Welcome to Halloween 2019, ghosts and ghouls and [shudder] reps...

Have fun going courthouse to courthouse saying “Trick or treat!”

In Chesapeake City, Va., anyone over the age of 14 caught trick-or-treating faces a misdemeanor charge. (Prior to last year, anyone over the age of 12 caught trick and/or treating faced a fine and up to 6 months of jail time.)

The new ordinance says:

“[I]f any person over the age of 14 years shall engage in the activity commonly known as ‘trick or treat’ or any other activity of similar character or nature under any name whatsoever, he or she shall be guilty of a Class 4 misdemeanor.”

Various other cities in Virginia, New Jersey, and South Carolina have also placed age-caps on trick and/or treating.

“These ghoulish limitations are too scary, even for Halloween,” the ACLU argues. “They also impose a severe limitation on a cherished tradition for many kids and families… The only thing a 13-year-old trick-or-treater should fear is a stomach ache at bedtime—not jail.”

Should cities put age limits on trick or treating?

On the Radar

Blocking Alabama’s Near-Total Abortion Ban

Alabama’s “Human Life Protection Act,” a near-total abortion ban, has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge.

Judge Myron H. Thompson of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama wrote that the law violates Supreme Court precedent regarding Roe v. Wade and “defies” the Constitution.

The bill, which was slated to go into effect Nov. 15, would ban all abortions in the state except when the procedure “is necessary in order to prevent a serious health risk" to the mother. It also criminalizes abortions, reclassifying them as a Class A felony punishable by up to 99 years in prison for doctors.

“These ruthless attacks from anti-abortion politicians have no place in Alabama," said Dr. Yashica Robinson, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Huntsville, Ala., who brought the legal challenge

Republican State Sen. Clyde Chambliss, who co-sponsored the legislation, called the move "judicial activism, pure and simple.”

Should more states pass near-total abortion bans?

Under the Radar

Does Business Have a Social Responsibility?

Can we save capitalism by saving the 85%?

“Corporate America is waking up to the realization that income inequality, taken to its logical extreme, spells the death of capitalism,” writes Dan Tierney in the Chicago Tribune.

Tierney, head of the Chicago-based venture capital firm Wicklow (and a Countable investor), notes that many businesses “deserve credit for advancing a long overdue conversation about corporate social responsibility and income inequality.”

But, he says, with 15% of Americans owning 85% of the financial assets, charity and taxes aren’t enough.

“We will not reduce inequality just by redistributing wealth on the back end. We also must create more opportunity on the front end.”

Read his suggestions for "Smart Capitalism," then tell your reps:

Does business have a social responsibility?

 

'Zombie Programs'

On the eve of Halloween, lawmakers held a hearing to discuss the problem of “zombie programs," one of the 971 programs with lapsed authorizations that lawmakers funded to the tune of $307 billion in FY2019 (roughly 25% of federal discretionary spending that year).

Wednesday’s hearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Spending Oversight ― titled “Rise of the Zombies: The Unauthorized and Unaccountable Government You Pay For” ― sought to discuss the scope of the problem and potential solutions. It was chaired by Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH), who noted some of the significant and ridiculous zombie programs in their opening statements. 

Paul observed that the Inter-American Foundation, created in the 1960s and last authorized three decades ago, spent tax dollars on a clown college in Argentina and welfare in Brazil. He contrasted that with Federal Elections Commission, which was last reauthorized in the 1980s before the advent of the Internet or electronic voting machines. Hassan noted that programs to combat violence against women and to provide health services to veterans are among the ranks of zombie programs with lapsed authorizations.

Should Congress wind down or reauthorize “zombie” programs?

Banning Pregnancy Discrimination

On October 31, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act into law to extend civil rights protections from sex discrimination to pregnant women in the workforce.

The bill added pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions to the sex discrimination prohibition within the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in employment and in fringe benefit plans. It required that where benefit costs were equally divided between employers and employees additional costs imposed by this legislation be shared in the same way.

It exempted employers from paying for health insurance benefits related to abortions, except where the life of the mother would be endangered by carrying the fetus to term or where medical complications have arisen from an abortion.

How do you feel about the Pregnancy Discrimination Act on its anniversary?

What You're Saying

Here's how you're answering Should Mining & Geothermal Leasing in Lands Near the Grand Canyon be Permanently Banned?