The road to prison can start on the front end or the back end of the criminal justice process. The front end is what we generally think of — a person is charged with a crime, that person is convicted and sentenced to prison. The back-end deals with those sent to prison for failing on...
It is preposterous to me that many of my peers are so afraid of climate change that they say they can hardly think about it. I think what they should really be afraid of is government overreach caused by such exaggeration over the effects of climate change. Back in the 1960s, some scientists believed that...
Demographics is political destiny. Or, at least that’s what they want you to believe. The fact is that in politics, just as in events that are eventually chronicled as a nation’s history, nothing is certain; individuals have a role to play as do other, larger factors, such as the economy and international affairs. One reason...
A new cottage industry has sprung up among political punditry. In dozens of articles, analysis pieces and opinion columns, the new conventional wisdom is that urbanization, an influx of blue staters attracted to jobs and a low cost of living, along with international immigration are combining to inexorably turn Texas blue. The blue Texas theme...
World leaders and activists will gather this week in New York City for the United Nations Climate Action Summit. President Trump will not be attending — for good reason. The modern climate movement has proved itself not only dishonest, but also increasingly ineffective where it supposedly matters: Reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Exhibit A is the...
Job growth in the 27 states with low state and local taxes continues to double the pace of employment gains compared to their high-tax peers. From December 2017, the month President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law, through August 2019, the 27 states with the lowest taxes on individuals generated 3.77%...
It’s easy to forget the faces behind the numbers, especially when it comes to immigration. But the migration crisis at the southern border isn’t just a matter of scope, although the Border Patrol has truly been overwhelmed by an unprecedented amount of border crossings. A humanitarian problem is at the root of this migration crisis...
I often tell people that I am among the statistic of the uninsured. I’m not covered under traditional health benefits, nor is my family. We use other forms of coverage that provide us with the peace of mind and access to affordable care that we desire. We’re not alone; the Census Bureau released data last week that...
I learned something new when I taught the very first class of the TPPF Summer Institute for high school civics teachers. “By the time student reach middle school age,” a teacher told me, “they come to class already cynical about the American form of government.” Another teacher added, “and it gets worse each year.” The challenge...
Texas lawmakers added more than $6.5 billion new dollars to public education, allocating more total state funding to education than ever before. There’s a lot of interest in where all the money is going. The biggest recipients of education funding are public school districts, which receive financing from both state coffers and locally-collected taxes. But...
When the wind energy industry was in its infancy, I was fresh out of college and studying raptors—eagles, hawks and falcons—near Altamont, California. I didn’t think much about the wind turbines, aside from thinking they were an eyesore. That changed when the data began to emerge about how wind turbines annually kill millions of birds...
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its Consumer Price Index update for August, showing prices rose 0.1% in August with prices up 1.7% from a year earlier before seasonal adjustment. This was a slowing of the pace of inflation from July when prices climbed 0.3%. Of note, given the highly publicized fears that U.S. tariffs on...