Free Republic

Lovers of Champagne and other French sparkling wines should brace for big cost increases if the United States makes good on a threat to impose 100% tariffs on French goods in a dispute over the country’s planned digital services tax. A $70 bottle of Moet & Chandon Grand Vintage could surge to $130, for example, said David Parker, chief executive of Benchmark Wine Group, the largest U.S. supplier of fine and rare wines for wine retailers. The U.S. government said in December it may slap duties of up to 100% on $2.4 billion in imports from France of Champagne, handbags,...

A conservative newspaper in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has dropped Ann Coulter's column becoming the first paper to take that action since controversy began swirling around the author of the runaway best seller "Godless, the Church of Liberalism." Neither recent, now-disproved charges of plagiarism nor her controversial book played any part in the paper's decision, the paper's editorial page editor told NewsMax.com. .... According to the July 12 edition of Editor & Publisher (E&P), The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, where her column has appeared for about 14 months, has replaced Coulter with NewsMax.com columnist David Limbaugh, a close friend of Coulter's.