by Charles Katebi Progressives constantly frame the debate over healthcare reform as a false choice: should healthcare be financed through insurance companies or the government? Both options leave patients at the mercy of third parties. Now an alternative known as Direct Primary Care promises to put the patient back in the driver's seat. The patien...

by Tom Rose Last week we discussed the reemerging proposed legislative change from a CHINS program in Wyoming to a FINS program. In brief, CHINS is the acronym for Child in Need of Supervision which is basically a child whom Wyoming Department of Family Services (DFS) believes to be uncontrollable by the child's parents. CHINS legislation requires ...

In four weeks, the Supreme Court will rule on King v. Burwell. A ruling in favor of the plaintiffs invalidates federal insurance subsidies for the 36 states without a state exchange and frees them from the individual and employer mandate. States that built their own exchanges bound their residents to Obamacare's mandates, penalties, and restriction...

Sergeant Joe Friday, in James Webb's classic radio and TV show Dragnet, often cautioned witnesses when he interviewed them, "Just the facts." Some modern journalists and editors could use that admonition. When you see a headline, "Wyoming Makes It A Crime To Collect Evidence Of Pollution On Public Lands", you have to wonder. Where did they get that...

by Tom Rose In 1974 the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) was passed mainly for the purpose of deinstitutionalizing juvenile status offenders. Most states initiated the act over the next few decades. Wyoming did not. Last week wasn't the first time I've run into stories advocating for harsher treatment for juvenile off...

by Charles Katebi When progressives make the case for Medicaid Expansion, without fail they remind their listeners that the federal government has pledged to cover 90 percent of the cost of expansion. But a report from the Foundation for Government Accountability sheds light on just how empty the federal government's promises really are. On multipl...

by Sven Larson What can state pension reform advocates learn from Masutatsu Oyama? A great deal. Mr. Oyama - or Sosai Oyama as he should properly be referred to - was the founder of kyokushin karate, one of the toughest striking styles of martial arts ever invented. To prove just how tough his style was, Sosai Oyama fought full-grown bulls using no...

by Tom Rose As citizens we all want our communities to be safe from violent crime no matter who is committing it. At the same time, we shouldn’t sentence our juvenile offenders of minor non-violent crime to a lifetime of institutionalization. As we go forward in reform efforts let us not forget that Wyoming’s overall violent crime arrests for eithe...

by Charles Katebi Throughout the debate to expand Medicaid during the 2015 Legislative Session, opponents repeatedly claimed that the federal government couldn't be trusted to keep its promise to cover 90 percent of Medicaid Expansion's costs. So it should come as no surprise that the Obama Administration has now broached the idea of reneging on it...

by Tom Rose I have been researching Wyoming juvenile justice issues for several years now, and I am still sometimes surprised at what I find. When I began this research, I will admit that I was predisposed to simply believe that our law enforcement community should just stop arresting so many juveniles. After many interviews with law enforcement of...

by Tom Rose As I mentioned in a previous blog, I believe that Wyoming should decriminalize status offenses. According to the most recent data available through both the FBI and the OJJDP, Wyoming ranks second-to-highest in the nation for both juvenile arrests and juvenile incarcerations. Wyoming is also the only state that has not decriminalized st...

by Wyoming Liberty Staff "…the reality of why school choice is needed is simple; public education continues to plot a failing course towards complete government centralization from the top down, and complete learning uniformity nationwide. This course is out of step with what parents want and what is best for children — and with what is best for Am...

by Charles Katebi Ever since Congress passed Obamacare in 2010, each April 15, the dreaded tax return filing day, brings ever more complexity to our federal tax code. This year's complexity is the employer mandate, the most harmful of the law's tax provisions because it spells trouble for businesses and workers alike. If the Supreme Court sides wit...

by Wyoming Liberty Staff April 15 looms large on the calendar for taxpayers. Don't be fooled if you get a refund on your federal income tax return. Taxes represent a significant annual expense for many families, especially those that usually pay the United States Treasury, because the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") withheld your money throughout ...

Have you ever wondered whether government should buy coal or natural gas, convert it to a higher valued product and then sell that product in the open market? If this sounds like a bad idea to you, you'd be right. Private companies have already invested their own money in this type of scheme and lost big. It is unlikely government would do better w...

by Tom Rose This week I attended two days of the Judiciary Interim Committee. There were several juvenile justice related topics on the agenda. During my attendance at these long and sometimes heated meetings a junior legislator asked out loud (in frustration) if anyone knew whether juvenile crime in Wyoming was actually decreasing. This legislator...

The 2015 legislative session created a number of measures that put taxpayers into the risky business of supporting some private companies. It also, in contrast, set up the Minerals Tax Task Force that could turn this corporate welfare trend around. The job of the task force is to study and make recommendations for a fair, viable and simplified syst...

by Wyoming Liberty Staff In writing a piece about why school choice is the right choice for parents in Wyoming I could start by reciting a whole slew of numbers regarding graduation rates, college enrollment, academic achievement and taxpayer savings. These figures are readily available everywhere and have been discussed for years by those in the e...

WyLiberty attorney Benjamin Barr comments on the 1040 campaign checkbox in this NPR story. April 14, 2015 

by Stephen Klein In the 2015 Wyoming Legislative Session, Senate File 14, or Senate Enrolled Act 1 (SEA 1), would have overhauled Wyoming's drug forfeiture laws to require a felony conviction before alleged drug property (cash, cars, firearms and the like) could be permanently taken by the state. The bill passed the Wyoming Legislature with an init...