What should be the Federer vs. Nadal of state-level competition has become a lopsided trouncing: Texas has humiliated its opponent in straight sets. The federal Bureau of Economic Analysis is out with its state-by-state economic growth numbers for 2012, and Texas is dancing the two-step all over California’s “recovery.” The Hill reports: California’s economy shrank […]

America’s energy infrastructure is finally starting to catch up with the shale boom. Seven new oil pipeline projects are in the works in Texas, part of a badly-needed shoring-up of the Midwest’s oil supply chain.The shale boom came out of nowhere, and though the new addition of oil and gas to America’s energy mix was certainly […]

One of the biggest challenges facing Obamacare is adverse selection, which occurs when healthy people drop out of the insurance pool, leaving only the sick and the old behind. We’ve always known Obamacare needed to enroll a large number of new patients to avoid adverse selection and make the law work. Now we know what number […]

First there was an agreement over naval facilities. Now Cyprus may “facilitate” the Russian Air Force at its Andreas Papandreou Airbase. And that’s not all, reports the Famagusta Gazette: [Defense Minister Photis Photiou] said moreover that the possibility of providing the airbase in Pafos, in certain cases, has been discussed during his recent visit to Moscow, both with […]

Last week, Chinese workers at Specialty Medical Supplies just outside Beijing kidnapped the co-owner of the factory, an American named Chip Starnes. Barricaded in his office for several days, Starnes says he was coerced into giving “severance packages” to a hundred workers by local party officials, even though those workers weren’t going to be laid off.The trouble […]

Reports that Ottawa and Washington have resumed their delicate missile-defense discussions suggest that Canada may be ready to join the global missile-defense coalition. If so, it would be a welcome development.The operative word here is “global.” The missile shield now taking shape is a truly international missile defense (IMD) enfolding some of Canada’s closest allies […]

Tomorrow President Obama will give a speech outlining a handful of green initiatives that will shape the environmental legacy of his presidency. But in the run up to the speech, we’re seeing more signs of a renewables debate whose tone has turned somber since Obama’s first term. There hasn’t been much in the way of good news for green […]

It appears that Putin is no longer content with just kicking sand in John Kerry’s face. With NSA leaker Edward Snowden in hand, Moscow is now giving wedgies and making the Obama administration eat bugs.Today, “exasperated” Obama administration officials urged Russia to expel Snowden, the New York Times reports. “We do expect the Russian government to […]

The Turkish protests have lasted for almost a month now, but one group has yet to check into Taksim Square so far. The Kurds, who make up almost 20 percent of Turkey’s population and are usually at the forefront of any anti-government protest, have been a no show. Why? The New York Times explains: The reticence […]

We just can’t win when it comes to environmental stewardship. After blithely polluting the skies for most of the 20th century, the US and Europe pushed through a number of laws in the 1970s-80s to clear the air. Now we’re finding out that in doing so, we’ve made more hurricanes. The FT reports: Until now, it was […]