159. Puppycide in Buffalo during a police raid that fails to turn up any drugs or make any arrests.

160. Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff Joe Arpaio, no friend of fugitives, illegal immigrants or civil rights, spends an unknown amount of taxpayers’ money on production costs for a Fox reality show.  Then his boys arrest some people applauding a speech critical of Arpaio during a county supervisors meeting.  And Phoenix police raid the home of a blogger who’s been criticizing them.

161. I’m from the government, and I’m here to check out that funny noise under the hood: President Obama can’t save the banks or balance the budget, but he’s now backing your transmission.  More details about the warranty from those helpful folks at reason:

162. “One of liberty’s great benefactors”, Burt Blumert, chairman of the Mises Institute and a champion of many libertarian causes, passes away at the age of 80.

163. After a student is kicked in the groin, a Connecticut school bans all physical contact.  Because today’s hug could be tomorrow’s headlock.

164. Michigan woman charged for her son’s stay in juvie hall, then is sent to jail herself after she’s unable to pay.

165. More than half of California’s service stations face hefty fines or even closure for failing to install expensive vapor recovery nozzles on their pumps.  The CARB-mandated systems run about $11,000 per pump.

166. Congress seeks to give the FDA the power to regulate tobacco, while also limiting safer choices for people looking to cut back or quit.

167. Speaking of tobacco, remember Obama’s promise not to raise taxes on people making less than $250,000?  Well, he lied, unless you think only rich people smoke.  They don’t, at least not as much as the poor do, making the new cigarette tax increase highly regressive.

As a visitor I could only experience the awesome nanny state that is California in very limited doses.  It is unfathomable to me what it must be like to live there, let alone during a monumental economic crisis.

But it hits you as soon as you cross the border: just a mile or two in on I-80, you must stop at an Agricultural Inspection station and declare any organic material brought with you, such as fruits and vegetables or house plants.  Depending on their source, some products are banned entirely from entering California, ostensibly to protect the state’s agriculture from damaging pests, but more likely serving as a form of protectionism for the state’s farmers.  Not that we let it bother us; all we had were some apples we had bought for the trip, and we told the bored-looking inspector “no” when he asked us if we had any fruits or vegetables on board.  Civil disobedience!

Then there was the task of finding a supermarket near our hotel so I could pick up some milk and a few other items.  It should have been easy enough; there’s a Safeway almost literally around the corner from the hotel, but I drove past it twice without seeing it.  Why?  Because there were no visible signs near the road identifying the store.  It had a marquee sign on its façade, but the trees lining the boulevard obscured it.  That led me to notice that there were virtually no freestanding signs anywhere in the surrounding business areas.  Just a coincidence, or the inevitable result of burdensome regulations?  Whatever the case, it made a simple economic transaction more difficult than it should be.

(On the other hand, I have to say that California probably has the best-landscaped freeways in the country.)

These are mere nuisances for visitors, however.  My brother-in-law, who is executive chef at an Italian restaurant in San Mateo (and I can’t recommend the place highly enough–the food there is sublime; try the sanddabs if they’re available!), has to deal with far greater licensing and regulatory headaches.  Some of them his restaurant has been able to avoid because it’s been around for nearly 20 years and is exempt from some regulations, but if he had to start that same restaurant today, the cost of regulatory compliance would be nearly prohibitive.

And then there’s the higher-than-average taxes, the near-strangulation of the auto industry by agencies such as CARB, the implosion of the long-overvalued housing market. . . .

Yet there is a lot I like about California.  The cultural attractions are first-rate, even while recognizing many of them enjoy large tax subsidies (this is true just about everywhere, of course).  We especially enjoyed the Exploratorium, an interactive science museum, and the Asian Art Museum, with its incomparable collections of sculptures, paintings, metalwork and jewelry.

But what stood out most for me was the simple ability to walk into any grocery store (or even convenience stores, at least in Nevada) and pick up a bottle of wine or distilled spirits.  You can’t do this in Colorado.  The independent liquor store lobby has squashed every attempt to allow more options to consumers, because naturally they fear being undercut by the big stores.  Like California’s border inspection stations, this type of protectionism only helps specific classes while hurting everyone else.

So California, at least for now, falls into that “nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there” category.  It was good, relatively speaking, to return home and deal with the familiar nuisances of Colorado’s nanny-state laws rather than the unfamiliar rat’s nest of the Golden State.

(The Daily Cuts will return tonight!)

The Daily Cuts:

152. Eminent domain abuse continues four years after Kelo, but some folks are fighting back.  More here from reason‘s coverage of eminent domain issues.

153. It’s just no fun being a teenager in Texas.

154. New York state bureaucrats treat “direct-to-consumer” genomics firms as laboratories, burdening them with needless regulations.

155. Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton is my new folk hero.  He decided to check out of this world on his own, rather than have the Feds put him in prison for the unpardonable crime of distilling his own moonshine.  His tombstone reads “POPCORN SAID FUCK YOU”.  Here’s to you, Popcorn.

156. Warren Meyer over at Coyote Blog presents this easy-to-follow checklist on how to start a business . . . in Alabama.  The other 49 states may be different.

157. Congress shovels $182.5 billion dollars into the AIG furnace, then heroically recovers 0.09% of it for taxpayers.

Many of those arrested said they worked in the movies as extras, but police determined that “extra work is not considered real work.”

128. Police in North Platte, Neb., respond to a complaint of a wedgie administered to an unfortunate youngster. No arrests were made, but a police spokesman warned such behavior would not be tolerated: “You might get away with that in Lincoln or Omaha. But we’re not going to allow wedgies in North Platte.” Because today’s wedgie-puller could be tomorrow’s school shooter.

129. The legislature and police have been busy in Florida:

• The state Senate passes a bill to criminalize salvia divinorum, citing its increasing availability online as a threat to children. (North Dakota has already banned the psychoactive herb and police in Bismarck have made an arrest.)
• An Opa-Locka family demands an apology from cops who busted down their door (wrongly, they say) during the ominously-named “Operation D-Day” drug sweep.

But most importantly, the Florida Senate has passed an amendment to ban “Truck Nutz” (see # 22, here), because ridding rear bumpers of hanging genitalia will prevent the terrorists from winning. Or at least they won’t be quite so offended while they’re here.

130. Hang up the damn dog and drive!

131. The long arm of morality laws has caught up with a San Diego wife and mother of three. Marie Walsh was arrested Apr. 24 by U. S. Marshals after she was identified by Michigan authorities as Susan Lefevre, who walked out of a Detroit corrections facility 32 years ago. She was convicted in 1975 on drug trafficking charges and sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison. She must serve at least nine more years before she is eligible for parole, at which point “mitigating circumstances”, such as the quiet family life she led in San Diego, may be heard to determine if she can be freed.

132. Crying over spilled milk: a Pennsylvanian Amish farmer was arrested, and his dairy operation shut down, for not having a state permit to sell raw milk. He also had been transporting the milk to Delaware and New York City, where the product is illegal but in apparently high demand. The farmer remains defiant: “The government doesn’t have the right to dictate what I eat, and never will.”

133. Denver police may be gearing up for a serious crackdown on protesters at the Democratic National Convention, which comes to town in August. In the past the police have issued citations for misdemeanor offenses committed by protestors, but now the city plans to arrest and detain protestors. The DPD first employed the policy at last year’s Columbus Day parade, where they arrested more than 80 people for attempting to block the parade route. At least now I know why they’re building the new county jail right downtown.

119. Frustrated that drivers arrested for DUI might actually be acquitted, a Tennessee lawmaker is pushing a bill that would ban defense attorneys from advertising DUI-related services.

120. While we’re in the Volunteer State, aspiring johns may wish to know that they could lose their car if arrested for soliciting prostitution.  Not convicted, mind you.  As Memphis Police director Larry Godwin put it, “I’d say seize every dadgum vehicle and send a message.”

121. Boston puts the kibosh on bottle service in bars and clubs, because according to the licensing board chairman, Beantown “has a lot more to offer than just getting people inebriated”.

122. Actor Wesley Snipes receives the maximum sentence—36 months—for not voluntarily filing his tax returns, although he was acquitted of the more serious charges of tax fraud and conspiracy.

123. Sheriff Joe, on the go: the self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America” sweeps through Arizona’s Maricopa County and rounds up troublesome Mexicans, half of whom might actually be here illegally.

124. Senate leaders agree to jack up taxes on fuel for private jets by 65 percent.

125. A Seattle man who smokes marijuana legally for medical purposes has been denied a life-saving liver transplant due to his drug use.

126. A utility subcontractor in Brooklyn Park, Minn., became lightheaded from chemicals in the bathroom of a home where he was installing a hot water heater.  He called the police, and on his word alone, they raided the home on suspicion that it housed a meth lab.  Instead they found vinegar and pickling lime, which the homeowner used to maintain his saltwater fish tank.

104. Hey you damn kids, get off my monument: a group of libertarians observe Thomas Jefferson’s birthday by heading down to his D. C. memorial for a midnight dance (to music played through iPods).  The National Park Police take exception to such a brazen display of revelry and break up the fun, arresting one of the participants in the process.

105. The Supreme Court heard arguments this week on whether Louisiana can put child rapists to death in a case that could have wide-ranging implications for other states looking to expand the death penalty to crimes other than capital murder.

106. Sheriff José, er Joe Arpaio uses Maricopa County tax dollars and funds from RICO seizures to provide training and equipment to Honduras police, although they’re tightlipped on why they’re doing it or how taxpayers in Arizona might benefit.  Cheaper bananas, maybe?

107. But at least Arizona is cracking down hard on working mothers for driving under the influence, even when they’ve had hardly anything to drink.

108. Other things you can no longer do in motorized vehicles: stay in one spot for longer than an hour in a taco truck in Los Angeles (see #91, below), or smoke in the car when kids are present in Maine.

109. In the hallowed halls of public education:

• A philosophy professor at a Long Island community college demands that his students acknowledge that their religious beliefs may be in error in order to participate in his class.  The American Center for Law and Justice is on the case.
• A high school student in Texas is suspended after receiving a phone call during class from his father, who is stationed in Iraq.

110. Apparently it’s a no-no in New Mexico to decline someone’s business on the basis of one’s religious beliefs.  Remember, the First Amendment is just printed on a goddamned piece of paper.

• Two teens are shot by a Howard County, MD police officer during an investigation into suspected drug activity.
• A couple in Pennsylvania, Steve and Karen Haver, narrowly avoids losing their home after police, while investigating a burglar alarm at their residence, found five marijuana plants growing in their basement.  Although state law authorizes forfeiture of property, including homes, after a drug arrest (not just conviction), the couple agreed to a plea deal that allowed them to keep their home.  But Haver’s wife has already been fired from her job, and Haver expects to lose his when his contract expires in June.
• A Denver man is shot to death by police during a drug raid after undercover officers purchased crack from him a few days earlier.  Family members claim that Nathan Aguillard suffered from schizophrenia and was “too paranoid” to sell drugs to other people.  “They chose what seems to be the most confrontational approach to arrest him,” said a lawyer for the family.

98. The California legislature considers a bill to ban metallic balloons filled with helium, which can float away and make contact with power lines, causing power outages.  While they’re at it, I hope they can do something about those damn sneakers that always get hung up there.

99. The Pentagon prepares to issue hand-held lie detectors to U. S. troops in Afghanistan in the ongoing war on terror.  I promise you, these will never be used here on civilians.

100. Government money grabs:

• Dallas drops the timing of yellow lights at select intersections to below the minimum standards set by the Texas Department of Transportation in an effort to increase red-light violations.
• The state of New York plans to raise its cigarette tax to $2.75 per pack, which could push the price of a pack in New York City to more than $9.  Already the high taxes on smokes have led to a healthy black market.
• And not content to tax smokers into oblivion, New York also plans to go after Internet shoppers with a new online sales tax.
• The District of Columbia goes after a Montgomery County man for a $200 parking ticket . . . which had been issued to his car after it was stolen.

101. The Army kills a suspected terrorist, approximately seven pounds and answered to the name of “Fluffy”.

102. Police in Oakland ask very nicely if they can enter people’s homes and search for guns.

• 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.