California legalizes sale of home-made food

California Legalized Selling Food Made At Home And Created Over A Thousand Local Businesses - Forbes - Adam Ozimek, Institute for Justice:

January 29, 2014 - "A government official appears at a man’s door. The man has been breaking the law: He has sold bread baked at home.

"This isn’t a page from Kafka — it happened to Mark Stambler in Los Angeles.

"For decades, Stambler has followed traditional methods to bake loaves of French bread.... Stambler’s loaves came in first place at the Los Angeles County Fair and the California State Fair.... Soon after that, Stambler got the idea to expand his hobby into a home business, which became Pagnol Boulanger.... In June 2011,  the Los Angeles Times profiled Stambler and his bread in a full-page feature.

"He was busted the very next day. As he described it, the health department 'descended like a ton of bricks on the two stores that were selling my bread…they could no longer sell my bread'.... An inspector from the health department even showed up at his doorstep to make sure 'no bread baking was taking place'.... That’s when he 'became an activist,' Stambler said."

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/01/29/california-legalized-selling-food-made-at-home-and-created-over-a-thousand-local-businesses/
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Edward Snowden interview blacked out in U.S.

Recent Interview With Edward Snowden Blacked-Out by Major Media Outlets - College News:

January 31, 2014 - "German Television network [NDR] recently conducted an interview with the world famous (some may say infamous) whistleblower, Edward Snowden, which has been intentionally blacked-out by all corporate media outlets in the U.S., and virtually ignored by other broadcast networks. The video has even been removed from YouTube almost immediately after each time it’s been uploaded....

"In the interview, conducted this past Sunday evening, Mr. Snowden explains succinctly how these domestic surveillance programs undermine, subvert, or otherwise erode our democratic freedoms, as well as the most fundamental tenets of the Bill of Rights. The interview is about 30 minutes long and contains vitally important information within every sentence. Snowden stated that, '[My] breaking point was seeing the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, directly lie under oath to Congress. There’s no saving an intelligence community that believes it can lie to the public and to the legislators who need to be able to trust it and regulate its actions.' He goes on to say with reference to blowing the whistle, 'Beyond that, it was the creeping realization that no one else was going to do this. The public had a right to know about these programs. The public had a right to know that which the government is doing in its name, and that which the government is doing against the public.'"

Read more: http://www.collegenews.com/article/recent_interview_with_edward_snowden_blacked-out_by_major_media_outlets

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Transcript of blacked-out Snowden interview

Snowden-Interview: Transcript | NDR.de - Ratgeber - Netzwelt - Hubert Siepel:

January 26, 2014 - Whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked the documents about US mass surveillance. He spoke about his disclosures and his life to NDR journalist Seipel in Moscow. 

"Mr Snowden did you sleep well the last couple of nights because I was reading that you asked for a kind of police protection. Are there any threats?"  
"There are significant threats but I sleep very well. There was an article that came out in an online outlet called Buzz Feed where they interviewed officials from the Pentagon, from the National Security Agency and they gave them anonymity to be able to say what they want and what they told the reporter was that they wanted to murder me. These individuals - and these are acting government officials. They said they would be happy, they would love to put a bullet in my head, to poison me as I was returning from the grocery store and have me die in the shower."

"But fortunately you are still alive with us." 
"Right but I'm still alive and I don't lose sleep because I’ve done what I feel I needed to do. It was the right thing to do and I’m not going to be afraid."

"'The greatest fear I have,' and I quote you, 'regarding the disclosures is nothing will change.' That was one of your greatest concerns at the time but in the meantime there is a vivid discussion about the situation with the NSA; not only in America but also in Germany and in Brazil and President Obama was forced to go public and to justify what the NSA was doing on legal grounds."
"What we saw initially in response to the revelations was sort of a circling of the wagons of government around the National Security Agency. Instead of circling around the public and protecting their rights the political class circled around the security state and protected their rights. What’s interesting is though that was the [initial] response, since then we’ve seen a softening. We’ve seen the President acknowledge that when he first said 'we’ve drawn the right balance, there are no abuses,' we’ve seen him and his officials admit that there have been abuses. There have been thousands of violations [by] the National Security Agency and other agencies and authorities every single year."

Read more: http://www.ndr.de/ratgeber/netzwelt/snowden277.html
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Libertarian response to 2014 State of the Union address

Libertarian Party response to 2014 State of the Union address - Your Houston News: Opinion:

January 30, 2014 - "Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict issued the following statement in response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address:

"'Thanks to unprecedented levels of government interference and government coercion, Americans’ rights are violated like never before. We are harmed by taxes, regulations, prohibitions, and shocking privacy intrusions.

"'Unfortunately, most of the harm and injustice of government occurs because too many Americans support existing government policies. We’re suffering under a tyranny of the majority. Our Libertarian hope is that we can convince enough Americans to change their minds. We hope voters will come to understand that government is force, and force is unjust.

"Here are some of the problems we see.

"The government debt situation is atrocious. Government debt is a terrible thing, because it forces future generations to pay off debts they never agreed to incur. From 2001 to 2008, George W. Bush doubled the debt, mostly with the support of a Republican Congress.... Since 2009, Barack Obama and the Democrats (and Republicans) have nearly doubled it again. "

"'Thanks to the work of Republicans and Democrats, America has declined in the Economic Freedom Index. We’ve been sliding for years, and now we’re down to #12. We’re below Australia, Canada, and Denmark. Libertarian policies would get us back to #1."

Read more: http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/humble/opinion/libertarian-party-response-to-state-of-the-union-address/article_fc203a75-383a-511b-8b0f-fdff6c8885a4.html
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Ontario LP candidate profiled in Niagara Falls Review

Stefanos Karatopis profile | Niagara Falls Review - Ray Spiteri::

January 30, 2014: "If the government does a lot less, individuals can do a lot more.

That’s the ideology Ontario should adopt as it tries to get out from underneath an $11.7-million deficit and $272 billion of debt, says Libertarian party candidate Stefanos Karatopis.

"'The party is the same as which I am for: Less government inference,' says Karatopis, who is new to politics having never run for public office before. 'There is, I think, a problem with control, overzealous, overregulation. There’s just too much control on private property. We cannot run any businesses. It’s too much red tape to get through.'

"Karatopis says he was approached by the Libertarian party to represent them for the Feb. 13 provincial Niagara Falls riding byelection.

"He says the party subscribes to many of the same things as the Niagara Landowners Association, of which Karatopis is a director. 'I noticed with the Libertarians, they are very similar to the landowners in such a way as being able to profit off your private property and your property rights,' he says. 'Basically, without property rights we’d have no liberty.'"

Read more: http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/2014/01/28/stefanos-karatopis-profile-libertarian-says-the-less-government-better-off-people-are

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Charlie Earl wages his last campaign, for Ohio governor

Libertarian Candidate Charlie Earl: Voters Are Listening | IVN.us - Carl Wicklander:

January 21, 2014 - "In the Buckeye State, ... the Ohio Legislature passed and Governor Kasich signed a law that would have required minor party candidates to accumulate more than 20,000 signatures by February 5 to become eligible for the November ballot. A federal judge issued a temporary injunction against the law and an appeals court denied the state’s appeal, opening a pathway for other candidates.

"For Charlie Earl, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the state and a Libertarian Party candidate for governor, this means everything. A former Republican member of the Ohio General Assembly, Earl is also a former radio broadcaster and college instructor, and the affability needed in both jobs is readily apparent as he talks about his career and hopes for Ohio."

"After term-limiting himself in 1984, he is making a final attempt to influence the political world. In an interview, Earl said he is unlike the other participants in the gubernatorial race because he does not see the office as a stepping stone to the next political office. Part of his appeal, Earl says, is that this is his last election....

"All the usual obstacles for independents and minor parties exist for Charlie Earl, but he is not discouraged. In at least two polls where his name was specifically mentioned, he received six percent while the major candidates have fluctuated.

"'I think people are listening this year,' he said. 'The problem is letting them know we’re here.'"

Read more: http://ivn.us/2014/01/21/libertarian-candidate-charlie-earl-voters-listening/
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NZ school cuts playground rules; bullying & vandalism drop

Auckland school ditches playtime rules and loses bullies| Stuff.co.nz:

January 26, 2014 - "Ripping up the playground rulebook is having incredible effects on children at an Auckland school.

"Chaos may reign at Swanson Primary School with children climbing trees, riding skateboards and playing bullrush during playtime, but surprisingly the students don't cause bedlam, the principal says.

"The school is actually seeing a drop in bullying, serious injuries and vandalism, while concentration levels in class are increasing.

"Principal Bruce McLachlan rid the school of playtime rules as part of a successful university experiment.... Swanson School signed up to the study by AUT and Otago University just over two years ago, with the aim of encouraging active play.

"However, the school took the experiment a step further by abandoning the rules completely, much to the horror of some teachers at the time....

"When the university study wrapped up at the end of last year the school and researchers were amazed by the results."

Read more: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/9650581/School-ditches-rules-and-loses-bullies
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