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Illinois Health Officials Shut Down 11-Year-Old's Cupcake Business
UPI ^ | Jan. 29, 2014 | Evan Bleier

Posted on 01/29/2014 11:55:18 AM PST by nickcarraway

Sixth-grader Chloe Stirling learned a tough lesson about government regulation of small businesses, no matter how delicious they are.

The Belleville News-Democrat ran a story about an 11-year-old girl making about $200 a month selling cupcakes that apparently left a bad taste in the mouths of Illinois health officials.

Middle-schooler Chloe Stirling of Troy, Ill., quickly learned a tough lesson about government regulation on small businesses after the story ran on Sunday. Madison County Health Department officials informed her family that the pastry party was over on Monday.

“They called and said they were shutting us down,” said Chloe’s mother, Heather Stirling.

According to the Post-Dispatch, health officials informed the Stirlings that they would have to “buy a bakery or build her a kitchen separate from the one we have” for Chloe to continue selling cupcakes.

“Obviously, we can’t do that,” Heather said. “We’ve already given her a little refrigerator to keep her things in, and her grandparents bought her a stand mixer. But a separate kitchen? Who can do that?”

Chloe was charging $10 for a dozen cupcakes and $2 specialty cupcakes. "I'm saving for a bakery," Chloe said in the piece that got her into trouble.

“The rules are the rules. It’s for the protection of the public health,” said health department spokeswoman Amy Yeager. “The guidelines apply to everyone. People will react how they choose to react. But it is our job.”

Chloe’s mother indicated she would be willing to get the necessary licenses and permits for her middle-schooler to continue operating her small business -- after a tough lesson on government regulation.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Food; Local News
KEYWORDS: bureaucracy; business; cupcakes; foodpolice; foryourowngood; illinois; nannystate
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To: nickcarraway

” - - - an 11-year-old girl - - - “

Just because this young woman does not yet need Obamacare-approved female products, it is just awful that the Democrats continue their War on Women!

Just wait until Democrat Woman Mentor Sandra Fluk hears about this!

Gasp! What if Mrs. Bill Clinton read about it in the New York Times?!


21 posted on 01/29/2014 12:11:57 PM PST by Graewoulf (Democrats' Obamacare Socialist Health Insur. Tax violates U.S. Constitution AND Anti-Trust Law.)
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To: bgill

The newspaper article “turned her in.”


22 posted on 01/29/2014 12:15:15 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: grundle; USNBandit; RitaOK; All

A new Cup cake Rule:

RUN! Here come THE REGULATORS!


23 posted on 01/29/2014 12:16:42 PM PST by Graewoulf (Democrats' Obamacare Socialist Health Insur. Tax violates U.S. Constitution AND Anti-Trust Law.)
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To: nickcarraway

Here's Amy. I thought she'd be a friend of the cupcakes.

24 posted on 01/29/2014 12:17:26 PM PST by thefactor (yes, as a matter of fact, i DID only read the excerpt)
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To: All

The order was given by Michele (Ms Wookie) Obama....
The cupcakes were too good to be “healthy”....


25 posted on 01/29/2014 12:17:52 PM PST by JW1949
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Never call the police or the press.

Excellent advice.

Now isn't that praiseworthy encouragement for a young entrepreneur?

The more I read things like this, the more I realize that governments are out of control and that regulators and ordinary citizens have lost their minds.

26 posted on 01/29/2014 12:30:22 PM PST by elkfersupper
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To: elkfersupper
What I meant to say was never TALK to the police or the press, which would include not calling them.
27 posted on 01/29/2014 12:35:04 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The only way women can "have it all" is if men aren't allowed to have anything.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I agree with you.


28 posted on 01/29/2014 12:41:08 PM PST by elkfersupper
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To: thefactor

GUILTY.

Probably had to shut the girl down just to keep herself from eating all of them.


29 posted on 01/29/2014 12:43:58 PM PST by To Hell With Poverty (Ephesians 6:12 becomes more real to me with each news cycle.)
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To: nickcarraway

I just turned 60. This story strikes at the heart of why I chose to never start my own “legitimate” business. I just don’t want the headaches.


30 posted on 01/29/2014 12:44:04 PM PST by cuban leaf
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To: Blood of Tyrants
Words repeated by tyrants for centuries.

Yup.

"Necessity was the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It was the argument of tyrants; it was the creed of slaves."

31 posted on 01/29/2014 12:53:14 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts ("The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it." - George Orwell)
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To: nickcarraway; Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Nanny State Ping!

I make and sell jellies, preserves and mustards and other than paying the fee for a table at the various farmers’ markets, street fairs, etc I’ve had no issues with any government regulators - even when I was selling them at a stand we erected on our road front in front of the house.

I have a friend in PA who is now doing something similar (without the road side stand) but had to go through all kinds of regulatory hoops just to sell them at the local farmers’ market. Each time she wants to add a new flavor mustard or jelly she has to get it approved AND the label approved.

She is one of my oldest and dearest friends, but we have total opposite attitudes about things like this. She is of the mind set of the official who claims this is for “public health,” while I am of the same opinion as have been expressed in this thread.


32 posted on 01/29/2014 1:05:36 PM PST by Gabz (Democrats for Voldemort.)
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To: nickcarraway

We had a rare bit of common sense here, last summer. The local park is near a gated community, and some kids had a koolaid stand, partially on the sidewalk, out front. One of the OC housewives took it upon herself to call the Sheriff’s Dept., due to the ‘obstruction’. I happened to be there, when the Deputy rolled up. He not only determined the stand was not a problem, he bought a cup of koolaid :)


33 posted on 01/29/2014 1:20:41 PM PST by jttpwalsh
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To: nickcarraway

This is the state of illinois. The proper way to handle this situation is to bake a dozen cupcakes for the state health officials...and dont forget to tape a 10 dollar bill to each cupcake.


34 posted on 01/29/2014 1:39:36 PM PST by lowbridge
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To: lesko

Seems to me there was a fictional book a while back wherein the people started to react to petty tyrants like this... individually, anonymously, and “finally”...

Henry Bowman, pick up the white phone, it’s Claire.


35 posted on 01/29/2014 1:41:27 PM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: YHAOS

Exactly.
If they let this 9 yr old save up money to buy a bakery,
that means that she’ll own her own business,

and won’t be working for a large company controlled by the government,
or directly on the dole.


36 posted on 01/29/2014 1:42:48 PM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: nickcarraway

37 posted on 01/29/2014 1:45:32 PM PST by kcvl
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To: nickcarraway

38 posted on 01/29/2014 1:46:34 PM PST by kcvl
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To: Cowboy Bob
"I wonder if the State wanted her to join a union too?"

The bottom line is somebody in the Chicago Machine didn't get their vig from the little girl so she was squashed...

Its the Chicago way...

39 posted on 01/29/2014 1:48:41 PM PST by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: Mad Dawgg

Bureaucrats like this oaf who shut the budding entrepeneur down make me ill. The idiot government “worker” should be shunned in the community. What an unfeeling ghoul.


40 posted on 01/29/2014 2:56:11 PM PST by ogen hal (First amendment or reeducation camp)
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