Idaho Sets Up State Exchange

Idaho Gov. “Butch” Otter—one of the most prominent opponents of Obamacare—announced his state would...
Health Care
| Loren Heal

Sacramento Keeps NBA’s Kings, But Gives Up Hundreds of Millions of $$$

The Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association have a new billionaire team owner, and...
Fiscal
| Sean Parnell

Mixed Response to President’s Proposal to Privatize the TVA

President Obama wants to privatize one of the nation’s largest government-owned companies, a...
Fiscal
| Matthew Glans

Wisconsin Governor Says to Cut Income Tax if Internet Sales Tax Passes

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) says the state should use additional revenue it might receive...
Fiscal
| Steve Stanek

Kathleen Sebelius is an IPAB of One

The non-partisan Congressional Research Service has confirmed that Health and Human Services...
Health Care
| Benjamin Domenech

Analysis: Montana Should Delay Medicaid Expansion, Aim for Real Reform

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock waited until nearly 60 of the 2013 legislative session’s 90 days had...
Health Care
| Carl Graham
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Education

Schools Test New Ways to Deploy Teachers

Two years ago Romain Bertrand was a middle school math teacher, finishing his fifth year teaching in North Carolina’s Charlotte-Mecklenberg district and thinking he needed a way to reach more teachers and students. He moved to a new position mentoring and coaching teachers, but professionally, he felt stuck. “This wasn’t going to give my career the next steps I was looking for in terms of...

Environment

Issue #91: CO2 Approaches 400 PPM, Yet Temperatures Remain Flat

Global warming alarmists are breathlessly filling the media with sensationalist reports of carbon dioxide levels approaching 400 parts per million (that’s 4 parts per 10,000, or a 0.0004 share of the atmosphere, versus 3 parts per million, or a 0.0003 share of the atmosphere, prior to the Industrial Revolution). The central message of alarmist global warming theory is that higher atmospheric...

Pacific Islands Growing, Not Consumed by Rising Seas

Islands in Tuvalu and other Pacific regions that served as poster children for global warming and sea level rise are actually growing, scientists acknowledge. Scientists report 80 percent of South Pacific islands are either growing or remaining the same size. “Some of those islands have gotten dramatically larger, by 20 or 30 percent,” according to Australian climate scientist Paul Kench, as...

CO2 Approaches 400 ppm yet Temperatures Remain Flat

Global warming alarmists are breathlessly filling the media with sensationalist reports of carbon dioxide levels approaching 400 parts per million (that’s 4 parts per 10,000, or a 0.0004 share of the atmosphere, versus just under 300 parts per million, or a 0.0003 share of the atmosphere, prior to the Industrial Revolution). The central message of alarmist global warming theory is that higher...

Finance & Insurance

Online 'Marketplace Fairness Act' Could Tax Your 401(k)



The U.S. Senate recently passed the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would force online retailers to collect sales taxes for states in which purchasers reside. Most have heard how this will hit us when we purchase goods over the Internet. But a lesser-known problem is the legislation also would enable states to levy new taxes on 401(k) and other savings vehicles. How? The bill authorizes states to...

SEC Charges Pennsylvania’s Capital City With Fraud

Federal investigators say City of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania officials misled the public and investors about how bad the municipality’s finances really were. The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday charged the City of Harrisburg with securities fraud in connection with misleading financial statements made to the public. The SEC said the misinformation meant investors risked dealing in...

Florida Governor Receives Bill to End Subsidies to New Coastal Development

The Florida Legislature has approved reforms to the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp., including provisions that will end insurance subsidies for new construction in environmentally sensitive coastal regions. The state Senate last week concurred by a 32-1 margin to an amended version of S.B. 1770, as passed earlier in the week by the state House of Representatives. With the Senate’s...

Health

Kathleen Sebelius is an IPAB of One

The non-partisan Congressional Research Service has confirmed that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who already has been invested with enormous power under President Obama's health care law, is essentially empowered as the rationer in chief should the Independent Payment Advisory Board fail in its mission. The board, known as IPAB, is empowered with the ability to end-run...

Idaho Sets Up State Exchange

Idaho Gov. “Butch” Otter—one of the most prominent opponents of Obamacare—announced his state would implement its own health insurance exchange under the law. Idaho Freedom Foundation executive director Wayne Hoffman, who was a member of the governor’s task force studying implementation, had recommended the alternate path of allowing the federal government to set up an exchange. Instead, the...

Analysis: Montana Should Delay Medicaid Expansion, Aim for Real Reform

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock waited until nearly 60 of the 2013 legislative session’s 90 days had passed before making a Medicaid expansion proposal that essentially said, “Do what the feds want.” That’s a wasted opportunity. Since Medicaid rules are made in Washington, DC, our state frittered away a chance to negotiate reforms that could better meet the needs of Montana’s most at-risk population...

Taxes

Sacramento Keeps NBA’s Kings, But Gives Up Hundreds of Millions of $$$

The Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association have a new billionaire team owner, and that billionaire will have a new stadium for his team, courtesy of local taxpayers. Two days after the NBA rejected a bid to move the Kings to Seattle, the Maloof family agreed to sell the Kings to a new group of investors who promise to keep the team in Sacramento. The announcement follows the...

Wisconsin Governor Says to Cut Income Tax if Internet Sales Tax Passes

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) says the state should use additional revenue it might receive from Internet sales taxes to cut the state’s income tax. “I want to make clear, should federal Marketplace legislation become law, my intention would be for any resulting additional revenue be used to provide individual income tax relief for Wisconsin’s taxpayers,” he wrote in a letter to lawmakers...

Mixed Response to President’s Proposal to Privatize the TVA

President Obama wants to privatize one of the nation’s largest government-owned companies, a proposal that is bringing pushback from some unlikely sources: politicians who ordinarily promote themselves as favoring smaller government and more free enterprise. In his 2014 budget, President Obama called for a strategic review of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The budget stated that selling or...

Tech

Online 'Marketplace Fairness Act' Could Tax Your 401(k)



The U.S. Senate recently passed the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would force online retailers to collect sales taxes for states in which purchasers reside. Most have heard how this will hit us when we purchase goods over the Internet. But a lesser-known problem is the legislation also would enable states to levy new taxes on 401(k) and other savings vehicles. How? The bill authorizes states to...

Internet Tax Bill Fight Moves from Senate to House

Now that the United States Senate has voted 69-27 to allow states to compel online retailers to collect sales tax even when they have no physical presence in a state where a shopper is located, will we see pushback strengthen? The bill moves to the U.S. House of Representatives, where politicos expect a tougher fight. Lobbyists including former lawmakers and governors have been hired by...