Free Republic

The state’s highest court dealt a financial blow on Thursday morning to the already beleaguered owners of the sprawling Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complexes in Manhattan when it ruled that they improperly began charging market rents on thousands of apartments. The ruling by the Court of Appeals may mean that the current owner, a partnership of Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty, and the former owner, Metropolitan Life, may have to pay an estimated $200 million in rent overcharges and damages to tenants of about 4,000 apartments. In a majority ruling (two of the six judges dissented), the...

From Bathtubs To Baptismal Fonts, Congress Moves To Give the Corps of Engineers and EPA Control Of All U.S. Waters Issue: Having been slapped down by the U. S. Supreme Court's two recent decisions that the words "navigable waters" in the Clean Water Act limited federal agencies to regulation of navigable waters only. Democrats and liberal Republicans in Congress are striking back. They are attempting to pass the Clean Water Restoration Act of 2009 (No House Number - S 787 In Senate) that would amend the 1972 Clean Water Act and replace the words "navigable waters" with "waters of the...

The Real Story Behind Thanksgiving Did you know that the first [Plymouth Colony Pilgrim's] Thanksgiving was a celebration of the triumph of private property and individual initiative?William Bradford was the governor of the original Pilgrim colony, founded at Plymouth in 1621. The colony was first organized on a communal basis, as their financiers required. Land was owned in common. The Pilgrims farmed communally, too, following the "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" precept.The results were disastrous. Communism didn't work any better 400 years ago than it does today. By 1623, the colony had suffered...

Mormon 'kiss-in' in Utah leads to shouting match JENNIFER DOBNER Associated Press Writer Jul. 19 SALT LAKE CITY -- A mass-kissing protest near the Mormon church temple Sunday drew a shouting match between gay activists and a group of faithful Mormons. For the second consecutive weekend, about 100 people gathered to stage a "kiss-in" to protest the treatment of two gay men cited for trespassing July 9 after they shared a kiss on the plaza owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both gay and straight couples exchanged kisses during the protest. Demonstrators were greeted at the...

More than 60 campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club and left to wonder if their race was the reason. "I heard this lady, she was like, 'Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?' She's like, 'I'm scared they might do something to my child,'" said camper Dymire Baylor. The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers' first visit to the pool suggested otherwise.

TOLEDO, Ohio — Residents of Toledo, Ohio, are complaining that they received $25 tickets for parking their vehicles in their own driveways. Mayor Carty Finkbeiner says he stands by the citations handed out last week by the Division of Streets, Bridges and Harbor. He says the tickets were issued under a city law against parking on unpaved surfaces, including gravel driveways. During a news conference Monday, Finkbeiner ignored a reporter's question of whether the crackdown and fines were related to the city's budget crisis. The three-term mayor faces a recall vote in November. Critics have claimed he has wasted city...

TOLEDO, Ohio – Residents of Toledo, Ohio, are complaining that they received $25 tickets for parking their vehicles in their own driveways. Mayor Carty Finkbeiner (FINK'-by-ner) says he stands by the citations handed out last week by the Division of Streets, Bridges and Harbor. He says the tickets were issued under a city law against parking on unpaved surfaces, including gravel driveways.

The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature. Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area. The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint. Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply...

Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic "shrink to survive" proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline. The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature. Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area. The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint. Having outlined his strategy...

Two pro-life demonstrators arrested recently on the Notre Dame campus will apparently have to stand trial. Days before President Barack Obama spoke at Notre Dame's commencement exercises in May, Laura Rohling and Jane Brennan conducted an informational picket on campus, using signs to educate students on abortion. They were arrested and spent seven hours in jail. Tom Brechja of the Thomas More Society represented them in a recent hearing and expected it to be settled -- but... "We ran into a brick wall," he recalls. "Turned out the prosecutor was very anxious to press the charges and said things to...

When the Pilgrims landed in 1620, they established a system of communal property. Within three years they had scrapped it, instituting private property instead. Hoover media fellow Tom Bethell tells the story. There are three configurations of property rights: state, communal, and private property. Within a family, many goods are in effect communally owned. But when the number of communal members exceeds normal family size, as happens in tribes and communes, serious and intractable problems arise. It becomes costly to police the activities of the members, all of whom are entitled to their share of the total product of the...

Beverly Anderson is mad as hell. She just started to get tickets for parking in her own driveway. That's right. The District of Columbia is ticketing people who park their cars in their own driveways. ---- So what does the law say? "Any area between the property line and the building restriction line shall be considered as private property set aside and treated as public space under the care and maintenance of the property owner." ----------- Basically what that means is most property owners in the District don't own the land between their front door and the sidewalk, but they...

The Kings Among Us -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 January 2007 ShareThisby Dr. Khalil Ahmad Once upon a time, there was a king. He was born in a city called Tikrit. He was brought up in a fatherless family with poor means of livelihood. He rose from being a street fighter to become a powerful king of Iraq. It may be objected that the story of Saddam Hussein cannot be narrated in such a manner. Because we are no longer living in medieval times. We are living in a modern or as is said in a post-modern age. But going through the details...

It says something about the dismal state of affairs in our country today by what outrages folks. Sure, if we want to portray business as the root of our economic ills, outrage about executives getting bonuses at a company that received taxpayer bailout funds has political sex appeal. Or perhaps that some company that got bailed out sent their managers to a fancy retreat somewhere. Or that maybe a bailed-out company sponsored a golf tournament. But where's the outrage about the circumstances that allow this all to happen to begin with? Where is the outrage about the ease with which...

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property...

The cluster of special federal tax benefits and subsidies for homeowners has long seemed politically untouchable. Those include deductions for mortgage interest, local property taxes and capital gains exclusions on up to $500,000 in sale profits. Is the Obama administration serious about beginning to limit at least some of these subsidies?

You may think you know all the intrigue and drama of Susette Kelo’s story. But be prepared to be outraged anew with the release of Little Pink House: A True Story of Defiance and Courage (Grand Central Publishing, January 26, 2009, $26.99), a first-rate nonfiction drama told by award-winning author Jeff Benedict. Benedict’s work takes readers behind the scenes—showcasing Kelo’s fight to save her home and New London Development Corporation President Claire Gaudiani’s effort to take it away. Little Pink House will rightfully transform Kelo from a hero in the fight for property rights into a popular legend in the...

Nettled by neighbors who clutter up their front yards with parked vehicles? You could work to outlaw this practice in your Houston neighborhood if the City Council approves a yard-parking ordinance on Wednesday's agenda. The proposed law would allow civic associations to apply for the prohibition, or for 60 percent of residents to apply by petition. City officials developed this “opt-in” process after efforts to enact a citywide ban failed in 2007. “I’m really excited that it’s finally come to council,” said Councilman James Rodriguez of District I, on the East Side. Rodriguez said that after crime, the problem of...

Joe Johnson's family has lived and worked on the same property near Columbus, N.M., for almost 100 years. "Our grandfather came here in 1918, right behind Pancho Villa," he says proudly. Yet he also admits, "If it wasn't home, I would move away from it." The Johnson ranch lies right up against the Mexican border, and illegal immigration has turned what was already a hard way to make a living on drought--plagued rangeland into a nightmare of stolen cattle, broken water lines,ruined fences and grass fi res. "In 2005, we had 500-plus people crossing our ranch every day," explains housewife,...

Beware of tripping over, sunbathing topless, cheating on your partner in public... - if there's a Google van passing by, the evidence will be forever set in a 360-degree photographic panorama and posted online for all to see. Google's ever increasing mapping applications are getting ever-increasingly closer to our personal lives. Suspicious minds won't need to bother with private detectives - they can simply log on to Google Maps and access the pedestrian-level view of the entire city - if they're lucky enough to live in Milan, Paris, or the majority of the US, New Zealand, Australia or Japan... Otherwise,...

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) | A church group that owns beachfront property discriminated against a lesbian couple by not allowing them to rent the locale for their civil union ceremony, a New Jersey department ruled Monday in a case that has become a flash point in the nation's gay rights battle. The New Jersey Division on Civil Rights said its investigation found that the refusal of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association to rent the oceanfront spot to the couple for their ceremony in March 2007 violated the public accommodation provisions of the state's Law Against Discrimination.

Gao Shuhuan points to the house that has been home to her for most of her life China's rapid economic growth has benefited millions of people, but it also increasingly has become the source for much domestic unrest as the widening wealth gap helps solidify a growing sense of social inequality. One flashpoint for Chinese people who are not wealthy is the loss of their homes, often by local authorities who seize the land and then sell it for big profits.  Forty-two-year-old Gao Shuhuan has lived in this home for nearly half her life. "This is my house. Within...

Imagine the frustration of the first Yankees, struggling mightily to convince their Puritanical brethren that private property — not communal wealth-sharing — brings prosperity, freedom and enlightenment. Were they mocked, burned as witches or simply ignored? How did they eventually sway the masses to their view? Not just temporarily, in a fine-whatever kind of agreement, but as the kind of deep change that, within just a handful of generations, saw the Puritans evolve into the rugged Yankees that would pen the world's first written constitution, establish individual freedoms, protect private property and free speech and eventually revolt against the British?...

When Barack Obama assumes office, this is the kind of “community activist” who will be heralded, celebrated, and subsidized. It’s easy to be so charitable with other people’s property: Max Rameau delivers his sales pitch like a pro. “All tile floor!” he says during a recent showing. “And the living room, wow! It has great blinds.” But in nearly every other respect, he is unlike any real estate agent you’ve ever met. He is unshaven, drives a beat-up car and wears grungy cut-off sweat pants. He also breaks into the homes he shows. And his clients don’t have a dime...

Council members caved in to demands from an angry crowd and delayed approving a neatness ordinance until officials explain every word of the 26-page document to Kenneth City residents. In what was estimated to be the largest crowd to ever attend a Kenneth City Council meeting, an outraged group of residents railed at the proposal that would regulate the upkeep of both the exterior and interior of all property in the town. The proposal basically sets standards for upkeep and appearance and gives town officials the right to enter homes. If the owner refuses to allow the official to enter,...

The Real Story Behind Thanksgiving Did you know that the first [Plymouth Colony Pilgrim's] Thanksgiving was a celebration of the triumph of private property and individual initiative?William Bradford was the governor of the original Pilgrim colony, founded at Plymouth in 1621. The colony was first organized on a communal basis, as their financiers required. Land was owned in common. The Pilgrims farmed communally, too, following the "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" precept.The results were disastrous. Communism didn't work any better 400 years ago than it does today. By 1623, the colony had...

A Kentucky college student has hired a lawyer after she was escorted out of a mall by security on Sunday because her dress was deemed too short, MyFOXBoston reports. Kymberly Clem, a 20-year-old student at Eastern Kentucky University, wore the dress Sunday after purchasing it from the mall in Richmond the previous day, the Richmond Register reported Tuesday. After just a few minutes inside of the mall, a security guard approached her and expressed concerns over the length of the garment. According to MyFOXBoston, the guard informed her that several female patrons had complained that she was disrupting their shopping...

The staff of Congressman Steve Cohen called police to his home today after an argument with an Armenian-American activist in town from California ended with Cohen physically pushing him out the side door. Peter Musurlian, a documentary producer for Globalist Films in Glendale, Calif., followed a reporter from The Commercial Appeal into Cohen’s Overton Park home, where the Congressman had invited local media to respond to a commercial from Nikki Tinker, his 9th Congressional District opponent in Thursday’s Democratic Primary, that Cohen called “more mudslinging.” When members of Cohen’s staff realized who the cameraman was – Cohen said Musurlian followed...

Peter Tubic ignored a $50 parking fine in 2004, and on Monday, it cost him his $245,000 house. In what city officials believe is the first case of its kind, the city foreclosed on Tubic's house on W. Verona Court after repeated attempts to collect the fine - which over the years had escalated to $2,600 - had failed. "Our goal isn't to acquire parcels," said Jim Klajbor, special deputy city treasurer. "Our goal is to just collect taxes. . . . It is only as a last resort that we would pursue . . . foreclosure." Milwaukee County Circuit...

THE SAD ROAD TO SOCLIALISM What happens When Private Property is No Longer a Right by John Loeffler Contributor, Steel on Steel Radio Program Co-host, Financial Sense Newshour July 18, 2008 “But if the government undertakes to control and to raise wages, and cannot do it; if the government undertakes to care for all who may be in want, and cannot do it; if the government undertakes to support all unemployed workers, and cannot do it; if the government undertakes to lend interest-free money to all borrowers, and cannot do it; if .... ‘The state considers that its purpose is...

Cuban President Raul Castro is giving over more state-owned land to private owners. http://youtube.com/watch?v=4xLR4g7wcN8

Court Nixes Private Club Smoking 06/05/2008 06:19:25 COLUMBUS, Ohio -- No smoking is still the rule for Ohio's private clubs. The vote was 4-3 in the State Supreme Court. That means there will be no reversal of an Appeals Court decision that blocks new rules that would exempt private clubs from the state's indoor smoking ban. Anti-smoking groups are pleased and so is the Ohio Licensed Beverage Association, which was afraid such an exemption would give private clubs an unfair advantage over public bars and restaurants.

Greenwich, CT (AHN) - A controversial plan for a 54,000-square-foot mansion proposed by Russian mogul Valery Kogan was rejected by officials after receiving a flurry of complaints from neighbors saying the house would be too large. The permit was denied Tuesday by the Greenwich Planning and Zoning Commission, halting construction of what would have been the largest single-family residence since the city began reviews back in 2001. Reports revealed that in order to construct the mansion, Kogan and his wife Olga were planning on tearing down a 20,000-square-foot home currently erected on the area they purchased in 2005. Commissioners reportedly...

Propositions that are on the June 3, 2008 Statewide Direct Primary Election Ballot Initiative Constitutional AmendmentProposition 98 1248. Government Acquisition, Regulation of Private Property. Constitutional Amendment. Proponents: Doug Mosebar, Jon Coupal and Jim Nielsen Bars state and local governments from condemning or damaging private property for private uses. Prohibits rent control and similar measures. Prohibits deference to government in property rights cases. Defines “just compensation.” Requires an award of attorneys fees and costs if a property owner obtains a judgment for more than the amount offered by the government. Requires government to offer to original owner of condemned property...

Says use of response team appropriate because of father's confrontational history GLENWOOD SPRINGS - Use of the Garfield County All Hazards Response Team (AHRT) was appropriate to seize Tom Shiflett's son for medical care because of Shiflett's confrontational history and repeated lack of cooperation, according to Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario. "I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think we would have been able to accomplish it with just the deputies we had on duty," Vallario said. "The end result of what happened was based on (Shiflett's) decisions, not mine." The team used force to break into Shiflett's home...

A businessman cited for displaying a gospel message on his own property is suing the town of Gouverneur, New York, accusing it of violating the U.S. Constitution's protection of free speech and private property rights.

PRAY - For rancher Randy Petrich, the removal of gray wolves from the endangered-species list - a move that would open up the animals to hunting in the Northern Rockies for the first time in decades - couldn't come soon enough. Petrich has seen fresh wolf tracks almost every morning this fall - close enough to threaten his cattle. "I believe that any wolf on any given night, if there happens to be a calf there, they will kill it," ... Just 12 years since the wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park ... federal officials say the sharp rise...

"[T]he right of acquiring and possessing property and having it protected, is one of the natural inherent and unalienable rights of man."[1] A few years ago, one noted political reformer applauded the "demise of property as a formal constitutional limit." A new view of the right to property had, in this author's opinion, begun to replace the old constitutional formalism of the inviolable and sacred right to property. Indeed, this new conception of property "requires incursions on traditional property rights. What once defined the limits to governmental power becomes the prime subject of affirmative governmental action."[2] The object or purpose...

This past week, Congress had an opportunity to permanently repeal the death tax by amending the Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007 to include language that ends the estate tax forever. This would have been a good provision in an overall bad bill. 212 Democrats were enough to keep this spectre looming on the horizon if the Bush tax cuts are not renewed in 2011. The bill passed without this silver lining and now we face big in increases taxes and penalties in the next five years. The underlying attitude behind this bill, and the estate tax, is what I...

The decision today is the latest in the lengthy case. The American Civil Liberties Union originally filed a lawsuit in 2001 on behalf of a man who said its location on federal land violated the U.S. Constitution. The original cross was erected in 1934 by a prospector to honor World War I veterans. The latest version was installed in the mid-1990s. President Bill Clinton authorized the Mojave National Preserve in 1996, including the land where the cross sits. The cross has been covered, first by a tarp and now by a box, as the case makes its way through the...

Man gets jail time for home improvement projects New, 5:30 p.m.: Rolling Hills Estates resident is sentenced to six months in jail for building a patio, fence and more without permits. By Megan Bagdonas STAFF WRITER He built a fence, a retaining wall, a patio and a few cement columns to decorate his driveway and now Francisco Linares is going to jail for it. Linares had been given six months to get final permits for the offending structures or remove them as part of a plea agreement reached in January, when he pleaded no contest to five misdemeanor counts of...

Anguished tales of property taken by state Tom Chorneau, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau Monday, July 2, 2007 (07-02) 04:00 PDT Sacramento -- Years ago, Carla Ruff stored her grandmother's jewelry and a file of personal documents in a safe-deposit box at her bank in San Francisco's Noe Valley, thinking they would always be there when she wanted them. Not so. Without giving her notice or acting on evidence that she'd forgotten about her cache, the bank's staff, under the auspice of the state, determined the contents of her box to be unclaimed property. In July 1997, bank records show, the pearl...

DMV probe keeps bikers off road Orange County kit bike owners aren't sure when they'll be able to ride or sell hand-built vehicles. Friday, June 22, 2007 BRIAN JOSEPH SACRAMENTO -- Dain Gingerelli says he locked up a sure sale of his motorcycle in April – about $10,000 for a kit bike he built himself. But two months later, the bike is gathering dust in his garage and the cash is in someone else's pocket. What happened? The state Department of Motor Vehicles, Gingerelli said, blocked the sale. It turns out Gingerelli used a kit made by Custom Chrome Inc....

Gov. Rick Perry’s veto this week of an eminent domain bill designed to protect landowners left a lot of Texans scratching their heads, and you can lump us in with those feeling dumbfounded. Perry — who was among those making political hay when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that cities can seize homes under eminent domain for use by private developers and made the issue an emergency item in a special session that same year — had a chance to back his tough talk and posturing on property rights with action. But when push came to powerful shove...

LUBBOCK, Texas — One Central Texas farmer said Monday he was "dumbfounded" by Gov. Rick Perry's veto of an eminent domain bill designed to protect landowners when the state wants to take their property. Robert Fleming is not alone in an area worried about the massive Trans Texas Corridor proposal. The planned route cuts through Fleming's Bell County farms. He's bewildered by Perry's veto. "We were so close to getting something done," Fleming said. "We've worked hard trying to get private property rights." Perry vetoed the bill, and 48 others, Friday. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Kelo...

A Chinese appeals court has upheld a ban on a company from selling land on the moon, ruling that "celestial bodies" could not be anyone's property, state media said. Lunar Embassy to China, a Beijing-based company that sold plots of lunar land to individuals, sued the Beijing Administration of Industry and Commerce which revoked its business licence and fined it 50,000 yuan ($NZ9,200) in October 2005. Haidian District People's Court ruled against the company in November 2005. On Friday, the Beijing First Intermediate People's Court upheld that decision, Xinhua news agency said. The court cited an international treaty that China...

We're Not Taking It ANYMORE! As of today, February 21st.......just 8 months after the ban went into effect, we are smoking again! For those who have been to the Senate Committee meetings in Denver, and outraged over the lack of respect & concern for your business, we NEED you to join the protest. Enough is Enough! We have started to smoke again, and invite you to put those ashtrays out in your bars. We have tried everything else, and these legislators do not give a damn about your loss of business, or you having to close your doors. For those...

HARRISBURG - For 10 years, Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf has fought for legislation to make Pennsylvania smoke-free. Yesterday, just two weeks into a new session, his smoking-ban bill vaulted out of committee, carried by a tide of antismoking sentiment. "Public opinion," Greenleaf (R., Montgomery) said when asked what had cleared the way. "Support for it has increased." Add the fact that the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association - which had long objected to smoking bans - signed on last year, saying it was mindful rising health concerns for customers and employees. Greenleaf said support for smoking bans was running between 65 percent...

By Vin Suprynowicz For years, Garry Watson, 49, of little Bunker, Mo., (population 390) had been squabbling with town officials over the sewage line easement which ran across his property to the adjoining, town-operated sewage lagoon. Residents say officials grew dissatisfied with their existing easement, and announced they were going to excavate a new sewer line across the landowner's property. Capt. Chris Ricks of the Missouri Highway Patrol reports Watson's wife, Linda, was served with "easement right-of-way papers" on Sept. 6. She gave the papers to Watson when he got home at 5 a.m. the next morning from his job...

If there's a heaven, it will have a smoking section. And if there's a God, it will be located at Club Habana in Charleston, S.C. Reclining in an overstuffed chair, a Padron Anniversario Maduro in one hand, a perfectly blended martini in the other, a view of Meeting and Market on a summer's evening below ... who would want to disturb such an idyllic scene? Politicians, of course. You had to ask? The same Charleston City Councilmembers who banned "inappropriate language" from their public meetings (after a black activist dropped the "N-bomb") has now voted to strip private property owners...