Tag: government overreach

As Migrant and Crime Crisis Rage New York Set to Ban Mini Shampoo and Soap Bottles in Large Hotels

New York state is set to ban small toiletry bottles in hotels, sparking debate about government involvement in business operations, according to a new report from Fox Business.

This new rule, aimed at reducing waste, is raising eyebrows in the hospitality industry and beyond.

Starting in 2025, hotels with over 50 rooms can’t offer toiletry bottles smaller than 12 ounces.

By 2026, all New York hotels must comply.

The law comes with teeth: fines start at $250 and can climb to $500 for repeat offenders.

Many see this as government overreach.

The hospitality industry is already moving away from mini bottles on its own.

Keep reading

Historic Drug Shortage Exacerbated by EPA Overreach

Concerning new reports reveal that the drug shortage in the U.S. has reached its highest level since the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists began tracking data. In total, 323 medicines are now in short supply.

However, the problem is about to get worse because of government regulations on an entirely different issue. Counterintuitive measures from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are set to effectively ban the domestic production of chemicals that are used in the process of manufacturing vital prescription drugs and vaccines.

Shortly after Congress amended the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in 2016, the EPA began the rulemaking process on 10 chemicals currently in use in the United States using a broad and overreaching definition of “unreasonable risk.” Now, the EPA is expected to release a final rule on methylene chloride under TSCA.

Methylene chloride has several applications, including in the process of manufacturing hundreds of medicines and vaccines like those that treat Hepatitis B and HIV infections, mental illnesses and epilepsy, heart failure and high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

If this rule goes into effect, it will exacerbate the drug shortage by bringing domestic manufacturing to a halt while making our supply chains more reliant on foreign nations like China for pharmaceuticals. This runs in direct contradiction to the Biden administration’s “Investing in America” agenda, which aims to onshore supply chains critical to our economy and security.

For example, methylene chloride is used to make hollow fiber cartridges which are used in the manufacture of monoclonal antibodies and vaccines, including the COVID-19, HPV, Hepatitis B, and flu vaccines, as well as therapies for arthritis, migraines, osteoporosis, and autoimmune diseases. In a letter to the EPA, the company that produces these cartridges wrote their product is used in at least 190 human therapeutics and vaccines. Their supply is so essential that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Defense Department awarded the company funding to expand its manufacturing capacity here in the U.S.

Keep reading

Ted Lieu Wants To Criminalize Glue Traps

I have a mouse in my apartment, and he’s a clever one. Clever enough, in fact, that he’s managed to avoid the very tempting baited snap traps I’ve placed around the areas of the kitchen where I’ve seen him appear.

Since those snap traps haven’t been working, I recently swapped them out for glue boards. In my experience, these do a better job of catching mice and blocking off potential points of entry.

At the moment, the method of pest control I use to keep uninvited, potentially diseased rodents out of my home is a personal, private choice I have the freedom to make. A new bill from Rep. Ted Lieu (D–Calif.) would make me a federal criminal.

Earlier this week, Lieu unveiled the “Glue Trap Prohibition Act of 2024,” which would amend federal pesticide regulations to ban the sale and use of glue traps.

The penalties for violating the specific subchapter that Lieu is inserting his glue trap ban into include fines of up to $5,000 per offense for commercial violators and $1,000 fines for individuals. That subchapter also allows criminal penalties—including up to a year’s imprisonment for commercial violators and 30 days imprisonment for private persons who violate the law.

Should Lieu’s bill become law, the three glue boards I have in my kitchen would open me up to $3,000 in fines and maybe a month in federal lockup.

The congressman justifies his glue trap ban on humanitarian and health grounds.

Keep reading

New Mexico Lawmakers Call For Governor’s Impeachment Over 2A Authoritarian Overreach

New Mexico State Representatives Stefani Lord (R-22) and John Block (R-51) called for the impeaching of Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) after she issued a public health emergency to strip the right away for law-abiding citizens to carry firearms in public in and around Albuquerque, the state’s largest city.

“This is an abhorrent attempt at imposing a radical, progressive agenda on an unwilling populous. Rather than addressing crime at its core, Governor Grisham is restricting the rights of law-abiding gun owners,” Lord wrote in a press release shared on X.

🚨PRESS RELEASE: @RepBlock & I are calling for the impeachment of @GovMLG. New Mexicans won’t stand by as she disregards her oath to uphold our Constitution.

Read the full press release below! 👇 pic.twitter.com/r5kt9nOSvI

— Rep Stefani Lord (@Lord4NM) September 9, 2023

While impeachment calls grow, Erich Pratt, Senior VP of Gun Owners of America, told us: “The Governor’s actions are evil and tyrannical. GOA’s attorneys are already preparing a complaint. So heads up to the Governor: ‘We will see you in court.’”

Keep reading

US GOVERNMENT RAIDS AMISH CATTLE FARMER, SEIZING HIS PROPERTY IN A SHOCKING DISPLAY OF OVERREACH…

Americans are watching in absolute shock and horror as our government, which is supposed to “fear” the people, runs roughshod over everyone and everything deemed an enemy. Whether that’s President Trump, U.S. voters, J6 prisoners, Julian Assange, Douglass Mackey (convicted of ‘conspiracy’ for sharing an anti-Hillary meme), or a harmless Amish farmer simply minding his own business, our government has grown too big for its britches and lost its way. And speaking of the innocent Amish farmer, that’s what this story is about today — a Virginia man who was raided by the government but is fighting back and desperately needs your support.

Townhall:

“They came with a search warrant,” softly spoke Samuel B. Fisher, a mild-mannered cattle farmer operating a 100-acre farm tucked away in Virginia’s heartland. Fisher’s bread-and-butter, Golden Valley Farms, carves out the scenic countryside that’s a hop, skip, and a jump away from historic Farmville, a postcard-perfect small Southern town with classical Main Street charm.

The father of five had graciously invited us down to his idyllic pasture to rehash the whirlwind of unforeseen events that unfolded over the cruel summer. It was a tumultuous time on the Fisher farm, an upheaval that threatened to upend the man’s livelihood.

“Then, they tagged the meat, so that we can’t touch it; we can’t sell it; we can’t feed our family with it,” Fisher told Townhall.

The government overreach began when Big Brother discovered that this health-conscious, all-natural farmer was avoiding the sometimes rather questionable “USDA” process.

The firestorm of Big Government saber-rattling ignited in mid-June when an inspector with the Virginia Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (VDACS), without warning, paid the Fisher family a visit. Fisher has “no idea” what could have prompted VDACS’s impromptu inspection on June 14, except “maybe they just finally found us through word of mouth,” he speculated.

What was clear: The state sought to penalize Fisher for selling meat that was not processed by a USDA-inspected facility (U.S. Department of Agriculture). Fisher processes—an industry euphemism for butchering—his farm-raised meat on-site and sells it directly to his customers, feeding about 500 consumers and their families, who are part of a buying club. As members enrolled in the Golden Valley Farms membership program, they’ve bought into Fisher’s herd of 100% grass-fed golden Guernsey cows.

“They own part of the business. They own some of the herd,” Fisher explained. “My thinking was […] We can butcher their cows, process it, and sell it to them. I told the state all of this, but they said, ‘No, there’s no way around that. You can’t do that.’ They asked permission to get in here” to search the farm, a request Fisher denied. “And, they told me, ‘We’ll be back,’ and left.”

They came back, alright… this time with a sheriff, and they unleashed a full-scale raid that lasted about three hours. And as the Townhall piece goes on to point out, there is nothing illegal about Fisher processing his own meat for his own consumption.

Keep reading

UK lawmaker John Penrose proposes dystopian idea to give citizens a truth score on social media

British Conservative Party lawmaker John Penrose, has proposed an addition to the UK’s controversial internet censorship bill, dubbed “The Online Safety Bill,” which continues to get even more Orwellian with each new proposed amendment.

Like something out of dystopian fiction, Penrose, the MP for Weston-super-Mare, has proposed that the government forces online platforms to maintain a score of how truthful a person is, determined by their past statements.

“The purpose of this section is to reduce the risk of harm to users of regulated services caused my (sic) disinformation or misinformation,” the proposal states, with a typo that shows just how much care goes into the wording of legislation that wipes away citizens’ freedoms.

The proposal says that every user that produces online content, including “comments and reviews” and who receives a certain number of online views, which is to be determined by the UK communications regulator, should have their content indexed and assigned a truth score.

The person’s speech is then to be “displayed in a way which allows any user easily to reach an informed view of the likely factual accuracy of the content at the same time as they encounter it.”

Keep reading

Government Overreach? 9 in 10 Official Websites Use Tracking Cookies Without Consent

Is the government going too far? A new study has discovered that “Big Brother” may be more widespread than anyone thinks. Among the countries that make up the G20, researchers found the vast majority of government websites add third-party tracking cookies without their users’ consent.

The G20 is an international forum which includes 19 countries and the European Union. The forum focuses on solving issues connected to the global economy, climate change mitigation, and the development of sustainable technology. The members include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The international team notes that, in some of these countries, nine in 10 official sites add third-party tracker cookies — even if they have strict user privacy laws. To uncover the scale of this problem, the researchers examined 5,500 websites tied to international organizations, governments, and official COVID-19 information sites during the pandemic.

Their study comes at a time when citizens across the globe are providing information through government websites at an unprecedented rate.

“Our results indicate that official governmental, international organizations’ websites and other sites that serve public health information related to COVID-19 are not held to higher standards regarding respecting user privacy than the rest of the web, which is an oxymoron given the push of many of those governments for enforcing GDPR,” notes Nikolaos Laoutaris, a research professor at IMDEA Networks, in a media release.

Keep reading

Following USDA Guidance, State Clinics Destroyed Thousands of Cans of Usable Baby Formula

Amid a national shortage of baby formula, family care centers in at least two states discarded thousands of cans of unopened, unexpired baby formula—because state and federal officials said so.

Guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in November 2019 advises clinics run by state-level Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) programs to “dispose of unused, returned…infant formula.” Formula might be returned for a number of reasons: parents might decide to switch brands at the recommendation of a doctor or due to an infant’s allergic reaction, or they might simply not use all they’ve been given. When that happens, clinics are told to discard the returned formula—even if it is not expired.

“Unused, returned infant formula may have been inappropriately stored (e.g., exposed to extremely high temperatures), may be past its use-by-date, or subjected to tampering (e.g., labels or use-by dates changed),” the USDA advisory reads, in part. The same memo also warns against “donating unused, returned WIC infant formula to entities such as food banks or food pantries.”

Apparently taking that memo to heart, WIC centers in Georgia have reportedly destroyed at least 16,459 cans of baby formula since October of last year, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which first reported on the frustrating policy last month.

The state also banned donations of formula to food banks and other locations. As a result, Georgia was “throwing formula down the sink,” Vanesa Sarazua, founder of the Hispanic Alliance of Georgia, a nonprofit, told the paper. “I mean, talk about waste.”

Keep reading

Reddit warns US Copyright Office internet upload filters would harm memes

Reddit has warned the US Copyright Office against internet upload filters, arguing the technology will harm free expression.

The US has been looking to update the DMCA to keep up with the copyright issues found online. Many proposals have come and gone, but the US Copyright Office is now looking into automated tools that can prevent content from being re-uploaded, aka upload filters.

In a submission to the US Copyright Office, Reddit, a platform known for user-submitted content, warned against Standard Technical Measures (STMs), including upload filters.

We obtained a copy of the submission for you here.

“Filtering technologies and STMs ill-suited to the variety of content on Reddit would limit the vitality of some of our platform’s most active communities,” Reddit said.

In its subreddits users post copyrighted content, taking advantage of the fair use principles to create memes and more. An upload filter would substantially harm the free flow of thought.

“Filtering technologies have difficulty merely identifying copyrighted material, let alone assessing the specific context the content was found. They cannot make nuanced judgments about fair use or transformative works,” the platform said.

The automated filters and the false positives they would bring will significantly harm free speech, Reddit argues.

“As a result, standardized measures are likely to remove non-infringing content and suffer from false positives. Worse, these over-removals would strike at the heart of the transformative user-generated content that makes Reddit communities unique,” Reddit explained.

“That is a severe, unnecessary, and unacceptable cost to the free expression of our users and the communities they build.”

Google has implemented such a measure through YouTube’s Content ID system, which is notorious. According to Reddit, Content ID cannot work for every type of platform or site.

Keep reading