Zero-for-Zero Critics Miss the Mark…Again
Big Candy’s “Coalition for Sugar Reform,” as expected, has issued a statement in opposition to Rep. Ted Yoho’s proposed common-sense Zero-for-Zero reform resolution for the U.S. sugar program. The coalition – backed by self-interested sweets manufacturers such as the American Bakers Association, the National Confectioners Association, the American Beverage Association, the Peanut and Tree Nut […]
Nevada Legislature Resurrects “Screw Jim Rhodes” Bill – and Adds Taxpayers!
Assembly Bill 277 was heard in committee on Friday. The bill prohibits development in national conservation or recreational areas, as well as “adjacent lands.” “Adjacent lands” is defined in the bill, as submitted, as any land within five miles of such conservation or recreational areas. Frankly, it doesn’t matter if the land is privately owned […]
Nevada Legislature Fights City Hall over Trash Hauling Monopolies
On Thursday a bill (SB315) was heard in Carson City that would start Nevada on the road to opening up the waste-hauling business to greater competition. Not surprisingly, the main opposition came from Waste Management – which has the exclusive monopoly contract for residential and commercial trash pickup in Reno – and Republican Services – […]
Las Vegas City Staff: Trust Us, We’re Not Gonna Be the “Lemonade Stand Police”
How many kids do you know who started a business at the age of 3 ½? Ryan Hickman of San Juan Capistrano, CA visited a recycling center when he was a toddler. The next day he proudly announced to his dad, “My new business! I’m going to pick up all the cans and bottles from […]
I Love the Smell of Nuclear Waste in the Morning!
Here are three realities as they relate to the Yucca Mountain Project… 1.) Nuclear waste – in the form of “pellets,” not green goo oozing from under the lids of steel canisters – is piling up at the nation’s nuclear reactors and has to go “somewhere” else. 2.) The law of the land – rightly […]
Competition Works in Both Insurance AND Trash Collection
I just re-learned a lesson about free-market competition yesterday that every member of the Las Vegas City Council should bear in mind before it rubber-stamps a 15-year, no bid monopoly franchise agreement extension for trash pickup by Republic Services at next week’s meeting. We’ve been in our Las Vegas home for eight years now. Travelers […]
Conservative Coalition Urges Congressional Support for Sugar Reform Proposal
A coalition of free-market conservative leaders and organizations today submitted a letter to Members of Congress urging support for Rep. Ted Yoho’s (R-Fla) “Zero for Zero” proposal designed to reform current U.S. sugar policy. While critics of the current program of targeted tariffs and import quotas have called for immediate and unilateral elimination of the […]
Las Vegas Staff Workshop Shines a Little Light on Trash Pickup Controversy
I attended a Las Vegas city staff workshop Monday morning in which the proposed extension of Republic Services’ residential and commercial monopoly franchise contract was discussed. From a process point of view, here’s how this could play out… Next Wednesday the Las Vegas City Council will meet to hear and discuss – with public comment […]
Exposing Big Candy’s 3 Big Whoppers
It’s no secret that lobbyists for America’s largest sweets companies have been on a mission to unilaterally eliminate the U.S. sugar policy of moderate tariffs and import quotas on foreign producers that “cheat” and distort the market with government subsidies. But in their relentless PR campaigns and lobbying efforts, Big Candy asserts three big arguments […]
Republic Services Can and Does Compete…Everywhere But Southern Nevada
For some reason some people seem to think it would be “rude” to ask Republic Services to actually compete for the 12-to-15-year, $1 billion-plus monopoly franchise contract to pick up residential and commercial trash in Las Vegas. But the reality is, Republic is not only quite accustomed to competing for business outside of southern Nevada […]
Las Vegas Trash Fight Heats Up on Campaign Trail
Efforts by the City of Las Vegas to grant Republic Services a new 15-year NO BID extension of its monopoly franchise contract for residential and commercial trash collection – which would cut residents’ twice-a-week pickup to once a week with no reduction in monthly service fees – has become a campaign issue in municipal elections […]
Yoho’s Zero-for-Zero Proposal Should also be Applied to Drug Importation
An op-ed defending U.S. sugar policy by the American Sugar Alliance (ASA) this week published by KTIC Radio out of Nebraska will be dismissed by some as self-serving. However, just because the organization is defending its industry doesn’t automatically make their positions and arguments wrong. In fact, their arguments also can be applied to the […]
Tolles Brings War on Tele-Medicine to Nevada Legislature
From Bruce DelValle last week came this dispatch from the political front-lines announcing that Nevada is again embroiled in yet another troglodyte fight against technology (remember the Uber brouhaha last session?) in pursuit of protectionist capitalism… “A new frontier has arisen in the seemingly ceaseless tug-of-war pitting inventive technological efforts to provide the best possible […]
PROOF: “Trash-Talking” Councilman is Misleading Public on Garbage Contract
Most members of the Las Vegas City Council have been pretty tight-lipped about a proposal to extend Republic Services monopoly franchise agreement for residential and commercial trash hauling an additional 15 years… Four years before the current contract expires… Which would be worth over $1 billion dollars… And would cut residents’ trash pickups from twice […]
Nevada GOP Legislator Proposes Banning the “Uber of Eyeglasses”
Longtime readers know how my stories and political adventures sometime take interesting, and even bizarre, twists and turns. Yep, this is one of those stories. So grab a cup of coffee or a beer, sit down in a nice, comfortable chair, and enjoy… If you’re like me, you don’t know the difference between Neodymium and […]
In Carson City, the Democrats’ Circus is Back in Town
The Nevada Legislature is “Open Under New Management.” Democrats are back in control. Lord, help us. In watching all the fawning hosannas for the D’s “Black-&-Blueprint” agenda – so nicknamed for the beating taxpayers, citizens and businesses are taking under it – I can’t help but compare it to parents of two-year-olds singing their offspring’s […]
What the Las Vegas Garbage Contract Has in Common with King Tut’s Tomb
As the City of Las Vegas continues considering awarding Republic Services a new 15-year NO BID monopoly franchise contract extension for residential and commercial trash collection, I came across this rather interesting declaration… “The free, open and competitive production and sale of commodities and services is necessary to the economic well-being of the citizens of […]