Nanny State Regulations May Put Small Manufacturers of Children’s Goods Out of Business -Carolyn Harris

Infowars
January 12, 2009


Brussels-Pthalates are the substance in plastic that makes it pliable and is used in many children’s toys, from pacifiers and teething rings to bath toys.





























Pthalates are the substance in plastic that makes it
pliable and is used in many children’s toys, from pacifiers
and teething rings to bath toys.

In a time of devastating job losses and shrinking consumer spending, new retroactive rules and regulations concerning the manufacture and selling of goods for children 12 and under forces manufacturers and retailers to test items for lead and pthalates. Pthalates are the substance in plastic that makes it pliable and is used in many children’s toys, from pacifiers and teething rings to bath toys; it can leach out and cause endocrine system disruption in children because it is an estrogen-mimicking chemical. Lead, of course, is a recognized toxin that can cause damage to the brain, kidneys and blood just by simple absorption through the skin.

While no one wants children to be poisoned by lead and most scientists agree that pthalates are harmful, these regulations that go into effect on February 10, 2009, will have the consequence of shutting down small manufacturers and retailers.

Signed into law August 14, 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Act (HR 4040) requires independent testing of each item in the product at a cost of $100 and up for each component. The regulations exempt items that contain lead that the child cannot reach, electronics that cannot be manufactured without lead and items made of cotton or wood such as clothing and other items. Larger manufacturers will not be unduly burdened by the regulations because they won’t have to test each individual item, but can “batch test,” however, individuals who manufacture items for children will be put out of business since the scheme is cost-prohibitive.

One entrepreneur manufacturers cloth diapers and uses two different fabrics, Velcro and metal snaps. The new regulations would force her to pay $375 test each combination of components and would effectively force her to shut her business down. And she is not alone. Other entrepreneurs who manufacture everything from jewelry to hair items to clothing would have to pay for the testing and also would be facing bankruptcy.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a clarification to the new regulations that exempt retailers of second-hand items like Goodwill Industries. This will spare other smaller consignment shops and those Americans who are trying to make ends meet by selling on eBay and Craig’s List. As the economy crumbles around us, more and more people are turning to consignment and thrift stores to purchase necessary items from household goods to clothing for themselves and their children.

The US governmental agencies are notorious for allowing products that have not been proven safe to enter the market because they use the standard “proven to harm” instead of the European standard of “proven safe.” This of course has resulted in the manufacture, import and consequent recall of large amounts of items such as tainted toys from China, pharmaceuticals that kill or cause permanent damage to consumers.

This latest well meaning but wrong-headed stunt by the federal government is a classic example of not thinking things through. Congress loves to portray itself as if it cares about the American tax-payers, especially children, but routinely passes laws that harm those same. This law is no exception. This is the dysfunctional Nanny State in action: waiting until too many children have been poisoned by lead in cheap Chinese toys after NAFTA and CAFTA effectively shipped American jobs overseas, then enacting a broad new law that has calamitous consequences for those Americans who are trying to fill a void with quality hand-made products.

VR Group

Trans-Texas Corridor Dies in Name Only -Ben Wear

The American-Statesman
January 7, 2009

The Trans-Texas Corridor, as a name and as a guiding concept of the state’s transportation future, is dead, Texas Department of Transportation Executive Director Amadeo Saenz told an audience of more than a thousand people Tuesday at an Austin hotel. But Saenz acknowledged that all elements of the original plan, including a tollway twin to Interstate 35, could be built as stand-alone projects if and when they are deemed necessary.

Gov. Rick Perry in 2002 unveiled with great fanfare the corridor plan as an almost $200 billion blueprint for the state’s transportation future and then took withering criticism for it in a tough 2006 re-election race. On Tuesday, he said, “The days of the Trans-Texas Corridor are over.”

Critics of the corridor plan and TxDOT officials differed Tuesday over whether the body is truly cold and what would constitute the death of the proposed network of cross-state tollways, railways and utility lines. Planning and environmental studies of the twin to I-35, which would run from San Antonio to Oklahoma, and of I-69 , from Brownsville to Texarkana, will not stop, officials said.

And Perry, talking to reporters while in Iraq on a brief visit to Texas troops there, said, “We really don’t care what name they attach to building infrastructure in the state of Texas. The key is we have to go forward and build it.”

Read article
VR Group

Trans Texas Corridor Is Dead, Says TexDOT-MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News

This story came across (this piece of double speak) earlier today. It states the Trans-Texas corridor is basically history. If one goes to the "lawyer speak" of the article you'll read:"Make no mistake, the Trans Texas Corridor as we have known it no longer exists," STILL VERY MUCH ALIVE IN A DIFFERENT FORM!


Kvue.com
January 6, 2009

AUSTIN – The Texas Department of Transportation announced this morning that it has officially killed the Trans Texas Corridor, saying that despite the project's visionary aspects, "it is clearly not the choice of Texans."

The announcement comes six years after Gov. Rick Perry shook up the state's transportation and political circles by unveiling an ambitious plan to stretch highways, rail lines and utilities for hundreds of miles along the Interstate 35 and Interstate 69 corridors.

The plan, which would have cost tens of billions of dollars and relied heavily on private toll roads, was hugely controversial.

Amadeo Saenz, executive director of TxDOT, made the announcement that the agency was giving up on the idea at the annual Transportation Forum in Austin.

"Make no mistake, the Trans Texas Corridor as we have known it no longer exists," he said.

Each of the dozens of projects that were linked together under the rubrick of the TTC – including the Loop 9 project in Dallas and the I-69 project in the south – will remain as stand-alone projects, he said.

"The concept has been diminished," he said. "We must recognize the inevitable; the TTC is not the choice of Texans."

The real impact of today's news is symbolic, signaling a strategic retreat by an embattled agency and its chief political sponsor, Gov. Perry.

The timing of this week's meeting is itself indicative of TxDOT's woes. The forum was held just days before lawmakers return to Austin for the 2009 legislative session, during which the future and structure of the agency will be hotly debated.

Saenz said as much in his remarks.

"The Legislature has been clear, they want transformation," he said. "That handwriting is on the wall, in big bold letters."

The TTC was controversial for many reasons, not least of which was that landowners in central and southern Texas recoiled at the thought of huge swaths of acreage being taken by the state through condemnation proceedings.

Others feared that the use of private toll road developers – including firms based in Spain – would amount to foreign ownership of Texas roads.

TxDOT spent years attempting to dispel these concerns. But today's announcement shows that the agency's leaders, and Gov. Perry, had no interest in fighting that fight in the coming session.

Saenz vowed, however, that TxDOT will continue to seek private partnerships for some of the individual toll projects that were once part of the TTC – assuming that the Legislature does not outlaw that practice.