Biden is pushing ahead with the requirement that workers get their COVID jabs, or they could lose their job. It’s a step that may be challenged legally. The U.S. Department of Labor is expected to publish its rule this week requiring that all employees of private companies with more than 100 workers be vaccinated. Wall Street Journal.
According to the Department of Labor (DOL), the Office of Management and Budget completed the review of the mandate for vaccines Monday and would release the complete text in the “coming days.”
The Biden administration also released details about a different mandate that required government contractors to obtain the vaccine on Monday. Contractors are now required to give “counseling, education and discipline” to those who refuse to get the vaccine. Roll CallIt is possible to. The new guidelines state that firing employees who are not vaccinated should be an option. Contractors have the option to give religious and medical exemptions to their employees.
The controversial nature of both vaccine mandates has been noted. Some associations of business have requested that rules not be implemented until after the holiday season in order to avoid increasing staffing needs.
In a letter addressed to OMB by Chris Spear, the president of American Trucking Association, Spear stated that “now placing vaccination mandates onto employers which in turn forces employees to bevaccinated” CNBC
Employers who don’t follow the rule could face fines as high as $13,600 for each violation. Journal
Twenty-four Republican state attorneys general wrote a letter to the Biden Administration on September 25 calling their vaccine mandate for private sector employees “disastrous, counterproductive,” and based upon “flimsy law arguments.” Should the White House not change course, they said they would “seek every legal option available to…uphold the rule of law.”
A handful of trade organizations are also interested in the matter.
Small businesses are represented by the National Federation of Independent Businesses. In September, the Federation stated in a letter that the administration had forced its members to serve as “government’s instruments of pressure against their own employees”. Those are words of contention.
Ilya Somin is a George Mason University professor of law. The Volokh Conspiracy This website is located at There are reasons(), has maintained that the federal government stands firm when it comes to mandating vaccinations for employees. Somin writes that a mandate that private employees get shot, as well as the emergency rule-making process used by the Biden administration to make that happen, is “legally dubious” and could set dangerous precedents if it were upheld.
When the complete text of this vaccine mandate becomes available, you can expect to see lawsuits.
FREIGHT MARKETS
Minnesota’s Twin Cities residents will be voting today on local ballot measures to control rent. Each is bad but each one is worse. The less offensive is Minneapolis’s City Question 3. This would enable the Minneapolis City Council to adopt a rent control measure or present one to the voters via a referendum.
The majority YesVoting on Question 3 would not require that the city adopt rent control measures. However, it would likely create tremendous political pressure to act against the will of voters. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is also up for reelection and has stated that he will vote “yes” on the measure. Minneapolis Star-Tribune Question 3 has been endorsed by the top opposition candidates in the mayoral race.
Contrary to Minneapolis’s non-binding referendum the ballot measure that is going before St. Paul voters would, if passed, impose an absolute 3 percent cap for rent increases. It’s much less than recent rent control laws passed in Oregon, California and Washington. These laws limit rent increases to 7 percent and 5 percentage respectively.
These laws allow rent increases above inflation. St. Paul’s law does not allow landlords to increase real rents above inflation of 3 percent.
Oregon’s and California’s rent controls laws exempt buildings less than 15-years old from price caps. This is to reduce the discouragement these laws can create for new housing construction. St. Paul has no exception to this rule for new housing.
So even those advocating more restrictive forms of rent controls have criticised the St. Paul policy as too extreme and likely reduce housing construction.
ELECTION 2021
It’s election day! As voters get to the polls, here are some referenda and races to be on your radar.
- Virginia’s voters today will choose a new governor. This is a tightly watched race that becomes more tight. The election looked quite close up to a month ago. Terry McAuliffe is to be defeated. In recent years, the state has been moving blue. Since 2009 it has not had a Republican governor. McAuliffe’s past gaffes (including saying that teachers should not be told what they should teach) have helped Glenn Youngkin win recent polls.
- New Jersey’s governoral race is less interesting. The incumbent Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, an ex-state legislator, is currently running up to eleven points ahead of Jack Ciattarelli. Murphy’s leadership, New Jersey was home to one of the most high COVID deaths rates in the nation and had some of the strictest lockdown policies in the country. Murphy is expected to win the election, making him the Democratic Governor of New Jersey for the first time since Brenden Bryne’s 1977 victory. NPR reports.
- Bloomberg“s” CityLab According to reports, $27 billion worth of bond initiatives will be on Tuesday’s ballots. It’s roughly half the amount voters were required to approve in last year’s borrowing. This can partly be explained by the increase in federal aid for states and localities to combat pandemics, which many have large surpluses.
- FiveThirtyEight Notes that special congressional elections are also being held in Ohio’s 11th (solidly blue), and 15th (solidly red). Florida’s 20th District will host a Democratic Primary to fill in the seat that Alcee Hastings left. The district is a deep blue area, so this primary will determine who wins the January general election.
- Minneapolis voters will vote on whether to eliminate their police department or replace it by a department for public safety. The more things change…
QUICK LINKS
- Expect new methane emission limits to be announced by the Biden Administration.
- Roger Stone is a Donald Trump supporter and political dirty trickster. He has indicated that he could run for Florida governor using the Libertarian Party ticket. Ron DeSantis refuses to order an audit for the 2020 elections.
- Following the defeat of plans for San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood to create a market-rate housing community, activists have been defeated by the city. The city will now build affordable housing there. It is being called The San Francisco Business Times The permitting process to build affordable housing is expected to begin in 2025, according the company. Unrelated to this, new research shows that San Francisco is not affordable for low and middle income workers.
- Yahoo! is the latest tech company that has pulled out of China.
- Squid GameBBC: “Collapses in apparent fraud” reported the BBC.