What was this parent thinking of calling the police

"First-Grader Arrested, Handcuffed After Fight". Why would the parent of a ten year old call the police because an eight year old got into a fight with their child? This is pretty strange.

More on media bias

The Philadelphia Inquirer has my latest op-ed and it looks at the recent research that I have done regarding media bias.

Vice President Cheney and Guns

Tech Central Station has my op-ed responding to one of Senator Edwards' attacks on Vice President Cheney.

More Registered Voters in Franklin County, Ohio than eligible people

The Columbus Dispatch reports that in Ohio's largest county:

After nine months of intense voter-registration efforts focused on Franklin County, the number of people signed up to cast ballots in the Nov. 2 election has surpassed U.S. Census estimates of those eligible.
There are about 815,000 Franklin County residents older than 18, according to the most recent census estimates, for 2003. As of yesterday, Franklin County Board of Elections officials counted more than 817,000 registered voters, and forms are still coming in at the rate of 8,000 per day as Monday's registration deadline approaches. Although voter-registration numbers in some Ohio counties have reached 90 percent or more of population estimates, surpassing the number is highly unusual.
One county official in Ohio called the Franklin County figures "bizarre."
One state official called them troubling.

Who will win the Nobel Prize in Economics?

A market for who will win the Nobel Prize in Economics is up here. It is good to see Gordon Tullock on the list and Robert Barro, but there are other strong choices that aren't listed: Armen Alchian, Harold Demsetz, Bill Landes, and Sam Peltzman seem like some obvious choices.

A Lively Debate Over Voting Machines

The ACLU and myself tangled Thursday and Friday in Ohio in court over what voting machines should be used. My research was the central focus of the discussion, but even their own expert witness had to admit that she confirmed my results when she re-examined the data. The only response that the ACLU and their experts were able to mount was that it was only relevant to examine the statewide races, particularly just the presidential race. Of course, the problem for the other side is that all the races showed that punch card machines actually did very well relative to the other machines. Given that this is the first court decision of its type, it would be nice if we can win this before the November election because it will be at least a little harder for Democrats to claim that punch card machines are faulty.

Useful article on the Assault Weapons Ban

Larry Elder has a nice piece on the assault weapons ban expiring. It does a useful job of going through how badly the media covered the issue.

Legislation to overturn the DC Gun Ban passed the U.S. House on Wednesday

My article on the impact of the DC gun ban appeared in National Review Online this week. DC crime data is available here for those who are interested in tracing the changes in murder rates and other crime rates overtime.