Month: August 2014

“It’s all about profit.”

That’s T.J. Guerrero, a 12-year-old who sells strawberry
lemonade and cookies on the corner of Patricia Avenue and San
Salvador Drive in Dunedin, Florida, from 3 to 7 p.m. most days. He
scoped out the corner after trying several other locations—market
research is important for any entrepreneur—and got permission from
a neighbor to sell on his front lawn. Other neighbors have even
offered their driveways for customer parking. He sees from 10 to 30
customers a day, and charges $1 a cup.

But none of this diligence impresses 61-year-old Doug Wilkey,
who lives on the corner and thinks the boy is a nuisance worthy of
government intervention.
The Tampa Bay Times reports:

According to Dunedin records, Wilkey contacted city
commissioners in May 2013 and followed up in October, then again in
March and June this year….

“The city could possibly face repercussion in the event someone
became ill from spoiled/contaminated food or drink sales,” Wilkey
wrote in one email.

“If this were a once a year event by a couple kids to earn a
little money for a holiday or something, I would not have a problem
with it,” he said in another. “I am very worried about the value of
my home, which is why I built in a residential area, not a business
area.”

An increasingly frustrated Wilkey, who declined to speak with
the Tampa Bay Times, wrote this summer that the stand
was back “AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!”

A Pinellas County sheriff’s community police officer has been
out at least twice in an attempt to defuse the conflict.

Wilkey says Guerrero’s friends hang out near his stand and make
noise. He has also complained about trash. I haven’t had the chance
to hit up the stand and see for myself—though local Reason
readers should go grab a glass—but those sure sound like complaints
that would be better dealt with man-to-boy, rather than
man-to-Leviathan-to-boy.

Three cheers for the local Florida authorities, though.
Sheriff’s deputies have declined to shut the boy down, unlike their
brethren in
Madison County, Illinois;
Portland, Oregon;
Toronto, Canada;
Holland, Michigan; and Washington,
D.C.    

I was on Jack Thompson’s Political Badger for a half-hour
interview that covered events of the last few weeks in Ferguson,
Missouri,
police reform, the role of
too many laws in police violence, as well as foreign policy and
national security issues, reviewing the growth of the Islamic State in Iraq and the
Levant (ISIL), Russian aggression in Ukraine, and what constitutes
a threat to national
security.

You can listen to the whole thing
here.

“Over $455,000 Seized from Medical Marijuana Patient Slapped
with Civil Asset Forfeiture” is the latest video from Reason TV.
Watch above or click on the link below for video, full text,
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clips.

View this article.

The
Ukrainian government today claims that Russia has “violated the
state border of Ukraine” by sending tanks across the border this
morning.

“At least 10 tanks, two armored vehicles and two trucks from
russia crossed into Ukrainian territory at 5:20 a.m. Monday,
potentially bound for the key port city of Mariupol on the Sea of
Azov. The highway leading to Mariupol is currently under control of
the Ukrainian military,” The Washington Post
reports, based on information from Ukraine’s military
spokesman.

Reuters
notes, “Earlier, a separate military statement said border
guards had halted the armored column outside Novoazovsk, Ukraine’s
most south-easterly point on the Azov Sea, and local residents,
reached by phone, spoke of seeing tanks and other armored vehicles
moving near the town.”

“The new military thrust by the rebels… appeared to open up a
new southern front in the five-month-old conflict that has claimed
at least 2,000
lives and force tens of thousands to flee their homes,”

explains Al Jazeera.

Tensions flared on Friday when 200 or so
half-empty “humanitarian aid” trucks from Russia entered
Ukraine
without approval or inspection by Kiev or the Red Cross. The
convoy
allegedly stole Ukrainian military equipment on the way out.
The Obama administration, NATO, and the E.U.
condemned Russia’s border violation, but the Kremlin’s foreign
minister today announced that he plans on
sending in another aid convoy “in the next few days”

NATO claims
that it has “seen transfers of large quantities of advanced
weapons, including tanks, armoured personnel carriers, and
artillery to separatist groups in eastern Ukraine. Moreover, NATO
is observing an alarming build-up of Russian ground and air forces
in the vicinity of Ukraine.”

The Associated Press
reported yesterday that Russian-backed insurgents were parading
captive Ukrainian soldiers in “tattered” uniforms through the
streets of Donetsk, one of the cities still held by the
insurgents.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was in Ukraine yesterday to
celebrate the twenty-third anniversary of its independence. She
committeed 500 million euros to rebuilding the wartorn east and

condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “violation to the
territorial integrity of Europe.”

Tomorrow, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russia’s
Vladimir Putin will meet in Minsk, Belarus to discuss the war. A
member of the Moscow-based Center for Political Technologies

suggests that “the Kremlin’s moves to boost the rebels’
position … while seeming to contradict Russia’s stated desire to
reach a deal, are aimed at entering the talks from a position of
strength.”

Read more Reason coverage of Ukraine here.