President Trump last week endorsed legislation introduced by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Representative David Perdue (R-GA) that would reform legal immigration in America through a “merit-based” system and slash immigration based on family ties – for a 41 percent reduction in legal immigration the first year alone. They’ve got...
The General Assembly enacted the 2005 Restructuring Act with the idea of holding public universities accountable to a set of performance metrics. Many measures have fallen by the wayside. This is the third of four articles exploring higher-education accountability in Virginia since enactment of the 2005 “Restructuring Higher Education Financial...
Here are two recent headlines about efforts to begin the transition to paying for highways based on miles driven rather than gallons of fuel: “Senate Votes to Prohibit Mileage Tax,” Connecticut Post, May 25, 2017 “States Considering Taxing Drivers by the Mile Despite Privacy Concerns,” Politico, June 8, 2017 Both...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit handed farmers another win on July 18, 2017. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) challenged EPA’s decision not to restrict or eliminate the use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, used to kill a number...
On August 1, the Thomas Jefferson Institute held a two-hour Leadership Roundtable on Immigration Reform, led by accomplished leaders who have given careful thought to the immigration issue and favor focusing on encouraging the immigration of workers who would contribute to economic growth in America. Panelists included Rob Jesmer, who...
By now, you’ve probably heard about net neutrality, the principle that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should not favor some online traffic and data over others. It shouldn’t really be a controversial matter because virtually everyone agrees on the basics, and it is fundamentally just common sense—there should be a level...
In 2005, when leaders of Virginia’s most prestigious universities were angling for more autonomy from state control, they complained about the bureaucratic hoops they had to jump through. State regulators made the College of William & Mary install an exit sign in a picnic shelter. Whenever outdoor events were rained...
In response to the president’s budget submission in May, the House Budget Committee has produced the 2018 Budget Resolution and reported it to the full U.S. House of Representatives. This is the second step in producing the annual budget for the federal government and it reveals not only the spending...
Household debt surpassed its 2008 recession peak in the first quarter of 2017, according to a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. At $12.73 trillion, household debt stood at $149 billion or 1.2 percent above the previous quarter. Mortgage balances, which make up the largest amount...
“Research is to see what everybody else sees – but to think what nobody else thinks.” Albert S Gyorgyi. Dr. Gale Buchanan, former dean of the College of Agriculture at both Auburn and Georgia, has written a stunning new book entitled Feeding the World – Agricultural Research in the Twenty-First...
