How Special-Interest Groups Benefit from Minimum Wage Laws - Gary Galles - Mises Daily

How Special-Interest Groups Benefit from Minimum Wage Laws - Gary Galles - Mises Daily: "Non-union workers and employers in high cost of living areas, where virtually everyone earns above the federal minimum wage, benefit, by raising the cost of production imposed on rivals where wages are lower (Which is why many in high-wage areas favor higher federal minimum wages, while those in low-wage states — the alleged beneficiaries — often oppose them). Workers and producers where state minimum wages exceed the federal minimum also gain because it raises the cost of production where the federal minimum is binding, relative to where they are located."



"Because Wal-Mart already pays more than the federal minimum, in low-wage areas a federal minimum-wage increase raises competitors’ costs, but not theirs. In high-wage areas, supporting a higher federal minimum wage is a costless way for Wal-Mart to demonstrate compassion for workers."



"The same mechanism is at work in the depression-era Davis-Bacon Act, which is still in force. It required the payment of “prevailing wages” on any project that received federal money. But its genesis was the explicitly racist intent to exclude lower-cost southern firms employing black workers from underbidding local white workers for construction projects, by forcing them to pay their workers more."

Presidents Day: What's to Celebrate? | Cato Institute

Presidents Day: What's to Celebrate? | Cato Institute: "The demands Americans place on the presidency are virtually boundless: They “invest in the president their highest aspirations not just for the federal government, but for the general polity, for their communities and families, and for their own private lives.” Responding to the incentives that confront them, presidents naturally seek power to meet the insatiable public demands for presidential salvation.

Thus, Howell writes, “from nearly the moment he assumes office, the most self-effacing presidential candidate will quickly be transformed into a great apologist for presidential power.”"



“presidents can ill afford to repudiate any power that might enable them to address the onslaught of expectations put before them.”



"The private interests of individual congressmen lead them to cede power to the executive branch and focus on reelection. Congress rarely guards its institutional turf — yet every president ends up leaving the presidency stronger than he found it."

In a pickle: New Jersey breaks out the brine for snowy roads as it awaits fed OK for salt delivery | Fox News

In a pickle: New Jersey breaks out the brine for snowy roads as it awaits fed OK for salt delivery | Fox News: "The salt is sitting at a port in Maine, docked until New Jersey officials obtain a federal waiver. Once that is done, it will take two days to ship the load from Maine to Newark.

The shipment is being denied entry because it’s on a vessel that isn’t flying under a U.S. flag – a violation of the 1920 federal Maritime Act -- also known as The Jones Act -- that requires shipments to arrive on a ship with goods traveling between two U.S. ports to be flying the American flag."

By the numbers: Tea partyers, liberals agree on Snowden, protecting people's privacy from NSA | Fox News

By the numbers: Tea partyers, liberals agree on Snowden, protecting people's privacy from NSA | Fox News: "Q: Which is the more important goal for the government: Protecting the rights and freedoms of U.S. citizens or making sure that U.S. citizens are safe from being harmed by terrorists?

Percentage who say protecting rights is more important:

Tea party supporters: 69 percent

Liberals: 67 percent

Republicans who don't support the tea party: 54 percent

Democrats who aren't liberals: 51 percent

U.S. overall: 61 percent"

ABC News reports on guns mislead Americans | Fox News

ABC News reports on guns mislead Americans | Fox News: "84 percent of the injuries were for 15 to 19 year olds and 62 percent as a result of criminal assaults. These injuries don’t occur from young children accidentally mishandling a gun in their own home, but rather as victims of brutal crimes, often gang related. "



"in 2012, the Centers for Disease Control reports that 76% of firearm injuries were for those under age 20 were for 17, 18, and 19 year olds."



"For all children under age 10, the Centers for Disease Controlreports that for 2010 (the latest year available) there were 36 accidental gun deaths, and that is out of 41 million children living in the United States.



In addition, two thirds of these accidental gun deaths involving young children are not shots fired by other little kids but rather by adult males with criminal backgrounds."



"Accidental suffocations alone claimed 1,070 deaths, drownings 609 deaths; fires 262 lives; poisonings 54 lives.



If your child is offered a ride in a car, it would make more sense to check the parents’ driving record than whether they own guns. After all, 923 children under 10 died in car accidents. "

Why USA will win Sochi Olympics medal count. (It's not what you think.) - CSMonitor.com

Why USA will win Sochi Olympics medal count. (It's not what you think.) - CSMonitor.com: "The United States is expected to top the overall medal table in Sochi, and, ironically, the very lack of government funding could in some ways be cited as a driving cause."



"And in struggling to make a living playing the sports they love, American athletes have received a clear (if at times brutal) message: The winners get the money, and with no golden parachute of government-funded stipends to fall back on, success becomes a sort of Olympic Darwinism – a natural selection of the best team the nation can produce."



"But the fact that the USOC has to be accountable to the public (in this case through the media) has a deep effect on how the Olympics are viewed in America. Foreigners watching NBC's coverage understandably complain about how it's all profiles and weepy backstory. To the USOC, however, this is simply a matter of promoting its product to potential investors."