Steve Forbes, chairman and CEO of Forbes Media, will deliver the keynote speech at NPRI's 19th Anniversary Celebration. The event will take place Sept. 30 at the palatial Venetian Resort•Hotel•Casino in Las Vegas.

New York state's budget travails are a case study in the pernicious impact of federal stimulus aid. The "fiscal relief" for states in last year's $862 billion stimulus bill was supposed to minimize spending cuts and tax hikes. In New York it has succeeded only on the first count while failing miserably on the second and postponing the day of reckoning for the state's overextended finances.

Georgia education headlines are too often made for wrong reasons. National test scores that disappoint, high schools that underperform and the recent Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal do nothing to recommend Georgia as forward-thinking and a place to create a business and raise a family. Embracing an aggressive plan to fast forward choices in education would seem like a no-brainer, including online learning opportunities.

The federal government would have an additional $10 billion a year to spend on crucial highways if it simply stopped diverting federal gas tax money to projects - such as ferryboats, trails and mass transit programs - with no national benefits. The 18.4 cents a gallon federal fuel tax should be refocused and used to modernize and maintain our major highways.

"We all face tests of our willingness to stand on principle at some cost. For some...the risks are very high. For most of us they're not that high, but they may still be very real." So writes Boaz, recounting the story of former Marine Philip Carden, father of six and a lawyer, who was personally offended by a pornographic movie. But he believed in free speech ...and defended the right of a business owner to show that movie to willing customers."

This is an excerpt from constitutional lawyer Roland's testimony on Alaska House Joint Resolution 35, which resembles legislation known in other states as Health Care Freedom amendments.  Heard before the Alaska House Finance Committee April 10, HJR 35 did not pass the House and died with the session's end. The bill's sponsors say they'll reintroduce the legislation in the 2011 session. Roland is a policy analyst  for the Show-Me Institute .

In December 2009, IJ joined forces with three Virginia yoga instructors in an effort to protect both their freedom of speech and their right to earn an honest living.  Through litigation and advocacy in the court of public opinion, IJ's clients prevailed in March 2010 when Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell signed a law removing the state's unconstitutional burdens on their yoga businesses.

Records obtained through the state's Public Records Act show Boise city officials are engaging in campaign activity on the taxpayers' dime, attempting to win passage of a constitutional amendment on the November ballot in Idaho. IFF filed a public records request in June, asking for documents related to House Joint Resolution 5. HJR 5, if approved in November, would allow cities to debt finance airport projects without a vote of the people.

The Connecticut-based Yankee Institute has launched Raising Hale, a new source of investigative reporting for The Constitution State. The Raising Hale website features articles and videos that break state and local news and address topics not covered elsewhere. Current headlines include: "Nine stimulus grant recipients fail to report on spending $4.4 million" and "State balances budget with tuition dollars."

A key reason many conservative Democrats were convinced to vote for the health care overhaul legislation was because the president and other leaders said it would reduce the deficit and put the U.S. on a path to long-term entitlement reform. "Instead of solving our entitlement crisis, it makes matters worse," Capretta has said. Entitlement spending growth will accelerate, and it'll be exacerbated as more than 70 million baby boomers hit age 65.