Water
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 ...
Commentary
Henry Miller: Food Labeling Follies
California’s Office of Administrative Law (OAL) recently made it official: Your morning cup of coffee won’t give you cancer. Next week’s newsflash probably will be, swallowing an orange seed doesn’t cause a tree to grow in your stomach. After more than a year of legal wrangling, OAL signed off on a proposed ...
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 ...
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, ...
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.” ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Henry Miller: Food Labeling Follies
California’s Office of Administrative Law (OAL) recently made it official: Your morning cup of coffee won’t give you cancer. Next week’s newsflash probably will be, swallowing an orange seed doesn’t cause a tree to grow in your stomach. After more than a year of legal wrangling, OAL signed off on a proposed ...
