Florida mayors can be fined and even removed from office for trying to enact stricter gun laws.

Courtesy of the Tampa Bay Times:  

South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard may be one of the most liberal mayors in Florida, so he would be a natural candidate to push through a package of local gun-control rules in the wake of the Parkland massacre 50 miles away. But that would be against the law. 

Florida bans cities and counties from imposing their own gun-control rules. Seven years ago, the Republican-controlled Legislature even created a $5,000 fine it can impose on mayors like Stoddard if they ever try to enforce stricter regulations on firearms. 

"I think it's outrageous," said Stoddard, a Democrat recently reelected to a fifth term after championing mandatory solar panels within South Miami and requiring organic fertilizer for city properties. "Why should the cities be prohibited from protecting their citizens?" 

Tallahassee lawmakers have created a long list of regulations and laws they've ordered off-limits for cities and counties — from accident clean-ups to Uber. But only gun control carries a package of sanctions that put local officials in personal financial jeopardy. Critics say it also makes Florida the toughest state in the nation when it comes to policing city and county rules on firearms.

But the $5,000 fine is no the end of it.

Along with the $5,000 fine, enacting local gun-control rules can end careers. The 2011 law allows Florida's governor to remove an elected official for violating the ban on most local firearms rules. Ignoring the state statute also "shall be cause for termination of employment" for city and county administrators who enforce local firearms rule that contradict Florida statutes. 

The state law also raises the possibility of unending legal expenses for mayors and city administrators. It bars cities and counties from spending tax dollars defending employees and elected representatives.

Can you believe that shit?

The NRA essentially owns this state, and the only way to break that hold would be to clear out the Republican majority as swiftly as possible.

Those Florida students certainly have their work cut out for them.

Judge demands that Kentucky pay the legal fees for the couples who were denied marriage licenses by county clerk Kim Davis.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

Two years after Kim Davis first made national headlines, her anti-marriage equality case is closed, at least for now ― but it will come at a cost to local taxpayers. 

Davis, who is the county clerk for Kentucky’s Rowan County, steadfastly refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling on marriage equality, citing her religious beliefs. Though Davis was briefly jailed for contempt of court, she went on to become the darling of right-wing conservatives, including former Republican presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee. 

On Friday, a federal judge awarded $222,695 in legal fees to the attorneys of four couples ― two same-sex, two opposite-sex ― who were denied marriage licenses by Davis. (The clerk briefly refused to issue licenses to all couples in 2015 as her legal troubles began to mount.) However, U.S. District Judge David Bunning ordered the state, as opposed to Davis herself, to pay the fees. 

His reasoning was simple. “Davis represented the Commonwealth of Kentucky when she refused to issue marriage licenses to legally eligible couples,” he said, according to The New York Times. “The buck stops there.”

Well that's awesome.

And it certainly sends a strong message any other religious wing nuts who feel their personal prejudices are more important than the rights of American citizens.

You know I was just thinking how long it has been since we have heard anything about this Kentucky Fried Lunatic.

Here's hoping this is the final time we ever do.

Hobby Lobby forced to return illegally obtained "Biblical" artifacts and pay 5 million dollar fine.

Courtesy of NPR:

Hobby Lobby, the Oklahoma-based chain of arts and crafts retail stores, has agreed to pay a $3 million fine and forfeit thousands of ancient clay tablets and clay bullae that were smuggled into the United States with improper labels. 

The announcement by the Justice Department says Hobby Lobby bought over 5,500 artifacts, such as clay tablets and blocks with cuneiform writing, and cylinder seals for $1.6 million. The artifacts, originally from Iraq, were shipped to the company from the United Arab Emirates and Israel with labels that described them as "ceramic tiles" or "clay tiles (sample)." 

In a statement, Hobby Lobby President Steve Green said the company "was new to the world of acquiring these items, and did not fully appreciate the complexities of the acquisitions process. This resulted in some regrettable mistakes." 

"We should have exercised more oversight and carefully questioned how the acquisitions were handled," he said. 

But the Justice Department prosecutors say the company should have realized that its acquisition of the artifacts "was fraught with red flags."

As it turns out Hobby Lobby was warned about these "red flags" by their own expert.

Courtesy of CNN: 

"In October 2010, an expert on cultural property law retained by Hobby Lobby warned the company that the acquisition of cultural property likely from Iraq, including cuneiform tablets and cylinder seals, carries a risk that such objects may have been looted from archaeological sites in Iraq," the DOJ said. 

"The expert also advised Hobby Lobby to review its collection of antiquities for any objects of Iraqi origin and to verify that their country of origin was properly declared at the time of importation into the United States. "

But hey, why listen to THAT guy?

As if all of this were not embarrassing enough to Hobby Lobby, there is also the fact that they may inadvertently be funding ISIS.

Courtesy of Newsweek:

Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq are netting between $150 million and $200 million a year from illicit trade in plundered antiquities, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations said in a letter released on Wednesday. 

"Around 100,000 cultural objects of global importance, including 4,500 archaeological sites, nine of which are included in the World Heritage List of ... UNESCO, are under the control of the Islamic State ... in Syria and Iraq," Ambassador Vitaly Churkin wrote in a letter to the U.N. Security Council. 

"The profit derived by the Islamists from the illicit trade in antiquities and archaeological treasures is estimated at U.S. $150-200 million per year," he said.

These artifacts were scheduled to be displayed at the Hobby Lobby's Museum of the Bible.

But here's the thing, MOST so called "biblical artifacts" turn out to be bullshit, and are either actual ancient artifacts unrelated to events in the Bible or outright fabrications of pottery and cuneiform tablets that sell like hot cakes to Christians desperate to prove that the Bible is accurate.

In fact Archeological finds rarely support events occurring in the Bible, though that often does not stop charlatans from offering them up as proof.

I think the only thing that one could learn by visiting this "Museum of the Bible" is that the folks who own Hobby Lobby have money to burn, and that it would undoubtedly be better spent helping the poor, building a REAL museum, or at the very least not wasted fighting against having to provide access to contraception in their employee's health care plan.

Germany passes new legislation to fine social media outlets who do not remove fake news.

Courtesy of Business Insider:  

Facebook, YouTube, and other social media firms will be fined up to €50 million (£43.9 million) by Germany if they fail to remove hate speech and other criminal content within 24 hours, BBC News reports. 

The new legislation, which applies to platforms with more than 2 million users, will come into effect in October after German MPs voted in favour of the Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz (NetzDG) law. 

"Our experience has shown that unfortunately, social media companies do not improve their procedures without political pressure," said Justice Minister Heiko Mass, who oversaw the legislation, according to BBC News. 

The law comes after several high-profile incidents of fake news and terrorist content spread on Facebook and YouTube in Germany.

Seems reasonable.

And German needs to be very vigilant in order to keep the same thing that happened here, with the election of Donald Trump, from happening there. 

Germany considers fining Facebook for leaving up links to fake news stories.

Courtesy of Heat Street:  

The government of Germany is considering imposing a legal regime that would allow fining social networks such as Facebook up to 500,000 euros ($522,000) for each day the platform leaves a “fake news” story up without deleting it. 

In the name of combating harms from false news, the German government next year will consider the bill, which has bipartisan support, that will allow both official and private complainants to flag content that is considered “fake news”. 

The law would also force the social networks to create in-country offices focused on responding to takedown demands and would make these networks responsible for compensation if a post by individual users were found to slander someone.

You know what I think that is a damn fine idea. 

You would hope that most people would be smart enough to filter through the bullshit themselves, but what 2016 has clearly proven is that that is simply not the case.

So instead government are going to have step in and protect people from their own ignorance.