The Heartland Institute

While education reformers focus on big schemes like Common Core standards and teacher evaluations, little over the several past decades has seemed to change about American education. Author Beverlee Jobrack, a long-time textbook editor for SRA-McGraw Hill, explains in Tyranny of the Textbook that some of the reason why is ...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions that would effectively ban the construction of coal-fired power plants. EPA’s proposed restrictions would remove the least expensive source of electricity from the menu of power plant options. EPA is justifying its carbon dioxide restrictions ...

In U.S., Global Warming Views Steady Despite Warm Winter Just over half say effects of global warming are now evident, similar to 49% last year by Lydia Saad PRINCETON, NJ -- About half of Americans, 52%, say the effects of global warming have already begun to happen, consistent with views since 2009. However, this remains ...

On April 1 the United States earned the dubious distinction of having the highest statutory corporate tax rate of any industrialized nation. This happened because on April 1 Japan lowered its corporate tax rate, moving the United States to the top of the list with a federal government rate of 35 percent. Most states also ...

Shell Oil Company is partnering with the Nature Conservancy of Texas in an effort to rebuild an eroding island which is home to more than 24,000 nesting birds. Shell has donated $500,000 toward the first phase of the project, which is estimated to cost a total of $2.3 million. Winter storms that moved across Corpus Christi ...

Stonehill College, a Catholic educational institution near Boston, is being sued by a former student who claims the college didn’t protect her from a dormitory roommate who had too much sex in the student’s presence in their shared dorm room. The former student claims she suffered suicidal depression and attention deficit ...

Top young soccer players around the nation will now have to choose between playing a ten-month season with top teams and a shorter season with their public school home team. The United States Soccer Federation recently announced it would extend its Development Academy season to nearly year-round to match international competition ...

The Federal Communications Commission is seeking public comment on when it is appropriate for a local government to shut down mobile networks without notice, after San Francisco officials interrupted wireless services last August. The FCC promised a probe in December after San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit system blocked ...

This election cycle, some American politicians have insisted that, in order to solve the government debt problem, millionaires and billionaires must pay their "fair share," and bankers and financiers must be "held accountable." Their European counterparts are far ahead of them in this regard. François Hollande, whom polls predict ...

In March, Oregon Democrat Gov. John Kitzhaber signed two key pieces of legislation affecting the state’s health care system. Senate Bill 1580 establishes Medicaid “coordinated care organizations,” and House Bill 4164 will implement Oregon’s health insurance exchange under President Obama’s health care law, instead of waiting for ...

In what has been one of the most anticipated cases in decades, the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was argued before the Supreme Court of the United States earlier this week. In total, 26 states filed lawsuits against the federal health care law, and a ruling is expected in June ...

A year after a controversial new procurement system was introduced, many Medicare beneficiaries are facing difficulties or delays as providers are squeezed by dramatically lower prices on lifesaving durable medical equipment and services. Medicare spends more than $8 billion a year buying durable medical equipment (DME) for the ...

Benjamin Domenech reacts to the first day of arguments at the Supreme Court ...

Legislation under consideration in New Jersey would require annual evaluations and evidence of student achievement growth for a teacher to earn tenure and would make it easier to fire ineffective teachers. Senate Bill 1455 resembles reforms proposed by Republican Gov. Chris Christie, including requiring student achievement constitute ...

AT& T revealed it may implement a pay plan that would force providers of mobile services to pay for the cost of data usage associated with streaming movies and smartphone applications. The announcement is perceived by industry analysts as indicating the company believes a U.S. District Court will overturn the Federal Communications ...

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the information sharing and countermeasure and monitoring provisions of the Lieberman-Collins and McCain bills in the Senate. The Cybersecurity Act of 2012, S. 2105 ("Lieberman-Collins"), and SECURE IT, S. 2151 ("McCain"), both have broadly written provisions that would authorize ISPs ...

Growing numbers of bank customers are finding they no longer have no-fee accounts. Many of the nation’s largest banks are raising fees or imposing new ones to attempt to recover some of the revenue lost through the “Durbin Amendment” to the Dodd-Frank Act, which limits interchange fees—also called “swipe fees”—banks may charge ...

Opposition is growing to Florida House Bill 7117, which would give millions in taxpayers subsidies to Solyndra-style renewable energy companies, impose new obstacles on the construction of power plans utilizing inexpensive fuel sources like coal and natural gas, and authorize local governments to put taxpayers on the hook for ...

Anti-energy crusaders are in a celebratory mood this week as the EPA effectively banned the construction of coal-fired power plants, and thus completed the federal government’s trifecta beat-down on affordable energy. First, new obstacles to energy production resulted in oil production on federal lands dropping 11% in Fiscal Year ...

We, the undersigned, respectfully request that NASA and the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) refrain from including unproven remarks in public releases and websites. We believe the claims by NASA and GISS, that man-made carbon dioxide is having a catastrophic impact on global climate change are not substantiated, especially ...