Roof and Mouth Disease

A prison inmate serving a life sentence for murder has sued prison officials in New Jersey,...
Lawsuit Abuse
| Maureen Martin

Climate Change Weekly - New Data Show Emissions Cuts Unnecessary

U.S. carbon dioxide emissions continue to track lower than year 2000 levels, the U.S. Energy...
Environment
| James M. Taylor

Indiana, Amazon.com Reach Sales Tax Agreement

Indiana government officials and the nation’s largest online retailer have reached an agreement to...
Tech

Cell-Phone Towers on California Schools to Enhance District’s Bottom Line

As a way of combating hard economic times, California’s Elk Grove Unified School District board...
Tech

California Billionaires Bankroll Tax Hike Referenda

For the Chinese, 2012 is the Year of the Dragon. For beleaguered California taxpayers this may be...
Insurance

Schools’ Electronic Monitors to Track Student Exercise

The athletic chair of Bay Shore, a Long Island, New York school system, has raised privacy concerns...
Tech
| Bruce Edward Walker
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Education

House Committee Releases Next NCLB Bill Draft

House Republicans have released draft language for the last two of five bills to rewrite and reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, currently known as No Child Left Behind. Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-Minnesota) will sponsor the Student Success Act, which makes significant changes to the federal role in several ways. This includes...

Fiscal

Idaho Tax Committee Chairman Pushes Cigarette Tax Hike; Others Push Back

In a recent statement to the Idaho Reporter, State Rep. Dennis Lake (R-Blackfoot) labeled himself a legislative “errand boy” for the American Cancer Society, pledging to work for higher cigarette taxes at the group’s behest. Lake offered legislation for a higher cigarette tax last year but failed to win support from the Revenue and Taxation Committee, which he chairs. He says he plans to try...

F.A.C.T.-Based Budgeting Provides Honest State Numbers

To bring truth and greater transparency to state budget processes, the the Institute for Truth in Accounting has developed a budgeting system called “Full Accrual Calculations and Techniques,” or F.A.C.T., which would require governors and legislatures to recognize expenses when incurred regardless of when they’re paid. F.A.C.T.-Based Budgeting F.A.C.T.-based budgeting is necessary because...

Tax Increase Debate Takes Center Stage in Washington State

One way or another, Washington voters may be asked to raise taxes in 2012 to bail the state out of a nearly $2 billion budget deficit. Special interest groups have long been rumored to be targeting the 2012 ballot with citizen initiatives to raise taxes, and Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) wants the Legislature to go directly to the people as well, with a referendum to “temporarily” raise the state’s...

Health

Obama Nominee for Social Security Board Criticized for Supporting Rationing

Henry J. Aaron, President Obama’s nominee to chair the Social Security Advisory Board, has come under fire for his support of health-care rationing, Obama’s health care law, and the controversial Independent Payment Advisory Board. In an interview with Health Care News, Aaron claimed he sees his new role as only advisory, not as a policymaker. “I am not becoming a policymaker,” Aaron said. “The...

Consumer Power Report: One Observer Says No Repeal Likely

In a few recent editions, we’ve discussed the ramifications and possibilities of whether the next president, if a Republican, will engage the political capital necessary to “repeal and replace” President Barack Obama’s health care law. This week, Norm Coleman – the former senator from Minnesota and a prominent advisor for Mitt Romney – suggested that no matter who the Republican nominee is, he or...

North Carolina Regulators Hound Food Trucks

North Carolina Pastor Michael King is trying to start a food truck ministry. He’s converting old buses his church bought into food trucks to employ the poor and homeless in Rowan County. The first truck—nicknamed the “Mac-Attack Wagon”—is ready to hit the road, but it has been stopped in its tracks by a state regulation called the “commissary rule.” The rule requires “pushcarts or mobile food...

Tech

Indiana, Amazon.com Reach Sales Tax Agreement

Indiana government officials and the nation’s largest online retailer have reached an agreement to begin collecting Indiana sales tax on Internet purchases. Indiana will become the fourth state to reach such an agreement with Amazon.com, but Gov. Mitch Daniels (D) said he wants federal legislation to address the online sales tax issue. “The only complete answer to this problem is a federal...

Cell-Phone Towers on California Schools to Enhance District’s Bottom Line

As a way of combating hard economic times, California’s Elk Grove Unified School District board announced it will allow negotiations to begin with cell-phone companies interested in locating their towers on school property. Associate Superintendent of Elk Grove Unified School District Rob Pierce said each tower location could generate approximately $25,000 to $50,000 for the community, plus one-...

Finance & Insurance

California Billionaires Bankroll Tax Hike Referenda

For the Chinese, 2012 is the Year of the Dragon. For beleaguered California taxpayers this may be the Year of the Billionaire. Of the half-dozen or so potential November ballot measures designed to raise taxes, nearly half are actively sponsored by billionaires. Tax Hikes on Business, Income Here is where the ultra-rich individuals are putting their money. Tom Steyer, a billionaire hedge fund...

Entertaining Lessons in Finance from This Tour of Battered Economies

Review of Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World, by Michael Lewis (W.W. Norton & Company, 2011, $25.95), ISBN 978-0-393-08181-7 I promise you will easily learn more about international finance between the covers of this book than you ever thought possible. Michael Lewis is perhaps best known for his books that have become movies, namely The Blind Side and Moneyball. It is his penchant for...

Florida Bill Would Order Crash Victims to Visit Emergency Room

In an effort to crack down on the potential for auto insurance claims fraud perpetrated by so-called “pain clinics,” a subcommittee of the Florida House of Representatives has approved a proposal to require accident victims to be seen in an emergency room within 72 hours to be eligible for personal injury protection benefits. Proposed committee statute HB 119 sailed through the House Insurance...

Environment

Climate Change Weekly - New Data Show Emissions Cuts Unnecessary

U.S. carbon dioxide emissions continue to track lower than year 2000 levels, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on January 23, extending this century’s downward trend in U.S. emissions. The new data rebut assertions that the United States needs to impose new restrictions on coal-fired power plants and other sources of carbon dioxide emissions. The primary reason for...

U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Remain Below 2000 Levels

U.S. carbon dioxide emissions remain below 2000 levels and are likely to remain so until at least the year 2030, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s just-released preview of its Annual Energy Outlook 2012. The EIA annual report provides further evidence that EPA’s economy-killing restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions are completely unnecessary, even if global warming were...

New Emissions Data Rebut Global Warming Alarmism

U.S. carbon dioxide emissions continue to track lower than year 2000 levels, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Monday, extending this century’s downward trend in U.S. emissions. The new data rebut assertions that the United States needs to impose new restrictions on coal-fired power plants and other sources of carbon dioxide emissions. Interestingly, EIA reports U.S....