“That is the height of irresponsibility. It is shameful. And part of what we’re going to need is for the folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility.” That was President Barack Obama in 2009 responding to news that…
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The United States Department of Justice has declared that food allergies can be considered a disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act, a legacy of the George H.W. Bush Administration. The declaration emerged in a little-noticed 2012 settlement with Lesley University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A student there complained to the federal government after Lesley…
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As the Washington Post recently noted, the United States is the world’s leading consumer of products made from hemp, with sales of more than $43 million in 2011. All these products, however, come from outside the country, primarily Canada, because the United States is the only major industrialized country to ban the growing of…
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Federal authorities can continue to wiretap and conduct surveillance on non-Americans within the United States according to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) recently reauthorized by the U.S. Senate and earlier by the House. Senate majority leader Harry Reid said the measure was imperfect but necessary to “protect us from evil in this world.”…
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The federal National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is proposing minimum sound requirements for electric cars, hybrids and other vehicles in order to warn pedestrians, cyclists and the sight-impaired. The rule is based on a 2009 NHTSA study of state-level accident data finding that 77 of 8,387 hybrid vehicles (.9 percent) were involved in…
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The U.S. tax code places a “significant, even unconscionable burden” on taxpayers and needs to be completely overhauled. That is the view of Nina E. Olson, national taxpayer advocate with the Internal Revenue Service, as she explained to Congress on January 9. The code is so complicated, that individuals and business have to spend…
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We have been following California’s hidden-money scandal, in which bureaucrats in the state Parks Department concealed $54 million for more than a decade, even as the Department was shutting down 70 parks, the state facing budget deficits of $16 billion, and politicians stumping for huge tax increases. One legislator wanted to know how much…
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Millions of Americans are bracing for fiscal cliff fallout, looking for jobs, postponing purchases and cutting back on spending. Not so Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors. As the Los Angeles Times noted, Mr. Musk just plunked down $17 million for a 20,248-square-foot Bel-Air mansion with a gym, seven bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, tennis court,…
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Most American voters want to see the federal government make spending cuts across the board, but those same voters doubt such cuts will take place, according to a recent Rasmussen Poll. The survey found that only 39 percent of likely voters think it is somewhat likely that government will significantly reduce spending while 57…
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On December 21, U.S. President Barack Obama issued an executive order giving all federal workers except the U.S. Postal Service a holiday on December 24. The Los Angeles Times estimated the cost of the shutdown at $100 million and noted that in addition to Christmas Eve, federal employees got, count ’em, 10 paid holidays…
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