The New Coalition at a GlanceMissionTo develop and promote a conservative multicultural perspective on economic and social policies.DirectorLee H. WalkerEmailwalker@heartland.orgProgramsmonthly seminarsspeakers bureauquarterly newsletter, Coalition Issues and ViewsCrain's Chicago Business columnoccasional studies and research papersMemberships$19 - Coalition member$39 - combined Coalition and Heartland memberTo Join or Contributemake checks payable to The Heartland Institute, with "New Coalition" on the memo lineWebhttp://www.newcoalition.orgAddress19 South LaSalle Street #903Chicago, Illinois 60603Phone and Fax312.377.4000312.377.5000THE NEW COALITION"Though you'd never know it by the coverage in today's media, or by the voting patterns of most black Americans today, black America's original voice was conservative," notes Lee H. Walker, who directs The New Coalition at The Heartland Institute. Frederick Douglass championed universal self-reliance and personal responsibility, Walker points out, and Booker T. Washington wrote, "I have learned that success is to be measured, not so much by the position one has reached in life, as by the obstacles which have been overcome while trying to succeed."In DemandWalker, a leading mainstream conservative black spokesman, is in high demand as a speaker who effectively and persuasively brings conservative and libertarian ideas to nonwhite audiences.On November 15 and 16, Walker addressed two town hall meetings on "reparations" for black Americans, hosted by the westside and southside locations of the Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago. Walker, who puts himself in the "undecided" column on this controversial issue, expressed his concern the issue will "preoccupy too many of the best and brightest people of all races over an extended period of time," preventing them from focusing on more pressing issues such as education, black-on-black crime, and unemployment.Walker also spoke on behalf of maintaining the Rosenwald Apartments as a historic site on the National Register. The complex--a five-story walkup built in 1929 as the first middle-class housing project for blacks in Chicago--was built by Julius Rosenwald, a trustee of Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee school. Rosenwald said Washington's autobiography changed his life.On January 15, Walker will be the keynote speaker at birthday festivities for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the law school at Northwestern University. On April 26, he will address the annual convention of the Libertarian Party of Indiana. He is also scheduled to speak on National Public Radio in Chicago on a call-in show focused on racial and educational issues.New AdvisorsSince The New Coalition joined forces with Heartland in October 2002, the effort has attracted the support of scores of Americans from California to Virginia. Three new members have joined The New Coalition's advisory committee:Anthony Paul Andrews Ph.D., university professor of economics at Governors State University;Clarence S. Wilson Jr., an attorney at law practicing in Chicago; andLester Blair, principal with Kenilworth Asset Management.Media CoverageThe October announcement of Walker's new partnership with The Heartland Institute attracted press attention from Alabama and Florida, with articles appearing in the October 21 and November 3 editions of the Jacksonville, Florida Advocate (weekly circ. 36,000) and the October 17 edition of the Birmingham, Alabama Times (weekly circ. 16,500). In addition, Walker's latest Crain's Chicago Business (weekly circ. 50,000) column, titled "Playing Great Golf is Tiger's Game, Not Social Reform," ran on November 4.Walker has submitted op-eds to the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and Chicago Defender. We haven't seen the clips yet, but will report when we do! The text of these essays can be found on The New Coalition's Web site by visiting www.heartland.org and then clicking on "Links," or go directly to www.newcoalition.org.OUTREACH EFFORTSOn December 7-9, 2002, at the Council of State Governments' Annual Meeting in Richmond, Virginia., 15 elected officials became new members of Heartland's Legislative Advisory Board. Joseph Bast, Publisher Nikki Saret, and Public Affairs Director Greg Lackner represented Heartland at this year's event, attended by an estimated 900 state legislators from around the country, their legislative staff, government officials, businesses, and special guests. An evening cocktail reception cosponsored by Heartland and International Truck & Engine Corp. drew some 125 enthusiastic guests.On December 13, Bast addressed some 150 legislators--including 80 newly elected officials--during a summit session on education reform at the American Legislative Exchange Council's State and National Policy Summit held in Washington, DC. On the evening of the first day, Heartland once again cohosted a reception with International Truck & Engine Corp., this time attracting more than 100 guests. Saret staffed Heartland's exhibit throughout the event and reported strong interest in our publications.On November 14, Bast discussed free-market health care reform at the annual meeting of the Illinois Life Insurance Council in Oak Brook, Illinois. On November 20-21, Environment & Climate News Managing Editor James M. Taylor was in Houston, Texas to attend a conference organized by the American Petroleum Institute on voluntary efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. His write-up of the conference appears in the January issue of ECN.On December 4, Bast participated in a day-long series of meetings in Washington, DC on health care reform with Bush administration officials and state-based think tank leaders. The meetings were scheduled by State Policy Network. Bast also attended Grover Norquist's weekly "Wednesday Morning Meetings" held at the offices of Americans for Tax Reform in DC. Copies of all three of Heartland's monthly newspapers are delivered to ATR for distribution at these important networking meetings.Current Heartland donors and members may request a free copy of "Municipally Owned Broadband Networks: A Critical Evaluation" by calling Cheryl Parker at 312/377-4000 or sending an email message to think@heartland.org. (Please put "request for Broadband Study" in the subject line.) The executive summary and full text of the study are also available on Heartland's Web site at www.heartland.org.NEW POLICY STUDY RELEASEDIn communities across the country, AT&T; and the Baby Bells have failed to deliver on promises they made a few years ago, at the height of the telecom bubble, to wire the entire country for broadband. Many communities think they can do the job themselves.Heartland Policy Study No. 100, "Municipally Owned Broadband Networks: A Critical Evaluation," written by Heartland President Joseph Bast, warns the costs are higher and risks greater than taxpayers are being told. "The real issue is not availability but price and who should pay it," writes Bast. A small number of heavy users of Internet services wants everyone else to subsidize access, even though this means spending millions of dollars building a system few people want or would voluntarily pay for.Copies of the Policy Study were mailed to local officials in Illinois known to be considering a municipal broadband system; members of the Illinois Commerce Commission and state legislators; daily newspapers in Illinois and key media outlets nationwide; members of Heartland's legislative advisory board; and donors, friends, and think-tank colleagues.Local media coverage of the study's release was extensive, with articles appearing in the Daily Herald (a northwest suburban chain with a daily circulation greater than 150,000); Northwest Herald (circ. 33,800); and three appearances in the Kane County Chronicle (circ. 14,000)--including an October 31 article that was the top page 1 story.ENVIRONMENT UPDATEJanuary 2003 issue of Environment & Climate NewsApproximately 30,000 copies of the January 2003 issue of Environment & Climate News were distributed to every state and national elected official in the U.S., environment reporters at daily newspapers, and thousands of grassroots activists across the country. The lead story on page 1 reports the November 2002 elections revealed voters are no longer swayed by the scare tactics and anti-business rhetoric of environmental advocacy groups.Feature articles by S. Fred Singer, Patrick J. Michaels, and Managing Editor James M. Taylor address new research on the declining threat of "global warming." Taylor describes several peer-reviewed articles suggesting temperatures are not rising as expected. Singer's report describes a new study on the role atmospheric soot particles may play in global warming, introducing a new element of uncertainty in climate models and shifting responsibility for curbing pollution to developing nations such as China and India.Another page 1 article reports the Bush administration's November 22 announcement to move ahead with reforms to the New Source Review provisions of the Clean Air Act. Research published by Heartland in July (Heartland Policy Study #99) suggested such reforms are overdue.Beginning with the January 2003 issue, Heartland will mail three consecutive issues of Environment & Climate News to members of the George C. Marshall Institute. William Waggoner, an elected official from Selma, Oregon, distributes 200 copies of Environment & Climate News every month at meetings and conferences he attends. He met Publisher Nikki Saret at the National Grange event--he's a member of the Oregon state chapter--and now plans to distribute 150 copies of Health Care News as well!Public SpeakingAs reported in the President's Letter of this Heartlander, in November Dr. Jay Lehr spoke to a large and enthusiastic audience at the annual meeting of the National Grange.On December 3, Heartland's newest research associate, Jeff Trigg, attended a meeting of the Subcommittee on Cessation of the Interagency Committee on Smoking and Health. This government agency, created to coordinate the anti-tobacco efforts of various federal agencies, met in Chicago to discuss successful tactics to discourage smoking. Trigg, who was given the opportunity to testify, cautioned those present about the dangers to civil and economic liberties posed by using the coercive powers of the state to prevent conduct that is not harmful to others. His testimony can be found in The Smoker's Lounge on Heartland's Web site at www.heartland.org.On December 4-5, Heartland Director and long-time advisor Jim Johnston participated in hearings in Chicago organized by the Department of Energy on proposals to improve methods for measuring carbon dioxide emissions in anticipation of creating a "cap-and-trade" program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Johnston reports there was considerable skepticism about the government's ability to establish and enforce rules sufficiently stable to allow businesses to invest in the tradeable credits.EDUCATION UPDATEDecember and January School Reform NewsDecember and January issues of School Reform News, Heartland's monthly newspaper for school reformers, were sent to approximately 45,000 readers, including state and national elected officials, journalists, grassroots activists, and teachers and principals at charter schools and private K-12 schools nationwide.The December 2002 issue features an exclusive interview with reformer, scholar, and educator Chester E. "Checker" Finn Jr. of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. According to Finn, "the standards and accountability strategy for education reform coexists and may even be co-dependent with the freedom and competition strategy. An awful lot of people sign up for one or the other, and actually come to regard the other one as an enemy. I've come to believe that the two approaches need each other."The December issue also reports on a school choice conference held in Colorado and addresses such topics as teaching methods in successful high-poverty schools, charter schools, history teaching, and school district size.The January issue of School Reform News offers hard numbers, comprehensive tables, and useful graphs that document in several ways the need for effective school reform in the U.S. The issue's exclusive interview is with John D. Merrifield, an economics professor at the University of Texas-San Antonio and author of The School Choice Wars. Merrifield, who worries current voucher programs are too limited in scope to act as useful models, says "We don't need school choice as a lifeboat; we need it as a reform catalyst. ... When we talk about duplicating escape hatch programs like Milwaukee or Cleveland or Florida, we're defining too limited a role for school choice in our reform efforts."Media CoverageHeartland Chairman Herb Walberg, who calculates it costs $181,851 to produce a high school graduate in the District of Columbia public schools, was cited in a Sunday, November 24 article in the Washington Post, reaching a circulation of 808,884 readers! In case you're wondering, it costs more to produce a graduate from the DC public school system than the average cost in any of the 50 states, though some cities are even more inefficient with their funds: Cleveland ($297,282), Milwaukee ($234,886), and Columbus, Ohio ($197,080). Walberg's report, "Hold Schools Accountable for Cost of Finished Graduate," appeared in the October 2002 issue of School Reform News.Heartland's thoughts on school choice also appeared in the October 23 issue of Education Week (circ. 60,000) in an article about Illinois' tuition tax credit measure. The story quoted School Reform News Managing Editor George A. Clowes.The Fall 2002 issue of American Outlook, published by the American Enterprise Institute, quotes from a July 2001 interview of William Bennett conducted by Clowes for School Reform News.Heartland President Joseph Bast's essay, "Why Conservatives and Libertarians Should Support School Vouchers," appears in the Fall 2002 issue of The Independent Review, a journal of political economy published by The Independent Institute.On November 19, Bast discussed school reform and other topics for two hours with host Ron Newman on WBIG radio, broadcast from Aurora, Illinois.HEALTH CARE UPDATEDecember and January Health Care NewsThe December issue of Health Care News, Heartland's national outreach publication for market-based health care reform, was sent to approximately 20,000 elected officials, health care reporters, grassroots activists, and allies. The issue's cover story by Joe Moser documents voter support on November 5 for free-market health care reform. Managing Editor Conrad F. Meier offers a page 1 report on the stunning defeat of Oregon's closely watched single-payer initiative, Measure 23.The December issue also looks at the Bush administration's plan to limit the ability of the makers of innovative drugs to hold off early challenges to their patents, with Meier suggesting the President may have found a middle ground while Robert Goldberg calls the President's proposal "patently absurd."The January 2003 issue of Health Care News will be the first of three issues to be mailed, free of charge, to more than 18,000 members of the National Association of Health Underwriters. In exchange for a half-page ad and 600-word editorial, NAHU has agreed to share its membership list with Heartland.The January issue features page 1 coverage of state efforts to protect physicians from excessive jury verdicts and related malpractice insurance costs. Other stories describe the 108th Congress's health policy agenda--expected to include malpractice reform as well as prescription drug coverage, aid to the uninsured, and broad Medicare reform--and efforts by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick to strip away patent protection for America's pharmaceutical and biotech industries.Media CoverageHeartland's work on health care attracted unprecedented media coverage in the final months of 2002. Conrad Meier's observations on the defeat of Oregon's single-payer health care initiative appeared in the Wall Street Journal (circ. 1,752,639); Atlanta, Georgia Journal-Constitution (circ. 327,213); Raleigh, North Carolina News & Observer (circ. 161,604); Greensburg, Pennsylvania Sunday Tribune Review (circ. 142,23
); New Haven, Connecticut Register (circ. 128,328); Mesa, Arizona East Valley Tribune (circ. 115,000); Greensboro, North Carolina News & Record (circ. 91,458); Pueblo, Colorado Chieftain (circ. 51,205); Bloomington, Illinois Pantagraph (circ. 49,844); Scottsdale, Arizona Tribune (circ. 18,387); and the Web editions of the Spokane, Washington Spokesman-Review and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Sun News. Meier also was cited favorably in an editorial in the Reading, Pennsylvania Eagle (Wednesday circ. 15,429).The Sunday, December 1 issue of the Columbia, Missouri Sunday Tribune (circ. 18,000) carried an op-ed by Meier on former Vice President Al Gore's recent endorsement of single-payer health care. It won't work, notes Meier, because "public-sector failure, not market failure, lies at the root of today's problems. Promising more government intervention to solve a problem caused by government is, well, pretty dumb." Meier's commentary was also picked by the Conservative News Service and distributed nationally.Heartland President Joseph Bast's article, "Smallpox Vaccine Controversy Grows," published in the November 2002 issue of Health Care News, was distributed nationally by United Press International on November 1 and cited in a November 11 editorial in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin Journal Sentinel (circ. 266,590). That editorial subsequently was reprinted by the Victoria, Texas Advocate (circ. 42,285); Joliet, Illinois Herald-News (circ. 51,000); Elgin, Illinois Courier-News (circ. 33,240); Naperville, Illinois Lisle-Sun (circ. 13,000); Jasper, Alabama Daily Mountain Eagle (circ. 8,021); and Fort Morgan, Colorado Times (circ. 4,800). It also appeared on the Web sites of CNN Money and Black Enterprise Magazine.INTELLECTUAL AMMUNITIONNovember/December IAIntellectual Ammunition, published by The Heartland Institute since 1991, is the only public policy magazine with a free-market perspective delivered to every state and national elected official in the U.S. It is free to $49 Heartland members.The November/December issue includes a directory with complete contact information for more than 150 free-market think tanks and advocacy groups. It also features one-page columns written by experts on the staffs of such leading think tanks as Reason Foundation, PERC, and the Tax Foundation. The cover article, by Heartland President Joe Bast, describes how "lax judges, poorly informed juries, and greedy lawyers have turned asbestos litigation into a giant game of chance that has little to do with either science or justice."After 11 years of more-or-less bimonthly publication, Intellectual Ammunition will become a quarterly magazine in 2003. Although the magazine is the most popular Heartland product among state legislators, donors have been less willing to fund the multi-issue magazine than our issue-specific products. The first quarterly issue, Winter 2003, will be released in JanuaryCOMING UPHeartland Senior Fellows Jay Lehr Ph.D. and Wendell Cox are scheduled to speak at 15 events in the coming months. Use the table on this page to see if you can attend one of these events, or call Heartland Public Affairs Director Greg Lackner at 312/377-4000 to help plan additional meetings or events that take advantage of this schedule.Upcoming Senior Fellows Speaking EventsSpeakerTopicHostDatesLocationFor more informationJay LehrAgriculture & The EnvironmentLouisiana Agriculture Association Annual MeetingJanuary 15 2003Lafayette LouisianaGermaine Paige318/442-0971Jay LehrRecyclingAssociated Recyclers of WisconsinJanuary 17 2003Lake Delton WisconsinTerry Mesch715/672-5709Jay LehrAgriculture & The EnvironmentManitoba Agriculture & Food Association"Beef & Forage Week"January 20-23 2003(5 events)Winnipeg Manitoba CanadaMelinda German204/945-5402Jay LehrAgriculture & The EnvironmentAGCare CanadaFebruary 11 2003Guelph Ontario CanadaDiana MacDonald519/837-1326Wendell CoxTransportationPreserving the American DreamFebruary 24-25 2003Washington DCRandal O'Toole541/297-6798Wendell CoxSprawl & Smart GrowthNational Association of Office & Industrial PropertiesJanuary 23 2003Raleigh North CarolinaGregg Sandreuter919/460-1062Wendell CoxTransportationStrategy Institute Transit SummitMarch 25 2003Toronto Ontario CanadaDavid Laird416/944-8833Wendell CoxUrban IssuesTRB Urban Street SymposiumJuly 30 2003Anaheim CaliforniaRichard Cunard202/334-2963Merrill MatthewsHealth InsuranceNaperville Chamber of CommerceFebruary 24 2003Naperville IllinoisMike SkarrLee WalkerMartin Luther King Jr.Northwestern University School of LawJanuary 15 2003Evanston IllinoisMargaret Hope Allenm-allen@law.northwestern.eduLee WalkerMulticultural Perspectives on Libertarian IdeasLibertarian Party of IndianaApril 26 2003LaPorte IndianaBrad Klopfenstein317/920-1994Lehr will debate a leading advocate of mandatory recycling programs at the annual meeting of the Associated Recyclers of Wisconsin (AROW) on January 17. The debate takes place at Lake Delton, Wisconsin, part of the popular Wisconsin Dells tourist area.The request for Heartland to participate in this debate was prompted by an op-ed by James Taylor, managing editor of Environment & Climate News, that noted the recent decline in big-city recycling operations and how this was an illustration of the economic pitfalls of mandatory recycling. The op-ed was printed in several newspapers around the country and came to the attention of the head of AROW, who was not pleased by Taylor's statements.Later in January, Lehr will visit Winnipeg, Canada to address a meeting of the Manitoba Agriculture & Food Association, part of a four-day whirlwind of events that includes meetings with civic leaders and local lawmakers. Only someone with the energy and enthusiasm of Jay Lehr would be up for this challenge, but he's looking forward to his visit. And all that activity will surely help keep him warm!Cox Battles Myths about "Sprawl"Heartland Senior Fellow Wendell Cox, an expert on mass transit and so-called urban "sprawl," has four speaking events booked so far for 2003. He is on the program for "Preserving the American Dream," a conference for supporters of mobility and homeownership, taking place in Washington, DC on February 23-25. Heartland is a cosponsor, along with The Thoreau Institute, The Heritage Foundation, and several other organizations. Conference cosponsors promise the eventwill help you effectively oppose rail transit boondoggles, high-density urban zoning, restrictions on rural property rights, and other so-called smart-growth' policies. It may also lead to the creation of an American Dream Coalition that will promote free-market solutions to urban problems.The conference will take place at the Wyndham City Center Hotel in Washington, DC. For more information or to register, see http://www.ti.org/amdream.html.