89. Dispatches from around the United Nanny States of America:
- The Dallas City Council passes new laws banning the use of cell phones while driving through school zones and requiring increased monitoring of Internet usage in public libraries, joining other recent laws banning toy guns in parks and restricting panhandling. They’re also considering expanding the public smoking ban, which currently includes restaurants, to bars.
- Maine becomes the first state in the country to protect children from the menace of novelty lighters.
- Virginia now requires that public schools offer Internet safety courses. No word on whether they’ll provide supplemental courses for parents on properly supervising their children while on the Internet. Nah, that would be a violation of parental rights!
Speaking of smoking bans, a new study suggests that they may lead to an increase in driving under the influence. And Warren Meyer expresses his own frustration with the unintended consequences of nanny statism.
90. To serve and protect:
- Two Florida SWAT officers bring their kids on a drug raid. What, they can’t afford a baby sitter on their salaries?
- A Somalian refugee studying at Metro State College in Denver spent eight days in police lockup last fall on auto theft charges, which were dismissed when the prosecutor finally noticed he didn’t look anything like the suspect in a mug shot. This despite the fact that he produced multiple forms of ID at the time of his arrest to prove he wasn’t the guy cops were looking for.
- An investigation by the Orange County Register uncovered nearly a million vehicles registered to state and local government employees whose home addresses are kept secret in DMV records, allowing drivers to bypass highway tolls, run through camera-enforced red lights, and ignore parking tickets. “They’ve exempted themselves from the rules they’re enforcing,” says a traffic safety activist.
91. Follow the taco truck: Los Angeles considers a new ordinance that would make it a crime for food trucks (known as loncheras if they serve Mexican food) to stay in one place for more than 30 minutes. Denver has had a similar row over loncheras in years past; a 2002 ordinance requiring food trucks to move every four hours and limiting their hours of operation imposes a $1,000 fine and jail time for violators.