From CBS News: Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong pro-democracy activist, convicted in landmark national security trial

Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy former Hong Kong media mogul and outspoken critic of Beijing, was convicted in a landmark national security trial in the city’s court on Monday, which could send him to prison for the rest of his life.

Three government-vetted judges found Lai, 78, guilty of conspiring with others to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiracy to publish seditious articles. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Lai was arrested in August 2020 under a Beijing-imposed national security law that was implemented following massive anti-government protests in 2019. During his five years in custody, much of it in solitary confinement, Lai has been convicted of several lesser offenses and appears to have grown more frail and thinner.

Free Jimmy Lai. The Acton Institute produced this movie about Mr. Lai’s life and imprisonment.

Here’s the Bill, courtesy of the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute.

If you don’t defend your rights, you don’t have any. And let’s support those law firms who help citizens in defend their rights.

One of my favorites is the Institute for Justice.

An economist writes a short article for the Wall Street Journal about taxes in his hometown.

Pacific Grove’s Tax Dollars at Work

The city council hires a consulting firm to help it figure out how to raise my taxes.

…Last month, though, Pacific Grove’s City Council passed a shocking measure that undercuts the warm-and-fuzzy hometown feeling. The majority approved an expenditure of up to $141,530 for a political consulting firm to help it figure out how to raise taxes.

The firm is called Props & Measures, and its proposal isn’t exactly subtle: “We work with our clients to identify shared community priorities and values to identify the elements of a successful revenue proposal. We have built community consensus for revenue measures in hundreds of communities throughout our home state of California and many communities across the country.”

It continues: “The partners and consultants at Props & Measures have experience with numerous successful public finance ballot measures that have raised billions of dollars in voter-approved revenue for public programs, services and facilities.”

In short, Pacific Grove’s City Council voted to use our taxes to come up with a strategy to increase our taxes. …