Tennessee lawmakers are advancing legislation that would ban kratom and criminalize its possession statewide. These bills would eliminate a legal market and expose thousands of Tennesseans to criminal penalties, while doing little to address the risks lawmakers say they are trying to prevent.
Georgia's Department of Driver Services has quietly undermined the Second Chance Workforce Act by adding bureaucratic restrictions the law never required, including a mandatory in-person submission rule that hits hardest the low-income, rural drivers the bill was designed to help.
Senate Bill 55 would bring Alaska teachers up to the same level of benefits as the rest of the state and ensure they are building a secure retirement.
South Carolina’s proposed age-appropriate design code bill aims to protect minors but would likely lead platforms to censor lawful speech and collect sensitive user data. Protecting children online is important, but this approach could do more harm than good.
Alabama’s unfunded pension liability has grown from $14.4 billion in 2012 to over $24 billion today.
The spike in Florida’s gambling helpline calls doesn’t mean addiction is rising. It reflects increased awareness and visibility following the launch of legal sports betting.
Colorado recently became the first state to address a troubling flaw in the justice system: unreliable field drug tests that falsely implicate an estimated 30,000 people every year, making them the largest known cause of wrongful arrests in the country
A South Carolina bill threatens to squeeze small hosts out of the short-term rental market entirely.
Policymakers should carefully consider whether these regulations serve the public interest or simply disadvantage working homeowners trying to make ends meet.
In his latest newsletter, Robert Poole weighs in on the tragic LaGuardia Airport collision, the FAA's oversight of runway safety systems, reforms to TSA and airport screening, and how to pay for air traffic control modernization. ⬇️
The FDA chose not to highlight data showing youth vaping and smoking have plummeted to historic lows, numbers it would have trumpeted if they had shown increases. The FDA needs to stop applying its own data selectively and actually help adult smokers access less harmful alternatives to cigarettes.
Federal transit funding should prioritize maintaining and improving existing systems for riders over new rail projects and major expansions.
K-12 education is deeply personal, especially for students with disabilities and their families.
New Hampshire’s proposed open enrollment program would give families more flexibility to choose schools that actually meet their needs.
Flexible, portable retirement benefits complement modern labor markets and better reflect how women actually work. The private sector has largely adapted; the public sector still needs to catch up.
With debt and deficits piling up and so much infrastructure modernization needed, it is time to prepare state and local governments for getting less federal highway funding.
Child welfare interventions are often driven by perceived risk rather than confirmed harm, yet parental drug use alone does not reliably indicate abuse or neglect and can lead to unnecessary and harmful family separation.
Advanced air mobility could usher in major improvements to the transportation of passengers and cargo. But placing large taxpayer-funded bets on unproven technology and services is not in the public interest.
Advanced air mobility could usher in major improvements to the transportation of passengers and cargo. But placing large taxpayer-funded bets on unproven technology and services is not in the public interest.
Given the high gas taxes and vehicle fees they pay, Californians deserve higher-quality roads and bridges than they are getting.
The US needs to repair and modernize its aging infrastructure. Asset recycling of toll roads and airports to private companies can improve those facilities and generate revenue that states can reinvest in other transportation projects.
Oregon is taking more steps to replace gas taxes with per-mile vehicle fees to ensure that all electric vehicles, hybrids, and drivers pay to maintain roads.
Open enrollment is far from a wrecking ball for school budgets. It is a policy that helps schools and families, serving as a release valve for students stuck in public schools that are not the right fit, allowing them to choose other public schools that better meet their needs.
Federal agencies are primarily focused on whether transit agencies complete required paperwork and compliance steps, when they should be focused on whether those systems provide riders with safe, reliable trips.
Open enrollment allows families to choose the best public schools for them. Concerns that open enrollment hurts school district finances are unfounded. Even in states with funding quirks, simple policy fixes address these issues.
The opioid settlement funds are a unique opportunity to strengthen the local treatment and recovery infrastructure that communities will rely on long after the settlement payments end.
With total state and local public pension debt now over $200 billion, California’s taxpayers face the difficult task of paying the ever-growing pension costs for public workers.
According to our 29th Annual Highway Report, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Ohio have the best-performing, most cost-effective roads and bridges.
Alaska, California, Washington, New York, and Louisiana have the worst.
From 2022 to 2023, states increased spending on highways and saw improvements, but traffic congestion and rural Interstate pavement got worse.
Reason Foundation’s 29th Annual Highway Report examines how state road systems perform across the country on traffic fatalities, bridge safety, traffic congestion, pavement conditions and spending.
Find out where your state ranks. ⬇️
