| Cop’s Obama Rant Embarrasses Officials, Spurs 2014 Nanny of the Year Win. Icahn Acquires Stake in Manitowoc, Seeks Splitup. |
Our nation’s control freaks got even freakier in 2014–from jetpacks to parking apps, eco-ATMs and powdered alcohol, they were determined to kill anything cutting edge.
They targeted everything from dogs in parks to births at home, and they’ll sic cops on you for hoarding or smelling bad. You might even get busted for doing things that are legal–like vaping while driving, warning motorists about speed traps, or putting up Christmas lights.
And whether it’s yanking chocolate milk, boogie boards, homemade libraries or sunscreen(?!), the control freaks are (all together now!): Doing it for the children.
It’s fitting, then, that 2014’s Nanny of the Year recipients justified their power grab on the same grounds (although the real reason may have more to do with protecting city officials from future caught-on-tape embarrassments).
Check out how one cop's rant (“Obama has decimated the friggin’ Constitution”) embarrassed a city council into taking home this year’s top dishonors!
Carl Icahn reported a 7.7 percent stake in Manitowoc and became the second activist investor this year to push for a split up of the company's crane and food service equipment businesses. Manitowoc's crane business has been hurt by weak demand for its rough-terrain and boom trucks, and the company said in October that it expected revenue in the business to decline by a mid-to-high single-digit percentage in 2014. The crane business contributed nearly 62 percent of Manitowoc's total revenue of about $4 billion in 2013.
