COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE

VOL. 29, NO. 4 | FALL 2016

FEATURED ARTICLES

Regulators Want You Punching

the Clock on a Smartphone App
4 BY IAIN MURRAY
BY ANGELA LOGOMASINI
The Best Possible Zika
Prevention Kit Includes DEET
I ts not your grandfathers workplace
anymore.
As anybody who has worked for 20 or
more years will tell you, the world of work
has changed. Twenty years ago only 5
percent of us ever telecommuted from home,
according to Gallup. That figure is now 37

8 percent. Franchise businesses employ a mil-

lion more people now than they did in 2008.
And increasing numbers of us are working
BY BILL FREZZA
part-time or more with a sharing economy
How Ma Bell Suppressed platform, such as Uber. Thats great news for
Innovation for 30 Years people who value flexible schedules or seek
extra income. But now government regulators
threaten to bring it to a screeching halt.
A recent deluge of rulings and rulemak-
A recent deluge of
ing from the Department of Labor and the rulings and rulemaking
National Labor Relations Board seeks to turn
from the Department of
12 back the clockto the time of punch clocks.
The Department of Labors proposed
overtime rule is a case in point. Since the Labor and the National
BY FRED L. SMITH, JR.
Hostility to High Finance
last time the agency significantly raised the
wage threshold for its overtime requirement,
Labor Relations Board
Has Ancient Roots businesses have developed new practices to
give ambitious junior managers the chance
seeks to turn back the
to prove themselves by working longer hours clockto the time of
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE and by giving them more responsibility. In
franchise businesses, these are often the punch clocks.
people who become managers, then owners.
One Year Later, the Joint Employer Standard
Still Causing Confusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Under the new overtime rule, these
aspirational people will no longer be able most people wont see much difference in
How Many Americans Will Die Because of to work longer hours in many cases and thus their paychecks as a result of the rule. Its
the FDAs Vaping Rule?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
miss out on a chance to prove themselves. all about the department controlling hours
Persecuting Climate Skeptics: Managers will have to closely watch hours worked.
The Cover-Up Continues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 worked, probably with automated assis- Things could be worse for the sharing-
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. . . . . . 14 tance, and may even require some former economy firms if regulators and courts desig-
Media Mentions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 telecommuters to start showing up physically nate Uber and Lyft drivers as employees
at work. The Labor Department admits that (continued on page 3)
End Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
 Fighting for Freedom, from the Saloon to
the Courtroom
by Kent Lassman
A mazing, powerful, and tremendously complex
systems can emerge from only a handful of initial
elements. For example, when you watch CEIs new
feature film, I, Whiskey, you learn that the human
spirit is the result of water and grain combined and
FROM THE PRESIDENT
processed in countless different ways. In fact, one of
my favorites, ice cream, can be made at home with
only three ingredients: heavy cream, condensed milk,
and fresh fruit.
A market economy is no different. Human action
and cooperative mechanisms for exchange com-
bine to produce the bounty of wealth that we see all
around. It also produces key instruments that facilitate
economic growth, including contracts, systems for
liability, and property rights.
Unfortunately, however, our contemporary legal
environment has been corrupted through abuses in the
class action tort system. It is not class actions them-
selves that are the problem, but aggressive attorneys
willing to sue on behalf of a classregardless of
whether a true harm has been committedand claim
exorbitant fees while leaving everyone else the poorer
for it.
Thats where CEIs Center for Class Action Fairness
(CCAF) comes in.
CEIs Center for Class Action Fairness represents
class members against unfair class action procedures
and settlements. Originally founded by Ted Frank in
2009, the Center has won millions of dollars for con-
sumers and shareholders, and won landmark prece-
dents that safeguard consumers, investors, the judicial
system, and the general public. CCAFs October 2015
merger with CEI has enabled it to take advantage of
CEIs well-established marketing and administrative
operations, freeing up CCAF staff to concentrate on
its core mission of reforming class action law, while
increasing CEIs overall litigation capacity.
Unfair settlements generally serve self-interested
lawyers and third parties at the expense of absent
Publisher
Kent Lassman
Editor
Marc Scribner
Editorial Director
Ph (202) 331-1010
Ivan G. Osorio
Fax (202) 331-0640
info@cei.org Contributing Editor
Keara Vickers
ISSN#: 1086-3036
2 CEI.ORG
class members, the group of people whose rights are
traded away to settle a class action. Lawyers have
an interest in their fees, defendants have an interest in
cheaply disposing of a lawsuit, and the classs inter-
ests can take a back seat in the process. The Center
works to address this situation by representing such
class members pro bono and presenting judges with
the other side of the argument.
When the Center prevails, lawyers get less, class
members get more, and the rule of law is strength-
ened. With over 40 victories in the Centers short
history, courts have reduced or eliminated over $305
million in requested attorneys fees in cases where it
has objected, shifting money from opportunistic trial
lawyers to the consumers and shareholders they are
supposed to represent.
In addition, CCAF is helping to change the culture
surrounding class action settlements. The cases we
win establish precedents that affect dozens of settle-
ments in cases where we never directly participate;
hundreds of courts have cited CCAF victories in their
opinions. Numerous panels at legal conferences and
continuing legal education courses have covered the
landmark 2014 decisions by Judge Richard Posner in
Redman v. RadioShack Corp. and Pearson v. NBTY,
Inc. and CCAFs role in them.
We currently have a caseload of 20 active cases
at the district court and appellate level, with a team
of experienced attorneys ready to carry on the fight.
Stay tuned.
In the meantime, help us celebrate the innovators
and consumers driving todays global distilling renais-
sanceand in the process are bringing people from
all around the world togetherby viewing I, Whiskey.
The film tells their story, and shows how commerce
drives other interpersonal relationships that make
civilization possible.
The CEI Planet is produced by the Competitive Enterprise
Institute, a pro-market public interest group dedicated to
free enterprise and limited government.
CEI is a non-partisan, non-profit organization incorporated in the
District of Columbia and is classified by the IRS as a 501 (c)(3)
charity. CEI relies upon contributions from foundations, corporations
and individuals for its support. Articles may be reprinted provided
they are attributed to CEI.
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
 Regulators, continued
rather than contractors. That would
open up a new world of employment
regulation and significantly cut into
their competitive advantage. You
might need to punch the clock on
your smartphone appif you can get
a job at all.
Other regulatory decisions
threaten to kill off a growing form of
business ownership: the franchise. A
ruling from National Labor Relations
Board could force franchising corpo-
rations to take control over the indi-
vidual franchise businesses, remaking
independent entrepreneurs into middle
managers.
In effect, government regulators
are trying to halt the rise of modern
business methods and models that
dont require a traditional employer-
employee relationship. That puts
regulators directly at odds with the new
American Dream.
In just the past decade, people
have found revolutionary ways around
old barriers to opportunity, what econ-
omists call transaction coststhe
costs of making a transaction happen.
When those costs are high, the transac-
tion doesnt happen. But technology
has helped reduce such costs, making
it easier to run a franchise business or
offer telecommuting and flexible work
options. In todays sharing economy,
people are brought together in market
transactions through a simple app on
your smartphone.
Is your boss your master? Today,
that seems a nonsensical idea. People
regard their boss as a colleague, per-
haps even a friend. But U.S. labor law,
Iain Murray (iain.murray@cei.org) is Vice President of Strategy at CEI. A version
of this article originally appeared in Investors Business Daily.
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
U.S. labor law, stuck
in the New Deal era,
regards your employer
as your master, and
you as his servant.
stuck in the New Deal era, regards
your employer as your master, and R.M.
FREEDMAN
you as his servant. Employment regula-
tion, most of it developed in the 1930s,
revolves around this distinction, with all
the bureaucratic rigidities that entails.
But for most of the past 40 years,
SOCI ET Y
regulators had a measure of hands-off
approach, often allowing economic
forces to dictate changes in business Help the Competitive
practices. No longer. Now the Obama Enterprise Institute
administration is trying to turn back
the clock to reward its union allies.
carry on its work for
Larger corporations are much easier to generations by joining the
unionize and regulate than hundreds R.M. Freedman society.
of individual franchises, freelancers,
or contractors. Its a win-win for unions
and regulators, not for people who In 2013, CEI established the R.M. Freedman
value flexibility and independence at Society in honor of Robert M. Freedman,
work. a business owner from West Bloomfield,
A few years ago, entrepreneur Tim Michigan, who placed CEI in his estate
Ferris explored the possibilities of this and, in 2009, sadly passed on and gave
new unbundled workplace in his CEI its first legacy gift. We named the
society in appreciation of his generosity.
best-seller, The 4-Hour Workweek.
Today, if regulators have their way, Many of CEIs extended family choose to
we may all be stuck with the 40-hour include CEI in their estate plans through:
workweekworking 9 to 5, what a Bequests,
way to make a living.
Charitable Remainder Trusts,
Charitable Lead Trusts, or as a
Life insurance beneficiary.
If you make the decision to include CEI in
your estate plans, please reach out and let
us know.
While these sorts of decisions should be
undertaken with the help of an estate
planner, Lauren Avey and Al Canata of
CEI can be a resource to you. You can
reach them anytime at 202-331-1010.
C E I . O R G 3
 The Best Possible Zika Prevention Kit
Includes DEET
BY ANGELA LOGOMASINI
I n late July, Broward Country, Florida,
recorded the first two Zika cases
transmitted by mosquitos in the United
States. The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) is urging preg-
nant women to assemble and deploy a
Zika Prevention Kit, which is a good
idea.
The CDCs suggested kit includes:
bed nets; insect repellent; mosquito
dunks, which are added to stand-
ing water to prevent development of
mosquito larvae; permethrin spray
for clothing; and condoms to pre-
vent transmission of Zika through
intercourse.
The fact that four out of five of these
items use pesticides is illustrative of
their importance. Bed nets are usually
treated with pesticides to keep insects
away. The mosquito dunks are a reg-
istered pesticide as well, even though
4 CEI.ORG
their key active ingredient is a bacteria
rather than a synthetic chemical. The
repellents are also pesticides.
Used properly, these products
pose little risk, and can be effective in
preventing mosquito and tick trans-
mitted diseases like Zika, West Nile
virus, Lyme disease, and many others.
Unfortunately, many people may be
afraid to use these products because of
unsupported hype about their alleged
risks.
For example, the health news
website Mercola.com maintains: Most
insect repellants out there are loaded
with toxic chemicals, including the
pesticide DEET, which is so poisonous
that even the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) says you should wash it
off your skin when you return indoors,
avoid breathing it in and not spray it
directly on your face.
Yet pretty much any product
manmade or naturalrequires review of these cases in the Canadian
care in how it is used. In fact, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agencys
(EPA) guidelines on repellents, which
Mercola apparently cites, applies to all
repellentsincluding botanical prod-
ucts Mercola recommends. And while
the EPA recommends DEET as safe for
children, it points out: According to
the label, oil of lemon eucalyptus prod-
ucts should not be used on children
under the age of three. Other ingredi-
ents do not have an age restriction.
This indicates that this allegedly more
natural product may pose greater
risks than DEET.
In fact, there are no documented
cases of anyone dying or suffering
serious long-term health effects from
the proper use of DEET. There have
been concerns that excessive appli-
cation of DEET on children caused
seizures, but these claims were based
on a handful of inconclusive cases.
In 2003, Researchers published a
Medical Association Journal. They
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
 could only find 10 case reports of
children suffering from seizures pos-
sibly related to DEET, and none were
conclusive. Given that 3 to 5 percent
of children suffer from such seizures
for a variety of reasons and that 23
to 29 percent of children are exposed
to DEET, it is possible that the cases
were incorrectly attributed to DEET.
Nonetheless, these case reports
have been widely quoted and have
led regulatory agencies and pediatric
societies to limit use of DEET in young
children, the researchers note.
In contrast, the insect-borne dis-
eases that DEET applications can pre-
vent levy a heavy toll on public health.
For example, the CDC reports that last
year alone there were 2,060 reported
West Nile virus cases, 119 deaths, and
1,360 cases of neuro-invasive illnesses
that can have long-term debilitating
effects. In 2014, there were more than
25,000 cases of Lyme disease, which
the CDC says is the most commonly
reported vector-borne illness in the
United States. And now we must also
be concerned about Zika and the birth
defects it may produce.
The EPA has long maintained that
DEET poses very low risk, while provid-
ing important health benefits. Its most
recent evaluation, in 2014, explained:
We continue to believe that the
Learn more at RealClearRadio.org.
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
normal use of DEET does not present a
health concern to the general popula-
tion, including children.
Regarding the benefits of DEET, the
EPA notes:
DEETs most significant benefit is its
ability to repel potentially disease-
carrying insects and ticks. The
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) receives more
than 30,000 reports of Lyme
disease (transmitted by deer ticks)
and 80-100 reports of La Crosse
encephalitis virus (transmitted by
mosquitoes) annually. A total of 48
states and the District of Columbia
have reported West Nile virus infec-
tions in people, birds or mosquitoes
to CDC.
Each of these diseases can cause
serious health problems or even death
in the case of encephalitis. Where these
diseases are prevalent, the CDC rec-
ommends use of insect repellents when
outdoors. Studies in the EPAs database
indicate that DEET repels ticks for about
two to 10 hours, and mosquitoes from
two to 12 hours depending on the per-
centage of DEET in the product.
Insect repellents containing DEET
have the longest record of demon-
strated safety and effectiveness, which
explains why both the CDC and EPA
C E I . O R G 5
recommend it. In fact, a 2002 study
published in the New England Journal
of Medicine that evaluated the effec-
tiveness of various insect repellents on
the market found that: DEET-based
products provided complete protection
for the longest duration. In fact, DEET
effectiveness lasted 15 times longer
than natural botanical products. The
study also noted that DEET has been
in use for decades with few health
repercussions. Accordingly, researchers
dubbed DEET as the gold standard for
protection against dangerous insect-
borne diseases.
Zika, West Nile, Lyme, and other
insect-transmitted illnesses pose serious
risks, and DEET is among the best tools
available to prevent their transmis-
sion. Expecting mothersor anyone
elseshould not fear DEET and other
EPA-approved pesticides as long as
they follow the directions on the label.
The real danger lies in remaining
inadequately protected because of
misinformation about DEET and other
pesticide risks.
Angela Logomasini, Ph.D. (angela.
logomasini@cei.org) is a Senior Fellow
at CEI. A version of this article originally
appeared on The Huffington Post.
Realclear Radio offers listeners a
fresh perspective on political and
social issues of the day through
informative interviews and dis-
cussions. Brought to you by the
Competitive Enterprise Institute
and RealClearPolitics, and hosted
by CEI Fellow Bill Frezza.
 One Year Later, the Joint Employer
Standard Still Causing Confusion
BY TREY KOVACS
A ugust marked the one-year
anniversary of the National Labor
Relations Boards (NLRB) Browning-
Ferris decision, which radically rede-
fined employment rules for businesses
nationwide.
Under the new definition, which
overturned 30 years of precedent, a
company may be held liable for labor
violations by other employers they
contract with, by merely exercising
indirect control or possessing unex-
ercised potential control over work
conditions like hiring, supervision, and
wages. This is a far-reaching change
from the prior standard on when two
companies would be deemed a joint
employer. The previous standard
required an employer exhibit direct
and immediate control over another
companys employees.
Labor regulators have a goal in
mind: to make it far more likely that
larger businesses are found liable
for the labor violations of smaller
businesses.
That means higher costs for larger
businesses. The NLRB also desires to
saddle larger companies with greater
bargaining responsibilities of smaller
businesses they contract with. Its an
injustice that one business can now be
charged with labor violations com-
mitted by another businessand be
railroaded into bargaining with a union
trying to organize another employers
workers.
Even worse is the uncertainty
caused by the vague and overly broad
joint employer standard. The NLRB
left undefined what constitutes indirect
and unexercised potential control. In
Browning-Ferris, the majority at the
NLRB explained they will look at the
facts on a case-by-case basis and
would not address the facts in every
6 CEI.ORG
hypothetical situation in which the
Board might be called on to make a
joint-employer determination. Nor
has the NLRB issued any guidance in
the year since to clarify the new stan-
dard. This leaves the business commu-
nity near-clueless as how best to avoid
joint employer liability.
Meanwhile, another recent NLRB
case indicates how unpredictably
the Boards joint employer stan-
dard can be applied. In September
2015, President Obama applauded
Microsoft for implementing a supplier
code of conduct, which requires that
the company only do business with
suppliers that offer workers 15 days of
paid leave.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Shortly after that, in October 2015, the
Temporary Workers of America (TWA)
requested Microsofts presence at a
collective bargaining meeting as a joint
employer with Lionbridge, a Microsoft
supplier. The TWA cited the Browning-
Ferris decision to argue that Microsofts
placing of eligibility criteria on sup-
pliers establishes a joint employer
relationship with LionBridgedespite
Microsoft never exercising any control
over LionBridge workers.
Never before had placing general
standards been used to qualify as a
supplier establish joint employment. But
Microsoft recently noted that its sup-
plier code of conduct has led to sub-
stantial and growing legal expenses
and great uncertainty. And Microsoft
may not be the only company get-
ting caught in the NLRBs crosshairs.
Facebook, for example, requires sup-
pliers offer 15 days of paid leave, a
$15 minimum wage, and a new child
benefit for mothers and fathers esti-
mated to cost the employer $4,000.
What will the Microsoft case
reveal? Most recently, the NLRB
in July denied the companys peti-
tion to revoke the Boards subpoena
Its an injustice that
one business can
now be charged
with labor violations
committed by
another business
and be railroaded
into bargaining with
a union trying to
organize another
employers workers.
seeking information on the relationship
between Microsoft and Lionbridge.
Incredibly, the Boards majority notes
that the NLRB may issue subpoenas
without an objective factual basis.
The Board does not need facts to sub-
poena MicrosoftTWAs allegations
are enough.
It is no wonder that the business
community is up in arms over the
Browning-Ferris decision. Even when
businesses take actions that are praised
by President Obama they cannot win.
Many businesses will think twice about
contracting with small businesses or
placing any conditions on their suppli-
ers. That cant be good for small busi-
nesses or job creation, a consequence
our slowly recovering economy does
not need.
Trey Kovacs (trey.kovacs@cei.org)
is a Policy Analyst at CEI. A version
of this article originally appeared on
FoxBusiness.com.
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
 How Many Americans Will Die Because of
the FDAs Vaping Rule?
BY MICHELLE MINTON
E -cigarettes could lead to a 21
percent decline in deaths from
smoking-related diseases for people
born after 1997, according to a study
published in Nicotine and Tobacco
Research. Even accounting for harms
people might suffer from vaping who
would have otherwise not smoked at
all, the researchers found a net public
health gain from the presence of e-cig-
arettes. So why is the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) putting up
big regulatory barriers for e-cigarettes
starting in August?
In the case of electronic cigarettes,
the agency is sacrificing the millions of
people who will certainly die because
of their tobacco addiction for the
unknown number of people who might
be harmed by the long-term effects of
nicotine found in vaping products.
The risks of smoking traditional
cigarettes far outweigh the risks of
vaping. Both contain nicotine, which is
an addictive substance, but itself may
be no more harmful that caffeine and
might even have some benefits. But
cigarettes kill 50 percent or more of its
users. Vaping, though a relatively new
product category, is estimated to be
95 percent less harmful than traditional
tobacco products.
Smokers seem willing to make the
switch to vaping. A survey of nearly
30,000 European Union residents
concluded that of the 7.5 million daily
vapers, 35 percent had completely
switched from traditional tobacco
cigarettes.
Applying these rates to American
vapers, a conservative estimate is that
of the 9 million regular vapers in the
United States, 2.97 million of them
have quit smoking traditional cigarettes
by using e-cigarettes.
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
Yet, since August 8, the FDA
has treated these two very different
products in functionally the same way.
Manufacturers and importers will have
two years to gain FDA approval for
every device, component, and e-liquid
formula. This process takes hundreds to
thousands of man-hours and can cost
up to $1 million per application. By the
FDAs own estimate, 99 percent of the
current products on the market will not
receive approval.
The purpose of the Tobacco Control
Actwhich gave the FDA power to
regulate tobaccowas to provide
new and flexible enforcement author-
ity and to aid the industrys attempts to
develop, introduce, and promote less
harmful tobacco products. Yet, with
this new rule the FDA is doing is exactly
the opposite.
American health advocates should
be raising a stink about the damage
these new rules will do to public health.
But instead they worry about vaping
re-normalizing cigarette smoking.
Its too bad they arent following
the lead of British health professionals,
who embraced the scientific evidence
that e-cigarettes are relatively safe and
an effective way to quit smoking. They
have even advised doctors to encour-
age patients to switch to vaping.
So, what can be done to stop the
FDA for perpetrating this harm?
First, Congress should enact legisla-
tion that would change the grandfa-
ther date within the Tobacco Control
Act (TCA) to 2016. The grandfather
or predicate date, which allowed
tobacco products on the market
before February 2007 (or similar to
such products) to bypass the agencys
pre-market approval process, is set at
February 2007. Because e-cigarettes
didnt really exist before this date, no
products would qualify for this exemp-
tion. Though the TCA explicitly gives the
C E I . O R G 7
FDA flexible enforcement authority to
ensure that there is effective oversight
of the tobacco industrys efforts to
develop, introduce and promote less
harmful tobacco products, the FDA
indicated it doesnt have the authority
to change the grandfather date.
To address the problem, Reps. Tom
Cole (R-Okla.) and Sanford Bishop
(D-Ga.) introduced an amendment
to the Agriculture Appropriations bill
that would change the predicate date
to August 2016. While not a perfect
solution, grandfathering in most of the
products on the market now would just
bring innovation to a screeching halt,
rather than throwing it back nine years.
In the long term, lawmakers should
enact legislation directing the FDA to
issue rules that account for the relative
harm of products and make it easier
and cheaper for less harmful products
to get approval.
FDAs fears about vaping products
are not baseless. Though theyve been
around for about a decade and are
safer than cigarettes, the long-term
effects of vaping arent known. What
is known, however, is that millions of
people will die because of their addic-
tion to traditional cigarettes unless they
quit or switch to another product. The
FDAs new rules will make switching
more expensive, less attractive, and
less likely.
Even if bureaucrats at the FDA dont
get the blame, their failure to enact
rules that preserve the electronic ciga-
rette market will result in deaths that
could have been prevented.
Michelle Minton (michelle.minton@cei.
org) is a Fellow at CEI. A version of this
article originally appeared in Newsday.
 How Ma Bell Suppressed Innovation
for 30 Years
BY BILL FREZZA
O h, for the days of Ma Bell!
is not a lament were likely to
hear. And for good reason. Before the
breakup of AT&T, Americas telephone
system was a government-sanctioned
monopoly characterized by stagnant
service offerings, high costs, and
a glacial pace of consumer-facing
innovation.
Take it from me. I spent the early
years of my career toiling for Ma Bells
crown jewel, Bell Labs.
So it was distressing when a federal
appeals court engaged in a bit of
1970s nostalgia last June by uphold-
ing the Federal Communications
Commissions (FCC) ill-conceived net
neutrality rules. Under the new FCC
rules, Internet service will increasingly
8 CEI.ORG
be regulated like a public utility, rather
than a competitive market.
The likely result? Reduced invest- Nothing could
ment in online communications infra-
structure, reduced competition, and
innovation slowing down to a crawl.
be worse for
Technology companies in the American
United States are some of our econ-
omys most dynamic driversmaking competitiveness,
things better, faster, and cheaper
while creating new jobs and economic or for consumers,
growth. Nothing could be worse for
American competitiveness, or for con- than returning to
sumers, than returning to the golden
age of Ma Bell. the golden age
Bell Labs gave us technology
breakthroughs like the transistor, the of Ma Bell.
laser, the solar cell, and scientific
advances in radio astronomy that
provided the first direct confirmation of we need to apply the most basic test
the Big Bang. While these are impres- for assessing economic policies, which
sive achievements, they are not the is to examine not only what is seen, but
whole picture. To see that fuller picture, also what is not seen.
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
 Americans under the age of 30
never experienced our telecommunica-
tions system when it was a statutory
monopoly. Thats fortunate for them as
consumers, though it deprives them of
some important historical perspective.
For seven decades, Bell delivered
the worlds most advanced, reliable,
ubiquitous telecom network in the
world, spitting out ample profits that
funded what many called a national
treasure. Problem was, it was the exact
same phone service for most of those
seven decades.
Until the waning years of Ma Bells
monopoly, it was illegal to connect
anything but Western Electric equip-
ment to the network. Customers could
only lease telephones for a monthly
fee. Phones were ruggedly designed
and lasted for decades. The designs
themselves changed about as fre-
quently. The idea of a new phone with
new features coming out every year
would have been considered insanity.
Attempts to launch third party applica-
tions on the system would have landed
you in jail.
The phone my grandpa used in
1923 would have worked just fine in
1978, when I arrived at Bell Labs fresh
out of MIT. Push buttons had replaced
rotary dials. But other than that, and the
fact that long distance calls could be
dialed directly rather than via a human
operator, consumer-side progress
moved at a crawl. All of Bells com-
mercial technology development was
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
focused on the network side, driven
by an imperative to increase effi-
ciency and reduce costs. Meanwhile,
prices, set by government bureaucrats,
remained constant. And why not? There
were no competitors to offer consumers
a better option.
This is what 30 years of progress
looked like to consumers during Bell
Labs heyday.
As for those prices, in 1972, my
freshman year in college, a three-min-
ute long-distance call home to Mom
cost the same as two pitchers of beer
and three bags of Beer Nuts ($3 at the
time, or about $17 in todays dollars).
Hard to believe when todays college
students can make free Skype calls
halfway around the world.
For those reasons, so-called net
neutrality should give us pause.
What didnt get built during that
golden age? Everything you know and
love. The entire digital universe had
been pent up behind a wall of sup-
pressed demand and legal barriers to
market entry. It burst forth only after the
Bell monopoly was broken up in 1984,
leading to historys most dazzling dash
of innovation. And this was done with
little help from Bell Labsaside from
the diaspora of talent its unwinding
unleashed. Only then did we see the
impact of hoarding so many scientists
and engineers.
Mercifully forgotten is Ma Bells
meticulously plannedand quite dif-
ferentvision for the digital future. It
I, Whiskey: The Movie
Coming Soon from CEI
C E I . O R G 9
The entire digital
universe had been
pent up behind a
wall of suppressed
demand and legal
barriers to market
entry.
wasnt pretty. The data successor to
the public switched telephone network
was going to be something called
X.25, and it would deliver videotex, the
project I worked on while I was there.
Go dig up those papers and laugh. It is
exactly what you would expect if you
turned over the Internet to a bunch of
central planners controlling a massive
hierarchy of cloistered engineers.
For those reasons, so-called
net neutrality should give us pause.
Innovation requires exactly the kind of
disruption that government-enforced
equality is designed to prevent.
Bill Frezza (bill.frezza@cei.org) is
a Fellow at CEI and host of CEIs
RealClear Radio Hour. A version of this
article was originally published by the
Foundation for Economic Education.
 C E I E V E NT S UP DAT E
Wayne Crews
Discusses Regulatory
Dark Matter
On September 16, CEI Vice
President for Policy Wayne
Crews participated on the
panel, Ghost Rules, Agency
Action, and Regulatory
Shadow-Boxing, part of the George Mason University
(GMU) Antonin Scalia Law School conference,
Environmental Law in the Administrative State. The
panel, moderated by Neomi Rao, Director of GMUs
Center for the Study of the Administrative State, also
featured University of Utah law professors Lincoln Davies
and Amy Wildermuth, Kirkland & Ellis partner Jeffrey
Bossert Clark, and Richard J. Pierce, Jr. of the George
Washington University Law School. The panel partici-
pants discussed how federal agencies use informal
policy making in the form of guidance to exercise control
over the private sectorwhat Wayne Crews describes
as regulatory dark matter.
Gregory Conko
Briefs Congressional
Staff on Freedom
in Agriculture
On June 28, CEI Executive
Director Gregory Conko
addressed a group of 80
congressional staffers at
the Heritage Foundation-hosted seminar, Reducing
Major Regulatory Obstacles in Agriculture, held in
the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill.
Conko discussed the regulation of genetically engi-
neered crops and described how duplicative and
unnecessary testing and approval requirements have
restricted innovation, concentrated the industry, and
made it all but impossible for small seed companies
and university researchers to introduce genetically
engineered products. The seminar was the first of five
events held to promote the Heritage Foundations
study, Farms and Free Enterprise: A Blueprint for
Agricultural Policy, to which Conko served as an
advisor. Other speakers at the event included former
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture John Block, Reason
Foundation scholar Brian Seasholes, and Hunton &
Williams attorney Deidre Duncan.
10 CEI.ORG
Iain Murray Briefs
Hill Staffers on the
Changing Workplace
Also on September 16,
CEI Vice President for
Strategy Iain Murray was
featured as the first speaker
in FreedomWorks new
FreedomWorks Presents,
a series of discussions with thought leaders in the free
market movement, held on Capitol Hill. Speaking to a
group of Hill staffers, he discussed the various economic
forces that have changed the nature of work, and how
archaic definitions of employment, New Deal-era laws,
and ideologically motivated regulators are hindering
the benefits of these changes flowing through to workers
and businesses. In doing so, Murray outlined the ideas
contained in his recent CEI study, Punching the Clock
on a Smartphone Appwhich FreedomWorks Neil
Siefring, who facilitated the discussion, suggested should
be made into a movie.
Sam Kazman Briefs Capitol Hill on
the Targeting of Climate Skeptics
On July 13, CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman spoke
on a panel at a Capitol Hill briefing on the targeting of
climate skeptics by a group of activist state attorneys
general (AGs). As part of the AGs campaign of intimi-
dation, CEI was subpoenaed by the Virgin Islands AG in
early April. We have responded forcefully, both pub-
licly and in court. Also speaking at the event was Rep.
Mike Kelly (R-Penn.) The panel also included Heritage
Foundation Senior Legal Fellow Hans von Spakovsky
and State Policy Network Senior Policy Advisor Jennifer
Butler. Kazman discussed the unconstitutional attempt to
shut down the climate science debate by the coalition
of State Attorneys General for Clean Power, and how
CEI is fighting the subpoena it received from the Virgin
Islands AG.
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
 Persecuting Climate Skeptics:
The Cover-Up Continues
BY CHRIS HORNER
S eventeen attorneys general got
more than they bargained for
when they held a March 29, 2016
publicity stunt of a press conference to
announce, with former Vice President
Al Gore at their sides, a campaign to
target opponents of the global warming
agenda under racketeering laws.
It wasnt long before several batches
of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
emails, obtained by the Energy &
Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal)
and Free Market Environmental Law
Clinic (FME Law), revealed the AGs
were working behind closed doors with
professional climate activists, from
both pressure groups and law firms. If
that wasnt bad enough, they also show
a plan for the AGs to coordinate efforts
to stonewall public records requests that
threaten to expose their scheme.
How do we know that? The ini-
tial batch of emails from the Vermont
Attorney General office revealed that
RICO ringleader Eric Schneiderman,
New Yorks AG, created a legal
document called a Common Interest
Agreement (CIA) that sought to write all
participating AG offices out from under
their own open records lawsincluding
their dealings with those same outside
activistsjust for this campaign.
This cloak of invisibility extends to
other AGs, and certain outside par-
ties. Records obtained to date show
these include a Whos Who of the
global warming industry.
Subsequent emails indicate the AGs
indeed signed such an agreement.
However, the very stonewall called
for in the agreement has ensured that
no one has yet been able to confirm
it. AGs have denied requests for the
signed pacts outright, and are duck-
ing reporters questions. But emails we
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
have been able to obtain and blocking
efforts both show a clear pattern of
evasion.
Attorneys general in states including
Illinois, Kentucky, and Minnesota have,
sometimes comically, labored to deny
that the RICO records are public, or
keep them secret by claiming that even
invitations to happy hours are privi-
leged law enforcement records.
Other responses of interest include
Rhode Islands AG office imposing
delays and hundreds of dollars in fees
before handing over records, which,
on their face, revealed the existence of
other responsive records not pro-
duced. For example, these show Rhode
Islands AG agreed to a second CIA
to exempt the AGs ongoing campaign
from FOIA laws. They withheld it, with-
out admitting they did so, even though it
was plainly an attachment to one of the
produced emails.
Massachusetts shows no indica-
tion it is processing one FOIA request
and, after being pressed on another,
demanded approximately $4,000 to
process it. It also threatened to withhold
most if not all of the approximately 700
emails and 400 attachments even if
paid, on the basis of the same exemp-
tions already improperly invoked by its
partner AGs.
The capo di tutti capi, New Yorks
Schneiderman, is the most obstructionist
of all, taking every delay and extension
the law permits and then some.
The unwillingness of the AGs to
release even the secrecy pact itself
let alone the records showing their
coordination, which they claim it
shieldscontrasts sharply with activist
claims that they have been open and
transparent about their involvement
with the AGs. Further, both the AGs
and the activist groups have deigned to
respond only to Democrats on Capitol
Hill, ignoring Republican concerns over
C E I . O R G 11
Attorneys general
in states including
Illinois, Kentucky,
and Minnesota have,
sometimes comically,
labored to deny that
the RICO records are
public.
the coordinated scheme to deny others
First Amendment rights.
This campaign with outside activ-
ists is exactly the sort of sneaky misuse
of power that elected representatives
adopted FOIA laws to protect against.
Collectively, this behavior shows abu-
sive attorneys general going into the
bunker to keep their pursuit of political
opponents from further exposure. This
also represents chief law enforcement
officers organizing to subvert the same
transparency laws they are sworn to
uphold.
E&E Legal and FME Law have
already sued Vermont and the District of
Columbia AGs for refusing to process
RICO-related FOIA requests. Sadly, it
appears more suits will be necessary,
and one record already obtained sug-
gests this is the AGs strategy.
Every aspect of the AGs campaign
is an outrage. But in the end, these
tactics will not work, and the public will
see what theyve been up to, and with
whom.
Chris Horner (chris.horner@cei.org)
is a Senior Fellow at CEI. A version of
this article originally appeared on
FoxNews.com.
 Hostility to High Finance Has
Ancient Roots
BY FRED L. SMITH, JR.
L ast July, the Republicans assembled in
Cleveland approved a platform that
includes some praiseworthy planks on
government reform, but one provision
stood out as a jarring case of one of
these things is not like the others. The
platform committee called for the return
of banking regulation from the New
Deal era by reviving the Glass-Steagall
Act of 1933, which barred commer-
cial banks from investment banking.
Why, when it comes to government
intervention in the economy, are banks
different?
One oft-cited justification for reviv-
ing Glass-Steagall is that financial
innovations since the original law was
repealed in 1999 are unusually, even
12 CEI.ORG
dangerously, risky, and so complex
that even well-informed people find
them mystifying. Yet, that alleged
disconnect between sophisticated
investment products and normal
business deals is not new. It is just the
latest version of an old story: Finance
gets unfairly demonized when the
general public fails to understand how
it works.
For millennia, mankind lived at
subsistence levels in tribal cultures (I
told you it was an old story). Wealth
creation was minimal, and the rule
of economic behavior was a kind of
proto-mercantilism that called for any
exchanges to benefit the tribe as a
group, rather than individual produc-
ers. In societies that emphasized group
identity, this led to a leveling-down
where successful producers were
forced to share the fruits of their labor
Lending capital to
someone who can
find a better use for it
is the bedrock of the
modern economy.
with others. In a largely closed system,
anyone accumulating enough material
possessions to be considered rich
was assumed to be unfairly withholding
from his fellow tribe members, regard-
less of who actually produced what.
That tribal sense of unfairnessthat
someone is rich only because others
have been made pooris still with us
today. As most of us know, trade and
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
 investment are positive-sum proposi-
tions, but the fact that some have more
wealth than others leads people to
think that theres something wrong with
the system. Even when absolute living
standards and material prosperity are
increasing, capitalisms critics insist
that statistical constructs of income
inequality are somehow more impor-
tant. However, it is the quality of life of
actual people, not mathematical ratios,
that matters.
Many people find the process of
wealth creation confusing. Only some-
one who physically alters or improves
something, the old prejudice goes, can
make a legitimate profit off of it. We
see the skill involved when a craftsman
turns a pile of wood into a table, but
when it comes to the middleman who
advertises, warehouses, or resells that
table, the value added is less obvious.
In truth, those intermediate steps and
business processes help fill in gaps in
the market and reduce transactions
costs, bringing benefits to the final con-
sumer. But because those activities are
less relatable to the average person,
more eyebrows are raised about the
legitimacy of the resulting profits.
Adam Smith, the father of modern
economics, described two kinds of
middlemen who plied their trade in
agricultural markets in the 18th century,
and the skepticism and hostility they
often encountered. These men, known
as forestallers and engrossers,
were the progenitors of todays com-
modity traders. Forestalling consisted of
buying grain during times of plenty and
low prices, and warehousing it until it
could be resold at a profit. Engrossing
involved purchasing grain in a region
where prices were low and transport-
ing to one where prices were higher, to
resell at a profit.
Traditional merchants fiercely
opposed the arbitrage role of these
innovators, whom they saw as inter-
lopers manipulating the market and
local conditions for their own profit
without actually producing anything.
In reality, these transactions are useful
price-smoothing mechanisms that
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
deliver benefits to both producers and
consumers, but the Michael Moores
and Naomi Kleins of the 18th century
were still convinced that some shady
financial shenanigans were going on
behind the scenes.
Hostility to pure finance, as
opposed to investments in physical
assets, has a similar, unfortunate
pedigree. If people get upset that
youre making money off of merely
moving grain from Wiltshire to
Northumberland rather than cultivat-
ing it, you can imagine how suspi-
cious they become when the source of
your profits is money itself.
The lending of money at interest,
known throughout history by the pejo-
rative term usury, was reviled for
centuries as an unnatural and vicious
practice. Lending capital to someone
who can find a better use for it is the
bedrock of the modern economy. But
because one must have capital in order
to provide it to someone else, skeptics
have long seen lending as part of a
corrupt game played by the already
wealthy. Todays anger at Wall Street is
similar. People who feel economically
powerless are suspicious of others who
seem to be able to create money out of
thin air.
This ignorance of market processes
is dangerous and corrosive. It breeds
suspicion and mistrust among otherwise
peaceful and law-abiding people. We
need to work harder to educate the
public on how the world of banking
and investing actually works, and the
real-world benefits of some of Wall
Streets more exotic instruments.
What people most worry about is
not that a risky investment will cause
high-flying millionaires to lose their
shirts, but that dangerous levels of risk,
assumed by others, will hurt them and
their families.
That doesnt mean we need more
burdensome regulations like Glass-
Steagall. It means we need real
banking reform that frees companies to
pursue innovative investing strategies
while ensuring they bear the financial
cost of their own failures.
C E I . O R G 13
What people most
worry about is not
that a risky investment
will cause high-flying
millionaires to lose
their shirts, but that
dangerous levels
of risk, assumed by
others, will hurt them
and their families.
Rather than dig up outdated regula-
tory theories of the 1930s, we need a
policy that says that U.S. taxpayers will
not be on the hook for big investments
gone wrong, and that no institution is
too big to enter bankruptcy court.
Refusing to countenance future
bailouts may not persuade the Occupy
Wall Street crowdor even some
Republicans these daysthat hedge
funds and investment banks are pillars
of their community, but it will go a long
way toward reassuring the majority of
Americans who simply dont want to
pay for someone elses mistakes. I may
not think its a smart financial decision
for a Wall Street trader to buy Greek
corporate bonds or increase his hold-
ings in mortgage-backed securities, but
I also dont think its a good idea for
him to spend $3.4 million for a limited
edition Bugatti Veyron. As long as its
not my money hes using, though, I
dont need to worry.
Fred L. Smith, Jr. (fred.smith@cei.org) is
Founder of CEI and Director of CEIs
Center for Advancing Capitalism. A ver-
sion of this article originally appeared in
Forbes.
 THE
GOOD
CEI Appeals Fat Reward
for Lawyers in Subway
Footlong Agreement
On September 8, CEIs Center for
Class Action Fairness (CCAF) argued
in court against a class action settle-
ment involving Subways footlong
sandwiches. The settlement awards
over half a million dollars to the class
attorneys, while the class members
get nothing. The original class action
lawsuit had alleged that sandwiches
sold by Subway sometimes fell short of
the chains footlong marketing claims.
No one disputed the fact that the actual
weight of the dough and the amount of
ingredients was uniform for each sand-
wich, and even the named plaintiffs in
the lawsuit conceded the exact length
of the sandwiches didnt affect their pur-
chases or change their future plans to
eat at Subway. In this class action, the
principal effect is to force the defendant
to give money to the lawyers with noth-
ing going to the class at all, said Ted
Frank, CCAFs director and the Subway
customer objecting to the settlement.
This is an abuse of the class action
system meant to protect people. Judge
Diane Sykes agreed, calling the settle-
ment, a racket in every sense and
drawing comparison to CEIs recent
successful challenge to the Walgreens
settlement before the same court.
14 CEI.ORG
THE
BAD
Rail Regulators Threaten
Innovation with New
Mandate
On July 15, the Federal Railroad
Administration (FRA) held a hearing
on a proposed rule that would require
freight trains to maintain minimum
crew sizes of two engineers. Despite
claiming that enhanced safety was
the goal behind the proposal, the
agency admitted it had no evidence
that a two-person crew mandate
would enhance safety. Worse, such
an action threatens advances in
automated rail technology and digital
communications systems, some of
which have been mandated by the
same agency and have already cost
the railroad industry billions of dol-
lars. The proposed two-person crew
rule is a naked attempt by the FRA to
codify union featherbedding practices.
Not only does the FRAs arbitrary and
capricious rule threaten innovation
in the railroad industry, in the long-
run it could perversely harm safety
as error- and injury-prone humans
are forced into the field by federal
regulators when available technol-
ogy makes them, at best, redundant,
said CEI Senior Fellow Marc Scribner.
Administrator Feinberg should do the
right thing and discontinue this danger-
ous rulemaking.
THE
UGLY
Arizona Supreme Court
Upholds Forced Taxpayer
Giveaway to Unions
On September 13, the Arizona
Supreme Court upheld the practice of
union release time, whereby taxpayers
are forced to pay government employ-
ees to perform private union business.
The 3-2 ruling rejected arguments
that such arrangements violate the
state constitutions Gift Clause, which
requires that public funds be used
only on activities that primarily serve a
public purpose. The practice of union
release time, which allows government
employees to stop working for the tax-
payer and perform union activity, only
benefits government unions, said CEI
Policy Analyst Trey Kovacs. Activity
performed on release time should be
a cost incurred by the unions that profit
from it, not taxpayers. Now it is up
to legislators to end this multi-million
dollar wasteful practice in the Grand
Canyon State.
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
 MediaMENTIONS
The Wall Street Journals editorial
board notes CEIs lawsuit against
New York AG Eric Schneiderman:
When Eric Schneiderman and
16 other Democratic state attorneys
general announced in March that
they were targeting Exxon Mobil for
its alleged heresy on climate change,
they called themselves AGs United for
Clean Power. A better name would
have been AGs United for More Power.
To great media fanfare, they unleashed
a series of broad subpoenas designed
to intimidate dissenters from the Obama
orthodoxy on climate change.
One such dissenter was the
Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-
market think tank that was hit in April
with a subpoena from Virgin Islands
AG Claude Walker. Mr. Walker sought
a decades worth of emails and donor
names regarding the think tanks climate
and energy work. But CEI fought back
in the press and in court, and Mr.
Walker withdrew his subpoena after he
was countersued.
August 31, The Wall Street Journal
Marc Scribner discusses autono-
mous vehicle deployment:
It remains to be seen if deploying
the technology was a right decision
or if Tesla was too fast to market, says
Marc Scribner, research fellow at the
Competitive Enterprise Institute, a public
policy organization. Teslas rapid data
collection period was able to blow
other developers out of the water,
Scribner says.
[] Based on that advice and
growing data showing the real-world
capabilities of these vehicles, states and
developers will determine if the existing
traffic and transit laws are sufficient or
if changes are needed. Over the next
10 years it will be anyones game,
Scribner says. No one has commer-
cialized the higher levels of automation,
and it will be interesting to see who the
first one will be.
August 25, Scientific American
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
Reuters reports on CEIs successful
objection to a settlement by the
utility Pepco:
Two weeks after an objection by
the Competitive Enterprise Institute
killed a disclosure-only M&A share-
holder settlement under review at the
7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals,
CEIs Center for Class Action Fairness
has drawn fresh blood from the share-
holder M&A bar.
[] The settlement, announced in
June in Delaware Chancery Court,
granted shareholders only supple-
mental disclosures in proxy materials.
Plaintiffs lawyers were due to receive
$405,000. Instead, in Tuesdays filing,
the lawyers agreed to dismiss the case.
August 24, Reuters
The Wall Street Journals editorial
board weigh in on CEIs recent
win in the Walgreens case, in
which renowned judge Richard
Posner wrote the opinion:
In a so-called strike suit, plaintiffs
attorneys demanded that Walgreens
provide additional disclosures to its
voluminous proxy statement or face
litigation. The company quickly settled,
and the lawyers took home $370,000
in fees. Shareholders got nothing.
Thats closer to blackmail than
justice, as Judge Posner suggested in a
sharply worded 12-page opinion. The
type of class action illustrated by this
casethe class action that yields fees
for class counsel and nothing for the
classis no better than a racket. It must
end, he wrote. On remand, the lower
court should give serious consider-
ation to either appointing new class
counsel, or dismissing the suit.
Judge Posner noted that the addi-
tional disclosures were somewhere
between trivial and worthless. The
merger between the companies, the
judge notes, was already approved by
97 percent of Walgreens shareholders.
The settlement was challenged by
the Competitive Enterprise Institute on
C E I . O R G 15
behalf of a share-
holder, and kudos
for them.
August 12,
The Wall Street
Journal
Iain Murray
comments on
Britains decision to leave the
European Union:
Iain Murray, vice president for
strategy at the Competitive Enterprise
Institute, a Washington public policy
organization, said Britains surprising
vote to leave the EU is only the start of
uncertainty and opportunity.
Negotiations over the terms of exit
will take at least two years, and no one
knows what form they will take or what
deal can be struck, he said
June 24, USA Today
The Wall Street Journals editors
CEIs pushback against the climate
inquisition by a group of activist
state attorneys general:
There are few more rewarding sights
than a bully scorned, so lets hear it for
the recent laments of Attorneys General
Claude Walker (Virgin Islands) and Eric
Schneiderman (New York), two ring-
leaders of the harassment campaign
against Exxon and free-market think
tanks over climate change.
Consider Mr. Walkers recent retreat
in District of Columbia superior court. In
April he issued a sweeping subpoena
to the Competitive Enterprise Institute,
demanding a decade of emails, policy
work and donor names. The goal is to
intimidate anyone who raises doubts
about climate science or the policy
responses.
CEI fought back. It ran a full-page
newspaper ad highlighting the Walker-
Schneiderman effort to criminalize
speech, and it counter-sued the Virgin
Islands, demanding sanctions and
attorneys fees.
June 16, The Wall Street Journal

...END NOTES
Imprisoned Former Illinois Governor Cites Prison
Band in Defense
In August, disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod
Blagojevich sought early release from his 14-year prison
sentence for public corruption. His attorneys, seeking a
2017 release date, cited Blagojevichs good behavior, as
is typical in such hearings, but also noted the former gover-
nors recent foray into the music world. Blagojevich was the
lead singer for a prison band called The Jailhouse Rockers.
Earlier this summer, a former inmate-bandmate identified
only as Ernie described Blagojevichs vocal abilities to the
press. Ernie said they played numerous special events,
including prison graduations and holidays. The Rockers,
however, took a hiatus from the stage when Ernie, the lead
guitarist and convicted drug smuggler, was released this
past summer.
Americas Prohibition Hangover Continues to
Subside
Despite Prohibition having ended more than eight
decades ago, small pockets of the United States continue
to greatly restrict or outright prohibit the sale of alcoholic
beverages. The good news for those who choose to imbibe
is that these holdouts are becoming fewer and farther
between. In August, two other holdouts bit the dust. On
August 19, Bridgewater, Connecticut, poured its first publicly
sold beer since 1935 at the 65th Bridgewater Country Fair.
Even though the small town has allowed alcohol sales in
restaurants since 2014, a restaurant has yet to open. On
the same day, a Giant Eagle store in suburban Pittsburgh
became the first privately owned retailer in the state to sell a
bottle of wine in 94 years. Pennsylvania recently legalized
private wine sales, which previously could only be pur-
chased through state-run liquor stores.
16 CEI.ORG
Nonprofit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Permit 425
Southern MD
Police Officer Stealing Marijuana Busted by Own
Body Camera
Criminal justice reform advocates have been proposing
numerous ideas to improve policing quality, accountability,
and law enforcements relationship with the public. One pro-
posal that has gained support from many is mandating lapel
cameras for police officers, the idea being that others will be
able to scrutinize officer actions and the actions of members
of the public with whom they interact after an incident. In
New Mexico, state police recently arrested Grants Police
Department Sgt. Roshern C. McKinney. The crime? Theft of
marijuana from the police department evidence room with
intent to distribute. It was all caught by McKinneys own
lapel camera, which also recorded him stealing $785 in
cash and delivering both the marijuana and money to his
girlfriend, who was also arrested and charged.
Politician Pursues Pokmon Go Regulations until
Fad Ends
Pokmon Go briefly captured public attention in the
summer of 2016, becoming the most popular mobile video
game to date. Some players engaged in bad behavior, like
trespassing on private property, which led to a media fire-
storm of pearl-clutching. Of course, media hype frequently
begets political opportunism, and Pokmon Gos popular-
ity proved no different. Enter New York Assemblyman Felix
Ortiz. Ortiz, a Brooklyn Democrat, has previously launched
nanny-state crusades against sugar, alcohol, and strip clubs.
For his latest cause, Ortiz warned that the augmented-reality
smartphone game involving cartoon monsters could have
tragic real-world consequences and accused Nintendo
of shirking its corporate responsibility. One problem
for Ortiz is that Nintendo did not produce the game, but
merely licensed the monster characters to another devel-
oper. But then the fad soon faded and everything continued
on as if Pokmon Go never happened. We eagerly await
Assemblyman Ortizs next manufactured moral panic.
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE