The Heartland Institute

Change.org recently dropped two education reform groups from its list of clientele soon after one posted a petition challenging the Chicago Teacher’s Union on the popular progressive website. Change.org officials told Stand for Children and StudentsFirst their contracts were terminated due to pressure from the site’s supporters ...

New data show 13.5 million people are now covered by consumer-driven health plans offering Health Savings Accounts, a sharp increase from the previous year. According to the annual census released in May by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), HSA-based plans have increased 18 percent over last year. But people who choose ...

The State of Wyoming is working on a formal agreement with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to trade environmentally sensitive lands for lands rich in minerals, oil, and natural gas resources. The BLM and the Wyoming Office of State Land and Investments (OSLI) are putting together a memorandum that would lay out ground ...

Under an order adopted unanimously by the Federal Communications Commission, all cable companies with hybrid, digital-analog systems must continue carrying stations' analog signals until Dec. 12, 2012, after which the rule will sunset. The so-called “viewability” order was released June 12. The decision to extend the rule for an ...

Ohio is cutting its ties with the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, a group of state and local air pollution control officials that routinely champions environmental activist claims and controversial U.S. Environmental Protection Agency restrictions. Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Scott Nally announced his ...

Consumer Power Report: To Implement Or Not to Implement July 2, 2012 Welcome to the Consumer Power Report. How states answer the question they face in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling – “To implement, or not to implement” – may well determine whether President Barack Obama’s law has to survive an additional major legal ...

The Los Angeles City Council voted 13 to 1 to ban plastic grocery bags, making the City of Angels the largest in the nation to enact such a ban. In wake of the May 23 vote, consumers will soon have to use reusable bags or purchase paper bags for 10 cents each. The ban will be phased in during the next 16 months. Los ...

A little-known but common practice among school districts has them hiring investigators to follow kids home, snap pictures and video, trace parents’ license plates, and follow their cars around in unmarked vehicles. Sometimes, these investigations land parents in jail. Why? Residency fraud. It is illegal for many families to pick ...

The benefits from additional monetary stimulus by central banks in advanced economies are shrinking while the risks are likely growing, said Jaime Caruana, general manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Central banks have been highly successful in driving down long-term interest rates, but the success can create ...

The American Medical Association has voted to recommend taxes on sugar-sweetened sodas be used to combat obesity. But the policy statement adopted by the AMA’s House of Delegates did not recommend outright support for taxing sugar-sweetened beverages. The action came at the AMA’s annual meeting in late June in Chicago. Supporters ...

Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia has requested a federal inquiry into the practice known as SWAT-ting, after several conservative bloggers reported they were victims of it. Chambliss has asked the Department of Justice to determine whether federal laws were broken by perpetrators of SWAT-ting hoaxes. According to Chambliss’ letter ...

Honolulu County has joined Hawaii’s three other counties in enacting a ban on plastic shopping bags, making Hawaii the first state with a total ban on plastic shopping bags. The Honolulu County Council approved the ban in April. Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle, who also acts as the county executive, initially held back his support ...

Americans are looking to certificates at an unprecedented rate as a quick, cost-effective way to better their wages and employment opportunities, a Georgetown University study reports. The number of certificates awarded has increased more than 800 percent over the past 30 years, the study states. In postsecondary education, the ...

Public colleges and universities are remarkably poor at providing students and taxpayers transparent, objective measures of their worth even as tuition has grown three times the rate of inflation in the past three decades, according to a new report evaluating all 50 states. Half of students in two-year state colleges do not ...

Climategate central figure Michael Mann gave a talk in Orange County, California last month that perfectly illustrates how global warming alarmists spread myths and misinformation to further their agenda. Before his presentation, Mann reportedly objected strenuously to skeptical scientists appearing on the same panel with him. His ...

A prominent House Committee Chairman is questioning whether the White House has used President Obama’s health care law to direct hundreds of millions of dollars in support to political allies ineligible to receive it. In February, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded nearly $640 million in low-interest loans ...

DISH Network’s “AutoHop” technology feature has prompted lawsuits from the ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC TV networks. The technology, introduced on May 10, makes it easier for DISH’s satellite-television customers to skip revenue-generating commercials transmitted by the networks. The networks filed their suit in the U.S. District Court ...

Rick Hess discusses the education policy implications of yesterday's Supreme Court healthcare ruling . It is likely to squeeze state education budgets further, but possibly reduce federal coercion over state policies, he says. The Wall Street Journal hosts a debate on whether the U.S. should have national education standards . Are ...

In a result that surprised both the left and right, the Supreme Court ruled the individual mandate at the heart of President Obama’s health care law was constitutional, not on the basis of the Commerce Clause, but as a tax—an argument the White House itself had not advanced before the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts ...

The New Jersey General Assembly unanimously approved legislation to reform teacher tenure after almost two years of debate. The bill would require annual evaluations that incorporate evidence of student achievement growth before a teacher becomes eligible for tenure. Teachers would become eligible for tenure after four years of ...