Free Republic

Louisiana residents who get a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of July will be eligible to enter to win a $1 million jackpot, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Thursday. It's one of 14 cash prizes and scholarship awards totaling $2.3 million that Louisiana will dole out in weekly drawings beginning next month as part of a campaign to juice the state's dismal vaccination rate. But any Louisiana resident who has received at least one dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot is eligible for the lottery. Louisiana will award nine $100,000 scholarships to...

Having spent much of the past thirty years of my life in the advertising industry, the flaws of President Obama's health care message are apparent and massive. Most people outside the ad business will tell you that commercials try to beat you over the head to make you buy what you don't need or want. In truth advertising that doesn't address the public's needs or wants does not work. On top of that, if a consumer keeps being exposed to a message that does not meet a need, they begin to tune it out quickly; it's called wear-out. Finally if...

A flood of complaints over aggressive and questionable tactics used by telephone solicitors has prompted the government to consider banning such sales in Norway.Government minister Karita Bekkemellem says she's shocked over the methods used by some salespeople on the phone, also known as telemarketers. Never before has Norway's consumer advocate handled more complaints."We have to do something," Bekkemellem told newspaper Aftenposten on Friday.Bekkemellem also threatened to ban telephone sales several years ago, when she was a minister in a previous government. She admits that industry pressure and the fact that telemarketing creates many jobs ended up quashing her plan to...

<p>FRESNO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday gave Fresno the hard sell on a $15 billion bond that is at the heart of his economic recovery plan for California, saying if voters fail to approve the ballot measure on March 2, it will mean "Armageddon cuts" to the state's budget.</p>

CHICAGO (Reuters) - It may be as ill-timed as opening a new storefront business in downtown Baghdad -- a book telling Americans how they too can be like the French. But its principal author, chef Robert Arbor, says his "Joie de Vivre: Simple French Style for Everyday Living" is "beyond politics" and will quench a thirst deeper than the current tempest in a demitasse. So does publisher Simon & Schuster, which says the timing may work in the book's favor -- offering closet Francophiles in the United States a guide to pursuing the politically incorrect in the privacy of their...

<p>Gov. Gray Davis has launched a public relations tour of sorts for his budget plan that cuts services and raises taxes to fill an estimated $34.6 billion deficit.</p> <p>Davis is spending three days personally attempting to sell the merits of his $96.4 billion budget proposal to legislators, newspaper publishers and reporters -- even as Republicans and others step up their criticism of the plan and accusations that Davis has inflated the deficit number to justify raising taxes.</p>