Free Republic

The Alliance to Save Energy joined its honorary Board chair, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and her colleague Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) in unveiling a bipartisan bill that its sponsors say will help our nation regain its economic footing and global leadership by deploying energy efficiency widely across the US. “At a time of extremely acrimonious partisanship on Capitol Hill, Sens. Shaheen and Portman have reached bravely across the political divide to help American consumers and businesses that are reeling from rising energy costs,” commented Alliance President Kateri Callahan. She continued, “The Alliance applauds Sens. Shaheen and Portman for their statesmanship...

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., is the lead player in a legislative effort, already endorsed by a handful of other senators, that would spend $60 million to develop a program that would charge consumers for the costs of installing drunk-driving interlock devices in vehicles. The proposal, S.510, was introduced this week in the U.S. Senate by Udall, who was joined by Sens. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Al Franken, D-Minn., Amy Klobuchar D-Minn., West John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. The legislation actually doesn't call for the technology to be installed in...

House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said Friday that he would reintroduce legislative language next week that would require large financial institutions to pay for federal mortgage assistance programs. Frank said his bill would allow four federal mortgage programs that Republicans are working to eliminate this month to continue operating without threatening to increase the U.S. budget deficit and debt. He said his bill would be similar to language that he tried unsuccessfully to include in financial reform legislation last year. "I don't mean to demonize, but I think Goldman Sachs, and Wells Fargo, and the Bank...

What makes no sense is that, despite all this unnecessary pain and calls for "shared sacrifice," the governor has shunned the one obvious measure that would moderate the severity of budget cuts: extending the personal income tax surcharge paid by the richest 5% of New York taxpayers. Preserving the surcharge, by itself, does not do a lot to help in the coming budget year, since it currently extends through Dec. 31. But it would make a $5 billion difference next year, when the state would otherwise face the second year in a row of deep cuts in school aid, Medicaid,...

If a RINO is a Republican In Name Only, let's coin a new acronym for David Brooks: RINYTO: Republican In New York Times Only. For only in the Gray Lady's bailiwick could Brooks be considered much of a Republican. Take his current column in the Times. Brooks warns Republicans on the verge of regaining power that it would be nothing short of a "tragedy" if they were to oppose . . . more government and higher taxes.

SNIPPET: “Tell me that the comprehensive plan is not about control,” she said. She reiterated concerns she has expressed during city meetings regarding the exclusion of the public from the process. “See, the majority of us were not invited,” Taylor-Restine said. A 21-member steering committee appointed by the City Commission drafted the plan, with the help of a consulting firm. It contains ideas and identifies priorities established during a 14-month process of meetings and hearings that by state law had to be open to the public. Any regulations initiated as a result of the comprehensive plan will have to go...

Impact for dietetics practitioners and consumers discussed in Journal of the American Dietetic AssociationSt. Louis, MO, September, 8, 2010 – The government's role in improving the nation's nutrition is now firmly established with nutritional labeling for restaurant meals now mandated across the United States as part of HR 3590 Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act. An article in the September issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association explains how state and municipal labeling laws developed and how the new national law will supersede these and replace them with a uniform standard. It also addresses the American Dietetic...

Reporting from Washington — President Obama on Monday is set to create a national stewardship policy for America's oceans and Great Lakes, including a type of zoning that could dramatically rebalance the way government regulates offshore drilling, fishing and other marine activities.

When the 20 agents arrived bearing a search warrant at her Ventura County farmhouse door at 7 a.m. on a Wednesday a couple weeks back, Sharon Palmer didn't know what to say. This was the third time she was being raided in 18 months, and she had thought she was on her way to resolving the problem over labeling of her goat cheese that prompted the other two raids. (In addition to producing goat's milk, she raises cattle, pigs, and chickens, and makes the meat available via a CSA.) But her 12-year-old daughter, Jasmine, wasn't the least bit tongue-tied. "She...

Drop 'miles per gallon' as fuel measure, says US National Research Council The US National Research Council has said that "miles per gallon" should not be used on its own in measuring a car's fuel use, backing a green motorist's group which called the measure "stupid". By Tom Chivers Published: 2:57PM BST 13 Jul 2010 The NRC said that the measure caused consumers to overestimate the importance of changes at high miles-per-gallon (mpg) values, and underestimate it at small ones. Particularly, it says: "Fuel economy data cause consumers to undervalue small increases (1-4 mpg) in fuel economy for vehicles in...

Film buffs might recognize the Los Angeles River as the gigantic concrete gutter used for car chases in "Grease," "Terminator 2" and other movies. But the river is something else for U.S. EPA: "a traditional navigable water." EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson's declaration of the cement-lined channel today as "navigable" is aimed at allowing her agency to enforce Clean Water Act protections throughout the river's 834-square-mile watershed.

Hundreds of New Yorkers, like others nationwide, have been making a few extra dollars by using sites such as AirBnB, Crashpadder, Roomorama, and Craigslist to sublet pullout sofas, living rooms, and whole apartments. But that may end soon. This week, New York state senators vote on a bill that would make it illegal for any homeowner or renter to sublet for less than a month. The new law would be a blanket ban on short-term rentals no matter how ethical the renter is. (It's always been illegal to violate co-op leases and condominium bylaws.) This proposed law is bad news...

A Democratic congressman is seeking to strip the word "navigable" from the 1972 Clean Water Act to allow the Environmental Protection Agency to surpass the limits imposed by a 2001 Supreme Court ruling on the kinds of waterways the agency can regulate. A Democratic congressman is seeking to strip the word "navigable" from the 1972 Clean Water Act to allow the Environmental Protection Agency to surpass the limits imposed by a 2001 Supreme Court ruling on the kinds of waterways the agency can regulate.

At a White House healthcare summit held Thursday, President Barack Obama urged Republican congressional leaders to consider working on several areas of common interest in the healthcare reform package, giving them a rough 6-week deadline before Democrats may consider using alternative measures to pass the plan. Obama named health insurance reform, the purchase of health insurance across state lines and medical liability reform among the top three areas where agreement could possibly be reached. Republicans argued they wanted to scrap all proposals on the table and rework a set of smaller steps to reform healthcare. For Democrats, starting over is...

First Lady to Governors: Address Child Obesity THE ASSOCIATED PRESS February 20, 2010 WASHINGTON (AP) -- First lady Michelle Obama appealed to governors on Saturday for help in reducing child obesity and said they had a moral and financial imperative to act. She praised states for their steps already and assured state leaders that the federal government had no interest in taking over their efforts. ''Let's stop wringing our hands and talking about it and citing statistics,'' she told governors at their winter meeting. ''Let's act. Let's move. Let's give our kids the future they deserve.'' The first lady found...

Video Either you do cap and trade or we do cap; no trade... Government given power to regulate every aspect of your life through EPA... The new socialism... States there will be a new revolution... watch video.

CHICAGO (AP) - Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher, researchers say. The estimate comes from an analysis of 30 years of national data, and it bolsters other recent evidence on the pervasiveness of youngsters at economic risk. It suggests that almost everyone knows a family who has received food stamps, or will in the future, said lead author Mark Rank, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis. "Your neighbor may be...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ____________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release June 23, 2009 EXECUTIVE ORDER - - - - - - - ESTABLISHING A WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL ON AUTOMOTIVE COMMUNITIES AND WORKERS By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Policy. Over the last decade, the United States has experienced a decline in employment in the auto industry and among part suppliers. This decline has accelerated dramatically over...

During the collapse of the Soviet Empire, Mikhail Gorbachev promoted the so-called "Third Way" as an alternative to free markets. This new way of governing would be neither capitalist nor communist, but something in between. In a similar vein, President Clinton said in his 1998 State of the Union address, "We have moved past the sterile debate between those who say government is the enemy and those who say government is the answer. My fellow Americans, we have found a Third Way." This Third Way calls for business and government to join hands as "partners." As Clinton told the Economic...

MILTON, Ontario (AP) -- The glowing amber dot on a light switch in the entryway of George Tsapoitis' house offers a clue about the future of electricity. A few times this summer, when millions of air conditioners strain the Toronto region's power grid, that pencil-tip-sized amber dot will blink. It will be asking Tsapoitis to turn the switch off -- unless he's already programmed his house to make that move for him. This is the beginning of a new way of thinking about electricity, and the biggest change in how we get power since wires began veining the landscape a...

MILTON, Ontario (AP) -- The glowing amber dot on a light switch in the entryway of George Tsapoitis' house offers a clue about the future of electricity. A few times this summer, when millions of air conditioners strain the Toronto region's power grid, that pencil-tip-sized amber dot will blink. It will be asking Tsapoitis to turn the switch off -- unless he's already programmed his house to make that move for him. This is the beginning of a new way of thinking about electricity, and the biggest change in how we get power since wires began veining the landscape a...

BOSTON - Come Jan. 1, Massachusetts residents who still haven’t signed up for health insurance will start racking up fines on a monthly basis. Those penalties may be up to half of the monthly premiums for the least expensive health care plan available, although the exact amount of the fines is expected to be announced as soon as this week. That’s on top of the loss of the $219 personal tax exemption for anyone not insured by the end of December. The fines are part of an increasingly more aggressive approach written into the state’s landmark health care law designed...

While the NFL has insisted that it is committed to helping disabled former players, the league does not maintain records of which players, or how many, are driven from the game by injury, ESPN.com has learned. That fact is contained in more than 2,000 pages of documents the NFL and NFL Players Association delivered to the House Judiciary Committee last month. It has startled members of Congress who are investigating the NFL's disability benefits. And it has added to a growing feeling among key members of the House and Senate that the league's business practices deserve increased scrutiny and possibly...

Counting on Failure, Energy Chairman Floats Carbon Tax WASHINGTON, July 6 — A powerful House Democrat said on Friday that he planned to propose a steep new “carbon tax” that would raise the cost of burning oil, gas and coal, in a move that could shake up the political debate on global warming. The proposal came from Representative John D. Dingell of Michigan, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and it runs directly counter to the view of most Democrats that any tax on energy would be a politically disastrous approach to slowing global warming. But Mr. Dingell,...

Drivers, students, dogs, smokers will be affected SACRAMENTO – California's government has made about 900 New Year's resolutions for you. Eat your veggies. Go to the dentist. Don't smoke in parking garages. Pay low-wage workers more. No cruising in a car trunk. Leave Fido at home on hot days – but don't tether him in the yard either. Oh, and don't bribe your local politician. But unlike easily broken promises to ourselves, these resolutions are law starting today. Some even clarify what you can do, instead of can't do. Among those: charities can host casino nights after years of police...

New York City first in U.S. to ban artificial trans fats in restaurant food.

According to the authoritative Politics In America, back in 1989 Congressman James Oberstar (D-MN), the presumptive chairman of the House Transportation Committee in the next Congress, led an effort to force President George H.W. Bush to intervene on the side of the unions in the bitter strike at Eastern Airlines. His effort failed, but has anyone taken a ride on one of their flights recently? Now as Chair of a powerful House Committee he could help do to the infant US space tourism industry what he helped do to Eastern. In 2004 Congress passed the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act...

PASADENA - Caught between carboniferous rock and a hard place, city power officials will ask Sacramento next week for compromise on a pending coal-energy ban. The negotiations come as Pasadena decides whether to extend its contracts for imported coal-generated power to 2044 - a deal that will be prohibited from Jan. 1 under state law. The issue will not be discussed as planned Monday at City Council, where it likely would have died. "My feeling is if Sid \ is with us on this issue, they're not going to get five votes to push this thing forward," said Jim Stewart...

Cul-de-sacs are getting cul-de-sacked. Cities across the country — including many in Minnesota — are declaring war on the stubby dead-end streets that are icons of suburban life. Northfield has virtually banned cul-de-sacs, and many new suburban projects limit or eliminate them. "Why would anyone do that?" asked Sherri Fassbender, 41, on Thursday as she watched her children cavort on the quiet expanse of street that is her Woodbury cul-de-sac. "You'd have to be crazy not to want to live on a cul-de-sac." Families love them and officials hate them — for the same reason. Cul-de-sacs limit connections to the...

    RENO, Nev. (AP) -- The Bush administration will host a conference next week to discuss the recent rash of school violence across the country, the White House said yesterday.     Presidential spokeswoman Dana Perino said the conference will bring together education and law-enforcement officials to talk about the nature of the problem and federal action that can help communities prevent violence and deal with its aftermath.     Three schools have been hit by deadly attacks in the past week, the latest attack coming yesterday in Pennsylvania's Amish country.     "The president is deeply saddened and troubled by the recent school violence and shootings...

The Census Bureau last week released its latest estimate of the U.S. poverty rate... The 2005 poverty rate of 12.6 percent...was substantially higher than the 11.1 percent level back in 1973... The results seem to suggest a prolonged failure of national policies to address poverty. However, the problem here lies less with actual living conditions than with the flawed and misleading poverty measure .... Today's poor households are more likely to have telephone and television sets than non-poor households in 1970; much more likely to have central air conditioning than the typical home of 1980, almost as likely to have...

The following GLBT related legislation is currently in process in the California Legislature.  While some of these bills sound generic in nature, all are being supported by major GLBT activist organizations in California as advancing homosexual rights.  AB 606 - Safe Place to Learn Act Assemblymember Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys)Would require school districts to establish and publicize an antidiscrimination and antiharassment policy that prohibits discrimination and harassment as specified under current law, including, but not limited to, actual or perceived gender identity and sexual orientation and provides penalties for school districts found to be in violation of that law, including...

With hurricane season under way and images of Katrina lingering, state lawmakers are turning to the plight of pets in emergencies – an issue among a host of animal-related legislation to reach governors’ desks in recent weeks. Since May 22, the governors of Florida, Hawaii, New Hampshire and Vermont have signed bills that provide more protection for pets during emergencies. In Louisiana, where animal rights groups estimate thousands of pets died during Katrina, a bill passed by the Legislature June 15 has drawn national attention as the most sweeping attempt to keep pets and their owners together during disasters. Meanwhile,...

Starting July 1, California will begin enforcing the country’s first “car buyer’s bill of rights,” Virginia colleges will start cross-checking the names of incoming freshmen with sex-offender registries, and the face of Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich will be banned from state tourism ads. Also among a plethora of new state laws to take effect Saturday are new protections for breast-feeding moms in Alabama, Georgia’s toughest-in-the-nation restrictions on where sex offenders can live, and new solutions in Minnesota and Washington state to the digital age’s growing mounds of electronic waste. July 1 is the effective date of choice for new laws...

Virtually everything American society has done for the past 100 years has made it easier for us to be fatter, said James Sallis, a San Diego State University psychology professor, and others who gathered recently at the American College of Sports Medicine's annual meeting. "We've built an unhealthy world in a lot of different ways," said Sallis, who was once dubbed an "obesity warrior" by Time magazine. Sallis contends change will come only when the public demands walkable development, more federal money for parks and bike paths and even a tax on industries that promote sedentary lifestyles (he pointed to...