Happy 2012 and welcome to the Heartland’s podcasts. This week, listen to a 
discussion on hydraulic fracturing. Click the links below to listen, and subscribe on iTunes so you get the latest podcasts as soon as they are produced. (Search for “Heartland Institute” in the iTunes store.)
ON EDUCATION: A Florida vouchers program for disabled students is under fire for instances of fraud and abuse. Special-education lawyer and former teacher Allison Hertog joins the podcast to analyze the John M. McKay scholarships, special education, and abuses of public funds. She notes that Florida has reached the second phase of widespread school-choice reforms: refinement and discovering better accountability mechanisms. Listen here.
ON ENVIRONMENT: Todd Wynn, director of the Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force at the American Legislative Exchange Council, explains why hydraulic fracturing is a environmentally friendly means of producing natural gas. Listen here.
ON TECHNOLOGY: Two bills looming in Congress aim to curtail copyright infringement but go too far by violating Internet users’ freedom of speech. Parker Higgins, an activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, explains why the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act are bad legislation. Listen here.
ON BUDGET: The minimum wage in San Francisco climbs to $10.24 an hour on January 1. Business management consultants Doug and Polly White say the city can expect some jobs to leave the city and others to disappear altogether. The minimum wage is just one of many hindrances to hiring the local, state and federal governments have created, they say. Listen here.
ON HEALTH CARE: On today’s Health Care News podcast, Benjamin Domenech talks to Beverly Gossage, Director of HSA Benefits Consulting, about Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s efforts to reform Medicaid. Listen here.
