Are you familiar with your local tree ordinances? If not, you might want to do some research before breaking out the chainsaw. Cities and townships across the country have some version of tree-related rules that property owners must follow, or face consequences. The Center for the American Future, TPPF’s public interest litigation team, has now challenged...
A recent Dallas Morning News editorial board article desperately wants Texas to pump the brakes on the Classic Learning Test (CLT). Why? It’s worried about politics creeping into college admissions and about the CLT’s thinner track record compared with the SAT and ACT. But let’s be honest: the politics and the diluted standards arrived a...
We applaud the Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to remove unnecessary Obamacare-era mandates. It is critical to open up more options for Texans in the currently restrictive healthcare markets. Texas needs healthy healthcare again. Far lower costs with the same or even better level of medical care are easily achievable now, but restricted by outdated...
In Mission, Texas, a south Texas border town, local residents noticed a new billboard advertising “Birth Packages in South Texas,” with maternity tourism services listed at more than $5,000. The advertisement directed customers to the website HaveMyBabyInTexas.com, which has since been taken down. It wasn’t just an advertisement for medical services, but rather an advertisement...
It doesn’t seem like a very big change. But it is. Today, Kansans will be asked to abolish their Supreme Court Nominating Commission, a committee that ensures unelected lawyers determine who will sit on the highest court of Kansas. Kansas is not alone in creating this body. Leaders across this country are nominating judges who...
The 250th birthday of the United States has been a time of celebration and reflection across the nation. It’s a moment to honor our proud history, our values, our freedoms, and the men and women in uniform who, across generations, have bravely fought to preserve them. However, in 1999, just two years before America deployed...
“I promised New Jerseyans that my administration would confront the issue with accountability and urgency.” That is what New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said one week after she admitted at a press conference that roughly 6,600 noncitizens were registered to vote because of what she described as a “software glitch.” The governor also announced that the state...
Americans watching the events unfolding in Spain today should resist the temptation to dismiss them as Europe’s problem. In just a matter of hours, thousands of migrants crossed from Morocco into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta last week, overwhelming local authorities and prompting officials to plead for emergency assistance. These events follow a recent...
Just how bad is American higher education today? Consider this observation on today’s college students from Jessica Wilson, a professor of great books and humanities at Pepperdine: “It’s not even an inability to critically think. It’s an inability to read sentences.” She is not alone. Professors at elite colleges report that many incoming students arrive...
Senate Bill 37, passed by the 89th Texas Legislature and signed into law in 2025, was a major step toward restoring academic integrity in Texas public higher education. The law requires every public university governing board to review its general education curriculum at least once every five years. The Legislature did more than require a...
Every state agrees, at least on paper, that only citizens should vote. The trouble is what happens between that principle and the polling place. New research from TPPF’s Chuck DeVore lays out just how much daylight exists between the two and offers a tested model for closing the gap. The federal voter registration form created...
During a recent Texas Senate Higher Education Committee hearing, lawmakers asked an important question: Is Texas doing enough to protect our universities from hostile foreign influence? The executive director of the newly established Texas Research Security Council, Kevin Gamache, Ph.D., answered in the affirmative. HB 127, he told lawmakers, “provides the flexibility for the universities...