What is your neighbor saying about the debt? Everyone has heard about the debt crisis, recent news has been dominated by it. But who is really talking about it, and what are they saying? The majority of the American people seem to routinely be suppressed by the media. Most reports have failed to mention the views of citizens or how the debt crisis is affecting them. Ironic, isn’t it? Congress is supposed to reflect the will of the people, but often it seems to be overshadowed. But people across the …
Head Start, which provides child development services primarily to low-income families and their children, is one of the few popular programs that came out of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. But following up on hotline tips alleging fraud and abuse, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) began an undercover investigation of Head Start centers in California, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. Heritage Senior Policy Analyst David Muhlhausen details what the GAO found: In eight of the 13 eligibility tests, the fictitious families were told by Head Start staff that …
With very peccable timing, a handful of local officials are launching legislative assaults on popular pregnancy care centers even as Congress debates health care reforms it claims will promote more choice and competition. The assaults began in Baltimore where the City Council passed a law last week imposing regulations and penalties on the overwhelmingly privately funded centers that provide pregnancy-related services to some of the city’s neediest women. The Council’s ostensible concern was that the centers misrepresent their services by failing to inform new clients what they don’t offer – …
Two weeks ago, we alerted you to an event invitation on President Barack Obama’s ongoing campaign website, barackobama.com, which used startling language to describe the opposition. The message urged Americans to call their U.S. Senators on September 11 and “fight back against our own Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists who are subverting the American Democratic Process, whipped to a frenzy by their Fox Propaganda Network ceaselessly re-seizing power for their treacherous leaders.” It went on to call conservatives the heirs to Bin Laden. After we reported this, the posting was removed and the …
Last night, Heritage Research Fellow Jack Spencer and I drove down to Solomons Island, home of Calvert Cliffs’ 2 nuclear reactor stations – where Constellation Energy is proposing to build a third. It was the third of three hearings held by Maryland’s public service commission in which elected officials and the general public had their chance to voice support or concern about adding a 1600MW reactor – the equivalent of the power produced by the two existing reactors. Of the 25 people we heard speak, 21 favored building a third …
Maryland announced this week that the state government plans to create a single communications system for all of the state’s first responders, as noted in a recent article in The Examiner. Ensuring effective emergency communications remains an important issue on the nation’s homeland security to do list. A Heritage paper I wrote last year with Richard Weitz about improving emergency communications discussed the need and necessary measures for improved communication among emergency responders. In its final report, the 9/11 Commission stated that “the inability to communicate was a critical element …
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley’s energy administration is proposing one of the most ambitious yet costly energy conservation packages, including goals to reduce electricity consumption by 15% and to mandate state utility companies to purchase 20% of their energy from solar, wind and other renewable fuels by 2022. If the companies do not, the fines will be doubled. O’Malley believes a cap-and-trade system will generate enough revenue to provide incentives for electricity users to conserve and use more energy efficient appliances. Legislators, state or national, should be wary of implementing cap-and-trade …
