I’ve discussed before how toy companies are using “safety” as an excuse to pile more and more regulations on top of their competitors. Mattel has been blaming China for a recent spate of recalls and using the accusations as leverage to push for more safety regulations.
Turns out, China wasn’t to blame.
Mattel Inc. made [...]
Toy manufacturers want to regulate toys coming into the United States, looking for dangerous materials like lead paint. But what’s the real cause of dangerous toys?
Design flaws, not Chinese manufacturing problems, are the cause of the vast majority of American toy recalls over the last two decades, according to a new study by [...]
Mattel, Hasbro, and Lego have figured out how to use the government to hurt their competitors. They’ll ask for more government regulation.
Acknowledging a growing crisis of public confidence caused by a series of recent recalls, the nation’s largest toy makers have taken the unusual step of asking the federal government to impose mandatory [...]
While in Massachusets, Mitt Rimney created the “RomneyCare” mandated health plan. Now that he’s running for President, he’s getting ready to push for a free market solution.
Romney to Pitch a State-by-State Health Insurance Plan - New York Times
It relies on federal incentives for market reforms, tax deductions and other changes to encourage people [...]
Drugstore Clinics Spread, and Scrutiny Grows - New York Times
The concept has been called urgent care “lite”: Patients who are tired of waiting days to see a doctor for bronchitis, pinkeye or a sprained ankle can instead walk into a nearby drugstore and, at lower cost, with brief waits, see a doctor or [...]
I’m disappointed in Life Promotions, the organization that organizes the Lifest Festival each summer in Oshkosh, WI. (Full disclosure: I attended Lifest 2007 with my sister.)
Last year and this year, Lifest hosted the “Air Glory” ride at the festival. Air Glory is a bungee-jump type of ride, available for $25 a ride to festival attendees. [...]
Panel Votes to Allow Regulation of Cigarettes - New York Times
A Senate committee approved legislation that would allow federal regulation of cigarettes for the first time.
Bravo for the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. There’s just one little problem. Regardless of how long I pore over Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. [...]
America is so rich that it’s possible to make a living off of our trash. (You say wasteful, I say rich. It boils down to the same thing.) Madison’s Capital Times published an article about the burgeoning art of dumpster diving.
So much is discarded, in fact, that it is possible to live almost [...]
A band and its ‘forced march’
Starting in mid-June, members of the Oregon Marching Band and the Sound of Sun Prairie begin what they call “everydays”: 12-hour practices, sometimes six days a week, often in sweltering conditions. “I would say I probably put in 16 hours a day a good six [...]
GasBuddy has a nifty map of gasoline prices by county. I imagine that ease of transportation explains part of the price differences. However, I think that most of the difference is explained by differences in state taxes and EPA regulations.
Keep this map in mind the next time you’re tempted to blame oil companies for expensive [...]