Conference Panelists Criticize EPA Health Scares

The June 11 “Human Health and Welfare” panel at the Tenth International Conference on Climate...
Energy and Environment, Health Care Blog, Heartlander Feature
| Alyssa Carducci

Children’s Health Care Spending Rising Faster Than Other Populations

Spending on health care for children covered by employer-sponsored insurance in 2013 grew faster...
Health Care
| Kenneth Artz

Cab Company Owner Challenges Bowling Green, Ohio Taxi Regs

An Ohio businessman’s challenge to artificial restrictions on the number of taxicab companies...
Fiscal
| Matt Hurley

Elder Justice Act Under Obamacare Fails Seniors – Part 1

A few weeks ago, Tom Field, a 25-year advocate of legal reforms as they apply to the elderly,...
| Nancy J. Thorner

Government Crushes People – Then Writes Them Checks

A computer programming maxim is “Garbage in – garbage out.” (C)omputers, since they operate by...
| Seton Motley

Solar Energy’s Stunning Growth: 99% Pays, 1% Benefits

If you live in the United States, vote, pay taxes, and get your electricity from a utility company...
| Marita Noon
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Education

NCLB Rewrites to Hit Congress Again

School Choice Weekly #95 The U.S. House and Senate are scheduled to take up separate bills that would rewrite the largest federal education law, No Child Left Behind. The bill most likely to pass, albeit in a flurry of amendments that could significantly change the final product, is the bipartisan Senate version. No surprise, then, that it’s the worse of the two bills (although both reinforce...

Environment

Conference Panelists Criticize EPA Health Scares

The June 11 “Human Health and Welfare” panel at the Tenth International Conference on Climate Change in Washington, DC featured Scientific Integrity Institute President James Enstrom; S. Stanley Young, a fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and Charles Battig, a retired physician and former member of the U.S. Public Health Service.  Cancer and the Clean Power...

Policymakers, Citizens Receive Advice on Combating Alarmist Agenda

On Friday, June 12, the Tenth International Convention on Climate Change attendees were treated to a discussion concerning the role policymakers can play in halting the climate alarmist agenda by Marc Morano, publisher of ClimateDepot.com; Bette Grande, a and former North Dakota legislator and current research fellow for The Heartland Institute; and Myron Ebell, director of energy policy at the...

Report: Ohio Renewable Energy Mandates Impose High Costs

In 2014, Ohio became the first state to take a step back from its commitment to state support for renewable energy. Gov. John Kasich signed legislation temporarily freezing, at 12.5 percent, the percentage of electricity generated from renewable power sources utilities were required to provide. This delay came amid claims a significant percentage of increased electric power costs Ohio ratepayers...

Finance & Insurance

Wyoming Banking Regs Squeeze Bitcoin Exchange Company

Coinbase, a bitcoin wallet and exchange service company with operations serving more than 2.5 million users in 190 countries, has announced the suspension of all operations in Wyoming as a result of state financial regulators’ interpretation of the Wyoming Money Transmitter Act. As state regulators currently interpret the law, exchanging Wyomingites’ fiat currency for bitcoins or depositing...

Department of Education Presses for New Authority Over Banks

The U.S. Department of Education is proposing a new rule granting itself new power over how banks can work with colleges to assist with loan disbursements to students. Under the proposed rule, banks would be prohibited from assisting colleges with financial aid disbursements into student accounts if the financial institution charges overdraft penalties or other common fees. Some schools currently...

Senate Considers Dodd-Frank Reforms, Rollbacks

A bill to ease financial and investment regulations passed in 2010 in response to the 2008 banking crisis is under consideration in the U.S. Senate. The Financial Regulatory Improvement Act of 2015 (FRIA), proposed by Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), was approved in May by the Senate Banking Committee. If signed into law, FRIA will ease financial regulations in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and...

Health

Health Care Prices Remain a Secret in Most States

Only five states adequately make health care prices available to the public, says a new report about health care price transparency. The Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute (HCI3) and Catalyst for Payment Reform’s (CPR) third annual Report Card on State Price Transparency Laws shows little progress being made despite what seems to be more activity in state legislatures discussing the...

Children’s Health Care Spending Rising Faster Than Other Populations

Spending on health care for children covered by employer-sponsored insurance in 2013 grew faster than the total covered employee population, according to a new study by the Health Care Cost Institute, a nonprofit backed by large health insurers. The study found that for children up to age 18 who are covered by their parent’s employer-provided health plans, spending rose an average of 5.7 percent...

Health Insurers Requesting Double-Digit Rate Increases

Health insurance is about to get more expensive as insurers around the country are requesting big rate increases between 20 percent to 40 percent or more because their new customers under the Affordable Care Act are sicker than expected. For instance, Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans want rate increases averaging 23 percent in Illinois, 25 percent in North Carolina, 31 percent in Oklahoma, 36...

Taxes

Cab Company Owner Challenges Bowling Green, Ohio Taxi Regs

An Ohio businessman’s challenge to artificial restrictions on the number of taxicab companies allowed to operate in the city is prompting lawmakers to recommend removing the cap. Green Cab founder John Rinaldi sued the City of Bowling Green, arguing the city used caps on taxi permits to protect city-owned shuttle services from competition. City ordinances allow a total of 16 taxicab licenses to...

Delaware Lawmakers Plan to Kill State’s ‘Death Tax’

As revenue from taxing families’ inheritances continues to dwindle, Delaware lawmakers are proposing a repeal of the state’s estate tax, also called the “death tax.” Caesar Rodney Institute President John Stapleford says Delaware’s estate tax has only been in effect for a few years, but its effects are already noticeable. “When the federal estate law was modified in 2001, Delaware lawmakers...

Obama Admin Promotes Union Fight For Fast-Food Dues

Service Employees International Union wants to take dues from fast-food workers, and the Obama administration wants to help. Mary Beth Maxwell, principal deputy assistant secretary for policy in the U.S. Department of Labor, praised SEIU’s “Fight for $15″ unionization campaign in a June entry on the labor department’s website. Fast-food workers, Maxwell wrote, “are showing that coming...

Tech

A Bad Bill + Crony Socialism = An Even Worse Bill

The Barack Obama Administration is – even more than any of its predecessors – the Crony Socialism Administration. No prior presidency has used and abused government to do more for its friends – and more to its friends’ competitors – than has this one. When Private Companies Beg for Government Favors – It’s Crony Socialism Crony Socialism: When Private Sector Losers Turn to Big Government Solyndra...

FCC Changed “Can-Do” Internet Into “Can’t-Do” Internet

A “can-do attitude” was the essence of the Internet for the last twenty years, making it a unique decentralized place of endless possibilities and opportunities. No more, the FCC has changed the “can-do” Internet into a “can’t-do” Internet, by centralizing control via the imposition of unnecessary 1934 telephone utility regulation. The FCC has enthroned itself as the ultimate gatekeeper of what’s...