Featured Article
What's in your Google Search?
By Marc KilmerWith people putting what seems like the details of their entire lives on Facebook or Twitter, the issue of online privacy may seem a bit trivial. But what governments and businesses do with our online information is of vital concern to most Internet users. Given that Google is our nation's largest search engine, how it treats our information is coming under increasing scrutiny. Is Google truly the defender of privacy that it claims?
Upcoming Events
Buckeye Institute Policy Briefing on
The Liberty in Learning Approach to Ohio School Reform: Empowering Families, Growing School Choice and Increasing Transparency in Education
Crystal Room, 2nd Floor; 136 East Broad Street; Columbus, Ohio 43215
Tuesday, December 9: 5:30 - 7:00 PM; Mound Street Academies; 345 Mound Street; Dayton, Ohio 45402
Wednesday, December 10: 7:30 - 9:00 AM; The Union Club, Parlor 9;
1211 Euclid Avenue; Cleveland, Ohio 44115
Thursday, December 11: 7:30 - 9:00 AM; The Toledo Club, West Point Room; 235 14th Street; Toledo, Ohio, 43624
The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions is offering Ohioans a vision for education reform grounded in our "Liberty in Learning" approach of empowering families, growing school choice and increasing transparency in education spending. Our Policy Briefings are intended to give concerned citizens, policymakers and reform-minded educators an alternative to the remedies offered by the education status quo in the Governor's current education policy caravan visiting many of these same cities this month.
These events are open to the public: all are welcomed and please feel free to pass on this invite to others. However, reservations are required due to limited space. A continental breakfast will be available at the morning events, and a $10 donation would be welcomed then for food and room costs.
A complete description can be found here.
Brown Bag Luncheon with the Honorable Mary E. Peters, Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation
Noon – 1:30 PM
Ohio Chamber of Commerce
230 East Town Street
Columbus, Ohio
Earlier this year, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced a new framework to overhaul the way U.S. transportation decisions and investments are made. Reform is needed to address exploding highway congestion, rising fuel prices, unsustainable gas taxes and spending decisions based on political influence instead of merit, all of which are eroding confidence in government and threatening mobility, the economy and quality of life in America.
Please join Secretary Peters for a discussion on this crucial topic. Listen to her perspective, and engage in a free flowing dialogue on the future of the nation’s infrastructure.
This is a bring your own lunch event. These events are open to the public. All are welcomed and please feel free to pass on this invite to others. However, reservations are required due to limited space. This is a bring your own lunch event. A $10 donation would be welcomed at registration to help cover costs of this event.
Husted Questions State Bailout
The Columbus Dispatch quotes
Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted on the proposed federal bailout of state
governments:
"These are the same people that just went to Washington and asked them
to print $5 billion for the state of Ohio? The federal government is
printing money. It is fantasy land right now. Ohio has a savings
account. Spending from your savings account is allowable. Maxing out
your credit card when you have no means to pay for it is not."
In
Stimulating a Bad Idea,
Buckeye Institute analyst Marc Kilmer writes,
"State officials like Governor Strickland ... want government to
provide a variety of services, but they want someone other than state
taxpayers to fund them. Essentially they want to give state residents
something for nothing. It's a neat trick if they can pull it off."
Addressing the Budget Mess
An editorial in the Toledo Blade points out, "With the state of Ohio's budget scenario lurching from bad to worse, Governor Strickland and members of the General Assembly have their work cut out for them, first in patching a would-be $640 million deficit by June 30 and then by negotiating a two-year spending plan geared to recessionary times."
In
Ohio's Taxing and
Spending Nothing to be Proud Of,
Buckeye Institute fellow J. H. Huebert writes, "The only way out of
this downward spiral is to make drastic changes, including deep cuts in
both taxes and spending. When our politicians get the courage to take
these steps -- which may be politically painful to them in the short
run but will benefit all of Ohio in the long run -- then perhaps we
could applaud them for being responsible and restrained. Until then,
they deserve no credit for supposedly avoiding debt while crippling
Ohio's economy."
Prevailing Wage Deal
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports, "Gov. Ted Strickland struck a deal with Republican lawmakers on new guidelines for prevailing wages that had made unions happy while upsetting business groups."
In
Hamilton County Jail
Needs to Escape Prevailing Wage,
Buckeye Institute President David Hansen writes,
"According to a 1999 analysis by Ohio University's Richard Vedder,
prevailing wage for public construction is associated with fewer
construction jobs overall, slower growth in new construction jobs and
lower labor productivity for all construction workers."
Buckeye
Institute in the News
Marc Kilmer discussed the proposed federal bailout for state governments on the Brian Wilson Show.
