Articles by Dan Richards

Credit: laist.com A border security bill has languished in Congress for months. It would provide much-needed tougher penalties for constructing and using underground border tunnels and seems a victim of our gridlocked politics. Senate Bill 1236, the “Border Tunnel Prevention Act of 2011” was introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Among its border security highlights it would: 1) subject anyone who attempts or conspires to construct or finance construction of an unauthorized tunnel or sub...

Photo: go.hrw.com How much impact does foreign policy have on American elections? Do we know? Do we even think much about it? But foreign policy affects all of us. We need to realize this. Eurasia Review puts it this way: "And like every other time, the perennial electoral question arises: do foreign policy issues matter at all in US Presidential elections? Do US voters really think of Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, China, etc. or of issues like climate change, nuclear proliferation or democracy pr...

We hear that strict gun control, removing guns from the street, will help protect society. But is this true? The facts would seem to show otherwise. Australia, the only country in the world to have an entire continent to itself, saw no appreciable change in its levels on gun crime after a sweeping ban on firearms. It is a well proven fact that criminals will find many illegal means to acquire guns or other weapons to use in crimes. Toronto police were investigating the possibility of gang inv...

Our next president will need to focus on restructuring the economy. Costs must be reduced and the decline in incomes for average Americans must be reversed. The first thing you do when you restructure entities is look for what is weak and costly and then replace or remove it, be it people or programs. This is what Congress and our next president will need to do to rebuild this country. But hyper-partisan politics must end before this happens. This is where independent voters can make a real diff...

Economic recovery in the United States may be slowed by government policies on foreclosures and health care. Foreclosures rose in May for the first time in 27 months due to a mortgage-abuse settlement. "That the May numbers were up the month after that settlement was completed is an indication that lenders are more confident that there are clear ground rules to foreclose now, so they can play by the rules," explains RealtyTrac. Foreclosure starts were up sharply in April and May, as were bank ...

Wisconsin has been on a serious decline in union members for a few years now. Last year set a record low at 13.3%. As Business Week reports: "The unions are dinosaurs and a meteor just hit the Earth," said Mordecai Lee, a government affairs professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. "The dinosaurs will slowly die out." That Walker has created jobs without raising taxes is not something you hear a lot about when news services talk about Walker. This is not to say there have been major...

General Motors will be cutting back its pension payments by $26 billion, by offering its salaried retired employees a lump sum payment and switching to Prudential Financial Inc. to handle their retirement accounts, according to Bloomberg News. GM says the move is an effort to curb the high costs of their pension program and help balance their books. "These actions represent a major step toward our objective of de-risking our pension plans and will further strengthen our balance sheet and give u...

The May 16, 2012 report, "United States – Measures Concerning The Importation, Marketing And Sale Of Tuna And Tuna Products", shows why many advocate that the United States should limit the control that the United Nations has over what we do. We should be allowed to do as we please without any regulations, but expectations for all countries involved in international compacts should be applied on a level field, instead of tilted in favor of select UN members, their whims, desires and the caving o...

The Student Loan Program has helped many over the past over five decades. The first student loan program began under recommendation of economist Milton Friedman. It was the National Defense Education Act of 1958 and is known today as the Federal Family Education Loan. What has happened to a good program is a story of what happens with most socialist programs, good or bad. They get abused. Aristotle once wrote in his treatise that “It is not the Government’s duty to provide for Politician, the M...