An American Indian tribe sued some of the world’s largest beer makers Thursday, claiming they knowingly contributed to devastating alcohol-related problems on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota said it is demanding $500 million in damages for the cost of health care, social services and child rehabilitation caused [...]
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The first new U.S. nuclear power plant in a generation won approval Thursday as federal regulators voted to grant a license for two new reactors in the southern state of Georgia. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted 4-1 to approve Southern Co.’s request to build two nuclear reactors at its Vogtle site. The vote clears the [...]
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The U.S. House voted to strengthen the ban on insider trading by members of Congress and other government officials amid a record-low public approval rating of the way lawmakers do their work. The measure, approved 417-2 today in Washington, would bar members of Congress, their staffs and some executive branch workers from trading stocks, commodities [...]
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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called Wednesday for a state teachers union chief to resign, after the union boss said in an interview that “life’s not always fair” while arguing against vouchers to send poor students to private schools. Christie, who has clashed repeatedly with the union over his education proposals, called the remark “outrageous” [...]
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Indiana, which seems like it’s on a jobs roll, got some more good news on Wednesday. Toyota will invest $400 million in its plant in Princeton, and add 400 new jobs. The move, which we reported at Changing Gears, is happening because Toyota is shifting production of the Highlander, a mid-sized SUV, to Princeton from [...]
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The American public’s dependence on the federal government shot up 23% in just two years under President Obama, with 67 million now relying on some federal program, according to a newly released study by the Heritage Foundation. The conservative think tank’s annual Index of Dependence on Government tracks money spent on housing, health, welfare, education [...]
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At first blush, the announcement that President Obama’s campaign is encouraging donors to give to the supposedly outside group supporting his candidacy would appear to violate the laws separating the two organizations. But technically, it is legal, according to the Federal Election Commission and watchdog groups. In an email to supporters yesterday, Obama campaign manager [...]
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For the first time in decades, union power is under serious threat. Indiana is on the verge of becoming the 23rd state to enact a right-to-work law, liberating workers from being forced to join a union. New Hampshire may also adopt some form of right-to-work. Murmurs about a national right-to-work law are growing. Public sector [...]
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I always love to watch the commercials during the Super Bowl. They are often humorous and typically play into all sorts of stereotypes about Americans and life in America. This year, I felt many of the ads missed the mark a bit (really, GoDaddy?), though there were a few gems to be sure (Acura NSX [...]
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Wednesday was not a good day for Mitt Romney or economics. First Governor Romney said, “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there — if it needs repair, I’ll fix it.” Later, trying to dig out, he reaffirmed his previous support for automatic raises in the minimum wage. This is [...]
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When it comes to the unemployment rate, it’s nice to be president. Sure, it wasn’t so nice for President Obama in October 2009, when the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics declared the rate was 10 percent. But exactly a year from Election Day 2012, the rate began a precipitous plunge, first to 8.9 percent, then [...]
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President Obama in a pre-Super Bowl interview aired on Sunday said that despite being unable to completely turn the economy around in three years, he still deserves to be re-elected. “I deserve a second term but we’re not done,” Obama told NBC’s Matt Lauer in an interview broadcast from the White House. Lauer noted that [...]
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Anger against Congress, federal bureaucrats, lobbyists and all that is Washington has been boiling over in America’s Heartland—with good reason. The nation’s capital spews out toxic solutions to correct non-problems and never ceases to amaze with its hypocrisy. Too harsh? Here’s the proof: The Top 10 ways Washington annoys the Heartland. 1. Budgetary blues Imagine, [...]
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Church vows to use courts and legislation to fight ‘un-American’ requirement for religious employers to provide contraception to workers with government-required health insurance. The Catholic Church reacted strongly Friday to a White House defense of new rules that will force many religious employers to provide contraception to their workers in government-mandated health insurance plans. “The White House information about [...]
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The legislature of Washington State is considering a bill that will declare gold and silver legal tender within the state. This ought to have been done long ago, by all the states. Long ago, I mean, as early as 1871 when the Supreme Court overruled its own decision of two years earlier in Hepburn v. Griswold that the [...]
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