Free Republic

DENVER — The owner of the Colorado’s Gold King Mine says he tried to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from gaining access to his property, but that he relented after the agency threatened to pound him with ruinous fines if he refused. Mine owner Todd Hennis said that he had little choice four years ago but to allow in an EPA-led crew, which triggered the Aug. 5 blowout that sent 3 million gallons of toxic orange wastewater down the Animas River. “When you are a small guy and you’re having a $35,000 a day fine accrue against you, you have...

The "News" section of the Godfrey-Lee Public Schools website features a link to Superintendent David Britten’s personal blog, “Superintendent's Notes," which includes an article, "Proposal 1 Straight Talk." The article circles back to comments from another individual who holds a position of public trust in the district, reporting that “Eric Mockerman, president of the Godfrey-Lee school board, said he thinks a 1-cent sales tax increase is minimal amount to pay for what residents end up getting out of a yes vote for their roads, schools and cities.” Read some more on the same page and you'll find that the "Godfrey-Lee...

<p>30,000 deleted emails… Bill Whittle looks at the lawlessness, the arrogance, and the unmasked contempt that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have for the American people.</p>

GETTING a $50 ticket for missing a red light is unpleasant enough. But when it is received in the mail without warning, generated from an unmarked camera, it can cause resentment. “If there were signs up, yes, I’d feel differently,” said Dan Rosenbaum after he received his camera-based ticket for an infraction in Brooklyn. Mr. Rosenbaum’s reaction is common among drivers who question whether the cameras are deployed to prevent accidents or to generate revenue. The absence of a caution sign can raise suspicions. In New York, there are red-light cameras at 150 intersections; none of the cameras are marked....

Reima Kuisla, a Finnish businessman, was recently caught going 65 miles per hour in a 50 zone in his home country—an offense that would typically come with a fine of a couple hundred dollars, at most, in the U.S. But after Finnish police pulled Kuisla over, they pinged a federal taxpayer database to determine his income, consulted their handbook, and arrived at the amount that he was required to pay: €54,000. The fine was so extreme because in Finland, some traffic fines, as well as fines for shoplifting and violating securities-exchange laws, are assessed based on earnings—and Kuisla's declared income...

Ferguson has allowed its focus on revenue generation to fundamentally compromise the role of Ferguson’s municipal court. The municipal court does not act as a neutral arbiter of the law or a check on unlawful police conduct. … Our investigation has found overwhelming evidence of minor municipal code violations resulting in multiple arrests, jail time, and payments that exceed the cost of the original ticket many times over. One woman, discussed above, received two parking tickets for a single violation in 2007 that then totaled $151 plus fees. Over seven years later, she still owed Ferguson $541—after already paying $550...

**SNIP** So Thursday, the FEC sent Jackson’s campaign committee its eighth consecutive failure-to-file notice. It must file its end-of-the year report for 2014 or face a penalty. (Perhaps that threat rings a bit hollow when you’re already in jail?) In August 2014, the FEC fined Jackson for nearly $18,000 for not filing reports in 2013, according to the Chicago Tribune. He must formally terminate his committee to get the FEC off his back, but his treasurer quit in September 2013, and so it seems there’s no person responsible for doing the necessary paperwork. Since his last report in November 2012,...

Don't have health insurance? Get ready to pay up. The ObamaCare-mandated fines for not having insurance are rising in 2015 -- and for the first time, will be collected by the Internal Revenue Service. The individual requirement to buy health insurance went into effect earlier this year. But this coming tax season is the first time all taxpayers will have to report to the IRS whether they had health insurance for the prior year. The fines for the 2014 year were relatively modest -- $95 per person or 1 percent of household income (above the threshold for filing taxes), whichever...

**SNIP** With just under 25 million people enrolling in the federal and state health exchanges (including Medicare and Medicaid recipients), plus the estimated 150 million who have employer-paid health care plans, there are still some 62 million people who would have to pay a penalty but likely will not. For those who do the math the IRS apparently did not, that’s a potential loss of nearly $6 billion in revenue.... But wait, it gets worse. Some 3.6 million more people were laid off during the year and lost their health benefits — becoming liable for some or all of the...

**SNIP** The figures, released late Thursday, cap the fine for not buying insurance at $2,448 per person and $12,240 for a family of five. The standard rule of thumb is 2% of household income, with a minimum of $325 per person. The caps are equal to the national average premium for a bronze-level health plan. Those who choose to go uninsured will owe one-twelfth of the annual payment for each month they or their dependents don’t have either coverage or an exemption, the IRS said. All fines will be due during tax return season, which can be deducted from tax...

Cities throughout California will have to impose mandatory restrictions on outdoor watering under an emergency state rule approved Tuesday. Saying that it was time to increase conservation in the midst of one of the worst droughts in decades, the State Water Resources Control Board adopted drought regulations that give local agencies the authority to fine those who waste water up to $500 a day. Many Southern California cities, including Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Long Beach, already have mandatory restrictions in place. But most communities across the state are still relying on voluntary conservation, and Californians in general have fallen...

**SNIP** Obamacare stipulates that employees are eligible for healthcare benefits if they work 30 hours a week. As a result, the district would not be able to pro-rate the coverage cost, leaving part-time employees who want health insurance to enroll through the exchanges. The district reports that the cost of insuring part-time employees is uncertain right now, but by not offering insurance, the district could have to pay nearly $2 million in fines.

Businessman Percy Nilsson, 71, was perhaps best known for his ownership of his local Malmö Redhawks ice hockey team, but has lately been making headlines after a power-drill attack on an ice cream truck. On Friday, he was ordered to pay a fine of 100,000 kronor ($15,500) by the Malmö District Court. He was also sentenced to pay for the loss of income that the ice-cream truck owner faced after the vandalism. "It was a really tough sentencing and it's sad that it ended this way," Nilsson told the TT news agency. He lamented that he had already paid for...

Del. Bob Marshall, R-Manassas, has introduced a bill that would give farmers and landowners’ property rights remedies against local zoning laws. The bill is inspired by the Martha Boneta debacle last year. But unlike last year’s “Boneta Bill,” HB1219 extends beyond farmers to anyone who owns property. The bill also tackles other issues such as the constitutional rights of farmers. HB1219 says that local governments that violate constitutional rights through zoning must pay their victims the amount of the fines they sought to impose and the actual damages, including attorney fees. The bill also allows the Virginia Attorney General to...

A headteacher has warned parents they will be fined £60 each if one of their children is a few minutes late for school. Both the pupil's mother and father will be forced to pay the penalty if they miss registration 10 times in a 12-week term. And if the fine issued by Emerson Valley School in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, is not paid within 21 days it will double to £120. Parents who have two children will be hit with a combined £240 penalty - which will double to £480 if not paid within three weeks. Education campaigners and parents said...

Donna Baker of Adrian, Mich., owns an accounting firm, payroll company and retail store. Her husband, Kim, is the sixth generation owner of a dairy farm. While the four businesses are separate entities, they count as one employer under the health-care law due to a technicality — Mrs. Baker is a minority stakeholder in the 1,800-acre property that her husband’s farm sits on, plus she helps out with some of the farm’s bookkeeping. As a result, the Bakers are subject to aggregation rules in the U.S. tax code, which means they would be required to offer health-insurance benefits to their...

Every time I post that the IRS is clearly forbidden from punishing you for not paying the fine/tax, I get the same fictional responses. Maybe their goal is to make it sound so scary so that Obamacare gets magically repealed(poof) , but given that wont happen anytime soon this misinformation can have the unintended consequence of fooling/scaring people into complying and helping make Obamacare work. I found the section in the bill text and will posted it below as a vanity for future reference skip tp SPECIAL RULES. CHAPTER 48—MAINTENANCE OF MINIMUM ESSENTIAL COVERAGE ‘Sec. 5000A. Requirement to maintain minimum...

When it comes to Obamacare, the big date we’ve heard for a long time is Jan. 1, 2014. That’s the day the Affordable Care Act takes full effect, requiring most Americans to be covered, or pay a fine. We’ve also heard that there’s a grace period — that in this first year, people have until March 31 get covered before the fine will kick in. But, whoops! It turns out that Mar. 31 date is wrong, the Obama administration confirmed to the Associated Press on Wednesday. In order to have coverage by March 31, you need to enroll by Feb....

CVS has agreed to pay a fine of more than $57,000 after state investigators found multiple, repeated instances of Wisconsin stores overcharging customers. The fine is the third that CVS has received for such violations in the past five years. The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection announced the settlement in a news release Wednesday. The agency conducted a statewide inspection of 28 CVS locations over two days in January. Inspectors found 37 instances where stores overcharged customers. Overall, stores overcharged on 2.64% of the items that inspectors checked. The inspectors subsequently ordered the prices corrected. But in...

The delay in implementation of ObamaCare's employer fines won't keep them from growing between now and when they finally hit in 2015. Each year, the fines will grow in line with the growth in average per-person health insurance premiums relative to 2013. Here's the problem: Average wages generally grow slower than health premiums, and the wages of low-income workers lag average wage growth. That means the penalties will gradually loom larger and larger relative to wages for modest-skilled workers, giving employers a bigger incentive to cut them to part-time. Even if health premiums grow at an average 3.5% annual rate...