Yearly Archives: 2018

There Will Be No Viking Longboats Cruising the Mississippi

"Switzerland-based Viking Cruises, which wanted to build and send small cruise ships up the Mississippi River, leaving new tourism dollars for river towns in its wake, is backing off its plan. Our own federal laws are to blame. More specifically, President Grover Cleveland's Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA). The 1886 law requires that in order to ferry passengers between ports in the United States, the ship must have been built in the United States and be owned and operated by Americans."

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Give Haircuts To Homeless Veterans, Receive Threats From Licensing Board

"A cosmetology license requires '25 weeks [of training], more than an EMT, certified nursing assistant or truck driver.' Ducey views the cosmetology board as 'bullies' and is urging the passage of Ugenti-Rita’s bill, which would make it easier to obtain a license."

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Sessions Says to Courts: Go Ahead, Jail People Because They’re Poor

"Last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions retracted an Obama-era guidance to state courts that was meant to end debtors’ prisons, where people who are too poor to pay fines are sent. These burdens fell disproportionately on African-Americans. The push to abolish debtors’ prisons will continue, as community advocates and local officials press on. It would be preferable, of course, for the federal government to fulfill its role as a leading protector of basic constitutional rights. Unfortunately, Mr. Sessions has made clear that under his leadership it will not."

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US Experimented on Hundreds of Poor Pregnant Women With Radiation

"Somewhere between 750 and 850 women were given trace amounts of radioactive iron in a 'cocktail' drink during their pregnancies by health officials they trusted. Dr. Paul Hahn, the lead researcher behind the experiments, claimed that the study was intended to record the absorption of iron during pregnancy. Vanderbilt spokesman Wayne Wood told the Washington Post that all of the files were destroyed by the research team in the 1970s."

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Jeff Sessions Should Ask Cancer Patients about Cannabis

"Attorney General Jeff Sessions is actively lobbying Congress to overturn existing law prohibiting federal interference in state medical-marijuana policy. As someone who believes in strong constitutional limits on federal power and the rights of patients to choose, I am deeply disappointed. And as a cancer survivor who wanted the choice for myself, I wonder: does Sessions have any idea what it’s like?"

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Vermont Becomes the Ninth State to Legalize Recreational Marijuana

"Today Vermont Gov. Phil Scott signed a bill making his state the ninth to legalize marijuana for recreational use and the first to do so through the legislature rather than a ballot initiative. The new law, which takes effect on July 1, allows adults 21 or older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana in public, to grow up to six plants (two of them mature at any one time) per household, and to keep whatever they produce."

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