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Last week, the state of Hawaii approved its first roll-out of Feed-in Tariffs (FIT), a reward program that allows homes and businesses to get paid for building renewable energy systems such as rooftop solar panels and feeding that energy into the electric grid. To implement the plan, companies...
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Voters’ worries about job off-shoring and “free trade” have become dominant themes this election season. The latest NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll found the impact of trade and outsourcing is one of the only issues on which Americans of different classes, occupations and...
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The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the $700 billion government fund to purchase assets and equity from large banks, officially ended at the beginning of October. In 2008, the Bush administration enacted the program following years of unregulated and reckless private banking actions that...
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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie made national headlines last week by announcing that he is canceling the nation’s largest public works project – and sacrificing nearly 50,000 jobs in the process. The Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) tunnel project would double the existing rail-commuting...
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In Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission (FEC), the Supreme Court ruled that corporations and unions enjoy the same First Amendment rights as individuals, giving them the green light to flood elections with independent political spending. Though most prominent, publicly-traded companies...
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Last month, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed AB 2666, a strong bill sponsored by Asm. Nancy Skinner that would have required the state's Franchise Tax Board to compile information on corporate tax expenditures and publish the information on California's Reporting Transparency in...
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A trend is slowly but surely creeping throughout the country: eliminating oversight over phone services. Under the guise of reforming or modernizing regulations, telecommunications companies’ efforts may mean an end to the only access that many have to the outside world. Specifically, some...
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Last week, California became the first state to bring its state health exchange into law. Known as the California Health Benefit Exchange, the exchange is expected to be operational by 2014 and cover at least 3 million uninsured Californians. Success of the program depends upon the appointment of a...
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This year’s midterm elections have the potential to change more than just the political landscape – as North Carolina gears up to become the first state to use instant runoff voting (IRV) in a statewide election, Nov. 2 could also mark a turning point in how states conduct their elections.
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What makes an economy shine in the eyes of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)? Apparently, grinding poverty. ALEC recently ranked Arizona as the state with the 3rd best "Economic Outlook," despite new Census Bureau poverty figures that show Arizona has the 2nd highest...
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Expanding prison populations and revenue shortfalls have devastated state budgets across the county. In response, Missouri is now providing judges with the average cost to incarcerate an individual for a particular crime prior to actual sentencing with an eye on increasing fiscal awareness in...
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The dream of attaining a college education was once again deferred for thousands of immigrant children across the nation, as a critical Defense Authorization Bill that included an amendment to enact the DREAM Act failed to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.
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