What level of government should exercise what kinds of authority? That question has been vigorously debated throughout U.S. history. Indeed, the U.S. Constitution itself represented...
Efforts to privatize government services in cities and states do not always save the city money, replace well paid and benefited largely unionized public workers...
Barnstead, New Hampshire, became the first municipal government in the United States to ban corporations from pumping out a drop of water for sale elsewhere....
Some communities have passed laws that prevent serial law-breaking corporations from doing busines within their community.… Read More
Initiatives and referendums are one of this country’s forms of direct democracy. There is no national initiative or referendum process in the United States, but...
The Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) is leading the charge in encouraging communities around the country to enact some form of a Civil Liberties...
In the early 1970’s, several cities adopted”one-percent-for-the-arts” policies. One percent of public capital spending had to be spent for art that enriched public spaces. Today...
Since 1971, all but five states have been sued over educational equity and adequacy in school funding. In twenty-seven of these states, the plaintiffs won....
In the 1920’s, the farm cooperative marketing movement sought to organize commodity cooperatives that could control the supply of goods in an attempt to stabilize...
Community Supported Agriculture(CSA) began in over 30 years ago in Japan – where it is known as"teikei", meaning "putting the farmers’ face on food". In...
In recent years livestock producers, particularly small ones, have been at a competitive disadvantage vis-a-vis large meatpackers because so many market transactions were unreported. Cash...
The conversion of biomass into ethanol and biodiesel provides farmers an additional market for their crops. Over the years, many federal and state rules have...
In many states, higher prices are offered for large shipments of cattle or hogs, effectively discriminating against smaller producers providing identical products. In the absence...
In recent years, the largest 7 percent of U.S. farms received approximately three quarters of the market value of all agriculture products sold. About 75...