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Connecting today’s news with the research & opinion you need.

Homelessness Crisis

What to Know: President Trump is sending a team to Los Angeles to study that city’s homelessness crisis—a crisis that is spreading.

The TPPF Take: There are two components to the homelessness crisis.

“Government often stands in the way of construction of affordable housing,” TPPF’s Chuck DeVore said on Fox News on Thursday. “But that only affects a minority of the homeless. Most of the homeless we see in places like Los Angeles and Seattle—and now increasingly in Austin—are people who have severe mental illness and drug addiction problems. We haven’t dealt with them effectively or compassionately for the last 50 years.”

Banning Affordable Energy

What to Know: Several Democratic presidential candidates say they’ll ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking), a move that would drive up energy costs and hit low-income Americans the hardest.

The TPPF Take: Abundant, affordable energy keeps families safe and warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

“It’s clear that high energy prices have a measurable effect on health and mortality,” says TPPF’s Katie Tahuahua. “That’s why we must oppose policies—such as a ban on fracking—that would drive up the cost of electricity and fuels. Instead, let’s encourage American innovation and energy independence.”

Comfort Colleges

What to Know: A new essay says that U.S. colleges have abandoned academics in favor of radical dogma and safe spaces for students—they’ve become “comfort colleges.”

The TPPF Take: When academia set aside the free exchange of ideas, it lost its mission.

“Universities have become ‘comfort colleges,’ but only for those who hold the correct beliefs,” says TPPF’s Tom Lindsay. “But as a new survey of college student shows, too many of them feel afraid to speak honestly on campus for fear of offending someone. Conformism of thought, and efforts to enforce it, have become the norm.”