Below you will find a sampling of recent news stories featuring Reason and its experts. The links are to external news Web sites and may expire at anytime.

• December 2005
• November 2005
• October 2005
• September 2005
• August 2005
• July 2005
• June 2005
• May 2005
• April 2005
• March 2005
• February 2005

USA Today
Dec. 29
Industry can't control kids
By Jacob Sullum, Reason
The controversy over so-called candy-flavored cigarettes, such as Camel Dark Mint and Kool Midnight Berry, is reminiscent of the controversy over "alcopops," such as Mike's Hard Lemonade and Bacardi Silver. In both cases, manufacturers are accused of designing and marketing adult products with minors in mind. And in both cases, they can plausibly respond that the products actually are aimed at young adults.

National Review
Dec. 29
A 2005 media tour
By Catherine Seipp
Then I notice I'm called "the lady from hell" in a Reason Hit & Run post, apparently because I appeared on the same Dennis Miller panel as Reason editor-in-chief Nick Gillespie. This gives me an idea for a Scarlet Pimpernel-inspired epigraph:

Associated Press Wire
Dec. 28 and Dec. 29
New York walkout points to increased tensions over public pensions
By Adam Geller, AP
"The underlying problem for the pension system is that elected officials and labor bosses make promises that they don't have to pay (for), that don't come due for years," said George Passantino of the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank in Los Angeles that has pushed for change. "Governments have got to find a way to attract good workers, but doing so in a way that doesn't break the backs of taxpayers."
No link

Newsday, NY
Dec. 29
Lawmakers increase scrutiny of pensions
By Adam Geller, AP
"The underlying problem for the pension system is that elected officials and labor bosses make promises that they don't have to pay (for), that don't come due for years," said George Passantino of the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank in Los Angeles that has pushed for change. "Governments have got to find a way to attract good workers, but doing so in a way that doesn't break the backs of taxpayers."

Philadelphia Inquirer
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Journal News, NY
Fort Worth Star Telegram
Miami Herald
Houston Chronicle
Kansas City Star
Charlotte Observer
San Diego Union Tribune
San Jose Mercury News
Washington Post.com
Los Angeles Times
Forbes.com
Business Week.com
News Tribune, WA
The Day, CT
Akron Beacon Journal, OH
Myrtle Beach Sun News, SC
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, IN
Duluth News Tribune, MN
Bradenton Herald, FL
Monterey County Herald
Biloxi Sun Herald, MS
Centre Daily Times, PA
Austin American Statesman
Herald News Daily, ND
Daily Herald, UT
Provo Daily Herald, UT
Springfield Journal Register, IL
Canton Daily Ledger, IL
Durant Daily Democrat, OK
Beloit Daily News, WI
Booneville Daily News
Casper Star Tribune, WY
Record Searchlight, CA
Cheboygan Daily Tribune, MI
Manteca Journal, CA
The Sun, WA
Chicago Defender
Times Daily, AL
Poterville Recorder, CA
Jefferson City News Tribune, MO
Lexington Dispatch, NC
Lakeland Ledger, FL
Columbus Ledger Enquirer, GA
The State, SC
San Luis Obispo Tribune, CA

Knight Ridder Tribune Business Wire
Dec. 28
Groups to study how county could benefit from high-speed rail
The commission is paying $500,000 for tandem studies. One will be performed by Frederick, Md.-based Transportation Economics & Management Systems, Inc., the group that did the initial impact study. The other will be carried out by Doug Harnish of Dayton-based GEM Public Sector Services, Wright State University professors John Blair and Robert Premus, and Samuel Staley, former president of the Buckeye Institute and current director of urban and land use policy at the Reason Foundation. Nicholson said it’s important to have someone like Staley, a frequent critic of passenger and light rail, as part of the study group. Staley said his opposition has been rooted in a lack of demand and revenue. This plan, he said, has the potential to be different. “There’s the potential for this to make money,” he said. “I’m involved in this research because I want to see if the numbers work. If you can show me a light rail project that will cover its costs, I’m all for it.” And if the numbers show it won’t work, he said, he’s been encouraged by Rail Development Commission Executive Director Jim Seney to say so.
No link

Atlanta Journal Constitution
Dec. 27
Public private span spells traffic relief
By Robert Poole, Reason
The State Transportation Board's decision to negotiate a "public-private initiative" agreement to add priced lanes to I-75 and I-575 should be welcomed by everyone concerned about Atlanta's future. It's a major step toward reducing the traffic congestion that could cripple the region's attractiveness as a place to live and do business.

Middletown Journal, OH
Dec. 27
Groups to study how county could benefit from high-speed rail
The commission is paying $500,000 for tandem studies. One will be performed by Frederick, Md.-based Transportation Economics & Management Systems, Inc., the group that did the initial impact study. The other will be carried out by Doug Harnish of Dayton-based GEM Public Sector Services, Wright State University professors John Blair and Robert Premus, and Samuel Staley, former president of the Buckeye Institute and current director of urban and land use policy at the Reason Foundation. Nicholson said it’s important to have someone like Staley, a frequent critic of passenger and light rail, as part of the study group. Staley said his opposition has been rooted in a lack of demand and revenue. This plan, he said, has the potential to be different. “There’s the potential for this to make money,” he said. “I’m involved in this research because I want to see if the numbers work. If you can show me a light rail project that will cover its costs, I’m all for it.” And if the numbers show it won’t work, he said, he’s been encouraged by Rail Development Commission Executive Director Jim Seney to say so.

Journal News, OH
Dec. 27
Groups to study how county could benefit from high-speed rail
The commission is paying $500,000 for tandem studies. One will be performed by Frederick, Md.-based Transportation Economics & Management Systems, Inc., the group that did the initial impact study. The other will be carried out by Doug Harnish of Dayton-based GEM Public Sector Services, Wright State University professors John Blair and Robert Premus, and Samuel Staley, former president of the Buckeye Institute and current director of urban and land use policy at the Reason Foundation. Nicholson said it’s important to have someone like Staley, a frequent critic of passenger and light rail, as part of the study group. Staley said his opposition has been rooted in a lack of demand and revenue. This plan, he said, has the potential to be different. “There’s the potential for this to make money,” he said. “I’m involved in this research because I want to see if the numbers work. If you can show me a light rail project that will cover its costs, I’m all for it.” And if the numbers show it won’t work, he said, he’s been encouraged by Rail Development Commission Executive Director Jim Seney to say so.

New York Post
Dec. 26
Constitution rewired by W
By Jacob Sullum, Reason
Members of Congress have been known to vote for legislation they haven't read. But is it possible Congress authorized warrantless wiretaps without realizing it?

Boston Globe
Dec. 26
Poisoned politics
By Cathy Young, Reason
Even as the war in Iraq goes on and the war with a global terror network shows no signs of abating, our domestic political scene seems to have become a war zone as well.

Weekly Standard
Dec. 26
Arnold Agonistes
By KE Grubbs Jr.
Then, in the early 1990s, the world-famous actor headlined a Reason Foundation dinner. His speech was pure Milton Friedman, whose PBS series, Free to Choose, he had also famously introduced. Was there another Ronald Reagan, even more libertarian, about to spring from Hollywood into the political pantheon? It appeared so. To be sure, because of his Austrian birth, Schwarzenegger was barred from the presidency. But senator maybe? Governor? The ballroom of the Los Angeles Biltmore glowed with fervent wishes, all to be put on hold as Arnold resumed moviemaking.

Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Dec. 25
Who grew your Christmas tree?
By Nick Gillespie, Reason, & Jesse James DeConto
'Tis the season for Christmas trees and immigration reform, two issues that are rarely considered in the same thought. But they are intricately interconnected in important ways: As with most agricultural products, growers rely heavily on immigrant labor to bring the trees to market.

Arkansas Democrat Gazette
Dec. 24
Who grew your Christmas tree?
By Nick Gillespie, Reason, & Jesse James DeConto
'Tis the season for Christmas trees and immigration reform, two issues that are rarely considered in the same thought. But they are intricately interconnected in important ways: As with most agricultural products, growers rely heavily on immigrant labor to bring the trees to market.

Indianapolis Star
Dec. 22
Editorial
Next logical step: Fire consolidation
They shouldn't count on the consolidation experts queried by Reason Foundation urban studies expert Sam Staley. The experts concluded that such a merger would make fire service "more efficient, more accountable, provide services more evenly, and reduce duplication." Nor should they look to Staley, a skeptic on consolidation, who concedes that such a plan "seems pretty well thought-out."

LA Daily News
Dec. 22
Effort planned to split LAUSD
By Rick Orlov and Naush Boghossian
"Because the ideas are all conflicting, the resources are diluted over the different ideas," said Lisa Snell of the nonprofit free-market Reason Foundation. "Somebody needs to win to have successful implementation."

Pasadena Star News
Dec. 21
Put compassion in immigration policy
By Nick Gillespie, Reason, & Jesse James DeConto
'Tis the season for Christmas trees and immigration reform, two issues that are rarely considered in the same thought. But they are intricately interconnected in important ways: As with most agricultural products, growers rely heavily on immigrant labor to bring the trees to market.

Whittier Daily News
Dec. 21
Put compassion in immigration policy
By Nick Gillespie, Reason, & Jesse James DeConto
'Tis the season for Christmas trees and immigration reform, two issues that are rarely considered in the same thought. But they are intricately interconnected in important ways: As with most agricultural products, growers rely heavily on immigrant labor to bring the trees to market.

San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Dec. 21
Put compassion in immigration policy
By Nick Gillespie, Reason, & Jesse James DeConto
'Tis the season for Christmas trees and immigration reform, two issues that are rarely considered in the same thought. But they are intricately interconnected in important ways: As with most agricultural products, growers rely heavily on immigrant labor to bring the trees to market.

Free Lance Star, VA
Dec. 21
"O Christmas tree, O immigration reform'-a modern carol needed
By Nick Gillespie, Reason, & Jesse James DeConto
'Tis the season for Christmas trees and immigration reform, two issues that are rarely considered in the same thought. But they are intricately interconnected in important ways: As with most agricultural products, growers rely heavily on immigrant labor to bring the trees to market.
No link

Charlotte Observer
Dec. 20
Know who grew your tree?
By Nick Gillespie, Reason, & Jesse James DeConto
'Tis the season for Christmas trees and immigration reform, two issues that are rarely considered in the same thought. But they are intricately interconnected in important ways: As with most agricultural products, growers rely heavily on immigrant labor to bring the trees to market.

Columbia Daily Tribune, MO
Dec. 20
Door to nowhere U.S. should make room for hardworking immigrants
By Nick Gillespie, Reason, & Jesse James DeConto
'Tis the season for Christmas trees and immigration reform, two issues that are rarely considered in the same thought. But they are intricately interconnected in important ways: As with most agricultural products, growers rely heavily on immigrant labor to bring the trees to market.
No link

TIME magazine
Dec. 19
Getting smart at being good...are companies better off for it
By Unmesh Kher
Rodgers has contributed significantly to the debate over the past decade, most recently when he was invited, with Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, to debate CSR with Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey in the October issue of Reason magazine. Rodgers assailed the CSR-imbued philosophy that guides Whole Foods, calling it similar to those of Karl Marx and Ralph Nader. Mackey, an avowed libertarian, replied that his approach has brought a lot more wealth for Whole Foods' investors than the one embraced at Cypress, which, he noted, has struggled to be profitable. Indeed, though Cypress made a small profit in 2004, it booked losses in the three previous years.

Boston Globe
Dec. 19
Feminism revisited
By Cathy Young, Reason
First, there were the "mommy wars" -- the much-ballyhooed antagonism between working mothers and stay-at-home mothers. Then, there was the "opt-out revolution" -- the much-ballyhooed phenomenon of high-powered career women scaling down or giving up careers to raise children.

Investor's Business Daily
Dec. 19
How zoning keeps homes out of reach
By Samuel Staley, Reason
The “American Dream” of owning a single-family home is becoming increasingly unaffordable for the average American. The national median price of existing homes, including condos, was $218,000 in October. That’s up nearly 17 percent from October 2004’s median price of $187,000.
No link

North County Times
Dec. 19
Study shows economic, educational benefits of universal preschool plan
By Brenda Duran
Opponents like Lisa Snell, director of education policy at Reason Foundation, a non-profit think tank organization, said the study is not only nebulous about its future social and economic promises but is also giving preschool advocates vague and inconsistent data which underestimates the actual cost of implementing the program. "It's a bad idea and a ridiculous new bureaucracy," said Snell, who has researched universal preschool and its cost-benefit effects in the United States and Canada. "The problems are that advocates are not being realistic about the cost and have not factored in actual evidence."

Bloomberg News
Dec. 19
Bush battles air controllers as Delta, Northwest cheer him on
By John Hughes
The negotiation recalls Reagan's confrontation with controllers in that "the precedent set in this contract will shape the future in terms of workforce costs," says Robert Poole, director of transportation studies for the Reason Foundation, a libertarian group in Los Angeles.

San Francisco Chronicle
Dec. 18
Clueless mayor in toothless scandal; Videogate a yawn
By Tim Cavanaugh, Reason
Pity Mayor Gavin Newsom. In two years as San Francisco's chief executive, he has mastered the politics of the empty gesture, and the prospect of an emergency press conference denouncing rogue cops in the city's most crime-plagued precinct must have seemed irresistible. How the unraveling of the Christmas party video scandal must be eroding the mayor's faith in human nature.

San Jose Mercury News
Dec. 18
Preschool scheme would harm women-run businesses
By Shikha Dalmia and Lisa Snell, Reason
Celebrities with a social conscience are a growing breed in Hollywood. But it would be nice if they'd stick to whales and land mines and leave our children alone.

Akron Beacon Journal
Dec. 18
Eminently important rights
By David Owsiany, ReasonCarl and Joy Gamble owned their home in the Cincinnati suburb of Norwood for 35 years. They raised their two children in the house and expected to enjoy retirement there with all their fond memories. By all accounts, the house was well-kept and the neighborhood was in good condition.

San Francisco Chronicle
Dec. 16
By Greg Lucas
Among the opponents: the Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce, the Reason Foundation and the California Building Industry Association. Opponents objected to the fee's effect on home prices, the district's lack of specificity on how the money will be spent and the fact that cars are more responsible than builders for the valley's polluted air.

Orange County Register
Dec. 16
Habitat for Humanity priced out
By Peter Robison
"If you're not upper-middle-class, you probably have no business shopping in Santa Monica," says Adrian Moore, vice president of research at the Reason Foundation, a group based in Los Angeles that advocates free-market policies. "You need to go down the road to Culver City."

Albuquerque Journal
Dec. 16
Spaceport is Richardson's latest boondoggle
By John Dendahl
Richardson's enthusiasm for a high-profile railroad project leads one to wonder whether any studies performed weren't, in fact, designed to lead to rail. Period. Just three months ago, the Reason Foundation released a report recounting many years of study and experience with highway lanes that are reserved for some combination of vans, buses and tollpaying passenger vehicles. While this Reason report isn't oriented to playing off rail against rubber-tire transportation, one cannot avoid coming away from it with the conclusion that Gov. Richardson's Commuter Railroad is likely a bad choice made in haste.

Bakersfield Californian
Dec. 15
Study: Universal preschool may benefit Kern in a big way
Lisa Snell, education director at the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation, said universal preschool threatens the state’s private preschool industry.“If all of their calculations are correct, then best-case scenario, 15 percent more kids will be in school at the cost of many people’s jobs and putting a whole industry out of business,” Snell said. “Why don’t you just target those 15 percent more kids?”Snell also said it would be difficult to find enough certified teachers to handle a universal preschool program.

Victoriville Daily Press
Dec. 15
Editorial
Preschool propaganda
In a San Francisco Chronicle piece last week, two members of the Reason Foundation staff (Reason is a California think tank) pointed out that a plan remarkably similar to Reiner's is failing in Quebec after having been in place for eight years. Among other things, they say, the final price tag for Quebec's day care program is 33 times what was originally projected: It was supposed to cost $230 million over five years, but now gobbles $1.7 billion every year. That's partly because much of the increased spending has gone not toward increased access, but increased costs. Day care worker unions, on the threat of strike, negotiated a 40 percent increase in wages over four years. The cost of care has doubled since the program began, with the annual per-infant cost now exceeding $15,000.

Santa Cruz Sentinel
Dec. 15
Study: Free preschool could benefit Santa Cruz County
By Jeff Tobin
"I'm concerned those who support the measure have not fully thought out the long-term consequences universal preschool would have on the education system in California," said Lisa Snell, education director for the Los Angeles-based think tank Reason Foundation. "The $2 billion they say it will take to implement it covers only direct costs." It does not address what it might do to low-income child-care providers or issues with teacher credentialing, said Snell.

Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Dec. 15
Housing boom leaves Habitat for Humanity in dire straits
By Bloomberg News
"If you're not upper-middle class, you probably have no business shopping in Santa Monica," says Adrian Moore, vice president of research at the Reason Foundation, a group based in Los Angeles that advocates free-market policies. "You need to go down the road to Culver City."

Bloomberg News
Dec. 14
Habitat for Humanity, split on misison builds $800,000 condos
"If you're not upper-middle class, you probably have no business shopping in Santa Monica," says Adrian Moore, vice president of research at the Reason Foundation, a group based in Los Angeles that advocates free-market policies. "You need to go down the road to Culver City.''

Washington Times
Dec. 14
Culture, etc
"Although alcohol can be at least partly redeemed, it seems tobacco has been irrevocably condemned. Explaining the World Health Organization's new policy against hiring anyone who admits to using tobacco in any form, a WHO spokesman [said ]: 'With tobacco, there is no middle ground. It is black and white.'?" -- Jacob Sullum, writing on "Permission for Pleasure," Dec. 7 in Reason Online

New York Post
Dec. 14
Creche quandary
By Jacob Sullum, Reason
Liberal groups like People for the Ameri can Way and the ACLU have opposed public Christmas and Hanukkah displays," says the Committee for Justice in a new radio ad urging confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. "Some courts and judges have supported this radical agenda, but not Judge Sam Alito."

South Bend Tribune (IN)
Dec. 13
Private money wave of future
By Martin DeAgostino
"This is all happening because of federal and state funding shortfalls," said Robert Poole, a toll road advocate with the Reason Foundation in California.

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Dec. 13
Highway funding fight rages on
By Niki Kelly
“I know the issue of global companies has been the cause of some concern and discussion in Indiana,” said Robert Poole, director of transportation for the non-profit Reason Foundation in Los Angeles. But he said it makes more sense for the global companies to take the lead right now, because they have the capital to bring to the table and the experience of owning and operating toll roads. Poole said there is a new wave of public-private partnerships – often called P3’s – including significant projects in Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Washington and Florida. He noted that $25 billion worth of new public-private projects is in play right now. The most well-known example of such a venture in the Midwest was the 99-year lease of the Chicago Skyway for $1.8 billion.

Northwest Indiana Times
Dec. 13
State looking to gain $2 billion in tolls
By Patrick Guinane
Panelists said there are several reason private firms are eager to help. Unlike government, they can deduct a road's depreciation from their annual taxes. That alone was worth at least $300 million in the Chicago Skyway deal, said Robert Poole, transportation director for the Reason Foundation, a California nonprofit.

Boston Globe
Dec. 12
A new wave of PC on campus
By Cathy Young, Reason
Alan Temes, an assistant professor of health and physical education at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, was getting good reviews on the job until his politics became an issue. Temes, who opposes the war in Iraq, began posting updates of the body count of US soldiers and Iraqi civilians on a bulletin board near his office.

Buffalo News
Dec. 12
In Falls, the house trumps homes
By Gail Norheim and Dan Herbeck
"The original intent of eminent domain was to help government get land for bridges, roads and other projects that benefit the public," said Adrian T. Moore, vice president of the Reason Public Policy Institute in Los Angeles. "Now, government is taking private lands to give them to a sovereign nation to expand a casino," he said. "Casinos are notorious money machines. It's hard for me to believe they can't buy the land without the government's help."

Star Ledger (NJ)
Dec. 11
Arts and Letters: Ideas from All Over
By Denis Dutton
While van Gogh's killing increased calls for freedom of expression in Europe, Bruce Bawer reports in Reason magazine that things are moving in exactly the opposite direction. European imams have called for "safeguards against vilification of dearly cherished beliefs" and politically correct arts administrators have fallen in line.

Chicago Sun Times
Dec. 11
Controversz: Cut to the chase
Free preschool for everybody can't work
By Shikha Dalmia and Lisa Snell
Ideas that seem great in theory are often a disaster in practice. California's Preschool for All initiative, being pushed by director-turned-child advocate Rob Reiner, is just such an idea. This is not mere ivory-tower doom-mongering. This is what a sober assessment of a similar universal day-care program in Quebec suggests.
No link

Lancaster Sunday News
Dec. 11
Political shepherds hook flocks with faith
By Gil Smart
But perhaps the clearest assessment of how the right strives to leverage this populist appeal came in an article in Reason magazine last week by Ronald Bailey, titled: "Origin of the Specious: Why Do Neoconservatives Doubt Darwin?"

In it, Bailey suggests that prominent neoconservative intellectuals such as Irving Kristol and Robert Bork have sought to undermine Darwin's theories not because they are biblical literalists, but because they believe the Bible keeps society in line and because the conservative movement needs to appeal to those who want it to keep society in line. Bailey quotes Paul Gross, a biologist and self-described conservative, who "believes that the conservative attack on Darwin may be a case of tactical politics. Some conservative intellectuals think religious fundamentalists are 'essential to the political program of the right,' says Gross. As a gesture of solidarity, he says, these intellectuals are publicly embracing arguments that appear to 'keep God in the picture.' "

Maui News
Dec. 11
Cooperative conservation espoused
By Valerie Monson
Scarlett honed her philosophy during a long tenure at the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank that's dedicated to "individual liberty, limited government and advancing free minds and free markets," according to the organization's Web site.

Bakersfield Californian
Dec. 10
Preschool for all: Necessary or panacea
By Marylee Shrider
In Quebec, for example, universal preschool advocates eight years ago claimed the initial investment in a government-funded preschool program would pay for itself many times over. The cost for Quebec's program was estimated at $230 million over five years, but now costs a budget-busting $1.7 billion annually, according to Lisa Snell, director of education policy at Reason Foundation and online articles from the San Chronicle and Wall Street Journal.

Washington Times
Dec. 10
The skinny on tippling
By Jacob Sullum, Reason
Robot dogs and cloning are not the only developments anticipated in "Sleeper" that have come to pass. Near the beginning of Woody's Allen's 1973 science-fiction comedy, a doctor remarks that steak, cream pies and deep-fried foods once "were thought to be unhealthy — precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true." We seem to hear similar news every month or so.

St. Paul Pioneer Press
Dec. 9
Does everything we enjoy have to be good for us?
By Jacob Sullum, Reason
Robot dogs and cloning are not the only developments anticipated in "Sleeper" that have come to pass. Near the beginning of Woody's Allen's 1973 science-fiction comedy, a doctor remarks that steak, cream pies and deep-fried foods once "were thought to be unhealthy — precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true." We seem to hear similar news every month or so.

St Petersburg Times
Dec. 9
A shabby way to treat gay soldiers
Editorial
As reported in Reason magazine, part of the cause might be found in the military manual titled the Reserve Component Unit Commander's Handbook, which includes a regulation suspending the discharge of gay soldiers in those units about to be mobilized.

The Wall Street Journal
Dec. 8
Meathead is at it again
By Shikha Dalmia and Lisa Snell, Reason
Celebrities with a social conscience are a growing breed in Hollywood. But it would be nice if they'd stick to whales and landmines and leave our children alone.

National Public Radio
Dec. 8
Talk of the Nation
Research examines why kids start smoking
Jacob Sullum, Reason

Augusta Chronicle
Dec. 8
Bus drivers can hit road, board member declares
Outsourcing non-educational services, such as transportation, is a growing national trend, said Lisa Snell, the director of education for the Reason Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes libertarian principles." In general, I think it costs a lot to invest in the capital costs of a transportation system," Mrs. Snell said.

Anninston Star
Dec. 7
Supporters of torture on slippery slope
By Cathy Young, Reason
It is a shocking sign of the times that we are having a debate about the appropriateness of torture. Some would say that it’s a sign of our democracy’s moral decline; others, of the desperate times that have driven us to desperate measures. Either way, those of us who do not want the free world to lose its soul to terroris

FoxNews.com
Dec. 6
PBS continues probe into biased film
By Wendy McElroy
As Boston Globe columnist Cathy Young accurately observed, "This is a highly misleading claim [as used in the documentary] which implies that men usually win custody battles when they go to court. In fact, the majority of these cases are uncontested -- the fathers have sole or joint custody with the mother's consent."

The Wall Street Journal – Online
Dec. 6
Big Ideas
Corporate Social Concerns
The Mackay/T.J. Rogers "debate" on this topic in the recent Reason magazine edition (together with an overview by Milton Friedman) was confused as you note here. Mackay realizes (as he should) that there are groups of parties whose "good feelings" (trust which allows lower transaction costs and thus increased efficiencies) extend beyond the shareholder.

Boston Globe
Dec 5
How much torture is ok?
By Cathy Young, Reason
It is a shocking sign of the times that we are having a debate about the appropriateness of torture. Some would say that it's a sign of our democracy's moral decline; others, of the desperate times that have driven us to desperate measures. Either way, those of us who do not want the free world to lose its soul to terrorism must stand up and be counted.

Honolulu Advertiser
Dec 5
Interior official to tour Islands
By Jan TenBruggencate
She is a political scientist, a former president of the Reason Foundation and a proponent of what she calls incentive-based environmental policies. She co-author ed a report, "Race to the Top: State Environmental Innovations," which looks at how state governments have used local resources and partnerships with private individuals and firms to address environmental issues.

Aviation Week and Space Technology
Dec 4
FAA calls for contract mediation
Robert Poole, director of transportation at the Reason Foundation think tank that analyzes ATC issues, says it makes sense for the FAA to try to get a mediator involved to move its proposal forward. Then, if it doesn't prevail, the FAA proposal can be "thrown in the lap of Congress" if Natca doesn't agree with it. The odds of the FAA's position prevailing in Congress are higher than Natca winning, Poole believes.

San Francisco Chronicle
Dec 4
Universal Preschool is inviting universal disaster
By Shikha Dalmia, Lisa Snell, Reason
Ideas that seem great in theory are often a disaster in practice. California's Preschool for All initiative being pushed by director-turned-child advocate Rob Reiner is just such an idea.

San Antonio Express News
Dec 4
Toll roads will limit improvements to free roadways
By Patrick Driscoll
"Nearly all new toll road projects, in order to sell bonds to investors, must offer some degree of protection from unlimited tax-funded competition from competing free highways," Robert Poole of the Reason Foundation, a free-market think tank based in Los Angeles, wrote in a report this year.

Appeal Democrat (CA)
Nov. 30
Editorial
Another problem is the immensity of the projects that might be built, Bob Poole, director of transportation studies at the libertarian Reason Foundation, told the Orange County Register, sister paper of the Appeal-Democrat. He said that a special truck highway through Los Angeles, which would reduce traffic for passenger cars on other freeways, would cost $10 billion to $13 billion. A commuter tunnel through the Santa Ana Mountains reportedly would cost up to $8.5 billion. "Big projects that make a difference are megaprojects," he said. Other projects across the state would have similar price tags. But there's a "silver lining," Poole said. "The ability to fund these large projects through tolls is very real." The tolls would pay back "revenue bonds" tied to the projects, not the state general fund. Texas, Virginia and Georgia are going ahead with such projects.

Style Weekly (VA)
Nov. 30
Paving the Way
By Scott Bass
"That's what happens when there is no skin in the game, if you make your money from construction in order to get the construction contract, build the thing and walk away," says Robert W. Poole, director of transportation studies at the Reason Foundation in Los Angeles. "Shifting that risk away from the public and putting it onto the shoulders of investors, that's the right way to do these public-private partnerships."

Evansville Courier Press
Nov. 30
Government consolidations carries risks
By Indiana Policy Review Foundation
and Samuel R. Staley, adjunct scholar of the foundation and director of Urban and Land Use Policy at the Reason Foundation.

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Nov. 30
Limited city-county consolidation may be best
By Indiana Policy Review Foundation
and Samuel R. Staley, adjunct scholar of the foundation and director of Urban and Land Use Policy at the Reason Foundation.

International Herald Tribune
Nov. 29
Strangling freedom in its cradle
By Cathy Young, Reason
If Russia had a Thanksgiving Day, those Russians who care about freedom would not have much to be thankful for this year.

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Nov. 29
Limited city-county consolidation may be best
By Indiana Policy Review Foundation
and Samuel R. Staley, adjunct scholar of the foundation and director of Urban and Land Use Policy at the Reason Foundation.

Orange County Register
Nov. 28
Paying for infrastructure
Editorial
Another problem is the immensity of the projects that might be built, Bob Poole, director of transportation studies at the libertarian Reason Foundation, told us. He said that a special truck highway through Los Angeles, which would reduce traffic for passenger cars on other freeways, would cost $10 billion to $13 billion. A commuter tunnel through the Santa Ana Mountains reportedly would cost up to $8.5 billion. "Big projects that make a difference are megaprojects," he said. Other projects across the state would have similar price tags. But there's a "silver lining," Poole said. "The ability to fund these large projects through tolls is very real." The tolls would pay back "revenue bonds" tied to the projects, not the state general fund. Texas, Virginia and Georgia are going ahead with such projects.

San Francisco Chronicle
Nov. 28
Governor touts upgrades to state
By Lynda Gledhill
There is no shortage of projects that could ease commute times, and many lend themselves to toll roads, said Robert Poole, director of transportation studies at the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank that has advocated public-private partnerships. "I'm not saying it would solve all the problems, but significant chunks could be built that we otherwise couldn't imagine doing" with solely public dollars, he said.

Scripps Howard News Service
Nov. 28
Competing interests cloud future of California infrastructure projects
By Lynda Gledhill
There is no shortage of projects that could ease commute times, and many lend themselves to toll roads, said Robert Poole, director of transportation studies at the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank that has advocated public-private partnerships. "I'm not saying it would solve all the problems, but significant chunks could be built that we otherwise couldn't imagine doing" with solely public dollars, he said.

Boston Globe
Nov. 28
Russia's waning freedom
By Cathy Young, Reason
If Russia had a Thanksgiving Day, those Russians who care about freedom would not have much to be thankful for this year.

Los Angeles Times
Nov. 27
Times is blind to bulldozers flattening homes
By Matt Welch, Reason
Did you know that the Los Angeles Unified School District recently voted to bulldoze more than 50 working-class residences in Echo Park to build an elementary school, even though there's nonresidential property sporting "For Sale" signs just a few hundred yards down the street? Not if you get your news from the Los Angeles Times.

Washington Times
Nov. 27
Another's habit up your nose
By Jacob Sullum, Reason
At my local drugstore, shelves of cold and allergy medicine have been replaced by merchandise cards hanging from metal rods. If I want to buy one of these remedies, I have to take the corresponding card to the pharmacist's counter, wait in line, show my ID and add my name to a register.

North County Times (CA)
Nov. 27
Wave of the future? Telecommuters outpace bus, train riders
By Mark Walker
A new report from the Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles-based think tank that focuses on public policy issues with a bent toward transportation, says telecommuters such as Bykowski now outnumber mass transit commuters in 27 of the nation's 50 largest metropolitan areas, including San Diego. There are 1.29 telecommuters for every bus rider in San Diego County, and 22 telecommuters for every person who rides the train to get to work, according to the report..."All the trends point to more telecommuting," said Ted Balaker, author of the report. "The more our economy becomes knowledge-based rather than industrial, the skills we value are creativity and not having a strong back or being able to manipulate a machine. That makes working from home make more sense. "Workers like it, there's a lot of evidence they are more productive, and the more companies focus on results, the more room there is for telecommuting," said Balaker, whose treatise is titled "The Quiet Success: Telecommuting's Impact on Transportation and Beyond."

Lubbock Avalanche Journal
Nov. 27
Flexible planning drives city development
By James Gallagher
"I think cities would be much better served to provide a framework in which land uses can be flexible so the markets can be changed and shifted to match the neighborhood," said Sam Staley, director of urban and land use policy at the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation, a nonprofit public policy research organization.

Star Ledger (NJ)
Nov. 27
Ideas from all over: lighting up the silver screen?
By Denis Duton
Aiming to snuff out another nanny-state myth, Jacob Sullum argues in Reason magazine that they're wrong. First, he tackles the notion that smoking is widespread in movies. One new study in the medical journal Chest found that overall, "contemporary American movies do not have a higher prevalence of smoking than the general US population," Sullum writes. Further, it's ridiculous to say that smoking is portrayed as glamorous. "The Chest study found that 'bad guys' were more likely to smoke than 'good guys' and that, as in real life, smoking was associated with lower socioeconomic status." In fact, in the 2005 movie "The Jacket," a drunk is burned to death when she falls asleep smoking -- hardly something to make you want to go out and buy a pack.

Washington Post
Nov. 27
Indiana's book of Daniels
By George Will
Daniels believes that Danielsism, far from being an exercise in small-mindedness, actually serves a large vision. He subscribes to a distinction made by Virginia Postrel in her book "The Future and Its Enemies" -- the distinction between advocates of stasis and advocates of dynamism. The former believe in managing the unfolding of the future.

Washington Times
Nov. 26
Letters
Jacob Sullum's column "Smoking's inner limits" (Commentary, Nov. 19) was beautifully done. He showed the true motivations of those behind the smoking bans for what they are ... simply a desire to socially engineer smokers into either quitting or switching over to Big Pharma's "nicotine replacement" products.

St. Paul Pioneer Press
Nov. 25
Anywhere except inside and outside
By Jacob Sullum, Reason
If you've gotten used to smoke-free bars, here's a new concept to wrap your mind around: smoke-free cigar lounges. This innovation comes to us courtesy of Washington state's voters, who recently approved an initiative that bans smoking in nearly every indoor location except for private residences.

Indianapolis Star
Nov. 25
Schools can unite, keep wheels turning
Editorial
Nationally, at least 40 percent of school dollars are spent on transportation and other ancillary operations, according to a report released this month by Deloitte Research and the Reason Foundation.

Los Angeles Daily News
Nov. 3
Plan districts to safeguard democracy
By George Passantino, Reason
The big USC-UCLA showdown is on the horizon, but imagine if there was a twist, and UCLA was allowed to choose USC's lineup. To maximize its own chances, UCLA would likely pick a lineup that would bench Trojan All-Americans like Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush.While the concept seems absurd, that is pretty much how we let the political party in power pick and choose our legislative and congressional districts in California.

Los Angeles Times
Nov. 3
This Chief Executive Is Blunt With a Capital B
By Michael Hiltzik
So no one was particularly surprised at the intensity of his remarks in a forum on corporate social responsibility last month in the libertarian magazine Reason, also featuring John Mackey of Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods and the economist Milton Friedman.

Detroit News
Nov. 3
Blight loophole could allow cities to grab homes, land
By Shikha Dalmia, Reason
For most people, urban blight means crumbling homes, abandoned offices, and toxic waste sites. But for many municipal authorities blight is anything that comes in the way of their grand redevelopment plans.

Los Angeles Times
Nov. 2
Democrats need a breath of mountain fresh air
By Matt Welch, Reason
For maybe the first time since the Gingrich revolution rocked their world in 1994, Democrats smell electoral blood in the water. The conservative crackup over Harriet E. Miers, followed by the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby — both directly on the heels of the bungled federal response to Hurricane Katrina — have unleashed a long-suppressed crisis of conscience and faith within the Republican church.

The FrontRunner
Nov. 2
Presidential Campaign
Matt Welch, an associate editor of Reason magazine, in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times (11/2, 958K) writes that despite the recent schism between conservatives and the GOP over the increase of 'big government' programs under Bush, Democratic attempts to capitalize on it "all looks dreary and self-defeating to me." Welch advocates an option "Democrats have barely considered it. If voters are fed up with irresponsible Big Government cronyism, why not offer a responsible alternative that keeps government out of people's lives except when necessary?" Welch touts the successes of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and notes, "The Mountain West is the fastest-growing region in the country and home to a traditional skepticism of government that the national party only seems to remember when it's out of power." Following their examples "might give a fleeting glimmer of hope to those of us who don't think the solution to Big Government is more of the same."
No link

USA Today
Nov. 2
Smoke free zones take off
By Dennis Cauchon
Smokers' rights advocates say outdoor bans go too far. "People should have a choice whether they want to engage in risky activities," says pipe smoker Jacob Sullum, author of For Your Own Good: The Anti-Smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public Health."If you ban smoking outside near a door or window, essentially you have no place to smoke except your own home — and maybe not even there," Sullum says. "What's next? Smoking in a house with children will be considered child abuse. Smoking around pets will be cruel to animals."

Tucson Citizen
Nov. 2
Outdoor smoking bans take off
"People should have a choice whether they want to engage in risky activities," says pipe smoker Jacob Sullum, author of "For Your Own Good: the Anti-Smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public Health." "If you ban smoking outside near a door or window, essentially you have no place to smoke except your own home - and maybe not even there," Sullum says. "What's next? Smoking in a house with children will be considered child abuse."

Detroit Free Press
Nov. 2
Across country, smoking bans are filtering outdoors
By Dennis Cauchon
"People should have a choice whether they want to engage in risky activities," says pipe smoker Jacob Sullum, author of "For Your Own Good: the Anti-Smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public Health." "If you ban smoking outside near a door or window, essentially you have no place to smoke except your own home - and maybe not even there," Sullum says. "What's next? Smoking in a house with children will be considered child abuse."

St. Paul Pioneer Press
Nov. 2
Documentary to tell smoking ban tale
By Craig Westover
Devil's Weed" director Maura Flynn's resume is solid civil libertarian — Reason magazine, the Individual Rights Foundation and the Radio America Network. She co-produced, with Johnson, Michael Wilson's critically praised "Michael Moore Hates America."

Chicago Tribune
Oct. 31
And you thought you had the worst job in the world
By James Warren
Speaking of blogs, libertarian Reason.com checks how "Blogging Bigmouths Botch Bomber Brouhaha," focusing on nutty conspiracy theories claiming Islamic terrorism inspired the Oct. 1 suicide via bomb of a University of Oklahoma student near its packed football stadium, then such a purported reality was ignorned by a politically correct "mainstream media."

Boston Globe
Oct. 31
A silver lining in Iraq
By Cathy Young, Reason
We are often preoccupied with milestones and numbers, and the death of the 2,000th American soldier in the war in Iraq has been an occasion for much reflection. This particular milestone comes at a time when President Bush is already reeling from a number of political blows.

Las Vegas Review Journal
Oct. 30
Scheduled Conventions
Reason Foundation The Mirage Nov. 4-6

Atlanta Business Chronicle
Oct. 30
City trying to fix buying disarray
By Ryan Mahoney
Geoff Segal, director of government reform with the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation, a free market think-tank, said the savings should bear themselves out if the city follows Kearney's advice."Most large cities went through this in the late 1990s," Segal said. "In a sense, Atlanta's really just catching up to everyone else."

Denver Post
Oct. 30
Hybrids could overrun transit lanes, CDOT says
By Jeffrey Leib
Allowing solo drivers to buy their way onto HOT lanes makes sense because the volume can be regulated by raising or lowering tolls, said Robert W. Poole Jr., a transportation expert with the Reason Foundation, a California think tank. But letting in hybrids and other low-emission vehicles is a bad idea, Poole said. "HOV lanes are intended to be a traffic solution," he said.

"If you open them up to the rapidly rising number of hybrids, you are going to destroy their usefulness."

Ventura County Star
Oct. 30
Call for real deregulation
By Adam Summers, Reason
NO: Proposition 80 would make some significant -- and detrimental -- changes in the state's energy policy, proving that we haven't learned the lessons of the so-called "deregulation" of the 1990s.

Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Oct. 30
Diversifying the marketplace of ideas
By Bill Steigerwald
They could, for example, allow folks from magazines, Internet sites and think tanks to guest-edit a whole page each week. Rich Lowry of National Review, Russ Rymer of Mother Jones, Nick Gillespie of Reason and countless other idea-mongers would probably do it for free. So would super-bloggers like Andrew Sullivan or Rush Limbaugh.

News and Observer, NC
Oct. 29
Transit that won't pay off
By Christopher Goff
As Ted Balaker of the Reason Foundation has said, "Transit agencies often shift resources to woo middle-class motorists to rail and neglect those with the fewest transportation options."

Lodi News
Oct. 29
City explores possibility of selling electric utility
By Andrew Adams
Adrian Moore, a vice president for Reason, a free-market think tank based in Los Angeles, said municipal utilities should consider privatization as a means to remain competitive in the state's volatile energy market. Cities, however, must weigh the benefit of selling off their utilities against the cost of losing local control. Moore added many cities that do privatize find there is a benefit of losing "the monkey off the back" because they avoid the headaches of operating a power company.

International Herald Tribune
Oct. 28
Assad's dilemma
By Michael Young, Reason
The release last week of a United Nations report on the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri of Lebanon threatens to create a perfect storm of adversity for the regime of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

Fort Wayne News Sentinel
Oct. 28
Valuing the Constitution
Editorial
As Virginia Postrel, former editor of Reason magazine, put it: "At 60 years old, she appears never to have had a substantive conversation about law or policy with any friend."

Dallas Morning News
Oct. 27
Jihad in Oklahoma
By Cathy Young, Reason
On Oct. 1, a tragedy shocked the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman: 21-year-old engineering student Joel Henry Hinrichs III killed himself with a homemade bomb while sitting on a bench about 100 yards from the university's football stadium, packed with 84,000 fans.

The Wall Street Journal
Oct. 25
The Middle Seat
Call for a revamping of airport security
By Scott McCartney
Staffing at checkpoints is also under fire. Bob Poole, an aviation-security expert at the Reason Foundation, says sometimes there seem to be too many screeners and other times there appears to be not enough. "TSA runs its allocation model once a year," says Mr. Poole. "This is a very dynamic industry, and things change. If you set your staffing only once a year, you're bound to have big mismatches." Staffing at checkpoints has been an issue since TSA was created in 2002. With 45,000 employees and often a crowd of screeners on duty, the agency cynically became known as "Thousands Standing Around."

Washington Times
Oct. 25
Extortion inspiration
By Jacob Sullum, Reason
The Justice Department's lawsuit against the country's leading tobacco companies accuses them of "racketeering." Yet the government's lawyers are the ones behaving like mobsters.

Kansas City Star
Oct. 25
"Doonesbury" still feisty after 35 years
By Dave Twiddy, AP
Reason magazine managing editor Jesse Walker said the strip has occasional breakthroughs, but has become more Democrat polemic than satire and Trudeau's best work is decades behind him. "Ultimately what happened to Trudeau was he got older, no longer had his finger on the pulse and started writing as an outsider," Walker said.
Belleville News Democrat, IL
Wichita Eagle

Slate
Oct. 24
No absence of Mehlis
By Michael Young, Reason
In 2003, I was invited to a dinner at which Basil Fuleihan was present. I asked Fuleihan, a former minister and close ally of then-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, whether he expected the term of Lebanon's president, Emile Lahoud, to be unconstitutionally extended in 2004—by which I meant would Syria keep Lahoud on against the wishes of his archrival, Hariri. Fuleihan said he didn't think so.

Boston Globe
Oct. 24
When blog hysteria does real harm
By Cathy Young, Reason
On Oct. 1, a tragedy shocked the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman: 21-year-old engineering student Joel Henry Hinrichs III killed himself with a homemade bomb while sitting on a bench about 100 yards away from the university's football stadium, packed with 84,000 fans. Since then, this sad event has mushroomed into a story that touches on some important and controversial issues: vigilance and paranoia in the age of terrorism, and journalistic ethics in the age of the ''new media."

Seattle Times
Oct. 24
Smoking ban's foes drift away
By Andrew Garber
All that aside, voters shouldn't roll over and allow their rights to be taken away, even if they believe smoking is harmful, said Jacob Sullum, author of the book "For Your Own Good: The Anti-Smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public Health."He sees smoking bans as another step toward a nanny state, where government increasingly takes away choices to protect its citizens. Forcing people to wear seat belts, requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets and, now, imposing bans on smoking are all part of the same trend, he said. "One of my big reservations is nobody can tell you where the end is," said Sullum, senior editor at Reason, a Libertarian magazine.

Hartford Courant
Oct. 23
Heads and big bucks in the clouds
By Rinker Buck
"Our goals are to have the same level of safety that the early airliners enjoyed," Rutan said during an interview with Reason Magazine in March. "And a lot of people don't realize, but those early airliners 1927, 28, 29, 1930, 31, and so on, those were the first regularly scheduled commercial airliners. They were dangerous as hell compared to airlines today, however they were a hundred times safer than all of manned space flight. Not 10 times, 100 times."

Indianapolis Star
Oct. 22
Book Review
On technology's frontier, life gets better and longer
But opponents there are, it turns out, and author Ronald Bailey takes them on in "Liberation Biology: The Scientific and Moral Case for the Biotech Revolution." His book is not an even-handed examination of the contentious frontier between those, like him, who believe in using nearly any tool -- genetic enhancement of crops and people, cloning, stem cell research, psychopharmacology -- to lengthen and improve human life, and those who do not.

National Review
Oct. 21
Wither public TV?
By Catherine Seipp
Reason magazine’s media critic Matt Welch, who was on the same panel with Mel Stuart, said that “from a libertarian perspective, we live in a future of plenty when it comes to audio-visual outlets. I don’t want my tax money to pay Bill Moyers’s salary.”

Rocky Mountain News
Oct. 20
Refs C&D
By Ann Imse
"Private dollars could be raised" for such programs, suggests Geoffrey Segal, one of the report's authors. "You can't do everything if you're faced with a budget crunch. There may be some programs that provide warm, fuzzy feelings that have to be

Wall Street Journal
Oct. 20
Got the HOTs?
By Robert Poole, Reason
Nearly a decade of experience in San Diego and Orange County, Calif., has shown that you can keep traffic flowing smoothly, at the speed limit, even during the busiest rush hours. How? Charge a toll, varying by the density of traffic in the lane, for drivers to use the high-occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV). These high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes -- on I-15 in San Diego and SR 91 in Orange County -- have been a big hit with drivers in all income groups.

The Hook
Oct 20
Outdoing LBJ: Lame duck, big spender
By Nick Gillespie, Reason
In a recent New York Observer column, Richard Brookhiser argues that if George W. Bush "is now a lame duck, it is by his own hand." Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina, says Brookhiser, was doubly disastrous. First (and most important), people died and anarchy was loosed because Bush acted slowly and had surrounded himself with incompetents.

Cincinnati Enquirer
Oct. 20
County functions under review by task force
By Kimball Perry
Leonard Gilroy, a policy analyst for the Reason Foundation, insisted the program fosters innovation in the traditionally monopolistic workplace of government. His conservative think tank has worked with others - including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush - on similar programs. "The rule of thumb is there are 10 percent to 20 percent cost savings in managed-competition efforts," Gilroy told the task force."For every dollar spent at the federal level on managed competition, there is a savings of $20."

San Francisco Examiner
Oct. 19
Life, liberty and Wi-Fi in San Francisco
By Ted Balaker, Reason
Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness — oh, and high-speed Internet access, too. Broadband Internet access is so important to Mayor Gavin Newsom that he recently declared it a "fundamental right," one that City Hall must provide to the people of San Francisco.

Indianapolis Star
Oct. 19
Proceed with caution on toll road privatizing effort
By Andrea Neal
If all goes according to plan, the highway would become one of the nation's longest stretches of privatized roadway. It's already received mention in a Reason Foundation study, "Should States Sell Toll Roads?" by Peter Samuel, which examines the economics of private turnpikes...When it comes to privatization, the devil is in the details, the Reason Foundation warns. "Privatization can be done well – or badly," said Robert Poole, director of transportation at Reason Foundation and the study’s project director. "Selling or leasing an asset worth half a billion dollars or more is not a process to be taken lightly."

Evansville Courier and Press
Oct. 19
Toll road privatization plan could be full of potholes
By Andrea Neal
If all goes according to plan, the highway would become one of the nation's longest stretches of privatized roadway. It's already received mention in a Reason Foundation study, "Should States Sell Toll Roads?" by Peter Samuel, which examines the economics of private turnpikes...When it comes to privatization, the devil is in the details, the Reason Foundation warns. "Privatization can be done well – or badly," said Robert Poole, director of transportation at Reason Foundation and the study’s project director. "Selling or leasing an asset worth half a billion dollars or more is not a process to be taken lightly."

Decatur Daily Democrat
Oct. 18
Privatizing the toll road
By Andrea Neal
If all goes according to plan, the highway would become one of the nation's longest stretches of privatized roadway. It's already received mention in a Reason Foundation study, "Should States Sell Toll Roads?" by Peter Samuel, which examines the economics of private turnpikes...When it comes to privatization, the devil is in the details, the Reason Foundation warns. "Privatization can be done well – or badly," said Robert Poole, director of transportation at Reason Foundation and the study’s project director. "Selling or leasing an asset worth half a billion dollars or more is not a process to be taken lightly."

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Oct. 18
Privatizing roads requires planning
By Andrea Neal
If all goes according to plan, the highway would become one of the nation's longest stretches of privatized roadway. It's already received mention in a Reason Foundation study, "Should States Sell Toll Roads?" by Peter Samuel, which examines the economics of private turnpikes...When it comes to privatization, the devil is in the details, the Reason Foundation warns. "Privatization can be done well – or badly," said Robert Poole, director of transportation at Reason Foundation and the study’s project director. "Selling or leasing an asset worth half a billion dollars or more is not a process to be taken lightly."

Sacramento Business Journal
Oct. 17 (Oct. 14 print ed)
This-n-that
By Joe Vanacore
The National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation, in cahoots with the solemnly named Reason Foundation, has published the snappily titled A Legislative Guide to Competitive Sourcing in the States (and Elsewhere) and will distribute the pub to state and local governments in a push to improve contracting methods throughout our great nation.
No link

USA Today
Oct. 17
Let airports take over
By Robert Poole, Reason
Baggage and passenger screening should be shifted to individual airports, with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) retaining regulatory control. Airports would be free to use TSA-certified screening companies or to hire TSA-trained screeners.

Dallas Morning News
Oct. 17
Can Parkland go it alone on jail care?
By James O'Neill
Geoffrey Segal of the Reason Foundation, which studies privatizing government functions, said hiring a for-profit health care company provides better accountability because a well-written, detailed contract can spell out clear expectations, rewards and penalties for a company's performance.

Boston Globe
Oct. 17
The problem of poverty
By Cathy Young, Reason
After Hurricane Katrina and the devastation left in its wake exposed to public eye the shocking levels of poverty in the mostly African-American neighborhoods of New Orleans, there was a lot of talk about America's hidden shame and about the need to pay more attention to the plight of the poor when there isn't a natural disaster to put them in the headlines.

Cincinnati Enquirer
Oct. 16
Anti-growth forces face reality check
By Sam Staley
Those hoping to close the barnyard gates to future housing growth received a double whammy in Warren County recently.

Washington Examiner
Oct. 14
Is cross-party dating possible?
After all, as the AFF’s event moderator (and Reason magazine assistant editor) Julian Sanchez noted, what will you do when Junior opens a can of worms by coming home from school wondering, "mommy, daddy: Where do budget deficits come from?"

Tech News World
Oct. 14
Transcending Biology
By Sonia Arrison
Science writer Ronald Bailey recently noted that after a few patients died from taking Lotronex, a medicine used to treat irritable bowel syndrome, the drug company took it off the market.

Human Events
Oct. 13
National Review in '72
By Alan Reynolds
In the early '70s, however, the right-wing dissidents were mainly confined to small-circulation journals such as Reason, Human Events, The Freeman and The Alternative (now The American Spectator).

Dallas Morning News
Oct. 12
Letters
Re: "Maybe, baby – Kids, career or both? In this post-feminist era, perhaps it's enough that women have the freedom to choose," by Cathy Young, Saturday Viewpoints. OK, most of us agree on two things: (1) Women should be able to choose to stay home with small children, and (2) it's good for the children. But how about the moms?

Talking Points Memo
Oct. 12
Blog post
Over at the blog of Reason Magazine, Editor Nick Gillespie has posted a list of how much each two-term president increased spending going back forty years.

New York Times
Oct. 11
Where cronies dwell
By John Tierney
Instead, they post on conservative blogs and start careers at magazines like The Weekly Standard and Reason, knowing these credentials will hurt their chances of becoming reporters for "mainstream" publications -- whereas a job at The New Republic or The Washington Monthly wouldn't be a disqualifying credential.

Washington Post Writers Group
Oct. 11
Gas still cheap? Freeways still free?
By Neal Peirce
Promoted intensely to policymakers by national transportation experts Robert Poole and Kenneth Orski, HOT systems do create a fresh revenue stream for hard-pressed governments. Plus, with newly developed "smart" tolling technologies, drivers with responders in their vehicles are charged precisely where and at what hours they use a toll road. Poole recommends reserving a part of a HOT lane's capacity for public buses, controlling for fast flow by variable pricing of rides for private cars and trucks. That way, he says, the new roadway serves many more people than a conventional busway. He and Orski favor banishing carpools (i.e., any non-paying private cars) from HOT lanes -- a way, it's claimed, to crack down on sometimes staggering numbers of solo drivers who cheat by using high-occupancy lanes.

New York Sun
Oct. 11
Land of the medicated
By Kerry Howley
It's not particularly difficult to write and sell a primer on the evils of the pharmaceutical industry.

Decatur Daily Democrat
Oct. 11
New fault line in Hoosier politics
Gov. Daniels turned to the book by Virginia Postrel: “The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress.”

Daniels said that Postrel, editor of the libertarian Reason magazine, identified reactionaries which she called "stasists," people who are wont to keep things as they are, make few if any changes, and "dynamists," those who are comfortable with change, moving forward, finding new solutions."She made a very important point,” Daniels continued. "There are two kinds of reactionaries or stasists. One kind are those who are naturally apprehensive and fearful. And that's a very human thing; we're all a little that way.

Boston Globe
Oct. 10
Bush's faith-based nominee
By Cathy Young, Reason
The nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court ignited an unexpected controversy, mainly among Bush supporters. The debate has not focused on Miers's ideology, since no one seems to know much about it. But if Bush's choice for the high court seems lackluster, the political reaction to it has been far more interesting.

Washington Times
Oct. 10
Culture, etc
"Women on 'Xena' were simply human, no better or worse than men: feminism as it ought to be." -- Cathy Young, writing on "What we owe Xena,"Sept. 15 in Salon at www.salon.com

Seattle Times
Oct. 10
The freeways aren't free
By Neal Pierce
Promoted intensely to policymakers by national transportation experts Robert Poole and Kenneth Orski, HOT systems do create a fresh revenue stream for hard-pressed governments. Plus, with newly developed "smart" tolling technologies, drivers with responders in their vehicles are charged precisely where and at what hours they use a toll road. Poole recommends reserving a part of a HOT lane's capacity for public buses, controlling for fast flow by variable pricing of rides for private cars and trucks. That way, he says, the new roadway serves many more people than a conventional busway. He and Orski favor banishing carpools (i.e., any non-paying private cars) from HOT lanes — a way, it's claimed, to crack down on sometimes staggering numbers of solo drivers who cheat by using high-occupancy lanes.

Stockton Record
Oct. 9
By Erin Sherbert
Carpools offer a break from the stress of driving, yet few embrace the option. In 1980, 20 percent of commuters shared rides to work, according to a study conducted by the Reason Foundation, a conservative Southern California think tank.

Toledo Blade
Oct. 9
New era of disasters brings changes in media coverage
By Tom Henry
"The reporting was fantastic because it got the government to do its job when it failed," added Ron Bailey, science correspondent for Reason magazine.

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Oct. 9
Helping society just doesn't pay
By Steven Pearlstein
A recent issue of Reason magazine features a spirited debate among John Mackey, the founder of the Whole Foods grocery chain, who lays out the business case for CSR, and two critics – economist Milton Friedman and T.J. Rogers, founder of Cypress Semiconductor, who argue that businesses do the most for society just by maximizing shareholder profits. Liberal advocacy groups, meanwhile, dismiss CSR as toothless self-regulation designed to gussy up the tattered image of investor capitalism.

Dallas Morning News
Oct. 8
Maybe baby
By Cathy Young, Reason
The latest round in the mommy wars is being waged over women who aren't even mommies yet: They are high-achieving Ivy League students who are planning to scale down or give up their careers once they have children.

Vancouver Sun
Oct. 8
There's no need to fear a 'death shortage'
By Ronald Bailey, Reason
Should you be worried about an impending "death shortage?" The alleged shortage of corpses will be caused by biomedical advances that will dramatically increase life expectancy over the course of the 21st century, according to Charles Mann in a recent issue of The Atlantic Monthly.
No link

Washington Times
Oct. 8
Schools Intelligently Designed
By Jacob Sullum, Reason
In a trial that began Sept. 26, a federal judge in Harrisburg has been called upon to decide if intelligent design is a legitimate scientific theory. Once he has settled that controversy, perhaps he can tell us what killed the dinosaurs and whether there are civilizations on other planets.

Washington Times
Oct. 6
Spending Overdose
By Nick Gillespie, Reason, and Veronique de Rugy
Such sentiments are sweet music to libertarians and small-government conservatives -- and long overdue. While emergency spending in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has added billions to the deficit-riddled federal budget, those outlays are just a drop in the bucket compared to the prestorm spending habits of the president and Congress.

San Francisco Chronicle
Oct. 6
Rhymes with DiFi
By Debra Saunders
As Tim Cavanaugh, editor of the libertarian online voice Reason.com, noted, not too long ago city pols rejected adding new antennas to improve cell-phone reception "out of hysterical concerns that cell-phone towers would give brain cancer to children." In a sense, you could say the Wi-Fi scheme is progress in Luddite-town.

Townhall

San Antonio Current
Oct. 6
A vice redeemed is a vice ruined
By Kerry Howley, Reason
Recent reports that coffee is chock-full of antioxidants came across exactly as one would expect: in the form of a gentle scolding. That a cup of joe contains 10 times more antioxidants than a banana “does not mean coffee is a substitute for fruit and vegetables,” warned the Associated Press.

CNN International
Oct. 5
Property grabs and the Gulf
By Shaheen Pasha
"We're not talking about using it to build new roads or dams or power lines," said Adrian Moore, vice president of research at Reason Public Policy Institute. "We're talking about giving it to businessmen who promise to build something that they'll profit from and leaders that are so desperate to rebuild that they are willing to do it."

Honolulu Weekly
Sept. 28-Oct.4
Good til the last drop dead
By Kerry Howley, Reason
Recent reports that coffee is chock-full of antioxidants came across exactly as one would expect—in the form of a gentle scolding. That a cup of joe carries 10 times more antioxidants than a banana “does not mean coffee is a substitute for fruit and vegetables,” warned Associated Press.

Oct-Nov Issue
Policy Review
How eminent domain ran amok
By Carla T. Main
Samuel R. Staley and John P. Blair, “Eminent Domain, Private Property, and Redevelopment: An Economic Development Analysis,” Policy Study 331 (Reason Foundation, February 2005).

Washington Post
Oct. 5
Social Responsibility Doesn't Much Sway the Balance Sheet
By Steven Pearlstein
A recent issue of Reason magazine features a spirited debate between John Mackey, the founder of the Whole Foods grocery chain, who lays out the business case for CSR, and two critics -- economist Milton Friedman and T.J. Rogers, founder of Cypress Semiconductor, who argue that businesses do the most for society just by maximizing shareholder profits.

San Francisco Chronicle
Oct. 5
Public input sought for I-680 toll lane
By Michael Cabanatuan
"Most people are not everyday users," said Robert Poole, a researcher for the Reason Foundation, which supports the lanes. "The vast majority are people who use it once or twice a week for those particular trips when they really need to be there on time."

Press Enterprise, CA
Oct. 5
Searching for the weak link
By Kimberly Pierceall
An unauthorized person barreling into the airport should also be a high financial priority, said Robert Poole, a former adviser to the White House Domestic Policy Council on airport security following 9 /11, and the founder of the conservative Los Angeles-based think tank the Reason Foundation, which researches transportation and security issues.

"That's another way to try to get a bomb on the plane, sabotage the plane, or sneak into the terminal and create havoc," Poole said in a telephone interview. "It certainly looks like a big point of vulnerability."

TechCentralStation
Oct. 5
Habitat and Humanity
By Shikha Dalmia
If there is a Don Quixote of federal laws, it is the Endangered Species Act (ESA): For over three decades this law's regulations have endangered the species in distress that they are endeavoring to protect.

Sarasota Herald Tribune
Oct. 3
Cities see asset, not problem
By Dale White
A study by the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation stated that, in California, developers complying with inclusionary zoning raised prices on their market-rate homes. For most buyers, home prices went up.
No link

San Diego Union Tribune
Oct. 3
One more title that's not half bad
By John Wilkens
But these pats on the back sometimes resurface as slaps to the face. In February 2002, before the pension crisis mushroomed, before Strippergate, before Mayor Dick Murphy resigned, the Reason Public Policy Institute ranked San Diego as California's most efficient big-city government.

Boston Globe
Oct. 3
Church, state, and disaster relief
By Cathy Young
In recent years, there have been a lot of complaints on the right about ''religious intolerance" from secularist liberals. Some of this talk is a conservative version of the left-wing victim mentality; sometimes the charges are legitimate. Both champions and opponents of religion in the public square have a tendency to confuse equal treatment with faith-based privilege.

Cincinnati Enquirer
Oct. 3
County might bid out work
By Kimball Perry
The volunteer committee will be aided by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank in Los Angeles that researches government performance and accountability.

Indianapolis Star
Oct. 3
Plan to privatize roads may have bumps
By Theodore Kim
Robert Poole, director of transportation studies for the Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles-based group that advocates free-market principles, likened the Skyway upgrades to enhancements a house might get before it is sold.

Providence Journal
Oct. 3
Films to augment series of AS220 discussions
Panelists are Tony Clarke, author of Inside the Bottle: An Expose of the Bottled Water Industry; Geoffrey Segal of the Reason Foundation;

Vancouver Province
Oct. 3
Children must be schooled on obesity perils
Letters
Government should discourage people from eating junk foods. And libertarian columnist Jacob Sullum's comments about it being a right of people to choose poor eating is totally wrong. It is not always a choice.

Courier Press (IN)
Oct. 2
Public-private highway deals not new
By Jennifer Whitson
In the early history of the United States, companies were often responsible for setting up roads, and then charged tolls to noncompany traffic, according to Robert Poole, director of transportation studies at the Reason Foundation, an organization that advocates the privatization of government functions. But, Poole said, when the automobile came along, someone came up with the idea of a gasoline tax."The idea swept the nation," Poole said. He said the idea held until the 1930s when officials started building expensive superhighways. Pennsylvania built a limited access, high-speed highway in the 1940s and charged tolls. "It broke the mold," Poole said.

Los Angeles Times
Oct. 2
Letters
Digging into the tunnel debate
By Robert Poole, Reason
The Times' arguments against proposed new tunnels under the mountains (editorial, Sept. 26) deserve a reply. On safety, tunnel engineering has advanced tremendously in the past 25 years. State-of-the-art tunnels include escape towers, emergency shelters, robust fire suppression systems and special accident response/rescue systems. The many long tunnels (five to 10 miles) in Europe and Japan have an excellent safety record. If safety is such a concern, why did The Times support the Red Line subway tunnel beneath the Santa Monica Mountains?

Orange County Register
Oct. 1
Universal preschool
By Catherine Atkin
Reason Foundation analyst Lisa Snell cites some disturbing statistics about education in Orange County in her column, “Don’t give them our preschoolers” [California Focus, Sept. 23]. More rigorous testing – mandated by the state and federal government over the past decade – has revealed the challenges schools and students face.

Budget & Tax News
October 2005
States Lead New Privatization Efforts, Report Says
By Geoffrey Segal, Reason
Several states have led the charge to introduce competition into their government activities in the past year, among them Florida, which has been a front-runner in this effort for years, according to the 19th Annual Privatization Report of Reason Foundation, released in August.

School Reform News
October 2005
Push for Universal Preschool Grows
By Lisa Snell, Reason
The Institute for America's Future and the Center for American Progress, co-chaired by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D), on August 23 called for $325 billion in additional federal education spending over the next decade, including more than $9 billion a year to create a nationwide, universal preschool program.

Budget & Tax News
October 2005
State, Local Pension Plans Are 'A Ticking Time Bomb Set to Explode'
By Sandra Fabry
For more information...

See also, "The Gathering Pension Storm: How Government Pension Plans Are Breaking the Bank and Strategies for Reform," a 138-page report published by the Reason Foundation in June 2005, available online at http://www.reason.org/ps335.pdf.

Playboy Magazine
October Issue
Forum
Five winning political blogs
By Daniel Rodash
Hit & Run…Under the banner...continuous news, views, and abuse,' these sarcastic, thought-provoking libertarians pick fights (sometimes with one another) and sacrifice sacred cows.
No link available

Wall Street Journal
Sept. 30
Commentary
No shortage of funds
By Ronald Bailey, Reason
The National Institutes of Health spent $24.3 million dollars on human embryonic stem-cell research last year. Critics of President Bush's policy of limiting federal funding to only those stem-cell lines derived before August 2001 worry that this amount -- relative to NIH's annual $30 billion budget -- is not enough. Persuaded of the importance of this research, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in May to lift President Bush's funding restrictions. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced this summer that he supported that legislation. The Senate is poised to vote on the issue later this fall.

DC Examiner
Sept. 30
Mag rack
When patriots dissent
By David Weigel
Reason. Read the rest in the November issue of Reason or online at www.reason.com.
No link

Rocky Mountain News
Sept. 30
On Point: Whole lotta hot air
By Vincent Carrol
When a Whole Foods recently opened a short walk from my house - a store lavish even by Mackey's high standards - I naturally wanted to find out more about this self-professed libertarian. Imagine my surprise to locate an article (in Reason magazine) in which he debates the grand eminence of libertarian economics himself, Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, over how much attention corporations should pay to "social responsibility."

Boston Phoenix
Sept. 30 - Oct. 6
Buying the campus mind
By David S. Bernstein
This April, the Smith College Center for the Study of Social and Political Change released a report claiming that college campuses are overrun with liberal faculty. Conservatives used the report to opine, as Cathy Young of the Reason Foundation did in her Boston Globe column, that this "lack of intellectual diversity endangers the very purpose of the academy."

Providence Phoenix
Sept. 30 - Oct. 6
Waterworld
By Ian Donnis
The panelists for this discussion will be Deidre Consolati, leader of citizens’ resistance to municipal water and sewer privatization in Lee, Massachusetts; Geoffrey Segal, director of privatization and government reform for the Reason Foundation.

St. Louis Post Dispatch
Sept. 30
St. Charles
Air quality is focus of lecture
Schwartz is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington and previously directed the Air Quality Project for Reason Public Policy Institute.

Toronto Sun
Sept. 30
Let them eat junk foot
By Greg Bonnell
"People may very well choose to trade off years of their life, or the possibility of disease or injury, in exchange for the current pleasure, excitement, or stress relief they get (from food)," said Jacob Sullum, a syndicated columnist and senior editor at Reason, a U.S.-based libertarian magazine.

Brandon Sun, Canada
Sept. 29
Young Quebecers out of shape; millionaire donates $400 million to help
By Canadian Press
However, a U.S. syndicated columnist who visited Toronto this week said the amount of junk food Canadians eat and their weight are personal choices and don't merit government intervention.

Jacob Sullum, also a senior editor at Reason, a U.S.-based libertarian magazine, said Canadians need to question the idea that health concerns justify government intervention.

Montreal Gazette
Sept. 29
Young Quebecers out of shape; millionaire donates $400 million to help
By Canadian Press
However, a U.S. syndicated columnist who visited Toronto this week said the amount of junk food Canadians eat and their weight are personal choices and don't merit government intervention.

Jacob Sullum, also a senior editor at Reason, a U.S.-based libertarian magazine, said Canadians need to question the idea that health concerns justify government intervention.

Ottawa Sun
Sept. 29
Speaker calls for fat freedom
By Canadian Press
"People may very well choose to trade off years of their life, or the possibility of disease or injury, in exchange for the current pleasure, excitement, or stress relief they get (from food)," said Jacob Sullum, a syndicated columnist and senior editor at Reason, a U.S.-based libertarian magazine.

Chronicle Herald, Canada
Sept. 29
Government has no right to tell people what to eat, writer says
By Canadian Press
"People may very well choose to trade off years of their life, or the possibility of disease or injury, in exchange for the current pleasure, excitement, or stress relief they get (from food)," said Jacob Sullum, a syndicated columnist and senior editor at Reason, a U.S.-based libertarian magazine.

The Record - Stockton
Sept. 29
New study: Find a way to make them more useful
By Erin Sherbert
Existing carpool lanes could be put to better use if single drivers and other carpools paid to use them and if buses and vanpools could use them for free, according to a study released Wednesday by a Southern California think tank.

The report by the Reason Foundation questioned the reliability and efficiency of existing high-occupancy lanes, which are either underutilized or overcrowded in metropolitan areas, giving commuters no incentive to carpool.

The American Spectator
Sept. 29
Reader mail
A true conservative would never have written such an article, unless they were given some bad information. As the one who developed this concept, let me first say that one of the strongest proponents of the Tri-Tunnel has been Bob Poole of the Reason Foundation, hardly a liberal or liberal/big government organization.

Valley Advocate, MO
Sept. 29
Trash talk
By Maureen Turner
Segal, of Reason's Privatization Center, argues that contracting out services like trash collection improves services by introducing competition. His organization, which advises municipalities on privatization, encourages communities to invite public workers to bid for the work. "The goal is not to contract out. The goal is to invite competition. Competition is what drives performance," Segal says."A more fundamental, philosophical question that's up to the residents and elected leaders in Springfield to ask is: 'What is the role of government? Is the role of government to be a Job Corps center?' [City employees] say, 'What about our jobs?' A private contractor is going to need people to drive trucks. You can go work for the private contractor. You don't need to work for the government," Segal says.

Seattle Post Intelligencer
Sept. 29
They want to give up their slice of pork pie
By Timothy Egan
The Heritage Foundation, which has long served as an intellectual font for influential Republicans, and its philosophical cousin, the libertarian magazine Reason Online, took up the same cry.

New York Times
Sept. 29
To help Gulf Coast, town tries returning pork barrel
By Timothy Egan
The Heritage Foundation, which has long served as an intellectual font for influential Republicans, and its philosophical cousin, the libertarian magazine Reason Online, took up the same cry.

Construction Equipment Guide
Sept. 28
Solving Florida's transportation woes from a podium
The Reason Foundation’s Bob Poole, from the public policy think tank in Los Angeles, said the nation’s efforts for increased mass transit, carpooling, etc., are not working. While increased road capacity does work, new lanes in urban areas are costly. “The new approach is that if we add lanes we really ought to try to squeeze the most transportation value possible, don’t just add ordinary general purpose lanes.” Instead of High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, Poole suggests High Occupancy Toll (HOT), express or truck-only toll lanes, where transportation funding can be raised through charging for the use of these specialized areas.“What has been shown is that pricing that space re