Blog
Blog
When Protecting Privacy Reveals Secrets
The California policy gadfly is back with a new ballot initiative in 2020. Last year, San Francisco real estate developer Alastair Mactaggart used the threat of a ballot measure to all but force the state legislature to enact dramatic new privacy regulations that were not ready for primetime. Earlier this ...
Bartlett Cleland
December 23, 2019
Agriculture
What We’re Watching – “Full House” San Francisco Real Estate Parody
Kerry Jackson – “Full House” San Francisco Real Estate Parody Remy is world-class clever. In a 90-second video he can say what most writers can’t get across using hundreds of words. Tim Anaya – How USMCA is Good for California Agriculture .mcclatchy-embed{position:relative;padding:40px 0 56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%}.mcclatchy-embed iframe{position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%} On a recent trip to ...
Pacific Research Institute
December 20, 2019
Blog
California Politics in 2019: Not Much To Be Happy About
December is about half gone, and, as the Counting Crows’ Adam Duritz once sang, “it’s getting cold in California.” In another song from the same 1996 album Duritz also sang that it’s been “a long December and there’s reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last.” ...
Kerry Jackson
December 19, 2019
Blog
School Choice: California Looks Backwards, Florida Looks Forward
Reviewing the 2019 education landscape shows some states taking giant steps backwards, while others made great strides, and this contrast is nowhere more stark than between California and Florida. In California, the education theme was “let’s take choice away from parents and children.” The teacher strikes in Oakland and Los ...
Lance Izumi
December 18, 2019
Blog
New PRI Single-Payer Poll Watch Tracks Growing Opposition to Medicare for All
Health care has dominated the early Democrat presidential debates, with progressive candidates battling “moderates” over the question of a public option versus a Medicare for All plan that would outlaw private insurance. As the public has focused more on what single-payer would mean for them, such as having to pay ...
Evan Harris
December 17, 2019
Blog
Things Just Keep Going The Wrong Way In California
Two days before Thanksgiving, financial services firm Charles Schwab announced it was relocating its headquarters from San Francisco to Texas. The Wall Street Journal’s explanation: “The brokerage giant heads for a state that doesn’t punish finance.” Fresh from its $26 billion acquisition of TD Ameritrade, Schwab, located in San Francisco ...
Kerry Jackson
December 16, 2019
Blog
What We’re Watching – December 13
Rowena Itchon – Brexit and this week’s UK Election If you’re following the British elections and Brexit, here’s a terrific interview with Dan Hannan, Conservative Member of the European Parliament by Nick Gillespie of Reason. Kerry Jackson – How Los Angeles is Spending Homeless Dollars Inefficiently Cities, counties and the ...
Pacific Research Institute
December 13, 2019
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS: The Old City Dumps Aren’t What They Used To Be
Nearly two decades ago, before “ban everything” fever was sweeping through California, San Francisco committed to eliminating a staple of human progress: the modern landfill. The idea, concocted in 2002, was to reach a “zero waste” existence by 2020, which “means that we send zero discards to the landfill or ...
Kerry Jackson
December 12, 2019
Blog
The Real Reason Behind Shelving of Full and Fair Funding Initiative
The California School Boards Association (CSBA) and proponents of the “Full and Fair Funding” proposal – a $15 billion annual tax increase for school funding – announced last week that they were pulling the proposal from the November 2020 ballot. The reason? CSBA said publicly that its polling showed voters ...
Tim Anaya
December 11, 2019
Blog
State Leaders Admit California Is Subsidizing the Rich at the Expense of the Poor
You won’t read this headline anytime soon, but it is consistent with the recent changes to California’s electric-car rebate program enacted by the state’s Air Resources Board. Both California and the federal government offer generous tax credits to purchasers of electric vehicles. Until the recent changes, California offered purchasers of ...
Wayne Winegarden
December 10, 2019
When Protecting Privacy Reveals Secrets
The California policy gadfly is back with a new ballot initiative in 2020. Last year, San Francisco real estate developer Alastair Mactaggart used the threat of a ballot measure to all but force the state legislature to enact dramatic new privacy regulations that were not ready for primetime. Earlier this ...
What We’re Watching – “Full House” San Francisco Real Estate Parody
Kerry Jackson – “Full House” San Francisco Real Estate Parody Remy is world-class clever. In a 90-second video he can say what most writers can’t get across using hundreds of words. Tim Anaya – How USMCA is Good for California Agriculture .mcclatchy-embed{position:relative;padding:40px 0 56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%}.mcclatchy-embed iframe{position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%} On a recent trip to ...
California Politics in 2019: Not Much To Be Happy About
December is about half gone, and, as the Counting Crows’ Adam Duritz once sang, “it’s getting cold in California.” In another song from the same 1996 album Duritz also sang that it’s been “a long December and there’s reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last.” ...
School Choice: California Looks Backwards, Florida Looks Forward
Reviewing the 2019 education landscape shows some states taking giant steps backwards, while others made great strides, and this contrast is nowhere more stark than between California and Florida. In California, the education theme was “let’s take choice away from parents and children.” The teacher strikes in Oakland and Los ...
New PRI Single-Payer Poll Watch Tracks Growing Opposition to Medicare for All
Health care has dominated the early Democrat presidential debates, with progressive candidates battling “moderates” over the question of a public option versus a Medicare for All plan that would outlaw private insurance. As the public has focused more on what single-payer would mean for them, such as having to pay ...
Things Just Keep Going The Wrong Way In California
Two days before Thanksgiving, financial services firm Charles Schwab announced it was relocating its headquarters from San Francisco to Texas. The Wall Street Journal’s explanation: “The brokerage giant heads for a state that doesn’t punish finance.” Fresh from its $26 billion acquisition of TD Ameritrade, Schwab, located in San Francisco ...
What We’re Watching – December 13
Rowena Itchon – Brexit and this week’s UK Election If you’re following the British elections and Brexit, here’s a terrific interview with Dan Hannan, Conservative Member of the European Parliament by Nick Gillespie of Reason. Kerry Jackson – How Los Angeles is Spending Homeless Dollars Inefficiently Cities, counties and the ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: The Old City Dumps Aren’t What They Used To Be
Nearly two decades ago, before “ban everything” fever was sweeping through California, San Francisco committed to eliminating a staple of human progress: the modern landfill. The idea, concocted in 2002, was to reach a “zero waste” existence by 2020, which “means that we send zero discards to the landfill or ...
The Real Reason Behind Shelving of Full and Fair Funding Initiative
The California School Boards Association (CSBA) and proponents of the “Full and Fair Funding” proposal – a $15 billion annual tax increase for school funding – announced last week that they were pulling the proposal from the November 2020 ballot. The reason? CSBA said publicly that its polling showed voters ...
State Leaders Admit California Is Subsidizing the Rich at the Expense of the Poor
You won’t read this headline anytime soon, but it is consistent with the recent changes to California’s electric-car rebate program enacted by the state’s Air Resources Board. Both California and the federal government offer generous tax credits to purchasers of electric vehicles. Until the recent changes, California offered purchasers of ...