Free Republic

FRANKFORT — A year after Gov. Steve Beshear implemented the federal health care law without legislative approval, Senate Republicans plan to push a constitutional amendment that would curb the governor's power to issue administrative regulations. Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said his caucus would push for the restriction early in the 2014 General Assembly that begins Tuesday. The proposed change to the state Constitution would keep a regulation issued by the governor or executive branch from taking effect if lawmakers declare it deficient. The governor and executive agencies issue about 700 regulations each year to implement various laws approved by...

Peabody businessman Bruce Lerner is joining the fast-growing list of entrepreneurs “frustrated out of business” by strict state and local regulations that small-business advocates say are choking the lifeblood of America’s economy.     “It’s the sheer plethora of regulations,” said Carolyn Logue, a state director with the National Federation of Independent Businesses. “It seems many were just drafted to give someone, somewhere a job to do. Nobody looks at the goals and whether they’re actually accomplishing anything.”     Three weeks ago, the North Shore Tobacco Control Program sent a 17-year-old decoy into Lerner’s Main Street Smoke Shop in Peabody. She made it...