California

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California Homeless Czar Overthrown In Favor of Task Force

Gov. Gavin Newsom will not after all appoint a homelessness czar, as he had promised he would during the 2018 campaign. Now, if he would just disband the homelessness task force that was formed in the spring. While running for governor last year as the state’s homeless crisis became a ...
California

Battle over “progressive” solutions leaves independent contractors on edge

As the final week of the legislative session was winding down, the Senate and Assembly in party-line votes approved Assembly Bill 5, which will codify the state Supreme Court’s Dynamex ruling, leaving as many as 2 million freelance workers with an unsure future. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who publicly endorsed the ...
Blog

Is Universal Basic Income Really a “Freedom Dividend”?

On Thursday night, the Democratic presidential candidates will meet for the next presidential debate in Houston. One surprising candidate who qualified for the Houston debate and has attracted a small but growing following of supporters (known as the Yang Gang) is Andrew Yang. Yang’s platform consists primarily of one issue ...
Health Care

Sally C. Pipes Comments on CA Medi-Cal expansion in CALmatters story

Democratic legislators are advancing a bill that aims to provide free health care to low-income undocumented seniors — an idea that they floated earlier this year, but which failed to make it into the state budget because of concerns over its cost. The bill, authored by Los Angeles Democrat Maria Elena ...
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 ...
Agriculture

California Lawmakers Always Thirsty for More Water Laws

Water policy is one of those topics that can leave newcomers and casual listeners feeling inundated. The regulations that govern state and federal water policy are laced with a flood of acronyms and terms, with a steady gush of changes to state water policy and regulation over the past decade. ...
Business & Economics

Workers’ Freedom At Risk In California

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, with one eye on California presidential primary votes and the other on the state’s rich political donors, recently wrote an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee in which she demanded someone do something about that “shameful” gig economy. Warren, a Rutgers-trained lawyer, has expended a lot of energy ...
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 ...
Business & Economics

ISSUE BRIEF: Damon Dunn Shares Stories from His Rise from Poverty, Makes the Case for Why Socialism Doesn’t Work

Recalling his experiences overcoming extreme poverty, former collegiate and pro football player and successful businessman Damon Dunn makes the case for why socialism doesn’t work in a new brief published by the nonpartisan, California-based think tank, the Pacific Research Institute. Download a copy of “My Rise from Poverty and Why ...
Blog

California Homeless Czar Overthrown In Favor of Task Force

Gov. Gavin Newsom will not after all appoint a homelessness czar, as he had promised he would during the 2018 campaign. Now, if he would just disband the homelessness task force that was formed in the spring. While running for governor last year as the state’s homeless crisis became a ...
California

Battle over “progressive” solutions leaves independent contractors on edge

As the final week of the legislative session was winding down, the Senate and Assembly in party-line votes approved Assembly Bill 5, which will codify the state Supreme Court’s Dynamex ruling, leaving as many as 2 million freelance workers with an unsure future. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who publicly endorsed the ...
Blog

Is Universal Basic Income Really a “Freedom Dividend”?

On Thursday night, the Democratic presidential candidates will meet for the next presidential debate in Houston. One surprising candidate who qualified for the Houston debate and has attracted a small but growing following of supporters (known as the Yang Gang) is Andrew Yang. Yang’s platform consists primarily of one issue ...
Health Care

Sally C. Pipes Comments on CA Medi-Cal expansion in CALmatters story

Democratic legislators are advancing a bill that aims to provide free health care to low-income undocumented seniors — an idea that they floated earlier this year, but which failed to make it into the state budget because of concerns over its cost. The bill, authored by Los Angeles Democrat Maria Elena ...
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 ...
Agriculture

California Lawmakers Always Thirsty for More Water Laws

Water policy is one of those topics that can leave newcomers and casual listeners feeling inundated. The regulations that govern state and federal water policy are laced with a flood of acronyms and terms, with a steady gush of changes to state water policy and regulation over the past decade. ...
Business & Economics

Workers’ Freedom At Risk In California

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, with one eye on California presidential primary votes and the other on the state’s rich political donors, recently wrote an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee in which she demanded someone do something about that “shameful” gig economy. Warren, a Rutgers-trained lawyer, has expended a lot of energy ...
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 ...
Business & Economics

ISSUE BRIEF: Damon Dunn Shares Stories from His Rise from Poverty, Makes the Case for Why Socialism Doesn’t Work

Recalling his experiences overcoming extreme poverty, former collegiate and pro football player and successful businessman Damon Dunn makes the case for why socialism doesn’t work in a new brief published by the nonpartisan, California-based think tank, the Pacific Research Institute. Download a copy of “My Rise from Poverty and Why ...
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