State and Local Governments Don’t Need a Bailout
State and local governments are poised to reap around $350 billion from the president’s proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. The drumbeat behind the federal aid is that states and…
Illinois Tackles Food Freedom
Growing your own vegetables is, apparently, a subversive act that many local governments aggressively try to prevent. That’s changed in Florida, where the legislature passed a law protecting people’s right…
The COVID Absolutists
The coronavirus has been a bonanza for scolds who enjoy bashing others for even the smallest of perceived mitigation infractions. Some scolding is useful, but in some cases, it has…
Washington State’s Proposed tax on Four People
Lawmakers in Washington state are on the lookout for new sources of tax revenue and a group of them believe they have found it…in the wallets of about a dozen…
CDC’s School Reopening Plan is More of the Same
The bottom-up pressure to fully reopen the nation’s public schools was supposed to get a boost from new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). What emerged from the…
Winter Exposes the Cracks in the Nation’s Energy System
The massive cold wave that rolled over the nation’s heartland did more than leave millions shivering in the dark. It also exposed a critical problem with our electric power grid. …
Meet the TVAs multi-million dollar CEO
The federally-owned Tennessee Valley Authority has a number of advantages private utilities don’t, such as not being liable for local, state, or federal taxes. And for the CEO, working for…
Time to scrap the Littoral Combat Ship?
The Department of Defense has long struggled with how to produce weapons systems that meet current and future challenges, and do so without breaking the bank. Sometimes they get it…
Maryland Politicians Pushing Tax on Online Ads
Politicians in Maryland are looking for new sources of revenue to prop up their spending programs. They think they’ve found a pot of gold through a tax on the revenues…
New York Lawmakers Flirt With Tax on Stock Trades
Lawmakers in New York are toying with the idea of imposing a tax on stock trades in the hopes of collecting tens of millions of dollars in new revenue. The…