The Heartland Institute

I must doff my hat to Charles Gasparino. Early last year, the fiery Fox Business Network correspondent and I were brought together for a few bread-and-circuses TV debates on the topic of municipal bankruptcy. We were both keying off some late-2010 comments that CNBC banking analyst Meredith Whitney made to the effect that ...

Hobby Lobby, the big-box craft store chain, recently lost the first round of its case against the administration over President Obama’s contraception mandate. The national chain will be fined $1.3 million per day starting January 1st if it does not pay for contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients through employer-provided ...

Two conservation groups struck a deal with private property owners to preserve 554 acres of land in Sonoma County, California. Analysts say the deal, which creates the Bohemia Ecological Preserve, could serve as a model for future conservation efforts utilizing free market principles instead of government dictates. The two conservation ...

Those interested in raising revenue and combatting global warming miss 3 crucial points in instituting a carbon tax. It would damage the economy It woud not save the planet It would not result in any revenue neutraility or revenue swap/offset Therefore, the brief concludes that the tax would harm the economy and have little ...

Arizona consumers can expect higher electricity costs as a result of new EPA restrictions on three Eastern Arizona power plants. Arizona state environmental officials say the EPA restrictions are too costly and will provide no perceptible environmental benefits. EPA Rejects Arizona Plan The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality ...

James Taylor discusses his upcoming global warming debate with Ray Bellamy, M.D., a Tallahassee Orthopedic Surgeon. ...

The nation’s biggest school choice party will grow eight times bigger this year with thousands of events initiated and attended by tens of thousands of students, parents, teachers, and community leaders, said Andrew Campanella, president of National School Choice Week. “You can have a lot of whitepapers and research and polls ...

After more than 50 years of declining food prices, ethanol subsidies and mandates have caused a dramatic rise in U.S. food prices since 2005, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show. The data were pulled together in a new study by FarmEcon LLC, an agriculture and food industry consulting firm. ...

A coalition of advocacy groups has sued Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal to overturn a constitutional amendment 59 percent of voters approved in November. Constitutional Amendment One allows the General Assembly to authorize charter schools that have been denied by local school districts. Organizations including the Georgia School Boards ...

What passes today as a “debate” over privacy lacks agreed-upon terms of reference, rational arguments, or concrete goals. Though the stars are aligning for a market in privacy products and services, those who believe that rapidly evolving information technologies are eroding privacy regularly pitch their arguments in the direction ...

A federal judge has denied an injunction that would have blocked reforms to the personal injury protection portion of Florida’s auto insurance law that were enacted in 2012. Backers of the reforms say the judge’s ruling is a big win for Florida’s auto insurance consumers. In his decision, U.S. District Court Judge Richard ...

In the classic movie The Shawshank Redemption , one of the most fascinating characters is one that doesn’t exist. Peter Stevens, the silent, silent partner. A phantom. An apparition. Second cousin to Harvey the Rabbit. When Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) concocts various frauds, scams, and kickbacks for Warden Samuel Norton to ...

Two U.S. Senators sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar asking why the Department of the Interior is open to permitting wind farms in federal waters off the Atlantic Coast but opposes oil and natural gas production in the same region. Apparent Double Standard Sens. David Vitter (R-LA) and Lamar Alexander (R ...

Missouri legislators are considering an education reform that has garnered significant national attention: the Parent Trigger. The legislation, first passed in California, has been considered in approximately 20 other states, and state legislators in four states have stated their intentions to propose it in early 2013. A Parent ...

Gary Alexander, the public welfare secretary in Pennsylvania, has a long career of successfully applying cost-saving reforms at the state level. He’s also one of the few secretaries paying a great deal of attention to the Obamacare failings that have attracted less notice – namely, the package of regulations and requirements ...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration appears to be using two contradictory datasets for its official temperature records, meteorologist Anthony Watts reports. The contradictory data cast doubt on NOAA’s assertion that 2012 was a year of record warmth in the United States. Watts reports that he was looking up month ...

Environmental activist groups are ramping up efforts to recruit liberal Republicans to promote a national carbon tax. Although activists say the tax is necessary to stave off global warming, Republicans so far are not buying such claims. Meetings Discuss Strategy Resources for the Future, the Union of Concerned Scientists, Clean ...

Lawyers defending Louisiana’s vouchers will appeal their case to the state Supreme Court after a district judge ruled the program unconstitutional because of how the state funds it. “The clear intent of the [state] constitution is that we fund children and not bricks,” Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said in public comments after the ...

It’s not unusual for persons claiming workers’ compensation to be caught faking their injuries, but a recent California case has an unusual twist. A 29-year-old woman claimed she injured her ankle while working as a school district janitor. She couldn’t walk without crutches, she said, and saw doctors at least ten times. Tipped ...

I am in Dubai, holding up a mobile device in front of a large conference ofCommunications Ministers and industry representatives attending ITU Telecom World 2012. I ask, "What Is This?" They shout out answers in a cacophony of dialects and accents, literally from every corner of the world.While it is still a mobile phone ...