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Google’s Self-Driving Cars Approach 700,000 Miles of Crash-Free Driving
In a report released last week for CEI, I noted that developers need to be able to demonstrate automated vehicle safety benefits in order…
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Education or Indoctrination?
Bills are being introduced in Connecticut and Illinois that would require school curriculum to teach the history of the labor movement.
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Ninth Circuit win in Apple MagSafe case
The Apple MagSafe settlement paid the attorneys $3.1 million, but the class less than a quarter of that, yet the district court rubber-stamped settlement approval…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
84 new regulations, from spearmint oil to hot air balloons.
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FCC’s Internet Fast Lanes Should Outrun Net Neutrality Bias
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will issue proposed rules May 15, rules expected expected to allow premium pricing for Internet fast lanes alongside the lane…
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A Victory for Taxpayers and Equal Protection: Supreme Court Upholds Michigan’s Proposal 2
Taxpayers of all races pay more when government contracts are doled out based on race, rather than awarded to the lowest bidder. That's one reason…
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California Labor Board Obstructing Farm Workers Union Decertification Bid
Outdated labor law has led to the problem of inherited unions. Research done by the Center for Union Facts has found that less than 10…
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CEI Sues National Park Service and Interior Department under FOIA over Government Shutdown Documents
Last night, CEI filed suit against the United States Department of the Interior and the National Park Service for failing to produce documents in…
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CEI Podcast for April 23, 2014: Reforming Fannie and Freddie
Senior Fellow John Berlau argues that a bill from Senators Tim Johnson and Mike Crapo intended to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would only…
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Driverless Cars, Innovation, and Regulation: Let’s Not Mess it Up
CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman about to take a spin in Google’s self-driving car. (Photo by Marc Scribner) For the past several years, I’ve been…
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Pseudoscience and Clickbaiting Results in Beer Fear
There’s a lot of pseudoscience about food out there. From genetically modified crops to organic foods to corn syrup, to preservatives, passionate opinions abound, but…
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Victory for Maryland Parents and Consumers: Energy Drink Ban Voted Down
A bill that would have banned the sale of energy drinks for minors in Maryland was recently voted down in committee almost unanimously. The…
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Taxable Bitcoins 2: We’re Not Gonna Pay it!
Reason magazine’s Brian Doherty recently addressed the IRS’s recent announcement that bitcoin transactions are taxable. As I addressed in my last piece, while the…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
84 new regulations, from stair-climbing wheelchairs to crustacean irradiation.
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UAW Drops Volkswagen Union Election Appeal
Remember when the United Auto Workers lost in a unionization vote at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and filed an appeal to overturn the…
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The NLRB Shows Union Favoritism
Unions have always had special privileges in America, but ever since 1973, when United States v. Enmons exempted them from compliance with the Hobbs Act,…
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CEI, Former State Department Officials Defend Freedom of Contract in Supreme Court Case against Argentina
[caption id="attachment_74355" align="alignright" width="300"] Argentina President Cristina Kirchner[/caption] Can a country seeking to welsh on its debts invoke sovereign immunity to evade not just court…
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CEI Podcast for April 17, 2014: Brexit Strategy
Iain Murray, CEI's Vice President for Strategy, along with Freedom Association Director Rory Broomfield, won second place Institute for Economic Affairs' Brexit Competition. The goal…
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Paycheck Protection and Union Dishonesty
Paycheck protection and right-to-work are under siege in Missouri’s continuing labor fight.
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CEI Testifies against National Labor Relations Board Rule to Allow Ambush Elections
On three separate panels, I testified last week against the flaws inherent in the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) latest proposed rule. The NLRB…
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First Ever Constitutional Ruling against Dodd-Frank Voids Destructive “Conflict Minerals” Section
Today’s ruling of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that Dodd-Frank’s "conflict minerals" disclosure mandate violates the First Amendment is the first time ever a court has…
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Encouraging News about Honeybee Health
A recently released study in Europe reports some good news about honeybee health, which should prompt public officials to reexamine a recent ban on…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
59 new regulations, from rearview cameras to pocket gophers.
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Unions Attack Right-to-Work
The battle over Right-to-Work is heating up in Missouri, as proponents and opponents pour on the rhetoric.
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Wasserman on cy pres
University of Pittsburgh Law Professor Rhonda Wasserman has a paper on cy pres forthcoming in the USC Law Review, “Cy Pres in Class Action…
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Unconstitutionally Overbroad New Jersey Anti-Bullying Law Challenged; Reference To “Head Lice” Deemed “Bullying”
New Jersey's anti-bullying law, which applies to the state's schools and universities, is so overly broad that a fourth-grader was punished just for…
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CEI’s WorkplaceChoice.org Scores Paycheck Fairness Act
The Competitive Enterprise Institute scored Wednesday’s vote in the U.S. Senate on the passage of S. 3772, The Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that would…
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EEOC Loses Hypocritical Lawsuit against Employer over Background Checks
"In this case the EEOC sued the defendants for using the same type of background check that the EEOC itself uses." So began a…
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Pompeo-Butterfield Food Labeling Bill: Valuable But Needs Work
Earlier today, Reps. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) and G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) introduced a bill in the House that would establish federal standards for the labeling of…
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Administration’s Lack of Transparency Extends to States; The Independence Institute Reports New Findings
Although President Obama occasionally clings to the claim that his administration is the “most transparent” in history, with more and more revelations, this gets farther…
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Threatening Free Speech, New Jersey Court Allows Parents to Be Sued for Children’s Facebook Posts
Earlier, we wrote about a Wisconsin town whose ordinance holds parents liable for bullying by their children, including certain speech. We and law professor…
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CEI Podcast for April 9, 2014: A Consumer’s Guide to Chemical Risk
Senior Fellow Angela Logomasini talks about her new Consumer's Guide to Chemical Risk.
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Opening brief in Pearson v. NBTY, Inc., No. 14-1198 (7th Cir.)
In a settlement of several class actions over the labeling of glucosamine supplements, class counsel settled for a claims process that paid the class under…
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Professional Licensing: A Risk to the Free Markets and Freedom of Speech
From physicians to dentists to lawyers, the licensing requirements of many professions are well known—but for bloggers? A recent case in North Carolina demonstrates the…
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Food Policy Fight: Junk Study on Vegetarian Diet
Log on to Twitter and you might read: "A vegetarian diet is associated with poorer health, a higher need for health care, and poorer quality…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
79 new regulations, from whistleblowers to watermelon promotion.
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In re Apple MagSafe Power Adapter Litigation oral argument in the Ninth Circuit Tuesday
Class counsel collected $3.1 million in the Apple MagSafe Power Adapter Litigation, but their putative clients received less than $900,000, and perhaps even less than $500,000—the…
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Is High-Frequency Trading a Form of Front-Running?
On 60 Minutes, Michael Lewis accused high-frequency traders of front-running. Apparently it’s become necessary to remind critics of high-frequency trading of the definition of “front-running.” Front-running – n. “The…
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CEI Podcast for April 3, 2014: Clean Air Act Costs and Benefits
Senior Fellow William Yeatman is skeptical of an EPA report claiming the Clean Air Act will have nearly $2 trillion in annual benefits by 2020.
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Is the Stock Market Really Rigged?
Everyone seems to be jumping into the debate about high-frequency trading, now that Michael Lewis is peddling his new book, Flash Boys. Lewis contends…
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Consumer’s Guide to Chemical Risk
Will these chemicals make me fat? That sounds like a weird question, but some consumers may actually have such worries, thanks to a constant barrage…
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Taxable Bitcoins: Property or Money?
Is Bitcoin currency or property? It depends on which parts of the federal government you ask. Last week the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that bitcoins…
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Why Is Obama’s Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulation Delayed?
In April 2013, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued its Draft 2013 Report to Congress on the…
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Ryan FY 2015 Budget Calls for Transportation Funding Rationalization
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., released his FY 2015 budget today. In just three pages, he calls for surprisingly sensible reforms to…
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U.N.’s Narrative of Fear on Climate Change
In their latest report on climate change, officials at the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) once again fail to address important developments in…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
64 new regulations, from refrigerators to Korean chicken.
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Why and How I’m Celebrating Human Achievement Hour
"Better to light one incandescant bulb than curse the darkness" Tonight is Human Achievement Hour, a time to celebrate human progress and…
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Human Achievement of the Day: Hydrogen Power from Plants
Early in the week I wrote about a major breakthrough toward the peaceful use of nuclear fusion. While that type of energy could drastically…
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Interested in co-authoring a law review article?
I keep a list of law review articles I’d like to write. That list has grown to thirteen, ten of which are about class action…
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Human Achievement of the Day: Bionic Eyes
You won’t see the glory of human achievement if you abide by the World Wide Fund for Nature's recommendation that you spend an hour…