The New York Times reports that a proposal to steeply raise entry fees to popular national parks such as Yosemite, Grand Canyon and Yellowstone received largely negative responses from 109,000 commenters during a month-long comment period last year. Many said they would no longer be able to afford a trip,...
Why California Gets to Write Its Own Auto Emissions Rules
Editor’s note: On April 2, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that the Trump administration plans to revise tailpipe emissions standards negotiated by the Obama administration for motor vehicles built between 2022 and 2025, saying the standards were set “too high.” Pruitt also said the EPA was re-examining California’s...
If Bolton Starts a War With Iran, It Will Be Much Worse Than Iraq
With John Bolton joining the White House as President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser, risk of the U.S. going to war with Iran has increased to levels not seen since Dick Cheney was vice president. Bolton and Cheney were both architects of the Iraq war, a war that Bolton...
Who Exactly is John Bolton? And What Does He Want?
President Donald Trump’s announcement March 22 that John Bolton would become the new national security adviser took the policy world – and Bolton – by surprise. Bolton’s hawkish views are well known. During his run as a Fox News commentator, he advocated for preemptively bombing North Korea and at other...
Only Russia Can Stop Middle East Meltdown Involving Israel
The 7-year-old Syrian civil war is entering a phase that could put Israel on a collision course with the Iranian-Syrian-Hezbollah axis and a Middle East meltdown, according to the Crisis Group, a think tank/advocacy organization. The think tank also says that Russia is the only country that can prevent an...
Only Russia Can Stop Middle East Meltdown Involving Israel
The 7-year-old Syrian civil war is entering a phase that could put Israel on a collision course with the Iranian-Syrian-Hezbollah axis and a Middle East meltdown, according to the Crisis Group, a think tank/advocacy organization. The think tank also says that Russia is the only country that can prevent an...
Fiscal Sanity Suffered a Painful Death the Morning of Feb. 9, 2018
In an eleventh-hour twist, Sen. Rand Paul protested the costs of Congress’ latest budget deal and briefly shut down the federal government. Then, in the wee hours of Feb. 9, both houses of Congress eventually voted to pass the budget deal – a bipartisan agreement to repeal expenditure limits and...
Fiscal Sanity Suffered a Painful Death the Morning of Feb. 9, 2018
In an eleventh-hour twist, Sen. Rand Paul protested the costs of Congress’ latest budget deal and briefly shut down the federal government. Then, in the wee hours of Feb. 9, both houses of Congress eventually voted to pass the budget deal – a bipartisan agreement to repeal expenditure limits and...
Trump & Nunes Torch Tradition of Trust Between Congress & FBI
President Donald Trump’s attacks on the FBI may have reached a climax. In an apparent attempt to discredit Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, staff of the House Intelligence Committee on behalf of its chair Republican Devin Nunes of California, wrote and on Feb. 2 released a four-page memo based on confidential...
Trump & Nunes Torch Tradition of Trust Between Congress & FBI
President Donald Trump’s attacks on the FBI may have reached a climax. In an apparent attempt to discredit Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, staff of the House Intelligence Committee on behalf of its chair Republican Devin Nunes of California, wrote and on Feb. 2 released a four-page memo based on confidential...