On April 18, 2016 the United States Postal Service (USPS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report positing a rosy future for the USPS. The report, “Peeling the Onion,” concluded that USPS is “doing better financially than sometimes reported in the press.” Postal IG David Williams seems to view the agency’s prospects through rose-colored glasses, but the fiscal realities contained in its financial statements, congressional oversight and Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports indicate that the agency is running on empty and in need of transformative change.
Digital Creativity on World IP Day
As the theme for World IP Day 2016 is “Digital Creativity: Culture Reimagined,” it is a good time to remind everyone who loves music, particularly those who access songs online, that the royalty structure in the United States is out of balance with today’s distribution methods.
Don Quixote Alive and Well at the FCC
Rather than tilting at windmills trying to solve problems that don’t exist, government agencies should proceed with great care before imposing technical mandates on an industry. Unfortunately, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) appears to be taking a “shoot from the hip” approach to regulating, and currently has its sights set on abrogating intellectual property (IP) rights.
We Stand with the Competitive Enterprise Institute
Rather than tilting at windmills trying to solve problems that don’t exist, government agencies should proceed with great care before imposing technical mandates on an industry. Unfortunately, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) appears to be taking a “shoot from the hip” approach to regulating, and currently has its sights set on abrogating intellectual property (IP) rights.
UnitedHealthcare Cries Uncle
On Tuesday, April 19, UnitedHealthcare CEO Stephen Hemsley announced that the company would be pulling out of most of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA), or Obamacare, marketplace exchanges. This announcement did not come as a surprise. On November 19, 2015, The Hill reported, “At a shareholder meeting Thursday, UnitedHealthcare cast doubt on its ability to carry plans on the healthcare law’s exchanges beyond 2016, offering a more grim financial outlook than it had previously expected. ‘In recent weeks, growth expectations for individual exchange participation have tempered industrywide,’ said Stephen Hemsley, the company’s CEO. ‘Co-operatives have failed, and market data has signaled higher risks and more difficulties while our own claims experience has deteriorated, so we are taking this proactive step.’”
Waste Land
In the land of the free, the federal government still controls more than 50 percent of all land west of Kansas. The ongoing control of such a large part of the western states by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has been disastrous to the environment and the economy. With record-setting wildfires burning millions of acres, emitting pollutants into the air, and destroying habitats and watersheds, the only solution is to transfer the public lands to willing states, which will provide for more accountable and efficient land management.
The Perilous Journey of the Lifeline Program
There are times when the proceedings at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are like watching The Perils of Pauline. Such was the case on March 31, 2016, when efforts to reform and improve the Lifeline program in a bipartisan and unanimous manner were railroaded into oblivion after numerous delays in convening a scheduled hearing.
Lawyering Up Over Labels
On November 13, 2013, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a proposed rule that would allow generic pharmaceutical firms to provide new safety information and update a drug’s label without first getting FDA approval, even though doing so would make it different from the reference drug’s (the original brand-name) label. If the proposed rule should go in effect, it is conceivable that several versions of labels for the same medication could exist, creating uncertainty for physicians, pharmacists, and patients.
Privacy’s Rookie Cop on the Beat
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval on February 26, 2015, of the Open Internet Order did more than just place the Internet under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. It also gave the FCC the right to regulate online consumer privacy protection, despite the fact that such power duplicates the authority long held by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Always the zealot when it comes to controlling all aspects of communications, on March 31, 2016, the FCC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for consumer privacy protections solely related to Internet service providers (ISPs).
The Marlboro Man and the Blue Light
The vapor product known as electronic cigarettes, “e-cigs,” first appeared on the market in 2007. Although the e-cig market is still smaller than traditional cigarettes, sales grew by 23 percent in 2014 and are expected to surpass the cigarette market within the next decade.