‘Fortune-telling’ might soon be legal in Selma, California.
Selma City Council will hold a public meeting today to discuss rescinding the present ban on psychic businesses. If they decide to drop the ban, new laws will be established to regulate such businesses.
Recommendations include criminal background checks for psychic readers seeking a business license, and zoning bylaws to restrict where psychic businesses can set up shop.
The present ban has been in place since 1979. A similar ban in nearby Azusa, California was struck down as unconstitutional in 1985.
It’s official, licenses for psychic businesses in Salem, Massachusetts are once again being issued.
As I posted last week, City Council temporarily suspended the issuance of licenses for new psychic businesses in July of 2011. Last Thursday, they voted to accept a new ordinance regulating such businesses.
Per the new law, only stores that dedicate at least 75% of their goods and services to fotunetelling and related products will be eligible for a psychic business license. This percentage has been increased from 51%.
The move was made to support psychic merchants who devote their business to the trade and to discourage psychics from setting up shop in businesses unrelated to fortunetelling, like clothing stores or coffee shops.
And there’s more Tarot and the law news this week … Salem, Massachusetts might begin issuing new licenses for psychic businesses starting May 1st.
Since July of last year, there’s been a moratorium on the issuance of licenses to new psychic businesses in Salem.
Council members have been reviewing the present regulations and have drawn up a new ordinance to be heard at City Council this coming Thursday.
According to The Salem News, under the new rules, a ‘fortuneteller’ license would only be issued to a business that devotes at least 75 percent of its goods and services to fortunetelling and related products.
The old rules required only 51 percent of a business to be designated as such.
These changes are expected to reduce the number of licenses issued for psychic businesses in the city.
Earlier this month, the Board of Aldermen for Somerville, Massachusetts, passed an ordinance requiring ‘fortunetellers’ to obtain a license before opening a business in Somerville.
According to the Somerville Patch, the ordinance defines ‘fortunetelling’ as …
… the telling of fortunes, forecasting of futures, or reading the past, by means of any occult, psychic power, faculty, force, clairvoyance, cartomancy, psychometry, phrenology, spirits, tea leaves, tarot cards, scrying, coins, sticks, dice, sand, coffee grounds, crystal gazing or other such reading, or through mediumship, seership, prophecy, augury, astrology, palmistry, necromancy, mindreading, telepathy talisman, charm, potion, magnetism, magnetized article or substance, or by any such similar thing or act.
In an attempt to keep convicted frauds from obtaining a fortunetelling license, readers must now undergo a criminal background check, as well as provide the city with information about any consumer complaints that may have been lodged against them.
Fines for violating the ordinance will be $100 for the first offense, increasing up to $300 for subsequent offenses.
There’s been some exciting news on the home front … last week CelebEdge.ca started posting a celebrity Tarot reading series called Tarot Views on the News.
If that sounds an awful lot like my very own Tarot Views the News, it’s because it’s me doing the readings! Yay!!
In the bite-size video clips, Amy and Sabrina from Sympatico.ca ask me and my cards questions taken from the covers of the latest tabloid magazines.
Important issues like ‘will Kate Middleton get pregnant soon’, or ‘how is Miley Cyrus dealing with the sudden stardom of her beau?’ How about Michelle Williams and Jason Segel … ‘is their romance going to spark’?
The questions might be silly, but the whole thing is a lot of fun. If you like celebrity gossip and Tarot, take a look!
Opening a psychic shop or tattoo parlour just got a little less expensive in San Clemente, California.
Until last week, if you wanted to open either type of business in San Clemente, you would be charged a daily license tax of $20. That’s just over $7,000 a year.
In comparison, medical offices pay on average $400 a year, while most auto-mechanic shops pay about $600.
Thanks to tattoo artist Susie Floyd who challenged the city, Council voted 5-0 last week to do away with the unfair fee schedule and to treat psychic and tattoo businesses the same as others in the area.
According to the Boston Herald, seven Boston psychic businesses were asked to appear before the city Licensing Board last week, after being cited for license violations.
To obtain a psychic business license in Boston, the applicant must prove to the city that they are registered voters and that they have not been convicted of any state or federal crimes.
They must also prove that not only their landlord approves of their business, but also those residents who might live or work on either side.
Psychic businesses are also required to clearly list their services, and how much each will cost.
I’m not sure how the meeting went, or what specific violations each of the businesses had, but if I learn more, I’ll let you know.
Last week, city commissioners in Leavenworth, Kansas began discussing the possibility of repealing a city ban on fortune-telling that’s been on the books for ages.
Presently, the ordinance states that it is ‘unlawful for any fortuneteller, palmist, phrenologist or clairvoyant to carry on or practice his business, trade or profession within the city.’
Commissioners are considering repealing this law, and instead regulating psychic businesses through licensing, zoning, and possibly criminal background checks.
The whole discussion surrounding the ban came about after a Leavenworth resident requested last December that it be repealed.
The ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri backed up the resident’s request by notifying city officials that psychic speech was protected under the First Amendment.
No decision has yet been made, but further discussion will take place after commissioners have had time to review their options.
On behalf of Salem resident, Anaka Hunter, the ACLU last week filed a complaint against the City of Salem, Missouri, its public library’s Board of Trustees, and the library’s director.
The ACLU maintain that the ‘Netsweeper’ content filtering software used by the library is unconstitutionally limiting Hunter’s ability to access information on ‘minority’ religious views, specifically sites related to Native American religions and Wicca.
While trying to do research on her own Native American heritage, as well as on the Wiccan faith, Hunter discovered that the sites she was trying to access were being blocked.
The reasons given were that they contained content related to the ‘occult’ and/or ‘criminal skills’.
To understand how ludicrous this situation is, take a look at some of the sites Hunter was denied access to:
Interestingly enough, Christian discussions on pagan and occult practices were not blocked by the software.
According to the complaint, library director Glenda Wofford told Hunter that library staff will only allow people to view blocked websites if the content in those sites pertain to their jobs, or they’re writing a paper, or if it’s determined by the staff, that the person inquiring has some legitimate purpose for viewing the content.
Wofford also noted that she was required to inform the proper authorities about anyone she believed might misuse the information being requested.
Personally speaking, I can’t imagine why any of the websites listed above are considered a threat to Salem residents. And it’s absolutely outrageous that Native American traditions are being classified as occult or potentially illegal.
And what do they mean by ‘occult ‘ and ‘criminal skills’ anyway?
I’m glad that the ACLU took up this case, and I wish them and Ms. Hunter success with it.
As promised yesterday, we have an update on Grandpa the Psychic Monkey’s predictions for the New Hampshire Republican primary. I don’t know what to think of them though.
As you can see in the NY Daily News clip below, Grandpa ignored conventional wisdom and chose Newt Gingrich as the frontrunner.
When offered an array of bananas all representing particular candidates, he went right to the Gingrich banana, snapped it up and ate it.
Though he grabbed the Huntsman banana at the same time he took the Gingrich one, he didn’t actually eat it until he’d finished off the two marked Santorum and Perry.
And he completely ignored both the Romney and Paul bananas, leaving them for another monkey.
Till now, Grandpa’s record has been good. At least in sports. He picked the winner for last year’s Super Bowl, and six out of nine winners in the US Open.
But maybe politics isn’t his strong point, or it’s possible he knows something we don’t.
He could also just be saying he thinks the whole lot of them are bananas.
