A weekly roundup of news, commentary, research, events, and more
from The Heritage Foundation.
Aug 22, 2022
Empowering Parents Against the Edu-crats
Week of action: To help drive the parental rights movement, Heritage and Heritage Action held a “week of action,” partnering with several allied organizations and the Washington Examiner to empower parents to make education choices for their children.


- Our team flooded the zone with numerous op-eds from school-choice experts and scholars, events, and new episodes of Heritage podcasts focused on school choice and empowering parents.
- Heritage Action hosted hundreds of parents in Virginia Beach, Virginia, for its Parental Rights Symposium. Fox News covered the event, which you can read about here <[link removed]>.



Help spread the word! Share our articles and podcasts on topics like how school choice helps ensure equality of opportunity <[link removed]>, helps students and taxpayers <[link removed]>, and why we must seize this school choice moment <[link removed]>. New episodes of “The Kevin Roberts Show <[link removed]>” and The Daily Signal’s “Problematic Women <[link removed]>” also focus on the benefits of school choice.
China Is Infiltrating Kids’ Video Games With Propaganda, Spyware
A silent invasion: You probably know about the threat that TikTok presents, but did you know that Tencent—China’s largest social media and video game studio—is buying up commanding stakes in video game development companies around the world?


- Tencent is filling incredibly popular games like Fortnite and Valorant with Chinese Communist Party propaganda and spyware designed to harvest data from children playing the games and parents linked to their children’s online gaming accounts.



Hollywood all over again: Unfortunately, Tencent is leveraging its financial influence over game developers in overt ways as well, pressuring them to acquiesce to CCP preferences concerning what should and shouldn't be included in games.


- “It is critical that parents begin to take a more active role in curtailing what their kids are playing online,” writes Heritage research associate Jake Denton.



Learn more: Read more about this threat here <[link removed]>.
Election Integrity Is Growing Stronger Across States
Some welcome news: The closer we get to the midterms, the more important the issue of election integrity becomes. Thankfully, several states have shown marked improvements in their election laws through July of this year.


- Fourteen states have passed legislation to beef up election integrity after Heritage’s Election Integrity Scorecard <[link removed]> opened the eyes of many state officials to the vulnerabilities in their election processes.



There’s a lot more to be done: “Even among the most conscientious states, no one scores higher than 84,” write senior policy analyst Jack Fitzhenry and Election Law Reform Initiative manager Hans von Spakovsky. “There’s always room for improvement.”

Learn more: Read about which states improved their election processes and what remains to be done here <[link removed]>.
ALWAYS ON OFFENSE
Heritage Scores Big Win in Fight Against Regulatory State
What’s new: Heritage is working to stop the Biden administration’s regulatory steamroller by filing powerful public comments that present strong conservative policy responses. Regulatory agencies must respond to every comment, and how they respond could lead to litigation.


- Last week, a court overturned a new rule imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the judge cited the comment filed by Heritage senior research fellow David Burton, which pointed out that the expensive rule wasn’t needed and wouldn’t work.



Just a start: This is a prime example of why filing regulatory comments is so important, notes Paul Ray, director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies.

Go deeper: If you want to read the judge’s finding, you can access it here <[link removed]>. If you want to see what Heritage has been doing on regulatory comments, check out this page <[link removed]>.
Kara Frederick on Jack Carr’s ‘Danger Close’ Podcast
What: Have you heard of “The Terminal List,” now the No. 1 show on Amazon Prime? Do you follow the work of former Navy SEAL Jack Carr? Then you will love the “Danger Close” podcast, in which Carr talks with operators across a variety of fields on pressing national security issues.

Who: That list of voices now includes Heritage’s own Kara Frederick, who joined Carr recently to talk about Big Tech <[link removed]> and emerging tech threats.

Where: You can listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts <[link removed]>, Spotify <[link removed]>, and YouTube <[link removed]>.
NEW RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
- 4 Facts About IRS Gun Arsenal <[link removed]>
- Parents Choose Schools to Protect Their Rights. This Makes School Choice the Future of Education <[link removed]>
- Dating Game: The Politics Behind the Timing of Recessions <[link removed]>
- Pro-Lifers Must Learn From Kansas Loss <[link removed]>
- The Mar-a-Lago Raid: What Happened and What’s Next <[link removed]>
- Biden’s Legacy of Failure in Afghanistan <[link removed]>
- How Foreign Aid Has Failed People of Afghanistan <[link removed]>
- The Vatican Should Abandon Its Agreement With Beijing <[link removed]>
- Schiff Bill Would Wrongly Redefine Infertility Through Tax Law <[link removed]>
- Was Iran Behind Attempt to Kill Salman Rushdie in America? <[link removed]>
- Of Migrants and Mayors, Busloads and Budgets <[link removed]>
- These 11 Defensive Gun Uses Show Protective Benefits of Second Amendment <[link removed]>
- Soros’ Claim About Leftist Prosecutors Is Big Lie <[link removed]>
EVENTS
Navigating the Navy’s Future, Aug. 25, 5:15 p.m.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday sits down with Heritage’s Brent Sadler to lay out his path for the Navy.

Register here. <[link removed]>
Indoctrination 101
As students across America go back to school, their classroom curriculums may shock you <[link removed]>. Help us protect our nation’s children from the Left’s dangerous agenda and preserve our American way of life <[link removed]>.
DID YOU KNOW?
Heritage experts have compiled a comprehensive guide to the best solutions to America’s biggest issues. For every issue, we offer a plain-language summary, facts and figures, recommended policies, talking points, and links to additional resources. Visit our Solutions page here. <[link removed]>
HERITAGE PODCASTS
“The Kevin Roberts Show”: This back-to-school season, parents have a new item on their school supply list: the right to choose where their kids go to school. School choice firebrand Corey DeAngelis joins the show to break down recent education freedom victories in the states and at the U.S. Supreme Court, why conservatives must capitalize on this moment, and what it means to fund students, not systems. Listen here. <[link removed]>

“Heritage Explains”: In reaction to the rising price of insulin, congressional Democrats’ so-called Inflation Reduction Act imposed a $35 monthly out-of-pocket price ceiling on insulin for Medicare recipients. But does this actually address the reason why these drugs are so expensive? On this episode, we expose the root cause of the high cost of insulin (and other life-saving prescription drugs), and what must happen to ensure these prices are affordable and treatment options are abundant. Listen here. <[link removed]>

Check out Heritage’s complete lineup of podcasts here <[link removed]>.
HERITAGE IN THE NEWS
A new Latino exhibit at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., is a disgrace, says Mike Gonzalez, the Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum senior fellow, on Fox News. It offers an unabashedly Marxist portrayal of history, religion, and economics. Watch the clip here. <[link removed]>
POLICY PICTURE
Follow The Heritage Foundation <[link removed]> and The Daily Signal <[link removed]> on Instagram.

Email us your thoughts and questions at [email protected] <[link removed]>.

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