People in power have a longstanding desire to shut down debate that challenges their views. And even though American colleges and universities are supposed to stand up for academic freedom and open debate, they have trampled on their students’ First Amendment rights. Ryne Weiss is doing something to change that. As director of research at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, he’s helping administrators do better at allowing students and faculty to talk about controversial matters.
Michigan’s economy is experiencing the consequences of the state’s two years of Democratic policymaking.
Michigan’s Democratic lawmakers passed a lot of bad laws in 2023. They now force workers to pay unions. They voted to stop using the state’s already paid-for power plants and move to unreliable wind and solar. They increased the costs of government construction for no other reason than to hand construction unions a favor. And they gave out billions in pork projects.
Support for Dept. of Ed. barely tops one-third in Tennessee poll
Half of Tennesseeans support abolition of the United States Department of Education, according to the most recent poll from the Beacon Center in Nashville. Just 37% of survey respondents support keeping the Carter-era department, which costs taxpayers about a quarter of a trillion dollars per year. The remaining 13% remained undecided. The Beacon Center also found 61% support for amending the Volunteer State's constitution to ban property taxes. And in an ominous turn for America's country home, rock, with 30% support, edged out country, with 26%, as the state's favorite musical genre.
Are Michigan lawmakers shooting at the wrong target in the road funding debate?
Administrators estimate that they can get 90% of aid-eligible roads into good or fair condition by fiscal year 2034-35 if taxpayers spend an extra $2.5 billion annually. This has been endorsed by a number of interest groups.
Michiganders without access to high-speed internet are still waiting for internet service funded by the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program through the Michigan High-Speed Internet Office. The Michigan High-Speed Internet Office recently said in testimony before the legislature than no one will be connected using BEAD funds until at least 2026.
This article originally appeared in The Hill May 1, 2025.
Republicans are falling into a familiar trap. From President Trump to Vice President JD Vance to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a growing number of party leaders have come to believe that coercive labor unions are a permanent part of American politics, so the Republicans might as well forge an uneasy truce if not an outright alliance with them.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has joined 14 other states to sue President Trump for improperly declaring an energy emergency. But Nessel did nothing when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer exceeded her emergency authority.
Whitmer used emergency powers to order some of the nation's most severe COVID-19 lockdowns. Nessel supported the governor's unprecedented actions every step of the way. The Michigan Supreme Court later ruled that the governor had misused these powers.
Authorities in Spain and Portugal are still investigating the cause of the worst blackout in their nations’ histories. But the massive power failure follows years of risky renewable energy campaigns that have severely weakened the power grid on the Iberian Peninsula.
Michigan lawmakers took another step toward reducing unnecessary occupational licensing barriers, a key reform supported by a bipartisan group of lawmakers and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
House bills 4103 and 4104, which passed the House on a nearly unanimous basis, would have Michigan enter into multistate compacts for occupational therapists, occupational therapy assistants and physician assistants and make some related changes to state law. This would allow workers licensed in those fields to easily work in all the states that entered into the compact. The bills still need to pass the Senate and be signed by the governor to take effect.
What would be better: Reduce the number of students in a classroom by one or give the teacher a $10,000 raise? That type of trade-off is the reality of school budgets.
But as Michigan debates new statewide regulations on class sizes, few are talking about the trade-offs involved. Smaller class sizes require more teachers and more spending. Michigan already has one teacher for every 14 students, according to Mischooldata.org. Ten years ago, there were 16 students per teacher.
Can a president unilaterally impose tariffs on nearly every imported good, bypassing Congress?
That’s the question at the heart of a discussion with Jeffrey Schwab, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, on the Overton Window Podcast.
“We filed a lawsuit called VOS Selections v. Trump. Our firm, the Liberty Justice Center, is representing five individual small businesses free of charge,” Schwab says.
This article originally appeared in Real Clear Markets April 30, 2025.
The Biden and Trump administrations agree: It’s time to use antitrust laws to break up the largest American technology companies. On April 14, the FTC began a trial against Meta, in a case originally brought in the first Trump administration and continued during Biden years. Yet the case will be difficult for the government to win because it’s built on a shaky legal foundation.
President Trump’s global tariffs have been justified by a simple story. The rest of the world is taking advantage of us. Americans buy tons of stuff from abroad, and this has decimated domestic industry. Foreign competitors are eating our lunch, and we can’t keep up.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News April 22, 2025.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called out the plight of young men in society in her recent State of the State address. Single women, she said, are three times more likely to buy a house today than single men. Whitmer also decried a gender gap in the Michigan Reconnect program, where female college enrollment outpaces male enrollment two-to-one.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News April 16 2025.
MIDLAND — A young woman dressed in a professional business outfit shook my hand and introduced herself.
“Hello, I’m Claire, your first affirmative speaker.”
“I’m Ethan, the second affirmative speaker,” said her partner, with a firm handshake.
Michigan’s roads will continue to fall apart faster than the state will repair them, according to the latest projections. The Transportation Asset Management Council’s annual Roads and Bridges report includes a forecast for pavement quality, which the report says will decline over the next decade. While 68% of roads are in good or fair condition now, the report expects that number to drop to 54%.
America leads the world in pharmaceutical innovation, developing cutting-edge treatments that improve and save lives. The U.S. does a better job balancing the trade-offs of costs and innovation than most other nations. But that is under threat from state and federal policies.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News April 29, 2025.
How do people respond when the world around them falls apart? I gained some insights during a brief trip up north last week.
The first came on a quiet evening in Petoskey, where bestselling author Leif Enger gave a talk on his latest novel, “I Cheerfully Refuse.”
By Molly Macek
Some education advocates and lawmakers claim smaller class sizes are the way to improve student performance in Michigan. But reducing the student-to-teacher ratio will do little beyond increasing costs for taxpayers. Other initiatives, notably those known to enhance teacher quality, will go further to improve student outcomes.
Trade between two countries isn’t a zero-sum game, with one winning and the other losing. It’s beneficial when countries specialize in producing certain goods and then trade them with others. Trade is especially true for places like Michigan, where a global supply chain fuels industries, creates jobs and supports families. But protectionist policies, including tariffs, put all that at risk.
Elon Musk’s DOGE team has been pausing and canceling billions of dollars in federal grants. Special interests have noticed, giving rise to hundreds of news stories complaining about the cuts. But these complainers are missing something important: The deeply leveraged federal government is not the only place to ask for money. If these interests are truly serving the public, they should ask states for help.
Is the American-Canadian friendship caput? Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that America can no longer be trusted, and he wants to disentangle the Canadian economy from the United States. President Donald Trump is subjecting Canada to massive tariffs and says he wants the country to dissolve into the American union. This is all a bad sign for Michigan.
West Virginia is making it easier for professionals to get to work — no matter where they’re coming from.
Jessi Troyan, Director of Policy and Research at the Cardinal Institute, unpacked the significance of a new universal licensing recognition law passed in West Virginia on The Overton Window Podcast.
By Derk Wilcox
Lawyers in most states have to be members of a mandatory “integrated” bar association before they can practice law. These associations charge annual dues in the hundreds of dollars. Failure to pay means an attorney can’t practice law.
State bar associations perform oversight for the legal profession, usually at the direction of the states’ supreme courts, policing ethics violations, admitting lawyers, and maintaining education standards. But these associations also frequently embrace political positions.
Michigan lawmakers resolved a financial problem that still threatens other states. Thanks to a long-term effort, they have set aside money to pay for the health insurance costs of retired public school employees, according to a recent actuarial valuation.
