Live Blogging the Megabus
As has been widely reported, the Antiplanner is taking the Megabus to New York City today. I’ve been on the Megabus before from New York to Washington, but this is my first trip in the other direction. Taking Megabus at a cost of $8 cost the Antiplanner an extra hour of sleep but saved Fox […]
Thank the Internal Combustion Engine
American forests are growing 42 percent faster than they are being cut and 380 percent faster than they were growing back in 1920. At least, that was true in 2000 when this report evaluating the state of forests in the United States was published by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Though the report is […]
From ACORN to Working America: AFT Spends $2.6 Million in 2009-10 Dues on Advocacy Groups
Most teachers union members in Colorado are affiliated with the National Education Association, but a smaller (though significant) number belong to the American Federation of Teachers. Some of that AFT dues money goes to national headquarters. How is some of that money spent?
Well, union organizations under federal oversight annually have to post a financial disclosure […]
Don’t Shoot, But Is the Parent Trigger Idea Ready to Giddy Up in Colorado?
Here we are waist-deep into Colorado’s legislative session (at least I’m waist-deep, most big people are probably more like knee-deep). Word on the street is that a bill is coming (like one adopted in California and proposed in Georgia) that would empower parents to reform low-performing schools. Wouldn’t that be neat to see a Colorado version of the “Parent Trigger” ready to Giddy Up!
ObamaCare may sink like the Titanic
“The RMS Titanic remains the quintessential metaphor that symbolizes avoidable but inexorable downfall because of hubris and incompetence. In our new century, Obamacare may supplant it,” writes Milton Wolf. He explains why in “USS Obamacare takes on more water,” published in the Washington Times.
Obama’s 2012 Transportation Budget
“The Obama administration’s embrace of high-speed rail . . . ignores history, evidence and logic,” argues Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson. “The case against it is overwhelming. The case in favor rests on fashionable platitudes. High-speed rail,” he concludes, “is not an ‘investment in the future’; it’s mostly a waste of money.” Yet Obama’s 2012 […]
Ben DeGrow (and Cookie Monster?) Talk Falcon Innovation on Jeff Crank Show
It’s been more than a week since my last update about the cost-saving, cutting-edge innovation going on in Colorado’s Falcon School District 49. Last Thursday, after the Ed News Colorado feature was republished on the Education Week site, one of the Fordham Institute’s Flypaper bloggers reacted favorably by noting Falcon’s innovation could serve as a […]
CDPHE Lied about HB 1365 Deadline, Coloradans Pay the Price
Usually, it takes about 18 months for the PUC to deliberate a major acquisition plan for new power plants. For HB 1365, however, the PUC decided on a $1.3 billion plan, affecting almost 1,000 megawatts of electricity generation, in only four months. According to the PUC staff (p 14), the truncated timeline shortchanged the vetting […]
The Road To Socialized Medicine Is Paved With Pre-existing Conditions – The Objectivist – – Forbes
The government takeover of medicine & medical insurance has been an incremental process. At Forbes.com, read about the “general pattern of the expansion [where] advocates point to some group in real or alleged dire need and declare that Washington has a duty to act.”
Another Smart-Growth Plot?
“Under Obama’s proposal, fewer to own homes,” reported the Antiplanner’s local paper. The paper was reprinting an article from the New York Times, whose original headline was the slightly less inflammatory, “Administration calls for cutting aid to homebuyers.” Is this another smart-growth plot to restrict homeownership only to the wealthy? Or is it a rational […]
Colorado State Board Begins to Wrestle with Kit Carson Innovation Plan
Yesterday the superintendent of one of Colorado’s smallest school districts came before the State Board of Education. Kit Carson R-1’s Gerald Keefe was there to answer questions about his district’s innovation proposal. This wouldn’t surprise you at all if you listened to one of the newest podcasts produced by my Education Policy Center friends, in […]
How Can Congress Spend All that Money? – Part II
In my last post, I explained that Congress obtains authority to spend money from its enumerated powers. All of those powers inherently require some expenditures—at least to buy the pen and ink needed to write the laws. Some powers, such as the power to “maintain a Navy” (Art. I, Sec. 8, cl. 13) require expenditure […]
