Free Republic

The saga of ailing toddler Alfie Evans has thoroughly discredited the United Kingdom's National Health Service. According to the NHS, Alfie's death "would be best for all concerned." His parents' efforts to prevent this outcome with the assistance of humanitarians outside of the NHS have been thwarted with the connivance of the UK's courts. It's not a question of the parents insisting that the NHS provide care that the NHS considers inappropriate and futile. The parents haven't asked for anything more than to take their son out of the Alder Hey Hospital and take advantage of Bambino Gesu Hospital's offer...

Companies can no longer sell bulk packages of liquid or powdered caffeine directly to consumers, the Food and Drug Administration announced Friday. The policy will take immediate effect “given the significant public health concern,” according to the agency’s statement released Friday. “Highly concentrated and pure caffeine, often sold in bulk packages, have been linked to at least two deaths in otherwise healthy individuals,” the agency stated. ... Between 10 and 14 grams of caffeine is considered life-threatening, according to the FDA’s guidelines, though people can have an irregular or rapid heart rate and seizures after taking just a gram. The...

Thanks in large part to President Trump’s aggressive deregulation agenda—through which the president has demonstrated a commitment to cutting or restructuring unnecessary, burdensome rules that hamper innovation and growth—the economy is booming. Unfortunately, one poorly considered rule that seems to have escaped his notice will hurt the businesses that provide one of America’s favorite foods: pizza.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) rule, a byproduct of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and slated to go into effect on May 7, will require businesses with 20 or more locations that sell highly customizable food items—such as pizza companies, convenience stores, supermarkets...

This week, parents in one state can breathe a sigh of relief. Utah Governor Gary Herbert has made parenting a lot easier by signing a bill that legalizes “free-range” parenting. Free-range parenting allows children to play without the constant and close supervision of their parents or another adult. Devotees believe children benefit from more freedom and learn vital decision making skills while playing at parks, walking to school, or wandering the neighborhood, without a parent hovering over them. The bill’s sponsor, Utah state Senator Lincoln Fillmore recognized the benefits of free-range parenting saying, “kids need to wonder about the world,...

A City Council member wants to crack down on bosses who require their employees to maintain contact after hours, and his idea is picking up steam. Raphael Espinal, who represents the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bushwick, Bronwsville, Cypress Hills and East New York, is set to introduce a bill in a City Council meeting on Thursday that establishes New Yorkers’ “right to disconnect.” The legislation would make it illegal for employers to require employees to access work-related electronic communication outside of their regular work period. If passed, the law would allow workers who are regularly bombarded by urgent, late-night emails from...

Americans love their cars. The United States has one of the highest car ownership rates per capita in the world. We're a mobile culture and we like it that way. But a tax-per-mile plan being pushed by Republican Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri might have drivers re-thinking those weekend joyrides instead of feeling all the pain at the pump.

New York state lawmakers want Tide to stop making its pods look so appealing. Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas and Sen. Brad Hoylman proposed a bill Tuesday that would require Proctor & Gamble to individually wrap each pod and add warning labels to them, reports NBC New York. The lawmakers also want the pods to be made less colorful, claiming that their bright colors “can make them appealing to young children, adults with dementia, and those looking to take part in the internet trend known as ‘Tide Pod Challenge.’ That said, don’t expect a change anytime soon. Proctor & Gamble responded to...

SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico's high school juniors would be required to apply to at least one college or show they have committed to other post-high school plans as part of a new high school graduation requirement being pushed by two state lawmakers. The proposal is scheduled for its first legislative hearing on Thursday. If it eventually becomes law, New Mexico would be the first state to require post-high school plans of students, said Jennifer Zinth, who is the director of high school and STEM research at the Education Commission of the States, a Denver-based group that tracks education...

While the rest of us were popping champagne to celebrate the arrival of 2018, Seattle greeted the New Year with a 1.75 cent per ounce tax on sweetened beverages. It was needed, former Mayor Ed Murray once said, for a host of noble reasons: to reduce sugar consumption; to raise revenue for important projects like a year of “free” community college for all graduating public high school students; and, to subsidize purchases of healthy foods by low-income families.Before he resigned in disgrace over multiple allegations of personal misconduct, Murray considered the soda tax one of his greatest accomplishments, a “cutting...

A new report issued last week by the National Academies of Sciences, Getting to Zero Alcohol-Impaired Driving Fatalities: A Comprehensive Approach to a Persistent Problem, urges a host of draconian measures in an effort to eliminate every alcohol-related driving death in the United States. The NAS report suggests that policy approaches expand dramatically from their present focus, preventing drunk driving, "to also encompass reducing drinking to the point of impairment"—the latter, in other words, targeting all drunkenness. Getting to zero, in the report's estimation, means a host of nefarious, neo-Prohibitionist approaches to alcohol regulation, including "lowering state per se laws...

In memory of British lawmaker Jo Cox, who was murdered by a right-wing extremist in 2016, the U.K. government has announced the appointment of a new “Minister of Loneliness.” Conservative MP Tracey Crouch was named to the post by British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday. The recommendation for the appointment came from the Jo Cox Foundation, a registered charity that was set up in Cox’s memory after her death.

In Yoder v. Sugar Grove Area Sewer Authority, (Commonwlth. Ct. PA, Jan. 5, 2018), a Pennsylvania state appellate court, in a 2-1 decision, upheld the denial of an injunction sought by an Old Order Amish couple who object to the requirement that they connect to the local sewer system using an electric pump. The dispute has wound its way through the courts for over five years. (See prior related posting.) The majority said in part: Owners did not establish the injunction would not harm the public, or that the harm in denying the injunction outweighed the harm in granting it....

AUBURN, Calif. (WCMH) – Members of a California community are upset after their homeowners’ association told them they need to keep their garage doors open during the day. A list left with homeowners in the Auburn Greens subdivision is giving many residents a cause for concern. It mandates leaving garage doors up from 8 a.m. through 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, KTXL reported. Residents who fail to keep their garage door up face a $200 fine and an administrative hearing. “I have nothing to hide. I understand that somebody had someone living in the garage. I don’t,” said Shelly Ia....

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Raising Kentucky’s cigarette tax by $1 a pack has strong support from voters across the state, according to a poll released Thursday and funded by anti-smoking interests. In all, 69 percent of those surveyed in December said they favor higher per-pack taxes in an effort to reduce smoking and spend the extra revenue on state budget needs. A majority of residents in all parts of Kentucky back a tax increase, which advocates estimate will generate more than $266 million per year. The support ranges from 61 percent of residents in western Kentucky to 77 percent in...

They date back to the time of Thomas Edison. They’ve provided decades and decades of warm bright light to our homes and workplaces. And they’re about go bye-bye. Starting Jan. 1, 2018, the humble everyday incandescent light bulb will continue on its long and steady fade into our collective memory. Manufacturers will no longer make the traditional 100-watt bulb and stores will eventually sell out of current supplies. Consumers will have to choose from more efficient bulbs that use no more than 72 watts, including halogen incandescents, compact fluorescents and light-emitting diode, or LED, bulbs. This is not the first...

The Government is to cut the controversial six-week wait for Universal Credit payments in the comings days in a bid to see off a Conservative rebellion. Universal Credit combines six benefits into one single benefit and is designed to simplify the welfare system and to "make work pay". It was the flagship welfare reform of David Cameron's coalition government, but has been plagued with delays since its inception and by criticism over its design. One flaw is the six-week wait time which has been criticised across the political divide amid concerns it is pushing claimants into arrears on rent and...

Weeks after Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 19, which waives fees for first-time freshmen at California community colleges, officials in the Los Rios Community College District are wondering where the money will come from to pay for the tuition breaks. AB 19 would expand upon the current fee waiver for low-income students, recently renamed the California Promise Grant. The new grant would waive the first year of fees for all first-time, full-time students attending a California community college, regardless of need. Los Rios supported the bill, but spokesman Gabe Ross recently expressed concern that money could wind up being diverted...

A new Gallup poll shows growing support for marijuana legalization, with 64 percent of Americans now in favor of the measure. The number is the highest level of support in nearly half a century of surveying adults on the issue, according to Gallup. Support has steadily increased in recent years, with the latest figure up 4 percentage points over last year and up 14 points from 2011. The poll also showed a majority of Republicans favoring legalization for the first time, with 51 percent expressing support. That number is up 9 percentage points from last year, according to Gallup.

With the horrific shooting that recently took place in Las Vegas, debates over gun control have been given center stage in our media and politics once again. And while every pundit seems to have their own surefire way of combatting gun violence, they all gloss over the elephant in the room. Which is, although mass shootings have taken on a repulsive popularity recently, the gun violence surrounding the War on Drugs has created more casualties than every mass shooting in the US combined. And despite the fact that these commentators tirelessly argue the merits and faults of one another’s ideas,...

Less than two months after the country's largest soda tax went into effect, embattled lawmakers in Cook County are already poised to repeal it. The tax has been plagued, in its very short life, by legal challenges, implementation glitches and a screeching, multimillion-dollar media battle between the soda industry and public health groups. On Tuesday, in recognition of growing public pressure, Cook County's Board of Commissioners is expected to vote to roll back the tax, effective as soon as Dec. 1. Several Cook County commissioners who switched their votes in favor of repeal have cited outrage. "I listened to the...