Watchdog.org Podcast

By Eric Boehm and Steve Greenhut | Watchdog.org Breaking the Bank is Watchdog.org’s weekly look at the national public pension crisis, how it’s affecting state and city budgets and what can be done — if anything — to fix it. In this week’s episode, hosts Eric Boehm and Steve Greenhut take a look at one way that pension reform could get accomplished in California, by getting a proposal on the election ballot in 2016. The big problem? Republicans are worried that putting pension reform on the ballot in a presidential election year will help turn out Democratic voters.  The fear of losing their slim number of seats in Sacramento might stymie any efforts to have a very important pension bill on the ballot.  Can Republicans get out of their own way?  

This is “Sit Down, Shut Up,” Watchdog.org’s podcast examining education issues at the national, state and local levels. Hosts Ben Yount and Moriah Costa takes a critical look at the education establishment, the growth of school choice and the ways free markets can be a part of fixing America’s broken school system. In this week's episode, Yount sits down with Andrew Broy of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, which is pushing for more school choice in the state. Although Illinois has historically been one of the states with the fewest school choice options, the financial status of the state's schools - particularly those in Chicago - is forcing lawmakers to consider some alternatives.

By Eric Boehm and Ben Yount | Watchdog Radio This is "At The Races," Watchdog.org's podcast that focuses on elections and political campaigns. In this episode, hosts Ben Yount and Eric Boehm discuss the latest round of entrants into the 2016 presidential field. Can outsiders like Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina make a mark on the GOP field?  Will Sen. Bernie Sanders force Hilary Clinton to move to the left in the Democratic primary? Most importantly, do any of these long shots have a chance to win the race, once they reach the starting gate? Place your bets, because we're At The Races on the Watchdog Podcast.  

By Eric Boehm and Katie Watson | Watchdog Radio This is Behind the Headlines, Watchdog.org’s podcast that takes a deeper look at the political news of the day. In this week’s episode, host Eric Boehm sits down with Watchdog.org reporter Katie Watson to discuss the political and economic consequences of cigarette taxes. Watson is in the midst of a series of investigative reports about the uses and problems with cigarette taxes in two Virginia cities who recently decided that they wanted to make smokers pay more in order to help plug holes in budgets. But it's a local story with national implications, as cities and states across the country are looking to avoid broad-based tax increases by picking on smaller groups like smokers.  Do cigarette taxes do some good by encouraging people to quit, or are they really just a regressive tax on the people least likely to be able to avoid paying it?

Breaking The Bank is Watchdog.org’s weekly look at the national public pension crisis, how it’s affecting state and city budgets and what can be done — if anything — to fix it. In this week’s episode, hosts Eric Boehm and Steve Greenhut take a break from the pension beat to reflect on the crisis that unfolded over the past two weeks in Baltimore. Everything that there is to say about the protests and riots has already been said, but we turn our focus to another aspect of the city - one that is literally breaking the bank: failed economic development projects that bring tourists and riches to a small part of the city while the rest of Baltimore struggles. Does the city really need to own a $300 million hotel (which lost $5 million last year, alone) or spend $2 billion to redevelop the Inner Harbor while neighborhoods and schools are struggling?  It's not a problem that is unique to Baltimore - politicians everywhere choose white elephant projects over basic city services - bu

This is “Sit Down And Shut Up,” Watchdog.org’s podcast examining education issues at the national, state and local levels. Hosts Ben Yount and Moria Costa takes a critical look at the education establishment, the growth of school choice and the ways free markets can be a part of fixing America’s broken school system. This week, they discuss a prom-posal gone awry. A high school student tried to ask a girl to prom by declaring himself to "be the bomb" - you know, slang for being the coolest or the best?  Well, school officials don't know how to take a joke and the kid ended up in trouble for making a bomb threat. Then, would it be better if we could try college classes for free before deciding to pay for them?

Code Blue is Watchdog Radio’s weekly look at heath issues, ranging from the latest public health debates to small government views on health care reform. Medicaid and Medicare are breaking the budgets of states and the federal government, but there are other options out there. Is Obamacare the best we can do? In this week's episode, hosts Katie Watson and Jason Hart sit down with Matt Miller, an attorney at the Institute for Justice, to talk about IJ's case in Arkansas - where a dentist has been threatened with the loss of his dental license for offering prices that are considered too low.  The dentist is just trying to help out low-income residents who don't have dental insurance, but the state government is determined to stop him.

Say It Loud, Say It Proud is Watchdog Radio’s weekly look at free speech and First Amendment issues — examining rights among the most important to our society, but also rights most frequently under attack. In this week's episode, host Ben Yount checks in with Wisconsin Reporter bureau chief Matt Kittle about the latest developments in the on-going battle over free political speech in the Badger State. As he finds out, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm has long been accused of not understanding or valuing the First Amendment. This past weekend, he went about proving that criticism, constitutional law experts say.    

By Eric Boehm and Ben Yount | Watchdog Radio This is "At The Races," Watchdog.org's podcast that focuses on elections and political campaigns. In our first episode, hosts Eric Boehm and Ben Yount take a look at the early field for the 2016 presidential race.  Is Hilary Clinton invincible among Democrats - and is that a good thing?  Can Marco Rubio find the sweet spot on the Republican side between the establishment and those roguish tea partiers? Matt Kittle, bureau chief for Wisconsin Reporter, visits the program to discuss Scott Walker's potential presidential bid and when he might finally toss his hat into the ring.  

This is “In Our Backyards,” Watchdog.org’s podcast that examines local government — because the government that is the closest to you often can be the most important, even if you don’t hear much about it. We’ll look at city councils, school boards and even water treatment authorities, because local officials can waste your tax dollars as easily as Congress can waste them. In this week's episode, host Eric Boehm chats with Watchdog reporter Andrew Staub, who authored a multi-part investigative series on nepotism in the small town of Throop, Pennsylvania. Staub had to fight with local officials to get even the most basic information about who was on the town's payroll.  The officials had good reason to hide what they were doing – most members of the borough council have direct relatives working for the borough, a clear violation of ethical guidelines – but the case shows where there might be some problems with how Pennsylvania's open records law works.

By Eric Boehm | Watchdog Radio This is Behind the Headlines, Watchdog.org’s podcast that takes a deeper look at the political news of the day. In this week’s episode, host Eric Boehm sits down with Victor Matheson, a professor of sports economics at The College of The Holy Cross to discuss a stunning development in Minnesota: politicians voted against using public funding for a new soccer stadium. But that's only after spending more than $1 billion on four other sports facilities in the past decade. Matheson examines the stadium building craze that has swept the country since the 1990s, tests the claim that stadiums boost economic development and talks about why Minnesota's Metrodome is a perfect example for showing why they don't.

This is “Sit Down And Shut Up,” Watchdog.org’s podcast examining education issues at the national, state and local levels. Host Ben Yount takes a critical look at the education establishment, the growth of school choice and the ways free markets can be a part of fixing America’s broken school system. This week, Yount chats with Watchdog reporter Evan Grossman, who authored an investigation into so-called "ghost teachers" in Philadelphia.  Ghost teachers are public school employees, paid by the taxpayers, who work full-time for the local teachers' union.  In some cases, Grossman reveals, these teachers have not set foot in a classroom for more than a decade, but they continue to collect pay and accrue pension benefits. Even the new Secretary of Education is a former ghost teacher.

Breaking The Bank is Watchdog.org’s weekly look at the national public pension crisis, how it’s affecting state and city budgets and what can be done — if anything — to fix it. In this week’s episode, hosts Eric Boehm and Steve Greenhut are joined by Joe Luppino-Esposito, editor of State Budget Solutions, to discuss some common pension gimmicks used by city and state governments. State Budget Solutions has recently published a report looking at how those gimmicks hurt budgets and taxpayers. Some of those gimmicks are well-known: we just disucssed pension obligations bonds a few weeks ago on this very program.  But others are less so: like how California is using faulty assumptions (or hoping lots of police and firefighters will die in the line of duty) when it comes to figuring out how long public retirees will live.

By Eric Boehm | Watchdog.org Say It Loud, Say It Proud is Watchdog Radio’s weekly look at free speech and First Amendment issues — examining rights among the most important to our society, but also rights most frequently under attack. In this week’s episode, host Eric Boehm explains the idea behind a new national holiday that was celebrated for the first time this week: Freedom Day. The first Freedom Day celebration was hosted by National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Groups as politically diverse as Cato Institute and the Center for American Progress shared the stage for a day of discourse about the foundations, future and meaning of freedom in the United States. We sat down with Freedom Day founder Frayda Levy and others who attended the event to get an idea of what Freedom Day is all about.  

By Katie Watson and Jason Hart | Watchdog Radio Code Blue is Watchdog Radio’s weekly look at heath issues, ranging from the latest public health debates to small government views on health care reform. Medicaid and Medicare are breaking the budgets of states and the federal government, but there are other options out there. Is Obamacare the best we can do? In this week's episode, hosts Katie Watson and Jason Hart take a deep-dive into the so-called "Doc Fix" bill approved by Congress last week. It's not exactly fixing some of the underlying issues with Medicaid, which continues to be billions of dollars in the red, but at least it will put an end to annual fights over how doctors are reimbursed for their services.

By Ben Yount and Bre Payton | Watchdog Radio This is “Sit Down And Shut Up,” Watchdog.org’s podcast examining education issues at the national, state and local levels. Hosts Ben Yount and Bre Payton take a critical look at the education establishment, the growth of school choice and the ways free markets can be a part of fixing America’s broken school system. In this week's podcast, Yount and Payton are joined by Watchdog.org education reporter Moria Costa, who brings with her a scary tale of textbook companies using schoolkids as data mines. It's all in the name of good marketing, but it's putting our kids identities at risk and school officials are letting it happen.

By Eric Boehm | Watchdog Radio This is Behind the Headlines, Watchdog.org’s podcast that takes a deeper look at the political news of the day. In this week's episode, host Eric Boehm sits down with Sarah Rosier of the Lucy Burns Institute to talk about their new report, an attempt to connect the dots between deep-pocketed lobbyists and members of Congress.  Despite all the focus on campaign finance issues these days, there is relatively little attention paid to the direct contributions made by lobbyists to congressmen and congresswomen.

By Ben Yount | Watchdog Radio This is “In Our Backyards,” Watchdog.org’s podcast that examines local government — because the government that is the closest to you often can be the most important, even if you don’t hear much about it. We’ll look at city councils, school boards and even water treatment authorities, because your tax dollars can be wasted by local officials just as easily as they can be wasted by member of Congress. This week, host Ben Yount looks at a growing trend in American politics: states are making more important policy decisions than Washington, D.C.  That's either because the federal government is failing to act on some issues or because it is over-acting on others, forcing states to amend, adjust or challenge federal policy in order to make it work. But that's not a bad thing.  As the laboratories of democracy, the states should be making more decisions instead of forcing everyone to accept one-size-fits-all federal rules.

Breaking The Piggy Bank is Watchdog.org’s weekly look at the national public pension crisis, how it’s affecting state and city budgets and what can be done — if anything — to fix it. In this week’s episode, hosts Eric Boehm and Steve Greenhut take a look at a few states that are working to reform their public pension messes. But so-called "reform" is not really reform if it only kicks the can down the road and doesn't address any of the systemic issues with defined benefit pension systems. In Kansas, for example, lawmakers approved a risky pension bond that could leave taxpayers with an even higher bill in the future.

By Ben Yount and Bre Payton | Watchdog Radio This is “Sit Down And Shut Up,” Watchdog.org’s podcast examining education issues at the national, state and local levels. Hosts Ben Yount and Bre Payton take a critical look at the education establishment, the growth of school choice and the ways free markets can be a part of fixing America’s broken school system. In this week's episode, Yount and Payton take a look at mandatory testing rules in states like Illinois, which recently decided that kids are allowed to opt-out of taking those tests, but only if they do so themselves. Is it fair to force kids to stand up to their teachers, or should we be teaching them to "just say no" anyway?