John Stossel - KB

John Stossel Top scientists tried to cover up the origin of Covid, according to Senator Rand Paul. In his new book "Deception: The Great Covid Cover-Up," Paul backs up his claims about a Covid lab leak from a research facility funded by Anthony Fauci. "It looks like it came from the lab," Senator Rand Paul tells me. "America funded it. It was maybe not done with evil intentions. It was done with the misguided notion that gain of function research was safe." Gain of function research includes making viruses more deadly or infectious, in order to develop vaccines. Paul argues that gain of function is a risk to civilization. :We could wind up with a lethal virus that leaks out of a lab and kills half of the planet." You can watch the video above for more on why Paul thinks Covid came from a lab, and how officials tried to cover it up.

John Stossel Pennsylvania regulators are forcing truck drivers to buy trucks outside Pennsylvania. The crazy part: they didn't even make the rules; they were made by California. "We have no say, we can't do anything about it," says Brian Wanner the owner of Peter Brothers Trucking, "I don't want to be anything like California." But that's too bad, because Pennsylvania's Environmental Quality Board decided to automatically copy rules from California. The newest rules will raise the cost of new trucks by more than $50,000. The regulators say these rules are important to stop pollution. That's dumb, says Wanner, "In 1980, 1 truck produced as much as 60 trucks today." "So, we want people to buy new trucks," I ask? "You want people to buy new trucks," responds Wanner. "But if you put these costs on us that we cannot afford, we're going to just run the older trucks." That's something the regulators don't think about. In fact, there's a lot they don't think about. Their decision hurts truck sellers, won't stop pollution, could be unconstitutional, and will only get more expensive when California mandates "all electric." All that and more in the video above.

John Stossel What happens if police destroy your property while trying to catch a bad guy? Do they compensate you? For many the answer is: NO! Innocent print shop owner Carlos Pena had his shop wrecked by police. “All the work of my life … just got ruined!” says Pena. Police destroyed his shop trying to catch a man who barricaded himself inside the shop. Pena thought he’d be reimbursed. But after a year spent trying to navigate the bureaucracy, he hasn’t received anything. “They just gave me numbers to call. And when you call, they referred me to somebody else,” explains Pena, “It's unbearable!” Lawyer Jeffrey Redfern of the Institute for Justice took his case for free because he says what happened to Pena is unconstitutional. “We want to make it clear,” explains Redfern, “when police destroy innocent people's property, they have to pay for the damage that they did.”

John Stossel Climate scientist Judith Curry bravely says climate change isn't a “crisis.” She explains how the scientific community became corrupted by "fame and fortune." Many politicians, and most climate scientists in the media, portray climate change as a crisis. "People are dying!" shouts Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. Bill Nye "the Science Guy" says "The planet's on ****ing fire! ... This is an actual crisis!" But Judith Curry tells me: There is NO "crisis." Global warming is a problem, yes, but it's manageable. She explains how IPCC scientists recently admitted that their most extreme models won't become reality, and she notes that climate-related deaths are actually falling. For more, you can watch my full nearly-hour-long interview with Curry, above.

John Stossel A new law forces businesses with 15 employees or more to provide pregnant workers with special working conditions. Sounds great! "These policies...are motivated by good intentions," says Vanessa Brown Calder from the CATO Institute. "But that doesn't mean that the consequences of these policies will turn out well." No, it doesn’t. Calder - who is pregnant - fears this new law will lead to fewer women being hired. My new video explains.

John Stossel President Biden and the Senate, plan to get around budget caps using an "emergency" loophole. CATO Director of Budget Policy Romina Boccia writes about that. She explains: "Call it an emergency, done. Spend the money on whatever you want." Sadly, that's how it works in Washington. It gets worse. The budget caps that politicians want to evade never even cut spending to begin with. They merely slowed the planned INCREASE in spending. You can watch the video above to see what will happen if government keeps spending like crazy - and also see a possible solution.

John Stossel Philadelphia slapped a tax on soda and promised to spend the money on education. 5 years later, here's what happened. Want a soda? You'll pay more for it in Philadelphia, because a few years ago Philly politicians voted to tax artificially sweetened beverages. They said it would discourage people from drinking unhealthy soda. Soda sales did drop. Liquor sales rose! The politicians promised the tax would fund early childhood education. In my new video, I explain what Philly politicians really did with the money.

John Stossel Colorado Governor Jared Polis is more pro-freedom than many politicians. But I have problems with some things Polis believes. Colorado Governor Jared Polis is a rare Democrat who talks about economic freedom and individual liberty. But he's no libertarian. He wants to force businesses to provide services for gay weddings. He signed universal pre-k. Colorado lags in school choice. Polis is also unusual because most Democrats won't debate ideas with me. He will. This is our full interview.

John Stossel Progressives attack capitalism because it lets some become very rich while others stay poor. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez call such a system "immoral." But Yaron Brook, chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute says the opposite is true. He points out that the poor were much poorer before capitalism: "We have basically made about $2 a day for 100,000 years. In other words ... we could eat what we farmed and that was it," Brook tells me. "And then something amazing happened about 250 years ago." Around that time, a few countries tried capitalism. For the first time, people were allowed to profit from private property. That changed everything. Brook explains: "250 years ago we suddenly discovered the value of individual freedom. We suddenly discovered the value of leaving individuals free to think, to innovate, to produce without asking for permission, without getting the state to sign off on it and we call that the industrial revolution. We got much, much, much richer and it's hard to imagine how much richer we got ... electricity, running water, the things we all take for granted today, but we didn't have 150 years ago ... and yes, some people complain about inequality, but everybody got richer. Even the poor got richer."

John Stossel Rhetoric Professor Erec Smith says today's DEI training does more harm than good. You've been hearing about DEI training. It's supposed to make us aware of our unconscious prejudice. But former diversity trainer Erec Smith tells me, "if you can keep this race thing going, then you will always have a business in getting rid of racism.” Here is my entire interview with Smith.

John Stossel Climate alarmists insist there's a "scientific consensus" that says climate change is a crisis, and man causes it! Researcher Judith Curry tells me, "it's a manufactured consensus." To get our new weekly video from Stossel TV, sign up here: https://www.johnstossel.com/#subscribe Curry was a department chair at Georgia Tech when she spread alarm about climate change. The media loved her then. She claimed there was an increase in hurricane intensity. But then some researchers pointed out gaps in her research: years with low levels of hurricanes. "Like a good scientist, I went in and investigated." When she acknowledged a lack of evidence that hurricane intensity had increased, she was ruthlessly attacked by climate alarmists. Her career suffered. Now Curry reveals nefarious ways "the science" about climate change has been corrupted.

John Stossel Politicians love to make plans for us. But the best of life happens when politicians just leave us alone. To get our new weekly video from Stossel TV, sign up here: https://www.johnstossel.com/#subscribe Economists call the idea "spontaneous order." Just as a school of fish needs no leader, most of us-in most of life figure things out on our own. Even in my hometown New York City, where authoritarian politicians constantly impose new rules, spontaneous order is occasionally allowed. A perfect example: Central Park. When government ran the park, it was dirty, dangerous and the grass was dead. Politicians let go a little, allowing a nonprofit conservancy [disclosure: I'm a director], manage Central Park. The Conservancy does a better job. Now the park is clean and safe. The video gives more examples of spontaneous order.

John Stossel The Southern Poverty Law Center promises to warn us about dangerous hate groups and extremists. In reality, it smears grassroots activists like "Moms for Liberty" for daring to disagree about policy. To get our new weekly video from Stossel TV, sign up here: https://www.johnstossel.com/#subscribe The SPLC is, sadly, powerful. It has nearly a BILLION dollars, and reporters pay careful attention to its reports. They shouldn't. The SPLC is a scam. The SPLC listed the Family Research Council as a "hate group," which led a deranged shooter to attack their office. The SPLC never apologized or removed the group from its list. Instead, it added more groups, such as ones that started in recent years to oppose new "woke" sex and race teaching in government-run schools. The Southern Poverty Law Center has become a hate group itself. It is now a left-wing, money grabbing, slander machine.

John Stossel Bjorn Lomborg studies solutions for the world's biggest problems. He says we should spend on the "best things first." I asked people on the street in New York how they'd spend money to help the world. Fixing climate change was the most common answer. Lomborg agrees that climate change is a problem that may threaten our kids someday. But he also says, "if you live most other places on the planet, you're worried about the fact that your kids might die from easily curable diseases tonight." Lomborg has a cheaper plan that would save millions of lives.

John Stossel I've reported for years on studies that rank relative freedom in countries around the world. America's performance is getting worse. The Heritage Foundation ranks economic freedom across the globe. We once ranked 4th. This year, the U.S. slipped to its "worst-ever score," 25th. I'll show you why we're falling so fast, and why we should increase freedom.

John Stossel Chris Rufo makes some people angry. Why? Because he's eliminating woke departments at Florida universities, and exposing woke corporate and government trainings. Rufo was once a filmmaker, making documentaries for PBS about things like American poverty. But then his research on poverty connected him with government workers who leaked documents about absurd "woke" training programs. The documents showed that Seattle's Office of Civil Rights, for example, trained employees to "practice self-talk that affirms ... complicity in racism" and to work on "undoing your own whiteness." Media say Rufo has "invented" a crisis about this kind of thing, and that he's pushing a "moral panic." But Rufo has evidence. Watch the video above to see some of it.

John Stossel Socialists say they care about the environment. The real world shows that capitalism works better. Saving the planet, I'm told, requires socialism! Greed "is literally destroying our planet," says Sen. Bernie Senders. We need "an environment that provides for all people, not just the privileged few!" says Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Sanders and AOC, as usual, have it backwards. Socialist governments have "the worst environmental record on the planet," says Tom Palmer, Executive Vice President of the Atlas Network. Here is evidence.

John Stossel When America promised to take care of us old people, politicians basically lit the fuse on a stick of dynamite.

John Stossel The federal government and the media are excited about something new: a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). "I think it would be a total disaster," Gov. Ron DeSantis tells me. A CBDC would be a cryptocurrency, one controlled by the federal government. The Biden administration says a CBDC would "protect consumers, investors...and the environment." DeSantis tells me, "Sometimes government does things that may appear to be benevolent but really are kind of like a wolf in sheep's clothing. This is a wolf coming as a wolf." DeSantis says the government will use digital money to spy on us and control our behavior. "'You're filling up too much [with gas]. Wait a minute - Climate change... You can't be doing that! ... You bought another firearm? No, no, no.'" He's is so upset about this new plan, he just persuaded Florida's legislature to ban the CBDC's use in Florida.

John Stossel Socialism always fails! But people still want it. They should listen to Gloria Alvarez. Gloria Alvarez is from Guatemala. She's watched parts of Latin America get wrecked by socialism. Now she says the "moochers and looters" are gaining ground in the USA. I'm encouraged people like Gloria get it. Now the viral influencer is running for President of Guatemala.

John Stossel Green activists want to BAN fossil fuels. I wish they'd listen to energy author Alex Epstein. He explains how fossil fuels make the world better, and how banning them ruins lives. How can fossil fuels be "moral" when activists tell us, "keep it in the ground?" Because: "3 billion people...still use less electricity than a typical American refrigerator" says Epstein. To allow them to have a modern life, "that's going to depend on fossil fuels." But what about pollution and climate change? I push back throughout this extended interview.

John Stossel Many reports and opinions once labelled "misinformation" turned out to be true.

John Stossel Want to start a business? Imagine having to get your competitors' permission first. In 35 states, laws block certainties of new businesses from operating unless they get their competitor's permission. They are called Certificate of Need laws, also called "CON" laws.

John Stossel Today, most students are taught that capitalism is a problem. These students know capitalism makes life better.

John Stossel American shipbuilders have a disgusting monopoly. I confront a shipping lobbyist who uses government to ban competition.