Housing

Blackouts

California Power Outages — A Look Into The Future

California’s Great Blackout of 2019 has begun as the lights keep going out for millions across the state’s northern stretches. What should be the past now seems to be the future. Pacific Gas and Electric began shutting down power early the morning of Oct. 9, when electricity was cut to ...
California

Keli’i Akina – Grassroot Institute of Hawaii

Keli’i Akina is the president of the Grassroot Institute, a non-partisan think tank based in Hawaii. Besides sunshine and palm trees, California and Hawaii have something in common – one-party rule. As Dr, Akina says in the interview, Hawaii is as blue as the ocean that surrounds it. We discuss ...
Blog

Stockton’s Basic Income Experiment: 40% Of The Money Is Unaccounted For

The initial report on Stockton’s “basic income” experiment, in which 125 residents in low-income Zip Codes receive $500 a month, shows that most of the money that can be tracked has been spent on necessities. But that’s only part of the story. Forty percent was transferred to bank accounts or ...
Blog

California State Senate Hands Newsom Decade-old Political Lightning Rod in Redevelopment Agencies

Since 2011, the California State Legislature has been itching to bring back redevelopment agencies. Governor Jerry Brown’s nixing of the 70-year-old program scored the California state budget several billion dollars during the Great Recession in 2011.  At the time of their elimination, redevelopment agencies collected around 12 percent of all ...
Blog

Is California Already Tired of Newsom’s “Winning” So Much This Legislative Session?

President Trump said many times during the 2016 election that the American people would “win” so much under his administration that they would get tired of winning. Now that the 2019 legislative session is over, Gov. Gavin Newsom may be making the same boast.California’s new governor was, by all accounts, ...
California

California — Still Crazy After All These Years

The California Legislature session has ended for the year, so there’s little it can wreck over the next few months. But enough damage was done since January to last beyond 2019 and deep into the Blue future. It’s easy for the rest of the country to dismiss Sacramento’s lawmaking. After ...
Blog

California Policymakers Will Never Fix The State’s Housing Crisis By Looking Backward

Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers have made it clear they believe rent control is one of the solutions to California’s housing shortage. According to the Los Angeles Times, an agreement announced late on the Friday evening before the Labor Day weekend between the governor and legislative leaders “would cap rent ...
Commentary

Cutting Medical Costs Can Be a Bargain

Much of the medical progress in the past half-century has involved expensive, high-tech diagnostic tests and therapies. But it would be a mistake to gainsay the value of inexpensive, low-tech innovations. Consider the problem of falls, which are both a cause and effect of declining health in the elderly. They ...
Blog

Latest ‘Wild Thing’ from Sacramento: Lowering Voting Age to 17

I loved the classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are when I was a kid.  If I were to write a story about the political version of Where the Wild Things Are, I’d set it on the floor of the State Assembly during the final weeks of the legislative ...
Blog

New Research Shows Link Between Job Losses and a Community’s Social Ills

Despite evidence of a recent slowdown, the American economy is strong according to nearly all traditional economic indicators and has been for multiple years. Nearly a decade of economic expansion has led to record highs being recorded in the stock market, housing prices, and wages. The recent strengthening of economic ...
Blackouts

California Power Outages — A Look Into The Future

California’s Great Blackout of 2019 has begun as the lights keep going out for millions across the state’s northern stretches. What should be the past now seems to be the future. Pacific Gas and Electric began shutting down power early the morning of Oct. 9, when electricity was cut to ...
California

Keli’i Akina – Grassroot Institute of Hawaii

Keli’i Akina is the president of the Grassroot Institute, a non-partisan think tank based in Hawaii. Besides sunshine and palm trees, California and Hawaii have something in common – one-party rule. As Dr, Akina says in the interview, Hawaii is as blue as the ocean that surrounds it. We discuss ...
Blog

Stockton’s Basic Income Experiment: 40% Of The Money Is Unaccounted For

The initial report on Stockton’s “basic income” experiment, in which 125 residents in low-income Zip Codes receive $500 a month, shows that most of the money that can be tracked has been spent on necessities. But that’s only part of the story. Forty percent was transferred to bank accounts or ...
Blog

California State Senate Hands Newsom Decade-old Political Lightning Rod in Redevelopment Agencies

Since 2011, the California State Legislature has been itching to bring back redevelopment agencies. Governor Jerry Brown’s nixing of the 70-year-old program scored the California state budget several billion dollars during the Great Recession in 2011.  At the time of their elimination, redevelopment agencies collected around 12 percent of all ...
Blog

Is California Already Tired of Newsom’s “Winning” So Much This Legislative Session?

President Trump said many times during the 2016 election that the American people would “win” so much under his administration that they would get tired of winning. Now that the 2019 legislative session is over, Gov. Gavin Newsom may be making the same boast.California’s new governor was, by all accounts, ...
California

California — Still Crazy After All These Years

The California Legislature session has ended for the year, so there’s little it can wreck over the next few months. But enough damage was done since January to last beyond 2019 and deep into the Blue future. It’s easy for the rest of the country to dismiss Sacramento’s lawmaking. After ...
Blog

California Policymakers Will Never Fix The State’s Housing Crisis By Looking Backward

Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers have made it clear they believe rent control is one of the solutions to California’s housing shortage. According to the Los Angeles Times, an agreement announced late on the Friday evening before the Labor Day weekend between the governor and legislative leaders “would cap rent ...
Commentary

Cutting Medical Costs Can Be a Bargain

Much of the medical progress in the past half-century has involved expensive, high-tech diagnostic tests and therapies. But it would be a mistake to gainsay the value of inexpensive, low-tech innovations. Consider the problem of falls, which are both a cause and effect of declining health in the elderly. They ...
Blog

Latest ‘Wild Thing’ from Sacramento: Lowering Voting Age to 17

I loved the classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are when I was a kid.  If I were to write a story about the political version of Where the Wild Things Are, I’d set it on the floor of the State Assembly during the final weeks of the legislative ...
Blog

New Research Shows Link Between Job Losses and a Community’s Social Ills

Despite evidence of a recent slowdown, the American economy is strong according to nearly all traditional economic indicators and has been for multiple years. Nearly a decade of economic expansion has led to record highs being recorded in the stock market, housing prices, and wages. The recent strengthening of economic ...
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