think tank

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Conservative Think Tank Makes 'Puzzling' Big Move

Heritage Foundation ousts leader Jim DeMint

(Newser) - The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has ousted its leader after a power struggle.The Washington nonprofit's board of trustees unanimously asked for and received the resignation of Jim DeMint at a meeting Tuesday. The board chairman said in a pull-no-punches statement afterward that "significant and worsening...

Why ISIS Members Quit: Boredom, No Luxury Cars

Should defectors be given a helping hand?

(Newser) - ISIS recruits are fleeing the Jihadist group for various reasons—including their use as suicide bombers, the lack of luxury cars, and the sheer boredom of duties that don't involve frontline fighting, according to a new report . Published today by a London-based think tank, the report calls defectors "...

Think Tank Sorry for Telling Amnesty to 'Suck It'

CSIS apologizes, says intern thought he was using personal account

(Newser) - An intern at a Washington, DC, think tank was just supposed to monitor its Twitter account, not tell Amnesty International to "suck it." The human rights organization was making a point about the uproar in Ferguson, Mo., over the shooting death of Michael Brown, tweeting yesterday: "US...

China Govt. Think Tank: Zap 1-Kid Policy

Group urges end to all birth limitations by 2020

(Newser) - A Chinese government think tank is calling for an end to the unpopular one-child policy, a decades-old attempt to curb overpopulation in the nation, reports the AP . The China Development Research Foundation recommends a two-child policy for some regions now, with that plan going nationwide by 2015, followed by a...

Iran Shrugs Off 27% Enriched Uranium Find

But there's enough for 5 nuclear bombs, if fully refined

(Newser) - Iran has dismissed the higher-than-expected 27% enriched uranium discovered at an Iranian nuclear site, calling it a mere technical glitch, the AP reports. "This issue shows that some intend to damage the existing constructive cooperation between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency," an Iranian official said today,...

Billboard Equates Climate Believers to Crazy Killers

Heartland Institute ends ad campaign 'experiment'

(Newser) - A conservative think tank has pulled a controversial billboard that compared those who believe in global warming to deranged killers. The Heartland Institute was taking heavy flak for the digital sign in Chicago that featured a photo of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and the question, "I still believe in Global...

North Korea Well Positioned for War: Report

Pyongyang would have advantage in early days of conflict with South Korea

(Newser) - North Korea’s offensive-minded military strategy is in some ways superior to South Korea’s defensive-minded one, and would give it an edge in the early days of an all-out war, a Korean-based think tank concludes in a new report. With 1.2 million military personnel and a record number...

Group Helps Big Biz Shape Friendly Laws
 Group Helps Big Biz
Shape Friendly Laws
investigation

Group Helps Big Biz Shape Friendly Laws

ALEC brings together companies and lawmakers

(Newser) - Say "hi" to ALEC—as in the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative think-tank that allows businesses to play a role in writing laws on energy, the environment, telecommunications, taxes, public safety, and more, reports Bloomberg . Corporations pay up to $25,000 to join ALEC and thousands more to...

Giffords Shooting Spawns 'Civil Discourse' Center

Former presidents Bush, Clinton honorary co-chairs of new institute

(Newser) - Former presidents George HW Bush and Bill Clinton will be honorary co-chairman of the National Institute for Civil Discourse, a new non-partisan center for research, debate, and education about dialogue in politics, opening today at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Featuring a prominent board of politicians and media figures—...

Jane Harman to Leave Congress

California Rep. bolts for think tank gig

(Newser) - Longtime California Rep. Jane Harman will leave Congress to head up the Woodrow Wilson Center, she said in an email to constituents today. "This is an excruciating decision because the distinction of representing the smartest constituents on earth will never be surpassed," Harman wrote, according to the AP...

Smartest Cities in America
 Smartest Cities 
 in America 

Smartest Cities in America

Boulder, Durham, DC trump Ivy stronghold Boston

(Newser) - The number-one brainiest city in America is a university town that major science research centers have made home and whose tech-friendly business culture draws start-ups: Boulder, Colo. Writing in the Daily Beast , Richard Florida ranks the country's 20 brainiest metro areas, as determined by things like number of adults with...

O'Keefe Hinted at New Orleans 'Project' Days Before Arrest

Told conservative think tank to 'stay tuned'

(Newser) - Four days before James O'Keefe was charged with tampering with Sen. Mary Landrieu's office phones, the conservative activist hinted that he had a new, high-profile "project going in New Orleans." Speaking about the mystery project at a conservative think tank last Thursday, O'Keefe "alluded to the fact...

George W. Bush Library Finds a Home in Texas

SMU will host presidential library, think-tank

(Newser) - George W. Bush's presidential library will be built at Southern Methodist University, the Dallas Morning News reports. The First Lady's alma mater has had its eyes on that prize since just after Bush took office. "It took us 71 days to find a football coach, so we don't like...

Top Policy Dog Steers Rudy Right
Top Policy
Dog Steers
Rudy Right

Top Policy Dog Steers Rudy Right

Bill Simon hosts crash course to earn Giuliani conservative cred

(Newser) - Giuliani is going to "Simon University," where think tank types school him to be a hawk and a tax-cutter, the Washington Post reports. Bill Simon hosts, teaching Giuliani how to think conservative heartland instead of New York elite. Simon, Giuliani's policy director, "has the added advantage of...

Middle East Solution? Ignore It
Middle East Solution? Ignore It

Middle East Solution? Ignore It

The only option: "backward societies must be left alone"

(Newser) - As experts scramble to respond to escalating crises in the Middle East, think-tanker Edward Luttwack has a novel solution—leave 'em be. The strategic implications of the Arab-Israeli crisis ended with the Cold War, he argues, and local regimes don't control oil supplies—oil companies do.

NASA Shutters Ideas Factory
NASA Shutters Ideas Factory  

NASA Shutters Ideas Factory

(Newser) - In a cost-cutting move, NASA is shutting down its futuristic think tank, source of way-ahead-of-the-curve ideas, many of them worthy of a Star Trek script. Closing the Institute for Advanced Concepts will save $4 million out of NASA’s $16 billion dollar budget. But former NASA scientist Keith Cowing describes...

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