California
California
How State Policy Makers Can Avoid It Becoming Siligone Valley
As unlikely as it seems, we could see in our lifetimes the decline of Silicon Valley, maybe the most dynamic economic and innovation machine man has ever known. Can it be avoided? Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg, who’s earned Silicon Valley’s grandest fortune, said at last month’s 2020 Silicon Slopes Tech ...
Blog
Could Sweeping, Last Minute Change Inspire Mischief in 2020 Elections?
Regular Right by the Bay readers know that I have written often about the Legislature’s efforts in recent years to change California’s elections rules for political advantage. The latest of these is a bill enacted in the final weeks of the most important California presidential primary in decades that could ...
Blog
The California High-Cost Rail
The projected cost of the California bullet train has whipsawed up and down like share prices in a volatile market. The latest forecast adds $1.3 billion to the estimated price tag. Now at $80.3 billion, it’s a long way from its humble beginnings of $33 billion, the amount voters approved ...
Blog
Would Newsom’s Climate Catalyst Action Fund Fuel Second Coming of Solyndra?
Last week, California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s office was on a roll – releasing several, often-critical analyses of some of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s high profile budget proposals. Particularly pointed was its analysis of Newsom’s proposal to create a so-called “Climate Catalyst Action Fund.” According to the administration’s budget documents, it “would ...
Blog
Bankruptcy Deadline May Not Save PG&E from State Takeover
Reeling from multiple massive state wildfires that its actions likely triggered, Pacific Gas & Electric, or PG&E, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this time last year. The investor-owned utility faces a June 30, 2020 deadline to come up with a plan to come out of bankruptcy, address the estimated $25 ...
Blog
Assembly Bill 5: Is The Worst Yet To Come?
At what point did the lawmakers who voted for, and the governor who signed, California Assembly Bill 5 realize it’s lousy policy? It should have been the moment the idea was first conceived. But that didn’t happen, the legislation became law, and now it’s being implicitly admitted that it’s a ...
California
Larry Sand – Opportunities to Expand School Choice
Noted education reformer Larry Sand of the California Teachers Empowerment Network talks with PRI’s Lance Izumi about opportunities to expand school choice in California despite recent legislative setbacks last year targeting charter schools. They discuss a looming Supreme Court decision that could help more students utilize education freedom scholarships to ...
California
The Warm California Sun Needs to Shine in The Dark Corners of Government Operations
Gov. Gavin Newsom promised greater transparency in California government. Jerry Brown was elected secretary of state 50 years ago on a transparency platform. While serving one of his terms in what nearly turned out to be a “governor-for-life” political career, Brown said he was “committed to keeping state government open ...
Commentary
Gavin Newsom’s single-payer commission is doomed to fail
Last week, Gavin Newsom’s Healthy California for All Commission convened for the first time. The commission has been tasked with figuring out how to install a single-payer healthcare system statewide. The commission’s 13 voting and five non-voting members represent a who’s-who of big-government academics, union leaders, and public health officials. ...
Blog
Single-Payer Poll Watch: Single-Payer Support and Opposition Even, Iowa Caucusgoers Rate Health Care Top Issue
One of the first national health care polls of 2020 shows the continued lukewarm support for a national single-payer health care plan. Adding the January 2020 Kaiser survey to the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) Single-Payer Poll Watch brings the average support and opposition for single-payer health care to almost dead ...
How State Policy Makers Can Avoid It Becoming Siligone Valley
As unlikely as it seems, we could see in our lifetimes the decline of Silicon Valley, maybe the most dynamic economic and innovation machine man has ever known. Can it be avoided? Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg, who’s earned Silicon Valley’s grandest fortune, said at last month’s 2020 Silicon Slopes Tech ...
Could Sweeping, Last Minute Change Inspire Mischief in 2020 Elections?
Regular Right by the Bay readers know that I have written often about the Legislature’s efforts in recent years to change California’s elections rules for political advantage. The latest of these is a bill enacted in the final weeks of the most important California presidential primary in decades that could ...
The California High-Cost Rail
The projected cost of the California bullet train has whipsawed up and down like share prices in a volatile market. The latest forecast adds $1.3 billion to the estimated price tag. Now at $80.3 billion, it’s a long way from its humble beginnings of $33 billion, the amount voters approved ...
Would Newsom’s Climate Catalyst Action Fund Fuel Second Coming of Solyndra?
Last week, California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s office was on a roll – releasing several, often-critical analyses of some of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s high profile budget proposals. Particularly pointed was its analysis of Newsom’s proposal to create a so-called “Climate Catalyst Action Fund.” According to the administration’s budget documents, it “would ...
Bankruptcy Deadline May Not Save PG&E from State Takeover
Reeling from multiple massive state wildfires that its actions likely triggered, Pacific Gas & Electric, or PG&E, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this time last year. The investor-owned utility faces a June 30, 2020 deadline to come up with a plan to come out of bankruptcy, address the estimated $25 ...
Assembly Bill 5: Is The Worst Yet To Come?
At what point did the lawmakers who voted for, and the governor who signed, California Assembly Bill 5 realize it’s lousy policy? It should have been the moment the idea was first conceived. But that didn’t happen, the legislation became law, and now it’s being implicitly admitted that it’s a ...
Larry Sand – Opportunities to Expand School Choice
Noted education reformer Larry Sand of the California Teachers Empowerment Network talks with PRI’s Lance Izumi about opportunities to expand school choice in California despite recent legislative setbacks last year targeting charter schools. They discuss a looming Supreme Court decision that could help more students utilize education freedom scholarships to ...
The Warm California Sun Needs to Shine in The Dark Corners of Government Operations
Gov. Gavin Newsom promised greater transparency in California government. Jerry Brown was elected secretary of state 50 years ago on a transparency platform. While serving one of his terms in what nearly turned out to be a “governor-for-life” political career, Brown said he was “committed to keeping state government open ...
Gavin Newsom’s single-payer commission is doomed to fail
Last week, Gavin Newsom’s Healthy California for All Commission convened for the first time. The commission has been tasked with figuring out how to install a single-payer healthcare system statewide. The commission’s 13 voting and five non-voting members represent a who’s-who of big-government academics, union leaders, and public health officials. ...
Single-Payer Poll Watch: Single-Payer Support and Opposition Even, Iowa Caucusgoers Rate Health Care Top Issue
One of the first national health care polls of 2020 shows the continued lukewarm support for a national single-payer health care plan. Adding the January 2020 Kaiser survey to the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) Single-Payer Poll Watch brings the average support and opposition for single-payer health care to almost dead ...
