No Net Profit

Jacobs High School student Allison Leja of Algonquin, Illinois sued Carpentersville-based...
Lawsuit Abuse
| David L. Applegate

Schools Test New Ways to Deploy Teachers

Two years ago Romain Bertrand was a middle school math teacher, finishing his fifth year teaching...
Education
| Ashley Bateman

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

Wisconsin Lawmakers Consider Two School Choice Proposals

In 1989, Wisconsin became the first state to implement school vouchers for poor families. The...
Education
| Kathlyn Shirley

New Mexico Premium Costs Expected to Skyrocket

Patients in New Mexico could take a big financial hit when the health care overhaul, known as...
Health Care
| Rob Nikolewski
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Education

Are Pearson-Taught Students Getting an Unfair Testing Advantage?

The largest education company in the world put reading passages from its new Common Core-aligned curriculum into sixth- and eighth-grade tests it administered in New York, prompting concerns that schools who used Pearson materials gained a testing advantage over those that did not. This is the first year of New York’s new Common Core-aligned statewide tests, and year two of education company...

Environment

Alaska Continues Its Record Long, Snowy Winter

Anchorage, Alaska set a record last week for its longest snow season on record. The city also set a record for its lowest May 17 maximum temperature. Global warming activists often claim Alaska is among the places most negatively affected by warming temperatures. In his movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore claimed warming temperatures are melting the Alaska tundra and destroying homes and...

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...

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...

Finance & Insurance

Federal Reserve’s ‘Exit Strategy’ is Just More Monetary Manipulation

The recent media reports that the Federal Reserve has devised an “exit strategy” to reverse their nearly $3 trillion increase of the money supply over the last several years shows the monetary central planners remain wedded to the philosophy of “fine-tuning.” The “Fed” leadership still retains the hubris that they can manipulate the economy into sustainable “soft landings” following their own...

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...

Health

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...

How Obamacare Is Making Insurance Worse

One talking point about Obamacare that has received little pushback is that whatever you can say about what the law will do to premium costs, or taking away a plan and a doctor you like, it’s going to put you on a better – meaning more comprehensive – insurance plan at the end of the day. Jonathan Cohn probably uses this line more than anyone. And for many people, he could be right. I usually...

New Mexico Premium Costs Expected to Skyrocket

Patients in New Mexico could take a big financial hit when the health care overhaul, known as Obamacare, takes effect. The Society of Actuaries has released a report concluding premium costs for individual health plans—an industry expected to get more crowded as the Affordable Care Act kicks in starting in 2014—will rise by an average of 34.9 percent in New Mexico and 31.5 percent throughout the...

Taxes

Detroit Emergency Manager Calls for 'Complete Restructuring' of City Operations

The emergency financial manager for Detroit has issued a report that says the city's finances are in worse shape than nearly anyone suspected before Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) appointed him to the job in March. Snyder appointed corporate turnaround expert Kevyn Orr to be Detroit's emergency financial manager. He is a lawyer in the Jones Day law firm in Washington, D.C. Among other assignments...

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...

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...

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 U.S. 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 a stronger pushback? Politicos expect a tougher fight in the House of Representatives. Lobbyists including former lawmakers and governors have been hired by supporters of the bill to push it to victory...