President Obama may have finally added or saved a few jobs—7.3 million to be specific. In a surprising but welcome move, the President asked Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson to withdraw the agency’s draft for more stringent Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). This is an important victory for businesses as well as the additional 565 U.S. counties that would have been pushed into non-attainment status and suffered economically as a result. The EPA’s regulatory overreach on this one rule would have destroyed 7.3 million jobs and …
September 11, 2001: the single worst terrorist attack any country has suffered in modern times. Few Americans will ever forget where they were when they got word that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. In an instant, our nation was changed forever. Over the next week and a half, we invite you to join Heritage in remembering and reflecting on that fateful day. On Wednesday, September 7, The Heritage Foundation will offer a special screening of the film The Path to 9/11 in its entirety. The subject …
As a little girl in Sunday school, I loved to hear stories about Bible times. When it was time to listen to our teacher tell a story, we would scoot out wooden chairs near hers as she pulled the Big Book of Bible Stories off the shelf. It was a large book with perfect pictures to go along with the stories. All of them were great, but one has recently jogged my memory again. It was the story about keeping our house clean so good could live in it. It …
This week, just in time for Labor Day, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) handed down several decisions that undermine workers’ rights to tell union organizers “no.” In one ruling, Specialty Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center of Mobile, the NLRB radically redefined the definition of a collective bargaining unit—the workers a union represents—to permit micro-unions. Traditionally, unions organize workers who share a community of interest. At a grocery store, for example, a collective bargaining unit would typically represent all the hourly employees. The NLRB junked that definition in favor of a …
The devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan earlier this year did more than destroy the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people in northeastern Japan. The March natural disaster significantly impacted the life of one man in particular: Naoto Kan, former prime minister of Japan. Due to the lack of leadership and initiative taken by the Japanese government in dealing with the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake, tsunami, and radiation leaks, the Japanese public became increasingly disgruntled and distrustful of the Kan administration. Public approval ratings began to plummet, …
President Obama enters this Labor Day weekend with a serious problem on his hands. For all intents and purposes, the economy appears to be stuck in neutral, with news out today that the U.S. economy created a grand total of zero jobs in August. This followed two months of near zero growth. Not surprisingly then, the unemployment rate in August remained at 9.1 percent, virtually unchanged since April. In fact, it was completely unchanged, and for the first time since 1945, no new jobs were created—Zero. America now has the weakest labor …
One day after solar company Solyndra closed its doors, two U.S. congressman are asking the White House for all documents related to the federal government’s $535 million loan guarantee. The probe also seeks correspondence between administration officials and the company’s investors, seeking to uncover if the White House engaged in cronyism to reward a major campaign donor. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) was pursuing an investigation of the Department of Energy’s $535 million loan long before Solyndra announced plans to file for bankruptcy. Now, using his perch as chairman of the House …
The State Department’s newly released fact sheet, “The Case for the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty: Some Key Points,” vividly demonstrates flawed assumptions behind the Administration’s desire to get this treaty ratified. If anything, the case remains at least as unconvincing as in 1999, when the U.S. Senate decided not to give its advice and consent to the ratification of the treaty. Instead of going back to the negotiating table, the Obama Administration picked up where its predecessors left off and decided to make the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) another “key element” …
America has the weakest labor market since the Great Depression. Unemployment remains above 9 percent, primarily because job creation hasn’t recovered. In a new paper, Heritage’s James Sherk looks at unemployment in America and what Congress can do about it. And in the interactive slideshow below, see what America’s employment picture looks like this Labor Day 2011. (Hover over the slideshow to click through.)
With earthquakes and Hurricane Irene ripping through the East Coast last week, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) was tested. How well did they do? Will more funding better the response? Click here to join the chat! We are joined by Heritage Fellow Matt Mayer, and he is taking your questions about the role of FEMA and the role of local governments in disaster response. Lunch with Heritage feat. Matt Mayer
