Story Archive

Banning Bootstraps

At age 11, Chloe Stirling had two businesses: No Bones About It (pet-sitting), and Hey, Cupcake! (baking). Her mother, Heather, said when she reached 16, she’d match her savings for a car, but the young businesswoman had grander plans: “I’m saving for a bakery,” she says. The problem, under Illinois law, was that she didn’t already have one. So when the Madison County Health Department read Chloe’s profile in the newspaper, it shut down her cupcake business. Officials told Heather that Chloe would have to stop selling cupcakes unless she got a kitchen separate from the family kitchen. “The rules are the rules,” said spokeswoman Amy Yeager. “It’s for the protection of the public health.” (AC/Belleville News-Democrat, St. Louis Post-Dispatch) ...Time was we could show such bureaucrats the Constitution and say: “The rules are the rules.”