Author: Frank Bojazi

JCPenney filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The retail company plans to close 30% of its locations. According to the company’s presentation with the Securities and Exchange Commission, they will close about 240 stores. Should these closings come through, the 846 stores will go down to 604 locations, causing a drop of net store sales from $9.2 billion to $7.5 billion. According to Business Insider, the company planned to close stores in weaker malls. By doing this, they’d be increasing the share of locations in more substantial malls from 58 to 62%. Reuters cited a JCPenney spokeswoman stating that the company…

Small business owners in this state might be facing up to one year in jail and a fines if they defy state orders set in place by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who amended Illinois Department of Public Health rules as an emergency order that went into effect. Pritzker’s adjustment makes it so business owners who open, in defiance of state order to remain closed, can now be charged with a Class A misdemeanor. The business owners will face a maximum of one year in jail and a maximum fine of $2,500. Mindy Ruckman of Illinois Policy stated that since this…

Tesla’s Fremont factory received approval to resume its operations this week. The tension between Tesla and Alameda County has finally deescalated, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicles. At the start of May, Tesla sued Alameda County after they barred the company’s headquarters in Palo Alto to continue their operations after closing down due to the pandemic. According to the letter from Laurie Shelby, Tesla’s Vice President for Environmental, Health, and Safety, the factory presented a health and safety plan. Alameda County’s interim health officer later approved this plan, but not before having its authorities touring the facility last week. The…

California Governor Gavin Newsom faces quite the pushback as the newly revised budget will “initiate the closure” of Veterans Home of California-Barstow (VHCB). The newly revised budget, which is an attempt to alleviate some costs that were taken on during the ongoing pandemic, will also put a “one-year delay for realignment at VHC-Chula Vista and Yountville.” The new budget, currently at $203 billion, is about 5% less than what they spent last year. This has become a counterpoint that some people have used to push back against the closure of a veterans home that houses around 200 residents. Closing the…

Famed rapper Snoop Dogg sat in his car listening to “Let it Go” from the Frozen soundtrack. He sat in silence for a moment as it the chorus kicked in. He posted the video to his Instagram page and it has received over 233,000 likes so far. His video is here, with a little message from him. https://www.instagram.com/p/CABP91pHgck/ Snoop’s video of himself listening to Frozen’s “Let it Go” was shared over 233,000 times at the time of this article. The video caught the right eye of the right people and somehow the singer, Idina Menzel found it, and she responded.…

Comic actor Fred Willard has passed away. He was a big hit in the TV series “Modern Family. Willard had famous roles in movies like “A Mighty Wind” and “Best in Show” and he was a big part of the mockumentary niche. Willard was 86-years-old as he passed away. The announcement was made by his daughter, Hope Willard, in a message she posted online. She wrote, “It is with a heavy heart that I share the news my father passed away very peacefully last night at the fantastic age of 86 years old. He kept moving, working and making us…

Democrat Chuck Schumer makes a push for voting by mail in his latest interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. Schumer stated his support for mail provisions and said that it will be a very big part of the next legislation. Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader, also mentioned the previous CARES Act relief bill that apparently included funding for mail provisions, but Hayes mentioned there is nothing that requires any individual states to prepare for it. Ian Hanchett reported on Chris Hayes’ big question to Schumer. Hayes asked, “[T]he last CARES Act…the big one, it had money for mail-in voting, but there’s no…

Americans who have long doubted the Common Core in English and Math may have been right all along as the country sees historic drops in Math and Reading scores since Common Core started in 2009 at the beginning of former President Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House. The decline in American reading and math scores also sparks another debate on deciding if the Federal Government should remove itself from their role in education, and therefore return the responsibility back to local control. The latest study by Pioneer Institute tracked the slow progress and declining scores among Americans, looking back…

Things just get more interesting for salon owner Shelley Luther. So far, she’s been arrested and jailed for opening her salon in defiance of Texas state executive orders. Then, she’s fined $7,000. Then she’s set free after Texas attorney general demands the judge who locked her up, set her free. Her good luck kept going as she learns about the Go Fund Me set up in her honor which has topped $500,000. And to top that all off, Senator Ted Cruz stopped by Salon à la Mode for a haircut, giving her some of the best free publicity one could…

General Michael Flynn will receive good news when he finds out the Justice Department has decided to drop the criminal case against him. Flynn is President Donald Trump’s first national security advisor and he was facing prosecution. Flynn became a major figure for Trump supporters who used the FBI’s investigation into Russian allegations against the president, and criticized it heavily. Special counsel Robert Mueller is likely to be disappointed in this, as it’s one of his biggest cases. Flynn was accused of lying to the FBI about talks had with a Russian ambassador back in 2017.  But Michael Flynn apparently…

Shelley Luther probably did not expect this. She is the owner of Salon A La Mode and she opened her business despite Texas state orders to keep her non-essential business closed until further notice. She wanted to make a point and opened anyway, for about seven days. She was then taken to court and offered the chance to apologize and remain closed until Friday, or face jail and a $7,000 fine. She refused to apologize and took the jail and fine. But now that $7,000 seems like a drop in the bucket after a Go Fund Me has raised over…

President Donald Trump signed an executive order that allows slaughterhouses to operate during the quarantine. At this point, the fight between companies wanting to operate to provide food goes against unions and activists fighting for worker’s rights has escalated. An article by Bloomberg reported that the president signed the executive order as the closures of meat processing plants threaten the continuous functioning of national meat and poultry supply chain. Hence, this undermines the critical infrastructure currently in place during the national emergency. The executive order invokes the Defense Production Act that orders plants to stay open to supply food without disruptions. With…

The United States’ bee population is in total jeopardy after the arrival of “murder hornets,” known as the Asian giant hornet, in Blaine, Washington. In a report by the New York Times, beekeeper Ted McFall witnessed the devastating aftermath of a murder hornet’s attack. He went to check up on a group of hives only to see bee carcasses on the ground. The colony was filled with thousands of bees that had their heads torn from their bodies. In the interview, he said, “I couldn’t wrap my head around what could have done that.” Asian giant hornets grow up to 2-inch…

A doctor who worked on three pandemics in early 1900’s looks very similar to today’s Dr. Fauci. His name is Dr. Thomas Dyer Tuttle and here’s his story. He first worked on the Russian Flu that killed tens of thousands of people in Europe before arriving in New York, where it took more than 2500 deaths. He was in med school at that time. In 1909, his name was on the headlines for going against quarantines on Smallpox. Instead, at that time, he prescribed mandatory smallpox vaccinations. Tuttle and the state’s Board of Health promoted smallpox vaccinations with him taking…

Nashville is undergoing a crisis. The city was about to recover from the aftereffects of the tornado. However, the Coronavirus epidemic shut down the local economy. Past mayors rejected property tax increase even when the spending soared. The aftermath of all of this is the city’s reserves have depleted. Now, Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s budget proposal could see 32% property tax hike. On Tuesday, Cooper pushed for a 31.7% tax hike and deep cuts. The city’s financial future is in jeopardy, and the mayor addressed this as a “crisis budget.” Due to the unexpected crisis that obliterated the critical revenue…

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk is against the shelter-in-place orders as it affected Tesla’s first-quarter profit and many other businesses all over America. The continuously forced factory shutdowns are affecting the economy severely, in particular, the electric-car maker’s business after it was deemed unessential. In an article by Business Insider, Musk talked on his stance on Wednesday’s conference call. While at the conference, he said, “Frankly, I would call it forcible imprisoning of people in their homes against all of their constitutional rights, in my opinion. It’s breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong and not why they…

Rose McGowan calls out Democrats and media “cult” practices for how they’ve dealt with Tara Reade’s case. The #MeToo activist and feminist said that the actions of the elite press towards Democrat lawmakers. McGowan called out the ignored and rebuked cases of the victims of the party representatives. Tara Reade’s story when she was still a Senate staffer resonated with McGowan, and the man in question is none other than former Vice President and now presidential hopeful Joe Biden. In a report by Breitbart, McGowan posted a tweet on Wednesday. Her caption was, “I’m really sad, and I’m really tired. I…

Unsealed documents might have the FBI facing consequences as the information appears to find them having the goal of getting General Michael Flynn fired or prosecuted. This was apparently the main goal of the top FBI officials who wanted General Flynn interviewed. This was revealed on a handwritten note in the documents unsealed. The agents, whose identity we do not know, wanted the former national security adviser to “admit breaking the Logan Act.” This is something that restricts the communications between foreign governments and the private citizens. They wanted to see if Flynn would lie and catch him in it,…

“Food supply chain is breaking.” Tyson Foods Chairman John H. Tyson responds to the ongoing suspension of their meat processing plants. He emphasizes how the suspension of multiple meat processing facilities will affect the nation’s food supply. In the open letter that they published as an ad on Sunday’s New York Times, Washington Post and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Chairman Tyson gave an outline on how their facilities have responded to the Coronavirus health crisis. The chairman of the board said that meat shortages are not the only issue. The ongoing response will result in food waste. America’s farmers won’t have anywhere…

Between 2007 to 2017, three video footage showing unidentified objects flying at almost impossible speeds in the Earth’s atmosphere was leaked. These footages come with audios recording Navy Pilots’ reaction to these objects. On Monday, the Pentagon finally declassifies these videos. In the CNBC report, the Department of Defense released the three videos that were taken by U.S. Navy pilots that reveal the flying objects that remain unidentified to this day. The declassification of these videos takes place on Monday. The first video dated back to 2004, with the other two being recorded back in 2015. The Pentagon declassified these videos to…