they think they could away with just charging people without any legal authorization? Because in 1984, in the Chevron decision, the Supreme Court decided that regulatory agencies were the "experts" in their field, and the courts should just defer to their...

President Joe Biden — who recently invoked commitments to a global governance organization as justification to foist abortion and the LGBTQ agenda on the developing world — has done “more damage to Christianity than anyone but the Devil,” a critic of the new policy told The Washington Stand. The Biden administration has often promoted abortion and the LGBT agenda by citing international commitments to provide “sexual and reproductive health” (SRH), although no international treaty covers either concept. Biden recently took yet another step toward redefining that term this month, promoting abortion, the LGBT community, and taxpayer-funded contraception as he marked...

A leaked survey revealed a plan to explore 16 new tax and fee hikes on Chicago families. The Chicago City Council is diving into the plan on June 26. The prospective hikes proposed to the city council by and Chairman of the City Council Subcommittee on Revenue Ald. Will Hall, 6th ward, could end up costing Chicagoans more on most expenses from standard services to property taxes. Hall is an ally in city hall to Chicago Mayor. The 16 revenue proposals: Sales tax on services Property tax tied to Consumer Price Index Monthly/wireless plan tax Increase in Local Government Distributive...

A bill being considered in New York would, as of Jan. 1, 2025, prohibit the sale of gasoline-powered leaf blowers and lawn mowers in the state, according to a May 23 report from WYRK. Legislation regarding gas-powered equipment bans was introduced back in 2021. The bill (Assembly Bill A705) is currently being considered by a committee assembly. For more info on ongoing attempts at regulating gas-powered outdoor power equipment, view our ongoing coverage here.

$4.2 million will go to develop supportive housing in Ithaca. Governor Kathy Hochul has announced that Steuben Churchpeople Against Poverty (dba Arbor Housing Development) will use the money to construct 20 permanent supportive housing units. The proposed Stately Apartments will feature laundry facilities, a community room, a garden, and commercial space. “Creating new permanent supportive housing is central to my administration’s work to reduce homelessness across New York State, while simultaneously supporting strong neighborhoods throughout our state,” Governor Hochul said. “When completed, these projects will provide vulnerable New Yorkers with an affordable place to call home and the security and...

The Center Square) – More than 87,000 people moved out of Illinois taking with them nearly $10 billion in income, according to the latest Internal Revenue Service data. For the last six years, the total lost adjusted gross income is more than $47.5 billion. For nearly a decade, annual population estimates from the U.S. Census show Illinois losing population. For well over a year, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has denied the state’s population decline, saying the Census is getting it wrong. In May, he doubled down. “You should take what I’m saying as truth that actually when we count people, it...

The bedwetting brigade is calling for Joe Biden to “drop out.” That is the best possible way for Donald Trump to win and us to lose. First of all: Joe Biden is going to be the Democratic nominee, period. End of story. Voters voted. He won overwhelmingly. And if he were to drop out, it would lead to weeks of chaos, internal foodfighting, and a bunch of candidates who limp into a brutal floor fight at the convention, all while Donald Trump has time to speak to American voters uncontested. All of that would be in service of a nominee...

The Supreme Court’s decision on Friday to discard the 40-year-old precedent established by Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council is a truly harsh blow against environmental protection and climate justice. By overruling the Chevron doctrine that required courts to defer to federal agencies when it came to implementing broadly written laws, the Supreme Court will make it much more difficult for the federal government to regulate pollution — including, but by no means limited to greenhouse gas emissions — among many other issues related to health, labor, consumer welfare, taxation, and on and on. I am profoundly upset at the...

A small, quaint California town has been torn apart by an internal war that has culminated in 'terrorism,' with residents allegedly deliberately swerving trucks toward each other, spraying enemies with weed killer - and now a bomb squad has been called in. The battle erupted in the idyllic, historic town called Port Costa, which has a population of 251 seemingly very angry people. The bitter townsfolk drew lines in the sand in classic 'not in my backyard' (NIMBY) fashion after a non-profit organization called the Field Semester expressed their intention to create an environmental school for high schoolers in the...

Politics typically comes with plenty of spin. Even something seemingly unyielding or absolute like a number can get squished and twisted like putty. As such, flashy economic data points extolled by candidates always come with plenty of asterisks, caveats and “yes, buts.” In this election cycle, those qualifiers have multiplied in part due to quirks in the numbers themselves: A once-in-a-lifetime pandemic and a once-in-a-generation inflation event sent shockwaves through the economy, distorting data and presidential economic records in the process. “Interpreting economic data is like interpreting a Monet painting in the best of times,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at...

Vice President Kamala Harris has never been closer to the presidency after Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance sent Democratic elites into a tailspin about their chances in the 2024 election. As the vice president of the United States, Harris is the natural successor of the presidency if Biden steps down. But for years, Democrats have criticized Harris’ performance and feel she should not take over for Biden before the election. One well-connected Democrat told DailyMail.com after the debate that the choice was between an ‘obviously broken Biden’ or Harris, describing the vice president as ‘extremely disliked’ and a ‘terrible’ politician....

Still no sticker shock, Janet? Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was spotted stocking up on groceries on Saturday — after dismissing a question about inflation and rising food prices earlier this week. Yellen, 77, and her husband, economist George Akerlof, stopped by a Giant Food store in Washington, DC, after grabbing lunch at Japanese restaurant Raku. The millionaire couple had six security people in tow but pushed their own carts full of reusable Fresh Direct grocery bags out of the store after stocking up. Yellen — who is worth an estimated $20 million — drew criticism this week when she appeared...

When management consulting firm McKinsey declared in 2015 that it had found a link between profits and executive racial and gender diversity, it was a breakthrough. The research was used by investors, lobbyists and regulators to push for more women and minority groups on boards, and to justify investing in companies that appointed them. Unfortunately, the research doesn’t show what everyone thought it showed. ... Since 2015, the approach has been tested in the fire of the marketplace and failed. Academics have tried to repeat McKinsey’s findings and failed, concluding that there is in fact no link between profitability and...

The decision comes after federal court rulings blocked further implementation of the student loan repayment plan.In response to court rulings blocking key elements of the federal government’s new student loan repayment program, the Biden administration will be giving approximately 3 million borrowers a reprieve from their monthly payments.The 3 million borrowers eligible for the pause are enrolled in the income-driven repayment program dubbed SAVE, and have a monthly payment that is more than $0 a month, the U.S. Department of Education said. About 4.5 million SAVE enrollees who qualify for $0 payments because of low incomes will not be included...

Honduras still has a long way to go to dismantle the “narco-state” that grew under ex-president Juan Orlando Hernandez, jailed this week for smuggling a deluge of cocaine into the United States, experts said. Hernandez, 55, spent years in positions of power cozying up to kingpins from some of Latin America’s most notorious cartels, which placed proxies in state institutions while he pocketed millions of dollars in drug money. Extradited to the United States upon leaving office in 2022, Hernandez was sentenced this week to 45 years in jail for his crimes after prosecutors said he had turned his country...

A spate of decisions over the past two years by the Supreme Court has significantly impaired the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to limit pollution in the air and water, regulate the use of toxic chemicals and reduce the greenhouse gasses that are heating the planet.This term, the court’s conservative supermajority handed down several rulings that chip away at the power of many federal agencies.But the environmental agency has been under particular fire, the result of a series of cases brought since 2022 by conservative activists who say that E.P.A. regulations have driven up costs for industries ranging from electric utilities...

The campaign previously said the single best hour of fundraising came immediately after Biden's debate against Trump The re-election campaign for President Biden says it has raised a whopping $27 million since his rocky debate performance against former President Trump. From the day of the debate through Friday evening, the Biden-Harris campaign told Fox News that it had raised $27 million. The updated figure comes after the campaign said on Friday that it raised $14 million in "a sign of strength of our grassroots support" on debate day and the morning after. The campaign also noted Friday that 11 p.m....

NEW YORK — “So, let’s talk about last night’s debate, because I know it’s on your minds,” Jill Biden said. The living room of the Greenwich Village brownstone fell silent. The first lady, poised in a polka dot dress and a pair of pink stilettos, stood behind a lectern, her lips spread into a half-smile. The nearly 60 attendees at that afternoon’s fundraiser, gripping the melted remnants of their Aperol Spritzes, stared back at her. [cut] To his wife of 47 years, it was no reason to panic. “I said, ‘Look, Joe, we are not going to let 90 minutes...

White House aides reportedly confirmed that President Joe Biden is exhibiting a common symptom of dementia, according to Axios. When Biden and former President Donald Trump met on the debate stage, the current president became the focus of the Thursday forum as he looked confused, appeared to freeze up and stumble through answers. Amid the calls for the 81-year-old to drop out of the race, the Biden campaign and the president have worked to dispel concerns and downplay the performance as a rough night. Despite the damage control, sources told Axios that the president is “dependably engaged” between the hours...