In the 2012 Olympics the U.S. women’s gymnastics team finished first and won a gold medal. The U.S. men’s gymnastics team, on the other hand, failed to earn even a single medal and finished a dismal fifth. That result, and a broader decline in men’s college sports, is the direct legacy of federal gender…
Read More »
On Election Day all voters become policy makers and this November 6 Californians will decide four ballot measures on taxes and spending. The Senate Governance and Finance Committee recently held hearings on these measures and the California Channel gave voters statewide a chance to watch and gain insights from the testimony. Unfortunately, senate President…
Read More »
The federal Census Bureau, budget $3.1 billion, seeks changes to its racial classification system that have more to do with federal spending than ethnic and racial accuracy. The current government-approved racial categories, set by the White House Office of Management and Budget, are: white, black, Asian, Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native. Many Americans…
Read More »
Amtrak holds a monopoly on food and beverage sales on Amtrak trains. That has not prevented the taxpayer-funded rail system from losing nearly $1 billion—a full $834 million—on those services since 2002, about $80 million a year. In 2011 Amtrak spent $206 million on food services but collected only about $121 million. A hamburger…
Read More »
Fiscal woes in Washington have not prevented the federal government from buying 29,000 new vehicles over the past six years. That brings the federal government’s fleet of cars to 449,000, nearly one for every seven federal employees, according to the Detroit News, based on a recent report from the Government Accountability Office. The federal…
Read More »
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has awarded $53 million to the University of California at Davis for research into Huntington’s disease and other maladies. The state stem-cell agency has given a total of $126 million to UC Davis and handed out nearly $1 billion overall, without producing any cures or therapies. Created…
Read More »
James Eagan Holmes, charged with 12 murders in the July 20 “Dark Knight” shootings in Colorado, received a federal stipend of $21,600 for personal expenses, part of a grant from the federal National Institutes of Health. The federal grant of $176,000 supports six PhD students per year and the stipend of up to $26,000…
Read More »
California faces a deficit of nearly $16 billion and has cut the $384 million budget of the state Parks Department by one-third. Embattled cities and private groups have been contributing funds to keep facilities open, but department bosses warned that a recent budget cut of $22 million would force them to shut down 70…
Read More »
The homepage of the FDA says: U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Protecting and Promoting Your Health. In that quest, the massive federal agency regulates and supervises food safety, tobacco products, dietary supplements, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, veterinary products, and much more. FDA bosses also find the time to conduct surveillance against scientists critical of FDA…
Read More »
Federal student financial assistance programs are “costly, inefficient, byzantine, and fail to serve their desired objectives,” according to Ohio University economics professor Richard Vedder. Fraud is rife and many students fail to graduate and carry heavy debt into their forties. But unlike the federal government, those who receive federal student aid cannot simply raise…
Read More »
 |
 |
 |