The Conservative Cave

Chick-fil-A is one of America’s toughest franchises to get, attracting thousands of hopeful applicants each year for a limited number of owner-operator opportunities.

The fast-food chain’s unique business model was recently highlighted by Julian Good, who owns a Chick-fil-A restaurant in St. Charles, Illinois, during an appearance on the “Founder Talk” podcast.

“It’s a $10,000 franchise fee. It’s been the same for the last 50 years,” Good said.

About 100,000 people apply each year to become a Chick-fil-A owner-operator, with roughly 200 ultimately selected, Good explained.

Applicants without Chick-fil-A experience often wait three to five years before receiving an opportunity, he added.

President Donald Trump’s beautification of Washington, DC is in full swing as the National Park Service (NPS) is making hefty progress at East Potomac Park with the clearing of trash, hazardous structures, and dead trees.

East Potomac Park attracts local Washingtonians and tourists alike, with amenities including a golf course, public pool, tennis courts, and fields for soccer, baseball, and football. Additionally, trail access to the Potomac River makes it a popular spot for joggers, cyclists, and recreational anglers.

However, the park fell into disrepair around 2015, with the local WAMU radio station detailing the deteriorating seawall along the river, “child-sized” holes in the sidewalk, and a “run-down” golf course.

Trump administration officials shared several updates and photos from the beloved D.C. park, which sits on an island in the Potomac River accessible via bridge from the city’s iconic Southwest Waterfront.

Notably, accumulated debris like wooden pallets, broken down equipment, trash cans, 50-gallon barrels, and more have been removed. Decrepit and failing fences and fence posts have also been dealt with, along with invasive, dead or dying, and hazardous trees that posed a risk to safety and the overall aesthetic of the park.

The judge in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy ordered that the jurors’ names be sealed indefinitely due to concerns about their privacy.

Judge William Sullivan said on Sept. 14 that the jury list will remain impounded until a new order is issued, citing “a real and present” risk of personal harm to the jurors and to the integrity of their work if the list is made public.
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Sullivan said on Monday that the case continues to draw “divisive attention” in Massachusetts and beyond, noting that the flood of social media posts garnering public reactions to the case’s deliberations raises issues.

“There have been identifications of jurors and their personal information without their permission, through other sources. At least one juror has requested that the order be extended indefinitely,” Sullivan said of the impoundment order

The school districts of Fairfax County and Loudoun County, two of Virginia's most affluent and populated districts, have a serious problem. The tony school districts spend millions of dollars on administrators, DEI programming, and lawsuits, but their student bodies are failing in the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic.

This news was not revealed by these school districts, but by a parent. For the past four years, Stephanie Lundquist-Arora studied the district budgets, filed FOIA requests to gain the answers needed, and then published these depressing results.

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Last week, the Virginia Department of Education released the results of the state’s Standards of Learning assessments. The results from two of Virginia’s most affluent counties are troubling. Students in Fairfax County Public Schools and Loudoun County Public Schools failed their SOL assessments at rates that should concern parents, taxpayers, and district leaders.
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The contrast between overall student performance and the performance of economically disadvantaged students is particularly disconcerting. In both school divisions, economically disadvantaged students were roughly twice as likely to fail their reading, math, and science SOL assessments as the overall student population.

These results should prompt a serious examination of whether Fairfax and Loudoun are getting sufficient academic returns on their substantial education spending.

That question is particularly important because both school divisions have faced budget pressures even as their enrollments have declined and their budgets have continued to grow. When student enrollment falls but expenditures continue to rise, district leaders should be able to clearly demonstrate where the additional money is going—and, more importantly, whether it is improving student outcomes.

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However, instead of focusing on educational quality AND results - i.e., students matriculate with the ability to read, spell, and do calculations equivalent to their grade level - FCPS and LCPS are hyper-focused on creating activism, controversy, and focusing on divisive, and ultimately costly endeavors, such as the minimization of the historic impact of 9/11, warning teachers with instructions on what and what not to do, and avoiding the creation of an emotionally stressful learning environment.