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Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with low-level Chinese Communist Party officials, students, and businessmen in Shanghai on Thursday, promoting an “expansion of exchanges” with the rogue state in several fields. The most prominent of his meetings was with the head of the Communist Party in Shanghai, Secretary Chen Jining, who said in a press engagement prior to their meeting that he was pleased to hear that Blinken had attended a basketball game and visited Shanghai’s Yu Garden after landing on Wednesday: Met with Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Jining to discuss the importance of healthy economic competition and a level...

From N.C. Bar & Tavern Ass'n v. Cooper, decided yesterday by the N.C. Court of Appeals, in an opinion by Judge April Wood, joined by Judges Donna Stroud and Jefferson Griffin: Plaintiffs appeal from the trial court's order granting summary judgment for Defendant and dismissing all their claims arising out of Defendant's Executive Order No. 141 issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 17 March 2020, Defendant issued Executive Order No. 118 closing all bars including those in restaurants. On 20 May 2020, Defendant issued Executive Order No. 141 letting some types of bars reopen with specific safety precautions...

On Friday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” White House Council of Economic Advisers member Heather Boushey responded to a question on whether the higher corporate taxes pushed by President Joe Biden will harm hiring by saying that “We need to make sure that the federal government has the resources that it needs to be able to do the things that it needs to do.” And that”businesses have a lot of resources, we’ve also given them a lot of subsidies and supports to go out there and invest.” Co-host Joe Mathieu asked, [relevant exchange begins around 7:15] “[H]e talked about...

In his opening statement to House impeachment investigators, former Hunter Biden business partner, Jason Galanis, said Joe Biden planned to join the board of his son’s firm which was being backed by a Chinese businessman and state-owned enterprises. Galanis delivered his opening statement on Friday morning to congressional investigators from inside a federal prison in Alabama where he is serving a prison sentence for engaging in an illegal scheme to enrich Burnham Asset Management. Galanis also unequivocally told investigators his firm originally partnered with Hunter Biden because of his family name. “The entire value-add of Hunter Biden to our business...

After years of Russiagate conspiracy theories about how the Russians had somehow rigged the 2016 presidential election using Facebook ads, the Senate Intelligence report awkwardly revealed that the Russian operation had focused most of its attention on black nationalists. The Senate report revealed that "most of the videos" put out by the Russian IRA troll factory on YouTube "pertained to police brutality and the activist efforts of the Black Lives Matter organization" and found that "no single group of Americans was targeted... more than African-Americans" around "race and related issues". But that was an understatement. The Russians had created their...

Chicago’s Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson recently touted his efforts to bestow $18 million exclusively to “black and brown” businesses to feed the thousands of illegal border crossers the city is housing. Johnson’s administration partnered with the Greater Chicago Food Depository, BJ’s Market, and other nonprofits by diverting the huge sum to minority-owned businesses, according to WFLD-TV. During a press conference on the partnership, the “sanctuary city” mayor celebrated the program, applauding “black and brown businesses” as the “soul” of Chicago.

Gov. Kathy Hochul will pledge to crack down on retail theft as part of her 2024 policy agenda, The Post has learned — as fed-up New York business owners continue to plead for help with the shoplifting scourge. Merchants are turning up the heat on Hochul and the Democratic-led state Legislature, calling for stiffer penalties against serial offenders wreaking havoc in their stores. “We’re going to continue living this nightmare if legislators don’t fix this mess,” said Nelson Eusabio of the National Supermarket Association and part of the coalition Collective Action to Protect Our Stores (CAP). Lawmakers representing 213 districts...

Major retailers have experienced a wave of store closures in 2023, an 80% surge from the year prior, Coresight Research reports. The top reasons include bankruptcy of one major chain and some stores just not performing well in certain areas. The continued growth of online shopping is another factor, and other retailers said that theft is a major reason for their decision to close some stores, according to CBS News. When Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy in April, it led to the closure of 866 stores, a Coresight report finds. The second largest number of closed stores was...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Several stores at the location where George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police in 2020 have sued the city, accusing it of neglecting the area and hurting business. The lawsuit, filed in mid-November in state court, also names Mayor Jacob Frey and other officials and accuses the city of not properly policing the area since Floyd’s death. It also accuses the city of blocking the intersection that is now known as George Floyd Square with concrete barriers for more than a year after Floyd's death, keeping customers from entering. The combination has turned the area into a...

A couple years ago, I wrote a piece for The Wall Street Journal lamenting how companies I patronize have turned increasingly political and woke. Many speciously echoed Democratic Party claims that Georgia’s recent voting law is racist without specifying how so. Others have been woke for a long time and are becoming more political by the day. I received many dozens of messages—more than I’ve ever received about anything I’ve ever written—and the piece generated nearly 2,000 comments on the WSJ website

A federal judge refused on Tuesday to certify the ongoing lawsuit alleging President Donald Trump defrauded individuals in his promotion of a multi-level marketing venture as a class action. Filed in 2018, the complaint focused on ACN, which sold telecommunications products, and two other companies. The plaintiffs are represented by Roberta Kaplan, the same attorney who represented E. Jean Carroll in her successful sexual battery and defamation suit against Mr. Trump. U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield ruled that putative class members lacked certain common elements in bringing the case. "Here there is no common evidence showing that putative class...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Large businesses in California will have to disclose a wide range of planet-warming emissions under a new law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Saturday — the most sweeping mandate of its kind in the nation. The law requires more than 5,300 companies that operate in California and make more than $1 billion in annual revenues to report both their direct and indirect emissions. That includes things like emissions from operating a building or store as well as those from activities like employee business travel and transporting their products. The law, SB 253, will bring more transparency to...

Hunter Biden’s lawyer declared last Thursday that the first son "did not share" his business or his profits with his father, marking another notable shift in the narrative responding to allegations linking President Biden to his son’s shady business dealings. Abbe Lowell, who has been aggressively defending Hunter, said he can "categorically" declare that Biden was not involved in Hunter's previous business dealings and did not profit from any of them. "I can tell you that Hunter did not share his business with his dad," Lowell told CNN on Thursday. "I can tell you that he did not share money...

The Biden administration again evaded responsibility for New York’s spiraling migrant crisis — this time by telling the Empire State’s private businesses to step up while it offers a measly $600 million to offset the multibillion-dollar crisis. The proposal put forward by White House officials in a Wednesday meeting with Gov. Kathy Hochul suggested putting out a call to city companies to provide free services to asylum seekers, including pro bono legal advice, The Post learned Thursday. The request for handouts also extends to free help educating and consulting with migrants on how to apply for work permits. Meanwhile, the...

Vice President Harris announced Friday that the administration would invest $125 million to help small businesses in underserved communities. The investment will go to 43 small business accelerators, chosen because they support entrepreneurs specifically in underserved communities. “As Bidenomics continues to demonstrate, when we invest in the dreams, the ambitions of small business owners and entrepreneurs, it creates opportunity and prosperity for us all,” Harris said during remarks in Washington, D.C. Harris said part of the funding will “help connect enterprisers and small business owners with the support and the guidance they need to break into the clean energy economy.”

During a portion of an interview with CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa aired on Wednesday’s broadcast of “The Exchange,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed stated that if she could, she “would get rid of most taxes on the books” tomorrow in order to help attract business to the city and argued that the tax system needs a complete overhaul so it works for the city and businesses. Breed said, “Well, first of all, I would — if I could do it tomorrow morning, I would get rid of most taxes on the books. I want to also be clear that businesses need...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2017 began investigating Townstone Financial, a small mortgage company in Chicago, over possible violations of civil rights law. The bureau bars lenders from making statements that "discourage" minorities from applying for loans. Townstone may have violated that regulation, the agency said, when its employees discussed crime in Chicago on a company-hosted radio show about the mortgage market, which also advertised Townstone's services. The offending statements, plucked from five episodes recorded over a three-year period, included a reference to the South Side of Chicago as a "war zone," as well as a recommendation that home...

During an interview set to air on Friday’s edition of “The Issue Is,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) argued that cities are leaving San Francisco because they’re “struggling to recover from the pandemic” and “struggling with the macroeconomic shifts,” there are “issues related to Walgreens and others that have shut down all across this country. Everything in San Francisco, again, gets colored in and it’s made 10x bigger.” But there are “challenges” in the city that have necessitated sending the National Guard and California Highway Patrol into the city.

Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream, which previously gave the cold shoulder to police officers, is suing the City of Seattle for losses it alleges resulted from the decision by officials in the summer of 2020 to abandon the Police Department’s East Precinct in response to the George Floyd riots which led to the creation of a “government-authorized invasion," the deadly anti-police Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), later renamed the Capitol Hill Occupied protest (CHOP). According to the federal lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington on Wednesday, the chain claimed that its constitutional rights...

A comunique' from activist Debbie Dooley, highlights Kemps actions to open the door for CCP companies to come to Georgia. Some will say that Chinese companies are just businesses, but those who understand China strategy and laws know that businesses in China are inextricably linked to the CCP. Indeed, anything which is on the Chinese internet is defined by law as owned by the Chinese government. [video embedded] The website associated with the initiative is hosted in China as seen by the URL www.Georgiabusiness.cn The webpage is clear on the objectives: [video embedded] Simply stated, in a number of Countries...