Free Republic

If you’re at the Seattle Mariners season opener Monday you might run into some folks with clipboards, gathering signatures for a newly-announced initiative for 2016 that would tax carbon emissions. The circulation of petitions to put Initiative 732 on the 2016 ballot signals a new strategy that may come into play if Gov. Jay Inslee and fellow Democrats in the Legislature are unable to pass their own carbon cap-and-trade proposal. The Initiative would phase in a $25-per-ton tax on carbon dioxide emissions from certain fossil fuels and fossil fuel-generated electricity, starting in July, 2017. The proceeds would go into the...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill allowing local governments to impose a vehicle registration surcharge to pay for bike lanes and trails. The governor's office said in a statement that Brown signed the bill in Sacramento on Saturday. It lets cities, counties or regional park districts to impose an annual vehicle registration surcharge of up to $5 to pay for local bike lanes and trails. The surcharge can be imposed until Jan. 1, 2025. Democratic Sen. Mark DeSaulnier of Concord sponsored the bill that passed the Senate 24-9 in August. Opponents argued that drivers should not have...

Workers like tips. For millions of restaurant servers and bartenders, tips are cash-in-hand that can be spent that day for groceries, bills or entertainment. The money isn’t bad either... Despite these facts, union front groups known as worker centers are leading an aggressive campaign to eliminate tipping from American restaurants. One of the more prominent critics of tipping is labor activist Saru Jayaraman, co-founder of the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC). Jayaraman has attempted to label tipping as sexist, racist and other hot-button terms meant to stir emotion and shame consumers. But the provocative terms used by Jayaraman and other activists...