Free Talk Live

I keep telling the "legalization" advocates it could be worse than what we already have in many states....

OAKLAND, Calif. – After weathering the fear of federal prosecution and competition from drug cartels, California's medical marijuana growers see a new threat to their tenuous existence: the "Wal-Marting" of weed.

Fitness classes in Santa Monica parks have other park users are complaining about fitness enthusiasts not only blocking pedestrian walkways but also making too much noise. So the City Council is considering requiring that fitness trainers pay an annual $100 fee and turn over 15 percent of their gross revenues to the city, as well as requiring CPR training, insurance, and limiting class size; notwithstanding that trainers already pay the city for business licenses and for police-issued permits.

“The warning is clear: These are illegal, large-scale pot growing operations, with Oakland planning to get a cut of the illicit profits,” said one official.

A Japanese man is attempting to auction off the Earth on Yahoo Auctions, and it is over $100 million. The auction is full of amusing (or terrifying, depending on how you view it) little tidbits, such as how, in the product description, the seller claims the planet was given to him by God, so it’s now his to auction, then asks bidders to consult the shipping method. The item description also says that the seller requires bidders to give him a letter of purchase intent so he knows the bidders are serious about purchasing the item.

The underground market seeks to encourage food entrepreneurship by helping young vendors avoid roughly $1,000 a year in fees -- including those for health permits and liability insurance -- required by legitimate farmers markets. Here, where the food rave -- call it a crave -- was born, the market organizers sidestep city health inspections by operating as a private club, requiring that participants become "members" (free) and sign a disclaimer noting that food might not be prepared in a space that has been inspected.

A sweeping ban on plastic grocery bags will go into effect July 1 for unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. The bag ban was touted by county supervisors as an environmental measure to rid the county of "urban tumbleweed" that pollutes landfills and gets washed out to sea. Paper bags will still be available, but customers will be charged 10 cents per bag. Beginning July 1, 67 large supermarkets and pharmacies must stop providing disposable plastic bags. By January 2012, the ban will cover about 1,000 smaller stores.

Are there plans to add another sales tax? Do taxes encourage or discourage people to purchase? What is the effect of taxes on an economy? What is your opinion?

A flood of top-end properties are hitting the market as businessmen seek to leave France before stiff tax hikes hit, real estate agents and financial advisors say. "It's nearly a general panic. Some 400 to 500 residences worth more than one million euros ($1.3 million) have come onto the Paris market

Bugeon said he was seeing start-up entrepreneurs looking to move their headquarters out of France and taking their families with them.

It began with a 6-year-old city boy touching a girl in his class, and it ended up costing the city $50,000 in legal fees – plus thousands more in city insurance payouts totaling nearly a quarter-million dollars.
The elementary school student, accused of sexually harassing a classmate as a first-grader in 2006, will receive a total of about $160,000 in a legal settlement reached with the city. His parents received $20,000.