Washington Post & CBS Corp. get ObamaCare money
Two mainstream news organizations are receiving hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars from Obamacare’s Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP)
A Crisis of Reserves
The Antiplanner continues to read recent books about the 2008 financial crisis, but there are definite diminishing returns. I just finished Roger Lowenstein‘s The End of Wall Street and found it disappointing. It covered almost exactly the same ground as Too Big to Fail, but unlike the latter book, which was based mainly on interviews, […]
Democracy Subverted: Colorado Senate Stifles HB 1291 Opposition
As I explained in a companion post, HB 1291, legislation that approves the Air Quality Control Commission’s Regional Haze State Implementation Plan, is an illegal rip-off. Thankfully, there’s a remedy: Senator Kevin Lundberg’s S. 237, would strip HB 1291 of its most cost-ineffective provisions, and thereby save ratepayers at least $100 million in unnecessary costs. […]
Primer: HB 1291, an Illegal Rip-off
What is HB 1291? On Monday, by a 58-7 vote, the Colorado House of Representatives passed HB 1291, legislation that approves the Air Quality Control Commission’s Regional Haze State Implementation Plan. HB 1291 comes before the Senate State Affairs Committee next Tuesday, April 19. What is a Regional Haze State Implementation Plan? In the 1977 […]
American Prospect Boosting Mike Miles’ Reform Cred? & Other Twitter Questions
The must-read, full-length education story of the week is a piece by Dana Goldstein at the American Prospect, titled “The Test Generation.” Before you think this little guy has gone completely loony tunes, you have to know a couple things:
The article is all about Colorado, and mainly about the implementation of Senate Bill 191, but […]
Mixed Messages from Fortune Magazine
On March 29, Colin Barr, a Fortune magazine financial writer, argues in a blog post that “housing prices will keep falling.” Just two weeks later, the cover story of the April 11 Fortune proclaims the “return of real estate” and says “it’s time to buy again.” They can’t both be right: either Fortune magazine is […]
Representative Looper a voice for ratepayers
My apologies to Representative Marsha Looper for not including her name as one of the seven no votes on HB 1291. As my colleague William Yeatman wrote, it was Rep. Looper along with Representative Jim Kerr who initially asked for a hearing on the Air Quality Control Commission’s State Implementation Plan that is the foundation […]
Have Colo. Springs Union Leaders Given Up Safeguarding “the Future of Children”?
About six weeks ago CSEA president Kevin Marshall said the Colorado Springs teachers union wanted bargaining negotiations closed to “safeguard the future of children.” According to a new Gazette story, it appears that the union reluctantly has agreed to jeopardize “the future of children” — well, maybe just a little bit — by agreeing to opening only one of many sessions (Friday, 4/15, 8 am – 8 pm, Jefferson Education Center, Colorado Springs). Whether transparency also comes to other sessions has yet to be decided.
News Flash: Xcel opposes new pro-consumer legislation
This is an update to our last post explaining how Xcel Energy has its way with the General Assembly. Xcel’s lobbying firm 5280 Strategies just updated the utility monopoly’s position on three bills mentioned in the previous post. Those positions were not available until after I published my piece yesterday. While I could have guessed […]
“Cuts Leave Patients With Medicaid Cards, but No Specialist to See” – NYTimes
Being enrolled in Medicaid does not guarantee that you get treatment, reports the New York Times. Also, “many … patients have jobs with private insurance but switch to Medicaid when they become pregnant, avoiding premiums, deductibles and co-payments.”
Back in the Air Again
The Antiplanner is in Washington DC today and tomorrow to participate in various meetings on transportation. Tomorrow (Friday), I’ll speak on Capitol Hill at a Cato forum on America’s transportation future. Alan Pisarski, the author of Commuting in America, will talk about the future of commuting. Clyde Hart of the American Bus Association will talk […]
Colorado and Michigan Taxpayers Both Still Underwriting Teachers Union Release Time
A year ago this time Colorado teachers unions were taking numerous taxpayer-funded leave days to lobby against Senate Bill 191 at the State Capitol. My Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow has written about the topic many times — first with a 2004 issue paper that found nearly $800,000 in taxpayer subsidies underwriting the practice.
The […]
