There is no other way to say it: it is hot in Texas this summer. Let's take Sunday, July 22, when the temperature in Austin reached about 105. Electricity use in ERCOT, the competitive portion of Texas’ electricity market covering about 80 percent of Texans, topped out at about 71,444 megawatts. The available capacity, or supply,...
The law takes sides, and that’s even true when it comes to parenting styles. In the latest New Jersey Law Journal, two family law attorneys explain how. “The laws governing family court actions can endorse or discourage a specific parenting style, which can be a factor in how parents are legally permitted to raise their children,” write...
From National Geographic to the praises of Al Gore, Georgetown has caught the attention of the media with its transition to a power supply of 100 percent renewable energy. The city touts the decision as making economic and environmental sense. But do the noble ideals of lower prices and improved environmental outcomes match the real...
In a recent article, Grace Toohey, criminal justice reporter for The Advocate in Baton Rouge penned these words regarding a new reentry program instituted at one of Louisiana’s larger state prison facilities: “In less than six months, one of the most dangerous and dreaded dormitories at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel has become one...
President Trump’s Council of Economic Advisors recently released a report showing that there is a large portion of non-disabled, working-age adults (16 to 64 years old) who are receiving government non-cash welfare payments funded by taxpayers but aren’t working. For example, of those on Medicaid, 53 percent of non-disabled, working-age adults don’t have a job....
During the 2015 legislative session, Texas lawmakers made some changes to the State’s grand jury system. A major change included ending the controversial “pick-a-pal” system, which was criticized for allowing people with conflicting interests to be tapped as jurors. When lawmakers returned to Austin in 2017, grand jury reform bills that would have protected against overzealous prosecution ran out of...
Seven out of ten Americans consider foreign trade an economic opportunity, according to Gallup. You wouldn’t expect this given the protectionist rhetoric about “unfair” trade practices and “bad” trade deficits in the news regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and tariffs. To avoid impoverishing Americans, trade uncertainty should quickly end by reducing trade...
“One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results,” said Milton Friedman. This is certainly true when considering government-mandated paid sick leave. Connecticut learned that unintended consequences matter after it passed a mandatory paid sick leave law in 2011. And now Austin, which passed its own...
California is once again on fire. Northern California’s Carr Fire has killed six people, two of them firefighters, and continues to burn out of control, claiming more than 700 homes and about 100,000 acres. As a citizen-soldier in the California Army National Guard for two decades, I often heard the gallows humor quip that California’s...
After Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s victory over a top House Democrat in a New York City primary, the left was elated. “Ocasio-Cortez’s Socialism Can Work in the Midwest — with a Rebrand,” declared New York Magazine (a somewhat dubious authority on what can work in the Midwest). Its reasoning? Ocasio-Cortez’s “Medicare for All” plan polls well. “Both Medicare for All and single-payer...
In 2014, the city council in Mountain View, California, a city of 81,000 in the heart of Silicon Valley that hosts Google, Mozilla, Intuit, and other high-tech firms, approved a 400,000 square foot project to house thousands of Facebook employees and other tenants. In the runup to that approval, local restaurateurs complained to the city...
Residents from across Val Verde County came together in Del Rio on Thursday evening to discuss the effects of potential wind farms on their scenic region of Texas. Attendees heard from Randy Nunns, Ruthie Russell, and Dell Dickinson—local landowners—as well as comments from Texas Public Policy Foundation experts. Residents voiced concerns covering a wide array...