Fear the sweater vest!

So much for Governor Mitch Daniels’ “truce” on social issues. Rick Santorum refused to raise the white flag on his principles and charged ahead. Tonight he celebrates a trifecta victory in Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado, all but shattering the myth of Romney’s inevitable cruise to victory in the presidential primary.

I’ll admit it. I didn’t see it coming. To be sure, this victory comes with caveats, as I wrote here. Santorum picked up only five delegates tonight and has 22 delegates to Romney’s 106, but it’s a move in the right direction. (The delegate count is here.)

But Santorum understands something that few of the other candidates can put into words: that the power to mandate is the power to compel and compulsion must be grounded on something higher than the mere will of the sovereign. This is a very effective argument against Barack Obama, but it it also a very effective one against Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, who also supported the Wall Street bailouts, cap and trade (taxing breathing) and of course, the individual mandate in health insurance. Both Gingrich and Romney are essentially progressives in their view that there is nothing government mustn’t do.

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Update: The Colorado GOP Chair has announced that Rick Santorum has won the caucus of the Centennial State.

WASHINGTON (AP) – A resurgent Rick Santorum won Minnesota’s Republican presidential caucuses with ease Tuesday night and reached for victory in Colorado, raising fresh questions about front-runner Mitt Romney’s appeal among the ardent conservatives at the core of the party’s political base.

Santorum triumphed, as well, in a nonbinding Missouri primary that was worth bragging rights but no delegates.

“Conservatism is alive and well in Missouri and Minnesota,” the jubilant former Pennsylvania senator told cheering supporters in St. Charles, Mo. Challenging both his GOP rival and the Democratic president, he declared that on issues ranging from health care to “Wall Street bailouts, Mitt Romney has the same positions as Barack Obama.”

Returns from 74 percent of Minnesota’s precincts showed Santorum with 45 percent support, Texas Rep. Ron Paul with 27 percent and Romney—who won the state in his first try for the nomination four years ago—with 17 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich trailed with 11 percent. (more…)

Santorum: Not Much of an Opening for the Former Senator

Several sources are predicting a Santorum surge in Missouri and Minnesota tonight, but there’s reason for pause before we order out the “Rick 2012″ bumper stickers. Caucuses depend on two things: money and organization. Santorum has neither. Despite an impressive win in Iowa, it is getting harder and harder for him to keep up, because he is second to last in the delegate count with only eight so far.   That may well change tonight, but here are some reasons to be skeptical of a Santorum win, even if he manages to pull off a victory in Missouri or Minnesota:

1. Even if Santorum wins in Missouri, it’s nothing more than a beauty contest. Knowing full well that their vote won’t have any effect on the delegate count, election officials are predicting that only 23% of party loyalists will bother showing up to the polls, according to stl.today.com. Given that Newt Gingrich’s name isn’t on the ballot, Santorum is hoping to show that his victory in the Show Me State will show GOP activists he’s the best anti-Romney. “Protest vote” or not, Santorum needs the win, but what if he loses to Romney in a symbolic race?
2. Santorum isn’t on the ballot in several other states, including Indiana and Virginia, meaning he will forgo 46 and 49 delegates respectively. Santorum is also not on the ballot in Washington, D.C. and lacks full delegate slates in North Dakota, Ohio, and Illinois.

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Today the grassroots movement in St. Louis takes a leap forward with the launch of the Gateway Grassroots Initiative. This is the next wave of local activism in Saint Louis. The time for rallies has passed, it’s time to get on with the work of conservative activism.

We are looking for conservatives who want to stand up and get active in their communities.  The centerpiece of GGI is The Initiative Project.  It is an effort to get individuals to take personal responsibility for their lives and communities.   We want the grassroots to self-source the direction of their movement.  GGI is not an organization dedicated to telling grassroots activists what to do.  It exists to facilitate grassroots action. We have five levels of initiative: Individual, Local, Regional, State, and National, and we are looking for ideas at every level.  Initiatives will begin rolling out in the coming days, and weeks so keep your eyes out for how you can get involved.

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A preliminary hearing for Mohamed H. Dawod is scheduled to take place Monday at 10 a.m. Central in Springfield, Mo. The 25-year-old Glendale, Ariz., man is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Sept. 8 shooting death of an Ohio man at a Greyhound bus station in the southwest Missouri community.

Mohamed H. Dawod

Dawod is accused of shooting Justin Hall, 32, of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, during a late-night rest stop for travelers on a St. Louis-bound bus full of passengers from as far away as Amarillo, Texas, point of origin for the bus.

On Sept. 9, I was the first to raise the possibility that the shooting might be a case of terrorism at my website and at BigGovernment.com after officials in the Southwest Missouri community, according to a report in the Springfield News-Leader, were quick to say the shooting appeared random.

A day later, a KSPR-TV report cited Springfield police officials as saying that, because of a language barrier, they only learned Dawod’s name and had asked the FBI to help them with the investigation. That local television report included this telling paragraph:

Ten separate witnesses say they did not notice the men fighting or arguing before the shooting. One passenger said she watched the suspect wander around the terminal until the call to line up to re-board the bus. “She then observed the suspect remove a silver and black handgun from a back pack he was carrying,” the officer wrote. “The suspect then pointed the handgun upward while saying something. The witness could not understand what the suspect said and didn’t know if he was speaking English.” No matter what was said the witness said Hall didn’t react or turn around. Shortly after the witness says Dawod shot him from a few feet away.

I went on to draw information from two other television news reports that seemed to reveal more than the “official” story lets on about the deadly incident that involved a man with a Muslim name allegedly shooting someone he did not know less than 48 hours ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States:

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Recently, a woman I’ll call “Janet” met with me for more than six hours to discuss two court cases in which she’s involved. One is a Family Court case involving the welfare of a child, while the other is a Probate Court case involving the welfare of that child’s great-grandmother. Names and case-specific personal details in the stories below have been changed in order to protect the identities of the innocent people involved.

Unlike other middle-age Americans who find themselves caring for both young children and elderly parents, Janet’s status as a member of the “sandwich generation” is unique. Rather than simply care for her almost-seven-year-old granddaughter and her octogenarian mother at the same time, the 40-something woman who once earned six-figure income as manager of a high-end fitness center/spa in a posh St. Louis suburb finds herself fighting for both of them in separate cases at the St. Louis County (Mo.) Courthouse. After years of legal wrangling, she now finds herself on the verge of bankruptcy, having thrown everything she had into the effort to save the two most important people in her life.

“Sometimes I feel like that movie is my life,” said Janet, referring to “Changeling,” a 2008 film in which a grief-stricken mother takes on the Los Angeles Police Department to her own detriment after it stubbornly tries to pass off an obvious impostor as her missing child. Unlike the movie, however, Janet’s child isn’t missing; instead, her granddaughter is on the verge of being taken from her family permanently. In addition, her mother has, for the most part, already been removed from her life.

SAVING A GRANDDAUGHTER

Janet’s most-pressing concern is the fight to keep her granddaughter, a little girl for whom she’s been the primary caregiver during most of early life, from being placed up for adoption — possibly by total strangers. In less than 10 days, a court hearing could determine whether or not she succeeds in the fight that begun in earnest 15 months ago.

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From Missouri Political News Service:

We’ve just learned  that the Missouri Health Insurance Pool has just voted on behalf of the state to accept $21 million dollars from the federal government to establish an health exchange here in Missouri. They are designating John Huff as the director.

Didn’t Missourians vote overwhelmingly against Obamacare in 2008 with theirProp C vote? Just like President Obama does all the time, Nixon is taking the executive order route – completely bypassing the legislature.

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Mohamed Dawod, a 25-year-old man from Glendale, Ariz., faces a murder charge today, accused in the shooting death of Justin Hall, 32, of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, at a Greyhound bus station in Springfield, Mo., late Thursday night. Whether or not this was a case of terrorism, however, remains up in the air after officials in the Southwest Missouri community were quick to say the shooting appeared random, according to a report in the Springfield News-Leader. But was it really?

According to a KSPR-TV report, Springfield police said that, because of a language barrier, they only learned Dawod’s name and have asked the FBI to help them with the investigation.  Also in that report was this telling paragraph:

Ten separate witnesses say they did not notice the men fighting or arguing before the shooting. One passenger said she watched the suspect wander around the terminal until the call to line up to re-board the bus. “She then observed the suspect remove a silver and black handgun from a back pack he was carrying,” the officer wrote. “The suspect then pointed the handgun upward while saying something. The witness could not understand what the suspect said and didn’t know if he was speaking English.” No matter what was said the witness said Hall didn’t react or turn around. Shortly after the witness says Dawod shot him from a few feet away.

Witnesses featured in two television news reports, however, seem to reveal more than the “official” story lets on about the deadly incident that involved a man with a Muslim name and Middle East appearance shooting someone he did not know less than 48 hours ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

The first television report, which aired on St. Louis NBC affiliate KSDK prior to any names being released or charges filed, features witnesses saying it appeared the assailant would have kept shooting, but his gun jammed.

The second report (below), which aired on the same station after the Springfield Police Department announced the alleged shooter’s name and charges against him, offered much the same story.

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Today, Missouri’s Lt. Governor Peter Kinder called into The Dana Show to talk about his involvement in the lawsuit he filed on behalf of Missourians to block the implementation of Obamacare in our state and to respond to completely ridiculous claims made by Tammy Chapman, former stripper and Penthouse “Pet of the Month” from the early ’90s.

In the non-story, promoted by the non-journalists at the local alternative rag, Chapman made the claim that Lt. Governor Kinder pursued a relationship with her and “stalked” her while she was a stripper. In fact, she goes so far as to say he made her feel uncomfortable by continuing to visit the establishment and “ogling” her once she made it clear she didn’t want a relationship. I’m curious, did she also shout out from the stage to all the other men who would have liked to pursue a relationship with her that they too should stop ogling her while she was taking her clothes off? How rude of those men, there to look at naked women, ogling her! She goes on to say when Kinder happened into the bar 16 YEARS LATER, where she was then working (where the waitresses are sometimes serving drinks in their panties) she was so creeped out by him, she asked him if he remembered her, took a smiling picture voluntarily with him and told him she was looking for a place to live. Chapman makes the totally unsubstantiated and highly unlikely claim that Kinder offered her a room at his campaign funded condo-where he spends almost no time.

The most ridiculous part of this story is……well, basically the entire story. If they were going to write this article they should have titled it “Single Heterosexual Male Visits Strip Club, Pursues Woman Who Isn’t Interested.”

Ms. Chapman is quoted as saying “He uses his political business card to get women, he is not fit for public office.” So, we have come to a point in the political discussion where single politicians shouldn’t date or even attempt to date. They should not hand their business cards out and they should not be interested in finding or having a relationship of any kind. Because she says he found her attractive 16 years ago and might have tried to pursue her, makes him fully and completely unfit for office. Frankly, I find no evidence what-so-ever that he was a repeat visitor to said strip club OR that he had any interest in her at all. Pathetic.

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Big Government has pointed to the many holes in the story behind Tammy Chapman’s bizarre allegations targeted at prospective Republican gubernatorial candidate, Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder -  Exclusive: Sex Smear Targeting Kinder Doesn’t Survive Scrutiny.

We’ve also looked at accuser Tammy Chapman’s inability to keep her story straight:  Kinder Accuser Tammy Chapman Can’t Keep Story Straight.

Chapman’s long-time association with Democrat John Ross, his links to the attempted smear, as well as a media outlet involved, put Ross right in the middle of the bizarre effort to push allegations from 16 years ago. He’s also involved in the disappearance of her cell phone, effectively wiping out any evidence that could get to the bottom of the story.

John Ross is a Democrat, he ran for US Congress against Jim Talent in 1998 in the St. Louis area. Ross has been friends with Tammy Chapman since 2004. He has a tell-all story of his friendship w/ Chapman here. There is also a YouTube video where he sings to her about vulgar things he wants to do to her.

Chapman has claimed she went to a St. Louis NRA event in 2007 and told a friend the story, claiming Kinder was “creepy” in 2007. That friend was John Ross. They are pictured together at the event here. That’s when Chapman saw Kinder, and (from the RFT penthouse article) pointed him out to Ross. (quote from article.”[Chapman] saw him four years ago at an NRA convention: Their eyes locked, and Chapman confided to a companion that this was the creepy guy she’d told him about. But the two never spoke.”).

That matters because one year later, in 2008, during Kinder’s Lieutenant Governor campaign, Democrats start carrying posters w/ pics of Chapman saying “Who is this woman?” at events including speaking events in Missouri. The same photos used on those posters are displayed on Ross’ website. As previously reported, nothing came of the story, evidently the media realized there was nothing to it. Fast forward to this year, as Kinder prepares to run for Governor.

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Big Government first pointed out the absurd nature of  former Penthouse Pet Tammy Chapman’s allegations against prospective Republican gubernatorial candidate, Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder on Friday. Now, while bragging about all the media attention she is getting from it to her small circle of Facebook friends, it seems when Chapman does talk to the media, she can’t keep her story straight.

Unfortunately, that makes media outlets covering it look less interested in facts, than whatever nonsense Chapman has to say to try and damage a Republican.

Based upon research and exclusive documentation provided to Big Government, it’s believed that dated allegations of sexually aggressive behavior by former Penthouse Pet and stripper Tammy Chapman against prospective Republican gubernatorial candidate, Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, do not hold up under scrutiny. Along with that, it appears steps may have been taken to cover any tracks leading to who is behind the bizarre smear campaign.

On August 9, Chapman told the Riverfront Times she took the innocuous photo she requested of her with Kinder in the restaurant where she was working.

As for that famous photo, she’s mystified as to how it got out. She took it, she says, and she e-mailed it to him before deleting it. Kinder, she says, is the only person she e-mailed it to; she has no idea how it wound up being sent to Riverfront Times.

But that’s not what she told the Kansas City Star a mere two days later. In two short days she went from claiming to have emailed and deleted the photo from her camera, to using Kinder’s to take it. No wonder Kinder calls the claims absurd.

Chapman told The Star that a photo of the two of them was taken with Kinder’s camera and that he had circulated it.

Also, as to the original allegations, she told one media outlet Kinder would visit her where she danced every Monday and Wednesday.

The never-married Kinder started coming to the club every Monday, and then every Monday and every Wednesday.

It was only Mondays when she talked to KSDK and Senate records show Kinder was in attendance working on all but two Mondays during the session in question. Again, Chapman’s story simply doesn’t add up.

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Based upon research and exclusive documentation provided to Big Government, it’s believed that dated allegations of sexually aggressive behavior by former Penthouse Pet and stripper Tammy Chapman against prospective Republican gubernatorial candidate, Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, do not hold up under scrutiny. Along with that, it appears steps may have been taken to cover any tracks leading to who is behind the bizarre smear campaign.

Chapman has alleged Kinder is guilty of said behavior 16 years ago, as well as recently offering her a place to live. Kinder has dismissed the allegations as bizarre. In fact, evidence suggests it may be an intentionally false political smear propagated with the help of a somewhat prominent Democrat.

Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder has responded to a story in the local alt-weekly, in which a bartender and former stripper alleged she once cut off all contact with him because he was too agressive.(sic) “Like most people I am not proud of every place I have been, but this woman’s bizarre story is not true,” Kinder said. He accused his likely Democratic rival in the 2012 gubernatorial election, Gov. Jay Nixon (D), of making up “false stories about the past.”

Chapman made the assertions below in her initial claim. The claims were initially raised three years ago when Kinder ran for Lt. Governor but were mostly ignored by the media for lack of substance. It appears a recent cellphone photo of Chapman and Kinder together, one requested by Chapman and taken with her cellphone in a restaurant where she was waitressing at the time, may have provided what appeared to be a valid news hook to re-assert the old attack.

Chapman tells Daily RFT, Kinder was obsessed with her nearly sixteen years ago, when she was a young stripper … to the point that she cut off all contact. … “He became very aggressive with me,” she says. “I couldn’t tolerate what he was making me do.” Alarmed by his conduct and the letters he was writing, she told him not to come in any more. “I was willing to give up the money he gave me,” she says simply.

Chapman alleges that while she gave the state senator private dances, he would grab her by the shoulders and aggressively try to force her head into his lap. “He’d pull me down to his groin — really, really hard, to the point that it hurt me,” she says

She saw him four years ago at an NRA convention: Their eyes locked, and Chapman confided to a companion that this was the creepy guy she’d told him about. But the two never spoke.

As for that famous photo, she’s mystified as to how it got out. She took it, she says, and she e-mailed it to him before deleting it. Kinder, she says, is the only person she e-mailed it to; she has no idea how it wound up being sent to Riverfront Times.

Chapman says she’s speaking out because she’s disgusted by Kinder’s behavior, both in the mid-’90s and today. “He uses his political business card to get women,” she says.

She adds, “He is not fit for public office.”

Yet, according to sources it was Chapman who actually approached Kinder at the restaurant and requested to have her picture taken with him – a man she now claims physically hurt her years ago.

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More than a month has passed since I published news about out-of-control agents from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service going after a couple in Nixa, Mo., for selling more than $500 worth of rabbits in a calendar year. Today, I offer an update likely to upset those who’ve been following the case of John and Judy Dollarhite.

On May 24, the Dollarhites were cautiously optimistic about their prospects after the USDA appeared to be rethinking their plan to levy up to $3.9 million in fines after some public attention — via more than a dozen posts here, at Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com and elsewhere as well as notice by Drudge Report and Rush Limbaugh — was cast on the matter. Now, it appears they had good reason to be cautious.

On June 21, I learned from Clay Bowler, the Springfield, Mo., blogger who was first to break the Dollarhite’s story, that the couple had received a foll0wup letter from the USDA. Based on the content of Bowler’s post about the USDA letter which stemmed from his conversation with John Dollarhite, I fired off an inquiry (below) to USDA APHIS Spokesperson David Sacks late that same afternoon:

Dave,

I understand John Dollarhite received a post-inspection letter from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, offering him a settlement based on a handful of conditions. Thought I haven’t yet seen the letter, I understand it requires the Dollarhites to do the following:

After confirming, denying or clarifying the information above, please explain the authority under which USDA officials believe they can issue such an expansive set of requirements and explain how those same officials plan to respond to the huge public outcry that is certain to follow when the contents of the new letter become public.

Sincerely,

Bob McCarty

Sacks responded almost 24 hours later:

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The story below involves an actual Missouri Family Court case; however, all names, dates and other case-specific personal details in the story have been changed in order to protect the identities of the innocent people involved. It is one of several cases about which details have been shared with me by individuals advocating for Family Court reform in the Show-Me State.

In a case that has dragged on for years, a Missouri Family Court judge seems to be doing his level best to ensure three young children end up in the custody of the wrong parent. Hanging over the case is one question: “Why?”

I refer to the biological parents in this case as “Jack and Jill.”

Jack has never been in trouble with the law, while Jill is the violent, drug- and alcohol-addicted, drug-dealing, ex-convict mother of his children.

Several law enforcement agencies in the counties where Jill roams are familiar with the woman. She has attempted suicide more than once, been arrested dozens of times, been imprisoned several times and, when not behind bars, continues to hang out with known drug dealers, prostitutes and other felons, according to court records, police reports and other official documents shared with me by people close to the case.

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I think I can say with a high degree of confidence that the USDA appears to be caving when it comes to the matter of the USDA assessing John and Judy Dollarhite a fine of $90,463 because the Nixa, Mo., couple sold more than $500 worth of rabbits in a calendar year.

I base that conclusion on the following e-mail I received late Tuesday afternoon from USDA/APHIS Spokesperson Dave Sacks:

Hello Mr. McCarty

Here is one final statement I can offer, in the event you write any follow-up stories.

We are working out an alternative to the $90K fine and plan to reach out to Mr. Dollarhite over the next week to discuss. We are hopeful he’ll be amenable to discussing it with us and let us visit his facility as we work the issue out.

Thank you.

Dave

When I contacted John Dollarhite to find out if he was aware of the “alternative,” he said he was aware and has actually received some helpful assistance from staffers at the office of U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). Perhaps, that’s what prompted the arrival of the USDA spokesperson’s timely email.

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Paying a USDA fine of $90,463 by close of business Monday would have allowed John and Judy Dollarhite on Nixa, Mo., to put their “crime” of selling too many rabbits in a single calendar year in their proverbial “rear-view mirror.” Instead of paying an exorbitant fine for violating an obscure USDA regulation (not a law), the couple whose plight was highlighted on BigGovernment.com May 20 decided to fight back.

John Dollarhite told me by phone Tuesday morning that he had his attorney, Richard L. Anderson of Branson West, Mo., write a letter Thursday and deliver it overnite to Roxanne Folk, a senior USDA officials in Riverdale, Md. In the letter, Anderson conveyed in no uncertain terms that his client would not be paying the fine:

My client rejects that proposal. I note that a descriptive pamphlet enclosed with your letter states, under “Who We Are”, that IES investigates cases received by referral from APHIS’ program clients and cooperators, and that IES “now conducts more than 6,000 cases and collects approximately $ 2 million in civil penalties annually.” That averages a penalty of $ 333.33 per case, and yet you contend it would be appropriate my client tender a penalty of $ 90,643.00.

Near the end of the letter, he added the following:

I cannot imagine that the actions of Mr. Dollarhite would merit a fine or penalty that would be 272 times larger than what the “average” fine ($ 333) collected by the USDA, IES, APHIS would be, under the circumstances of this case, and would certainly hope that a reasonable hearing examiner would agree.

It appears a lot of Americans are siding with the Dollarhites in this fight.

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There was a time when Communism was anathema to the U.S. labor movement. However, that ship has long since sailed. In fact, the tide shifted significantly in 1995 when John Sweeney, Richard Trumka and Linda Chavez-Thompson ousted Lane Kirkland and took over the AFL-CIO.

Following their ascension to the leadership of America’s only (until 2005) federation of unions, the AFL-CIO dropped its ban of Communist Party members in 1997. Since that time, Marxism has regained a strong foothold in the American labor movement that really hadn’t been seen since the 1930s. And, as every year passes, the Marxist (and Communist) influence on the labor movement becomes more and more evident.

For example, according to the Texas Communist Party USA’s website:

Real Marxists emphasize the tremendous importance of the union movement, even if some so-called ‘radicals’ seek to discredit it. The CPUSA requires its members to join the union in their workplace, if there is one. Interested activists who cannot join a union can still become part of the union movement through the AFL-CIO’s Working America. No communist ever scabs. In the most recent great union upsurge in America (1935-1947) Communists played an outstanding role.

While many rank and file union members would not view themselves as Socialists, Communists, or even Marxists, the fact is, many of the unions’ leaders throughout the country have wholly embraced Marxist ideology and have taken unions, as a whole, in that direction. (more…)

Almost five months after Billy Long won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in Missouri’s 7th Congressional District, some people in the Show-Me State are wondering whether the words used on the campaign trail by the auctioneer and real estate industry mogul-turned-Republican politician were serious or just a World Poker Tour-style bluff for votes.

First, some background.

On Nov. 9, 2009, then-candidate Long sat down for a short interview (see video below) with Josh Marsh, Morning News Watch host on KZRG radio in Joplin, Mo.

During the interview, he spoke about the hardships and sacrifices he was willing to make if voters in southwest Missouri elected him to Congress:

“You have to sell your business. If you have a fiduciary business, you have to sell that, so I’ve gotta walk away from a business I built up for 30 years. Who’s gonna buy it without me there? Answer: Nobody. Whoever I sell it to has to take my name off of it. Now, what’s it worth? Absolutely nothing.

“I own a third interest in the largest real estate company in Springfield; I have to sell that. Do you want to buy a real estate company today? You know, they’re not worth anything, and I have to give up my real estate broker’s license.”

One of those people interested in comparing Long’s rhetoric to reality is Clay Bowler, the conservative Missouri blogger who became the victim of a witch hunt after a complaint by the recently-elected congressman prompted FBI agents to visit him at his Ozark, Mo., home. Five days ago, he reported there was no record yet of Billy Long selling auction house to meet House rules and campaign promise.

The other person is yours truly.

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I’m not a big fan of the Girl Scouts of America, because I think the organization — at least on the national level — has skewed far to the left since the days, decades ago, when my older sisters wore the uniforms with green sashes. Still, I felt obligated to share the story below which, in my view, constitutes an assault on individual freedom.

Each February and March for the past six years, Caitlin Mills, 16, and Abigail Mills, 14, have put a card table in front of their home in Hazelwood, Mo., and sold Girl Scout cookies to drivers passing by. This year, however, city officials in the St. Louis suburb notified their mother, Carolyn Mills, that the girls’ cookie stand violated city ordinances and must be shut down.

According to a recent news release from Freedom Center of Missouri, the Mills family — but not the Girl Scouts of America as they are not involved in the case — filed suit in state court to ensure that children in Hazelwood and all over the state will be free to set up similar stands in their own front yards.

“It is a time-honored tradition for American children to set up a stand in the front yard and sell lemonade or baked goods to people passing by,” said Dave Roland, Freedom Center of Missouri director of litigation. “These stands are not only a fun way to pass a summer afternoon, they are frequently children’s first encounter with the basics of entrepreneurship, customer service, and money management.”

Notice of the city’s move to shut down the cookie-selling stand came as a surprise to Mrs. Mills.

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