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Latest Campus Free Speech Battle Shows Long Way to Go to Protect Student First Amendment Freedoms

The free speech battles on college campuses today are perhaps unparalleled since the time of Mario Savio at Berkeley in the 1960s – although the cast of characters is much different today with conservatives being afraid to speak freely about their beliefs in class. Recently on “Next Round with PRI,” ...
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, ...
Agriculture

Organic Industry Anti-Pesticide Propaganda Threatens to Cripple American Agriculture

In The Wealth of Nations, the 18th century economist and philosopher Adam Smith observed about the chicanery of some businessmen, “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.” ...
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. ...
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 ...
Commentary

Knowing A Little Physics Could Save Your Life

As Hurricane Dorian closes in inexorably on the U.S. mainland, even the local news here in California is covering it intensely. One meteorologist made an odd remark about the storm: “Let’s not focus too much on what category it is.” (Hurricanes are categorized from one to five, depending on the ...
Blog

Will Californians Go Through Withdrawal If They Can’t Recycle Plastic Bottles?

California, which would like to think of itself as the recycling capital of the universe, has lost its largest bottle and can recycling chain, rePlanet. The company shut down all 284 sites across the state on Aug. 5 and terminated its workforce of as many as 750 employees. It’s been ...
California

Will free markets clean up California’s dirty water?

The New York Times has discovered that many of California’s public water systems are fonts of deep trouble. This might be news outside the state, but residents have been aware of the problems for some time. So have officials — whose responses are never adequate. According to the Times, “as ...
Blog

The latest dumb idea from San Francisco – banning plastic water bottles at the airport

San Francisco has most recently been known more for its quality of life problems and lack of affordability than the home of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. You would think that city officials would be doing everything they can to lure both tourists and business travelers back to the ...
Blog

Latest Campus Free Speech Battle Shows Long Way to Go to Protect Student First Amendment Freedoms

The free speech battles on college campuses today are perhaps unparalleled since the time of Mario Savio at Berkeley in the 1960s – although the cast of characters is much different today with conservatives being afraid to speak freely about their beliefs in class. Recently on “Next Round with PRI,” ...
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, ...
Agriculture

Organic Industry Anti-Pesticide Propaganda Threatens to Cripple American Agriculture

In The Wealth of Nations, the 18th century economist and philosopher Adam Smith observed about the chicanery of some businessmen, “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.” ...
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. ...
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 ...
Commentary

Knowing A Little Physics Could Save Your Life

As Hurricane Dorian closes in inexorably on the U.S. mainland, even the local news here in California is covering it intensely. One meteorologist made an odd remark about the storm: “Let’s not focus too much on what category it is.” (Hurricanes are categorized from one to five, depending on the ...
Blog

Will Californians Go Through Withdrawal If They Can’t Recycle Plastic Bottles?

California, which would like to think of itself as the recycling capital of the universe, has lost its largest bottle and can recycling chain, rePlanet. The company shut down all 284 sites across the state on Aug. 5 and terminated its workforce of as many as 750 employees. It’s been ...
California

Will free markets clean up California’s dirty water?

The New York Times has discovered that many of California’s public water systems are fonts of deep trouble. This might be news outside the state, but residents have been aware of the problems for some time. So have officials — whose responses are never adequate. According to the Times, “as ...
Blog

The latest dumb idea from San Francisco – banning plastic water bottles at the airport

San Francisco has most recently been known more for its quality of life problems and lack of affordability than the home of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. You would think that city officials would be doing everything they can to lure both tourists and business travelers back to the ...
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