The Heartland Institute

In the latest confirmation of what is perhaps the most stunning energy-related development in decades, the Paris-based International Energy Agency predicts the United States will become the world’s top oil producer by 2020. IEA says the same advances in hydraulic fracturing technology that recently unleashed the shale gas revolution ...

Global warming will benefit most Arctic and sub-Arctic species, a team of scientists report in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One . The scientists found global warming will allow most Arctic and sub-Arctic species to expand their ranges, and no species are expected to go extinct. The study delivers a sharp blow to global warming ...

A new report written by one of the nation’s leading authorities on groundwater hydrology and nuclear energy says uranium mining in Virginia can take place safely and with minimal environmental impact. At issue is a plan to lift a moratorium on uranium mining that has been in place in Virginia since 1982. The Coles Hill uranium ...

The election results have been certified, the fiscal cliff has been averted, and the world didn’t end. Now state lawmakers are heading back to their state capitols to begin their 2013 legislative sessions. States are expected to face many important issues this year, including Medicaid expansion and balancing their budgets ...

Colorado is currently considering whether to expand Medicaid under President Obama’s health care law, which radically restructures federal subsidy programs for medical care. The state has decided to create an ObamaCare state-run health insurance exchange, and many individuals currently covered by Medicaid will be better off with ...

Friday's ed news: 1. How the fiscal cliff deal affects education spending. 2. Virginia's governor wants to grade schools A-F, host Teach for America, and give struggling students iPads and more tutoring. 3. People learn and accomplish less when working in groups . 4. Another Texas district uses GPS trackers on students --but with ...

Troubled by the questionable use of tobacco-tax revenue on grants to fund advocacy for local smoking bans, Colorado lawmakers have decided to ask the Joint Budget Committee to make state health department officials—who disburse tobacco tax money—report those grants as budgetary line items for better tracking and oversight. A legislative ...

A Wisconsin man who can’t pay almost $100,000 in overdue child support and interest for the nine children he fathered has been sentenced to probation and ordered not to have any more kids until he can support all of them. The man fathered the children with six women and pled guilty to charges of bail jumping, a felony ...

The fiscal cliff deal did virtually nothing to solve the government's fiscal problems. Bill Wilson of Americans for Limited Government says there will soon be a debt ceiling debate, and enough lawmakers are frightened by the size of the government's borrowing that our voices added to the debate might swing some votes toward ...