Free Republic

It’s a rough year to be a high-profile Russian: After nearly eight months of war in Ukraine, the Russian military is reeling and on its back foot; sanctions continue to squeeze the country’s economy and elite — and at least 15 Russian businessmen and executives have died in apparent accidents or by suicide, including a number of Putin allies. The victims range from an executive with Gazprom, a major state-owned oil company, to the managing director of a state-run development corporation. The causes of death range from unremarkable — a stroke, for example — to lurid, such as death by...

As a graduate of Oral Roberts University, I was blessed to spend a lot of time with Oral Roberts himself. Roberts repeatedly told me, “Go into every man’s world and meet them at the point of their need.” He was referring to Christians evangelizing throughout the world. We Christians cannot wait for people seeking God to stumble into our churches. Rather, Christians must go to them and invite them to join our movement. In a similar manner, conservatives must go! They must go to black entrepreneurs. They must go to black parents. They must go to black preachers. No more...

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) took a private jet to Florida in March, violating the spirit of her orders for everyone else not to travel. Deadline Detroit reported Whitmer “asked a group of wealthy Detroit businessmen to provide a private plane they share” so she could travel to Florida. She later said it was so she could visit her “ailing” father.

Caracas (AFP) - Venezuelan authorities have arrested 131 people accused of attempting to sabotage reforms implemented by President Nicolas Maduro to alleviate a crippling economic crisis, the attorney general said on Thursday. Tarek William Saab said the arrests included "several managers of large chains" accused of "speculating and hoarding basic products" that are subject to prices fixed by the government. The detainees are accused of trying to "destabilize the economy," Saab added. Of those arrested, 29 have been permitted conditional release and 10 others exonerated.

They're known as some of the most inspirational businessmen in history. But the success of industry giants such as Sir Richard Branson and Lord Sugar is actually putting working-class boys off of further education. A number of high profile celebrities who have gone on to make their fortunes after dropping out of education or choosing to not go to university are inspiring young men to following in their footsteps, according to a new report.

China's papers are calling it their "own subprime crises." According to Shanghai Daily, 7 large business owners, mostly manufacturers, fled the city of Wenzhou on September 12th. They left thousands of employees jobless and hundreds of millions in unpaid debt. This is one of the consequences of China's "black bank," the massive undergound banking system that has been growing at a dizzying pace since the government started tightening credit to curb inflation. Banks favor state-owned businesses when it comes to lending, so when private business owners need to take out a loan, they turn to the alternative, to the underground....

The budget stalemate between the right and the left comes down to a basic difference in economic views, the left feels that we need to tax more in order to consume more money, and the right believes that we need to consume less money in order to tax less. Whichever side of the argument you come down on, it's not hard to see which of these positions is fundamentally unsustainable. And it is amazing that the same people who can and do lecture for hours on environmental sustainability, seem to have no grasp of economic sustainability. If you tell them...

TIJUANA — Mexican soldiers freed three kidnapped businessmen Wednesday evening after an anonymous tip led them to a home in the Mesa de Otay area, authorities said at a news conference Thursday. Soldiers said they encountered little resistance when they stormed the home. They arrested eight men, confiscated 25 guns and took more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition, army officials said. Based on information gathered at the home, soldiers went to a residence in La Presa where three more men were arrested. They are accused of participating in the attack on the Baja California Attorney General's Office in Tijuana early...

A jury sentenced a Lakeview man to 10 years in prison for growing nearly 7,500 marijuana plants. Andrew Stever, 40, was sentenced on Monday after a three-day trial in the Federal District Court in Medford.Ten years is the mandatory minimum sentence for anyone convicted of growing 1,000 or more pot plants. In July 2007, officers from several local, state and federal agencies found 7,459 plants growing on Stever's Lakeview property, which bordered Forest Service land. Two men fled the scene, leaving behind personal property and three firearms, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Portland. Physical evidence and testimony linked...

When the American people rose up in wrath a couple of months ago and stopped dead in its tracks a bipartisan effort to ram a phony immigration "reform" bill through the Senate, I warned that our triumph was inspiring but very probably short-lived. It is extremely difficult to focus the attention of the people at large on any policy, however bad, that is wanted eagerly by an influential minority. The policy in question -- namely, to legalize the status of the 10 or 15 million illegal aliens in this country, keep them working here for peanuts, put them on track...

Not only were neither Saddam Hussein nor Iraq mentioned in a film about the Iraq-Kuwait war, but the Manchurian corporation's technicians rewire the brains of the abducted U.S. soldiers with false memories of al-Qaida-type jihadists so that they will lay the blame for their terrorist acts on an innocent Muslim jihadist. Why don't the movies have plausible, real-world villains anymore? One reason is that a plethora of stereotype-sensitive advocacy groups, representing everyone from hyphenated ethnic minorities and the physically handicapped to Army and CIA veterans, now maintain liaisons in Hollywood to protect their images. The studios themselves often have "outreach...

NEW YORK (AP) — A Texas oil mogul and two Swiss business executives were charged Friday with paying millions in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime in the latest indictment to come out of the U.N. oil-for-food scandal. Oscar S. Wyatt Jr., founder and former chairman of Coastal Corp., was arrested at his home in Houston. The U.S. government was seeking the extradition of oil traders Catalina del Socorro Miguel Fuentes and Mohammed Saidji from Switzerland. The United Nations set up the oil-for-food program in the 1990s as part of an effort to punish Saddam's regime without making the Iraqi people...

CORPORATE Australia is turning to the occult in a bid to boost its bottom line, employing psychics and witches as alternative business consultants. Self-employed professionals, small business owners and executives in major, publicly listed companies are among those joining an expanding network of "covens" organised by businesswoman and self-described witch, Stacey Demarco. The former public relations manager turned pagan and author of There's A Witch In The Boardroom said people were looking for new ways to combine spiritual values with their material success. "There's a belief out there that you can't be spiritual and make money at the same time,"...

Back in July, the Justice Department held a bells-‘n-whistles press conference to announce a major case: a 42-count indictment, charging seven men and an ostensible charity with underwriting Hamas to the tune of nearly $60 million. Hamas, a ruthless terrorist organization dedicated to the annihilation of Israel and responsible for numerous gruesome attacks that have claimed the lives of hundreds of victims — including Americans — has been formally designated as a terrorist organization under various U.S. laws for many years. In announcing the indictment, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft could not have been more straightforward: “To those who exploit good...

The engine driving the governor Six businessmen use wealth and influence to propel reform initiativesBy David M. Drucker - SACRAMENTO BUREAU Inside Bay Area SACRAMENTO — In his campaign to bypass the Legislature and place his package of fiscal and political reforms on the ballot, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is relying heavily on an independent committee led by six of California's most influential and prominent business advocates. Their group, Citizens to Save California, is, so far, the primary political committee funding Schwarzenegger's statewide push for the 600,000 signatures he needs — per initiative — to place his proposed constitutional amendments on...

<p>Last week's federal raid of a Massachusetts software firm raises many questions about U.S. security - not least about our "allies" in Saudi Arabia. The firm, Ptech Inc., is said to have held millions of dollars in contracts with clients including the White House, the FBI, the U.S. Air Force, and the Internal Revenue Service. Yet investigators believe top investor Yasin al-Qadi was a major financial backer of al Qaeda.</p>