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In 2022, Seattle's City Council passed an ordinance mandating a minimum earnings floor for app-based food delivery drivers in the city. The law finally went into effect in January 2024, but so far the main result has been customers deleting their delivery apps en masse, food orders plummeting, and driver pay cratering. The ordinance, part of a legislative package called "PayUp," was passed under the banner of protecting gig workers. By setting a compensation floor for app-based delivery drivers based on miles driven and amount of time worked, the ordinance operates as a (supremely complicated) minimum wage. The wage floor...

While it may seem hard to believe, there was a time when the citizens of Venezuela were allowed to keep and bear arms. This wasn’t the distant past we’re talking about either. It was only in 2012 that the socialist government of Hugo Chavez enacted the “Control of Arms, Munitions and Disarmament Law.” When it was passed, the authors of the legislation pulled no punches, saying that the explicit purpose of the law was to “disarm all citizens.” That bill was spectacularly successful, massively reducing the volume of privately owned firearms. Then, when the new tyrant, Nicolas Maduro took power...

Licensing regulations reduce economic freedom by creating barriers to market entry. For example, in my current home of Philadelphia, bloggers are required to obtain a $300 permit from the city. Blogging is by no means a lucrative business. In fact, an estimated 80% of bloggers will never make more than $100 from their work. A city official ironically says Philadelphia “loves the self-employed”. These permit-happy bureaucrats fail to grasp basic economics: occupational licensing can be detrimental to the economy.

EPA has proposed one of the largest, most expensive regulations in American history. These rules will impact our entire economy, hurt America’s diverse energy portfolio, and result in higher electricity prices while having little benefit to the environment. EPA is asking for public comment on this vast, regulatory overreach between now and December 1, 2014. We need you to share your views with EPA by sending the letter below, or using the open space to personally tell EPA how higher energy prices will impact you, your business, and your family.

On health care, the president's pile of broken promises keeps getting higher. Consider this gem from Aug. 20, 2009: “Let's be clear about the fact that nobody has proposed anything close to a government takeover of health care.” Well, yes, somebody did. President Obama is now well on his way to orchestrating the federal government's takeover of Americans' health care. Commandeering the resources of major federal departments, particularly the Department of Health and Human Services and the IRS, the administration and its allies in Congress have created numerous federal bureaus, commissions and programs and have issued thousands of pages of...

House democrats blocked the repeal of the light bulb ban. A majority of Americans oppose the government’s unpopular and unnecessary ban on incandescent bulbs and infringement on choice. On January 1 2012, 100 watt incandescent bulbs will become illegal, with lower wattages to follow. The democrats just voted to give jobs to China.

One of the most personally intrusive, regulation-happy green bills that ever passed through Congress, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 made the sale of most incandescent light bulbs virtually illegal by January 1st, 2012. The bill imposed arbitrary efficiency standards that the producers of traditional lightbulbs couldn't hope to meet, making their more expensive, less reliable Compact Flourescent Lightbulb (CFL) cousins the new standard. So, goodbye consumer choice, hello government oversight. Thankfully, the House is finally making moves to repeal this - at best, ill-thought-out; at worst, you-will-go-green-and-you-will-like-it - law. On Monday, expect to see a vote on...

McDonald's grimaces at Happy Meal lawsuit Photo 12:20pm EDT By Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A lawsuit seeking to stop McDonald's Corp from offering toys with Happy Meals must be dismissed because parents can always choose not to buy the meals for their children, the hamburger giant said in a court filing late on Monday. The lawsuit accuses McDonald's of unfairly using toys to lure children into its restaurants. The plaintiff, Monet Parham, a Sacramento, California mother of two, charges that the company's advertising violates California consumer protection laws. The Happy Meal has been a huge hit for McDonald's...

McCain-Dorgan Bill could make nutritional supplements available only by doctor’s prescription; stifling natural product innovation. (FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.) - Ironically, in the middle of American Heart Month 2010, the U.S. Senate is weighing a proposed amendment to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 321) that could deny freedom of access and mandate a doctor’s prescription for many dietary supplements, like purified fish oil, which could become seven times more expensive than it is today. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) have dubbed their new bipartisan bill the “Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010.” A reading...

The week before he was elected president, President Obama made the bold statement that, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” No doubt, at the time, most of us would have written this off as the usual overblown rhetoric of a politician pumped up on his own favorable poll numbers. Instead, it turned out to be a warning. We don’t have time or space here to recap all of the “changes” brought about in the first year of the Obama administration, but among the biggies were the federal government takeover of major components of...

According to CNN, the Pentagon is “to establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials.” “The proposal is awaiting final approval from Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The officials would not be identified because the proposal from U.S. Northern Command’s Gen. Victor Renuart has not been approved by the secretary. The plan calls for military task forces to work in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There is no final decision on how the military effort would be manned, but...

Supreme Court Hears “The Threshold Question” EDITOR's NOTE: Outdoor & Shooting Wire editor Jim Shepherd is in Washington for the Supreme Court's hearings on the Constitutionality of the District of Columbia's long-standing firearms ban. Due to the significance of this story, Jim's feature appears in both the Outdoor and Shooting Wires. Additionally, you can hear the actual Supreme Court arguments on the case, a variety of constitutional experts and Jim discussing the case with Michael Bane on Down Range TV (http://www.downrange.tv/rkba/dc-v-heller.htm). There is extremely heavy traffic on the site, but you can hear one of the most important Supreme Court...

<p>WASHINGTON - Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said yesterday he does not plan to be inoculated with the smallpox vaccine and recommends that other Cabinet members not request the inoculation either.</p> <p>"I do not believe it is necessary or should be taking place," he said.</p>