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Keyword: regulation

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  • The Importance Of Maintaining A Tax-Free Internet

    08/11/2014 2:22:00 PM PDT · by ThethoughtsofGreg · 8 replies
    American Legislator ^ | 7-29-14 | Aaron Bisla
    Chances are, you’ve never thought of having to pay a tax to check your Email or your Facebook account. That’s because the Internet Tax Freedom Act has prevented local, state, and federal governments from taxing Internet access. Widespread adoption of the Internet has been due, in no small part, to the absence of tax barriers to access. But now, taxes loom on the Internet’s horizon as Congress nears the sunset of the law. The affordability and accessibility of the Web will be in jeopardy if Congress fails to do something before the moratorium expires on November 1. There are a...
  • Investing in the Internet: Municipal or Misguided Broadband?

    08/06/2014 2:21:38 PM PDT · by ThethoughtsofGreg · 5 replies
    American Legislator ^ | 5-6-14 | Aaron Bisla
    The idea of universal Internet access is a noble one, but taxpayers shouldn’t be strapped with sustaining failing businesses in order to reach that ideal. Innovation and investment by private broadband providers in the free market has put universal access within reach. Private enterprise avoids the risks to taxpayers when municipal government-owned broadband networks go bust. State and local governments have a critical role to play in ensuring universal access to broadband Internet. By ensuring economic conditions favorable to marketplace innovation and investment, states can do more to advance broadband access than risky muni broadband projects.
  • Feds Say Businesses Can't Require Employees to Speak or Understand English

    07/08/2014 8:59:59 AM PDT · by John Semmens · 12 replies
    Semi-News/Semi-Satire ^ | 4 July 2014 | John Semmens
    The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is suing Wisconsin Plastics, Inc. of Green Bay, Wisconsin for discriminating against non-native persons by insisting that employees must be conversant in English in order to hold jobs with the company. Jacqueline Berrien, EEOC Chairperson dismissed the possibility that some minimal competence in the English language might be a legitimate skill required of an employee. "Whether an employee understands English is a matter of convenience for the business,":Berrien explained. "Granted, conducting business in a single language might be more efficient. But the individual's right to speak whatever language he chooses is a human right....
  • The First Crisis Hits Shale Drilling {hyperbole}

    07/02/2014 5:37:06 AM PDT · by thackney · 10 replies
    Real Clear Energy ^ | July 1, 2014 | Dave Forest
    "Crisis" may be a little hyperbolic. But shale production of oil and gas in America suddenly got a lot riskier this week. That's because of a landmark decision from one of the highest state courts in the land. Upholding the right of individual towns to regulate shale drilling, trumping state or federal regulatory regimes. The ruling came down yesterday in New York. Where the State Court of Appeals voted 5-2 to reject challenges to fracking rules imposed on the oil and gas industry by two municipalities in the state: Dryden and Middlefield. The saga started in 2011. When the two...
  • Sandra Fluke the Sexist: Women Can’t Take Care of Themselves

    06/30/2014 8:23:06 AM PDT · by Kaslin · 24 replies
    Townhall.com ^ | June 30, 2014 | Michael Schaus
    I don’t mean to be (entirely) dismissive… But does Sandra Fluke actually still matter to anyone? I mean, you would think that even Democrats might eventually grow tired of listening to a 30-something year old college student whine about wanting free birth-control. But, I guess you would be wrong. Sandra is at it again, ahead of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Hobby Lobby case. Hobby Lobby has been fighting for the religious liberty of its owners before the Supreme Court. Today, SCOTUS is expected to release its ruling on the matter – determining whether or not the Obamacare contraception...
  • Germany to push for economic reforms in G7

    06/29/2014 5:40:43 PM PDT · by Olog-hai · 3 replies
    TheLocal.de ^ | 29 Jun 2014 17:12 GMT+02:00 | (AFP)
    Germany wants to promote structural economic, financial market and tax reform when it takes over the presidency of the G7 club of rich nations next week, German media reported on Sunday. Member states must “join forces to support an even stronger economic recovery”, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and central bank chief Jens Weidmann said in a written message to other G7 members, the Handelsblatt business daily said. […] Germany—the Eurozone’s largest economy—also called for progress to address “the remaining gaps in financial market regulation”, including shadow banks, and on the automatic exchange of tax information. Schäuble also wants to promote...
  • What It Takes to Legalize Sex Work

    06/25/2014 1:33:37 PM PDT · by Citizen Zed · 15 replies
    NY Times ^ | 6-25-2014 | JAKE FLANAGIN
    For countries that choose to regulate prostitution, it remains a vexing question: What’s the best way to do it? Canada’s answer, as Colby Cosh writes in Maclean’s, is to “put the concept of prostitution back into the Criminal Code.” He adds: “For decades, we had these leftover Victorian laws against ‘living off the avails’ and keeping a ‘bawdy house’ without any actual ban on prostitution itself. There are economic reasons to legalize sex work, too. According to The Wall Street Journal (paywall), the sex trade contributed £5.3 billion (about $9 billion) to the British gross domestic product in 2014.
  • Why States Should Oppose New EPA Regulations

    06/25/2014 2:51:45 PM PDT · by Kaslin · 7 replies
    Townhall.com ^ | June 25, 2014 | Tim Phillips
    “…Our energy policy is creating jobs and leading to a cleaner, safer planet.” If only these words spoken by our president during his State of the Union address were actually true. The energy industry is the latest victim of Obama Administration overreach. Under the guise of addressing global warming, President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a plan that would require all states to make drastic reductions in carbon emissions. In essence, this forces them to use less coal and effectively mandates a transition to more expensive and less reliable energy sources like wind and solar – regardless...
  • Watch Out Fishermen! Obama Is Planning a “Seafood Fraud” Crisis

    06/22/2014 12:55:20 PM PDT · by Tolerance Sucks Rocks · 43 replies
    The Independent Sentinel ^ | June 20, 2014 | Sara Noble
    Obama has a plan to ruin the seafood supply chain with regulations and it’s gonna cost ya. Secretary of State John Kerry has found a new cause now that he’s fresh off his mid-East failures. He is directing federal agencies to work on developing a program to combat seafood fraud upon orders from the imperial president. This follows up Mr. Obama’s proclamation that he would implement his climate change agenda using a pen and a phone. It also follows Mr. Obama’s seizure of a huge swath of the Pacific Ocean for the government, making it inaccessible for drilling and fishing....
  • CFPB Announces Broad New Powers [satire]

    06/22/2014 11:05:37 AM PDT · by John Semmens · 7 replies
    Semi-News/Semi-Satire ^ | 20 June 2014 | John Semmens
    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced in the Federal Register that it will “aggressively deploy cease and desist orders against businesses whose activities are a detriment to the nation’s well-being.” For the moment this new authority is “interim.” It is expected to become final on July 18. “For too long the Government has sat idly by while businesses have foisted unsafe and unhealthy products on an unsuspecting public,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray charged. “Under Section 1053(c) of the Dodd-Frank Act, we are empowered to protect the general public by ordering offending businesses to cease and desist.” Two industries that are...
  • More Job Killing Policies from the Anti-Gun Crowd

    06/09/2014 6:53:58 AM PDT · by Kaslin · 6 replies
    Townhall.com ^ | June 9, 2014 | Michael Schaus
    Most gun control schemes do little, if anything, to positively effect change in criminal trends. In fact, such schemes have largely proven to be economically illiterate attempts to restrict and regulate the private ownership of firearms. And examples of the bad economics of gun control just keep piling up. I know, I know: Not everything is about the bottom line; but when the bottom line suffers in a misguided attempt to forward useless gun bans, I think it starts to matter a little bit more. In the latest example of gun-control killing private businesses, Century International Arms is laying off...
  • Nanny State Shenanigans, Not Logic, Dominate Reusable Bags Debate

    05/24/2014 8:45:47 AM PDT · by Kaslin · 14 replies
    Townhall.com ^ | May 24, 2014 | David Williams
    Many people question whether or not bureaucrats care about or have common sense. The best example of this is the unending debate on reusable bags and plastic bag bans. Time after time, we’ve seen the truth that bag bans and mandated usage of reusable bags does next to nothing to boost the environment. No, they kill jobs and raise costs for no good reason. Most recently, an Edelman Berland study sought to examine how frequently so-called reusable bags were actually used. According to the study, some 61 percent of respondents stated that though they preferred the reusable option, they...
  • ObamaCare’s Contraception Mandate

    05/13/2014 7:32:47 AM PDT · by Academiadotorg · 1 replies
    Accuracy in Academia ^ | May 12, 2014 | Spencer Irvine
    Law professors John Eastman of Chapman University and Martin Lederman of Georgetown debated the religious implications of ObamaCare’s contraception mandate during a panel discussion at a recent Federalist Society conference. With the passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (or RFRA), Congress was “trying to restore a 200-year-old understanding of what the free exercise clause did” for religious conscience. He said, “The First Amendment was not there to protect religions that could only get their accommodations through the majoritarian process.” With religion, “You can challenge the sincerity of religious beliefs but cannot challenge the merits of it” and people “have...
  • Chicago suburb tells feds to keep their money -- and their school lunch regulations

    05/11/2014 7:28:39 AM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 9 replies
    American Thinker ^ | 05/10/2014 | Richard L. Benkin
    A school district in Chicago’s northwest suburbs is quitting the National School Lunch Program over new regulations championed by first lady Michelle Obama. The so-called Smart Snacks in School policy, set to take effect on July 1, is the latest attempt by our Regulator-in-Chief to dictate every aspect of Americans’ behavior. It dictates strict calorie, sodium, fat, and sugar guidelines for any food sold in schools during the day. That even includes the ubiquitous bake sales and other fundraisers. Instead of forcing the school district’s 500 low income kids and others to eat “healthier,” however, the administration is only creating...
  • Texas Is Permanently Shutting Abortion Clinics and the Supreme Court Can't Do Anything About It

    05/05/2014 4:10:10 AM PDT · by markomalley · 51 replies
    National Journal ^ | 5/5/2014 | Sophie Novack
    When Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed a sweeping anti-abortion law in 2013, he did so knowing the measure faced an uncertain future. Indeed, the law is already winding its way through the legal system, and if its opponents have their way, Texas's reproductive legal code will land in the hands of the Supreme Court. But such a decision is likely a year or years a way, and back in the Lone Star State, the final judicial score won't much matter. The law has already had tremendous success in closing abortion clinics and restricting abortion access in Texas. And those successes...
  • Outbox vs. USPS: How the Post Office Killed Digital Mail

    04/30/2014 5:27:15 PM PDT · by Utilizer · 42 replies
    Inside Sources .com ^ | April 28, 2014 | Derek Khanna
    Baehr and Will Davis, were summoned to Washington for a meeting with the Postmaster General. Evan and Will wondered what it could be, “They must have seen the recent coverage in CNBC, maybe they’ll help our company expand?” Or, “maybe they wanted the traditional photo opportunity and positive media buzz that political actors care so much about. Surely their company made the Post Office look good, right?” But when the Postmaster General came out to meet them, the stark reality became clear, they weren’t interested in a photo-op. As Evan and Will describe it: “This 30-minute meeting was the end...
  • DOJ's 'Operation Choke Point' May Be Root of Porn Star Bank Account Closings

    04/29/2014 5:11:21 AM PDT · by GrootheWanderer · 49 replies
    Reason Hit & Run ^ | April 29, 2014 | Elizabeth Nolan Brown
    Despite being in good financial standing, adult film performers and others in the porn industry have had bank accounts abruptly terminated—and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) may have had something to do with it. Under "Operation Choke Point," the DOJ and its allies are going after legal but subjectively undesirable business ventures by pressuring banks to terminate their bank accounts or refuse their business. The very premise is clearly chilling—the DOJ is coercing private businesses in an attempt to centrally engineer the American marketplace based on it's own politically biased moral judgements. Targeted business categories so far have included...
  • EPA ban puts Minnesota's ice rinks in tough position

    04/15/2014 6:23:23 AM PDT · by TurboZamboni · 53 replies
    Pioneer Press ^ | 4-13-14 | Nick Ferraro
    The clock is ticking for Minnesota's indoor ice rinks. By 2020, the refrigerant chemical now used at half the state's 240 arenas to make ice no longer will be manufactured or imported into the U.S. as part of a global effort aimed at ridding the world of greenhouse gases linked to depletion of the ozone layer. The phaseout of the odorless gas R-22 is expected to be costly for arenas -- most of which are publicly owned -- because of an anticipated rise in its cost. After the deadline, arenas still will be able to use the refrigerant gas for...
  • Bitcoin in the sights of regulators (Australian Source)

    04/03/2014 5:54:47 PM PDT · by Up Yours Marxists · 4 replies
    Dynamic Business ^ | April 5, 2014 01:43 GMT | Edwin Carr
    Bitcoin is making news again. Angry investors in the virtual currency are joining a class action to recover nearly US$500 million “lost” when Mt. Gox, a Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange, crashed at the end of February 2014. The collapse of the exchange is reported to be the result of theft by hackers. In another recent story, US magazine Newsweek claims to have tracked down the mysterious founder of the “crypto-currency”, a Mr Nakamoto in California. Bitcoin’s website names “Satoshi Nakamoto” as the currency’s founder but many believe that is a pseudonym. Bitcoin is associated with some high profile criminal investigations, including...
  • Lawmakers Advance Effort to Legalize Raw Milk

    03/30/2014 1:34:38 PM PDT · by RightSideNews · 22 replies
    Virginia Free Citizen ^ | March 30, 2014 | Kate Miller
    “As a producer of grass-fed beef, I am familiar with some of the difficulties small farmers face when marketing fresh food directly to consumers. Our bills would make it easier for families to buy wholesome milk directly from farmers by reversing the criminalization of dairy farmers who offer raw milk,” said Rep. Massie. “The federal government should not punish farmers for providing customers the foods they want, and states should be free to set their own laws regulating food safety.” Representative Pingree says this legislation supports small farmers. “Many consumers want to buy fresh, unpasteurized milk and regulations shouldn’t get...