The Heartland Institute

This likely represents the final edition of the Consumer Power Report prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling on President Barack Obama’s health care law. As I’ve noted in the past, the likeliest outcome is a partial strikedown – one that eliminates the individual mandate as well as the attached requirements of community rating ...

In New Jersey, a ticket for failing to wear a seat belt costs $46, but failing to buckle up your pet can land you in jail for up to six months or fines ranging from $250 to $1,000. Failing to restrain pets in cars is considered animal cruelty. Special pet seats and harnesses can be purchased to attach directly to ...

Many hospitals and doctors offer cash discounts for medical bills for their patients, regardless of income. But there's a catch: The lowest price is usually available only if the patients don't use their health insurance. The savings are impressive in some states. A Long Beach hospital recently charged a patient $6,707 for ...

The central component of California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB32) takes effect this year, and with the state facing a $15.7 billion deficit, political leaders have ended a long debate over how to spend revenue the Act is expected to generate. The central component is “cap and trade,” a complex system aimed at reducing ...

Portland, Oregon officials have made it a crime for certain businesspeople to give customers more value for their dollar. Now the city is in federal court trying to defend the constitutionality of their action. In 2009, Portland passed an ordinance requiring a $50 minimum fare for limousine and sedan rides to or from Portland ...

Hydraulic fracturing does not present a significant risk of causing earthquakes, according to a newly published report by the National Research Council. The National Research Council, which is a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, found the only significant risk of earthquakes related to hydraulic fracturing comes from ...

Speaker of the House John Boehner and Sen. Joe Lieberman have reached a deal with the U.S. Department of Education to continue funding the endangered DC vouchers program. The agreement means no cap on program enrollment, current students can continue participating, and new students can apply. A U.S. Department of Education spokesman ...

The New York man claiming he’s entitled to a huge share of Facebook, Inc. is about to lose his ninth set of lawyers after his latest counsel asked the court for leave to withdraw after representing him for less than three months. Paul Ceglia claims he has a contract with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg entitling him ...

The New Hampshire legislature has sent a ban on the implementation of the health insurance exchanges mandated under President Obama’s health care law to the desk of their governor. The New Hampshire House agreed to Senate changes to a bill blocking implementation of the exchanges, sending the legislation to Democratic Gov. John ...

In response to the Obama administration’s federal contraceptive mandate, 43 religious institutions have now filed 12 lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, claiming the mandate violates their religious liberties. The mandate, put in place by a provision in President Obama’s health care law, requires ...

Amazon.com Inc. is planning to partner with at least one California city to collect sales taxes from the entire state. Most of the collected tax money would go back to Amazon. The company is building warehouses in Patterson and San Bernardino, California. Under state law, purchases made by customers anywhere in the state can ...

The recent Federal Reserve announcement that the Great Recession caused median family net worth in the U.S. to fall nearly 40 percent, from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010, prompted us here at Finance, Insurance & Real Estate Policy News to ask experts in economics, public policy and investing their reaction to the news ...

The Ohio Department of Insurance has delayed creating the health insurance exchange mandated by President Obama’s health care law for so long, compliance is now likely impossible. Obama’s law requires the creation of state health insurance exchanges, which the federal government will attempt to implement in states that have not ...

The juvenile blue crab population in Chesapeake Bay has surpassed its highest level ever recorded, and the overall blue crab population in the Bay reached its highest level since 1993, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Huge Increase over Last Year The DNR issued its findings after its winter dredge survey ...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush discusses the Common Core, Parent Trigger, ALEC, third grade retention, and federal involvement in education. California lawmakers prefer to the governor's budget one that would spend a billion more on education. A judge's ruling means student test scores may soon be used to evaluate Los Angeles teachers ...

In more possible spinoff litigation from the Trayvon Martin case, a Florida man has hired a lawyer to seek damages from T-Mobile for assigning him George Zimmerman’s old cell phone number. The calls started pouring in day and night, many of them threatening and each one running up the man’s cell phone bill. The number ...

Today the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools announced it elected Nina Rees as its new president and CEO. Rees is a former senior vice president for global education provider Knowledge Universe, former head of the Office of Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education, where she oversaw the D.C. vouchers ...

States across the country have accumulated at least $900 billion in off-balance-sheet liabilities, potentially leaving future taxpayers with much heavier tax burdens than states currently are imposing or acknowleding, according to a new study from the Institute for Truth in Accounting (IFTA). Government employee pensions and health ...

The Georgia legislature drew headlines in 2011 when it became the first state to legally authorize citizens to purchase health insurance across state lines. But the attempt to allow interstate purchasing of insurance, long a principle of market-based reform proposals, has yet to pay off: not one insurer is currently offering ...

As more schools and districts begin adding objective components to annual teacher evaluations, some are asking students to flip the traditional arrangement and grade their teachers. This fall, Georgia will be the first state to include student perceptions in teacher evaluations. Along with student test growth and principals’ classroom ...