Free Republic

The dramatic rise in gun violence over the last two years in the United States, as was demonstrated in the deadly shootout in Sacramento on Sunday, demands that leaders do more to keep firearms away from dangerous people. This is no easy task, of course. But California has a system — the only one in the nation — to do so. The Armed and Prohibited Persons System is a state Department of Justice database that tracks firearms owned by people who are banned from possessing them because they’ve been convicted of a felony, are under a restraining order or have...

The Department of Justice today announced a new rule to help enable the safe and secure storage of firearms and published a Best Practices Guide for federal firearms licensees (FFLs). This new rule implements the existing Gun Control Act requirement that federal firearms licensees that sell firearms to the general public (non-licensees) must certify that they have available secure gun storage or safety devices. “Today’s announcements build on the department’s efforts to reduce the risk of firearms falling into the wrong hands,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Gun safety is a Department of Justice priority, and we will continue...

"The new year brings 287 new laws to Illinois – including one that will allow children to operate a lemonade stand without having to go through the red tape of acquiring a government permit. ..."

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — It’s not often that bacon leads a roundup of new laws taking effect with the New Year in California. But even in progressive California, that’s the headline-grabber. It’s among a host of other legislation designed to safeguard employees, shield those seeking abortions, protect protesters from police, spare children from gender influence in store displays, and further ease criminal penalties to reduce mass incarceration. Several of the laws mark national “firsts” — first minimum wage to reach $15 an hour, first to protect warehouse workers from quotas, first to mandate hourly wages for garment workers, first to...

The San Diego Association of Governments’ (SANDAG) board of directors approved Oct. 29 a four-cent-per-mile tax proposal that could impact every driver in San Diego County by 2030. The proposed mileage tax is intended to supplement and eventually replace gas taxes, which have dropped considerably as gas mileage has increased and hybrid and electric cars ownership has grown exponentially in recent years. San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond said the proposal was intended to “force everyone onto trolleys and buses” by pricing people out of their cars. “This proposal should never see the light of day,” Desmond said. “San Diegans...

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a top Democratic swing vote for the White House‘s legislative agenda, has ruled out scrapping the Trump-era tax cuts in order to pay for the entitlement and climate-change programs within President Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar partisan spending bill.Ms. Sinema, Arizona Democrat, has told colleagues she will not support the more than 40 new tax increases being proposed.House Democrats have proposed to pay for the $3.5 trillion expansion of the federal safety net by hiking corporate and income taxes. The current rates were set in 2017 by former President Trump’s signature overhaul of the tax code.

The battle over the Democrats' proposed $3.5 trillion infrastructure plan is just beginning, but the House Ways and Means Committee has already started to outline measures that will be included in the package. One measure that's in the panel's markup of the Build Back Better Act: 12 weeks of universal paid family and medical leave. It's a measure intended to guarantee workers with time off to raise newborn children or deal with a medical emergency. "Later this week, the Ways and Means Committee will put an end to the idea that only some workers are worthy of 'perks' like paid...

For many years, Berkeley bike advocates have pushed for their own lane on a two-block stretch of Fulton Street. The conditions seem ripe for one. It would connect two existing bike lanes in a bustling area between UC Berkeley and downtown. Bike racks already line the sidewalk. But when asked, the city delivered an answer the advocates say they have heard time and again: The bike lane couldn’t go in because of the state’s premier environmental law. The California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA, has stymied bike lanes up and down the state for more than a decade. Los...

Oregon Democrat Rep. Earl Blumenauer said 'space travel isn’t a tax-free holiday for the wealthy'As Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos launched into space on Tuesday aboard a Blue Origin rocket, and back on Earth, a Democratic lawmaker announced a measure to tax commercial spaceflight.Oregon Democrat Rep. Earl Blumenauer, who is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, on Tuesday introduced what he is calling the Securing Protections Against Carbon Emissions (SPACE) Tax Act, which would create excise taxes on commercial space flights carrying human passengers for purposes other than scientific research."Space travel isn’t a tax free holiday for the...

President Joe Biden proposed a major concession on paying for an infrastructure bill according to a new report on details of private negotiations between the White House and Senate Republicans. The Washington Post reports that Biden would not raise the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and instead propose a minimum corporate tax of 15 percent — for companies like Amazon that pay little to nothing in federal taxes.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons, its staff depleted by Trump-era hiring freezes, is advertising for thousands of jobs. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is bringing on dozens of lawyers after being gutted by four years of budget cuts. The Agriculture Department is moving to replace hundreds of scientists who fled or were forced out by the last administration At the Justice Department, officials are looking to hire civil rights attorneys — and the Energy Department is recruiting for senior energy efficiency and renewable energy roles that went unfilled when Donald Trump was president.....As Trump rolled back regulations and aimed for...

This week, President Biden proposed taxing capital gains at death at a tax rate of 39.6 percent plus the 3.8 percent investment tax. He proposed a $1 million exemption. For an individual with less than $11.8 million in net worth, this would create a new death tax from whole cloth. President Biden’s new death tax would result in estates that currently are not remotely close to having sufficient net worth to pay a death tax paying a death tax. It can be named a ‘capital gains tax at death’; it is a new death tax. For a long-term real estate...

With no major labor reform since the 1930s, Democrats are seizing on the opportunity to strengthen workers' rights -- including their ability to unionize. On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed the PRO (Protect the Right to Organize) Act, the most pro-worker labor reform in decades, according to the bill’s sponsors, by a vote of 225-206. Though it faces an uphill battle in the 50/50 split Senate, President Joe Biden has said that labor reform is one of his administration’s top priorities. The House passed a version of the bill last year, but it was dead on arrival in the...

ORLANDO, Florida — Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) denounced the partisan $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, which the House passed last week and the Senate passed Saturday, as a Democrat “wish list” mostly containing items unrelated to immediate coronavirus relief, providing his remarks in an interview with Breitbart News during the Conservative Political Action Conference. Donalds said at the conference just after the House passed the bill last weekend that Democrats “wanted to get their wish list out of” the bill — which they were able to pack with non-coronavirus-related pursuits through a reconciliation process that allowed them to skirt the...

A Virginia county planning commission will vote Wednesday on restrictions that would ban residents from flying American flags larger than six feet by four feet and from displaying more than two flags. The Planning Commission of Fairfax County, a 1.1 million-person jurisdiction just outside Washington, D.C., is weighing a plan by staff to limit the size of flags that homeowners may fly to 24 square feet, lower the maximum height of flagpoles to 25 feet, and limit the number of flags to two. Zoning administrator Leslie Johnson said February 10 that her agency came up with the plan because the...

In 2019, the California Court of Appeal, 1st Appellate District, ruled that a police offer may always enter a suspect's home without a warrant if the officer is in pursuit of the suspect and has probable cause to believe that the suspect has committed a misdemeanor. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether that ruling should be overturned.Justice Neil Gorsuch seemed to have a problem with the lower court's decision. Under the common law, Gorsuch pointed out during oral arguments in Lange v. California, the police did not "have the power to enter the home in pursuit of any...

California’s Assembly is slated to consider a new bill requiring department store childrens’ sections to be largely “gender-neutral” in order to combat “prejudice” and “judgment” against gender non-conforming children. “Large retailers that sell toys, clothes, and other children’s items in California would have to devote floor space to merchandise marketed to both boys and girls under a new bill,” Politico reported earlier this week. “Stores would be able to sell the same products they do now as long as they maintain some areas where shoppers can find all toys or clothes, regardless of gender-based marketing, under CA AB2826 (19R) from...

Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to the chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday, asking that the group explain to Congress and the public what they are doing to address the recent market activity surrounding GameStop and other companies.The Massachusetts senator wrote that the SEC, which oversees the stock market, has failed to control “years of distortion in securities markets,” exacerbating wealth inequalities. She is asking that the SEC respond to her questions by Feb. 5.“The Commission must review recent market activity affecting GameStop and other companies, and act to ensure that markets reflect real value, rather than...

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is moving forward with its controversial plan to consider charging tolls — possibly $1 or $2 — on as many as 10 major bridges in the state. PennDOT Secretary Yassmin Gramian told a Senate panel on Monday the list of potential bridge candidates to be tolled will be announced in mid-February. The bridges will be spread across the state and will only involve ones located on interstates. Once the list is finalized, the department is obligated to conduct public outreach for each of the bridge candidates. Special emphasis is being placed on identifying the economic...

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) – Myrtle Beach City Council has approved a mandate requiring face masks to be worn in certain public places. The order starts at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, July 2, and will remain in effect for 67 days, which is through Labor Day, or until rescinded, or until the expiration of the declaration of a civil emergency. According to the executive order, individuals would be required to wear the face coverings, defined as a “uniform piece of cloth, fabric, or other material that securely covers a person’s nose and mouth and remains affixed in place without the use...