Free Republic

The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to repeal net neutrality rules, over the objection of Democrats in Congress, Internet activists and online companies. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, and Commissioner Brendan Carr, all Republicans, supported the proposed rollback of the Obama-era rules. Democratic Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel opposed the change.

‘Twas two nights before Christmas, and all through their houses Every creature was busy, double-clicking their mouses. Christmas was coming, but there were still presents to buy-- Thank heavens overnight shipping allows boxes to fly. “But how can this be?” the people asked in their haze “With so many miles to cover, why aren’t there delays?” What allowed this to happen is a very old rule, That deregulated air cargo - isn't that cool! You see, express planes were smaller, unlike today. Bigger is better, but the law said “No way!” And if Fisherman Fred shipped lively lobsters from Maine...

Finding a pay phone along the Pennsylvania Turnpike is no easy task, with fewer than three dozen spread over the 360-mile span, plus its extensions. Soon, it will be impossible. “Slowly, we have been eliminating the pay phones as construction work takes place at the interchanges,” said Renee Colborn, a turnpike spokeswoman. “Approximately 15 pay phones have been eliminated this year, which leaves a total of 28 pay phones at various locations.”The culprit behind the pay phone's demise along the turnpike is the same as elsewhere: the cellphone. For that same reason, turnpike officials in September began removing more than...

'Doing better than Ronald Reagan' to cut rules! Under the Obama administration, the White House, the Department of Justice and other federal agencies repeatedly circumvented Congress by using guidance memos to create de facto regulations, changing laws without going through the review process. In less than a year, however, the Trump administration has dramatically scaled back government overreach, Merrill Matthews, a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation, told WND. “Guidance typically from the department means there is some question about how to do this, because of the way it was ambiguously written, so a federal agency would provide...

Justice Neil Gorsuch gave the most significant public address of his tenure on the nation’s highest court Thursday when he addressed the Federalist Society’s annual dinner, recently named in honor of the last man to hold his seat: Antonin Scalia. The newest Supreme Court justice took square aim at one of this year’s Federalist Society Convention’s main themes: the “administrative state,” the unelected mass of executive agency staff that actually creates most of the rules and regulations by which Americans live. Resistance of the administrative state’s growth and overreach is a driving force in the emergence of populist-nationalism and the...

Over the course of two years, Randy Hamilton built a single-story custom home in which he planned to live out his retirement with his wife, Lois. But by the end of the construction process, Hamilton found himself in a standoff with government officials who were threatening him with criminal prosecution and the possibility he might never be able to occupy or sell his new home. It all came about because Hamilton didn’t want to hire a contractor to calculate whether his air conditioning and heating system had been properly sized for his 1,500-square foot home. Hamilton is no novice when...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- The first company to obtain a permit for fracking in Illinois announced Friday it won't use it, citing market conditions and the state's "burdensome and costly" regulations. "The process we have gone through to receive a permit was burdensome, time consuming and costly due to the current rules and regulations of the state of Illinois, and it appears that this process would continue for future permit applications," Woolsey vice president Mark Sooter said in a statement. The Illinois Legislature in 2013 passed a law regulating fracking. At the time, the law was considered one of the...

After crossing the 23,000 line this week, the Dow is up nearly 5,000 points, or about 27 percent, since Election Day. It wouldn’t be there under a President Hillary Clinton or a Jeb Bush. No: Much of the credit has to go to the uncompromisingly pro-business President Trump — the antithesis of what the nation had seen the prior eight years. Nor is it just the stock market: Consumer confidence and economic optimism are up. And the Labor Department reports that claims for unemployment just dropped by 22,000 to 222,000 — the fewest since March 1973. And while, as Charles...

Political content on the internet, paid or not, should face substantial federal regulation to eliminate undefined "disinformation," and users of platforms and news feeds, from Facebook, to Twitter, to the Drudge Report and even New York Times, could be punished for sharing "fake news" from those sites, the former Democratic chair of the FEC is urging.In a broad proposal that adds threatening libel suits to regulatory plans already pushed by Democrats on the Federal Election Commission, ex-chair Ann Ravel believes that there is support for expanded regulation in the wake of reports foreign governments spent $100,000 on 2016 political ads...

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump—like his opponent Hillary Clinton—spoke glowingly about infrastructure spending, alluding to Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration and Dwight Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System as examples of how spending on roads, bridges and airports helped unite the country. For 2017, the American Society of Civil Engineers has given America’s infrastructure an overall grade of D+, estimating it would cost more than $4 trillion to upgrade properly. But President Trump’s $1 trillion dollar, 10-year infrastructure plan has so far moved along at a halting pace. This tortoise-like process may offer an opportunity to think more strategically about...

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to soon formally repeal the Clean Power Plan (CPP) in what would be one of the biggest blows yet to former President Barack Obama’s legacy on climate change. A draft proposal of the EPA’s conclusions, leaked to news outlets over the past 24 hours, argues that the plan — which would limit carbon emissions from power plants and, in the process, drastically reduce the amount of coal-generated electricity in the U.S. — goes beyond the bounds of federal law and unnecessarily hikes energy prices for consumers. ~snip~ “The EPA is proposing to repeal the...

A third threat to free speech at the University of California, Berkeley has led to more censorship than political rioters or college administrators. It's the Americans with Disabilities Act. Berkeley is expensive. Out of state students must pay $60,000 a year. But for five years, Berkeley generously posted 20,000 of its professors' lectures online. Anyone could watch them for free. Then government regulators stepped in. The Americans with Disabilities Act stipulates, "No qualified individual with a disability shall ... be denied the benefits of ... services." As with most laws, people can spend years debating what terms like "denied," "benefits"...

President Donald J. Trump said Friday he wants the federal government to speed the environmental review of major infrastructure projects, and he held out a controversial highway in Maryland to make the case for why the improvements are needed. Calling the current environmental review process "painfully slow," the president announced his administration will create a new council to help project managers "navigate the bureaucratic maze" as well as an office that would "root out inefficiency." "We have an obsolete system," the former real estate executive said in a speech at the U.S. Department of Transportation. "Instead of rebuilding our country,...

I mentioned in a recent column that the news was filled with stories about the protest-turned-riot in Charlottesville, the KKK, Neo Nazis, white supremists and let’s not forget Confederate statues. These are all WMD's- Weapons of Mass Distraction. They don’t affect the average American's life on a daily basis. What matters are high-quality jobs, the economy, GDP (Gross Domestic Product), the health of small business (which creates most private sector jobs), and the survival of the middle class (because they buy most of what everyone is selling). Like 63 million other Trump voters, I voted for President Trump to rescue...

Some climate change crusaders committed to curbing and eventually eliminating carbon dioxide and all "greenhouse gas" emissions advocate a system called "carbon pricing" that inflates the cost of using certain fuels in order to convince businesses and consumers to cut consumption. More than 30 colleges are listed as endorsers of the #PutAPriceOnIt carbon pricing campaign developed by Our Climate and Years of Living Dangerously. Part of the #PutAPriceOnIt website states: "One of the priorities of the #PutAPriceOnIt campaign is to gain endorsements from college presidents and demonstrate to lawmakers that institutions shaping tomorrow's leaders are committed to solving climate change."...

Connecticut, home to hedge fund billionaires alongside cities mired in poverty, is racing against the clock to pass a budget or face further spending cuts to education and municipal aid across the state. Nearly two months without a budget, Connecticut is getting crushed by a burdensome debt load that has squeezed spending and amplified legislative discord. State lawmakers must agree on a biennial budget soon or else Governor Dannel Malloy’s executive order to slash state aid to municipalities and eliminate school funding for some districts will go into effect in October. The state faces a $3.5 billion deficit over the...

In Australia, there are few limitations on the hunting of non-native species.Rabbits, cats, feral dogs, feral horses, feral donkeys, feral pigs, feral goats, foxes, camels, wild cattle, and water buffalo can be taken with few regulatory limitations.Deer have some limitations on the calibers that may be used. Game can be shot with spotlights and from vehicles.The shooting of Kangaroos, on the other hand, is highly regulated, and requires numerous different types of permits and licenses.Kangaroos maintain high populations and are agricultural pests in large areas of Australia. In New South Wales, near Quirindi, road killed Eastern Grey Kangaroos are...

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals' 2-1 decision said EPA does not have the authority to enact a 2015 rule-making ending the use of hydrofluorocarbons commonly found in spray cans, automobile air conditioners and refrigerators. The three-judge panel said that because HFCs are not ozone-depleting substances, the EPA could not use a section of the Clean Air Act targeting those chemicals to ban HFCs.

President Donald Trump, saying consumer confidence is high, vowed to kill more regulations while he works on tax cuts. In an early Friday morning tweet, Trump said: " Consumer confidence is at a 16 year high....and for good reason. Much more regulation "busting" to come. Working hard on tax cuts & reform! " — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2017

MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle on Wednesday attributed strong markets to President Donald Trump's campaign promise of cutting regulations, which she said held up profitability during the Obama administration. "The markets are very very strong, " Ruhle said. "Why is that? Now across the board, we have low volatility. We have strong earnings. The market has been chugging along." Ruhle went on to question whether the Dow Jones Industrial Average's success can be attributed to Trump himself, saying there is a disconnect between the two. "But on the positive, what we do have now is a market that corporate America is...