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Halloween Not So Scary for Parents
When it comes to Halloween these days, it seems that parents scare more easily than their children. For the past 15 years, I have checked…
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The 5 Most Horrifying Halloween Monsters from Washington
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Equity Crowdfunding at Last, But Still Incomplete
More than three years after the JOBS Act was signed into law by President Obama, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today will finally vote…
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The Real Question about Fantasy Sports Gambling the GOP Debate Missed
In this clown-car of a GOP primary, it’s inevitable that the discussion will sometimes veer onto more superficial avenues of questioning. After all, news is entertainment and…
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Barbara Boxer: Confirm PR Flak for Key Safety Role or the Transportation System Gets It
Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Sarah Feinberg to head the Federal Railroad Administration. Feinberg has been acting administrator since January. She replaced Joseph Szabo, who had…
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The Misguided Attempt to Censor Yik Yak
People often seek to restrict new means of communication in ways that would never be applied to older forms of communication, sometimes based on fear…
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Ex-Im Revival Passes the House
The House has passed Rep. Stephen Fincher’s Ex-Im revival bill, by the margin of 313-118. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has publicly said the Senate…
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House Committee Pushes Back against NLRB Assault on Small Business
Today, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce passed H.R. 3459, the Protecting Local Business Opportunity Act, a bill that would restore the traditional…
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CEI at Money20/20
I’m here on the Las Vegas Strip at Money20/20, a trade show and forum in the area of FinTech—a term used to describe a…
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Signs of Life for Ex-Im?
Last night the House of Representatives voted on a rare discharge petition, under which a controversial bill can skip the usual committee process and go…
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Onions Have No Futures
Lots of people object to markets in certain commodities. Kidneys, archeological relics, adoption rights, and a host of more prosaic items have been deemed by…
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As Senate Cybersecurity Vote Nears, CISA Remains Seriously Flawed
If Congress wants to lift barriers to beneficial information sharing without endangering individual privacy, it’s essential that legislation contains robust safeguards against unwanted uses of…
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Return of the Employee Free Choice Act
Labor law has dramatically changed under the Obama administration via the pro-union National Labor Relations Board. Many longstanding Board precedents have been tossed aside in favor…
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Glyphosate in Tampons, Oh My!
You may have seen the hilarious headlines about putting Monsanto in your vagina (if not, you’re welcome/I’m sorry). This hyperbole comes on the heels of a…
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More Affirmative-Action Red Tape for Contractors: Sexual Orientation Added in California
Governments impose a cobweb of complicated and confusing affirmative-action mandates on government contractors. That imposes billions of dollars in compliance costs on contractors. It also …
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Drinking in the Dark
Bellion Vodka has one strange website. Bellion claims to be “the next step in the evolution of spirits” and “a smarter way to drink.” Its…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
A normal week ended with a bang, with more than 450 pages of EPA regulations swelling Friday’s Federal Register to more than 800 pages (normal is around…
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Has Global Warming Increased U.S. Hurricane Damages?
Estrada et al. (2015), a study published this week in Nature Geoscience, finds “an upward trend in [hurricane-inflicted U.S.] economic losses between 1900 and 2005…
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Bonn Climate Negotiations Still Come Down To One Question: Where’s the Cash?
The last officially scheduled negotiating session before COP-21 (the twenty-first Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) in Paris concluded…
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Record Number of States Launch Legal Challenge to Clean Power Plan
Twenty six States this week filed legal challenges to the Clean Power Plan in the federal court of appeals for the D.C. Circuit. As far…
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Senate and House Move Quickly To Block EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Rules for Coal and Gas Power Plants
The EPA’s greenhouse gas emissions rules for new and existing coal and natural gas power plants were finally published in the Federal Register on Friday, 23rd October. …
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Court Rules against Government in TSA Body Scanner Case
Earlier today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled against the government in CEI’s challenge to the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) illegal…
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Pennsylvania Attorney General Suspended from the Bar, Still Refuses to Quit
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane was suspended from the bar on October 22 for apparent violations of the law by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. A…
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33 Groups Call on Congress to Defund Portfolio Attack by Labor Department
Today, a coalition letter signed by leaders of 33 leaders of free-market and conservative public policy organizations urges Congress to defund the Department of…
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Wayne Crews’s Essay Recognized as Part of 2015 Fisher Award
A collection of essays on the economic challenges facing the United States, as well as paths for recovery, were published by The Fraser Institute in…
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Back to the Future in Payments Technology
One of the things Back to the Future Part II almost got right about 2015 was how Biff paid for his cab ride—with a thumbprint. A lot…
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Virtuous Capitalism, or, Why So Little Rent-Seeking?
The venerable Fred Smith and I have a new paper out today. Click here to read it. In the paper, we try to solve the Tullock…
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Is a Drone Registration Mandate Illegal?
Today, the Department of Transportation announced the creation of a task force to develop recommendations for a national drone registration mandate. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx stated…
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The Many Bad Reasons to Support TSCA “Reform”
With reform to nation’s chemical law—the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)—basically around the corner, groups from both left and right are commenting on why we…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
It was a short work week for the federal government due to the Columbus Day holiday. But agencies still found the time to publish new…
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India Wants More Aid and Easier Commitments in Paris Climate Treaty
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President Obama: Foreign Policy Disasters in Middle East Are Small Potatoes Compared to Forthcoming Paris Climate Treaty Triumph
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Learn Liberty Schools Us on Beer Regulation
As they have done so often in the past, our friends at Learn Liberty have come up with a great new video series illustrating…
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Initial Thoughts on the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act
This morning, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released its Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act. Unlike the Senate bill, which relies on imaginary pay-fors…
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“Losing Our Minds” over Green Energy
Eco-theocracy has swept America and Europe, resulting in governments devoting vast sums to build their Green Temples where “renewable energy” and “recycled materials” can be…
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Are the RICO 20 Guilty of Racketeering?
Controversy continues to swirl around the September 1 letter from 20 climate scientists to President Barack Obama, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and White House science adviser John…
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ABI MillerCoors Merger Won’t Harm the Craft Beer Movement
The folks at Food & Water Watch are pissed. And I don’t mean “pissed” as in drunk; they are mad as hell about the proposed…
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Latest Ex-Im Revival Tactic: The Discharge Petition
One of the classic lines from the 1990 novel and 1993 movie Jurassic Park is that “life finds a way.” As with dinosaurs, so with government programs.
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The 2015 Federal Register broke the 60,000-page barrier in a big way, with new rules ranging from tuna boats to Nicaraguan archaeology. On to the…
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United Nations Releases “First Draft” of Paris Climate Treaty
The co-chairmen of UN negotiations on the forthcoming Paris climate treaty on 6th October released what they called a “first draft,” which they said will…
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North Carolina and Kentucky Show Their Hands on Clean Power Plan
EnergyWire ($) reports that North Carolina won’t seek an extension on the September 2016 deadline for submissions to comply with the Clean Power Plan, but…
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IPCC Selects New Leader
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change elected Dr. Hoesung Lee as its new chairman at its meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia, this week. Dr.
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House Moves To Lift Oil Export Ban
The House of Representatives passed a bill on October 9, 2015, to lift the forty-year-old ban on crude oil exports by a vote of 261…
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What Will a Chaffetz Speakership Mean for Internet Freedom? Part 2
Utah Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz recently threw his hat in the ring in a bid to replace Speaker John Boehner, after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s…
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What Will a Chaffetz Speakership Mean for Internet Freedom?
With House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) gaffe regarding the Benghazi investigation, the race to replace outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) appears much more open. Days later,…
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Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Covers a Lot of Ground
Trade ministers of 12 Asia-Pacific countries announced October 5, 2015, that they had completed negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). The TPP links…
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The Death of RAWA: A Performance for an Audience of One
RAWA (H.R. 707) is dying the slow death of bills that aren’t sexy enough to draw attention away from much sexier issues. With the House…
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Agency Overload: Meet the Federal Bureaucracy One-Page Word Cloud
There exist various counts of agencies in the federal bureaucracy, but no particular tally is regarded authoritative. The “Agency List” page maintained at FederalRegister.gov probably…
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Drone Policy Update: FAA Proposes $1.9m Fine, 3 More Bills Vetoed in California, and More
FAA PROPOSES RECORD FINE FOR UNAUTHORIZED UAS OPERATIONS: On October 6, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it was proposing a $1.9 million civil penalty against…
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Reasons for Global Warming Skepticism
Democrats have developed a cottage industry in ridiculing and condemning Republicans as Luddites. How can any “reasonable” person deny that increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the…