Land Of The Flea

US Supreme Court Rules Against DMV Disclosing Driver Info

"The US Supreme Court issued a ruling Monday confirming federal privacy protections for the personal information stored by state motor vehicle departments. The justices considered the issue in a case where one group of lawyers found a way to file a $200 million class action lawsuit against another group of lawyers that also files class action lawsuits. Ordinarily, the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) prohibits the disclosure of personal information from motor vehicle records, unless it is for law enforcement or public safety purposes. The law does have an additional exemption for 'investigation in anticipation of litigation.'" Continue reading →

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Final Score: Dwight Howard 8,000,000 – Jerry Brown 0

"A state nurse getting $331,000 of annual compensation; A county administrator getting $423,000 pensions; A state psychiatrist getting $822,000 of annual compensation; Cops that get $188,000 of annual compensation; A city manager getting $800,000 of annual compensation. But overpaid bureaucrats are not the only problem. California politicians are experts at wasting money in other ways, such as the supposedly high-speed rail boondoggle that was supposed to cost $33 billion and now has a price tag of $100 billion." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFinal Score: Dwight Howard 8,000,000 – Jerry Brown 0

Which States Are Most Drunk on Wine Taxes?

"I shared some fascinating details the other day about how federal taxes inhibited the development of America’s beer industry. And I’ve used a story about buddies sharing beer to illustrate the dangers of redistribution and class warfare. But this blog hasn’t paid much attention to wine. Well, thanks to this new map from the Tax Foundation, that oversight has been addressed. I reckon the politicians in Kentucky don’t have much use for those effete, wine-sipping bi-coastal elites?" Continue reading →

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Ron Paul: Let Market Forces Solve Organ Transplant Crisis

"Ten-year old cystic fibrosis patient Sarah Murnaghan captured the nation's attention when federal bureaucrats imposed a de facto death sentence on her by refusing to modify the rules governing organ transplants. Even though Sarah's own physician said she was an excellent candidate to receive an adult organ transplant, government officials refused to even consider modifying their rules. Fortunately, a federal judge intervened so Sarah received the lung transplant. But the welcome decision in this case does not change the need to end government control of organ donations and repeal the federal ban on compensating organ donors." Continue reading →

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Restaurant Shift: Sorry, Just Part-Time

"Rod Carstensen, owner of 11 Del Taco restaurants around Denver, began in April converting his mostly full-time workforce into one comprising mostly part-time help to minimize his health-care costs. He estimates the costs could have climbed by as much as $400,000 a year without the change. Mr. Carstensen had 180 full-time and 40 part-time workers and is in the process of switching to 80 full-time and 320 part-time workers who clock no more than 28 hours per week. He is plowing ahead despite the Obama administration's reprieve, he said, because 'we need to get there anyway, and it will take until January 1, 2015, to make this transition.'" Continue reading →

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Paul Craig Roberts: Coup d’etat

"During my professional life it was Soviet Russia that persecuted truth tellers, while America gave them asylum and tried to protect them. Today it is Washington that persecutes those who speak the truth, and it is Russia that protects them. It is not the US that is damaged by Snowden’s revelations. It is the criminal elements in the US government that have pulled off a coup against democracy, the Constitution, and the American people who are damaged. It is the criminals who have seized power, not the American people, who are demanding Snowden’s scalp. The Obama Regime, like the Bush/Cheney Regime, has no legitimacy." Continue reading →

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‘Synthetic pot’ cases hard to prosecute, but family businesses lose everything anyway

"In March, police raided Dennis and Christie England's shop on the fringes of historic downtown Norman and effectively shut the business down, accusing the pair of selling dangerous synthetic marijuana to the public. Police seemed confident even though XLR-11 — the chemical compound present in the hundreds of grams of synthetic marijuana seized at the Englands' shop in March — wasn't even on Oklahoma's ban substance list. Yet after a June 24 preliminary hearing before a judge in Cleveland County District Court, the case against the couple — who has since lost everything — was dismissed." Continue reading →

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Georgia prepares to execute mentally disabled prisoner under secrecy law

"The second legal challenge, put before Georgia state courts last Friday, concerns the new Lethal Injection Secrecy Law passed recently by the Georgia assembly that allows the department of corrections to obtain supplies of the sedative pentobarbital in secret. The legislation bypasses normal freedom of information rules by declaring the identity of drug suppliers a 'state secret' in an attempt to circumvent a growing boycott of medical drugs used in executions. The Georgia department of corrections is understood to be seeking pentobarbital to kill Hill through a compounding pharmacy, though it is using the new secrecy law to keep details of the supplier obscured." Continue reading →

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Republican governor pushes to restore vote to nonviolent felons in Virginia

"While Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) touted his plan to restore voting rights to the state’s nonviolent felons, advocacy groups were split in their assessment as to how much impact it could have. The Washington Post reported on Monday that the plan could impact about 100,000 former prisoners. Since 2010, McDonnell’s administration has approved 5,235 to return to the voting pool. But without electronic records before 1995, state officials also have a hard time locating former felons who are potentially eligible to renew their voting rights, and are turning to felons’ rights groups for assistance." Continue reading →

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Federal Reserve studying effect of Paypal and Bitcoin on banking

"The U.S. is studying the potential risk from online payment mechanisms like PayPal and Bitcoin, a top US Federal Reserve official told an international conference on Monday. Some bankers have expressed worries that newer players in the online marketplace could have negative implications for the financial system. 'We have been talking… with banking organisations over the last year or two, trying more carefully to understand what the concerns are with these new payment mechanisms,' Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen said. Some officials fear the virtual currency can be used by criminals or terrorists, or could be vulnerable to hackers." Continue reading →

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