Education:
Governor Brian Sandoval has announced his agenda for the 2017 legislative session, and it includes funding for the state’s Education Savings Account program. While the proposed $60 million is a step in the right direction, it remains far short of what is needed. In fact, Sandoval’s proposed funding would not even be enough to cover the more than 8,000 students that have already applied. (Read more)
Labor and unions:
Employee freedom might very well be reaching New England. The right-to-work bill, which passed New Hampshire’s state Senate this week, would ensure that no worker is forced to pay union dues or fees in order to keep his or his job. If the bill becomes law, New Hampshire would become the 28th state to adopt right-to-work legislation, and the first to do so in New England. (Read more)
Free markets:
A graduate student from Russia, Konstantin Zhukov, said he was blown away the first time he walked into a Walmart and saw the massive amount of choice available to American consumers. Socialism and cronyism, he explains, doesn’t allow for such prosperity in Russia. “People want to come to the United States, because of higher standards of living — because of opportunity,” Zhukov says, crediting capitalism for America’s prosperity. (Watch Zhukov’s video)
Taxpayer ‘contributions’:
“Raiders Stadium” is one step closer to becoming a reality. This week Raiders’ owner Mark Davis officially filed the relocation paperwork with the NFL, in hopes of moving the team to Las Vegas. The NFL owners will likely wait until late March before making a decision. Davis and Las Vegas Sands. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson — who has promised to contribute $650 million toward the stadium — are still working out some “sticking points,” ahead of the meeting. The Raiders are expected to contribute $500 million toward the proposed stadium, with the remaining $750 million coming from a room-tax increase passed by the Nevada legislature in 2016. (Read more)
Inauguration:
President Donald Trump’s inauguration, so far, has triggered a great deal of drama — record histrionics on among some, and relief and celebration among others. Some colleges have offered “safe spaces” for upset millennials, other schools have refused to broadcast the ceremony to their students and the communist government in China has gone so far as to ban any reporting of the event. But for all the hullabaloo, it’s important to realize that, compared to some past inaugurations, it’s all pretty tame. When a political outsider and national celebrity became president in the early 19th Century, celebrations got so out of hand that the newly inaugurated president had to escape out a side window of the White House to avoid a mob of over-zealous (and drunken) supporters. (Read more)
