When corporate governance experts speak about “red flags,” they are typically referring to information signaling a problem at a corporation that warrants additional oversight. As a related law firm memo on Delaware law notes: “The duty of oversight requires directors to … take action to address red flags that indicate potential corporate wrongdoing.” As a principal at the Free Enterprise Initiative, which is part of The Heritage Foundation, I routinely come across corporations with numerous red flags. While we generally try to engage constructively with such corporations directly—and have had numerous successes on that front (see, e.g., here and here)—every so often we encounter a corporation that appears utterly disinterested in fully informing itself about the issues we bring to the table. When that is the case, we may pivot from private off-season engagement and preliminary shareholder proposal discussions to more direct actions to protect shareholder value, including publicizing our concerns and in certain cases even pursuing legal action. This column introduces a planned series of “Red Flag Case Studies,” which will highlight specific corporations that appear to be turning a willfully blind eye to certain risks to shareholder value and the well-being of other relevant stakeholders. What are some of the red flags we focus on? Certainly, stock price performance matters a great deal because, among other things, it can alert shareholders and others to a corporation that is in the process of embodying “go woke, go broke.” For example, as of July 9, 2026, Disney has apparently underperformed the S&P 500 the past five years, three years, year, and year-to-date, to the tune of roughly 115 percentage points combined. (On the other hand, it is important to note that outperforming an index like the S&P 500 doesn’t necessarily guarantee all is well because a corporation could still be leaving profit on the table pursuing non-pecuniary and politicized agendas.) Another source of “red flag” information we rely on is the 1792 Exchange’s Corporate Bias Ratings and Board Bias Report. In the case of Disney, we get a “high risk” rating, including for concerns related to the promotion of radical gender ideology as well as wasteful and destructive climate commitments. We also find that Disney’s leadership has apparently given three times more to the causes of Democrats than the causes of Republicans, adding to the specter of echo-chamber governance and a lack of viewpoint diversity. Another source we consider is Alliance Defending Freedom’s Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index. While Disney is not rated on that index, we can contrast the absence of any ADF score with Disney’s fulsome embrace of the Human Rights Campaign and its Corporate Equality Index. That alone can constitute a red flag (see here), but if that’s paired with a failure to respond to ADF’s survey, we start having concerns about anti-Christian and other forms of bias. Finally, there will often be company-specific items constituting independent red flags, such as Disney having received a letter last year from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr raising concerns about Disney allegedly having “embedded explicit race- and gender-based criteria across its operations” in recent years. The foregoing is only a partial list of potential sources of red flags implicating corporate governance failures at specific corporations, but it hopefully gives the reader a general sense of some of the issues we pay attention to at the Free Enterprise Initiative. Ultimately, our goal is to help corporations maximize the prosperity-generating power of free market capitalism for their shareholders and other stakeholders. Ideally, we do that via fruitful win-win engagement whereby we provide useful perspectives to corporate decision-makers while at the same time getting a better understanding of what is driving their decision-making. Some may argue that we should just mind our own business, but there is a reason why almost every corporation touts its shareholder engagement. Shareholders are the ultimate owners of the corporation and can provide unique insights—particularly when that shareholder is The Heritage Foundation and the corporation might have a blind spot when it comes to the views of the half of its potential customer base that Heritage can provide insight into.

As America begins its next 250 years, conservatives face a challenge that cannot be solved by winning the upcoming election cycle alone. We must win the next generation. For decades, conservatives have rightly fought to reduce taxes, restrain government, protect constitutional liberties, and defend free markets. Those battles remain essential. But they will ultimately prove unsustainable if young Americans no longer understand why these principles matter in the first place. Principles do not sustain themselves. Every generation must be taught the moral, economic, and civic foundations of freedom. If that education fails, liberty itself eventually fades away. The warning signs are already impossible to ignore. A new Wall Street Journal-NORC poll published July 8 found that confidence in both capitalism and democracy has eroded dramatically. Fewer than half of Americans now believe capitalism is working well, down from 60% a decade ago. More than half say democracy is functioning poorly or not at all, and just 35% said that patriotism is very important to them personally, down from more than 60% in 2019. Equally troubling are the findings from a recent Cato Institute survey, which revealed that an astonishing 46% of Americans do not know what the nation’s 250th birthday commemorates. Among Generation Z, 61% could not identify the adoption of the Declaration of Independence as the event being celebrated. Majorities could not explain the purpose of the Constitution, why the colonies declared independence, or even which branch of government has the final say on constitutional disputes. Perhaps most disturbing of all, the survey found that Gen Z views socialism more favorably than capitalism by a margin of 53% to 45%, while more than one-third express a favorable opinion of communism. As troubling as these figures are, the truth is that none of this should surprise us. For years, America’s educational establishment has devoted far more energy to teaching students what is supposedly wrong with their country than what made it exceptional. Many young Americans can recite a lengthy catalogue of what they view as the country’s historical injustices. Far fewer can explain why millions risked everything to come here, how free enterprise lifted hundreds of millions around the globe out of poverty, or why constitutional checks and balances have preserved liberty longer than almost any other system of government in history. The result is a generation that often takes freedom for granted because it has never been taught how rare freedom actually is. Capitalism is not perfect. No system created by human beings ever will be. But compared with every serious alternative, free enterprise has produced unparalleled prosperity, innovation, and opportunity. It rewards creativity, encourages personal responsibility, and gives ordinary citizens the ability to improve their lives through talent and hard work. Yet free enterprise is only one pillar of the American experiment. The other is our democracy, which has protected individual liberty and restrained the power of government for two and a half centuries. It depends upon civic virtue, respect for the rule of law, independent institutions, and citizens willing to place the common good above immediate self-interest. Without those habits, democratic institutions become little more than empty shells. The Founding Fathers understood this well. In an Oct. 11, 1798, letter to the Massachusetts Militia, John Adams famously observed that the Constitution was made “only for a moral and religious people” and was “wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” That insight remains just as relevant today. Citizens who do not understand their rights will struggle to defend them. Those who do not appreciate economic liberty will become increasingly willing to surrender it. And those who lose confidence in the American experiment will be more easily drawn to promises that government can solve every problem by assuming ever more control. But complaining about these trends is not enough. Conservatives need to invest far more heavily in civic education, youth leadership programs, entrepreneurship initiatives, constitutional literacy, and the teaching of American history in a way that acknowledges the nation’s mistakes without diminishing its greatness. Students need to understand not only socialism’s repeated failures, but why it has failed wherever it has been tried. They should understand how markets create wealth, why limited government protects liberty, and why personal responsibility remains indispensable to a free society. Parents, religious institutions, civic organizations, businesses, and philanthropists all have important roles to play. The task cannot be left solely to public schools, many of which have demonstrated little interest in presenting America’s founding ideals in a positive light. The good news is that the public is ready. The Cato survey found that Americans overwhelmingly want children to learn that freedom is rare and must be protected, that patriotism means loyalty to America’s principles rather than to any political party, and that the nation’s history includes serious failings as well as extraordinary accomplishments. America’s 250th anniversary year, therefore, should not simply be an occasion for fireworks and parades. It should be the beginning of a renewed national effort to ensure that the next generation understands why this republic was created, how it has endured, and what each citizen must do to maintain it. For a generation that does not understand liberty cannot be expected to preserve it. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

When it comes to Virginia’s economy, the glass may be half full, or it may be half empty. First, some bad news: In the year that ended May 31, Virginia lost 51,400 jobs. That is the most jobs lost by any state. A good share of those jobs, about 40%, were caused by federal government cutbacks. The Department of Government Efficiency has shut down, but it continues to bite in the commonwealth. However, “even if Virginia didn’t lose any federal jobs, it would still lead the nation in job losses, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” as Dwayne Yancey notes at Cardinal News. “Virginia has actually lost more jobs (22,600 or 43.9% of the total) from professional, scientific and technical service jobs; a lot of federal contractors fit under that category. Virginia has lost jobs in most other categories, too.” To make matters worse, Virginia is losing manufacturing jobs at a faster rate than any other state. Part of the problem is that several 20th-century-era factories have shuttered in the last year, such as the Goodyear plant in Danville and the Yokohama plant in Salem. Meanwhile, many of the forward-facing manufacturing projects that have been announced, especially energy plants and pharmaceutical plants, will take years to construct and open. The proposed fusion plant in Chesterfield could be a game changer for energy and employment, but it’s also possible that the fusion technology might never work, which would make the whole proposal a washout. The commonwealth wants to provide the manufacturing jobs of the future, making rockets and zero-carbon electricity rather than providing coal and lumber to other states. But that future is always uncertain until it arrives, and the transition was always going to be rocky. There is also good news. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, the commonwealth racked up a budget surplus of $936 million. General fund revenues last year jumped by 6.7%, more than $2 billion. More than $500 million of that surplus will be incorporated into the 2027 budget. In addition, Virginia jumped a slot and now ranks third in CNBC’s annual listing of “America’s Top States for Business.” Virginia had ranked No. 1 in CNBC’s 2024 report when it notched its third victory in five years. The commonwealth dipped to No. 4 in 2025. For this year, CNBC cited the state’s infrastructure (second in the nation) and education policies (fifth in the nation) as major factors in its move back up the rankings. CNBC changes its methodology every year, which can change its rankings. Looking ahead, economists at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service projected that Virginia will lose jobs this year. However, they forecast that the state may turn the corner and start to gain jobs again in 2027. In testimony to the state Senate this spring, Secretary of Finance Mark Sickles warned that “while Fiscal Year 2026 looks good for revenues, macroeconomic trends indicate there may be storm clouds on the horizon.” So, Virginia’s glass is filling or emptying, depending on how you prefer to look at it.

The Left has thrown a completely counterfactual fit about how the Paramount takeover of CBS created some kind of “MAGA-coded” news division under Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss. No one who watches network news daily right now can see much of a difference today between CBS and ABC and NBC. But mere internal questioning of whether CBS could attempt to be less biased to the Left has caused a tsunami of panic. Now, as the Paramount merger with Warner Brothers Discovery approaches its conclusion, 12 attorneys general filed a last-minute lawsuit to block it—but they won’t say it’s about keeping Weiss & Co. out of the CNN news business. It’s led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and supported by 11 other Democrats, from Arizona to Minnesota to New Jersey. It’s comical to see news reports from NPR and CNBC pretending this is a nonpartisan crusade. They left the Democratic Party angle out of this entirely, even as Bonta tries to claim this is all about making sure Hollywood doesn’t lose any moviemaking jobs. The pro-Bonta reporters aren’t noticing what Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing to drive moviemaking out of California. Leftists like Oliver Darcy of Status were miffed that these Democrats didn’t explicitly object in their brief to the merger over its potential CNN effects, but everyone can guess that’s part of the angst. On NPR’s “All Things Considered,” anchor Scott Detrow asked vaguely about “the political overtones.” Media reporter David Folkenflik didn’t say Bonta was a Democrat, but he talked about him “standing in front of the big Hollywood sign that looms over LA, he said, quote, ‘America has no kings in government or our economy.'” No kings? CNN and the other networks aren’t a democracy. Internally, they are a one-party state like California, and any interloper who asks questions about a liberal tilt is treated like a human virus. It was the same for Folkenflik’s editor Uri Berliner, who was cast out of NPR after attempting internally to bring any semblance of balance to the “news” product. Folkenflik warned about the new Paramount overlords. Larry Ellison is “one of the richest people on Earth, an adviser and financial supporter of the president. His son, David Ellison … a Hollywood producer, has given money to Democrats, but has celebrated Trump and brought in a new editor-in-chief at CBS News when they took over CBS and Paramount just last summer.” When Netflix first successfully bid for WBD, you didn’t find the Folkenfliks of the world fretting that Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and co-founder Reed Hastings were prominent individual donors and fundraisers for Barack Obama. That wasn’t a red flag, because keeping CNN in the Obama fold isn’t alarming. It’s comforting. Folkenflik added his Bari Weiss fright bite: “CBS, you know, would be perhaps under the same umbrella as CNN, which is currently part of Warner Bros. Discovery. That new editor-in-chief has criticized the mainstream media for being too anti-Trump, and several correspondents have left the network, been fired or resigned, criticizing her for bias.” Giggle when they call themselves the “mainstream media.” At CBS, arrogant leftists like “60 Minutes” activists Scott Pelley and Sharyn Alfonsi throwing fits of insubordination and getting fired was meant to imply there’s been a massive sea change in what people see when they tune in on Sunday nights. Once again, viewers haven’t seen a massive change in their stories. But leftists cannot abide anyone even questioning their aggressive partisanship to steer America toward that “right side of history.” COPYRIGHT 2026 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

Fraudsters using stolen Social Security numbers and dead people’s identities have collected millions from Medicaid and food stamps, a watchdog revealed in a new report first shared with the Daily Signal. In one case, a Social Security number was tied to 15 employers across 14 states in a single three-month window, according to the report by the Foundation for Government Accountability. There is currently no federal requirement for states to verify who someone is before they enroll in Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP or food stamps, the foundation notes. The report was titled “Stolen Identities: The Welfare Fraud Nobody’s Talking About.” “Requiring identity verification for welfare applicants at the federal level would save an estimated $29 billion over the 10-year budget window,” the report contends. “Prior to enrollment, state agencies should not only ensure that the claimed identity is eligible for the program, but that the person seeking enrollment is who they say they are.” FakeStolenIdentitiesWelfarePrograms_ResearchPaper_DRAFTDownload The FGA used Government Accountability Office findings and state-level data to document the proliferation of identity fraud in welfare programs. “The solution here is almost too simple: We require people to show an ID to get a library card, but states aren’t required to verify who you are before putting you on a welfare program that costs taxpayers more than $1 trillion a year. Fraudsters know this, and they are exploiting it every single day,” Michael Greibrok, senior research fellow at the FGA, told the Daily Signal in a statement. Further, almost 24 million Americans have their identity stolen each year, and fraudsters are using those stolen identities to enroll in welfare programs. “The food stamp program is also rife with identity fraud. A recent review of roughly half of state food stamp programs revealed more than one million instances of duplicate enrollment, the enrollment of a deceased individual, the use of dummy SSNs, and instances of no SSN found,” the report says. “These fraudulent enrollments led to estimated costs of more than $2.2 billion.” The report says food stamp spending tops $100 billion a year, but more than one in every $10 spent is in error, over $10 billion in a single year. A U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesperson noted that current regulations for obtaining food stamps require mandatory verification of gross income, alien eligibility, utility expenses, medical expenses, Social Security numbers, residency, identity, disability, household composition, student status, legal obligation and actual child support payments, and status related to work requirement expectations. “The department stands ready to provide technical assistance to any policy Congress is contemplating, including identification verification,” the spokesperson told the Daily Signal, later adding, “Correct, the program has exceeded $100 billion per year, and erroneous payments have cost the American taxpayer roughly $10 billion, with the most recent data representing FY 2025 benefit payments.” The report contends that at a time when Medicaid is approaching almost $1 trillion in annual spending, about one in every five Medicaid dollars is spent improperly, costing taxpayers tens of billions each year. A spokesperson from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not respond to inquiries for this story. The state of Arkansas found more than 20,000 high-risk identities, which are Social Security numbers that predate the enrollee’s birth, don’t appear in public records, or are linked to multiple people, the report says. New Jersey found more than 18,000 Medicaid enrollees with fake or duplicate Social Security numbers. In addition to identity verification, the report also recommends that states regularly check enrollment lists against the Social Security Administration Death Master File and flag Social Security numbers appearing in multiple states simultaneously. It adds that the federal government should hold states accountable. The report says that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act provided some improvements. “The law pauses the Biden administration’s 2024 rule that prohibited states from verifying most Medicaid enrollees’ identities,” the report says. “It also requires states to check Social Security death records at least quarterly and submit SSNs of enrollees to the federal government monthly to help prevent deceased and duplicate enrollment.”