Water
Blackouts
The problem with government-protected utility monopolies
Just a few months back it was noted that California was suffering through a resurgence of medieval diseases. Another plague of premodern times now threatens to visit the state this summer: darkness. Bloomberg News reported that “California may go dark this summer.” Pacific Gas & Electric plans to cut power ...
Agriculture
Try the Free Market Before Tourists Are One Day Warned to Not Drink the Water in California
California has regressed from the land of opportunity to the land of crisis. A chronic housing shortage, growing homelessness problems, the highest poverty rate in the nation, and runaway public employee pension liability are ripping at the seams of the state. Add to that list of troubles the taint of ...
Agriculture
Let It Flow: Carlsbad Desalination Plant Expansion Approval A Bright Spot In A Dry State
With more than 800 miles of coastline and a great big ocean out there, California shouldn’t be always be scrambling for water as if it were in the middle of the Sahara Desert. But politics tend to make goods scarce rather than plentiful. But sometimes there’s good news. Such as ...
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS: Cracking Down on Fracking in California—Is it The Smart Thing to Do?
DOWNLOAD THE PDF Jerry Brown left office in January as one of the most popular governors in California history. He also left successor Gavin Newsom with a few headaches. Among the more prominent unresolved issues are the high-speed rail project, the housing and homeless crises, and runaway public-employee pension obligations. ...
California
California Is Moving to Ban Disposable Plastic Statewide
More than a half-century ago, in one of the most famous movie lines of all time, Dustin Hoffman character Benjamin Braddock, fresh out of college, received some unsolicited career advice. “I want to say one word to you. Just one word,” Mr. McGuire told young Benjamin. “Plastics. There’s a great ...
Blog
It’s Raining IPOs, Hallelujah!
Silicon Valley and Wall Street aren’t the only ones celebrating IPOs this year – Sacramento is doing its share of the partying. That’s because the state is expected to receive a deluge of tax dollars over the next several years thanks to capital gains generated by the current hot IPO ...
Agriculture
We Don’t Need to Ban Pesticides to Save Bees
Some old ideas for bad laws are endlessly recycled. Take the case of the Saving America’s Pollinators Act, a nearly six-year-old initiative now cosponsored by two Democrat representatives, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts. Reintroduced for the fifth time since 2013, the bill would usurp the Environmental ...
Charter Schools
School Riots Underscore Why Parents Prefer School Choice
Over the last two months, riots at public schools across the country have underscored why parents choose safer charter schools for their children. In April, ten Stamford, Connecticut high school students were charged with numerous crimes, including first-degree riot and assault on a police officer, after a riot that involved hundreds of ...
Agriculture
Earth Day: Opposing Progress Trumps Protecting the Planet
By Henry I. Miller, M.S., M.D. and Jeff Stier Today is Earth Day, a celebration originally conceived by then-U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-Wis.) and first held in 1970 as a “symbol of environmental responsibility and stewardship.” In the spirit of the time, it was a touchy-feely, consciousness-raising, New Age experience. ...
Agriculture
Does California Have a Future?
Republican California State Assemblyman Vince Fong recently tweeted about California’s 19 percent poverty rate, which he said “is driven by the extreme high cost of living here.” “Yet,” said Fong, “Sacramento continues to pass policies that make it even more expensive.” In a story illustrated by an artist’s rendering of a family in ...
The problem with government-protected utility monopolies
Just a few months back it was noted that California was suffering through a resurgence of medieval diseases. Another plague of premodern times now threatens to visit the state this summer: darkness. Bloomberg News reported that “California may go dark this summer.” Pacific Gas & Electric plans to cut power ...
Try the Free Market Before Tourists Are One Day Warned to Not Drink the Water in California
California has regressed from the land of opportunity to the land of crisis. A chronic housing shortage, growing homelessness problems, the highest poverty rate in the nation, and runaway public employee pension liability are ripping at the seams of the state. Add to that list of troubles the taint of ...
Let It Flow: Carlsbad Desalination Plant Expansion Approval A Bright Spot In A Dry State
With more than 800 miles of coastline and a great big ocean out there, California shouldn’t be always be scrambling for water as if it were in the middle of the Sahara Desert. But politics tend to make goods scarce rather than plentiful. But sometimes there’s good news. Such as ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Cracking Down on Fracking in California—Is it The Smart Thing to Do?
DOWNLOAD THE PDF Jerry Brown left office in January as one of the most popular governors in California history. He also left successor Gavin Newsom with a few headaches. Among the more prominent unresolved issues are the high-speed rail project, the housing and homeless crises, and runaway public-employee pension obligations. ...
California Is Moving to Ban Disposable Plastic Statewide
More than a half-century ago, in one of the most famous movie lines of all time, Dustin Hoffman character Benjamin Braddock, fresh out of college, received some unsolicited career advice. “I want to say one word to you. Just one word,” Mr. McGuire told young Benjamin. “Plastics. There’s a great ...
It’s Raining IPOs, Hallelujah!
Silicon Valley and Wall Street aren’t the only ones celebrating IPOs this year – Sacramento is doing its share of the partying. That’s because the state is expected to receive a deluge of tax dollars over the next several years thanks to capital gains generated by the current hot IPO ...
We Don’t Need to Ban Pesticides to Save Bees
Some old ideas for bad laws are endlessly recycled. Take the case of the Saving America’s Pollinators Act, a nearly six-year-old initiative now cosponsored by two Democrat representatives, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts. Reintroduced for the fifth time since 2013, the bill would usurp the Environmental ...
School Riots Underscore Why Parents Prefer School Choice
Over the last two months, riots at public schools across the country have underscored why parents choose safer charter schools for their children. In April, ten Stamford, Connecticut high school students were charged with numerous crimes, including first-degree riot and assault on a police officer, after a riot that involved hundreds of ...
Earth Day: Opposing Progress Trumps Protecting the Planet
By Henry I. Miller, M.S., M.D. and Jeff Stier Today is Earth Day, a celebration originally conceived by then-U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-Wis.) and first held in 1970 as a “symbol of environmental responsibility and stewardship.” In the spirit of the time, it was a touchy-feely, consciousness-raising, New Age experience. ...
Does California Have a Future?
Republican California State Assemblyman Vince Fong recently tweeted about California’s 19 percent poverty rate, which he said “is driven by the extreme high cost of living here.” “Yet,” said Fong, “Sacramento continues to pass policies that make it even more expensive.” In a story illustrated by an artist’s rendering of a family in ...
