What Hawai'i's 'Blue' Fee Tells Us About The New Green Fee

Black Soil, a nonprofit organization founded in 2017, supports Kentucky's Black farmers through direct investment, grant assistance, and market connections while bridging information gaps that prevent farmers from accessing existing government programs.

Citizens' assemblies, where a randomly selected representative sample of people work together to make decisions and find policy solutions to social issues, is an effective approach to decision-making that bridges polarization. It also minimizes the influence of special interests in decision making. America In One Room gathered 500 people in Texas to address topics such as immigration and healthcare, among others, and it showed that people tend to find common ground after deliberative discussions. Citizens’ assemblies have successfully informed policy decisions in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and France.

ReadyReturn is the only program in the United States that provides taxpayers with completed tax returns. It’s simple, easy, and has a 99% user satisfaction rate. Who’s not happy? Intuit, H&R Block, and other tax preparers who have fought the California program every step of the way.

El Poder del Consumidor is an organization fighting Coca-Cola's power over health care decisions in Mexico. The organization tried many tactics but only found success after finding friends with enough money to compete with the beverage industry giants.

Corruption in Mexico is ingrained in all systems and interactions. President Vicente Fox and his administration are trying to change this. Their mentality is that for corruption to truly be fought the government needs to actively make change and implement rules to counteract it, and some of Fox's changes are now beginning to see improvements.

Singapore's Vehicle Quota System (VQS) requires prospective car owners to bid in government auctions for a Certificate of Entitlement (COE), which grants a 10-year right to own a vehicle. The VQS has successfully reduced car ownership growth and prevented many issues related to urban traffic, but it's been at the cost of making cars unaffordable for most residents and generating significant public resentment.

In 2023, Vermont passed Act 76, which created a new payroll tax on employers to help fund child care subsidies. The funding has led more than 1,200 new child care slots to open across the state.

Researchers are establishing mussel farms on suspended ropes off the coast of Scotland to restore marine habitat damaged by pollution and harmful fishing practices. The new habitat is also restoring the biodiversity of the area.

A cost-negotiation approach similar to the one used by the federal Medicare program has saved states like Montana and New Jersey millions of dollars negotiating their state employee health insurance plans. In Montana, the state fired its major insurance carrier and set the rates it would pay health providers for care and procedures, rather than vice versa. In New Jersey, a much bigger state, the program was modified by requiring hospitals and providers to reveal its prices and then grouping hospitals by zip code and asking the state's big insurance carrier for bids geographically on that basis.

The invasive European green crab was wreaking havoc on the soft-shell clam fishery in Nova Scotia. But fishers, researchers, and park officials worked together to remove as many of them as possible and find an alternative use for them. Their efforts were working: eelgrass meadows and clam populations were rebounding. Now, they’re testing how these crabs can be used in lobster bait, bioplastics, or even fertilizer for gardens.