Custody Disputes, Food Shortages and Taxi Cab Fares
Over 400 children seized from a polygamous sect in Texas are dispersed to group homes and shelters across the state.
Zimbabwe, confronted with high food prices and drought conditions, faces a potentially massive famine.
The D.C. Superior Court orders cab drivers in the nation’s capital to install meters for calculating fares.
1. LEGAL
Over 400 children seized from a polygamous sect in Texas are dispersed to group homes and shelters across the state.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Special Projects Counsel Hans Bader on the legal reasoning behind seizing children from their parents custody:
“At the end of the day, the sect’s disturbing practices (such as allegedly conditioning adolescents to accept underage polygamous marriages) may well warrant removal of many of the children from their parents’ custody, but the decision by Judge Barbara Walther allowing the immediate seizure of all the children, regardless of age, prior to any judicial hearing (based on a single anonymous allegation of abuse), and absent an imminent threat to their health, seems indefensible and in violation of due process and the children’s constitutional rights.”
2. FOOD
Zimbabwe, confronted with high food prices and drought conditions, faces a potentially massive famine.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Journalism Fellow Lene Johansen wonders how leaders in Zimbabwe will deal with activist opposition to modern agricultural practices:
“Last time they faced this situation, about 6 years ago, the government in Zimbabwe refused to accept aid shipments of maize because the grains came from [sources that used molecular plant breeding methods]. This is the same corn that Americans eat every day. Luckily the starving population would not stand for this decision, spurred on by jet-setting environmental activists from Europe and the U.S. They raided the food containers, so the grain eventually got the people it was intended for, but what will the misguided leaders in Zimbabwe do this time around?”
3. BUSINESS
The D.C. Superior Court orders cab drivers in the nation’s capital to install meters for calculating fares.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Analyst Fran Smith on the solution to the taxi cab fare debate:
“Here’s another solution to the zone vs. meter issue: Rather than the D.C. Taxicab Commission making a unilateral decision that affects all cabs, let the cab drivers decide individually whether they want to use a meter or a zone system. As long as they post the fare schedule, the customers shouldn’t have a problem. And, I’ll bet some drivers will start advertising their preference on their cabs. That way, too, customers have a choice — I may start taking cabs again, if I can find a metered one.”
Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.
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