California
Blog
April Showers Bring Higher Gas Prices
The old adage is April showers bring May flowers. Well, after a very wet winter, it looks like spring has finally sprung in California. As soon as the seasons change, Golden State drivers are typically hit with another unwelcome phenomenon brought on by spring – rising gas prices. This year ...
California
California, Blinded By Plastic
California, the Los Angeles Times recently reported, is building a “non-plastic future.” The state has outlawed or restricted single-use plastic bags, plastic drinking straws, and plastic cutlery. Future targets: plastic detergent bottles, unattached caps on plastic bottles, and polystyrene containers (typically used to hold restaurant takeout orders), which more than 100 California cities ...
Commentary
Blocking Medicaid Work Requirements Is Unwise
Medicaid expansion in Kentucky and Arkansas could be on life support. Late last month, Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the two states’ attempts to require able-bodied adults to work as a condition of receiving Medicaid coverage. Last week, the federal Department of ...
Blog
Rentonomics in California: It’s Worse than We Think
Right by the Bay has sounded the alarm on the affordable housing crisis, especially our colleague Kerry Jackson, who has written about it here, here, and here. But until we get real reform, like Sam in Casablanca, we plan to play it again and again. A new study by Apartment ...
California
Private Rail is a Promising Alternative to California’s High-Speed Train Wreck
Two years ago, the Trump administration rated infrastructure improvement as one of its key goals. While not much has happened since then, the president did raise the issue again in his State of the Union address. This prompted Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to write, “to keep pace with the ...
Blog
CEQA Show Hearing Gets California Nowhere
The state Senate held a joint informational hearing last month that, on the surface, looked to be a step forward for those who believe the California Environmental Quality Act needs reform, if not a top-to-bottom overhaul. But apparently the hearing was anything but an effort to fix the law that ...
Blog
Is Push to Lower Local Tax Threshold About Funding Vital Projects or Funding Public Pensions?
Yesterday, my colleague Rowena Itchon wrote about Sacramento’s “taxfest” – the various proposals introduced this year to raise taxes on hard-working Californians. That’s only part of the story. A group of lawmakers wants to make it easier to raise local taxes. Thanks to Proposition 13, a two-thirds vote of the ...
California
How Non-Profits and Private Charities Can More Effectively Lift People Out of Poverty
There are many well-intentioned programs serving the homeless in California, but private charities and non-profits are just as effective – if not more so – in getting people back on their feet. PRI’s Kerry Jackson and Damon Dunn, Michele Steeb of Saint John’s Program for Real Change, and Deacon Jim ...
Commentary
Failed federal housing policy undermines Trump’s opioid reforms
By Lance Izumi and Michele Steeb Over the past two years, President Trump has promoted bold reforms designed to address the opioid crisis. Congress, in a rare bipartisan effort, wholeheartedly supported Trump’s significant reforms, but these initiatives are being undermined by the failures of federal housing policy. In October 2018, ...
California
Sally Pipes in Sacramento Bee: Stepping Stones to Government Takeover of Health Care
Twenty-two ways to ease California health insurance bills are up for debate in the Capitol By Deepa Bharath, Michael Finch II, Sophia Bollag and Sammy Caiola . . . Twenty-two bills before the Legislature this year aim to make health care more affordable and accessible. It seems almost certain that ...
April Showers Bring Higher Gas Prices
The old adage is April showers bring May flowers. Well, after a very wet winter, it looks like spring has finally sprung in California. As soon as the seasons change, Golden State drivers are typically hit with another unwelcome phenomenon brought on by spring – rising gas prices. This year ...
California, Blinded By Plastic
California, the Los Angeles Times recently reported, is building a “non-plastic future.” The state has outlawed or restricted single-use plastic bags, plastic drinking straws, and plastic cutlery. Future targets: plastic detergent bottles, unattached caps on plastic bottles, and polystyrene containers (typically used to hold restaurant takeout orders), which more than 100 California cities ...
Blocking Medicaid Work Requirements Is Unwise
Medicaid expansion in Kentucky and Arkansas could be on life support. Late last month, Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the two states’ attempts to require able-bodied adults to work as a condition of receiving Medicaid coverage. Last week, the federal Department of ...
Rentonomics in California: It’s Worse than We Think
Right by the Bay has sounded the alarm on the affordable housing crisis, especially our colleague Kerry Jackson, who has written about it here, here, and here. But until we get real reform, like Sam in Casablanca, we plan to play it again and again. A new study by Apartment ...
Private Rail is a Promising Alternative to California’s High-Speed Train Wreck
Two years ago, the Trump administration rated infrastructure improvement as one of its key goals. While not much has happened since then, the president did raise the issue again in his State of the Union address. This prompted Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to write, “to keep pace with the ...
CEQA Show Hearing Gets California Nowhere
The state Senate held a joint informational hearing last month that, on the surface, looked to be a step forward for those who believe the California Environmental Quality Act needs reform, if not a top-to-bottom overhaul. But apparently the hearing was anything but an effort to fix the law that ...
Is Push to Lower Local Tax Threshold About Funding Vital Projects or Funding Public Pensions?
Yesterday, my colleague Rowena Itchon wrote about Sacramento’s “taxfest” – the various proposals introduced this year to raise taxes on hard-working Californians. That’s only part of the story. A group of lawmakers wants to make it easier to raise local taxes. Thanks to Proposition 13, a two-thirds vote of the ...
How Non-Profits and Private Charities Can More Effectively Lift People Out of Poverty
There are many well-intentioned programs serving the homeless in California, but private charities and non-profits are just as effective – if not more so – in getting people back on their feet. PRI’s Kerry Jackson and Damon Dunn, Michele Steeb of Saint John’s Program for Real Change, and Deacon Jim ...
Failed federal housing policy undermines Trump’s opioid reforms
By Lance Izumi and Michele Steeb Over the past two years, President Trump has promoted bold reforms designed to address the opioid crisis. Congress, in a rare bipartisan effort, wholeheartedly supported Trump’s significant reforms, but these initiatives are being undermined by the failures of federal housing policy. In October 2018, ...
Sally Pipes in Sacramento Bee: Stepping Stones to Government Takeover of Health Care
Twenty-two ways to ease California health insurance bills are up for debate in the Capitol By Deepa Bharath, Michael Finch II, Sophia Bollag and Sammy Caiola . . . Twenty-two bills before the Legislature this year aim to make health care more affordable and accessible. It seems almost certain that ...
