Federal Interference in State Highway Public-Private Partnerships Is Unwarranted
Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), chairmen of the top transportation committees of the U.S. House of Representatives, recently sent a misleading and most unhelpful letter to...
View ArticleCongressional Leaders Flunk Transportation Policy 101
If anyone needed evidence that Congress can screw up transportation policy on a grand scale, look no further than Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN) and Rep. Peter DeFazio's (D-OR) letter to governors and...
View ArticleYour Tax Dollars Send Government Officials To Conference in Hawaii on...
As Dr. Coburn has reminded us time and time again of the millions of dollars spent on sending government employees to conferences in exotic locations, we see another opportunity to point out this...
View ArticleAnd The Politics of Meddling Continues
May 24th - an "expert panel" at the Institute of Medicine released a "blueprint" on further federal regulation and taxation of tobacco products, among other great ideas. This report was immediately...
View ArticleSupply and Demand Trumps Neutrality
Richard Martin at InformationWeek reviews some of the obvious reasons why network neutrality is a bad idea. But what I liked best was his observation that some of the same regulators (FCC Commissioners...
View ArticleThe zero emissions endgame
I'm not one to bash ideals like zero emissions or zero waste--if the price was right, who wouldn't want a net zero energy home? It's when that key piece of information--price--is left out of the...
View ArticleSpiderman and Schwarzenegger
In the blockbuster Spider-Man 3, Spider-Man/Peter Parker finds himself waging a war of the soul.The friendly neighborhood Spider-Man—the one defined by humanity, righteousness and justice—is pitted...
View ArticleOne Less Tax on Telecom, At Least in Texas
The Texas legislature took long overdue steps to ease some of the tax burden on consumers, voting last week to end the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF). The TIF repeal will save Texans...
View ArticleRevised--Florida and Franchise Reform
I busted my own post Friday in which I mused as to whether the Florida's franchise reform bill, Consumer Choice Act of 2007 (HB 529), which was signed into law by Gov. Charlie Crist last week, killed...
View ArticleStand Down, Trans Fat Fighters
Attention Mr. and Mrs. America:Armies of activists and politicians think you've let yourselves go, and the foot soldiers in the "War on Fat" will do just about anything to get you to their target...
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Update on California's dim bulb law
It looks like an all-out ban on incandescent light bulbs is off the table in California for the time being. AB 722, which would have banned sale of traditional light bulbs in the state by 2012, has...
View ArticleDam the Salmon
The Wall Street Journal Al Gore has been hectoring Americans to pare back their lifestyles to fight global warming. But if Mr. Gore wants us to rethink our priorities in the face of this mother of all...
View ArticleMoney Talks
Edutopia Magazine As an education policy analyst, it has been my good fortune to visit many appealing, high-performing schools. On many occasions, I have been struck by a sense of "good-school envy," a...
View Article21st-Century Tolling: Unexpected Result of PPP Controversies
Public Works Financing An amazing thing has happened during debates on PPP toll concessions during the first half of 2007. The old 20th-century model of tolls as simply the minimum amount needed to pay...
View ArticleThe Bald Eagle's Worst Enemy: How Federal Law Pits Landowners Against Eagles
The recovery of the bald eagle in the lower 48 states is a huge conservation success. But the lion's share of credit for the eagle's recovery should go to the 1972 ban of the pesticide DDT, not the...
View Article16th Annual Report on the Performance of State Highway Systems (1984-2005)
Nearly 52 percent of U.S. urban Interstates are now congested and traffic fatality rates rose slightly, but road surface conditions and bridge conditions improved according to the Reason Foundation’s...
View ArticleAnd the winner is ...
Josh from Lake Balboa! He's the winner of our "Most Congested Commute in LA" contest. Reason teamed up with John & Ken from KFI AM640 to find Josh and now he gets to skip the gridlock grind for a...
View ArticleFranchise Reform News ñ Nevada and Illinois
Nevada Gov. Jim. Gibbons signed AB 526 Monday, creating a statewide franchising process in the Silver State. Compared to similar legislation in other states, where reform has taken a year or two to...
View ArticleHe Said What!
Warning: This Blog Post is Rated TV-MA I first thought this Wall Street Journal Law Blog post was a joke. But, no, the link is real. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's statement in reaction to a Second...
View ArticleSullivan Reintroduces Small Biz Legislation
From the press shop of Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK) - "Yesterday, Congressman John Sullivan reintroduced H.R. 2558, the Government Neutrality in Contracting Act. In 2001, President Bush issued an...
View ArticlePPIC: "CA Voters: What They Donít Know Could Hurt Us?"
The latest Public Policy Institute of California statewide poll is a zinger-- Although California has substantial debt and a large, ongoing budget gap, 64 percent of likely voters support Governor...
View ArticleFace it, Muni Wireless Is a Bust
From the reporting of the event, the atmosphere of Esme Vos' MuniWireless 07: New England this week has been downright dour. Recent press reports, from AP, to InformationWeek to The Economist, had...
View ArticleMass transit unsustainability
I take a shot at mass transit, arguing it is an unsustainable transportation investment, in my most recent contribution to the Planetizen.com blog here.
View ArticleThe latest on transportation funding in Texas
A June 5th Bond Buyer article gives a great overview of the current state of affairs in TX transportation funding, after a rollercoaster legislative session that included a "swiss cheese," 2-year...
View ArticlePatenting the Obvious
Are patents bad for innovation? Sure, some sort of legal protection is needed to encourage entrepreneurs to develop new processes and techniques and bring those inventions to market. But when...
View ArticleThe Case for the Toll Road
North County Times Southern California is the congestion capital of the U.S.A. According to the latest national study by the Texas Transportation Institute, commuters in Los Angeles/Orange County spent...
View ArticleUnholy Alliances
Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong goes before the North Carolina State Bar this week to defend his conduct that led to indictments against three Duke lacrosse players for rape. In April, North...
View ArticleHouston: Case Study in Opportunity Urbanism
Today's Houston Chronicle ran a fantastic op-ed by Houston Strategies blogger Tory Gattis articulating the case for Houston as a model of the 21st century, dynamic city of opportunity. There's a...
View ArticleGetting the State Out of the Liquor Business
A Pennsylvania State Senator is continuing his crusade to privatize the state's liquor stores -- or at least sell of 51% of the system to investors to "wring out inefficiencies." Republican Sen. Rob...
View ArticleFederal Agencies Fund Conferences to Plot Strategies for More Conference...
Today, Sen. Tom Coburn released a scathing report on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and waste of taxpayer dollars. In the 115 page report, example after example of taxpayer funding abuse is...
View ArticleDenver RTD Eyes Transit PPPs
Though they've been getting all the headlines lately, it's useful to keep in mind that public-private partnerships (PPPs) in transportation aren't just for highways: RTD took one giant leap and one...
View ArticleBring Back Internet Gambling
Note: Reason Senior Editor Radley Balko testified before the House Financial Services Committee on June 8, 2007 on the issue of Internet gambling. The following is the transcript of his prepared...
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XM/Sirius vs. NAB
I was walking down Connecticut Ave in NW Washington DC today when I came across this sign hanging from the National Association of Broadcasters' building: A little background - NAB is opposing a...
View ArticleA(nother) ban is born
You don't have to live in the San Francisco Bay Area to see how extreme smoking bans are born: tune in live (online) at 7:30 tonight and watch deliberations on the latest iteration of the now-infamous...
View ArticleThe "problem" is wealth (again)
Rich Lowry on the inevitability of auto travel: Americans have arrived at an answer to high gas prices and concerns about global warming â buy more cars. According to a report in The New York Times,...
View ArticleIn case you missed it ...
I've discovered that the early May Reason/LA Press Club book party for my former boss John Stossel is on Youtube. Part one of John's brief talk is here; part two here. Also online is an LA Press Club...
View ArticleWhen Did Profit Become a Bad Word?
An editorial in today's Herald-Dispatch (Huntington, WV) discusses privatization. It makes a couple pretty good points -- the need for performance measures and strong contract oversight and...
View ArticleWhatever Happened to Federalism?
The simple answer is nothing. Last time I checked the 10th Amendment was still part of the Constitution giving states broad authority to manage and operate as they see fit. Sadly, two Congressmen...
View ArticleThe Ethanol Shuffle
Talking to a reporter about ethanol today reminded me how many classic elements of bad policy are wrapped up in the ethanol issue. Ethanol started as a bust. Originally pushed as an additive to...
View ArticleEnvironmental Timetables Built for Style, Not Substance
Timetables are taboo in President Bush's strategy for the Iraq war, but in energy and environmental policy, they're as trendy as can be.Of these, the Kyoto Protocol is perhaps the best-known...
View ArticleCalifornia: Nanny State Trendsetter?
Christian Probasco has written an article called "California Looms" for New West about California nanny statism and other legislative tomfoolery. Probasco fears that the legislative excesses of...
View ArticleAdd Massachusetts to the List...
Of states talking about leasing assets -- e.g., turnpike, lottery -- former Mass Governor William Weld has been hitting the capital hard, talking to anyone who will listen about the merits of...
View ArticlePaycheck Protection, the Supreme Court, & School Choice
The Evergreen Freedom Foundation has won a huge legal battle today. Today the United States Supreme Court announced it has overturned the Washington Supreme Court's ruling in Washington v. Washington...
View ArticleNew York is for car lovers?
Well, not quite. But, the New York City long range plan has some pretty interesting data in it that shows transit may not be all its cracked up to be. The technical report to the transportation...
View ArticleLight rail derails business
A flurry of articles this week highlight a downside of light rail. Businesses along the construction route in Phoenix, which is in the midst of its $1.4 billion light rail development, are suffering,...
View ArticleGetting America Back on Track via the Transparency Train
The Transparency Train is rolling. The first beachhead was passage of the 'google government' bill last year by Dr. Coburn and, now, it appears that the sun will soon shine on earmarks. The next great...
View ArticleA summer read
Say you're about ready to dig your toes into the summer sand and do a bit of reading. If you want something saucier than a Reason Foundation study, but still want to advance liberty, why not check out...
View ArticleReason magazine's Radley Balko Testifies on Online Gaming
Reason magazine Senior Editor Radley Balko testifies before the House Financial Services Committee on efforts to regulate internet gambling. Click below to watch the video, and below that to see a...
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