The Heartland Institute

Concerns over the perilous financial condition of the U.S. Postal Service have caused observers, including Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, to compare the agency’s prospects to the spiraling economic crisis in Greece. While the scope of the problem warrants the comparison and their finances are unsustainable without genuine reform ...

Liability concerns led the Sheboygan County Humane Society to refuse an unscheduled guided tour of the shelter for a group of disabled children and their caregivers. The group, from Paragon Community Services in nearby Plymouth, Wisconsin, consisted of five disabled students – two wheelchair-bound – and their four caregivers. They ...

The federal government’s strategy of spending billions to fix failing public schools has accomplished nothing significant, according to figures from a newly released U.S. Department of Education analysis. From 2009-2010 to 2010-2011, federal researchers tracked schools where average student test scores failed to meet federal benchmarks ...

( Originally published at new.ideas@Frontier ) In “ Climate scientists’ “consensus” based on a myth ” I described how one of the sources of the idea that 97% of climate experts agree there is a human-induced climate crisis—“ Examining the Scientific Consensus on Climate Change ” by Doran and Zimmerman—was not a meaningful indicator ...

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback decided against implementing a state-based health insurance exchange in the wake of the presidential elections, but has not yet indicated whether he will support the Medicaid expansion required by President Obama’s law. Brownback notified Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger that he would not support ...

Consol Energy announced it will lay off 145 workers because the company is unable to get the permits it needs from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a surface mining project in southern West Virginia. The Pittsburgh-based company said it will shut down three coal mines, a preparation plant, and an administrative facility ...

Joy Pullmann, research fellow for education policy at The Heartland Institute and managing editor of School Reform News, talks about a shocking scandal in public education. Teachers are cheating on the tests that qualify them for employment in the classroom. The test is supposedly so easy that an average high school student ...

One of the potential consequences of the historical and ongoing rise in the air’s CO2 content is global warming, which phenomenon has further been postulated to produce all sorts of other undesirable consequences. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for example, contends that current levels of temperature ...

Chicago and Washington DC officials are attempting to prepare parents and teachers for school closings. Both have lost thousands of students in the past decade, a national trend among urban districts: Chicago is down about 6 percent and DC 35 percent. Keeping extra doors open despite astonishing budget deficits satisfies one ...

( Originally published at new.ideas@Frontier ) In “ Climate scientists’ “consensus” based on a myth ” I described how one of the sources of the idea that 97% of climate experts agree there is a human-induced climate crisis—“ Examining the Scientific Consensus on Climate Change ” by Doran and Zimmerman—was not a meaningful indicator ...

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama did not agree on much during the presidential campaign. One thing on which they did agree, however, is the need for the United States to produce more of the energy we use. Activists Oppose Everything Unfortunately, environmental activists protest every new energy project proposed anywhere in the nation ...

If lawmakers decide that new revenues must be part of any long-term effort to solve the budget crisis, they must choose the least harmful way of raising new revenues or else they risk compounding the crisis by slowing economic growth. This list of revenue measures is hardly complete, but it should give lawmakers some rules ...

Republicans appear to be warming to the notion of raising revenues to avoid the fiscal cliff, which is precisely the wrong thing to do. Instead they should be insisting on spending cuts. Real ones. Starting now. So says Richard Manning of Americans for Limited Government. ...

Sam Brownback is the latest Kansas governor to establish a schools efficiency task force. He may be the only one to have prompted a dueling task force from offended school board members. The Kansas Association of School Boards formed its own efficiency committee, criticizing the governor’s for relying on people with business ...

While many studies have analyzed the current debt level of the federal government and to alesser extent that of state governments, there has been little research on county and municipal debt. This report seeks to begin to fill that void, starting with Cook County, Illinois. ...

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and other Republican leaders in Congress have offered to overhaul the federal tax code to take another $800 billion in taxes over the next 10 years, but some Republican legislators are already saying no to the deal. Boehner’s leadership team, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA ...

Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe has embarked on an effort to reform the way his state pays for health care through a new initiative intended to rein in runaway costs by rewarding doctors with financial incentives to provide more efficient care. But in order to get there, his approach may incentivize rationing of health care. In ...

In the latest setback for the renewable-energy sector, the Weld County District Attorney’s Office in Colorado is investigating Abound Solar for possible criminal violations. Although the District Attorney has yet to file charges, investigators are looking into whether the company engaged in securities fraud, consumer fraud, and ...

The Heartland Institute delivered to the U.S. Congress a petition signed by more than 16,000 citizens demanding Congress rein in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) accepted the petitions in a Nov. 27 gathering at the U.S. Capitol. At the Capitol event, Inhofe warned the EPA is poised to accelerate ...

Uberbillionaire Warren Buffett recently declared tax rates don’t matter to investors, but the actions of publicly owned companies and investors as the nation nears the “fiscal cliff” say otherwise. Numerous companies have announced special dividends ahead of the end of the year, when tax rate cuts that were approved during the ...