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Pro-USF Consumer Groups Levy `Hoax' Charge
2.28.2006
In a continuing campaign to protect current methods of financing the Universal Service Fund (USF), consumer groups are saying regulatory and legislative opinions about the subsidy’s need for radical reform are a “hoax” designed to shift added new costs to telecom users.
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Universal Service Fund Threatens Tech Innovation According to a New Study by Pacific Research Institute
Press Release
2.27.2006
SAN FRANCISCO – Tomorrow the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee will conduct hearings on the Universal Service Fund (USF) – a federal welfare system that redistributes revenue from the telecommunications industry. “Congress should recognize that the failures of the Universal Service Fund seriously threaten the future of technological innovation in America,” warns Vince Vasquez, policy fellow in Technology Studies at the Pacific Research Institute, a free-market think tank, and author of the new study “Digital Welfare: The Failure of the Universal Service System” (available at www.pacificresearch.org).
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Enhancing the quest for gold
Technology Op-Ed
2.26.2006
THE 2006 Winter Olympics is winding down, offering an opportunity for the world community to look back on the event and reflect. Drug testing, for instance, was an ongoing element of the games, bringing about intrigue that included Italian drug testers who surprised athletes by posing as fans. This demonstrates why it's time for the Olympics, whose motto is ''Faster, Higher, Stronger," to lift the ban on human enhancement in sports.
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Longer Lives Threatened by Global Divide Arguments
Technology Op-Ed
2.24.2006
At a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a group of biologists discussed how, in the near future, people could expect to live 100 years. A longer, healthier life is good news to most, but predictably some speakers took a negative, almost pro-death, stance.
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HSA's Are the Right Medicine at the Right Time
Health Care Op-Ed
By: Sally C. Pipes
2.24.2006
President Bush has put reforming health care at the center of his domestic agenda. Unlike previous presidents, he’s prescribing policies, such as Health Savings Accounts, that rely on freeing up individuals and markets, expanding tax savings, and providing more health care options, rather than expanding government.
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Reform Video Franchising Now
Technology Op-Ed
2.17.2006
New technologies that allow for high-speed data transfer over the Internet have revolutionized the way consumers and businesses communicate, shaking up the nation's communications sector from telecommunications to cable. Laws that used to make sense have now become obstacles to positive change and consumer benefit.
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Nano World: New nanotech law called for
PRI in the News
By: Charles Q. Choi
2.17.2006
NEW YORK -- A new law specifically targeting nanotechnology could prove necessary to regulate its potential risks and promoting its continued development, experts told UPI's Nano World.
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Feds should delete E-Rate program
Technology Op-Ed
By: Vince Vasquez
2.17.2006
Congress is holding hearings this month on federal technology subsidies, including the education fund known as "E-Rate." Eliminating this disastrous program would go a long way towards restoring sanity in both the classroom and the marketplace.
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OpinionJournal.com Forms 'Federation' of Top Political Web Sites
PRI in the News
2.16.2006
PRINCETON, N.J. – OpinionJournal.com, a free web site from The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page, announces the launch of the "OpinionJournal Federation" of top political Web sites and blogs, which will offer daily content to its readers. OpinionJournal.com editors will select at least one article each week from a Federation member site for publication on OpinionJournal.com, which will also feature overviews and links to all Federation members.
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Voting Machine Vendors continue boycott of State Senate
PRI in the News
2.16.2006
The voting machines that Californians rely on to accurately record their votes are certified at the federal level by the one of the private Independent Testing Authorities (ITAs) and by the Secretary of State. However, that process has been criticized by some as being both incomplete and biased in favor of the voting machine vendors.
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Public 401(k)? CalPERS says no
PRI in the News
By: Gilbert Chan
2.16.2006
Moving to defend traditional public pension plans, trustees of the California Public Employees' Retirement System are poised to fight a renewed effort to offer 401(k)-style programs to state and local government workers.
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Reforming Video Franchising Will Lower Costs for Consumers, Says Pacific Research Institute
Press Release
2.14.2006
SAN FRANCISCO – Tomorrow the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee will conduct hearings on the issue of “video franchising” – the regulatory system that allows local governments to set the terms and conditions for businesses to enter the video market. “Congress should know that the current video franchising system is broken. For too long, local politicians have used it to restrict competition and line their pockets,” warns Sonia Arrison, director of Technology Studies at the Pacific Research Institute, a free-market think tank based in California.
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Fighting Spam Also Requires Fighting Knee-Jerk Critics
Technology Op-Ed
2.10.2006
AOL and Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) will soon roll out a new program to charge advertisers for guaranteed access to users' e-mail boxes. It's not the perfect spam-fighting program that some would have hoped for, but those critiquing the plan on free speech and other grounds are out to lunch.
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Tech to government--keep out
Technology Op-Ed
2.9.2006
The Internet, and the technologies that developed around it, has thrived precisely because of minimal government regulation. The idea that bureaucratic control of the old telcos spurred the growth of the thriving communications infrastructure we see today is palpably ridiculous.
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Property rights could get lift from initiative
Business & Economics Op-Ed
By: Anthony P. Archie
2.8.2006
California’s property owners, incensed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Kelo v. New London decision of late last year, are going on the offensive with a ballot initiative that aims to limit the government’s sweeping eminent domain powers. But powerful developers who benefit from the status quo are sure to put up a fight.
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Might As Well Face It
Business and Economics Op-Ed
By: Benjamin Zycher, Ph.D.
2.8.2006
That the United States is both "addicted to oil" and overly "dependent" upon unstable foreign producers are the tired old slogans that conventional wisdom simply equates with Truth, reemerging from the depths every federal budget season. Where people stand depends on where they sit, and so no Beltway stampede ever leads toward smaller government. This renewed teeth-gnashing over oil consumption and dependence is no exception.
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The State of the Union Health Care Proposals
Health Care Op-Ed
By: Benjamin Zycher, Ph.D.
2.7.2006
Let us confront first the elephant in the living room: As long as people do not bear the full economic costs of their health care consumption decisions, the “crisis” in the American health care sector inexorably will get worse. This eternal truth flows from the simple reality that health care “needs” are infinite when people are allowed to demand all they want even as the world in which we live is one in which resources are limited, always and everywhere.
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Beware of Hidden Agendas in the Net Neutrality Debate
Press Release
2.7.2006
SAN FRANCISCO – Today the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee will conduct hearings on the issue of “network neutrality” – the principle that holds that network owners should remain neutral with respect to the content they carry. “The issue at hand appears to be how best to ensure an open Internet, but the underlying agenda is something much different. In reality, it’s an attempt by content providers to use regulation to interfere with market forces,” warns Sonia Arrison, director of Technology Studies at the California-based Pacific Research Institute.
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S.F. supe's health-care proposal not all bad medicine
Health Care Op-Ed
By: Diana M. Ernst
2.3.2006
In health care, the problem of "the uninsured" has generated familiar cries for government intervention. San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano recently proposed a "Health Care Security Ordinance," that would force employers with as few as 20 employees to buy health insurance for them. Employers would have to pay as much as $345 per month into a Health Savings Account (HSA) for each employee who works more than 80 hours per month. HSAs are special accounts designed to give individuals more control over their health-care spending.
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Schools establishment displays insatiable demand for money
Education Op-Ed
By: Xiaochin Claire Yan
2.1.2006
The governor has proposed the largest funding increase in the state history, bringing per-pupil spending to nearly $11,000. K-12 spending by the state is now $49 billion, skyrocketing 16 percent in just the last two years.
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San Francisco Considers HSA Mandate
Health Care Op-Ed
By: Diana M. Ernst
2.1.2006
San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano (D) introduced a revised "Health Care Security Ordinance" to the Finance Committee of the city's Board of Supervisors on February 1. Although an earlier version of the proposal was soundly rejected by the city's Small Business Commission last year, Ammiano hoped to garner enough support through changes to the bill.
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