Friday, February 15, 2013

Heartlander Digital Magazine Weekly Round-up of News

 

News Round-up
from the Heartlander

 

If you’re getting this email, you are tuned in to The Heartland Institute, one of America’s most influential free-market think tanks. Our work reflects the exchange of ideas, insights, and opinions on liberty from the writers, editors, thinkers, and scholars that happen at Heartland every day — for instance, at our blog and Daily Podcast.
 
But Heartland has also, for many years, produced news coverage from a free-market perspective — the counter-spin to the mainstream media. At the Heartlander digital magazine, our team of writers and editors cover budgets and taxeseducationenvironment and energyfinance, insurance and real estatelawsuit abuse; and technology.
 
You can also get all this on you iPad with the Heartlander app. Bookmark the page, or grab the RSS feed for your reader.

 


ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

 

The Heartland Institute this week released a 57-page slide presentation produced by its legal counsel titled “Criminal Referral of Dr. Peter H. Gleick Talking Points.” The report, presented to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, asked the government to prosecute Pacific Institute President Peter Gleick, a prominent climate scientist and environmental activist.
 
New York Times columnist John Broder experienced a rude surprise recently when he test-drove a taxpayer-subsidized Tesla sedan. Like its many failed cousins in the Green Economy, the Tesla sedan delivered very little for all its taxpayer funding and left him stranded in the freezing cold.
 
President Barack Obama in his second inaugural address called for new action to “respond to the threat of climate change.” Leaving aside the question of whether the threat of manmade global warming (aka “climate change”) is real, his call for reducing carbon dioxide emissions is another reason Virginia should lift its moratorium on uranium mining.
 

 

“Already,” President Obama claimed last night, “the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs.”  Wait, is that right? Health care spending growth growing at a low rate precedes Obamacare? It was so effective, it worked before it even passed! 
 
Is Obamacare bad for the young? In a short answer, yes -- if "bad" means "forcing young people to buy more expensive health insurance than they need" is bad. And for most young, healthy people, that impact on your wallet isn't viewed as good.
 
The Obama administration said it will not provide broad exceptions to the contraception mandate in its signature healthcare law. The Health and Human Services Department rejected calls to let any employer opt out of the mandate based on religious objections to contraception. But the department took new steps to remove religiously affiliated employers from the process of paying for their employees’ contraception coverage.
 
 

 

EDUCATION

 

A lawmaker has filed a bill that would withdraw Georgia from Common Core national education standards and prohibit personal information that tests collect from being shared outside the state.
 
Iowa’s teacher-preparation programs fail to produce graduates who are ready to lead a classroom, according to a new study that quickly drew fire from some educators.
 
School choice is getting mighty popular among families, teachers, and legislators. Twenty-nine governors officially recognized National School Choice Week (NSCW) in the last week of January, and state legislatures are brimming with voucher and charter school legislation.
 
 
 

 

BUDGETS AND TAXES

 

Sales tax collections in the United States are on the rise and at an all-time high, according to TaxConnex, America’s leading independent provider of sales and use tax outsourcing and consulting services.
 
The NAACP and the Hispanic Federation went to court in January to block a ban on large sugared soft drinks that New York City is set to begin enforcing in March. They join the American Beverage Association in challenging the ban, arguing it would hit small and minority-owned businesses especially hard.
 
 
 

 

FINANCE, INSURANCE, REAL ESTATE

 

French president Francois Hollande’s statement saying that the euro should not fluctuate according to the mood of the market; the complaint by Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker about the euro being “dangerously high”; and the Bank of Japan’s recent decision to weaken the yen with “aggressive” quantitative easing confirm what we already knew: The world is at monetary war.
 
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is launching an inquiry into the impact of financial products marketed to students through colleges and universities. It will then determine whether these arrangements are in the best interest of students.

 

TECH

 

 
Wireless consumers in the United States pay more than 17 percent in taxes and fees on average on their cell phone bills, including more than 11 percent in state and local charges, according to a new analysis by the Tax Foundation.
 
Via a video by Mike Wendy of MediaFreedom.org, Less Government's Seton Motley — a policy advisor for The Heartland Institute on telecom and technology issues and frequent guest on the tech episodes of the Heartland Daily Podcast  — talks about what President Obama's next pick for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission may do to the Internet.
 

 

 

LEGAL AFFAIRS


Ten years ago the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) sued Ringling Bros.–Barnum & Bailey circus for alleged mistreatment of its elephants. Now the litigation is ending with the ASPCA agreeing to pay the circus $9.3 million for alleged litigation abuse.
 

 

 

 

And while you’re at it, subscribe to the Heartland Daily Podcast on iTunes.

 

 

 

Listen Up!

 

Subscribe to the Heartland Daily Podcast, the best free-market commentary on the news of the day. You can also listen to them individually at Heartland's podcast page. Explore all of Heartland's 29 years of research and commentary on free markets and free people at our home page.

 


 

The Heartland Institute is a 29-year-old national nonprofit organization based in Chicago. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more info, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.

 

 

 

Search 25,000 policy documents

Get the latest policy news from The Heartland Institute! Search the world's most robust policy document database(here)

 

 

Free Subscriptions

The Heartland Institute offers free email subscriptions to all of its newsletters and monthly public policy newspapers -- the weekly Consumer Power Report, Climate Change Weekly, and NiPCC Update; and five monthly public policy newspapers. Sign Up!

 

 

Heartland Book

 

 

The Patriots Toolbox is offered as a guide to public policy for patriot-activists in the Tea Party movement as well as for candidates for public office, incumbent office holders, civic and business leaders, and journalists assigned to cover the movement. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2012 The Heartland Institute, All rights reserved.
You are getting this email because you are subscribed to our list.
Our mailing address is:
The Heartland Institute
One South Wacker Drive, #2740
Chicago, IL 60603



This message was sent to alexanderofyork@yorkteaparty.org from:

Heartland Institute | One South Wacker Drive #2740 | Chicago, IL 60606

Email Marketing by iContact - Try It Free!

Unsubscribe  |  Send To a Friend

No comments:

Post a Comment