As we wrote approximately a year ago, The People’s Republic of Massachusetts along with Ohio and Washington were then in a near three-way tie for the blue ribbon for most corrupt state in the nation.  Sadly for the last two, a recent matter has helped The People’s Republic pull ahead in the race and stake a singular claim on the prize.  In mid-April, federal prosecutors charged a Massachusetts judge with obstruction of justice, saying she prevented immigration agents from arresting an undocumented immigrant after a state court hearing by allowing him to leave the courthouse through a back door.

Shortly after the Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, was arrested by British police this month, Judge Andrew Napolitano called Assange a “hero.”  Ecquador withdrew Assange’s asylum for “repeatedly violating international conventions and protocol.”

The car that got slapped with 63 tickets, including 34 speeding tickets and seven red light tickets, is parked in the foreground of the general mess at the 23rd station house in East Harlem.  Photo: Julianne Cuba

The fight to save our streets from recklessly driving cops now has a poster child.  Streetsblog’s ongoing investigation into police officers who repeatedly speed and run red lights unearthed a true sociopath in blue on Tuesday: An Upper East Side cop with 63 summonses—including 34 camera-issued speeding tickets and seven tickets issued for being caught on camera running a red light—since 2014.

The nation's attention turned to Oregon a few years ago when a group calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom seized control of part of a federal wildlife refuge.  The citizens were protesting the harsh sentences given to members of the Hammond ranching family.  The Hammonds were accused of allowing fires set on their property to spread onto federal land.

As is usual every year, 2019 will see the enactment of new laws across the country.  Once again, our beloved legislators have passed thousands of needless new laws that will be going into effect this year.  Passing more laws is not the solution, but instead, part of the problem!  We already have millions of laws in the nation—far too many.  Having ample laws is one of several causes of corruption in our legal system.  Many of the newly written laws will have an impact on the vast majority of Americans.  In California alone, more than 1,000 new laws will be added to the books.  In some states, minimum wages will go up, guns will be harder to obtain legally, plastic straws will get the boot, and hunters will get to wear pink for a change.  Here are some of the noteworthy laws going into effect this year:

The recent arrest of the chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, of Chinese tech giant Huawei is a classic example of the United States legal system overstepping its bounds.  The CFO was released on bail in Canada, setting her up for a lengthy legal fight over extradition to the United States.  However, her arrest should never have happened in the first place.

On November 20, 2018, the Idaho Statesman ran an article written by former U.S. Forest Service agent Pat Finnigan in response to an article written by Statesman reporter Nicole Blanchard.  The first article was written after Nicole had spent the day at my home in Emmett, Idaho.  Nicole and I talked openly about the matters she wanted to discuss.  We talked about our families, about life since I have been home—we talked about “the movement” the Bundy family has supposedly started.  We spoke about the actions of federal officers from the BLM, U.S. Forest Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Overall, Nicole reported accurately and fairly the information she was able to write about.