Regulation

Over the next few weeks, as the healthcare debate heats up in Sacramento and passions start to boil over, expect to hear one four-letter word uttered an awful lot: cost.

Actually, make that cost containment.

The Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights is bent on bringing loads of attention to the issue. And this is not a group that anybody should take lightly -- particularly when it has a compelling case to make.

The foundation’s founder, Harvey Rosenfield, was the author… more

With Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror dominating headlines in Washington these days, there's a real danger that U.S. policymakers will lose sight of the other major war currently being fought around the world -- the war for capital. While other countries are fighting with all they've got, many in the U.S. remain complacent, indifferent or antagonistic. Big mistake. There's a clear relationship between global financial leadership and global influence, and if history is any guide, Americans can't assume… more

Now that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has come out with unequivocal evidence of human-caused global warming, all eyes are on Capitol Hill to finally come up with a plan to deal with greenhouse gases and US energy security. More than a decade of wrangling over the details of greenhouse cap and trade, raising CAFE standards, and imposing gasoline taxes has lead to a deadlock that has cost Americans time, opportunities, and (as prices have risen over the last… more

President Bush's Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, has endorsed the principle underlying a national education standards incentive plan developed with the support of the New… more

You might think that holiday shoppers driving on the nation’s highways would have enough to worry about with bad weather and high gas prices. But unless there is a sudden about-face on the part of the Federal Highway Administration, Americans are about to receive an unwelcome gift that, unlike a wrong-color necktie or bad-fitting socks, could literally kill them.

The FHA, which oversees our nation’s highway system, is about to issue a regulation allowing 97-foot-long multi-truck monstrosities to roar up… more

Only 9% of American adults think the pharmaceutical industry is trustworthy, according to a recent Harris poll. That means that the makers of lifesaving and life-enhancing drugs rank just above tobacco companies in the public's esteem.

How could this happen? Easily. Despite efforts to reform the Food and Drug Administration after its scandalous failures to police drug-safety standards in the cases of Vioxx and other dangerous drugs, the FDA still does not have clear safety policies and can be… more

Sacramento rests on the edge of what could prove a difficult decade, which could either make or break its momentum toward becoming one of the regional winners in the new century.

For much of the late '90s and in the early 2000s, Sacramento seemed to be finding itself and spreading its wings. Boosted by an ever-expanding government sector, the region also was becoming an important "spillover" region for the Silicon Valley and for educated professionals fleeing the congested, overpriced Bay Area… more

Tort reformers complain about "frivolous" lawsuits. But at a time when government has stopped protecting citizens, trial lawyers have become the regulators of last resort.

On July 5, John Edwards slipped into a high-rise at One Boston Place to greet some of his and John Kerry's top contributors among plaintiffs' attorneys. At the offices of Robinson & Cole, Edwards shook hands with Alex MacDonald, a partner there who had helped raise $600,000 for the campaign. Much of the crowd… more

As medication becomes a way of life for more and more Americans, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been remodeled to fit the times. Of the 296 drugs the FDA has approved in the last decade, most have been lifestyle drugs, or copycats of already existing medicines, or both. There have been multiple obesity treatments, allergy medicines, hair-loss cures, impotence pills, and drugs for the newest "disease," irritable bowel syndrome. Despite offering consumers few additional health… more

Tracy Patton had just arrived at a community theater rehearsal in August 2000 when she felt such a searing explosion in the back of her head that it knocked her to her knees.

At the hospital in Louisville, Ky., doctors said Patton, then 37, had suffered a catastrophic stroke, and they predicted she wouldn't survive the night.

Patton defied the odds. But nearly four years later, she is so overwhelmed by simple tasks that she must post a… more