Free Republic

A new broadband law is going into effect this week in New York state requiring internet provider to offer low-income residents access to monthly broadband rates of $15 for 25Mbps or $20 for 200Mbps. As a response, AT&T has decided that it no longer plans to offer its 5G home internet in the Empire State and will begin notifying users about the decision on Wednesday. "While we are committed to providing reliable and affordable internet service to customers across the country, New York's broadband law imposes harmful rate regulations that make it uneconomical for AT&T to invest in and expand...

"The U.S. government temporarily banned BP Plc from federal contracts on Wednesday over its "lack of business integrity" in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, a move that the British company had said could force it to rethink its entire U.S. operations. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the suspension was "standard practice" following criminal actions. . . . The suspension means that BP will not be able to secure any new contracts with the U.S. government, including the lease of new exploration territory in the federal Gulf of Mexico, one of BP's biggest oil production regions globally. Some...

In the first three years of the administration's of Barack Obama and George W. Bush, Obama hit Americans with 106 major heavy-handed regulations costing taxpayers $46 BILLION. By contrast for the same period in Bush's first three years, there were 28 major regulations at a cost of $8.1 BILLION. The report cites a Gallup poll from earlier this year that found 46 percent of small business owners are not hiring because they are worried about new government regulations. In addition to current regulations, the report found that proposed regulations continue to generate uncertainty and could result in significant additional costs...

"But, in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes."Ben Franklin If Ben Franklin were around today, he would likely amend the above statement to include the certainty of government regulation.  A new report by the Heritage Foundation says that in today's America, regulation costs are a far greater burden than taxes.  If the current trend of rapidly increasing regulatory burden by the Obama Administration continues, it will hasten the death of the once great American free-market economy. According to a newly released Heritage Foundation analysis, the annual cost of federal regulations ($1.752 trillion) is...

Fingerprints may be requirement for handgun By HAROLD NEDD, The Virginian-Pilot © September 4, 2002 SUFFOLK -- Residents soon could be required to get fingerprinted every time they apply for a permit to carry a concealed handgun. The City Council is expected to vote today on the measure that a gun-shop owner triggered when he recently applied for a new five-year permit. Richard Harris, who's been carrying a concealed weapon since 1974, reapplied in August for his new permit. When asked for his police-issued fingerprint card, the 57-year-old former councilman pointed out that no law in the city requires it....