Free Republic

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 30 (C-Fam) Many websites are shutting down or curtailing their sex trade just weeks after the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed similar anti-human trafficking bills that would allow victims to sue the websites on which they were bought and sold.“Illegal commercial sex advertising platforms and forums have been blowing up, and johns have been calling our office and messaging us left and right, indicating that Congress has taken a powerful first step,” Congressman Ann Wagner’s staff told an anti-trafficking coalition on Thursday. “FOSTA-SESTA is disrupting demand for sex trafficking and shaking up the illegal commercial...

Without question, the most distinctive feature of the modern social democratic state is the rise of administrative agencies, which at the federal level function as a shadowy Fourth Branch of government that fits uneasily into our constitutional scheme of separation of powers, and which at the state level oversee vast swaths of economic activity...Defenders of the current administrative setup claim the elaborate procedural safeguards built into today's administrative law effectively blunt the risk of arbitrary power, whose exercise has always been in tension with the rule of law. In this talk, Professor Epstein will explain why he thinks the massive...

In an ideal world, providers would be able to spend less time collecting quality data and more time actually improving the quality of care, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar said here Thursday. "We need to ensure that in the quest for information on quality, we don't have providers, payers or others spend so much time accumulating data to improve reporting that they're not actually improving quality," Azar said during a press briefing with reporters at HHS headquarters. "Let's make sure it's the information that really matters; let's have the minimal necessary reporting burden to get the job...

If you’ve been paying attention you know that it’s #TransformationTuesday – the day we explore all the ways  Obama and his mignons are still trying and/or succeeding in fundamentally transforming America. Many of these transformers are in government but the public sector harbors some as well: take Google for example. Long known as a bastion of leftist biases, censorship and abuse of it’s search engine monopoly it recently has used its power to shutdown YouTube videos (mostly conservative) that it doesn’t approve of. “The Google Machine” and a handful of other high-tech companies rule the Internet through a combination of...

Consolidation throughout the healthcare industry is increasing costs and driving more care through hospitals, the Physicians Advocacy Institute warned in a letter to Congress. Healthcare organizations have been joining forces to try to get ahead of the industry's shifting landscape. The number of physicians employed by hospitals and health systems grew by nearly 50% from 2012 to 2015, with a corresponding decline in the number of independently practicing physicians, according to the letter—supported with research from consultancy Avalere Health—sent to the House Energy & Commerce Committee's oversight and investigations subcommittee. The decline of the independent medical practice and lack of...

The U.S. Army will drop its hand grenade competency requirement for graduation from basic training because getting recruits to pass it is taking “too much time” and they’re just not strong enough, Major General Malcolm Frost told reporters on Friday. Changes to the Army’s Basic Combat Training (BTC) will eliminate the current hand grenade proficiency standards as a requirement for graduation, Military.com reports: “The new BCT does, however, do away with hand grenade qualification and land navigation course qualification as graduation requirements.” Discussing the change with reporters, Maj. Gen. Frost explained that training recruits to pass the current requirement was...

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office has called into question the state’s authority to grant permission to Tesla founder Elon Musk’s tunneling startup, The Boring Co., to build several miles of tunnels for his high-speed Hyperloop transportation system below the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. The State Highway Administration granted a conditional utility permit on Oct. 16 to allow The Boring Co. to begin building the tunnels, if the company supplies additional information about the project and it meets all necessary requirements. But the Hyperloop system “is not a utility under federal standards or SHA’s federally-approved utility accommodation policies,” Assistant Attorney General David Stamper...

[clip] The right wants regulation too, but of a very different kind. Multiple right-wing commentators have called for Google and Facebook, whose market share eclipses old 20th-century monopolies like Standard Oil and the Bell System, to be regulated like utilities. The impetus is the threat of political bias from companies that now have more influence over the flow of news and information than any other company in history. Facebook, through a recent change to its news feed algorithm, threatens to undercut the success of new media outlets. Google, by tweaking its search results, could swing an election anywhere in the...

The Great State of Oregon is not at DEFCON ONE. Nor are Beaver State residents gnashing their teeth — or gnawing down their neighbors’ small backyard trees — over a new law that went into effect last week. Nonetheless, numerous news outfits have proclaimed: “People in Oregon are freaking out about the thought of pumping their own gas under a new law.” “A brand new law went into effect . . . for the Beaver State. And it’s sending shock waves across all 98,000-plus square miles and all 4 million residents as we speak.” “Some Oregonians may have to pump...

We are a nation of 325 million people. We have a bit of control over the behavior of our 535 elected representatives in Congress, the president and the vice president. But there are seven unelected people who have life-and-death control over our economy and hence our lives -- the seven governors of the Federal Reserve Board. The Federal Reserve Board controls our money supply. Its governors are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate and serve 14-year staggered terms. They have the power to cripple an economy, as they did during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Their...

WASHINGTON — A wave of optimism has swept over American business leaders, and it is beginning to translate into the sort of investment in new plants, equipment and factory upgrades that bolsters economic growth, spurs job creation — and may finally raise wages significantly. While business leaders are eager for the tax cuts that take effect this year, the newfound confidence was initially inspired by the Trump administration’s regulatory pullback, not so much because deregulation is saving companies money but because the administration has instilled a faith in business executives that new regulations are not coming. “It’s an overall sense...

Just in time for Christmas, the Trump administration released the Fall 2018 edition of the twice-yearly Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, which, unlike prior editions, showcases progress on the president's promises to cut red tape. The occasion featured a White House announcement by the President, as well as a Wall Street Journal preview by Neomi Rao, who serves as Administrator of the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. That's the office of the regulatory czar. In Trump’s first 2017 Agenda installment, which appeared back in July, 469 regulatory proposals...

This time of year, we pause to take stock of what happened in the year that has passed. Although there were plenty of policy developments to dislike in 2017, in the spirit of the holidays, I will stick to my three favorites. Forget, for now, about immigration policy, free trade setbacks, the busting of the budget caps and the continuation of the war on drugs and the pain it causes its victims. 2017 may or may not have been a net positive; that's for each of you to decide. First, President Donald Trump just signed a historic reduction in the...

RUSH: They’re voting on net neutrality today. Ajit Pai running the FCC and man, folks, the panic is all over the place. Do you remember — some of you might remember this name. Some of you might not. Does the name Sandra Fluke ring a bell? Well, Sandra Fluke apparently has been recruited to help the anti-net neutrality forces marshal their action today to protest the vote, which is gonna happen, and the Obama era net neutrality regulations are gonna be relaxed, which is good for an open internet. Sandra Fluke has tweeted that killing net neutrality would kill access...

Laura Pekarik bakes cupcakes and sells them from a food truck. Her truck provided a great opportunity, letting her open a business without having to spend big to hire a staff and rent space in a building. "Instead of renting a whole brick and mortar and managing a team of people, it was just me and one baker," she explains. But increased regulations, such as new rules that forbid trucks to park near established restaurants, make life hard for people like Pekarik. "It became ever more difficult to find parking locations when we went to the city (Chicago) to try...

Every year since 2012, I have written and complained about Idaho’s Depression-era law that hurts businesses and consumers. Here it is again: In 1939, the Idaho Legislature passed the Unfair Sales Act. That statute says, “The practice of selling certain items of merchandise below cost in order to attract patronage is a deceptive form of advertising and an unfair method of competition. Such practice misleads the consumer, works back against the farmer, obstructs commerce and diverts business from dealers who maintain a fair price policy, with the result of unemployment, underpayment of employees, excessive working hours, nonpayment of taxes and...

Legal and scientific ethics seem to have become irrelevant, as anti-chemical agitators, regulators and trial lawyers team up on numerous lawsuits against Monsanto. They’re seeking tens of billions of dollars in jackpot justice, by claiming a chemical in the company’s popular weed killer RoundUp causes cancer.A key basis for the legal actions is a March 2015 International Agency for Research on Cancer ruling that glyphosate is a “probable human carcinogen.” A previously little known agency in the World Health Organization (WHO), IARC has gained infamy in recent years – as critics slammed it for manipulating data and altering or deleting...

Politicians often insist government is the only way to increase access to health care. In fact, the opposite is true: For years,“certificate of need” laws at the state level have prevented much-needed medical facilities from being built across the country.

Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Nate highlighted the exposure to life and property all along the Gulf Coast. Of the critical national assets that took a hit, the crux of the U.S. refining industry suffered dramatically. As a result of Harvey alone, twenty refineries in the 300 miles between Corpus Christi and Beaumont were forced to shut down or dramatically reduce rates. The spot price of ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) promptly increased by 10%, while that for gasoline and jet fuel increased by 25%. All three prices remain about 10% higher than before the hurricanes, in part due to regulatory constraints...

... "In this time of stress on our fuel supply system, why wouldn't we remove a barrier that would allow E15 to be sold less than two weeks before the allowable date of Sept. 15," said Paige Anderson, director of government relations at the Association for Convenience and Petroleum Retailing, representing gasoline station owners and convenience store chains that sell fuel. ...