Tag: licenses

Massachusetts parents lose foster license after refusing to sign gender affirming policy for kids

A devout Christian couple has been stripped of their foster license after refusing to sign a gender-affirming policy they say conflicts with their faith.

Lydia and Heath Marvin, from Woburn, Massachusetts, have looked after eight children under the age of four since 2020, including many infants and toddlers with serious medical needs.

But the couple say social workers pulled their license because they refused to sign a clause requiring foster parents to ‘support, respect, and affirm a foster child’s sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.’

It put them in a position where they were essentially forced them to choose between their religion and the vulnerable children they had dedicated their lives to helping.

‘We were told you must sign the form as is or you will be delicensed,’ Lydia told WBZ. ‘We will absolutely love and support and care for any child in our home, but we simply can’t agree to go against our Christian faith in this area. 

‘Our Christian faith, it really drives us toward that,’ husband Heath explained. ‘[The Book of James] says that true, undefiled religion is to care for the fatherless.’

The Marvins say they were blindsided by the decision. Their last foster child, a baby with complex medical needs, lived with them for 15 months. 

‘Every night for 15 months, we were up at least three times,’ Lydia said. ‘We certainly thought we would have young children in our home for… we didn’t know how long, but we were not done.’

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Licensing Boards Are Legalized Cartels

Occupational licensing laws—those mandates that workers in hundreds of professions obtain a license before earning a living—lock people out of jobs while failing to make services any better. The problem isn’t just the laws, though; it’s the cartels running them. Industry-controlled licensing boards operate less like neutral public watchdogs and more like gatekeepers protecting their turf.

More than 75 percent of licensing boards in the U.S. have rulemaking authority, allowing them to interpret licensing statutes, set fees, design and grade licensing exams, and investigate or penalize practitioners, sometimes imposing civil or criminal charges. Of the roughly 1,700 boards nationwide, about 85 percent reserve most seats for active license holders; some even include owners of training schools that profit from license requirements. State governors are technically responsible for appointing board members, but in 23 states they must choose from lists supplied by industry associations. That ensures that reform-minded candidates rarely make it past the gatekeepers.

The boards aren’t bashful about exercising their power to protect people from competition. Records of enforcement actions confirm this: Boards frequently pursue unlicensed entrepreneurs—sometimes through sting operations designed to shake down businesses and contractors to ensure they have the right paperwork—while ignoring actual threats to public safety. 

One notorious example is the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners, which was at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court case 10 years ago. Beginning in 2003, the North Carolina board waged a campaign against non-dentist teeth-whitening providers, sending dozens of cease-and-desist letters and pressuring mall owners to evict the vendors.

In the board’s view, the whiteners were practicing dentistry without a license, even though they were simply providing assistance to customers who could have done the same thing at home. Not surprisingly, most people on the board were active dentists who offered the same services at a steeper cost. Because the group was stacked that way, the Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that it was acting anti-competitively and didn’t warrant the same protections that normal government enforcement agencies are entitled to.

The ruling should have prompted nationwide reforms. Instead, most states have allowed insiders to keep board control. Georgia, Michigan, and North Dakota actually increased the number of dentists on their state dental boards. 

The obvious solution is to eliminate the licensing laws that give the government power—delegated to boards or otherwise—to block workers and entrepreneurs from the labor force. This has proven difficult when tried, and at best it has resulted in eliminating a requirement for a select occupation or two. The biggest opponents, unsurprisingly, are the boards themselves, some of which use the fees paid by the licensing applicants to pay lobbyists to defeat reforms. 

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On 9/11 Anniversary, Sen. Marsha Blackburn Introduces Bill to Ban Issuance of Driver’s Licenses to Illegal Aliens

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is introducing legislation on the 24th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States that would prevent states from issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.

Blackburn is introducing the Stop Greenlighting Driver Licenses for Illegal Immigrants Act, which would prohibit states from receiving Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant funding if they are issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens or preventing law enforcement from sharing information on illegal aliens with federal immigration agents.

Nineteen states, as well as the District of Columbia, issue driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.

“States should not be rewarding illegal aliens for breaking our immigration laws by handing out driver licenses like candy,” Blackburn said in a statement to Breitbart News. “We are a nation of laws. American cities and states that willfully defy federal immigration law to protect illegal aliens must be held accountable.”

The bill would similarly mandate that states issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens or preventing information-sharing with federal immigration agents return such grant funding within 30 days.

Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) is sponsoring the legislation in the House.

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Trump Should Take Down The American Medical Association’s Licensing Grift

n the labyrinthine world of American healthcare, few entities wield as much unchecked power as the American Medical Association (AMA). While the AMA positions itself as the voice of physicians, in reality it’s largely a government-sanctioned medical coding monopoly that extracts billions from the health care system and funnels it into leftist political advocacy supporting transgender pseudo-science, climate radicalism, and racial quotas in medical education and practice.

It’s an arrangement that is not only anti-competitive but profoundly unfair, compelling doctors and patients to subsidize agendas they may vehemently oppose. Now that the Department of Government Efficiency has taken a well-deserved axe to the leftist nonprofit network living off government largess and the Trump administration has brought corporate monopoly power into its focus, the government-generated monopoly providing AMA with its millions in advocacy dollars seems ripe for the picking.

AMA owns the rights to something called Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes — a standardized system of five-digit codes that describe every medical procedure from a routine check-up to complex surgeries. Developed and copyrighted by the AMA since the 1960s, these codes are mandatory for billing under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (more commonly known as HIPAA). No doctor, hospital, or insurer can process claims without them, creating a captive market where the AMA charges licensing fees to everyone in the chain — providers, software vendors, and payers.

Moreover, because the federal government mandates CPT use for Medicare and Medicaid, innovators and alternatives are effectively locked out. And being a government-granted monopoly is rich business. In 2023, the AMA raked in $308 million from CPT royalties — more than half its revenue — dwarfing membership dues, which now account for less than 10 percent of its income.

It would be one thing if the monopoly rents charged by the AMA added proportional value to the system. But it appears these revenues flow directly from America’s medical community into shameless left-wing advocacy. In 2023, the AMA passed resolutions denouncing state laws restricting the mutilation practices known as “gender affirming care” for children, framing such interventions as essential despite glaring evidence to the contrary. This is, of course, in keeping with its history of pushing a rabidly pro-abortion agenda.

The AMA — which holds enormous sway over medical school accreditation and curriculum — is also fully in favor of racial preferences in medical education and practice, coming out in “unequivocal opposition to legislation that would dissolve affirmative action or punish institutions for employing race-conscious admissions.” The organization has also labeled basic diagnostic tools like Body Mass Index to be tools of “racist exclusion.” In 2021 it issued a strategic plan to “embed racial justice and advance health equity” — rather than, say, address the opioid crisis killing all Americans at record levels, regardless of race — as a critical focus for American doctors.

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Maine Legislature Passes Bill Creating Separate Licensing System for Sun-Grown Marijuana With Significantly Lower Fees

The legislation was approved by the Senate in a 21 to 14 vote, after clearing the House 110 to 35. The measure defines “sun-grown cultivation” and “sun-grown cultivator” under state law, applying to those who grow marijuana primarily using natural sunlight and limited artificial lighting.

The bill creates a separate licensing framework for outdoor cultivators, including significantly lower fees. For example, a Tier 4 outdoor cultivation license would cost $15,000 annually—half the cost of an equivalent indoor operation.

Under the proposed law, sun-grown caregivers would be allowed to grow up to 150 mature plants or use up to 2,500 square feet of canopy each year, expanding the current limits. Additional provisions include updated security requirements for cultivation facilities, a grace period for new employees awaiting ID card approval, and the elimination of yeast and mold testing requirements for adult-use marijuana.

Supporters say the measure promotes sustainability, lowers barriers for small growers, and reflects Maine’s agricultural roots. If signed into law, it would mark a significant shift in how the state regulates outdoor marijuana cultivation, and it would make Maine one of the only states with a designated license for sun-grown cannabis growers.

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Montana GOP Senator’s Bill Would Require People To Register And Pay A $200 Annual Fee To Use Recreational Marijuana

Marijuana reform advocates are sounding the alarm after a Montana GOP senator filed a bill that would require adult-use cannabis consumers to register and pay a $200 annual fee to participate in the legal program that voters approved in 2020.

Sen. Greg Hertz (R) introduced the legislation, SB 255, last week. It would create a registration system similar to what’s in place for medical cannabis in many states—except that this would be for adults in a recreational market, with a significantly higher annual fee.

Adults would need to pay the $200 fee to obtain a cannabis card from the state Cannabis Control Division (CCD). Participants would need to pay that fee each year for renewal under the proposal.

Upon applying for the card, there would be a 60-day period where adults could access marijuana from licensed retailers. But if they don’t pay the fee by the end of that window, the division “shall cancel the temporary marijuana identification card.”

“This is an outrageous attempt to gut the will of the people and re-criminalize cannabis for most Montanans. Voters legalized cannabis for all adults 21 and older,” Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies at the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), told Marijuana Moment on Thursday.

“No other adult-use state forces cannabis consumers to enroll in a state registry, and the people’s initiative explicitly prohibits this surveillance and government overreach,” she said. “Re-criminalizing cannabis for anyone who does not pay $200 per year to register with the state is an affront to Montana voters who made their voices clear when they passed Initiative I-190.”

The text of the bill states that a “marijuana cardholder shall keep the individual’s marijuana identification card in the individual’s immediate possession at all times. The marijuana identification card and a valid photo identification must be displayed on demand of a law enforcement officer, justice of the peace, or city or municipal judge.”

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The UK’s “Chicken License” Rebellion – the GOOD way to deal with BAD laws

As of today, the UK’s “Chicken License” is in full effect. October 1st marked the deadline for registering your chickens with the proper authority.

Moving forward anyone caught with an unlicensed chicken will be in breach of the law and subject to fines and poultry reclamation.

I am entirely serious.

Back in March the UK govt’s “Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs” (DEFRA) announced changes to the poultry registration laws, essentially redefining a “flock” from “50 birds or more” to 1.

So, from now on, everybody in the country who keeps even a single bird – not just chickens, all outdoor birds – has to register as a poultry keeper.

You understand, this is all about protecting birds and the public from avian influenza, not at all about increasing government monitoring with the final aim of stamping down on self-sufficiency.

Banish that cynical thought from your head.

Fortunately, the people of the UK have a tried-and-tested method of dealing with absurdity—more absurdity.

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A Licence for Everything: British Government Creates Mandatory Chicken Register

“Do you keep chickens in your back garden? Register them now or break the law”, Britons are warned by state media as new rules pulling back yard flocks into industrial bureaucracy that takes force today.

As difficult as it is to believe a Western government would use a flu-like virus to crack down on freedoms, the British government is nevertheless at it, and from today anyone harbouring unlicensed chickens on their property will be breaking the law.

People who have chickens in their garden and don’t comply with the mandatory register, the purpose of which is to allow “more effective surveillance”, risks “being fined or even imprisoned”.

Announced in the Spring, the rule change removes the old exemption for back yard flocks and smallholdings, which meant anyone keeping less than 50 birds — including chickens and ducks — would not need to note the government and could continue the ages-old practice of raising their own food unmolested.

But government concern over avian flu, even despite as the state broadcaster the BBC notes “a lack of recent reported cases in captive birds”, has pushed it to reduce the notifiable number of birds down to one.

The deadline to register with the Animal Plant Health Agency in England and Wales is October 1st, and December 1st in Scotland, and chicken keepers had been encouraged to get signed up early. As explained by the NFU, “Bird keepers will need to provide information, including their contact details, the location where birds are kept and details of the birds (species, number and what they are kept for).”

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Viral Story About Bogus Viral Story Was Also Bogus

Corey Harris attracted widespread news coverage—including from Reason—when a video showed him behind the wheel during a court hearing about a suspended license. Except he never had a license at all.

The topsy-turvy legal odyssey concerning a Michigan man’s driving privileges, which has captivated the nation, took another turn yesterday when he reappeared in court not long after a video showed him behind the wheel of a car while he Zoomed into a hearing that was allegedly for driving with a suspended license charge.

“This is for driving on a license suspended,” said Judge J. Cedric Simpson of the 14A District Court in Washtenaw County on May 15. “That is correct, your honor,” a public defender replied.

It turns out that was not, in fact, correct. At least not in the literal sense, because the defendant, Corey Harris, apparently never had a license to begin with.

“He has never had a license, ever,” Simpson said Wednesday. “And has never had a license in any of the other 49 states or commonwealths that make up this country.”

That revelation is just the latest twist in a story that has attracted massive national coverage and had more loops than a Six Flags death wish. The initial viral narrative—that Harris had a suspended license—was covered in outlets from USA Today to The Washington Post to Fox News, CNN, NBC, and on.

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