Inside the Weird World of Niche Conservative Businesses
"The country is that divided," said one business owner. "We kind of want to be with our own people. We want to stick together."
Small Business
The End of a Weed Paradise
D.C. is destroying its thriving cannabis industry with bureaucracy and red tape.
L.A. Plans To Scrap Its Genuinely Good Outdoor Dining Program and Replace It With Rules, Fees, and Paperwork
The L.A. City Council saw a good thing happening and decided government wasn't involved enough.
DeSantis Revokes Licenses From Businesses That Fail To Use Flawed E-Verify System
Floridians will bear the cost of DeSantis currying favor with immigration restrictionists.
Richmond Wants To Limit New Convenience Stores Because There Was a Shooting at an Old One
The Richmond City Council unanimously approved a resolution to study applying tougher zoning restrictions to new shops as a way of cutting down on crime.
Congress Has a New Scapegoat for COVID Fraud: Banking Apps
Fintech platforms facilitated fraud in the Paycheck Protection Program, according to a new congressional report.
Supreme Court Debates Whether Web Designers Can Be Forced To Make Gay Wedding Pages
A million hypotheticals bloom in arguments over when and where the government may compel speech.
Netflix Teams Up With the Obamas To Produce Big Government Propaganda
The G Word, a new documentary, only occasionally covers serious issues. But it opts not to do honest reporting.
Gavin Newsom Cites Dubious Evidence That His Lockdowns Saved California's Economy
The governor made these claims on Monday while also putting a February 2023 end date on the state's emergency public health order.
Millions of PPP Loans Were Flagged as Potentially Fraudulent. Many Were Never Investigated.
A new report takes an illustrative look inside the Small Business Administration, which was clearly overwhelmed by the obligation to push unprecedented piles of money out the door quickly.
The Disappearing Differences Between Republicans and Democrats on Federal Family Spending
Many conservatives no longer appear to care much for fiscal conservatism.
In Iowa, You No Longer Need a Permit To Sell Guns Across the Road from the Governor's Mansion
A new state law prohibits localities from prohibiting or licensing "no-impact" home-based businesses. That's allowing a Des Moines couple to sell guns from their house located just across the street from the governor's mansion.
Terrible Restrictions on Food Trucks Are Still a Thing
Atlanta, Sioux Center, and too many other cities and towns are still treating food trucks like second-class businesses.
New Study Finds To-Go Alcohol Did Not Increase Drunk Driving Deaths
Many states allowed restaurants to sell to-go cocktails during COVID-19. Research shows that change is not linked to an increase in drunk driving deaths.
Jerome Powell, Who Wildly Misjudged Inflation, Is Overwhelmingly Reconfirmed as Fed Chair
There is seldom any meaningful accountability for government incompetence.
Inflation Triggers Mandatory Minimum Wage Increases in California
The state’s unemployment rate is well above average, yet there’s a ballot initiative hoping to push the minimum wage to $18 an hour.
California Cities Sue Law Firm Accused of Abusing the ADA To Target Small Minority Businesses
San Francisco and Los Angeles insist in suit that likely tens of millions have been illegitimately squeezed from small businesses by ADA plaintiffs without proper legal standing.
Does Boston's Mayor Hate the City's Restaurants?
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu seems hellbent on making things difficult or impossible for city restaurants.
Man Receives 3 Years in Federal Prison for Using COVID Relief Funds on a Pokémon Card
The punishment is a bit rich considering the government's own mishandling of pandemic cash.
Pandemic Restrictions Extra Painful for Businesses Owned by Minorities, Women, and Veterans
Limited resources create enormous vulnerability.
The Tennessee Supreme Court Could Decide the Fate of Nashville's Home Recording Studios
The city's restrictions threaten one of the world's most vibrant music scenes.
A Drive-Thru Window Saved His Business, but Now He's Being Forced To Shut It Down
Zoning officials concede Robert Balitierrez's drive-thru window isn't causing any problems. But they say it's a code violation and has to close anyway.
The Pandemic's Economic Impact Includes More Americans Starting Their Own Small Businesses
Though the American economy still looks bleak, there are silver linings.
Entrepreneurship Is on the Rise, Despite COVID-19
Necessity became opportunity for many who started businesses.
San Francisco's Chain Store Restrictions Targeted Starbucks. They're Now Screwing Over a Local Burrito Joint.
Family-owned burrito chain El Farolito will have to change its branding or pick a new neighborhood to open up its 12th location if it wants to avoid being ensnared in the city's restrictions on "formula retail."
'Do I Look Like the COVID Police?'
Business owners in the Bronx respond to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vaccine passport mandate.
If Government Is Good at One Thing, It's Making a Crisis Worse
The same institution that's unable to run the Postal Service or Amtrak orchestrated our invasion and withdrawal of Afghanistan.
COVID Travel Bans Are a Death Sentence for This Remote Border Town
One of America's most isolated communities has struggled to weather the pandemic.
D.C. Gyms Want To Require Vaccination Instead of Masks. The City Said No.
Officials would rather if everybody were masked than vaccinated.
Kansas Wants This Experienced Eyebrow Entrepreneur To Get 1,000 More Hours of Training
Jigisha Modi can't hire her own mother-in-law—who has decades of eyebrow-threading experience—because of Kansas' occupational licensing rules. Now she's suing.
Want To Close the Tax Gap? Cut Taxes.
It would require our enormous government to become less gluttonous with the people's resources.
How Big Business Uses Big Government To Kill Competition
Corporations can afford robots. Their competitors often cannot.
Government Pandemic Loans Plagued by Potential $260 Billion in Fraud
The hasty work behind the PPP and other relief loans shows the limits of big government.
Colorado Court Slaps Baker With Fine for Refusing To Make Gender Transition Cake
Plus: Georgia's voting roll purge draws media hype, Florida's drug law hypocrisy, and more...
In the Heights Is a Charming Musical About Immigration and Entrepreneurship
Even a critic who doesn’t love singing or dancing succumbed to its charms.
Barely Legal Strippers Now Fully Illegal in Texas
The penalty for employing 18- to 20-year-olds to work nude, topless, or "in a sexually oriented commercial activity" is now 2 to 20 years in prison.
A New Frontier in the War on Meth: A 40 Percent Tax on Bongs You Can't Use To Smoke Meth
Iowa smoke shop owners say the tax would be "a ban without being an outright ban."
The Minimum Wage Is Terrible for America's Most Vulnerable Workers
Like so many well-intentioned policies, it hurts the people it's supposed to help.
Democrats' COVID-19 Aid Package Would Quietly Eliminate the Tipped Minimum Wage as Restaurants Struggle To Stay Alive
Do small businesses need another punch in the gut?
Progressives Say Good Riddance to Businesses Who Can't Afford a $15 Minimum Wage
Fewer low wage businesses also means fewer job opportunities for low wage workers.
Seattle Forces Beloved Takeout-Only Cider Bar To Close
One complainer managed to shut down a popular local business.
Pandemic-Slammed Small Businesses Require Regulatory Relief
Entrepreneurs discouraged by red tape even before COVID-19 need officials to leave them alone.
Determined To Kill Businesses That Survived Lockdowns, New York Plans Minimum Wage Hike Later This Month
New York's unemployment rate is nearly 10 percent and roughly one-third of small businesses in New York City may have closed forever. Seems like a great time to make it more expensive to employ people, right?
Gavin Newsom's New Stay-at-Home Order a 'Deathblow' to California's Small Businesses
The governor's latest order dials up restrictions on whole swaths of California's economy in an effort to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed.
Pelosi and Schumer Agree to Bipartisan $900 Billion Coronavirus Relief Bill as McConnell Pushes for $500 Billion
The top Democrats originally supported a $2.2 trillion measure.
