Commerce Department will shut down ‘rogue, unaccountable police force’
The Commerce Department’s bizarre, in-house security and intelligence operation is being shut down. As the Washington Post reports: The Commerce Department will eliminate a security unit that it found improperly…
Time to end the solar panel tariffs
One sign of an industry nearing maturity is its growing desire for government help, be it in the form of subsidies to plug the holes in its balance sheet, or…
GAO High-Risk List Includes Postal Service Financial Woes and Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities
Every two years, the Government Accountability Office issues a report on “high-risk” programs and operations in government that have “vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, or that need transformation.”…
Feinstein, Padilla Want Biden to Take California Gasoline Engine Ban National
California Sens. Diane Feinstein and Alex Padilla are pushing President Biden to do something even bigger than his proposed incentives for people to buy electric cars: follow California’s lead in…
ERA Backers Still Trying to Win Ratification for Expired Amendment
Backers of the Equal Rights Amendment are not giving up their fight to get the 50-year-old proposal ratified and inserted into the Constitution. Their most recent effort to keep the…
The New Era of Big Government is Underway
In his 1996 State of the Union address, then-President Bill Clinton proclaimed that the “era of big government is over.” It was a rhetorical flourish then, intended to make Democrats…
Gas Stations are the Next Target in the Green Revolution
With some state governments, like California, mandating the sale of electric-only cars, and some automakers saying they intend to sell only electric cars within a decade, it appears like the…
Class-Action Suit Challenges DEA and TSA use of Civil Asset Forfeiture
A new class-action lawsuit seeks to prevent the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) from seizing cash from travelers without probable cause to do so. The Institute…
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…
Intelligence Agency Skips Warrants, Uses Cell Phone Data to Track Individuals
A 2018 Supreme Court decision said that if government wants to track individual American citizens using cell phone data, then it would need a warrant to do so. But it…