Free Republic

California's new governor, Gavin Newsom, is making quite a name for himself, setting out, with neither laws nor the Second Amendment, to grab guns. Here's what the Los Angeles Times is reporting: In his state budget plan released days after he took the oath of office, Newsom proposed adding $5.6 million — about 50% more than in Brown’s budget this year — to seize guns from thousands more people who are ineligible to possess firearms because of criminal convictions or mental illness. The governor is also asking lawmakers to beef up a California Department of Justice unit responsible for enforcing...

My granddaughter got a geode, a meteorite, and a fossilized shark's tooth (she loves this stuff) for Christmas. Every package, though from out of state, had a label stating: Warning-California Proposition 65: This product may contain chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm. Is Santa trying to kill us?

As civilization “grows more maudlin and hysterical” it tends “to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes,” argued H.L. Mencken. He added that “the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” It’s hard to argue with those points, especially in light of the latest court battle over California’s zany public-health laws. Last week, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle ruled that Starbucks and other coffee retailers are in hot water because they don’t slap labels on coffee...

A federal judge has frozen plans to require all products containing the widely popular herbicide glyphosate to display a Proposition 65 warning in a landmark ruling that could signal the turning of the tide for California's nanny-state regulations. The decision by Federal District Judge William Shubb represents a significant blow to both to the much maligned Proposition 65 and the organization that accounts for so many of its listings, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Shubb's ruling is a major victory for states' rights – due to the size of California's economy, its overregulation spills over into other...

That cup of Starbucks could be declared an official cancer risk in California. It all depends on what a judge has to say after taking a hard look at Proposition 65, the "Safe Water and Toxic Enforcement Act" passed in 1986, which requires businesses and public places to post warnings about possible cancer risks.

Is that laundry soap truly "environmentally friendly"? Was that mattress treated with toxic chemicals? Is that sweatsuit fashioned from organic cotton? Is that lipstick "natural"? California officials launched a sweeping green initiative on Tuesday to inform consumers exactly how hundreds of thousands of products sold in the state are manufactured and transported and how safe their ingredients are. The plan, which would require every product to reveal its "environmental footprint," envisions the most comprehensive regulations ever adopted for consumer goods. "These recommendations usher in a new era of how we look at household products -- from our children's toys to...

Washington, DC – U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) today released a letter from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announcing his opposition to legislation aimed at rolling back stringent food safety laws approved by state and local governments, such as California’s Proposition 65. Senators Feinstein and Boxer have vowed to oppose the legislation when it comes before the Senate. “I’m pleased that the Governor has joined us in this fight,” Senator Feinstein said. “Consumers deserve to know if their food contains chemicals that cause cancer or birth defects. Since 1986, California’s Prop. 65 has been a shield for...

Warnings on Food for Perchlorate Rejected by Scientific Panel for State Agency Friday, August 12, 2005 By DAVID DANELSKI / The Press-Enterprise Excerpt: A California health panel decided Thursday not to add the rocket-fuel chemical perchlorate to a list of substances that cause reproductive harm. A listing could have prompted public warnings about milk, lettuce and other produce containing the chemical. The panel concluded that scientific research hasn't clearly shown that the chemical causes birth defects or other serious harm to fetuses. Under Prop. 65, the state's toxic-warning law, the public must be told about the presence of "reproductive toxicants"...

California Town Going Broke Partly Because Media Gets Story about Perchlorate Wrong - Putting the environmental cart before the scienfitic horse Written by Wayne Lusvardi Saturday, April 24, 2005 Vector - In biology a vector is something, such as insects, that can spread disease. By extension, a vector could be someone who spreads a rumor or hoax: it could be anyone or anything that pollutes the information stream." --Alexandra Kitty, Don't Believe It! How Lies Become News (2005) An April 23, 2005 story by Associated Press writer Erica Werner "Town's water tainted by perchlorate; 36 states eye problems" reports that...

SACRAMENTO – Opponents did not submit a ballot argument against Proposition 65, the initiative to protect local government funding that has become a key sticking point in a state budget deadlock. A spokesman said that Secretary of State Kevin Shelley has not made a decision about whether to extend the July 6 deadline for submitting ballot-pamphlet arguments for the November election. "The matter is still under consideration," said Doug Stone, a Shelley spokesman. Ballot pamphlets usually contain arguments for and against propositions, with rebuttals for each. Stone said he could not recall if a controversial initiative has ever appeared on...

Proposition 65, California's gift to trial lawyers, has struck again. The inane "Prop 65" requires any product containing one of several hundred "known carcinogens" to bear a warning label -- even though it may be used in concentrations so low that adverse health effects are essentially impossible. Since the law's inception, fearful manufacturers have been forced to slap silly Prop 65 warnings on everything from chainsaws and power mowers to fishing rods. All California consumer products without warning labels, take one step forward ... Not so fast, salmon. On January 13 the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) and the Environmental...

<p>Countless consumer products have come within the sights of California's Proposition 65's inexplicable obsession with remote, and sometimes nonexistent, risks. The last two years have seen bounty hunter lawsuits claiming that Californians are exposed to toxins from products such as picture frames, lightbulbs, Christmas lights, electrical tape, braces, game darts, stained-glass lamps, fire logs, exercise weights, hammers, terrariums, tools, cue chalk, cosmetics, even Slim-Fast.</p>

(CNSNews.com) - In California, any product containing a chemical known to cause cancer in laboratory animals cannot be sold without a warning label, according to Proposition 65, a state consumer-protection law established in 1986. But one watchdog group plans to sue a large retailer of natural and organic foods to prove just how ridiculous the law is. Jeff Stier, an attorney for the American Council on Science and Health, plans to sue the Whole Foods Market because it does not affix warning labels, as mandated by Proposition 65, on any of its whole-grain wheat breads. The company's Whole Wheat Farm...