Opinion
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Forest Service Budget Pits Forest Management against Fire Suppression
Opinion -Ask any district ranger, or any on-the-ground Forest Service employee, and they will tell you the national forests are suffering from a severe budget crunch. Yet the Forest Service’s total budget increased from $3.2 billion in 1991 to $5. -
Wisconsin Legislature Rejects Land Purchases
Opinion -The Wisconsin legislature’s Joint Finance Committee has voted overwhelmingly to ignore the availability of state stewardship funds and forego buying private lands. -
Chesapeake Bay Blues
Opinion -Chesapeake Bay Blues: Science, Politics, and the Struggle to Save the Bay by Howard R. Ernst Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003, 224 pages $22.95 paperback Howard Ernst is an assistant professor of political science at the U.S. -
08/2003 Consumer Choice Matters: All In a Day’s Work
Opinion -I’m swimming in a sea of health economists at the “Fourth World Congress of the International Health Economics Association.” There are nearly 1,000 people listed as “presenters” and another 1,000 or so attendees. -
08/2003 Galen Report
Opinion -The promise of a Medicare drug benefit has been transformed from a political football into a steamroller, and at least one thing is clear: The bill is based on bad policy. -
Appeals Court Upholds California MTBE Ban
Opinion -A federal appeals court has upheld California’s ban on the controversial gasoline additive MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether), finding the ban does not violate the federal Clean Air Act. -
Montana Bans Land Sales to Federal Government
Opinion -In protest of the federal government’s over-reaching and its mismanagement of public lands, Montana has become the first state in the union to prohibit the sale of state lands to the federal government. -
Congress Mulls FDA Authority over Tobacco
Opinion -As President George W. Bush considered joining an international tobacco control treaty, Congress conducted hearings into the desirability of giving the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco. -
Natural Gas ‘Shortage’ Puts Crunch on Environment, Economy
Opinion -Natural gas supplies under current laws and regulations are unable to keep up with growing demand, testified Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan in a June 10 House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing. -
Animal Tests Overstate Cancer Fears: Part 3 of 3
Opinion -Cancer scares created by environmental activist groups frequently focus on man-made chemicals. -
Medicare Reform Deja Vu
Opinion -In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Catastrophic Health Care Act--sweeping Medicare reform legislation meant to respond to what legislators saw as overwhelming demand for government-provided health care benefits. -
Supreme Court Fails to Protect Commercial Speech
Opinion -Nike v. Kasky, the most important commercial speech case in two decades, afforded an opportunity for the U.S. -
Maine Launches Controversial Health Plan
Opinion -Maine's first-year Democratic Governor, John Baldacci, signed on June 18 a bill giving him something he asked for in early May: universal health care. -
Planning Is a Tool, Not a Goal
Opinion -Local government officials often lament the fact that “not enough planning” has gone on in their communities. Like virtue, urban planning seems to be considered by many as an end in itself. -
An Unnecessary Energy Crisis
Opinion -Since 1998, virtually all newly constructed power plants have been designed to run on natural gas. Not that it is any cheaper to produce power from natural gas--in fact, coal and oil are generally cheaper. -
Senate Battle Begins on Asbestos Fund
Opinion -On July 14, the U.S. Senate began debate on the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2003, a measure aimed at addressing the nation’s asbestos litigation crisis. -
‘A la Carte’ Menus Encourage Kids to Eat Poorly
Opinion -Reporting in the July 2003 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, registered nurse Martha Kubik and colleagues at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health found school-age children who were allowed to choose food outside the -
Alabama Jury Breaking the Bank in Suspect PCB Case
Opinion -An Alabama jury has awarded $73 million in property damage and emotional distress awards to 380 people who have detected PCBs on their property. Significantly, most of the money has been tied to cleanup-cost claims ... -
Analysis: Medicare Reform Measure Repeats Mistakes of 25 Years Ago
Opinion -In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Catastrophic Health Care Act--sweeping Medicare reform legislation meant to respond to what legislators saw as overwhelming demand for government-provided health care benefits. -
Apologies to My Grandchildren
Opinion -Dear Jack, Katie, Luke, Will, Tess, Elle, and Anthony: My entire generation owes you an apology. -
Attack on Fast Food Jeopardizes Public Health Community
Opinion -Attorney John Banzhaf, who for years has litigated against tobacco, purportedly in an effort to protect public health, has announced his intention to solve another public-health problem--obesity--by suing fast-food restaurants. -
Consumer Directed Health Care Conference Scheduled for November 2003
Opinion -Major issues across the health care system--rising health care costs, quality of care, and patient outcomes--are on the minds of consumers. Public opinion polls place the issue second only to concerns about the economy. -
Generics Added to Medicare Reform Measure
Opinion -The Senate voted 94-1 on June 19 to approve a proposal aimed at speeding the market entry of generic drugs by eliminating some patent extension practices used by brand-name drug manufacturers. -
Horinko Is Named Interim EPA Administrator
Opinion -Senior EPA official Marianne Horinko was appointed on July 10 as the second interim EPA Administrator to serve since Christie Whitman’s resignation.
