Overlawyered » Michael Bloomberg http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:22:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Food law roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/food-law-roundup-4/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/food-law-roundup-4/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:14:26 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26445
  • NYC health officials, in yet another federally funded food-denunciation ad campaign, Photoshop leg off obese guy to turn him into supposed diabetic amputee [my new Cato post, Radley Balko; more Caroline May/Daily Caller]
  • Are White House advisors reading my posts? Probably not, but deregulation of dairy-farm “oil” spills still gave President an applause line in State of the Union speech [also at Cato]
  • More on L.A. schools’ healthy-lunch debacle [WSJ edit, earlier] It’s an illustration of how promising pilot projects often don’t scale [Megan McArdle] New Penn State study finds no connection between child obesity and availability of “bad” foods at school [NYT, Philly Mag, study via Wajert]
  • “Obesity plateau” of American population should offer chance for calm policy reflection, but probably won’t [Jacob Sullum] “Food Lawsuits Claiming ‘Addiction’ Coming To a Courtroom Near You?” [Lammi, Forbes]
  • Despite lip service to “letting consumers make their own food choices,” Obama won’t legalize raw milk [Obama Foodarama]
  • Coming in April from Tyler Cowen, “An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies” [Amazon, Freakonomics, Food and Drink category of MR, and you can follow Twitter account @AnEconomistGets;
  • "2011 Brought Lots of Good News for Salt Lovers" [Greg Conko, Open Market]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/food-law-roundup-4/feed/ 0     EU directive on kids, balloons and other toys http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/children-to-be-banned-from-blowing-up-balloons-under-eu-safety-rules/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/children-to-be-banned-from-blowing-up-balloons-under-eu-safety-rules/#comments Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:37:54 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25102 “Whistle blowers, that scroll out into a long coloured paper tongue when sounded – a party favourite at family Christmas meals – are now classed as unsafe for all children under 14. … the EU legislation will impose restrictions on how noisy toys, including rattles or musical instruments, are allowed to be.” Unsupervised children under 8 should not be allowed to blow up balloons, according to the European Union directive, which has just taken effect. [Telegraph; headline changed after objection that the Telegraph's headline was misleading]

    In related news, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, addressing a United Nations conference on “the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases,” has said that “mak[ing] healthy solutions the default social option” on matters such as diet is “ultimately government’s highest duty.” [Sullum]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/children-to-be-banned-from-blowing-up-balloons-under-eu-safety-rules/feed/ 8     NYC cracks down on dogs in bars http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/nyc-cracks-down-on-dogs-in-bars/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/nyc-cracks-down-on-dogs-in-bars/#comments Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:13:22 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24370 And community is undermined as a result, argues Thom Lambert at Truth on the Market.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/nyc-cracks-down-on-dogs-in-bars/feed/ 12     Mayor Bloomberg and for-your-own-goodism http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/mayor-bloomberg-and-for-your-own-goodism/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/mayor-bloomberg-and-for-your-own-goodism/#comments Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:28:18 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24358 I’m quoted in this article by the Daily Caller’s Caroline May on New York’s paternalist chief executive. Another memorable Bloomberg health-nanny moment: his health department’s edict ordering labs to report high blood sugar readings to the city whether patients want them to or not, the better to pave the way for “interventions.”

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/mayor-bloomberg-and-for-your-own-goodism/feed/ 2     July 22 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/july-22-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/july-22-roundup-2/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:30:14 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23977
  • Illinois prisoner sues for land to start his own country [AP]
  • “Have you got a piece of this lawsuit?” Important Roger Parloff piece on litigation finance [Fortune, now out from paywall] “Hedge Funds Finance Medical Malpractice Claims” [Jeff Segal, Michael Sacopulos and Wayne Oliver, Forbes via White Coat]
  • Criminalizing bad parenting: more scrutiny of “Caylee’s Law” proposals [Steve Chapman, L.A. Times and Boston Globe editorials, New Scientist]
  • Deal with ADA complainant averts closure of popular Popponesset Marketplace in Mashpee, Mass. [Cape Cod News]
  • Because it’s not as if NYC needs electricity or anything: Bloomberg gives $50 million to Sierra Club campaign to stop coal burning by utilities [WaPo] “Environmental justice” arguments deployed against pipeline that would bring Alberta tar sands oil to U.S. [John Kendrick, WLF]
  • Unimpaired have permanent right to sue: Fla. high court throws out asbestos-reform law [PBP]
  • Red tape demanded by quality-of-life progressivism suffices to strangle poorer urban economies [Walter Russell Mead]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/july-22-roundup-2/feed/ 5     Bloomberg on perp walks http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/bloomberg-on-perp-walks/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/bloomberg-on-perp-walks/#comments Sun, 10 Jul 2011 01:58:28 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23765 If you don’t like the Mayor’s principles, he has different principles [NYDN]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/bloomberg-on-perp-walks/feed/ 2     Mayor Bloomberg’s outdoor smoking ban http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/mayor-bloombergs-outdoor-smoking-ban/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/mayor-bloombergs-outdoor-smoking-ban/#comments Wed, 09 Feb 2011 16:55:54 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=21409 When you go too far even for the editorialists at the Times, you know you’ve really gone overboard.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/mayor-bloombergs-outdoor-smoking-ban/feed/ 1     “What can we get away with?” http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/%e2%80%9cwhat-can-we-get-away-with%e2%80%9d/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/%e2%80%9cwhat-can-we-get-away-with%e2%80%9d/#comments Fri, 29 Oct 2010 17:51:12 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=19912 How Mayor Bloomberg’s Health Department decides how far to go in its food-scare advertising. [New York Times] I’ve got much more in a new post at Cato at Liberty.

    P.S. Gothamist: “in the end, it was decided that going viral was more important than going accurate.”

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/%e2%80%9cwhat-can-we-get-away-with%e2%80%9d/feed/ 3     A story that can’t be true http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/a-story-that-cant-be-true/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/a-story-that-cant-be-true/#comments Wed, 20 Oct 2010 19:21:10 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=19778 We know it can’t, because Mayor Bloomberg has assured us that smoking bans don’t cut into restaurants’ business. [Saginaw News via Fountain; Vassar, Mich.]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/a-story-that-cant-be-true/feed/ 5     NYC’s outrageous Apple settlement http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/nycs-outrageous-apple-settlement/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/nycs-outrageous-apple-settlement/#comments Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:01:58 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=19596 Among its most insidious features, notes Ira Stoll, is a $2.5 million cy pres fund earmarked for “corporate governance programs at 12 universities across the country,” and which will predictably encourage such academic programs, at law schools and elsewhere, to align themselves further with the agenda of the plaintiff’s securities bar and against the interest of actual shareholders at companies like Apple. I’ve got much more about cy pres law school slush funds in Schools for Misrule, forthcoming. [Future of Capitalism; Jim at PoL]

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