The Heartland Institute

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 ...

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 ...

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) has signed into law an amendment to Michigan’s public labor law statutorily confirming that graduate student research assistants at state universities are not government employees. This clarification of what had been considered settled law for 30 years was a victory for students and for the rule ...

The third and final day of arguments at the Supreme Court will focus on the severability of the individual mandate from the balance of the law and on the Medicaid mandate for the states. Already it's become clear the liberal-leaning justices are being more forceful on the issue of severability than they have on other areas ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

From the archives: A guide to severability and the individual mandate. Several state legislators have reached out to me recently with questions about the nature of severability and Obamacare . Since some folks seem to have questions as well , I thought I’d explain a bit about what this means. Most laws of large size and scope ...

The Federal Reserve appears committed to more years of historically low interest rates despite indications of an improving economy and rising price inflation, leading one economist to refer to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke as “a madman.” “He thinks he can get away with this money printing without stoking price inflation. Not a ...

In a late-February filing, Verizon requested Federal Communications Commission approval of a $4 billion purchase of cable company wireless-spectrum licenses. In a separate FCC filing, Verizon requested permission to enter into cross-licensing agreements with the cable companies to sell each other’s services. Public Knowledge, a Washington ...

From the archives: A guide to severability and the individual mandate. Several state legislators have reached out to me recently with questions about the nature of severability and Obamacare . Since some folks seem to have questions as well , I thought I’d explain a bit about what this means. Most laws of large size and scope ...

Kentucky’s $6 billion Medicaid system provides health care to more than 700,000 low-income residents. As with many states, the size and cost of the program has increased dramatically in recent years. This expansion and an attempt to shift to managed care have caused problems in several key areas, according to an evaluation ...

Justice Anthony Kennedy, considered the likely key player in the Supreme Court case over President Obama's health care law, asked a series of questions in today's hearings that has everyone in Washington buzzing. Here is every question Justice Kennedy asked today. PP 4-5: "Can you create commerce in order to regulate it?" PP ...