Free Republic

Federal authorities say they disrupted a credible terrorist threat over the weekend, arresting four alleged members of a radical pro-Palestinian extremist group accused of planning coordinated New Year’s Eve bombings in Los Angeles. The FBI told Fox News Digital that the members self-identified as part of a radical offshoot of the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), an extremist group motivated by pro-Palestinian, anti-law-enforcement, and anti-government ideology. According to the FBI, they were allegedly planning coordinated bombing attacks on New Year’s Eve using improvised explosive devices (IEDs), targeting five separate locations across Los Angeles. The agency said the four were arrested...

The Real Economics of Tariffs: Why America Holds All the Cards The debate over tariffs is often frustrating because it so seldomly touches on reality instead of whiteboard economics of the Ivory Tower. Critics focus on textbook theories about comparative advantage and free trade efficiency, but they ignore the fundamental reality of how global trade actually works today. For decades, the U.S. has played a peculiar role in the global economy: we consume what the rest of the world produces. That is not a neutral or natural arrangement. It’s the result of policy choices—ours and theirs. And tariffs are finally...

"The scariest thing about living in LA. right now, doesn't matter nice area or poor area...a lot of businesses are just out." Store after store is just vacant. "So scary to see so many businesses go out. Feel like the city is dying."

At least fourteen businesses throughout Illinois are scheduled to begin laying off employees this summer, according to information provided to Illinoisworknet.com from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity as part of Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act — of the WARN Act. According to the site, the "information ... does not encompass layoff activity and is not intended to be a proxy for employment or job loss data. Additional layoff activity may be represented outside of an official WARN correspondence, which might not necessarily reflect the company's final action.​"

The U.S. House has passed legislation barring all noncitizens, except permanent residents from acquiring Small Business Administration loans. The American Entrepreneurs First Act of 2025, which passed in a 217-190 vote Friday, would require the SBA to verify the citizenship status and age of every applicant, codifying reforms recently implemented by the agency. If the bill passes the Senate and becomes law, the SBA will permanently exclude illegal immigrants, refugees and asylees, visa holders, DACA recipients or nonimmigrants from obtaining taxpayer-funded SBA loans. It would also disqualify companies partially or completely owned by such individuals. Co-sponsor of the bill, Rep....

Gov. Kathy Hochul is delivering a big win to businesses that have been pressuring her to pay off their billions of dollars in unemployment-insurance debt — but she’s stealing the cash from state reserves to do it. Hochul said Monday that the state will cover the roughly $7 billion debt still lingering for employers from the pandemic. The businesses had hoped federal money that the state received during COVID-19 would at least partly be used to help cover the deluge of unemployment claims spurred by the pandemic, as most other states did.+ But the state used the money for other...

Many small businesses are still threatened by the trade war facing the United States, even though President Donald Trump suspended most tariffs for 90 days. The escalating tariffs on China have halted imports — and manufacturing — for many American companies, including mom-and-pop stores and family-owned businesses that cannot easily shift production or sourcing to other countries. ‘This is life or death,” says Rick Woldenberg, the CEO of Learning Resources, a century-old toy manufacturing company that makes educational materials for thousands of American schools. Woldenberg told Breitbart News that the Trump administration’s tariffs on China — which hit 145% as...

The NAACP, the oldest civil rights organization in the country, is urging black Americans to avoid businesses ditching diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. “Attention, corporations: if you want our dollars, it’s time to do the right thing,” the organization said on social media over the weekend, announcing the launch of the Black Consumer Advisory, described as “a framework designed to keep our community informed on who’s pushing progress and who’s stuck in the past.” We have the power to choose where we spend our money. I am confident that this framework will support our community as we make difficult...

Many businesses across America will be closed Monday for “A Day Without Immigrants” to protest President Donald Trump’s deportation policies. Workers in those businesses who are participating will stay at home, CBS News reported Sunday, noting some workplaces in Minnesota were shutting down for the allotted time. “The movement highlights immigrant workers’ contributions and their everyday impact on businesses, from restaurants to retail shops,” the outlet said. Several restaurants in Washington, DC, will also reportedly be closed for the day, and NBC Washington said the demonstration also urges immigrants to stay home from school. In addition, several Chicago businesses are...

California businesses — and households that pay payroll taxes on domestic employees — are waking up to the reality that they are being forced to pay for the state’s default on $20 billion in federal loans to cover a COVID-era shortfall. The issue came to light this week with a social media post by restaurateur Andrew Gruel about unexpected costs: The Hoover Institution, based at Stanford University, had warned about the problem more than a year ago: Little did California businesses know that they were cosigners on the state’s nearly $20 billion loan from the federal government that was used...

Key Points: As the East&Gulf coast ports strike hits day three on Thursday, there are multiple signs of supply chain stress building. Thousands of shipping containers were potentially dumped at the wrong ports as ocean carriers scrambled to find alternate options for cargo, and increased tracking of diverted vessels is a direct challenge to an ILA-union threat to stop unloading at other ports. Surcharges imposed by shipping giants are starting to mount, and the need to use inland transportation options like trucking and rail for diverted cargo are adding to costs. A major grocery chain CEO tells CNBC that while...

National Labor Relations Board Administrative Law Judge Geoffrey Carter ordered Starbucks to reopen “within a reasonable period of time” two Ithaca locations that closed after employees formed a union, stating that its move to “chill unionism” violated the National Labor Relations Act. Carter ruled on Friday that the May 2023 permanent closures of the Ithaca Commons and Meadow Street Starbucks locations and failure to bargain with the union were unlawful, as the board found the stores were closed for “antiunion reasons” and in an effort to quell unionizations elsewhere. The NLRB similarly ordered on July 6, 2023, that the third...

Democrats can’t govern to save their own lives (or cities), but one thing they are very good at — with the help of billions and billions of dollars in corporate media propaganda — is fabricating an alternate reality. Reality-reality is this: Wherever Democrats go, chaos follows. We’ve seen it in Baltimore, Ferguson, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Oakland, etc., etc., And now that the entire Democrat elite and their palace guards in the fake media have landed in Chicago — a city already bucking under the horrors of decades of one-party rule (Democrats) — the Windy City is...

Chicago businesses are already boarding up their storefronts downtown ahead of Monday’s opening of the Democratic National Convention in anticipation of mass rioting and violence. Plywood shielding first began showing up Thursday morning as the city’s shopping district opened for business. “As we know, this city has a poor track record when it comes to protecting businesses,” Scott Shapiro, owner of Syd Jerome, told Chicago’s WLS-TV. “We felt it was more prudent to board up, since our customers and their employers have told them to stay home throughout the convention for their own safety,” Shapiro added. It makes perfect sense...

A Jordanian man living in Florida has been arrested for causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to a solar energy facility and damaging multiple businesses over their perceived support for Israel, the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Middle District of Florida announced on Thursday. Hashem Younis Hashem Hnaihen, 43, is accused of breaking the front doors of multiple businesses in a rampage in June. He wore a mask while committing the vandalism and left behind warning letters stating his intention to “destroy or explode everything here in whole America. Especially the companies and factories that support the racist...

He shut down a lot of the mom-and-pop shops, those folks that were just trying to make a living and provide a great product and a great service," Hanson told Fox News Digital. "In contrast, he allowed big box stores, etc. to stay open. Really incredible, an incredible use of tyranny against the people." Hanson eventually decided to re-open her business and defied Walz's renewed shutdown order for bars and restaurants six times between December 2020 and January 2021. She was convicted in December 2021 on misdemeanor charges and received the maximum sentence of 90 days and a $1,000 fine....

A former Minnesota bar owner who now commutes two hours a day to sling suds in neighboring Wisconsin said Gov. Tim Walz’s restrictive pandemic-era lockdowns in the state “decimated” local businesses — and caused financial ruin for those who stood up for their livelihoods. “I think he’s an evil man who overstepped his role as the governor. He took small businesses and ripped them up. He destroyed us,” Lisa Zarza, 52, told The Post. “I had to leave the state to be able to legally work and make a living.” She opened the Outpost Bar and Grill in Bay City,...

The family of a 76-year-old Kentucky man was awarded over $2 million for his death from second- and third-degree burns suffered in a scalding hot motel shower where water temperatures reached at least 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Court documents from the lawsuit alleged that Alex Chronis checked into the Econo Lodge in Erlanger, Kentucky, on Nov. 18, 2021. The next morning, he turned on the shower and was immediately struck by extremely hot water that knocked him to the floor while the water continued to burn him. The two people who were in the motel with Chronis heard his screams and...

Business groups are pushing back against a new Biden administration rule that would allow third-parties, including union representatives, to accompany federal inspectors of job sites. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued the final rule earlier this year, but critics say the rule goes beyond safety needs and panders to unions and their recruitment efforts. The rule would apply even to job sites where workers have not unionized. The National Federation of Independent Businesses, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups, are helping lead the charge against the new “walkaround” rule, which takes effect May 31...

On Wednesday, the country hit a sad milestone: Inflation under President Biden hit 20 percent. The dollar’s value has plummeted under his watch. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also confirmed that the consumer price index is resurgent and growing faster than average wages. Combined with weak GDP growth, this data shows the U.S. economy is reentering stagflation. Historic inflation is causing declining living standards and a cost-of-living crisis. Under Biden’s presidency, grocery prices have increased by nearly one-third and gas has risen by 50 percent. It feels like every daily convenience — from a turkey sandwich to some handyman help...