Regulation Roundup

The most recent dispatch from the Weird, Wide World of Regulation:
  • The Anacostia Cab Association is a D.C.-based company that hires willing employees to give rides to willing customers. The city is cracking down on them at their competitors’ behest.
  • Both U.S. Senate candidates in Massachusetts want to strictly limit political speech. They believe their campaigns should have free rein, but they don’t want other people to have the ability to publicly express their opinions. Jeff Jacoby has more in a wonderful column titled “Shut Up, They Explained.”
  • The 2012 Federal Register is already up to 4,456 pages. It’s still January.
  • The most bizarre regulation of the year could well be this Alabama bill “prohibiting the sale or manufacture of food or products which contain aborted human fetuses.” SB 1418 would ostensibly ban stem-cell research in the state.
  • A local ordinance in Suffolk, Virginia, prohibits driving motorized vehicles under their own power within city limits.
  • The IRS is once again making noises about wanting to do your taxes for you. I’ve written before on why this is a bad idea, but it looks like I may have to explain myself a little more clearly.