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USPS Bailout on the Horizon
Before we even come close to paying off our current government-sponsored enterprises (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) or recoup taxpayer dollars from Federal bailouts (General Motors…
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TSA Chatterboxes Not as Friendly as they Seem
You may get some extra-special attention from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in the near future — but this isn’t just another pat-down or…
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Congress Shall Make No Law…
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Morning Media Summary
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Bloomberg on Energy
Mayor Bloomberg, America’s chief nanny regulator, is moving on to bigger things -- energy! During the recent heat spell he urged New Yorkers to turn down…
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Nutella Wars
In a few weeks, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California will hear arguments in a consumer lawsuit against Ferrero, the maker…
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Welcome to What Recovery?
Today, August 3, 2011, marks the one year anniversary of Treasure Secretary Tim Geithner’s op-ed in The New York Times, ostentatiously titled “Welcome…
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Robert Reich Doesn’t Understand Surface Transportation Funding
Over at Salon, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has a predictably empty article on the debt ceiling deal in which he denounces Republicans for…
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August 20 Is Lemonade Freedom Day
Robert Fernandes, a father of two, has had enough. That's why he has declared August 20, 2011 to be Lemonade Freedom Day.
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Police Shut Down Another Rogue Lemonade Stand
Abigail Krutsinger, 4, never applied for a permit and a health inspection.
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Egregious Abuses by Expert Witnesses and Family Courts
The Seattle Times recently featured a special report about a psychological "expert witness" who destroyed countless lives in the court cases in which…
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Morning Media Summary
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Kicking the Can Farther Down the Road
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Congressman Mike Doyle: $3.5 Trillion in Spending is Too Little for the Government to “Spend Any Money”
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Cohen Rants About the Tea Party — Our Civilization is at Risk
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Morning Media Summary
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License to Rent-Seek
Few regulations are more blatantly anti-competitive than occupational licensing.
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Gender Quotas Spread in Europe, Mandated for Corporate Boards
After Norway adopted gender quotas for corporate boards -- requiring companies to have boards of directors comprised of at least 40 percent women -- large…
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Don’t Block the Debt Limit Deal Over Possible Pentagon Spending Cuts
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Morning Media Summary
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Regulation of the Day 191: Sippy Cups
New York’s state legislature just passed a bill requiring warning labels to be put on all sippy cups sold in the state.
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Bipartisan Regulatory Reform
Usually, "bipartisan" means "twice as stupid." But for real regulatory reform to happen, both parties need to be involved.
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The Limits of Government-Funded Psychology: 9/11 Counseling Backfires
After school shootings, psychologists fan out and provide “grief counseling” to student bodies, but it’s far from clear that this does any good. Critics say…
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CEI Weekly: Debt Ceiling Deadline Approaches
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Legislative Band-Aids Won’t Fix the NLRA
Openmarket.org The House will vote on the Jobs Protection from Government Interference Act today. Sponsor Rep. Tim Scott and other representatives of Congress have proposed…
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Regulation of the Day 190: How to Behave While in a Forest
Since time immemorial, Cook County, Illinois has had very strict personal conduct regulations for its forests. Among other things, it has been illegal to:…
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They Aren’t Math Majors
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False Prophets of Debt Ceiling Doom
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Legislative Band-Aids Won’t Fix the NLRA
The House will vote on the Jobs Protection from Government Interference Act today. Sponsor Rep. Tim Scott and other representatives of Congress have proposed numerous…
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Flash Mobs, Disobedience, and Democracy
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Stop Messing with My Daughter’s Happy Meal!
There are apples and other fruit sitting around my house, and my four-year-old daughter can eat an apple anytime. By contrast, she seldom gets to…
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Subprime Double Standards
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The Believing Brain
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Hispanic-Americans Latest Victims in FHA Bait-and-Switch Politics
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CEI Podcast for July 28, 2011: Immigration Reform
President Obama made a speech on immigration reform this week. Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh dissects several bills already in Congress that would do just that,…
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Regulation of the Day 189: Naming Your Baby
New Zealand’s Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages has a list of names that are verboten for newborn babies.
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Boehner and House Republicans Improve Their Debt Ceiling Bill
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Mandatory Data Retention Rears its Ugly Head Again
This morning the House Judiciary Committee began markup on H.R. 1981, the “Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011,” which would among other things force…
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Trial Lawyer Sues Father of Three Children Killed in Crash; Why the Right to Criticize Lawyers is Vital
When you criticize lawyers or the legal system, thin-skinned lawyers get indignant. The head of the State Bar of California, Harvey Saferstein, called for…
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Thousands of Jobs and Billions in Wealth Wiped Out by Dodd-Frank Conflict Minerals Provision
Thanks to the "conflict minerals" provisions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, thousands of the world's poorest people will lose their jobs. Why? Simply because they…
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Morning Media Summary
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Objection in Trombley v. National City Bank
The D.C. Circuit is correct, I think, in holding that an attorneys’ fee in a class action should be calculated as a percentage as the…
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Regulation of the Day 188: Cat Licenses
San Diego's city government is going through tough financial times. But legislators have found a lucrative possible revenue source: the city’s 373,000 cats. The city…
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Legislating Morality
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Government Promoted the Risky Non-Traditional Mortgages that Triggered the Financial Crisis
Ed Pinto, who was an executive at Fannie Mae long before it went into the toilet and nearly took the financial system down with it,…
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High Food Prices: Another Reason To Get Rid Of Farm Handouts
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal article highlights another reason why farm subsidies need to be put to rest. Land…
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Regulation of the Day 187: Pedicabs
The DC City Council wants to require pedicab passengers to wear seatbelts.
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More Confusion on Breast Cancer Screening
When the federal government's Preventive Services Task Force recommended in November 2009 that most women under age 50 should stop having regular…
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Morning Media Summary
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Obama Administration Crafting Yet Another Bailout: Speculators and McMansion Owners May Benefit
As if America didn't already have enough bailouts, the Obama administration is planning yet another -- one that could enrich "McMansion homeowners and property…
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Aim for Multilateral Trade Pact — Bilaterals Replete with Protectionist Demands, says Bhagwati
In yesterday’s New York Times, trade economist Jagdish Bhagwati takes the Obama administration and Congress to task for letting the World Trade Organization’s Doha…
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Judge Rules against SEIU in Fight with another Union
A judge has ruled that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) improperly benefited from an employer threatening workers with loss of raises in a 2010 election in California…
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On KOGO (San Diego) 1:05 pm today
I will be on the LaDona Live program on KOGO (San Diego), 600 AM at 1:05 PM Pacific, talking about CCAF’s objection in…
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Morning Media Summary
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CEI Weekly: SEIU Encourages Members to Break Law
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History Lesson for Harry Reid *Contest Opportunity: Win a T-Shirt!*
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The ALEC Controversy — Much Ado About Nothing
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Failure is Not a (Government) Option
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Morning Media Summary
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Un-Essential Air Service
Want to get to Vegas from Ely, Nevada? How about a $5,223 plane ticket? Don’t worry. Its price tag is only $149…
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Why Not the Era of Innovation?
On Thursday, Russia boasted that the world was now moving into the “Era of the Soyuz.” With the landing of the last U.S. shuttle, the…
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Killed by Regulations: New Century Brewing, RIP
Add another name to the list of the dead as a result of actions taken by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). I certainly feel a…
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Regulation of the Day 186: Missing Children
Covington, Kentucky police ordered a grieving grandmother to take down fliers of her missing granddaughter from city property.
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Steve Wynn: Obama is the “Greatest Wet Blanket to Business and Progress and Job Creation in My Lifetime”
Even Democratic businessmen are getting disenchanted with the Obama administration and its knee-jerk hostility to anything that creates jobs or wealth. Las Vegas mogul…
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Flirting with Austerity: Congress Considers Ending Agriculture Direct Payment Subsidies
Finally. After several years of persistence, it looks like the movement to reform the agriculture direct payments system is finally gaining some momentum. It…
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CEI Podcast for July 21, 2011: Stopping the Music
Labor Policy Counsel Vinnie Vernuccio, who coauthored a recent op-ed in the New York Daily News, finds that labor unions, by resisting necessary changes and…
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Morning Media Summary
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National Security Agency: The “Enron” of U.S. Intelligence
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Wasteful Education Spending Continues Despite Laughable Claim that Spending has Been Cut to the Bone
As Heather MacDonald notes, California state universities still are wasting plenty of money despite dishonestly claiming to have cut spending "to the bone”:…
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Competitors: Stop That Merger!
Real competition happens in the market. Not in Washington.
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Scientific American Busts Organic Food Myths
Over at the Scientific American magazine blogs, science writer Christie Wilcox takes on some of the mythology surrounding organic foods, including the…
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Morning Media Summary
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Nominee Richard Cordray Supports Price Controls and Borrower Bailouts
Last Thursday, before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau architect Elizabeth Warren insisted that her priority was not to ban certain…
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Federal Job Security
More workers die than get fired at many federal agencies.
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CCAF objection in Blessing v. Sirius XM Radio
The Center for Class Action Fairness LLC objected today to a valueless class action settlement: the objection, filed in the Southern District of New…
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Free Speech versus Compelled Praise for Diversity
Can the government force those it licenses to parrot its praise for "diversity"? The Colorado Department of Human Services Child Care Division thinks so, issuing…
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Morning Media Summary
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Regulation of the Day 185: How to Wear Pants
Collinsville, Illinois officials know that when you look good, you feel good. That’s why they are now regulating the height at which people shall wear…
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Alcohol Regulation Roundup: July 19, 2011
California: In an attempt to lower the rates of minors drinking alcohol, a bill is being pushed that would prevent grocery store patrons from…
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Another Shot at Pennsylvania Liquor Privatization
Ah, Pennsylvania: home sweet home. The state known for its soft pretzels, Hershey’s chocolate and Sylvester Stallone statues. Unfortunately, it has also…
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Police Shut Down Renegade Lemonade Stand
Vendors inside the car show didn't appreciate the competition. So they talked the city government into passing a new ordinance that put the girls out…
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Regulation of the Day 184: Picking up Dog Poop
A Vienna, Austria man was recently jailed for not picking up after his Great Danes.
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British Social Workers Tear Apart Happy Families, Seize Children from Loving Parents
In Britain, social workers and child-protective services are tearing apart happy families, and seizing children from loving parents "for no good reason," notes Christopher…
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Morning Media Summary
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Permit More Permits, Please
Want jobs? The National Ocean Industries Association and the American Petroleum Institute have the answer: restore the number of exploration and offshore drilling permits…
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The President’s Health Care Fables
The president pushed the health care bill through Congress using a series of fables -- health insurance horror stories…
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Liquor Wholesaler Domination in Washington, D.C.
Terroirist blogger David White has posted a good commentary on the Specialty Wine Retailers Association report on alcohol wholesaler spending: “Toward…
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Greens’ “Skin-Deep” Science on Sunscreen
It’s summer and, not surprisingly, environmental activists at the Environmental Working Group (EWG) are publishing summer-themed scare reports. This year, they “update” their a…
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Stealing You Blind: Some Solutions to Over-Government
The central theme of my new book Stealing You Blind is that America is over-governed – at federal, state, and local level (there’s a…
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NYC Bureaucrat Tries to Harsh Urban Apiarist’s Buzz for Not “Watering” Beehive
Although New York City reversed its position on urban beekeeping in Spring 2010 and legalized the practice, there are apparently still some government employees with…
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Morning Media Summary
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Obama Administration Funds Special-Interest Groups, Wipes Out Jobs, Refuses to Cut Wasteful Spending
The EPA has donated millions to the very environmental groups that routinely sue it. Then, when they sue it, it gives them millions…
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CEI Podcast for July 14, 2011: The Incandescent Light Bulb Ban
Have a listen here. Earlier this week, General Electric (GE) CEO Jeffrey Immelt gave a speech at a conference on free enterprise. Energy Policy…
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Debt Ceiling Deal of 1996 Set Regulatory Reform Precedent
In National Review this week, Wayne Crews and I make the case for including regulatory reform in a debt ceiling package. "Any hike in…
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$130,000 in Stimulus Funds Spent for Book on “White Privilege” that Attacks Colorblindness
The Omaha Public Schools spent $130,000 in federal stimulus funds to buy a diversity manual for 8,000 teachers, administrators, support staffers -- even…
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Morning Media Summary
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Massachusetts’ Collective Bargaining Law: A Worry for the Obama Administration?
It's not easy being a governor or state legislator these days. With states facing deep budget deficits, state lawmakers around the nation are working to…
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Morning Media Summary
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Fannie Mae Played a Bigger Role in the Financial Crisis than Previously Thought
In the Wall Street Journal, Peter Wallison, who prophetically warned against the risky practices of mortgage giant Fannie Mae, describes the key role…
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