Rowena Itchon
Blog
Let the Games Begin…More Tax Stunts from the States
My fellow blogger Tim Anaya wrote a blog earlier this week on the latest scheme from Sacramento to game the new tax law. Senate Bill 227 would allow taxpayers to make charitable donations to the state and receive a tax credit for the full amount of their contribution. It works ...
Blog
Social Security Beneficiaries Reach an All-Time High
An oft-cited survey from 1994 found that one out of every three respondents age 18 and 34 said they were more likely to see a UFO than receive a Social Security check. Fast forward 23 years later — last November, the U.S. reached a record number of Social Security beneficiaries ...
Blog
Looking Back on 2017: Rolling Back Red Tape
Looking back on 2017, perhaps the most under-reported story of the year has been President Trump’s success in cutting back regulations. Back in January at the start of his administration, Mr. Trump signed an executive order requiring agencies to cut two regulations for every new one added to the books. ...
Blog
More Red, White … or Blue
In 2017, PRI launched its first podcast, and because we are headquartered near Wine Country, and because no other think tank does wine better than PRI (okay, I may be biased), we made it our tradition to ask each guest for a wine or cocktail recommendation at the end of ...
Blog
The Ghost of Christmas Parking
Hunting for a parking spot during the Christmas rush is enough to drive anyone crazy, but for disabled people, it’s especially maddening. In many California cities, an open disabled parking spot is about as rare as rain. Take San Francisco, where parking anywhere is hard to find, there are 700 ...
Blog
Robots, Work, and Retirement
If you’re thinking about giving a robot to someone this Christmas, on Amazon.com you’ll find 290,991 choices. I bought my brother a robot for Christmas last year when he announced that he will be retiring from his job as a computer engineer after 35 years. Overnight, he went from being ...
Blog
The Other Pretty Girl
At a PRI conference a few years ago, someone in the audience had a great question for our keynote speaker, a renowned economist: Given California’s bad economic policies, why do people still like the state? With typical flair and charm, not to mention political incorrectness (which is why I am ...
Agriculture
Whatever Happened to Spending Cuts?
This week, Republicans are preparing to unveil the details of a tax reform proposal that would deliver tax relief to individuals and businesses, as well as simplify the tax filing process. How to “pay for” the tax cuts will be the big debate in the weeks and months ahead. Some ...
Blog
Housing shortage goes from dire to desperate after wildfires
A few months ago, Tim Anaya and I interviewed for PRI’s podcast Farhad Zabihi, a math professor at the College of Marin, who had been house hunting for nearly a year in Marin County. Marin is just south of Napa and Sonoma — two of the hardest hit counties in ...
Blog
On Wildfires and Wine
Small business owners and entrepreneurs have always been the backbone of California’s economy. No one can deny the courage of those individuals who risk all for an idea and a dream. For the vintners, growers, restauranteurs, and small business owners who live and work in California’s wine country, that courage ...
Let the Games Begin…More Tax Stunts from the States
My fellow blogger Tim Anaya wrote a blog earlier this week on the latest scheme from Sacramento to game the new tax law. Senate Bill 227 would allow taxpayers to make charitable donations to the state and receive a tax credit for the full amount of their contribution. It works ...
Social Security Beneficiaries Reach an All-Time High
An oft-cited survey from 1994 found that one out of every three respondents age 18 and 34 said they were more likely to see a UFO than receive a Social Security check. Fast forward 23 years later — last November, the U.S. reached a record number of Social Security beneficiaries ...
Looking Back on 2017: Rolling Back Red Tape
Looking back on 2017, perhaps the most under-reported story of the year has been President Trump’s success in cutting back regulations. Back in January at the start of his administration, Mr. Trump signed an executive order requiring agencies to cut two regulations for every new one added to the books. ...
More Red, White … or Blue
In 2017, PRI launched its first podcast, and because we are headquartered near Wine Country, and because no other think tank does wine better than PRI (okay, I may be biased), we made it our tradition to ask each guest for a wine or cocktail recommendation at the end of ...
The Ghost of Christmas Parking
Hunting for a parking spot during the Christmas rush is enough to drive anyone crazy, but for disabled people, it’s especially maddening. In many California cities, an open disabled parking spot is about as rare as rain. Take San Francisco, where parking anywhere is hard to find, there are 700 ...
Robots, Work, and Retirement
If you’re thinking about giving a robot to someone this Christmas, on Amazon.com you’ll find 290,991 choices. I bought my brother a robot for Christmas last year when he announced that he will be retiring from his job as a computer engineer after 35 years. Overnight, he went from being ...
The Other Pretty Girl
At a PRI conference a few years ago, someone in the audience had a great question for our keynote speaker, a renowned economist: Given California’s bad economic policies, why do people still like the state? With typical flair and charm, not to mention political incorrectness (which is why I am ...
Whatever Happened to Spending Cuts?
This week, Republicans are preparing to unveil the details of a tax reform proposal that would deliver tax relief to individuals and businesses, as well as simplify the tax filing process. How to “pay for” the tax cuts will be the big debate in the weeks and months ahead. Some ...
Housing shortage goes from dire to desperate after wildfires
A few months ago, Tim Anaya and I interviewed for PRI’s podcast Farhad Zabihi, a math professor at the College of Marin, who had been house hunting for nearly a year in Marin County. Marin is just south of Napa and Sonoma — two of the hardest hit counties in ...
On Wildfires and Wine
Small business owners and entrepreneurs have always been the backbone of California’s economy. No one can deny the courage of those individuals who risk all for an idea and a dream. For the vintners, growers, restauranteurs, and small business owners who live and work in California’s wine country, that courage ...
