30 sales- and income-tax increase on the November ballot, liberal
commentators have been gloating about the resurgence of the Golden
State after many years of predicted doom and gloom. Their evidence:
Higher taxes seem to have cleared up the state’s budget deficits.
But as Steven Greenhut notes, all that's really happened is a
temporary elimination of the deficit on paper. That can quickly
change and the state is still living off of borrowed money.
the goings-on in Stockton, a hard-pressed Gold-Rush-era industrial
city of 300,000 that sits in the agriculturally rich San Joaquin
Valley. But bond-holders, taxpayers, and government officials
throughout the country will be listening to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge
Christopher Klein’s expected ruling on Monday as he decides whether
the city may remain in bankruptcy. As Steven Greenhut explains, if
Klein sides with the city, then municipalities will face a
disturbingly low bar for pursuing bankruptcy. They will be
emboldened to choose Stockton’s course—i.e., using bankruptcy as a
strategic policy tool to offload debts without having to confront
the main reasons that they went bankrupt in the first place, such
as lush pensions for public employees.
enthusiast Steven Tyler has a house on Maui. Not so long ago, Tyler
pushed Hawaii lawmakers to craft a celebrity privacy bill that,
unsurprisingly gathered support from other publicity hounds who
always want to be in the news except when they don't.
Foxnews.com has the dish:
Tyler, who owns a multimillion dollar home on Maui,
earlier said he asked Sen. Kalani English, from Maui, to introduce
the bill after someone photographed him with his girlfriend at his
home in December.Along with Tyler, rock legend Mick Fleetwood, who has restaurant
in McKelvey's district, personally appeared to urge lawmakers to
pass the bill. Their appearance generated buzz in the state
Capitol, as staffers snapped cellphone pictures of the stars and
compared them in the hallways after the hearing.Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne and several other high-profile
celebrities also submitted written testimony in favor of the
bill.
Alas, for Tyler and his rag-tag band of citizen activists, the
bill is unlikely to pass, which means that such folks - despite
their god-like status on stages around the world - will be treated
kinda sorta like the rest of us. If only First Amendment rights
weren't so important that they apply even to paparazzi! And, of
course, to citizens
photographing the cops. Thank god that we live a nation of
laws, not moobs.
In 2010, Reason TV, with the help of C-SPAN's Brian Lamb, asked
the terrifying-yet-urgen question: "Why have cameras been in Katie
Couric's colon but not the Supreme Court?" The answer may surprise
you.
