One More Nail in the Coffin
The California high-speed rail funding plan is “not financially feasible” says a peer-review committee created by the state legislature to review that plan. Various media reports suggest that this finding significantly reduces the likelihood that the legislature will approve the plan. This is after the rail authority admitted that it inflated job estimates, claiming that […]
New HHS Regs Endanger HSAs, High-Deductible Plans, #thanksobamacare
A new Obama administration rule could drive out of the market the low-cost, high deductible plans that are supposed to be available under ObamaCare. That would likely mean a sharp jump in taxpayer subsidies. Continue reading
Vestas stock gets blown away following bad news
This morning’s market headlines out of Europe aren’t kind to Vestas Wind Systems. The Copenhagen based wind turbine company with a significant presence in Weld and Pueblo Counties saw its stock drop 16 percent by the end of trading to closing under $59 per share, reflecting a trend investors have suffered since the end of […]
Market not keen on green energy stocks
This article originally appeared in the Estes Park Trail-Gazette. Author Jon Nicholas discussed it in more detail on The Amy Oliver Show on News Talk 1310 KFKA. Vestas, Green Energy Sold Short By Jon Nicholas Colorado has become a leader in government subsidizing green jobs. A major beneficiary of those state and local subsidies has […]
Teachers Matter: New Book Highlights 2012 Importance of Educator Effectiveness
This new year brings a lot to get excited about, and get busy about: 2012 brings the need to move forward on important education issues. One such major issue is how Colorado K-12 public schools recruit, hire, pay, evaluate and retain their teachers. An important contribution compiling all the key research on the question is the new book Teachers Matter by Manhattan Institute senior fellow Marcus Winters. Click through to watch a professionally-made 5-minute video on Winters’ book.
Another Year, Another Set of Transit Lies
“For the average American driver, the time wasted in traffic jams has more than doubled in 30 years,” reports Eleanor Randolph in the New York Times. “The best way of easing that gridlock — not to mention saving gas, curbing pollution and finally finishing that novel — is public transit.” Two simple sentences; two complicated […]
Another Treasure Hunt: Tracking Down Bits from the American Founding
Every once in a while I tell about one of my historical treasure hunts. Here’s another: When the Constitution was being debated, Anti-Federalists warned that it contained insufficient safeguards against an overweening government. They asserted that some constitutional language could be twisted by unscrupulous advocates of “big government” to justify centralized federal power. The argument […]
#ThanksObamacare for ineffective authoritarian health plan rate review
Progress Now and the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative “thank Obamacare” for allowing “states to require insurance companies to justify premium increases. But data on insurance premiums does not show that these controls lower premiums. Yet, they do violate our rights to free-trade & have potential harmful consequences. Continue reading
Urban Renewal Dead in California
California cities do not have a constitutionally given right to steal money from schools and other tax districts to use for their crony capitalism and social engineering, says the California Supreme Court when it rejected a law suit brought by urban redevelopment agencies against a state law abolishing them. As a result, barring new legislation […]
