Government Red Tape
Whether it’s layers of licensing requirements or endless red tape, government rules and regulations can stifle business. Learn how we can free up entrepreneurs.
PHOENIX -- The Goldwater Institute mourns the passing of Robert L. Bartley, editor emeritus of the Wall Street Journal and winner of the Institute's 2003 John Kolbe Award for Excellence in Journalism.
A proposed hair-braiding business is being used as an example of how government regulation can impede business start-ups in Arizona.
The Institute for Justice Arizona filed a lawsuit this week against the Arizona Board of Cosmetology on behalf of Essence Farmer, a 23-year-old who wants to start a braiding salon but can't because she needs to obtain an occupational cosmetology license.
Arizona is late getting into the game and will have trouble becoming a major player in the biotechnology industry, the Brookings Institution said in a report released Tuesday.
The Brookings report looked at how 51 metropolitan areas stacked up in aspects such as biotechnology infrastructure, venture capital funding and biomedical research funding. The Valley and nine other metro areas ranked in the bottom of four tiers....
In his blog Ideas, Santa Clara University economist David Friedman (yes, he's Milton's son) wrote about the cost of eyeglasses. He was curious why a new frame and set of lenses costs less than $10 online, but five times that amount or more at most stores.
Pinal County is prosecuting restaurant owner Dale Bell for letting his customers dance under the stars. After the longest zoning hearing in the County's history, the hearing officer found Dale liable for running an illegal dance hall because he allows or permits dancing outside of a completely enclosed structure at his steakhouse, San Tan Flat.
If you wonder when looking at a restaurant menu whether the bacon cheeseburger or the garden salad would be more heart healthy, help from the government may be on the way.
A bill has been introduced in the legislature requiring chain restaurants to list levels of calories, trans fats and sodium for all items on their menus. The theory is that with burgeoning rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, the government should mandate that restaurants supply info on what's bad for us.
Governor Napolitano has proposed expanding the states Medicaid program to cover children in families earning up to $60,000. This plan, however, could have serious consequences for the state.
Economists at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found public insurance programs like Medicaid crowd out private alternatives. They estimate between 50 and 75 percent of enrollment increases that resulted from expanding Medicaid came from people who left private sector insurers.
On December 5, 2006, the City of New York banned the use of trans-fats in restaurants. Ironically, many of the experts proclaiming the dangers of trans-fats were the ones who urged us to embrace them as heart-healthy in the 1980's.
One million dollars. That's what the City of Phoenix spends each year just to remove non-recyclables from its recycling barrels. One reason is, as with many government programs, it isn't always simple for consumers to figure out how to play by the book.
Phoenix gladly accepts pop and milk bottles, egg cartons, and foam meat trays. But shampoo bottles, margarine containers, and many plastic plates aren't allowed. In other words, plastics 1, 2, and 6 are in, while plastics 3, 4, and 5 are out. Who knew?