Free Republic

Politics: Has corruption tainted even the battle over free trade? If not, why has the White House buried its own study of a jobs "retraining" program that it insists Congress must vote for as a condition for signing three trade deals? A Labor Department study on the effectiveness of Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), a $1.3 billion program for workers who claim their jobs were lost to foreign competition, has not only missed its deadline by four years, but is also being withheld until the end of the year, the Wall Street Journal reports. Based on how this White House operates,...

"On Oct. 17, 2007, Marcelle opened the door to a loud knock. Her heart jumped when she found a man backed by two armed county agents in bulletproof vests. She was alone in the cabin, a dot in the vast open space of the Antelope Valley, without a neighbor for more than half a mile...." "The men demanded her driver's license, telling her, "This building is not permitted — everything must go." Normally sassy, Marcelle handed over her ID — even her green card, just in case. Stepping out, she realized that her 1,000-square-foot cabin was surrounded by men with...

Hopes of turning an informal target shooting area off Ayres Road at the far southeast end of Benton County into a properly managed shooting facility have been shot down. County officials said the state's Growth Management Act and a related King County court ruling prevent them for allowing a shooting range on land zoned for agriculture. Ag lands must be preserved only for ag-related uses, according to the 2000 case, King County v. Growth Management Act Hearing Board. "We used to have shooting ranges and even race tracks allowed in our zoning ordinance until 2007, but we had to take...

It was hard to tell which side had more supporters during a two-and-half hour hearing on a proposed shooting center outside Valley Springs. Applause came frequently after each side made a point, with neighbors worried about noise and supporters touting sound mitigation techniques and the business and community value of the center. In a 4-1 vote, the Calaveras County Planning Commission ultimately decided that shooting centers were allowable on industrial properties. The center is the project of Tom Coe, who wants to build on his industrial-zoned property off Watertown Road near Campo Seco. Numerous industries could be allowed on such...

Perhaps this will feel a little counterintuitive after seeing today’s jobless numbers, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Gallup’s latest poll on soak-the-rich tax policies show that Americans are less open to redistributionism than at the peak of the pre-Great Recession economy, with a plurality rejecting “heavy taxes on the rich”: Americans break into two roughly evenly matched camps on the question of whether the government should enact heavy taxes on the rich to redistribute wealth in the U.S. Forty-seven percent believe the government should redistribute wealth in this way, while 49% disagree, similar to views Gallup found...

WAYNESVILLE, Mo. (April 28, 2011) — During a Tuesday evening review by members of the Waynesville Planning and Zoning Commission of their recent actions, City Administrator Bruce Harrill explained the details of why the commission’s prior objections to a church renting space in a special tax district were set aside based on legal advice. “I’d asked Bruce to brief us on that,” commission member Tim Bartlett said. “When things like that happen, it’s probably better that we hear it this way than driving by a restaurant and seeing a cross on top. That’s how I found out about that one.”...

WAYNESVILLE, Mo. (April 28, 2011) — During a Tuesday evening review by members of the Waynesville Planning and Zoning Commission of their recent actions, City Administrator Bruce Harrill explained the details of why the commission’s prior objections to a church renting space in a special tax district were set aside based on legal advice. “I’d asked Bruce to brief us on that,” commission member Tim Bartlett said. “When things like that happen, it’s probably better that we hear it this way than driving by a restaurant and seeing a cross on top. That’s how I found out about that one.”...

The right to own private property unfettered by excessive government control is under attack in Virginia. Private property is a fundamental right that distinguishes us as a free people, The framers of the constitution understood the importance of protecting private property rights. The Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights states, “No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.” (Related: Agenda 21 Resource Page and also The Path To Agenda 21 Sustainable Development) Despite constitutional protection against property confiscation, state...

WAYNESVILLE, Mo. (March 2, 2011) — Efforts by Waynesville city officials to keep a church from renting the former Ashley Mae restaurant building behind the Bank of Crocker in a special tax district have hit a snag. “I don’t want this to sound negative at all — the city is not negative at all toward anybody, businesses, churches, whatever,” Councilwoman Luge Hardman said at Tuesday evening’s meeting of the Waynesville Economic Development Committee. The city’s planning and zoning commission earlier denied a conditional use permit to New Life Ministries and Foundation, whose leaders have said they like the option of...

WAYNESVILLE, Mo. (March 2, 2011) — Efforts by Waynesville city officials to keep a church from renting the former Ashley Mae restaurant building behind the Bank of Crocker in a special tax district have hit a snag. “I don’t want this to sound negative at all — the city is not negative at all toward anybody, businesses, churches, whatever,” Councilwoman Luge Hardman said at Tuesday evening’s meeting of the Waynesville Economic Development Committee. The city’s planning and zoning commission earlier denied a conditional use permit to New Life Ministries and Foundation, whose leaders have said they like the option of...

Americans can do whatever they decide to do. Witness the politiscape littered with the careers of Democrats deposed by determined Americans who have had enough big-government socialism forced upon them. The next challenge for the tea party – and other organizations – is local and state governments that are systematically implementing freedom-robbing policies in the name of comprehensive planning, smart growth, sustainable development and environmental protection. If the word “freedom” is to have any meaning at all, it must mean that people are free to live wherever they choose, and free to use their property as they choose. For nearly...

Comments on articles about these horse shootings have been pro and con against the Twiss family. While no one thinks shooting horses is an answer, some have expressed their dislike of the Twiss family and their horse stable. Concerns of manure disposal and diseases were brought up. And yes, zoning issues too. The $5,000 reward for the horse shootings may bring some needed information to light. Meanwhile, you can't help wondering where the escalation of events will end. Nor can you help from wondering who wants the Twiss land or what's really behind the harassment and the change of ruling...

Obama’s Ocean Policy Initiative: Washington’s latest power grab As if the sputtering U.S. economy weren’t in enough trouble already, the Obama administration is cooking up a new scheme that will extend the heavy hand of Washington to somewhere it has never gone before. Unveiled with precious little fanfare on July 19 in the form of an Executive Order, the White House’s Ocean Policy Initiative will subject America’s waterways — oceans, rivers, bays, estuaries, and the Great Lakes — to federal zoning. Under the scheme, these areas would be managed according to the Orwellian-sounding notion of “coastal and marine spatial planning.”...

DeKalb County is suing a man for growing too many vegetables on his own land, Channel 2 Action News reported. Steve Miller of Clarkston said he plans to fight the county and has gotten his 2-acre property rezoned so that he can have his garden. But he still faces nearly $5,000 in fines, Miller told Channel 2. Miller has been growing a variety of vegetables for 15 years, and his neighbors support him. He sells what he grows at local markets and gives some away, he said. "It's a way of life, like it's something in my blood,” Miller told...

Quintanilla, 58, broke down in tears when I visited her last week. She fears for her livelihood after the county Code Enforcement Division gave her a warning notice on April 29. "Cease and desist,'' the official document screamed. They gave her seven days, then extended it to 30 so she could appeal. Never mind the other forms posted on the wall of her enclosed kitchen — the state license and the Pasco County tax receipt. Never mind that she has been doing business for five years, or that some form of lunch stand has stood in the same place for...

A small Protestant church in Leon Valley, an enclave within the city of San Antonio, is challenging a zoning code that prohibits the church from holding Sunday worship services. The city code excludes religious assemblies from some zoning areas because they decrease the city’s tax revenue and interfere with commercial activity. In 2007, revisions to the city code excluded churches from most of the city to maximize tax revenues, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty reports. Auditoriums, convention centers, private clubs and schools are free to locate in the city’s retail zones, but churches are not. The Elijah Group, an...

Despite a federal government assessment that South Haven has “excellent” potential for generating wind power, the Lake Michigan resort community has no rules in place to regulate wind turbines that could alter its skyline. “We know that there is a potential big push for alternative forms of energy like solar and wind,” said City Manager Brian Dissette. “We know that the wind is very good here so we want to have something in place that will balance quality of life with these new technologies.” The city’s Planning Commission in August began to consider a zoning amendment that would regulate wind...

Gun store posters take flak By Geoffrey Cooper - Rocky Mount Telegram Tuesday, October 20, 2009 NASHVILLE — For more than a week, a local gun shop owner has been under scrutiny regarding certain advertisements outside his front door. Nashville Guns owner Dennis Nielsen has been met with the watchful eyes of a few county officials and town residents for the storefront posters of women holding guns. Facing two documented complaints, Nielsen maintains that he has done nothing wrong and runs a clean business. Facing the Washington Street sidewalks are two posters inside of Nielsen’s gun shop windows. The first...

CANTON, Ohio — After taking a class that covered global warming last year, Jill Saylor decided to save energy by drying her laundry on a clothesline at her mobile home. "I figured trailer parks were the one place left where hanging your laundry was actually still allowed," she said, standing in front of her tidy, yellow mobile home on an impeccably manicured lawn. But she was wrong. Like the majority of the 60 million people who live in the nation's roughly 300,000 private communities, Saylor was forbidden to dry her laundry outside because many people viewed it as an eyesore,...

Consider nature...as Tennyson saw it, "red in tooth and claw." To glimpse a state of nature as Hobbes imagined it, where human life is "nasty, brutish and short," visit the Whole Foods store on River Road in Bethesda...you will see proof of this social equation: Four Priuses + three parking spaces = angry anarchy. Anger is one of the seven deadly sins. Therefore advanced thinkers are agreed that conservatives are especially susceptible to it. As everyone knows, all liberals are advanced thinkers and all advanced thinkers are liberals. And yet... Recently Paul Schwartzman, a war correspondent for The Post, ventured...