Free Republic

A Supreme Court decision may force over 70,000 truck owner-operators in California to stop driving, creating another choke point in the already stressed West Coast logistics networks. The AB5 law restricts the use of independent contractors and will soon be enforced against the trucking industry after the court declined to hear their appeal. The California Trucking Association said in a statement that gasoline has been poured on the fire that is the ongoing supply chain crisis, and the decision by the Supreme Court could deny a judicial review of a lower court ruling. In an end-of-term orders list released in...

Massachusetts is taking the fight against nasty words to the next level with a new state bill that would ban the use of the word bitch in certain contexts. State Rep. Daniel Hunt (D–Boston) has put forward H. 3719 that would prohibit the use of the big, bad b-word when deployed to "to accost, annoy, degrade or demean" another person. Anyone who did so would be considered a "disorderly person" under state law. Penalties could include fines of up to $200 or six months in jail. Hunt's bill specifies that either the person called a bitch or a witness to...

To date, 80 North Carolina residents have squeezed their savings for the bragging right of owning the Tesla Model S electric car, some paying more than $100,000 for their g-force ride, but they may be among the last. A legislative proposal, backed by the N.C. Automobile Dealers Association, would make it illegal for Tesla, or any other car maker, to bypass dealerships and sell directly in the state. The proposal cuts at the heart of Tesla’s business model: selling luxury cars over the phone or Internet and then delivering them to the front door of high-net-worth customers. **SNIP** The whole...

When the state's hands-free cellphone law was enacted three years ago, the rules seemed so simple. Holding a phone in your hand to make a call would be illegal. Few ifs, buts or maybes. Then came a law against texting. Then came an explosion of phones that double as GPS devices, cameras, music players, voice recorders and email dispensers. And today, amid an unprecedented crackdown this month on cellphone scofflaws, what's legal and what's not has motorists and even some cops scratching their heads. "When you look for loopholes, the whole issue of cellphone use, texting or distracted driving becomes...

"Hey David," the Facebook message began, "Thought you might be interested in Brian Aitken, in jail in NJ for 7 years for owning legal guns." I get people approaching me all the time wanting me to write about their legal cases. Most of the time, I get very subjectively-recounted narratives with very little to substantiate, and even less on what the defendants may have actually done. Experience has made me naturally wary of jumping on such bandwagons without investigation.Here's what I've found.His supporters have established the "Free Brian Aitken" Facebook page. Mission: To help free Brian Aitken, an innocent gunowner...

Logic Takes a Back Seat -- and Windows, as Auto Maker Plays Tariff Games BALTIMORE -- Several times a month, Transit Connect vans from a Ford Motor Co. factory in Turkey roll off a ship here shiny and new, rear side windows gleaming, back seats firmly bolted to the floor. Their first stop in America is a low-slung, brick warehouse where those same windows, never squeegeed at a gas station, and seats, never touched by human backsides, are promptly ripped out. The fabric is shredded, the steel parts are broken down, and everything is sent off along with the glass...

Why Should This Photo Be Illegal? By Darren Warner Imagine going to the video store to rent a copy of your favorite hunting show, only to find the shelves bare. When you ask the clerk where they are, he tells you that the films are now illegal and that you can’t buy or rent them anymore.  This may sound like something out of 1984, but in United States v. Robert J. Stevens, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide this fall if photos like the one above, or video that shows hunters shooting at game, violate a 1999 federal law...

Dear America, I take it back. I don’t apologize. Because you know what? It’s none of your goddamned business. I work my ass off 10 months a year. It’s that hard work that gave you all those gooey feelings of patriotism last summer. If during my brief window of down time I want to relax, enjoy myself, and partake of a substance that’s a hell of a lot less bad for me than alcohol, tobacco, or, frankly, most of the prescription drugs most of you are taking, well, you can spare me the lecture. I put myself through hell. I...

SOUTH JORDAN — After nearly two months of discussions on South Jordan's proposed ordinance to ban toy weapons on public property, the City Council has unanimously voted to pass the ordinance. In a work session before Tuesday's council meeting, council members discussed the proposed ordinance. Mayor Kent Money said he was concerned that the public did not understand the purpose of the ordinance. "First, we are only talking about the use of these projectiles in public places," he explained. The ordinance had originally been worded to ban the use of toy weapons on public and private property. However, after a...

Toll-paying 'transponders' that mount on front bumper could fall under court ruling. AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Friday, February 16, 2007 First came the distressing news that many Texas vehicles are operating illegally, with license plates partially obscured within frames that violate the law. Now comes word that a state agency may be contributing to the delinquency of drivers. Texas transportation officials are studying the impact of a Wednesday court ruling that apparently renders certain toll road tags illegal. If a vehicle cannot adequately display the TxTag stickers on the inside of the windshield, then the tag must be mounted on the front...

Skeptics: Cell phone ban unenforcable Posted: April 26, 2006 07:06 AM CDT BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Skeptics say it will be impossible to enforce, but a ban on cell phone use while driving moved through a House committee today. The measure would bar new drivers from using cell phones while driving until they've had their driver's license for one year. The sponsor, Representative Dale Erdey, says the bill was designed to prevent accidents and highway fatalities caused by driver distraction. First offenders could be punished with fines of 150 dollars, 16 hours of community service or both. Repeat offenders...

What publication ban? A media blackout that makes it illegal to publish early election results wasn't enough to stop the CBC from broadcasting results for all the world to hear more than two hours before all polls were closed. Anyone who tuned into the Radio Canada International's radio feed Monday night got a sneak peek at election results from Atlantic Canada. It didn't take long for bloggers, who were busy trolling the Internet as they waited for the ban to be lifted, to figure out that it was possible to get an early play-by-play of the election results. "It appears...

A fetus doesn't count as a passenger in the carpool lane, an Arizona judge has ruled. The Phoenix Municipal Court decision doesn't affect drivers in high-occupancy-vehicle lanes around, say, Vancouver or Toronto, but it addresses a thorny question that may have occurred to some. Candace Dickinson, 23, of Ahwatukee Foothills, Ariz., got a ticket for driving alone in an HOV lane on Interstate 10 on Nov. 8. She fought it in court on grounds that she was pregnant at the time, the Arizona Republic reported. Judge Dennis Freeman rejected her argument on Tuesday. For HOV purposes, a person is someone...

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) -- Texas lawmakers sent a message to the state's high school cheerleaders Wednesday: no more booty-shaking at the game. The state's House of Representatives voted 85-55 to approve a bill that would forbid sexy cheers and give the Texas Education Agency authority to punish schools that allow "overtly sexually suggestive" routines at football games and other events.

Is it just me or did the police go OVERBOARD by arresting this woman when there are many, many, better candidates for arrest out there?

A frustrated Nova Scotia driver is learning fairness plays no part when it comes to the law. Charged and fined for transporting unopened bottles of booze behind the driver's seat of his small two-seat pickup truck, David Eisnor says he's not happy. The Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia resident says he was on his way home late one night last April, when an RCMP officer pulled him over and discovered two 1.5-litre bottles of wine and a case of beer in the cab of his truck. Citing the Liquor Control Act -- which prohibits the transportation of booze within reach of...

Remember when your old junker failed the new state car inspection? How much did the repairs cost? Maybe $500? Maybe $1,000? Maybe your car didn't really fail. Maybe the computer failed. Two years into a vehicle emissions testing program intended to clean up city air -- and expensive repairs that left a lot of us cleaned out -- the Texas government has announced that some of the tests were wrong. About half the vehicles from model year 1995 and earlier that flunked were tested on computers with flawed software, state environmental officials announced Friday. If your '89 Cutlass or '92...

A Council Bluffs, Iowa, man learned the hard way — don't mess with the city's black squirrels. ABilly G. Cates, 18, was fined $325 last Tuesday for letting loose his dog "with the intent to annoy, worry, maim, injure or kill the squirrel," according to the Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil and the Omaha World-Herald.

SANTA FE— Every car sold or registered in New Mexico would have to have an alcohol-detecting device installed before 2009 under legislation approved by the House on Monday. New Mexico, always grappling for answers to chronic drunken-driving arrests and deaths, would be the first in the nation to require the devices, said Rep. Ken Martinez, D-Grants, the sponsor. The device is known as an ignition interlock, and drivers have to blow into them and pass the alcohol detection test before their cars can start. The measure, approved 45-22, headed to the Senate for debate. Gov. Bill Richardson said he would...

During a period of study in London in the early 1980s I was making daily use of the splendid library at SOAS, the School of Oriental and African Studies. The library is in the main SOAS premises on Malet Place, but the school also has some overflow accommodation in the fine old Georgian houses around Bedford Square. I used to walk past one of these houses on my way to the library. You could look down at basement rooms, below street level, in which were desks, shelves and filing cabinets piled high with innumerable books and folders, all behind a...