Dueling demonstrations gather in downtown Portland, Ore., Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020. Groups like Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer showed up downtown to oppose monthslong demonstrations against systemic racism and police brutality.
The bill would require each Florida county and municipal government to adopt the state's fertilizer law and require residents to use only fertilizers containing 50-percent slow-release nitrogen on their lawns.
Bill Cracks Down
"Nitrogen pollution has become a problem due to the volume of fertilizers applied to residential lawns," the 2019 bill says. "Fertilizers applied during the summer rainy season cause nitrogen to wash into the waterways and cause additional pollution and harm to the marine animals within those waters."
According to Bennett, the bill received discussion in the public safety committee, and there were other proposals addressing the problem in the pipeline, but she believed the best way to address the problem was by targeting criminals and holding them accountable.
"Every New Yorker deserves to feel safe and comfortable in their community, and that includes cracking down on excessively noisy vehicles on our streets," Governor Hochul said. "This legislation deters drivers from installing illegal vehicle equipment that results in dangerous noise levels that can contribute to hearing loss and increased emissions."
Senator Andrew Gounardes said, "Today, residents across the state can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that they won't be kept up at night by excessively loud mufflers and exhaust systems. This is a quality of life and public safety issue that plagues our community for no logical reason other than to simply make noise. Now that the SLEEP Act has been signed into law, we can remove these loud and polluting vehicles from our streets once and for all. I'm grateful to Governor Hochul for signing this bill so we can hold people accountable for their disruptive behavior."
Assemblymember William Magnarelli said, "Across New York, many communities and neighborhoods are being disturbed by motorists and motorcycle riders operating illegally loud vehicles, often late at night. This bill looks to crackdown on the problem by going after repair and installation shops that illegally modify car, truck and motorcycle exhaust systems. In addition, increasing the fines will act as a deterrent."
Councilman Justin Brannan said, "I want to thank Governor Hochul for signing this bill. My constituents have been demanding action ever since we saw -- and certainly heard -- drivers illegally modifying their mufflers and disturbing our quality of life and quite frankly, scaring people! It is our hope this new law will bring some peace and quiet back to our neighborhoods night."
The bill would also require the telemarketer's mailing address and any business on whose behalf the telemarketer is telemarketing to be disclosed on any website owned or operated by the telemarketer and on any subsequent written communication to customers.
Republican State Senator Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield), who is sponsoring the bill alongside Democratic Senator Nellie Pou (D-Paterson), told FOX Business that he has been bothered by "extremely offensive" telemarketing calls for years.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled today to take up the most consequential piece of legislation in years related to Russia: the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012. With strong bipartisan support, led by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), the Magnitsky bill is the most serious U.S. effort to address human rights and the rule of law in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
A year-end, $1.7 trillion spending bill now includes measures to require more disclosure of larger online sellers and to ban TikTok from government hardware, making their passage into law exceedingly likely.
A separate bill not in the omnibus legislation, the ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act(Opens in a new window) (Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act) announced by Sen. Marco Rubio (R.-Fla.), cites the government-propaganda angle to ban all commercial transactions with TikTok and other large social apps under the control of China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela.
The omnibus bill, whose headline components include such spending boosts as $118.7 billion more for medical care for military veterans and $44.9 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine and NATO allies, also omits several other high-profile tech-policy proposals.
The bill replaces the 2002 Protection of Wild Mammals Act, which allowed dogs to flush foxes out from cover (but only if the animal was then shot, and if the hunt was carried out to prevent the spread of disease, or protect livestock or ground-nesting birds). Animal rights groups long argued that the law was exploited.
The bill will make it illegal to stalk and flush out wild animals with more than two dogs, unless a license is obtained. Trail hunting (where dogs follow the scent of an animal) will also be prohibited.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday overcame stiff opposition from tech companies and a prolonged debate to approve a bipartisan bill that would prohibit digital giants like Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google from giving preference to their own products and services over those of their competitors.
The bill, backed by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, and nine others, would cover companies that have at least 50 million U.S.-based monthly active users and a market capitalization or annual sales greater than $550 billion in two prior years.
The bill was agreed to on a bipartisan vote of 16-6. It would give the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice the ability to assess which companies are covered by the measure, should it eventually clear both chambers and be signed into law by President Joe Biden.
The House and Senate bills emerged after a 16-month investigation by the House Judiciary Committee led by Reps. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and David Cicilline, D-R.I., that found the four largest tech companies each possess significant market power over large swaths of the U.S. economy. That probe recommended, among other steps, legislation prohibiting platforms from engaging in self-preferencing.
Grassley said the bill would "help level the playing field for small businesses and entrepreneurs that rely on dominant big tech platforms to reach consumers," adding the measure is not intended to "break up big tech or destroy the products and services they offer."
Feinstein also contended, without citing a specific department, that some U.S. agencies oppose the bill because it could weaken cybersecurity and privacy measures. She did vote to move the bill as amended out of committee, however.
After Vladimir Putin forcefully took off air and restricted social media access to the few remaining independent media outlets in Russia still able to report on his illegal and calamitous invasion of Ukraine, the new bipartisan bill authorizes over $125 million dollars in new funding for various Internet Freedom programs through the Department of State and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as for Internet censorship circumvention technologies vetted through the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
A consumer finance expert and single mom, Porter has consistently worked in Congress to crack down on corporate abuse that hurts families. Her legislation to stop Big Pharma from profiting off unreasonable price hikes became law as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. The House passed her bill to hold Big Oil accountable for price gouging consumers at gas pumps. Porter stood up to leaders of both parties to oppose a giveaway to tax preparation companies that would have made it harder for taxpayers to file for free.
The measure was approved, 217 to 207. Republicans unanimously opposed the bill, along with four Democrats. It now goes to the Senate, where a similar bill faces steep odds amid a 50-50 split between Democrats and Republicans.
Exxon Mobil, Chevron and other major oil companies announced surging profits totaling more than $40 billion in the first quarter of the year, a fact Democrats repeatedly cited in floor debate. Many of the companies are spending billions on stock buybacks and dividend payments to investors.
A coalition of 15 consumer and community groups is pushing for passage in Springfield of a bill just introduced to give the Illinois Department of Insurance the power to reject auto insurance rate hikes.
"This bill is a combination of prohibitions and requirements that will harm consumers, reduce competition and increase litigation," according to the response by the Illinois Insurance Association, the American Property Casualty Insurance Association and the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies. "To enforce the provisions of this legislation, a massively expanded state bureaucracy to carry out these regulations will be necessary, the cost of which is also borne by consumers. The legislation will have exactly the opposite effect that the proponents seek."
Advocates for Guzzardi's bill say it addresses a civil rights issue as well. William McNary, co-director of Citizen Action Illinois, said today that a driver with the same attributes and driving record living in Chicago's majority-Black Austin neighborhood will see their car insurance costs drop substantially if they move just a few blocks west to affluent Oak Park.
Unlike China, Hong Kong has numerous political parties. They have traditionally split between two factions: pan-democrats, who call for incremental democratic reforms, and pro-establishment groups, who are by and large pro-business supporters of Beijing. The latter have typically been more dominant in Hong Kong politics. (Historically, only a small minority of Hong Kongers have favored outright independence.) Since 2014, student protesters demanding a more democratic system have formed several political groups, including more radical, anti-Beijing parties such as Youngspiration, Hong Kong Indigenous, and Demosisto. But the power of these groups and pro-democracy parties have weakened significantly as Beijing has cracked down on political opposition, including via the national security law. Several parties have disbanded, and members have been forbidden from running in elections or jailed. 2ff7e9595c
Comments