The Heartland Institute

The Bundesbank (the German central bank) surprised markets around the world in January by announcing it will repatriate a sizable portion of its gold bullion reserves held in France and the United States. To many, the news from the world’s second-largest holder of gold signaled a growing, if clandestine, mistrust among central ...

Before Bill Ritter became Governor of Colorado, state regulators required utilities to deliver power to ratepayers at the least possible cost. Ritter’s New Energy Economy changed the rules so that clean energy took priority above affordable energy. In fact, it seemed not to matter whether the electricity generated by these “new ...

The biggest problem facing the U.S. highway system is inadequate funding. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s latest biennial “conditions and performance” report finds that just to maintain the current state of repair of highways and bridges and to prevent congestion from getting worse, would require annual spending of $101 ...

Suffolk County, New York became the first government entity in the nation to ban Bisphenol-A from cash register receipts. The decision by the Suffolk County Legislature defies the findings of government health and science bodies around the world. The Suffolk County Legislature voted 16-1 to approve the Safer Sales Slip Act. On ...

Scientists, mathematicians, and curriculum experts reviewing the second Common Core draft science standards conclude they are vague, omit large sections of crucial content, and emphasize failed progressive pedagogy over the actual science knowledge students need. The authors give examples of the many crucial omissions, such as acids ...

Paul Beard of the Pacific Legal Foundation recently appeared before the US Supreme Court for a family whose permit to develop a small tract of land was denied because they refused to improve government-owned land miles away from their property. Beard argues the permit demand amounted to extortion. Such demands are becoming ...

In January’s State of the State speech, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam outlined a proposal to let poor students assigned to low-performing public schools attend private schools using tax dollars. State Sen. Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown), who sponsored similar legislation in 2011, expects his colleagues will pass it. “Tennessee in recent ...

A major motivation for private schools to enter voucher programs is to “help needy children in the community” and expand their reach, according to a new survey of 241 schools in Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Eighty-seven percent of schools surveyed for a Thomas B. Fordham Institute study chose “expand mission to a larger community ...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cannot lawfully restrict the amount of rainwater that enters a creek, a federal district judge ruled, in a victory for Virginia state officials. Virginia government officials and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors sued EPA after the federal agency issued a regulation that would force ...