The Heartlander: May 2003

CHICAGO CONSERVATIVE CONFERENCE: REGISTER TODAY!

Saturday, May 17, Palmer House Hotel

There’s still time ... but not much! ... to register for the 2003 Chicago Conservative Conference, to be held May 17, 2003, at The Palmer House in downtown Chicago.

Just $39 buys a day-long program filled with presentations by some of the leading lights of the country’s conservative and libertarian movements, plus continental breakfast and lunch. Breakout sessions with each of the speakers will allow for extensive question-and-answer sessions and a more intimate, in-depth experience than is generally offered at such conferences.

For more information, visit the CCC Web site at http://www.conservativeconference.com regularly to see who has been confirmed as speakers and exhibitors. To register, call The Heartland Institute at 312/377-4000; or register at Heartland’s online store.

Speakers Announced

John Lott of the American Enterprise Institute headlines an outstanding program of nationally prominent speakers who will address the 2003 Chicago Conservative Conference.

Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform will open the program with a discussion of coalition-building. Subsequent sessions will feature Lawrence C. Patrick Jr., former president of the Detroit Board of Education; Janet LaRue of Concerned Women for America; Heartland Science Director Jay Lehr; Allan Carlson of The Howard Center; and WLS-AM radio personality Teri O’Brien.

Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Richard Gordon will address the war in Iraq. Local political leaders Joe Birkett, DuPage County State’s Attorney, and Ralph Conner, mayor of the Village of Maywood, will also be on the program. A Senate candidate forum will be featured at lunch.

Sponsors and Exhibitors

More than 20 pro-taxpayer and pro-life organizations and think tanks will be featured in the 2003 CCC exhibit hall, allowing you to meet representatives face-to-face and gets lots of free stuff!

As of this writing, nearly a dozen organizations had joined Heartland as cosponsors of the event. Many thanks to Americans for Tax Reform, Concerned Women for America, Family Taxpayers Network, The Federalist Society, The Howard Center, Leader Media Co., Lincoln Legal Foundation, National Taxpayers Union, and United Republican Fund for their efforts toward making the CCC 2003 a resounding success!

NEW COALITION UPDATE

In Demand

Lee H. Walker, director of The New Coalition at The Heartland Institute, delivered the keynote address at the annual state convention of the Libertarian Party of Indiana, held April 25-27 in Michigan City.

He spoke at the 26th Black Studies Conference, held April 23-26 and hosted by the African-American Studies Association of Olive-Harvey College. With other panelists, he was asked to discuss “the deepening challenge of the social/political spectrum: How the many faces of conservatism are driving the discontinuity of African-American progress.”

On April 22, Walker participated in a meeting of the Human Relations Foundation/Jane Addams Public Policy Initiative, and on April 21 he attended the kickoff event for “Chicago’s Money Smart Week,” where a group of savvy African-American youngster/investors shared their expertise.

On April 10-12, Walker attended the 100th Celebration of W.E.B. DuBois and his famous written work, Soul of Black Folk. The event was sponsored by the Illinois Black Studies Council at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Coming Up

On June 6, Walker will attend a Race & Business Forum featuring Marianne Betrand, a professor in the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Sponsored by Chicago United, the meeting will take place at The Northern Trust Company in downtown Chicago.

In the News

In his March 31 column for Crain’s Chicago Business (weekly circ. 50,493), Walker describes a poll commissioned by one of Chicago’s largest Hispanic community-based groups, the United Neighborhood Organization (UNO), finding the city’s Hispanic community doesn’t like the term “minority” because it suggests Hispanics are a disadvantaged group victimized by discrimination and depending on affirmative action laws and entitlement programs.

On April 9, Walker was interviewed about the column for more than an hour by Cliff Kelly, host of a popular program on WVON Chicago radio.

IMPACT

It is often difficult to track the impact a think tank has on public policy, or even public opinion. Rarely do we hear “your work helped us defeat this tax increase ... single-payer health care proposal ... smoking ban” or “your publications helped us pass school choice ... medical malpractice reform ... property rights protections.”

Municipal Broadband Defeated

Sometimes, of course, you just know you’ve made a difference. The Kane County Chronicle story reprinted on page 2 of this Heartlander reports voters in the Illinois Tri-Cities rejected at the ballot box a $62 million municipal broadband network. A Heartland Policy Study critical of municipal broadband systems was widely reported in area press and extensively cited by opponents of the risky scheme.

Two Happy Heartland Members

“The Heartland Institute is one of the finest American organizations that listens to all Americans; tries to be sincere; attempts to educate all so that all can become better informed citizens--and ultimately true Americans.”

Roger Marchese

Oakland, New Jersey

“Last year my free membership expired and I requested consideration for extending it due to personal income difficulties. You honored my request, and I’m writing now to thank you for your dues waiver. Enclosed, with pleasure, are my application and check for annual membership fees. I look forward to continuing to receive your excellent publications and am proud to be able to support your fine work.”

Art Goes, President

Professional Resource Management Inc.

Palatine, Illinois

One Unhappy Attorney General

On April 3, Heartland faxed to every Illinois state elected official a letter from Heartland President Joseph L. Bast addressing Illinois’ appeal bond requirement. The full text of his letter is available on Heartland’s Web site at http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=12062.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan phoned Heartland Public Affairs Director Greg Lackner to express her dismay at Heartland’s position on the issue. Saying she respected the work Heartland has done in the past, Madigan said she was disappointed in the letter--one of few, if not the only one, she had received “supporting Philip Morris.” She said she was sorry Heartland took this action under pressure from one of its donors. When Lackner started to refute that claim, Madigan would hear none of it and abruptly ended the conversation.

Media Coverage

The release of Heartland Policy Study No. 101, “State Regulation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: An Economic and Scientific Analysis,” attracted a substantial amount of press attention on Web sites across the country, though we’ve seen few physical newspaper clippings to date. News of the study’s release was reported by CBS Marketwatch, Business Wire, CNN Money, Yahoo! Finance, Finance Canada.com, and Inlumen NewsAlert.com.

Heartland policy advisor Roy Cordato, vice president for research of the Raleigh, North Carolina-based John Locke Foundation, released an op-ed documenting the impact on North Carolina of state greenhouse gas regulations. The piece was picked up by United Press International as part of its February 28 “Think Tanks Wrap-Up.”

Heartland President Joseph L. Bast’s“New Year’s Pledge” on smoking was picked up by the Beaumont, Texas Enterprise (Sunday circ. 80,000) and St. Joseph, Louisiana Tensas Gazette (weekly circ. 2,300). A lengthy “reader commentary” in the Cumberland, Maryland Times-News (daily circ. 32,600) responded to that paper’s publication of the pledge; Bast’s response ran on April 11. The New Zealand-based National Business Review cited Bast’s “Please Don’t Poop in My Salad” in a February 15 health column (and included a link to the article on Heartland’s Web site), prompting a response from the director of Action on Smoking & Health, a UK-based tobacco nanny.

ENVIRONMENT UPDATE

May 2003 ECN: Energy, Climate Change, and More

The May issue of Environment & Climate News reports on the hydrogen R&D funding debate, the status of President George W. Bush’s energy proposal, and the Department of Transportation’s decision to tighten fuel economy mandates.

E&CN also reports private-sector pledges to reduce voluntarily greenhouse gas emissions; offers the first in a three-part primer on climate change; and reports a threat by seven Democratic state attorneys general to sue EPA to compel it to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant.

Also in this issue: A leading statistician challenges the warming scenarios used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop warns public policies based on junk science fail to protect children; a report issued by the Sustainable Washington Advisory Panel was overwhelmingly rejected by experts in Washington State and beyond; and more!

HEALTH CARE UPDATE

May 2003 HCN: Helping the Uninsured, and More

The May 2003 issue of Health Care News features an analysis of the Bush health care plan. Page 1 addresses Congress’s apparent unwillingness to take up malpractice reform; the FDA’s crackdown on prescription drug reimportation; defeat of a federal compensation program for health care workers harmed by the smallpox vaccine; and Europe’s move toward competition and choice in health care.

Managing Editor Conrad F. Meier and Dr. Sydney Smith, publisher of MedPundit, take up the pros and cons of the smallpox vaccine. The issue also features Sally Pipes’ assessment of the “Health Care for All Californians Act” and Chris Middleton’s discussion of the importance of free-market health care reforms.

“My Turn” to Appear in Health Insurance Underwriter

Conrad Meier’s “My Turn” opinion essay, which runs every month in Health Care News, will be carried in the monthly publication of the National Association of Health Underwriters. The slick magazine is circulated to more than 30,000 NAHU members.

EDUCATION UPDATE

May 2003 SRN: Exclusive interview with Charles L. Glenn Jr.

“Horace Mann’s concerns were not with providing schooling but with making schooling an effective instrument for social reform,” notes education historian Charles L. Glenn Jr. in the May 2003 issue of School Reform News. “The issue with Horace Mann wasn’t having public schools, it was having the state control public schools. It’s a fundamental difference.”

Page 1 of the May issue reports Colorado’s March 31 approval of a voucher program for students in roughly a dozen poorly performing districts in the state; reports DC parents’ support for school choice; and the difficulties Florida will have funding a voter-approved mandate to reduce class sizes in the state.

A three-page Friedman Report highlights school choice-related legislative activity in more than a dozen states. Also in this issue: special education reform; the progress of school choice in 2002; lessons from Sweden’s voucher program; regulation of private schools; and the importance of parental involvement.

ON THE ROAD

Heartland President Joseph L. Bast, Vice President Diane Carol Bast, and Public Affairs Director Greg Lackner were in New Orleans April 23-27 for meetings of State Policy Network, The Heritage Foundation, and The Philadelphia Society.

Joe Bast attended the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s “value-based communication” workshop, held April 10-11 in Washington, DC and addressed the American Legislative Exchange Council’s 2003 Spring Task Force Summit, held in Las Vegas on March 28-29.

Health Care News Managing Editor Conrad F. Meier, Publisher Nikki Saret, and Vice President Sean Parnell represented Heartland at the Consumer Directed Healthcare Conference and Expo, held April 7-9 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Meier spoke at the 13th Annual Capitol Conference hosted by the National Association of Health Underwriters in Washington, DC, on March 24.

RIP: DYANNE PETERSEN

Longtime libertarian activist and former Heartland employee Dyanne Petersen, who recently served as senior editor for Laissez Faire Books, died unexpectedly on March 29 while visiting friends. In 1993, Dyanne headed the Illinois Educational Choice Coalition, a coalition of a dozen advocacy groups organized and staffed by The Heartland Institute. A memorial service is being planned for May 10 in San Francisco; for more information email johnpugsley@adelphia.net.