Water

Commentary

Obama wants to lower the bar at schools

Orange County Register, March 9, 2010 Despite the recent news that California wasn’t chosen by the Obama administration as a finalist state for the $4 billion Race to the Top education-funding program, with its required adherence to new national standards in English and math, the state will still be forced ...
Education

“Spirit of Central Falls” Trumps Special Interests

Last week Central Falls, Rhode Island, School Superintendent Frances Gallo fired her entire high-school teaching staff when they refused to implement essential reforms to turn around the failing school. Little did Dr. Gallo know that hers would be the pink slips shot ‘round the world-beginning with a billboard in the ...
Business & Economics

State not exactly the well-oiled machine

SACRAMENTO A new report from the California State Auditor should throw cold water on those who believe that the best way to solve the state’s problems is by expanding government power, increasing government funding and creating new regulatory powers and agencies. The auditor has released its annual report analyzing how ...
Environment

Sense of Proportion

The Senator boasts that implementing AB 32 will create new jobs and businesses however California’s industries are struggling and unemployment sits in double digits. Pavley cites 125,000 new jobs as a result of AB 32 yet this represents an extremely small proportion of the unemployed–currently over 2.25 million, according to ...
Business & Economics

We asked, they answered

Washington should try being honest and sensible about health care legislation Will Barclay of Pulaski represents the 124th district in the New York State Assembly to which he was elected on the Republican, Conservative and Independence parties’ lines. By WILL BARCLAY Just four days after Bill Owens defeated Doug Hoffman ...
Commentary

Cost Containment That Relies on Less Government Power, Not More

On January 20, New York Times quoted President Obama, trying to rescue his health bill, stressing the need for “some kind of cost containment because if we don’t, then our budgets are going to blow up…” Ironically, if the President had read an adjourning article in the same newspaper he ...
Commentary

What Health Reformers Could Learn from the Market for Cosmetic Surgery

The article describes Board-certified surgeons populating a website, onto which prospective patients upload photos of body parts which they believe would benefit from surgery. Surgeons nationwide reply with explanations of procedures and price estimates. If patients then decide to proceed, they travel to the surgeon’s office for a consultation and, ...
Health Care

The Rich Get Richer: The Senate’s Medicaid Proposal Gives a Bigger Bailout to Wealthier States

Imagine that you were inspecting a swimming pool that was cracked and leaking water, such that anyone who dove into it would be at risk of cracking his head on the bottom. You would likely make it a priority to fix the pool. However, if the pool were on a ...
Business & Economics

What’s keeping state in sorry shape

SACRAMENTO – Technically speaking, it’s not hard to figure out how to solve California’s permanent fiscal crisis – if you just ignore the political mountains that would have to be moved to implement the fixes. A few good starting points: imposing a strict spending limit on legislators, reducing pension benefits ...
Business & Economics

PRI’s CalWatchdog Seeks to Expose Waste, Fraud and Abuse in the State

Sixteen years ago, as a building and remodeling editor for Better Homes and Gardens magazine in Des Moines, I desperately wanted to get my opinions heard – not the ones about the latest kitchen remodeling or home addition, but about the hot political debates of the day. I had little ...
Commentary

Obama wants to lower the bar at schools

Orange County Register, March 9, 2010 Despite the recent news that California wasn’t chosen by the Obama administration as a finalist state for the $4 billion Race to the Top education-funding program, with its required adherence to new national standards in English and math, the state will still be forced ...
Education

“Spirit of Central Falls” Trumps Special Interests

Last week Central Falls, Rhode Island, School Superintendent Frances Gallo fired her entire high-school teaching staff when they refused to implement essential reforms to turn around the failing school. Little did Dr. Gallo know that hers would be the pink slips shot ‘round the world-beginning with a billboard in the ...
Business & Economics

State not exactly the well-oiled machine

SACRAMENTO A new report from the California State Auditor should throw cold water on those who believe that the best way to solve the state’s problems is by expanding government power, increasing government funding and creating new regulatory powers and agencies. The auditor has released its annual report analyzing how ...
Environment

Sense of Proportion

The Senator boasts that implementing AB 32 will create new jobs and businesses however California’s industries are struggling and unemployment sits in double digits. Pavley cites 125,000 new jobs as a result of AB 32 yet this represents an extremely small proportion of the unemployed–currently over 2.25 million, according to ...
Business & Economics

We asked, they answered

Washington should try being honest and sensible about health care legislation Will Barclay of Pulaski represents the 124th district in the New York State Assembly to which he was elected on the Republican, Conservative and Independence parties’ lines. By WILL BARCLAY Just four days after Bill Owens defeated Doug Hoffman ...
Commentary

Cost Containment That Relies on Less Government Power, Not More

On January 20, New York Times quoted President Obama, trying to rescue his health bill, stressing the need for “some kind of cost containment because if we don’t, then our budgets are going to blow up…” Ironically, if the President had read an adjourning article in the same newspaper he ...
Commentary

What Health Reformers Could Learn from the Market for Cosmetic Surgery

The article describes Board-certified surgeons populating a website, onto which prospective patients upload photos of body parts which they believe would benefit from surgery. Surgeons nationwide reply with explanations of procedures and price estimates. If patients then decide to proceed, they travel to the surgeon’s office for a consultation and, ...
Health Care

The Rich Get Richer: The Senate’s Medicaid Proposal Gives a Bigger Bailout to Wealthier States

Imagine that you were inspecting a swimming pool that was cracked and leaking water, such that anyone who dove into it would be at risk of cracking his head on the bottom. You would likely make it a priority to fix the pool. However, if the pool were on a ...
Business & Economics

What’s keeping state in sorry shape

SACRAMENTO – Technically speaking, it’s not hard to figure out how to solve California’s permanent fiscal crisis – if you just ignore the political mountains that would have to be moved to implement the fixes. A few good starting points: imposing a strict spending limit on legislators, reducing pension benefits ...
Business & Economics

PRI’s CalWatchdog Seeks to Expose Waste, Fraud and Abuse in the State

Sixteen years ago, as a building and remodeling editor for Better Homes and Gardens magazine in Des Moines, I desperately wanted to get my opinions heard – not the ones about the latest kitchen remodeling or home addition, but about the hot political debates of the day. I had little ...
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