Business & Economics
Business & Economics
Calif. May Let Special Interests Mine Internet
On February 22, the last day to introduce new legislation in the 2007-2008 session, California’s lawmakers unleashed more than 650 bills. In this barrage, legislators seek to derail one of the state’s thriving industries: the technology sector. This bipartisan agenda targets e-commerce, arming bureaucrats with vast new authority to monitor, ...
Business & Economics
Wireless Silicon Valley Plan Revived
In an effort to revive a failed municipal wireless project originally envisioned to cover most of Silicon Valley, Covad Communications has launched a technology trial of a WiFi overlay network in San Carlos, California. The competitive local exchange carrier Covad became part of the Wireless Silicon Valley project in February, ...
Business & Economics
Report shows lawsuit reforms boost local economy
More than a billion dollars have been added to the local economy and more than 8,000 jobs have been created in Southeast Texas thanks to lawsuit reforms, a national economist reported Monday. “Lawsuit reform has led to improvements in the Texas business climate that have generated hundreds of thousands of ...
Commentary
Is ‘Cap-and-Trade’ Good for California?
The California Air Resources Board is mulling a mix of regulations, fees and market-like mechanisms to impose on California, to comply with the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act. That 2006 law requires California to cut greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels within 12 years, but it gives the board ...
Business & Economics
The case for the flat tax
In the April 17 editorial “Taxes done and mailed; let’s consider reforms,” The Bee says: “An ideal tax system would be flat overall, with progressive income taxes offsetting regressive property, sales and excise taxes. That way, each income group would pay a similar share of income in taxes.” Why go ...
Business & Economics
Businesses fear N.J. courts
A national business group has given its verdict on New Jersey’s legal climate, and it’s not good. A report released Wednesday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a Washington, D.C.-based business lobby group, placed New Jersey 35th in a national survey of lawyers that judged state court systems on whether ...
Business & Economics
Study ranks W.Va. court system last again
WASHINGTON – West Virginia again is last in a study ranking states’ court systems. For the third consecutive year, the Mountain State is ranked 50th in the 2008 State Liability Systems Ranking Study, which was released Wednesday by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform. The study, conducted by Harris ...
Business & Economics
W.Va. ranked 50th in legal climate
Once again, the debate over West Virginia’s rankings in the legal climate is raging, inspired by a fresh study performed for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce putting the state dead last. Teresa Toriseva, head of the West Virginia Association for Justice, an organization of trial lawyers, ridiculed the Harris poll ...
Business & Economics
Still more work to do
Editor, Daily News: Less than two weeks remain in the 2008 Florida legislative session and it appears that common-sense legal reform will not be addressed. Unfortunately, Florida’s budget crisis has commanded the attention of our legislators, and important legal reforms like “expert witnesses” and “emergency health-care providers” will probably not ...
Business & Economics
Prebuttals, Insults and Intellectual Honesty
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform on Wednesday is releasing its 2008 Lawsuit Climate report, an annual exercise in which the ILR surveys in-house counsels on their perceptions of how reasonable and balanced each state’s tort liability system is. (The 2007 survey is available here.) It’s one ...
Calif. May Let Special Interests Mine Internet
On February 22, the last day to introduce new legislation in the 2007-2008 session, California’s lawmakers unleashed more than 650 bills. In this barrage, legislators seek to derail one of the state’s thriving industries: the technology sector. This bipartisan agenda targets e-commerce, arming bureaucrats with vast new authority to monitor, ...
Wireless Silicon Valley Plan Revived
In an effort to revive a failed municipal wireless project originally envisioned to cover most of Silicon Valley, Covad Communications has launched a technology trial of a WiFi overlay network in San Carlos, California. The competitive local exchange carrier Covad became part of the Wireless Silicon Valley project in February, ...
Report shows lawsuit reforms boost local economy
More than a billion dollars have been added to the local economy and more than 8,000 jobs have been created in Southeast Texas thanks to lawsuit reforms, a national economist reported Monday. “Lawsuit reform has led to improvements in the Texas business climate that have generated hundreds of thousands of ...
Is ‘Cap-and-Trade’ Good for California?
The California Air Resources Board is mulling a mix of regulations, fees and market-like mechanisms to impose on California, to comply with the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act. That 2006 law requires California to cut greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels within 12 years, but it gives the board ...
The case for the flat tax
In the April 17 editorial “Taxes done and mailed; let’s consider reforms,” The Bee says: “An ideal tax system would be flat overall, with progressive income taxes offsetting regressive property, sales and excise taxes. That way, each income group would pay a similar share of income in taxes.” Why go ...
Businesses fear N.J. courts
A national business group has given its verdict on New Jersey’s legal climate, and it’s not good. A report released Wednesday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a Washington, D.C.-based business lobby group, placed New Jersey 35th in a national survey of lawyers that judged state court systems on whether ...
Study ranks W.Va. court system last again
WASHINGTON – West Virginia again is last in a study ranking states’ court systems. For the third consecutive year, the Mountain State is ranked 50th in the 2008 State Liability Systems Ranking Study, which was released Wednesday by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform. The study, conducted by Harris ...
W.Va. ranked 50th in legal climate
Once again, the debate over West Virginia’s rankings in the legal climate is raging, inspired by a fresh study performed for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce putting the state dead last. Teresa Toriseva, head of the West Virginia Association for Justice, an organization of trial lawyers, ridiculed the Harris poll ...
Still more work to do
Editor, Daily News: Less than two weeks remain in the 2008 Florida legislative session and it appears that common-sense legal reform will not be addressed. Unfortunately, Florida’s budget crisis has commanded the attention of our legislators, and important legal reforms like “expert witnesses” and “emergency health-care providers” will probably not ...
Prebuttals, Insults and Intellectual Honesty
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform on Wednesday is releasing its 2008 Lawsuit Climate report, an annual exercise in which the ILR surveys in-house counsels on their perceptions of how reasonable and balanced each state’s tort liability system is. (The 2007 survey is available here.) It’s one ...
