Opinion
-
Australia Will Promote Drought-Resistant Crops
Opinion -Agricultural minister Tony Burke has announced Australia will promote the development of drought-resistant genetically modified (GM) wheat. -
California Budget Woes Underscore Need for a Tough State Spending Limit
Opinion -Four years ago, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) rode into Sacramento brandishing the sword of fiscal discipline. He vowed to avenge the California taxpayer and end the budget deficit created by former Gov. Gray Davis' (D) profligate spending. -
California Dreams On
Opinion -California continues to stumble along down the road in dealing with health care. -
Colorado Commission Proposes More Government Intervention
Opinion -The Colorado Legislature's Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform has approved a package of recommendations for comprehensive reform of the state's health care system. -
Commission Wants to Double Federal Gas Taxes
Opinion -The federal government should more than double gasoline taxes in the next five years to subsidize light-rail systems and pay for highway improvements, a panel chaired by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation has decided. -
Congress Grants Reprieve for Cancer Treatment
Opinion -Congress has reversed a decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to pay less than the acquisition cost for popular cancer-treating radioimmunotherapy drugs, just before that decision was to take effect. -
Congress Moves to Fix Tax Penalties Against Incentive Stock Options
Opinion -Congress is finishing work begun in 2006 to remedy an unintended consequence of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)--the treatment of a form of employee compensation called incentive stock options (ISOs). -
Court, Congress Move Against ‘TV Taxes’
Opinion -In a victory for consumers and other advocates of equal tax treatment of telecommunications services, Franklin County, Ohio Judge Daniel Hogan has struck down a state tax levied on subscribers of satellite television. -
Created by Congress, ISOs Crushed by AMT
Opinion -Congress passed legislation to create incentive stock options (ISOs) in 1981 to provide entrepreneurial companies that must conserve cash a way to attract and retain top talent with an alternative form of compensation. -
Economic Formulas in IPCC Report Criticized for Overstating Emissions
Opinion -The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the organization established to evaluate the effects of human activity on climate change--and hence provides the scientific rationales for UN actions on the issue. -
Federal Ban on Incandescent Light Bulbs Will Backfire
Opinion -U.S. consumers will have to say goodbye to inexpensive household light bulbs, according to the provisions of the federal energy bill President George W. Bush signed into law December 19. -
Greenpeace Farming Plan Would Reap Environmental Havoc around the World
Opinion -A new report from Greenpeace International, Cool Farming, includes organic farming recommendations that would impose severe hunger on half the world's humans or force the clearing of the world's remaining forests to plant more low-yield crops. -
Judge: San Francisco ‘Play or Pay’ Measure Violates Federal Law
Opinion -A U.S. district judge has ruled a controversial expansion of a city health care plan violates a federal law addressing government regulation of employee benefit plans. -
Leader of Ohio Environmental Group Testifies Against Wind Power Proposal
Opinion -Tom Stacy, managing director of the environmentalist group Save Western Ohio, presented compelling testimony to the Ohio House of Representatives Public Utilities Committee that a proposed renewable power mandate would substantially harm the environment -
Lomborg ‘Could Save the Planet’
Opinion -A panel of science, economic, and environmental correspondents has named Danish author and professor Björn Lomborg one of "50 people who could save the planet. -
Massachusetts Collecting Fines from its Uninsured Residents
Opinion -Penalties went into effect this year for Massachusetts residents who do not have health insurance. The penalties, assessed in the form of monetary fines, range from zero to $912 for an entire year without coverage. -
Michigan Proposal Would Erode Health Care Quality, Choice
Opinion -At the end of 2007, after a single, perfunctory committee meeting, the Michigan House of Representatives passed a series of four bills which, if approved by the Senate and signed into law by Gov. -
New Mexico Schools Have Little to Show for Increased Spending
Opinion -The academic performance of students in New Mexico has remained stagnant despite the state's rapidly increasing investment in K-12 education, according to a study by the Rio Grande Foundation, a free-market think tank based in Albuquerque. -
Public Outrage Throttles California Plan to Control Home Thermostats
Opinion -Powered by a wave of public outrage that transcended party lines, California citizens have forced regulators at the California Energy Commission to abandon plans to control thermostat settings in private homes. -
Report: Indiana Should Downsize and Cut Waste
Opinion -Public outcry over rising property taxes could lead to a major reorganization of Indiana's local governments. -
Report: Temperature Changes Precede CO2 Changes
Opinion -For at least the past several hundred thousand years, temperature changes and carbon dioxide levels have risen and fallen in near-unison. -
Researchers Closer to Solving Disappearing Bee Mystery
Opinion -Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) was the main topic of interest at the American Beekeeping Federation's first-ever National Beekeeping Conference, January 8-12 in Sacramento, California. -
Taxpayer Choice Act a Less-than-Ideal Alternative to AMT
Opinion -Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), a member of the House Budget Committee, has weighed in on the debate to end the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Ryan's bill is called the Taxpayer Choice Act, H.R. 3818. It was introduced in the House on October 10, 2007. -
Telemedicine Holds Promise for Health Care
Opinion -A new report from the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), "Convenient Care and Telemedicine," says telemedicine can remedy several of the problems currently plaguing the health care industry.