America’s fight against hunger has long centered on one question: Are people getting enough food?
That narrow focus is no longer enough — and thankfully, the federal government is starting to take action. The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Agriculture (USDA) just invested millions of dollars in an initiative to expand access to protein-rich foods nationwide.
That investment couldn’t come at a more critical time. Staple protein-rich foods, like beef, seafood, and dairy, are among the most expensive items in Americans’ grocery carts.
America’s fight against hunger has long centered on one question: Are people getting enough food?
That narrow focus is no longer enough — and thankfully, the federal government is starting to take action. The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Agriculture (USDA) just invested millions of dollars in an initiative to expand access to protein-rich foods nationwide.
That investment couldn’t come at a more critical time. Staple protein-rich foods, like beef, seafood, and dairy, are among the most expensive items in Americans’ grocery carts.
The federal government just released its Special 301 report, which calls out foreign countries that deprive American companies of billions in revenue — and prevent the creation of countless U.S. jobs — by failing to protect their intellectual property rights.
Consider how the European Union recently changed legislation to shorten the period that new drugs can remain on the market without competition from copycats, limiting American biotech firms’ ability to earn back the money they spent developing new treatments.
The EU also hasn’t completely abandoned its proposal to allow European bureaucrats to unilaterally set licensing rates for transformative technology behind global wireless communications infrastructure, including 5G, Wi-Fi and other standardized technologies.
The government was right to recognize the EU’s increasingly hostile approach to American companies’ intellectual property rights by placing it on the report’s Watch List for the first time in two decades.
Our Northern and Southern neighbors are also failing us. Mexico doesn’t adequately protect clinical data that companies produce — at great cost — to validate the safety and efficacy of new drugs. And Mexico’s system for resolving patent disputes for purposes of promoting generic competition is ineffective.
Keeping it on the Priority Watch List would have helped drive that progress; unfortunately, the government downgraded it to the Watch List.
The federal government once again put Canada on the Watch List for falling short of USMCA commitments. Canada uses its Patented Medicine Prices Review Board to effectively erode the value of American-invented medicines. And its Online Streaming Act disadvantages American digital services providers.
While the United Kingdom wasn’t included in this year’s report, it deserved a spot on the Watch List. Its courts already purport to have the authority to set global licensing rates that cover U.S. and other nations’ patents. It has also proposed changes to dispute resolution for standard essential patent licensing that would enable the undervaluing of American companies’ innovations — a marked departure from peer nations’ policies on the matter.
China remains one of the most significant violators of Americans’ intellectual property rights, which is why it’s once again on the report’s Priority Watch List.
For instance, Chinese courts have increasingly tried to set global standard essential patent licensing rates, often at artificially depressed levels, that help Chinese manufacturers while undervaluing Western inventors.
It’s also taken aim at America’s biotech industry by limiting favorable regulatory treatment to medicines first marketed in China.
Like Mexico, China’s patent linkage system remains flawed. Its current policies don’t provide innovative drug companies with enough time to resolve patent disputes before generic competitors enter the market, giving Chinese generic manufacturers an unfair leg up at the expense of American innovators.
India likewise remains on the Priority Watch List. It’s taken some limited steps to improve intellectual property protections, but far more substantial reforms are necessary.
Brazil, with its patent prosecution delays and substantial administrative backlogs that keep innovators from enjoying a full period of patent protection, similarly remained on the Watch List.
This year’s Special 301 report took a meaningful step toward calling out misbehavior of adversaries and allies wherever it occurs. Ultimately, addressing these issues head-on is the first step towards reform.
Andrei Iancu served as the undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from 2018 to 2021. David Kappos served in the same offices from 2009 to 2013. Both serve as board co-chairs of the Council for Innovation Promotion. This piece originally ran in The Hill.
Generations of Gratitude: How Other Countries Keep Our Heroes’ Memories Alive
Every Memorial Day, we honor the women and men who gave their lives for our country. Their sacrifice doesn’t just echo here at home; it’s felt and remembered across the globe.
Small business owners are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of health care. Nearly a third have stopped offering health benefits as premiums continue to climb.
It is critical that lawmakers understand the reasons for rising costs and begin to address them – or small businesses will continue to drop health coverage due to unsustainable costs. One of these reasons is hospitals’ exploitation of a little-known federal charity program. Without reforms, that program will continue to drive up costs for small businesses and the self-employed.
GLOUCESTER CITY, NJ (CNBNews)(May 25, 2026)–The owner of the BluLight marijuana dispensary, North Broadway and Warren Street, had a mural drawn on the Warren Street side of the building. Included is a sketch of the Walt Whitman Bridge. A portion of the bridge, which spans the Delaware River, connecting New Jersey to Philadelphia, PA, and beyond, can be seen on the horizon at a distance. The number 1868, which is the year the City of Gloucester was incorporated, is also inscribed. The mural was created by Lord Henry, a talented artist whose work you can check out at drol.com.co or on Instagram at @lordhenry_05. According to the artist, the piece is inspired by South Jersey and the local community, including elements like the Walt Whitman Bridge to represent the connection between Gloucester City, Philadelphia, and the people who pass through the area every day. Our goal was to create something visually impactful that would help brighten up the neighborhood and add a creative landmark to the area.
The death rate from cancer in the United States has fallen by more than one-third since 1991. HIV-related mortality has dropped ninefold since 1995. Death rates for Alzheimer’s, chronic respiratory diseases, and stroke have all declined in recent years, too.
These gains didn’t happen by accident. They’re the result of decades of medical innovation that have helped people live longer, healthier lives.
THE SECRETIVE GLOUCESTER CITY COUNCIL(Monday, July 20, 2015)—At a recent executive session of the Gloucester City Mayor and Council, City Solicitor Leonard Wood gave an in-depth report on the ongoing negotiations with the NHP Foundation and what they are looking to do with financing the purchase of city-owned property Chatham Square.
CNBNews submitted an OPRA requesting a copy of that report to the council and was told by the custodian of records, Kathy Jentsch, “This matter is currently in the negotiation stage. These materials are in the possession of our attorney for that purpose-attorney-client privilege”.
As Silicon Valley pours hundreds of billions of dollars into an artificial intelligence arms race, a parallel battle is unfolding over something far less visible but just as consequential: Netflix and a legion of tech giants — such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google — are quietly collaborating to seize control of the technologies behind video streaming.
This erosion of a competitive marketplace will inevitably lead to stagnant innovation, subpar consumer electronics, and a shrinking job market for the American workforce.
As a career-long supporter of the small business sector, I have witnessed firsthand how agile innovators can disrupt the status quo and eventually take the lead. However, once these startups become the establishment, they frequently succumb to the temptation of protecting their territory. Instead of out-innovating the next generation, they attempt to paralyze them.
Dr. Dennis Liotta In my nearly 50 years as a chemist at Emory University, I’ve seen the life-changing impact that federally funded university research can have firsthand. I spent the 1980s and 1990s helping develop the first treatments for HIV, which turned the disease from a death sentence into a manageable illness. Today, drugs like these are estimated to save over a million lives each year.
That’s why I was so alarmed to hear Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick state recently that U.S. taxpayers get “zero” return on their investment in university research — and that the government should start seizing licensing revenues on universities’ patents it helps fund to secure a better deal for the public.
