Opinion
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Battles over Sea Mammals Hit Courts, State Legislatures
Opinion -Washington state Senator Kevin Ranker (D-Orcas Island) introduced legislation that would make it a criminal offense, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $100,000 fine, to keep whales, dolphins, and porpoises in aquariums. -
New York Governor Supports Tax Credit Program
Opinion -New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is supporting a tax credit for private education. The tax credit is worth a total of $150 million, according to a report in The Buffalo News. -
Dangers from EPA Playing National Energy Regulator
Opinion -Climate Change Weekly #173 If the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed clean power plant rule (CPP) is finalized and withstands expected legislative and court challenges, it would give the agency power to determine how electricity is provided -
Updated NASA Data: Global Warming Not Causing Any Polar Ice Retreat
Opinion -Updated data from NASA satellite instruments reveal the Earth’s polar ice caps have not receded at all since the satellite instruments began measuring the ice caps in 1979. -
Almost Half of State Health Insurance Exchanges Are Fighting for Survival
Opinion -Almost half of the 17 health insurance exchanges set up by the states and the District of Columbia under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, are in trouble financially, The Washington Post reports. -
The Slow Death of Common Core
Opinion -Think about the major policy undertakings of the Obama administration over the past six and a half years. It began with a “stimulus” that wasted trillions in the quest of generating jobs, but did little to nothing in achieving that goal. -
Will Congress Finally Defend Its Constitutional Turf – to Stop the EPA’s Assault on Water?
Opinion -It is an empirical fact – a metaphysical certitude. Government overreaches.And the Barack Obama Administration has the longest, most overactive arms ever. With many, many, MANY power-grabbing hands. -
Senate Hearing Highlights State Clean Power Plant Objections
Opinion -A Senate hearing concerning the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) sweeping clean power plant rule featured testimony from state officials opposing new carbon-dioxide regulations EPA is expected to finalize in the summer of 2015. -
Survey: Obamacare Strains Emergency Rooms
Opinion -Three-quarters of the 2,099 doctors responding to the nationwide survey conducted by the American College of Emergency Physicians indicate they have seen an increase in emergency room (ER) visits since the Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as -
Renewable Energy Mandates Under Fire for Huge Economic Costs
Opinion -In the previous decade, 29 states and the District of Columbia established mandates known as renewable portfolio standards (RPS) that require utilities to derive a designated percentage of their electricity from renewable sources by a specific date. -
Texas Bans City Fracking Bans
Opinion -With a stroke of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's pen, House Bill 40 banning Texas municipalities’ ability to regulate oil and gas operations within city limits, except in very limited circumstances, became law. -
South Carolina House Votes to End Certificate of Need Law
Opinion -South Carolina’s House of Representatives voted 103‒1 in April to end the state’s certificate of need (CON) law in 2018. -
Stupefying Generations of Americans
Opinion -I used the verb “stupefying” to describe a long process in our nation’s schools that has produced several generations of Americans, dumbed down and resulting in more than half who are functionally illiterate, nor can do math, and, as a recent headline -
Another Promise Broken: ER Visits up Under Obamacare
Opinion -Prior to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) passage in 2010, President Barack Obama spent month after month traveling across the United States to reassure Americans the vast right-wing-manufactured conspiracy theories about the law weren’t true. -
What Will America Look Like if the Environmentalists Win?
Opinion -In every war, there are winners and losers. Whether the war is ideological or physical, or even if a truce is declared—there are still battles that end in victory or defeat. -
Florida Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Tax Credit Scholarship Program
Opinion -A circuit court judge tossed out a lawsuit against school vouchers in Florida, according to a redifinED report. -
States Should Ignore Clean Power Plant Regulations, McConnell Says
Opinion -The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan (CPP) proposed in June 2014 has received a considerable pushback from federal and state officials, most recently from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). -
Declining Sin Tax Revenues Cripple Connecticut Budgets
Opinion -As Connecticut lawmakers try to fix a projected annual $1.3 billion deficit, tobacco excise tax revenues in Connecticut continue to decline. Between fiscal year 2012 and fiscal year 2014, tobacco sin tax revenues fell by 15 percent, from $420. -
Study: Banking Deregulation Leads to Increased Business Productivity
Opinion -In the 19th century, national and state regulations restricted intra- and interstate banking, but during the 20th century, many states dismantled these regulations and allowed some forms of interstate banking, such as permitting out-of-state banks to buy -
Panama City Rakes in Bed Tax Cash
Opinion -As the spring break season in Panama City, Florida ends and the summer vacation season begins, a new tourism development tax approved by voters in November 2014 is using vacationers as a fresh revenue stream. -
Michigan Voters Reject ‘Tax and Spend’ Gas Tax Proposal
Opinion -Michigan voters overwhelmingly voted against increasing the state’s gasoline tax and sales tax to fund transportation infrastructure spending. The ballot amendment would have increased gas taxes in the state by either 42 cents per gallon or 14. -
Lawsuits Fight FCC Net Neutrality Power Grab
Opinion -CenturyLink, one of the nation’s largest Internet service providers, is filing a lawsuit challenging the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) net neutrality order. -
DHS Seeks Automated License-Plate Tracking Database
Opinion -About one year after abandoning a plan to create an automated national database tracking automobile owners’ license plate data and location, the U.S. -
North Carolina Lawmakers Moo-ve Toward Legalizing Raw Milk Sales
Opinion -North Carolina lawmakers are considering a bill to circumvent the state’s ban on the sale of raw milk.
