The Obama Administration has been knee-deep in scandal after green energy “model” Solyndra went bankrupt less than two years after receiving a $500 million loan guarantee from the federal government. Now, they are up against another controversy. Days before a recent deadline, the Department of Energy brazenly approved two additional loans for more than $1 billion for solar energy projects in the Obama Administration’s green jobs program. The latest ill-fated ventures include a $737 million loan guarantee to Solar Reserve for a 110-megawatt solar tower on federal land in Nevada …
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton and former Defense Department official Dan Blumenthal have written an interesting and timely op-ed about China and the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST). In “Time to Kill the Law of the Sea Treaty—Again,” the authors describe the duplicitous double game that China plays in the South China Sea by manipulating the provisions of LOST. China—which is a member of LOST—is interpreting the treaty’s provision on the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in a manner that prohibits lawful military surveillance activities conducted …
A lot of news was made this week when the National Federation of Independent Business filed a petition to the Supreme Court appealing the 11th Circuit’s Obamacare decision, which was quickly followed by petitions filed by the 26 state plaintiffs, and another by the Obama Justice Department. What do these filings mean for the future of Obamacare? Click here to join to find out! We are joined by Heritage’s legal expert Robert Alt, and he will be taking your questions about what the petitions mean and what they holds for …
Politico reported what many have feared about the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction in a story titled “Supercommittee operating in secret.” Members of this committee are not disclosing details of negotiations on legislation to the press or the American public. The supercommittee has become supersecret about most of what it’s doing. On Tuesday, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) encapsulated the attitude of the members of the Joint Deficit Reduction Committee: “I don’t want to discuss what we discussed.” The Committee is tasked to find $1.2 trillion in savings over the …
Last weekend, Bahrain held special elections to fill 18 parliamentary seats left vacant after members of the Islamist al Wefaq party resigned last February amid anti-government protests. Despite the government’s attempts to fill the seats without incident, Bahrain’s opposition seized the opportunity to revive anti-government protests, which the government had forcefully quelled earlier this year. While critics claim that the government uses disproportionate force against protestors, there is also sufficient evidence that some of the protestors have violently attacked the police. Despite Bahrain’s advanced economy and progressive political system, the …
Proving they are serious about mitigating their citizens’ dependence on government welfare programs, conservative members of Maine’s state legislature continue to push the state towards meaningful welfare reform. Although some proposed legislation has faced setbacks in committee hearings, members have succeeded in drawing attention to the fiscal and economic challenges posed by the state’s welfare system. Maine’s dependence on government programs is amongst the highest in the country. As of 2008, it had the second-highest percentage among states of households receiving food stamps, households with cash public assistance income, Medicaid …
While the House is moving to put greater control of education into the hands of parents, the Obama Administration is working to tighten the federal government’s grip on the nation’s schools. Since the 1960s, Washington’s control of the U.S. education system has swelled. And No Child Left Behind (NCLB) only added to that growth. Now, the Obama Administration’s latest attempt at reforming education would mean more federal overreach. Last month, Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced that the federal government would begin granting waivers for states to opt out of the …
Philippine President Beningo Aquino III and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who just returned from a week of high-level dialogues at the U.N. headquarters in New York, met in Tokyo September 27 to discuss how they can strengthen their strategic partnership. Noda and Aquino’s dialogue focused on bolstering their maritime cooperation—specifically, securing freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. At a joint press conference Tuesday evening, Noda expressed a strong desire “to work together in ensuring stability and prosperity in the region” and called attention to the fact that …
WORLD Magazine’s Hope Award for Effective Compassion contest is drawing to a close this week, with online voting for the most successful faith-based charity ending on Friday. The magazine’s sixth annual contest showcases the success of four effective charities in helping individuals escape poverty and achieve sustained self-reliance. This year’s contest, with finalists from four regions of the country, focuses specifically on charities that offer job training and work opportunities to help low-income people escape poverty. Decades of spending increases in means-tested government welfare programs have produced no significant change …
The Obama Administration lifted the moratorium on new permits and drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but the same problem persists as it has for over a year now. There’s not a whole lot going on down there. ODS-Petrodata Weekly Rig Count keeps tabs on rigs under contract and rigs without contracts in different regions of the world. It also shows the utilization rate for offshore platform drilling rigs. Here are the numbers. U.S.: 44 percent, Europe/Mediterranean: 97 percent, Worldwide: 83 percent. The fleet utilization rate for the U.S. Gulf …
