Blog
Blog
Legislative Analyst Offers First Hint of Impact of Coronavirus on State Budget
The coronavirus and the massive economic shutdown that has accompanied it as large parts of California are sheltering in place is significantly complicating work on the May Revise of the Gov. Newsom’s budget, due in just weeks. California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Gabriel Petek on Wednesday released his first assessment of ...
Blog
The Train That’s Still Going Nowhere
The Legislative Analyst’s Office recently issued its Review of the Draft 2020 High-Speed Rail Business Plan. It’s not a ringing endorsement of the project. Three of the report’s five key oversight issues confirm what’s been known all along. California’s bullet train is a troubled enterprise. First, says the LAO, “we ...
Blog
Torpedoing a Successful Charter School
While the statewide assault on charter schools by politicians in Sacramento has garnered headlines, it is the effort to undermine specific successful local charter schools that really pulls at one’s heartstrings. Take, for example, Willow Creek Academy charter school in Sausalito in Marin County. Willow Creek is a K-8 school ...
Blog
Will State Budget Be Victim of Coronavirus?
The uncertainty over the coronavirus has negatively impacted the financial markets. Hit the hardest in the short term have been the travel and hospitality industries – with much talk of layoffs, bankruptcies, and industry bailouts. The Dow Jones and Nasdaq have entered bear territory, falling more than 20 percent in ...
Blog
What We’re Watching – March 13
Tim Anaya – Making the Perfect Irish Soda Bread With all the talk of coronavirus frightening us these days, I think we should focus on things that bring a smile to our faces this weekend, like St. Patrick’s Day. Even though the parades are cancelled, this doesn’t mean that corned ...
Blog
California Assembly Bill 5: An Update
Nearly three dozen bills intended to revise or repeal Assembly Bill 5, which restricts workers’ freedom and could potentially kill the burgeoning gig economy, have been introduced in Sacramento. Here is some of the latest, and most important, news about efforts to smooth over the malign effects of the law: ...
Blog
California’s Self-Inflicted Election Day Chaos
If there was one constant in the national media coverage of Super Tuesday, it was criticism of California’s election system. More than one observer commented on the fact that California’s heavy use of vote-by-mail ballots meant that hundreds of thousands of ballots were cast for candidates who had dropped out ...
Blog
The Pink Tax Hoax
Baby I’ll spill the facts Well honey it ain’t your money ‘Cause baby I got plenty of that I love you for your pink Cadillac. – Bruce Springsteen If you’ve ever admired the gal who managed to steal The Boss’s heart with her pink Cadillac, be advised — even she ...
Blog
Do you believe in ‘Miracle March?’
This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice,” one of the biggest upsets in history when the United States hockey team beat the USSR in the semi-final game of the 1980 Winter Olympics. Anyone who watched the Olympics live or saw the 2004 movie Miracle remembers Al ...
Blog
What We’re Watching – The Best of PRI’s 2020 CA Ideas in Action Conference
PRI’s second annual “California Ideas in Action” conference was held a few weeks back. This year’s conference featured PRI scholars, policy experts, and real life changemakers discussing how free market ideas can address the new decade’s major challenges in California – homelessness, the future of work, education, health care, and ...
Legislative Analyst Offers First Hint of Impact of Coronavirus on State Budget
The coronavirus and the massive economic shutdown that has accompanied it as large parts of California are sheltering in place is significantly complicating work on the May Revise of the Gov. Newsom’s budget, due in just weeks. California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Gabriel Petek on Wednesday released his first assessment of ...
The Train That’s Still Going Nowhere
The Legislative Analyst’s Office recently issued its Review of the Draft 2020 High-Speed Rail Business Plan. It’s not a ringing endorsement of the project. Three of the report’s five key oversight issues confirm what’s been known all along. California’s bullet train is a troubled enterprise. First, says the LAO, “we ...
Torpedoing a Successful Charter School
While the statewide assault on charter schools by politicians in Sacramento has garnered headlines, it is the effort to undermine specific successful local charter schools that really pulls at one’s heartstrings. Take, for example, Willow Creek Academy charter school in Sausalito in Marin County. Willow Creek is a K-8 school ...
Will State Budget Be Victim of Coronavirus?
The uncertainty over the coronavirus has negatively impacted the financial markets. Hit the hardest in the short term have been the travel and hospitality industries – with much talk of layoffs, bankruptcies, and industry bailouts. The Dow Jones and Nasdaq have entered bear territory, falling more than 20 percent in ...
What We’re Watching – March 13
Tim Anaya – Making the Perfect Irish Soda Bread With all the talk of coronavirus frightening us these days, I think we should focus on things that bring a smile to our faces this weekend, like St. Patrick’s Day. Even though the parades are cancelled, this doesn’t mean that corned ...
California Assembly Bill 5: An Update
Nearly three dozen bills intended to revise or repeal Assembly Bill 5, which restricts workers’ freedom and could potentially kill the burgeoning gig economy, have been introduced in Sacramento. Here is some of the latest, and most important, news about efforts to smooth over the malign effects of the law: ...
California’s Self-Inflicted Election Day Chaos
If there was one constant in the national media coverage of Super Tuesday, it was criticism of California’s election system. More than one observer commented on the fact that California’s heavy use of vote-by-mail ballots meant that hundreds of thousands of ballots were cast for candidates who had dropped out ...
The Pink Tax Hoax
Baby I’ll spill the facts Well honey it ain’t your money ‘Cause baby I got plenty of that I love you for your pink Cadillac. – Bruce Springsteen If you’ve ever admired the gal who managed to steal The Boss’s heart with her pink Cadillac, be advised — even she ...
Do you believe in ‘Miracle March?’
This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice,” one of the biggest upsets in history when the United States hockey team beat the USSR in the semi-final game of the 1980 Winter Olympics. Anyone who watched the Olympics live or saw the 2004 movie Miracle remembers Al ...
What We’re Watching – The Best of PRI’s 2020 CA Ideas in Action Conference
PRI’s second annual “California Ideas in Action” conference was held a few weeks back. This year’s conference featured PRI scholars, policy experts, and real life changemakers discussing how free market ideas can address the new decade’s major challenges in California – homelessness, the future of work, education, health care, and ...
