PETITION: Stop the Exelon Bailout in Illinois

Published December 5, 2016

If you don’t visit Freedom Pub and the Heartlander digital magazine every day, you’re missing out on some of the best news and commentary on liberty and free markets you can find. But worry not, freedom lovers! The Heartland Weekly is here for you every Friday with a highlight show. Subscribe to the email today, and read this week’s edition below.

Joseph Bast Presents: Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming
Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast was invited to speak at the 34th annual meeting of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness on the fact-filled book Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming, which he helped to edit. In this nearly hour-long presentation, Bast addresses the myth alleging 97 percent of scientists agree global warming is a manmade crisis, debunks other common falsehoods, and paints a clear picture of why there is no consensus on the issue. WATCH HERE.

Trump to Obama’s Energy Legacy: ‘You’re Fired’
Isaac Orr, Breitbart

President Barack Obama has lived by executive orders, and now it appears his energy and environment legacy will die by them. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to cancel the Paris Climate Accords and pull back on Obama’s signature Clean Power Plan. He has also promised in his first 100 days to lift the Obama administration’s roadblocks preventing the development of energy infrastructure projects such as the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. READ MORE.

PETITION: Stop the Exelon Bailout in Illinois
Exelon Corporation, which owns ComEd, is close to finalizing a deal with Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) and the state legislature to pass the so-called Future Energy Jobs Bill (Senate Bill 2814), which, if passed, will bail out ComEd’s unprofitable nuclear power plants. The plan would institute the largest electricity rate-hike in U.S. history, costing Illinois residents $16.4 billion through 2040. And according to independent economic modeling from IMPLAN, the bailout would result in Illinois losing more than 43,000 jobs, and IMPLAN says it would destroy $14.4 billion in economic activity. It is not too late, however, to stop this destructive deal. Learn more and sign the petition. READ HERE.

Featured Podcast: Todd Myers: Washington State Carbon Tax Defeat Shows Environmentalists’ Hypocrisy
In this episode of the Heartland Daily PodcastEnvironment & Climate News Managing Editor H. Sterling Burnett interviews Todd Myers, director of the environment program at the Washington Policy Center. They discuss the baffling hypocrisy of environmental groups that joined with businesses to defeat the carbon tax initiative in Washington State. These radical groups proved they care more about expanding the size and power of government than they do reducing human emissions of carbon dioxide. LISTEN TO MORE.

Join Us December 7 for Heartland’s ‘Freedom Rising’ Holiday Celebration
On December 7, join us for an evening celebrating a year of freedom rising at Heartland’s annual Holiday Celebration. We want to thank you for your friendship and support in helping us fight for freedom, and look forward to making 2017 a banner year for the cause of liberty. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be served, and the event is complimentary for all of Heartland’s friends and their guests. Help make our holidays happy by joining us for this special event! RSVP for this FREE event below. REGISTER HERE.

What Might Betsy DeVos Bring to the DOE?
Teresa Mull, School Choice Weekly
After much speculation by people who care about such things, President-elect Donald Trump has selected Betsy DeVos to be the next U.S. secretary of education, calling her “a brilliant and passionate education advocate.” This selection is bringing hope – and even some excitement – to school-choice advocates. DeVos is a long-time champion of school choice, supports homeschooling, has helped fund charter schools and voucher programs, and is staunchly opposed to Common Core. Also, here’s another great sign DeVos is the right person for the job: The teachers unions are not happy about her selection. READ MORE

Obamacare Could Live or Die by Two Pending Lawsuits
Matthew Glans, Health Care News

Many doctors are abandoning the traditional third-party-payer business model and instead adopting a direct primary care (DPC) model. More than 260 physicians from 42 states recently rallied in Irving, Texas for two days to discuss why. As explained at a recent Docs4PatientCare conference, cutting out the middle man allows doctors to increase their value to patients by providing high-quality care at lower prices. “All prices in medicine are a joke,” said Dr. Chad Savage, a DPC provider in Brighton, Michigan. “They’re all artificial.” READ MORE.

Bonus Podcast: In The Tank (ep65) – Overtime Rule Stopped, the Cost of Thanksgiving, and Internet Taxes
On this episode of In The Tank, hosts Donny Kendal and John Nothdurft discuss whether the Pilgrims would have starved to death if not for the development of property rights, and they talk about how the price of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner has changed over the years. Kendal and Nothdurft also address news of a federal judge blocking the Department of Labor’s overtime regulation and the danger of online sales taxes. LISTEN TO MORE.

Teacher Pension Crisis Is Punishing Children and Taxpayers
Teresa Mull, Townhall
A new report published by the Manhattan Institute warns us of an impending crisis: In the coming years, taxpayers will continue to be taxed more heavily to pay for teachers’ retirements, teacher pension debt will keep growing, and children will suffer for it. Do these teachers feel an ounce of remorse for taking money at the expense of the quality of kids’ education? Not likely. In many places, the teachers unions are unwilling to do anything to make the problem less burdensome to the rest of us. READ MORE.

New Webpage on Wikipedia’s Lies
Now there is a single website that collects dozens of articles, including scholarly research, on how Wikipedia, the “free encyclopedia,” is actually the fake encyclopedia. Wikipedia is the first place millions of people go to learn about organizations and individuals they hear about in the news or online, but the profiles posted there are biased, unreliable, and often libelous. The Heartland Institute’s Wikipedia profile contains many lies and errors, but we are not alone: thousands of profiles have been similarly hacked by leftist activists. READ MORE