In a big win for property rights and due process, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill yesterday to curb an abusive—and little known—police practice called civil forfeiture. Unlike criminal forfeiture, under civil forfeiture someone does not have to be convicted of a crime, or even charged with one, to permanently lose his or her cash, car or home.

The newly signed legislation, SF 874, corrects that injustice. Now the government can only take property if it obtains a criminal conviction or its equivalent, like if a property owner pleads guilty to a crime or becomes an informant. The bill also shifts the burden of proof onto the government, where it rightfully belongs. Previously, if owners wanted to get their property back, they had to prove their property was not the instrument or proceeds of the charged drug crime. In other words, owners had to prove a negative in civil court. Being acquitted of the drug charge in criminal court did not matter to the forfeiture case in civil court.

As Lee McGrath, the executive director of the Institute for Justice’s Minnesota chapter, put it, “No one acquitted in criminal court should lose his property in civil court. This change makes Minnesota’s law consistent with the great American presumption that a person and his property are innocent until proven guilty.”

The bill faced stiff opposition from law enforcement and a bottleneck in the legislature. In March, the Star Tribune called it an “outrage” that lawmakers were “dragging their feet on one of the big, common-sense changes” to the state’s forfeiture laws. Ultimately, SF 874 found wide, bipartisan support, passing the state senate 55 to 5 and the state house unanimously. The reforms will go into effect starting August 1, 2014.

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By Brendan Bordelon.

Liberal commentator Juan Williams touched off a firestorm on “Fox News Sunday” by suggesting racism drives the “white, older group of people” that support President Obama’s impeachment, with Heritage Action head Michael Needham accusing him of “demonizing good people.”

The Fox News contributor made the remarks after he claimed the Republicans had “demonized” President Obama by calling him “lawless” on issues like immigration and the implementation of Obamacare.

“Do you think that the Republican opposition to this president is racial?” Wallace asked him. “Or do you think it’s based on principles and policies?”

“Well, all I can do is look at the numbers,” he replied. “If you look at the core constituency — the people who are in, let’s say, tea party opposition, support of impeachment — there’s no diversity. It’s a white, older group of people.”

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You Really Need to See Chris Matthews Try ‘Not to Get ETHNIC’ On Ted Cruz, and FAIL

By Soopermexican.

I’m still not sure what “getting ethnic” means, but whatever that is, Chris Matthews definitely did it when he implied that Ted Cruz was somehow betraying his Hispanic heritage by advocating that immigration law be followed.

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It is not as if there aren’t any economic factors influencing the price of groceries these days. Transportation alone, thanks to skyrocketing fuel prices, has lifted the cost of everything we buy at the grocery store. Now, one of the worst droughts in U.S. history is making the one thing absolutely vital for food production — an ample water supply — more expensive as well, and that, ultimately, will translate into even higher prices at the market.

To set the stage, back in February the U.S. Bureau or Reclamation released its first outlook of the year, in which the agency found insufficient water stocks in California to release to farmers for irrigation. That was the first time in the 54-year history of the State Water Project that had happened.

“If it’s not there, it’s just not there,” said Water Authority Executive Director Steve Chedester, who noted that it would be tough finding water in the coming year or more. Farmers were to be hardest hit, the official added, stating, “They’re all on pins and needles trying to figure out how they’re going to get through this.”

‘Paying as much as 10 times more’

One way to deal with the drought is for farmers to plant fewer fields, which would mean that early on there would be fewer crops; in the law of supply and demand, when supply is reduced but demand remains high, prices rise.

Read more from this story HERE.