Free Republic

Shell corporations, millions in fines, and a sting operation in New York City. It's not a noir film; it's a crackdown on ice cream trucks. The city began seizing 46 ice cream trucks Wednesday in "Operation Meltdown" after operators violated traffic laws and then evaded fines for nearly a decade, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a news release. As the operators were handing out popsicles from 2009 to 2017 they also were racking up 22,000 summonses and nearly $4.5 million in fines for traffic violations, the city said. The operators had been cited for running red lights, parking near...

Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson worries that ice cream can be bad for children. At least the kind that comes in ice-cream trucks. Anderson worries that the trucks expose kids to traffic hazards, drug dealers and child predators. And so the mayor has the city's ice-cream truck vendors in the cross hairs. If the City Council goes along, he will tighten the governmental reins on an industry that pesters adults and delights kids. Tuesday night the council gets its first look at an Anderson administration ordinance that would mandate criminal background searches and fingerprint checks for ice-cream truck drivers. Already...