Government

Odd Election Results

Various Democrats and Republicans and so forth won their various races and blah blah blah. Here are a few possibly more interesting results from yesterday's elections. Rhode Island voters rejected a measure that would have changed the state's name, which…


Town’s Lawn-Mowing Requirement Held Not Equivalent to Slavery

The excellent Legal Blog Watch reports that the Georgia Supreme Court has rejected an argument that an ordinance requiring citizens to mow their lawns constituted an imposition of "involuntary servitude" of the kind prohibited by the 13th Amendment to the United…


Georgia Town Enters Fight Against Sagging Pants

One of the continuing stupid issues I monitor here is the War on Sagging that still rages across this land. It seems like only yesterday, but was in fact two years ago, that a Florida judge struck down an anti-low-pants…



UPDATE: Threatened “Lemonade Uprising” Underwhelms

August 26 was the day of the most recent Last Thursday festival in Portland, an informal gathering that attracts about 15,000 people a month. Tensions were expected to be high, or at least higher than usual, because of the incident…


Nevada Legislator Proposes Bill on How to Pronounce “Nevada”

The Nevada legislature has started planning for its next legislative session, scheduled to begin in February 2010.  Currently, legislators are submitting "bill draft requests" for bills that they plan to introduce in the new session, and the one attracting the…


City Council in Illinois May Ban Eye-Rolling

Sources reported recently that the city council of Elmhurst, Ill., had asked its attorney to research various definitions of “disorderly conduct,” in the course of considering possible changes to rules of decorum in city council meetings. The move was prompted…


County Apologizes for Shutting Down Unlicensed Lemonade Stand

In the future, county health department workers should use "professional discretion" when enforcing permit requirements, said Jeff Cogan, county chairman in Multnomah County, Oregon.  He was responding to criticism over the department's decision last week to crack down on Julie…