Kerry Jackson
California
Shocking! Why California Policymakers Are So Often Caught by Surprise
California is always in the national news and too often for not-so-good reasons. A couple of recent events has left much of the rest of the country wondering how this ever-swaggering state is continually caught off guard. There’s really no mystery here. The answer is obvious. When it was announced ...
Blog
Latest Reasons Why Residents Continue to Flee San Francisco
“Budget shortfalls pose an existential threat” to the “long-term viability” of transit services across the state. “Bay Area operators,” says a group of six state senators and seven assembly members, “face significant annual shortfalls,” leaving agencies such as BART no choice but “to cut multiple lines of service as early ...
Commentary
State nowhere near meeting unrealistic energy goals, and that’s a good thing
California is barreling toward its 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target. Will it make it? The Legislative Analyst’s Office doesn’t seem to think so. By statute, emissions are to be at 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2030, then 85 percent below by 2045. The California Air Resources Board recently set ...
Business & Economics
Latest State Minimum Wage Hike Will Hurt Workers Far More Than It Helps
2023 might be the year that California businesses, especially small ones outside of the larger cities, wish they could skip. On top of a likely economic downturn, they have also been hit with higher employee costs, as another increase in the minimum wage arrived on Jan. 1. The state minimum ...
Blog
Private options could reverse transit ridership drops
One way to measure a city’s greatness is the ease of getting around: Does its public transit system improve or undermine its quality of life? In the 20th century, New York, London, Paris, Chicago, Berlin and Chicago were generally held in high regard for efficiently and quickly moving people through ...
California
Cali’s Climate Change Budget Cuts Show Programs Are More About Politics Than Cutting Emissions
Sobered by the reality of a budget deficit, the governor has proposed cutting money for climate programs. It was surely a hard choice, but practical. Something has to go and there’s no better place to show spending discipline than by holding back funds dedicated to a political fantasy. After years ...
Blog
Would You Like An Apple Pie With That? No Thanks, I Can’t Afford It
Less than two days before California’s Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act was to become law – on Jan. 1 – Sacramento Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne W.L. Chang placed a hold on the legislation, temporarily restraining the state “from implementing, enforcing, or taking any other action to effectuate Assembly ...
Blog
California is Hardly ‘Freedom State’ Under Newsom
Six months before Gavin Newsom was sworn in for his second term as California governor, he taped a television ad in which he tried to claim the Mt. Olympus of freedom was found on the West Coast and he was in charge of it. He continued that theme at his ...
California
Housing, Crime, Regulation Are Pushing Californians to Texas and Florida
The number of ex-Californians keeps growing. The state lost 343,230 residents in 2021-22, says the Census Bureau. How could this happen? Isn’t California, as “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” insists, “the place you ought to be”? Apparently a growing number of people no longer feel that way. It’s not on ...
Blog
Lack of Transmission Lines Could Slow State’s Renewable Energy Transformation
Connecting wind and solar farms to the grid is going to require a massive construction binge. The California Independent System Operator isn’t saying how many miles of power line will have to be built, but reports the Sacramento Bee, “several agencies project the grid will need to roughly triple its ...
Shocking! Why California Policymakers Are So Often Caught by Surprise
California is always in the national news and too often for not-so-good reasons. A couple of recent events has left much of the rest of the country wondering how this ever-swaggering state is continually caught off guard. There’s really no mystery here. The answer is obvious. When it was announced ...
Latest Reasons Why Residents Continue to Flee San Francisco
“Budget shortfalls pose an existential threat” to the “long-term viability” of transit services across the state. “Bay Area operators,” says a group of six state senators and seven assembly members, “face significant annual shortfalls,” leaving agencies such as BART no choice but “to cut multiple lines of service as early ...
State nowhere near meeting unrealistic energy goals, and that’s a good thing
California is barreling toward its 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target. Will it make it? The Legislative Analyst’s Office doesn’t seem to think so. By statute, emissions are to be at 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2030, then 85 percent below by 2045. The California Air Resources Board recently set ...
Latest State Minimum Wage Hike Will Hurt Workers Far More Than It Helps
2023 might be the year that California businesses, especially small ones outside of the larger cities, wish they could skip. On top of a likely economic downturn, they have also been hit with higher employee costs, as another increase in the minimum wage arrived on Jan. 1. The state minimum ...
Private options could reverse transit ridership drops
One way to measure a city’s greatness is the ease of getting around: Does its public transit system improve or undermine its quality of life? In the 20th century, New York, London, Paris, Chicago, Berlin and Chicago were generally held in high regard for efficiently and quickly moving people through ...
Cali’s Climate Change Budget Cuts Show Programs Are More About Politics Than Cutting Emissions
Sobered by the reality of a budget deficit, the governor has proposed cutting money for climate programs. It was surely a hard choice, but practical. Something has to go and there’s no better place to show spending discipline than by holding back funds dedicated to a political fantasy. After years ...
Would You Like An Apple Pie With That? No Thanks, I Can’t Afford It
Less than two days before California’s Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act was to become law – on Jan. 1 – Sacramento Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne W.L. Chang placed a hold on the legislation, temporarily restraining the state “from implementing, enforcing, or taking any other action to effectuate Assembly ...
California is Hardly ‘Freedom State’ Under Newsom
Six months before Gavin Newsom was sworn in for his second term as California governor, he taped a television ad in which he tried to claim the Mt. Olympus of freedom was found on the West Coast and he was in charge of it. He continued that theme at his ...
Housing, Crime, Regulation Are Pushing Californians to Texas and Florida
The number of ex-Californians keeps growing. The state lost 343,230 residents in 2021-22, says the Census Bureau. How could this happen? Isn’t California, as “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” insists, “the place you ought to be”? Apparently a growing number of people no longer feel that way. It’s not on ...
Lack of Transmission Lines Could Slow State’s Renewable Energy Transformation
Connecting wind and solar farms to the grid is going to require a massive construction binge. The California Independent System Operator isn’t saying how many miles of power line will have to be built, but reports the Sacramento Bee, “several agencies project the grid will need to roughly triple its ...
