TSA using personal medical records to deny Canadians entrance to US
Doesn’t this make you feel safer? TSA is now digging into personal medical records to deny Canadians entrance to the United States.
Tag: government
The EPA is using taxpayer money to encourage environmentalist groups to sue … the EPA
Madness: The EPA is using taxpayer money to encourage environmentalist groups to sue the EPA.
Sticker shock over Congressionally designed rocket
The Obama administration has discovered that the cost to build the program-formerly-called-Constellation, required by Congress, is going to be far more than they can stomach.
White House budget officials increasingly are concerned that some of NASA’s manned-exploration plans may be unaffordable, especially as the space agency weighs options that would raise the cost by billions of dollars by speeding up the development of rockets and spacecraft, according to people familiar with the issue.
The cost concerns are coming to a head, these people said, as the White House Office of Management and Budget ratchets up questions about NASA’s proposed program in light of the current emphasis on deficit reduction.
None of this surprises me.
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Awakening a science satellite dead for decades
Awakening the only British launched science satellite, dead for decades.
Don’t you dare touch my space junk!
A just released National Research Council report on space junk, Limiting Future Collision Risk to Spacecraft: an assessment of NASA’s meteoroid and orbital debris programs, describes in great and worthwhile detail the increasing problem of orbital debris as well as the technical and budgetary problems that exist for removing it. It is especially worth reading for the stories, such as when a Colorado hiker heard a high-pitched sound and then found a still warm thirty-inch diameter sphere in a foot deep crater. The object turned out to be a titanium tank from a Russian upper stage rocket, launched two months earlier.
What I want to focus on here, however, is one issue the report discusses that, as far as I can tell, has generally been missed. Worse, this issue — somewhat ridiculous when you think about a little — will make removing most of the space junk in Earth orbit far more complicated than ever imagined by engineers.
Simply put, under already agreed-to international treaties, no nation can salvage or collect any debris placed in orbit by another nation. To do so will violate international law, and almost certainly cause an international incident. To quote the report:
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New California law will require workers’ compensation benefits, rest and meal breaks and paid vacation time for…babysitters
Why no one should want to live in California: A new proposed law there would require workers’ compensation benefits, rest and meal breaks and paid vacation time for babysitters.
Under AB 889, household “employers” (aka “parents”) who hire a babysitter on a Friday night will be legally obligated to pay at least minimum wage to any sitter over the age of 18 (unless it is a family member), provide a substitute caregiver every two hours to cover rest and meal breaks, in addition to workers’ compensation coverage, overtime pay, and a meticulously calculated timecard/paycheck.
A new Florida state law will fine local governments for enforcing any local gun restrictions
This is a victory for freedom: A new Florida state law will fine local governments and their officials should they try to enforce any local gun restrictions.
All those ordinances have been illegal for years because state law prevents cities and counties from regulating guns. But a new law, set to take effect Oct. 1, takes it a step further. It allows judgments of up to $100,000 against local governments that enforce such laws. And, in an unusual move, the law also says local officials could be fired and fined $5,000, with no representation from the city or county attorney.
Russians are considering reducing their participation in ISS
Uh-oh! The Russians are considering reducing their participation in ISS. Their government might also take over entirely the private portion of their space industry.
Federal government prosecutes a man for shooting a bear to protect his family
We’re here to help you! The federal government, under the Endangered Species Act, is prosecuting a man for shooting a bear to protect his family.
25 Signs That The Financial World Is About To Hit The Big Red Panic Button
The day of reckoning looms: Twenty-five signs that the financial world is about to hit the big red panic button.
Police confiscate a woman’s legal guns, refuse to return them
Fire them! Police confiscate a woman’s legal guns, then refuse to return them despite admitting they are legally owned.
Her cache [of weapons] somehow caught the attention of Lakewood Police, who paid a visit last September. When they found Rice wasn’t home, they asked an obliging employee of the complex to open up the apartment without her consent. Once inside, they raided the gun rack, making off with 13 firearms worth around $15,000. The only problem: They had no apparent reason to. [emphasis mine]
Not only did the police essentially steal her property, they entered her apartment illegally.
National Labor Relations Board tells a church university it’s not religious
Obama’s National Labor Relations Board has now told a Catholic university it is not religious enough to be exempt from union organizing, even though the Supreme Court has ruled the board has no right to do any such thing.