Free Republic

If the government wants to make progress in lowering obesity rates, it needs to start regulating fatty foods much the way it does tobacco. That's the recommendation from a pair of international health organizations pushing policies it says would answer the obesity epidemic. Specifically, the groups recommend that the government control the way the food and beverage industry advertises, to ensure companies aren't implying unhealthy food is good for children and adults. Additionally, they advise governments to require statements on food packaging about how high or low the content of salt, saturated fat, and sugar is in relation to dietary...

Legislation aimed at preventing enforcement of potential federal limits on woodstove emissions has been introduced in the Michigan legislature. Senate Bill 910, which was introduced on April 24 by Sen. Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba, would prohibit the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality from imposing new state regulations limiting emissions from woodstoves and heaters, or enforcing federal regulations that do so. In January, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed rule changes that would dramatically tighten emissions requirements on new wood-powered heaters. Sen. Casperson "We believe environmental groups are really the ones behind those who have told the EPA they have concerns about wood...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed changes to oil refinery rules that would compel operators to monitor benzene emissions, upgrade storage tank emission controls, ensure waste gases are properly destroyed and adopt new emission standards for delayed coking units. The move is part of a consent decree that resolved a lawsuit filed by nonprofit environmental attorneys with Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project.

The Wall Street Journal has a good "Weekend Interview" piece with Bob Woodson, head of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise. The group works in low-income areas to foster entrepreneurship, value creation and faith-based enterprises. The whole interview is interesting, but one part in particular relating to government mandates for occupational licensing stuck out: Mr. Woodson says that many poor communities don't need another government program so much as relief from current policies. 'For instance, a lot of people coming out of prison have a hard time obtaining occupational licenses,' he says. Aspiring barbers, cabdrivers, tree trimmers, locksmiths and the like,...

You wouldn't think that the old saw, "Good help is hard to find," had anything left to it, what with last week's unemployment report out of the U.S. Department of Labor showing unemployment in America is still 6.3%. The fact that hourly wages in America grew a measly 1.9% over the past 12 months tends to suggest there's little slack in the jobs market, too. (After all, if it was hard to find good help, wouldn't it stand to reason that employers would be paying through the nose to attract workers?) In one industry, they may have to: trucking. Help...

Yes, someone is actually tracking the hidden weight of all those pesky federal regulations. Here’s the startling news: it cost Americans $1.9 trillion last year to comply with myriad rules and protocols that are issued at the rate of 3,500 a year - this according to one Clyde Wayne Crews, vice president for policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The regs are, in essence, like a hidden tax, he says.

For reasons passing understanding, the FDA announced recently that it was moving forward with invoking its authority to regulate cigars, along with other forms of tobacco. It’s a part of the Tobacco Control Act, signed into law in 2009, which gave the agency the option of casting its net down on cigars at the time of its choosing. In other words – it was only a matter of time before bureaucrats decided to be bureaucrats. It’s not set into stone, yet. Between now and July 9 the FDA will accept comments on its proposals, at which point it will the...

Washington (CNN) -- Flooded rail lines. Bigger, more frequent droughts. A rash of wildfires. Those are some of the alarming predictions in a White House climate change report released Tuesday, part of President Barack Obama's broader second-term effort to help the nation prepare for the effects of higher temperatures, rising sea levels and more erratic weather. "Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present," the National Climate Assessment says, adding that the evidence of man-made climate change "continues to strengthen" and that "impacts are increasing across the country." "Americans are noticing changes...

He is regularly briefed on scientific reports on the issue, including a national climate assessment that he will help showcase Tuesday. He is using his executive authority to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other sources, and is moving ahead with stricter fuel-efficiency standards for the heaviest trucks. “He’s spending money, in my view, in the wrong place,” Duncan said in an interview. “He needs to be focused on the economy, and the balance has gotten out of hand.”

It’s different when you’re on the receiving end. The former Michigan Democratic congressman, liberal pit bull, academic, antiwar firebrand and labor-union BFF has undergone an epiphany, making him simpatico with businesses and the profit motive.When his family approached him more than four years ago about starting Zest, Bonior became a scrappy entrepreneur. He used his congressional access to knock on every one of 435 congressional offices, dropping off a flier for Zest. He worked the Metro stations, handing out coupons. He went door-to-door, as if he were campaigning.“We kept thinking of ways to reach out.”He knew it was risky. Most...

After years of rapid growth during the Obama administration, the cost of federal regulations is now bigger than the entire economies of all but nine countries in the world. That's according to the latest annual report on the regulatory state issued by the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute, titled "Ten Thousand Commandments." Compiling reports of compliance costs from various government agencies and outside sources, author Clyde Wayne Crews found that the "regulation tax" imposed on the economy now tops $1.86 trillion. By comparison, Canada's entire GDP is $1.82 trillion. India's is $1.84 trillion. The problem, Crews notes, is that the combined...

Throughout the country, states are looking for ways to energize their economies and become more competitive. Each state confronts this task with a set of policy decisions unique to their own situation, but not all state policies lead to economic prosperity. Using years of economic data and empirical evidence from each state, the authors identify which policies can lead a state to economic prosperity. Rich States, Poor States not only identifies these policies but also makes sound research-based conclusions about which states are poised to achieve greater economic prosperity and those that are stuck on the path to a lackluster...

The Department of Energy is looking to regulate two types of household lamps. The Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy announced Monday in the Federal Register it is considering new energy conservation standards for general service fluorescent lamps (GSFLs) and incandescent reflector lamps (IRLs). The Energy Department estimates the rules will save the public billions in energy bills over the next three decades and have substantial environmental benefits. But the agency also expects the rules will cost manufacturers more than $90 million, which could lead some to close up shop and cut jobs. It is weighing the...

WASHINGTON – The federal government wants to ban sales of electronic cigarettes to minors and require approval for new products and health warning labels under regulations being proposed by the Food and Drug Administration. While the proposal being issued Thursday won't immediately mean changes for the popular devices, the move is aimed at eventually taming the fast-growing e-cigarette industry.

It’s an improvement, I suppose, over that one time last year when they actually tried to penalize refiners for not complying with the previous year’s standard which also vastly overestimated the amount of the required cellulosic biofuels that would exist in the real world rather than inside their self-righteous faux-green fantasies, but… that is hardly cause for celebration. Via The Hill: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday retroactively lowered the volume of cellulosic biofuel that refiners must blend into traditional fuels, aligning the 2013 mandated volume to the actual amount of fuels produced.EPA’s original mandate for 2013 was based...

With the exception of the IRS I think we have gotten the unwanted attention of just about every federal, state and local agency that exists. The gauntlet of regulations, fees and penalties have become so daunting that our management team just withdrew our permit application and decided not to pursue the expansion in our county or even state. The deck is so stacked against business today it is necessary to ask oneself if the goal of our government is to create a post industrial society out of America

So many businesses are just someone’s dream—to make an honest living, to serve the community something it’s missing, to use talents to their greatest potential. Every roadblock the government erects makes those dreams slightly less possible. And, those roadblocks aren’t tripping up the lavishly rich. In this case, an unnecessary regulation in Mississippi was keeping hundreds of working- and middle-class black women from making a living doing something their community wanted to pay them for— hairbraiding. One woman fought for seven years to change that. The result is pretty much the whole reason I believe what I believe.I’ve known this...

Anyone wondering why the U.S. economy can't seem to grow at its usual pace should examine one product category where production is booming: federal regulation. Washington set a new record in 2013 by issuing final rules consuming 26,417 pages in the Federal Register. While plenty of government employees deserve credit for this milestone, leadership matters. And by this measure President Obama has never been surpassed in the Oval Office. The latest rule-making tally comes from the Competitive Enterprise Institute's Wayne Crews, who on April 29 will publish his annual review of federal regulation in "Ten Thousand Commandments." This is important...

(CNN) – Hoping to help close the gap between workers' skills and the needs of businesses, President Barack Obama on Wednesday will announce he's putting hundreds of millions toward job training programs that produce highly skilled workers. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will head to a community college in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania to make the announcement. The funding will come in two parts: $500 million toward a new job training competition that pairs community colleges with businesses, and $100 million for new apprenticeship programs to train workers. The White House says the new initiatives are meant to combat a...

Former Sen. Jim DeMint, the president of the Heritage Foundation, writes in his new book—“Falling in Love With America Again”—about the cozy relationship between big business and big government. “Almost all big corporations benefit from, advocate for, and downright like big government,” DeMint writes. […] “These big companies like to write regulations that make it harder for the smaller companies to compete with them,” DeMint said. “The large companies can deal with a regulatory maze much better than the small companies can. Like the big tobacco companies wanted the FDA to regulate cigarettes because they knew the smaller companies could...