Free Republic

It's another case of liberals who cannot get want they want via the legislative process trying to get judges to write it for them from the bench. To show you how out-there the enviro-lefties are on this, Chertoff used waivers authorized by Congress. You don't have to like them, but neither did the members of Congress who voted "no" on the legislation. BUT THEY LOST. You don't get to rewrite the damn law through the judiciary. People elected by Americans in the democratic process passed that legislation as the law of the land. You don't like it? Vote for some...

The Berkeley City Council referred to the Landmarks Preservation Commission a compromise proposal by Mayor Tom Bates to revise the city's landmarks preservation ordinance. The mayor was attempting to steer a middle course between property owners and developers, who find the landmarks ordinance unfairly burdensome, and preservationists, who regard the ordinance as their last bulwark against the destruction of the city's architectural heritage.Among the mayor's suggestions:• Create clear timelines to bring the ordinance into conformity with the state Permit Streamlining Act.• Increase the time period in which a citizen could initiate the landmarking process from 14 to 30 days, and reduce the...

The owner of a vast tract of virgin forest land in north-central Norway is in big trouble after chopping down trees on his own property. Newspaper Aftenposten reported Tuesday that the 54-year-old forest owner has been sentenced to six months in jail for chopping down the trees on his land in Flatanger, Nord-Trøndelag. The trees he chopped were in an area that was part of an officially designated nature preserve. An appeals court in Nord-Trøndelag ruled that the forest owner intentionally launched the logging operation, in the hopes that the area would thus lose its nature preserve status. Illegal logging...

<p>California's property tax could well be the most regressive tax on the planet. The passage of Proposition 13 and the subsequent large increase in real-estate values provide a tax system in which the wealthier pay, even on an absolute basis, considerably less tax.</p>