Commentary
Commentary
Eat your greens: Shrinking our footprint will take more than a calculator
Two items rattled across my desk that, at first glance, didn’t appear to share much in common. The first, a letter from former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall and his wife, Lee Udall, to their grandchildren, appeared in Colorado-based High Country News, “a nonprofit media organization whose mission ...
Commentary
Massachusetts Health Reform: Can the Last Smoker Cover the Last Uninsured Bay Stater?
The Boston Globe ran a story about the 2nd anniversary of former Governor Romney’s signing Chapter 58, the landmark Massachusetts health “reform”, which resulted in a joint individual and employer mandate to purchase insurance. According to the Globe, it’s still a “work in progress.” What “progress” remains to be done? ...
Business & Economics
North Carolina Found to be Friendly to Business in Tort Cases
That’s the conclusion reached by a new study from the Pacific Research Institute, a San Francisco think tank that advocates for free-market policy solutions. The 2008 U.S. Tort Liability Index found that North Carolina was the third best state in the country in terms of having relatively low tort costs ...
Business & Economics
Why Google Won’t Spare Any Change
East Valley Tribune (AZ), April 12, 2008, p. 71 Google’s innovation gives way to lobbying What can you buy for $45 billion? Just about anything you want — except, of course, the world’s second-most popular search engine. Yahoo recently rejected Microsoft’s enormous offer. And now the jilted tech giant has ...
California
California’s Physicians: Do They Know Who the Enemy Is?
The California Medical Association is supporting a bill that will reduce competition amongst the state’s health plans, which will have the secondary effect of reducing doctors’ negotiating position with respect to health plans and, therefore, likely lower physicians’ remuneration. How’s that for short-sighted? The CMA has been duped by state ...
Agriculture
Jump-Starting The Economy
If the presidential candidates are serious about bolstering the economy, they should address one of the major drags on it–widespread abuse of the tort system. The role of the tort system in compensating victims for their injuries is certainly valuable. But meritless plaintiffs and their opportunistic personal-injury attorneys clog the ...
Commentary
Environmentally, We’re Number One
Canada Free Press, April 10, 2008 As we approach the birthday of Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union…opps, I meant Earth Day…it’s so easy to confuse the two because they occur, quite by coincidence I’m sure, on the same day. Anyway April 22 will bring forth an avalanche of ...
Commentary
Testimony submitted to the California Assembly Education Committee – AB-2739
Vicki E. Murray, Ph.D. and senior fellow in Education Studies, gave invited testimony on AB 2739, the Student Proficiency Transfers bill, at a meeting of the California Assembly Education Committee on April 10, 2008. AB 2739 would allow students who individually score below grade-level proficiency on the California Standards Test ...
California
California Legislature About to Jack Up Rates on Individual Health Insurance
The California Assembly health committee has just voted thumbs-up to two bills that will increase the cost of individually purchased health insurance in the Golden State. Probably the least harmful is AB 2459, which prevents a health plan from rescinding an individual health policy six months after enrolling an individual, ...
Climate Change
Earth Day doomsayers need to get their facts right
Kansas City Hispanic News (Kansas City, MO), April 30, 2008* Holmen Courier (West Salem, WI), April 24, 2008 Mundo L.A. (Van Nuys, CA), April 24, 2008 With all the reminders to recycle, shrink our carbon footprint, and reduce our consumption of goods, just about everyone feels guilty on Earth Day. ...
Eat your greens: Shrinking our footprint will take more than a calculator
Two items rattled across my desk that, at first glance, didn’t appear to share much in common. The first, a letter from former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall and his wife, Lee Udall, to their grandchildren, appeared in Colorado-based High Country News, “a nonprofit media organization whose mission ...
Massachusetts Health Reform: Can the Last Smoker Cover the Last Uninsured Bay Stater?
The Boston Globe ran a story about the 2nd anniversary of former Governor Romney’s signing Chapter 58, the landmark Massachusetts health “reform”, which resulted in a joint individual and employer mandate to purchase insurance. According to the Globe, it’s still a “work in progress.” What “progress” remains to be done? ...
North Carolina Found to be Friendly to Business in Tort Cases
That’s the conclusion reached by a new study from the Pacific Research Institute, a San Francisco think tank that advocates for free-market policy solutions. The 2008 U.S. Tort Liability Index found that North Carolina was the third best state in the country in terms of having relatively low tort costs ...
Why Google Won’t Spare Any Change
East Valley Tribune (AZ), April 12, 2008, p. 71 Google’s innovation gives way to lobbying What can you buy for $45 billion? Just about anything you want — except, of course, the world’s second-most popular search engine. Yahoo recently rejected Microsoft’s enormous offer. And now the jilted tech giant has ...
California’s Physicians: Do They Know Who the Enemy Is?
The California Medical Association is supporting a bill that will reduce competition amongst the state’s health plans, which will have the secondary effect of reducing doctors’ negotiating position with respect to health plans and, therefore, likely lower physicians’ remuneration. How’s that for short-sighted? The CMA has been duped by state ...
Jump-Starting The Economy
If the presidential candidates are serious about bolstering the economy, they should address one of the major drags on it–widespread abuse of the tort system. The role of the tort system in compensating victims for their injuries is certainly valuable. But meritless plaintiffs and their opportunistic personal-injury attorneys clog the ...
Environmentally, We’re Number One
Canada Free Press, April 10, 2008 As we approach the birthday of Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union…opps, I meant Earth Day…it’s so easy to confuse the two because they occur, quite by coincidence I’m sure, on the same day. Anyway April 22 will bring forth an avalanche of ...
Testimony submitted to the California Assembly Education Committee – AB-2739
Vicki E. Murray, Ph.D. and senior fellow in Education Studies, gave invited testimony on AB 2739, the Student Proficiency Transfers bill, at a meeting of the California Assembly Education Committee on April 10, 2008. AB 2739 would allow students who individually score below grade-level proficiency on the California Standards Test ...
California Legislature About to Jack Up Rates on Individual Health Insurance
The California Assembly health committee has just voted thumbs-up to two bills that will increase the cost of individually purchased health insurance in the Golden State. Probably the least harmful is AB 2459, which prevents a health plan from rescinding an individual health policy six months after enrolling an individual, ...
Earth Day doomsayers need to get their facts right
Kansas City Hispanic News (Kansas City, MO), April 30, 2008* Holmen Courier (West Salem, WI), April 24, 2008 Mundo L.A. (Van Nuys, CA), April 24, 2008 With all the reminders to recycle, shrink our carbon footprint, and reduce our consumption of goods, just about everyone feels guilty on Earth Day. ...
