Daily Archives: May 17, 2012

For the first time ever, a NASA science satellite will continue operating with private funding after federal government funding was cut off. The spacecraft is the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, which was launched in 2003 to survey the sky with its 19.7-inch telescope and ultraviolet sensor suite. To date its mapped about 80 percent of theContinue Reading

Sara Burrows reports for Carolina Journal Online about the fast-track process the N.C. Senate employed on the opening day of a new legislative session to address annexation bills.

Two Texas-based criminal justice experts make the case in a new John Locke Foundation report that most 16-year-old offenders should face the juvenile justice system, rather than adult courts. North Carolina is one of only two states that send all 16-year-olds to the adult court system. Unlike the other state (New York), North Carolina hasContinue Reading

George Will‘s latest column suggests that those who crave more bipartisanship among government leaders should consider the history of bipartisan legislation: Bipartisanship, the supposed scarcity of which so distresses the high-minded, actually is disastrously prevalent. Since 2001, it has produced No Child Left Behind, a counterproductive federal intrusion in primary and secondary education; the McCain-FeingoldContinue Reading

• Pat McCrory and Walter Dalton trade jabs over the number of debates they’ll hold during the fall campaign. • ALIPAC, a group favoring additional limits on immigration, says it will not endorse in the 7th Congressional District race between Mike McIntyre and David Rouzer. • Democrats in the 11th Congressional District see an opportunityContinue Reading

William Voegeli explores in a fascinating new National Review Online article the reasons why some of government’s harshest critics include people who benefit from government programs such as Medicare and Social Security. An American who warns an elected official to keep the government’s hands off a social-insurance program doesn’t misunderstand our welfare state but hasContinue Reading

Michael Barone, who labels himself a supporter of same-sex marriage, uses his latest column to explore the political implications of President Obama’s recent announcement about gay marriage. Obama was facing a tough political choice on the issue. He needs two groups of voters who often don’t turn out in large numbers to do so thisContinue Reading

The latest installment of Max Borders‘ Ideas Matter update features a promotion for George Mason economist Donald Boudreaux‘s new book, Hypocrites & Half-Wits. You want to work your ultra-liberal friends into a tizzy? What about your stoggy protectionist buddies? Nowhere will you find reasoned economic, and dare-I-say ethical, thinking carried out with such confidence andContinue Reading