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Last week, freshman Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortz (a.k.a. AOC) decided to jump into the issue of New York City taxi drivers and the financial problems they’ve been facing in the era of the gig economy. Even though she’s a federal elected official, I don’t knock her for entering the debate since many of her constituents are directly affected. Her solution, however, leaves much to be desired. She’s calling for a joint federal-municipal bailout for the drivers who have been drowning in debt since the value of their medallions totally collapsed. (Daily Wire) On Thursday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) demanded that...

Hail a yellow taxi in New York City, and there is a good chance the driver is from another country. Passengers are regularly exposed to a range of languages that span the globe, from Spanish to Bengali to Urdu. It can be charming, but also maddening for riders who feel that drivers do not understand where they want to go. Don’t you have to speak English, some wonder, to drive a taxi here? As of Friday, the answer is no. That is when new rules went into effect eliminating the requirement that taxi drivers take an English proficiency exam. Now,...

Left Silent as Muslim Cabbies Reject Gay Games Ads By Julio Severo According to FoxNews, 25 Muslim drivers dispatched to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport are refusing to drive cabs adorned with advertising for the Gay Games, which will be held on Aug. 9-16 in the region. The drivers said that their decision was based on their religious convictions. Ann Gynn, a spokeswoman for the Gay Games, said the protest is an “isolated” case, meaning that drivers of other religions (especially Christianity, considering that this religion is still dominant in the U.S.) did not complain about making involuntary propaganda for...

Those convicted Friday include 40-year-old Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud, who prosecutors said used his connections as a popular imam at a mosque in San Diego's City Heights neighborhood to raise money for the group. The other defendants were two San Diego taxi drivers, 36-year-old Basaaly Saeed Moalin and 56-year-old Issa Doreh, and 37-year-old Ahmed Nasir Taalil Mohamud of Anaheim, whose financial transfer business Shidaal Express was used to route the money, prosecutors said. Government attorneys played tapes of telephone calls, many of them between Moalin and the late Aden Hashi Ayrow, who was among the top leaders of al-Shabaab until he...

ACAPULCO, Mexico – A spate of attacks on taxis in the Mexican resort city of Acapulco has left 12 taxi drivers or passengers dead, police said Sunday, just hours before the Mexican Open tennis tournament is scheduled to start. Acapulco has been the scene of bloody drug cartel turf wars, and taxi drivers have often been targeted for extortion or recruited by the gangs to act as lookouts or transport drugs.

MILITARY bases and navy ships will be turned into virtual fortresses under plans to beef-up security in the wake of a major terrorist plot. Taxi drivers and other members of the public will be banned from entering military bases without getting high-level clearance after an urgent review found Australia's frontline defence facilities were among the least protected in the world. The top-secret review also found Australia's top defence brass would be vulnerable to a terrorist strike and recommended their leafy military showpiece, at Duntroon in Canberra, be turned into a secure compound. Among sweeping reforms, the review calls for bases...

By GREGG AAMOT, Associated Press Writer Mon Apr 16, 6:51 PM ET MINNEAPOLIS - Taxi drivers who refuse service to travelers carrying alcohol at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport face tougher penalties despite protests from Muslim cabbies who sought a compromise for religious reasons, officials said Monday. The Metropolitan Airports Commission said new penalties were needed to ensure customers get safe and reliable taxi service, and voted to suspend a driver's airport taxi license for 30 days for the first offense and revoke it for two years for a second offense. The new penalties take effect May 11. Airport officials...

Taxi Cab Drivers Gone Wild! Cab Drivers in the Islamic State of Minnesota are refusing to carry customers who have alcohol and Blind people with seeing eye dogs. In the home of country western music last month, a cab driver took it upon himself try and eliminate two infidels from the planet by using his taxi as a weapon of mass destruction. Ibrahim Sheikh Ahmed, a cab driver in Nashville, Tennessee is on trial for Attempted Murder for using his taxi cab to run over his two passengers that he decided he didn’t like because of what appears to be...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Muslim cab drivers at Minnesota's biggest airport are facing a possible crackdown for refusing to give rides to travelers carrying liquor or accompanied by dogs, an official said on Wednesday. The Metropolitan Airports Commission has authorized a public hearing next month on a staff proposal to increase penalties for refusing fares, spokesman Patrick Hogan said. A large number of taxi drivers in the area of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are Muslim Somali immigrants. Many of them say they feel the faith's ban on alcohol consumption includes transporting anyone carrying it. Some have also refused to transport...

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport officials say too many cabdrivers are refusing to carry airport travelers, apparently due to religious beliefs. So during a Wednesday meeting of the Metropolitan Airports Commission's management and operations committee, officials suggested a heavy-fisted solution — drivers who refused such fares would have their airport licenses suspended. Airport director Steve Wareham asked the committee to suggest to the full commission that they slate public hearings on whether to revise its taxi ordinance. The revision would suspend the airport license of any cabdriver refusing a passenger who is not life-threatening or intoxicated. Suspension would last 30 days...

Understandably, those troubled by the contemporary Muslim world point to the amount of gratuitous violence emanating from it and the apparent absence of Muslim anger against it. In response, Muslim defenders of their faith -- and Western defenders such as Karen Armstrong and John Esposito -- inform us that the terror, suicide and cruelty that emanate from a portion of the Muslim world are all aberrations. We are assured that the average Muslim is as appalled as all other decent people are by Muslims who torture, decapitate and blow up innocent people. Some recent news items from Britain, Australia and...

I would be raising hell if this happened to me. can't post link but not surprisingly the airport officials are folding.

Crackdown on tax-dodging taxisOslo tax authorities have several nasty surprises for taxi drivers and owners not registering all of their income. The biggest shock is a bill for NOK 12 million (USD 1.97 million) in back taxes for the worst offender.The case is just one involving 500 taxi owners and 2,500 drivers being investigated for tax evasion, newspaper VG reports.According to VG, 37 of the 500 owner investigations are now finished and 35 can expect a bill of NOK 1 million each.Oslo authorities are also investigating possible social security frauds involving taxi drivers who are suspected of receiving payments while...

The party of the people wants to rip off Boston cabdrivers. BY Sunday, 12:01 a.m. EDT With John Kerry's fund-raising going so well, you'd think the Democratic National Committee wouldn't need to hustle Boston cabbies for a cheap ride--or illegal campaign contributions. But that's pretty much the effect of the DNC's misguided plan to provide subsidized cab rides for delegates at their Boston convention. At issue are the taxi vouchers the DNC wants to give to delegates arriving at Boston's Logan Airport. Under the DNC's proposal, taxi drivers would be required to accept the vouchers, worth $12 per passenger, in...