In The News

A lot has been written about the financial cost of leaks since the advent of sites such as Napster. One report by the Institute for Policy Innovation, an American thinktank, estimated that internet users have downloaded $12.5bn worth of pirated music every year since 1999.

Plans for a privately financed, high-speed rail line between Houston and Dallas are being challenged by members of the Texas State Legislature, landowners along the proposed route, and some transportation researchers.

Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden hopes to pay for his version of the Green New Deal by eliminating the subsidies and tax breaks given to the fossil fuel producing industry, and he’s not alone.

In an effort to improve the science used by regulatory agencies, the Trump administration has made, and is still making, adjustments in the way the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other agencies approach climate change and make the predictions that drive climate policies. Not everyone is pleased, to put it mildly.

“A lot of these licensing programs exist for no other reason than to protect a professional cartel and keep out competition," said IPI president Tom Giovanetti.

Some think Puerto Rico has been shortchanged. The numbers tell a more nuanced story.

“From a political standpoint, it is foolish to push importation. If deaths occur, the politician who promoted it will take the blame,” said Merrill Matthews, a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation.

The Iranian government is rattling sabers once again. In years past those tensions would have sent world oil markets into a panic. Not so this time around. 

Sen. John Cornyn's legislation that attempts to address problems he sees with the patent protections afforded to American drug companies overreaches and would limit the ability of pharmaceutical firms to develop and improve medicines. 

Bartlett D. Cleland, research fellow with the Institute for Policy Innovation, said the FCC “needs to establish a continuous supply of spectrum via auctions, on a schedule that will provide a regular flow of low, mid and high bands of spectrum. They must keep unlicensed bands open and available as well.”