Free Republic

As rising gasoline prices continue to shock drivers across the country, one small chain of Minnesota gas stations is challenging a state law that requires sellers to charge consumers a minimum price. Midwest Oil of Minnesota filed suit Monday in Ramsey County District Court, arguing the law is unconstitutional and hinders competition. In June, the state Commerce Department accused Midwest Oil of selling, offering or advertising gas below the state minimum on more than 160 occasions. Minnesota law prohibits retailers from engaging in unfair discrimination and competition by selling, offering or advertising gasoline below cost. State officials ordered Midwest Oil...

Is this tax trap waiting for you? By William Neikirk Tribune senior correspondent Sun Aug 21, 9:40 AM ET The AMT is coming after you. Congress passed the AMT, or alternative minimum tax, in 1969 to crack down on 155 super-rich people who had escaped paying taxes. But in the next few years, it will ensnare millions in the middle class and perhaps roil the nation's politics. This year nearly 4 million taxpayers are being hit by the AMT, but that number will soar to 20.5 million taxpayers next year and 51.3 million, or 45 percent of all taxpayers, by...

Once again, Mr. Ehrlich is kowtowing to the Pat Robertson/Jerry Falwell wing of the Republican Party. He's fearful that both bills are going to be petitioned to ballot next year (by members of his own party) and hurt his support among religious conservatives. That seems unlikely. The politics of an election year should prevent a veto override. But we'll give him this -- at least the governor has his limits. He chose not to veto legislation adding sexual orientation to Maryland's hate crime law and another that will require schools to monitor bullying. It was disappointing that Mr. Ehrlich felt...

At first glance, the term "gun nut" would appear to be nothing more than an ad hominem against the more enthusiastic weapon owners of this country. However, as one reads the literature espoused by gun nut organizations, the reasoning behind this term becomes startlingly clear. Gun nuts are called as such because they are incontrovertibly insane. The gun lobby has adopted the same attitude toward politics as Rush Limbaugh: "Don't confuse me with facts, I've got my mind made up!" Gun nuts are so obsessed with opposing gun control laws that no amount of factual evidence against their position will...

Statewide Hunting Proposal Runs Into Unfriendly Fire Proposal Would Make 16 Minimum Age To Hunt POSTED: 5:22 pm EST December 10, 2004 In North Carolina, you must be 16 years of age to get a driver's license, but there is no age requirement to hunt deer, turkey and other game. There is now a push to change that. VANCE COUNTY, N.C. -- A hunting accident is prompting a call for a minimum hunting age, but the proposal has run into some unfriendly fire. State law allows a child of any age to shoot game as long as a parent or...

The Navy has set minimum bid prices and deposit requirements for the planned auction of the old El Toro Marine base, scheduled to begin Jan 5. The minimum averages range from about $125,000 to just under $300,000 per acre but are expected to ascend quickly although the federal government reckons it will fall short of the nearly $1 million per acre that Tustin air base land fetched. That’s because plans for the 3,700-acre base call for large sectors to be left as wilderness areas or developed as parks. Still, interest in the land is expected to be intense. It will...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A bill to raise California's minimum wage to $7.75 an hour across the next two years is headed to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, providing a major test of his pledge to reject bills that "harm the state's business climate." Schwarzenegger is expected to veto the bill, which the state Assembly passed Monday, days after the Senate also approved it. Business groups that are among the governor's biggest financial supporters say they widely believe the governor will block the organized labor-backed bill. Democrats led a 43-31 vote to send the bill to the Republican governor after a fierce partisan...

SACRAMENTO - The wages of more than 1 million Californians would increase by a dollar an hour under legislation approved Thursday by the Democratic-controlled Senate. The bill by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, would raise the state's minimum wage 50 cents to $7.25 an hour next summer, and then to $7.75 an hour in January 2006. The measure, approved on a 22-14 vote, now returns to the Assembly for final approval, which is considered a formality, before it lands on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk.

July 18, 2004 Hourly Pay in U.S. Not Keeping Pace With Price Rises By EDUARDO PORTER he amount of money workers receive in their paychecks is failing to keep up with inflation. Though wages should recover if businesses continue to hire, three years of job losses have left a large worker surplus. "There's too much slack in the labor market to generate any pressure on wage growth,'' said Jared Bernstein, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research institution based in Washington. "We are going to need a much lower unemployment rate.'' He noted that at 5.6 percent,...

Ever thought that a minimum wage increase is good? I am sure most people at one time considered it, even a conservative or two, like me. But once logic and math sets in you realize that in reality minimum wage increases hurt. Lets do a little math game. Lets say the poverty level is a hypothetical $20000 for a single person living on a minimum wage at $6 an hour.This man barely gets by but he survives with little extra comfort.And Lets say 10% of the population lives at this level. Lets say another man who doesnt have a minimum...

How To Win Minimum Wage Argument March 3, 2004 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Fifteen years of service to humanity behind the Golden EIB Microphone, and yet these issues keep coming up. They keep needing to be explained, because there are people that keep tuning in, not just on this program, but getting interested in these issues, who instinctively, because they're very compassionate, think instinctively, raising the minimum wage, why, who's opposed to that? Why would anybody be opposed to raising the minimum wage? Why, you can't even live on it, why not raise it? And that's why it's an easy sell,...

For Immediate Release: March 1, 2004 Assembly Passes Labor Legislation Raising State Minimum Wage Bill Would Increase Hourly Rate From $5.15 To $7.10 Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver today announced the Assembly passed legislation aimed at lifting the minimum wage during the coming years to $7.10 an hour by 2006. In announcing the legislation at a Capitol news conference earlier today, Silver also released a report, "Rewarding Work: A Fair Minimum Wage." Joined by Assembly Ways and Means Chairman Herman "Denny" Farrell, Jr. and Labor Committee Chair Susan John, Silver pointed to the report's analysis of the state's current minimum wage...

<p>BOSTON — Mandatory minimum sentences are unfair and take away flexibility needed in the judicial process, said Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer.</p> <p>"There has to be oil in the gears. ... There has to be room for the unusual or the exceptional case," he told about 550 people Sunday at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum (search).</p>

There's a stealthy new political movement brewing that seeks to raise taxes, create unemployment and drive businesses to failure. It's well organized and well financed, and it's succeeding. It's the national "living wage" movement, whose basis is a philosophy that espouses in reality nothing more than a glorified local minimum wage that's isn't very minimum. The movement gets strong financial support from labor unions, liberal organizations (such as the Ford Foundation and the Tides Foundation) and social-activism groups. Advocates of a living wage have been unsuccessful getting states to increase minimum wages, so they've focused their powerhouse strategies on cities,...

The Walter Williams InterviewBy John HawkinsJohn Hawkins: You do a fantastic job filling in for Rush Limbaugh. Are we going to see a Walter Williams radio show coming up anytime soon? Walter Williams: No, I've been teaching for about thirty-five years and that would require a career change; I'm not quite ready for it. I've been offered jobs a couple of times... John Hawkins: Oh really? Would it have been a national show or starting in a big market? Walter Williams: It would have probably been syndicated. I was offered that some years ago and I turned it down. Every...

For years now, many Federal Judges have taken a stand against mandatory minimum sentences. Over 86% call for outright abolition of mandatory sentencing. Some Senior Federal Judges have refused to hear drug cases because of the long sentences they are bound by law to give defendants. Many Federal Judges are recording their dissent and we are collecting them here: Judge Robert W. Pratt - U.S. Southern District of IowaChief Judge Juan R. Torruella, U.S. Court of Appeals, First CircuitJudge Volney V. Brown Jr. Former US Magistrate,  Los Angeles (1982 to 1995)Judge Nancy Gertner, U.S. District Court, BostonU.S. Senior District...