Blog
Blog
Read latest about push for electric vehicles
California’s No-Car Salesman
Recently, Politico saucily reported that “Gavin Newsom is coming for your car, and he wants you to know it.” And below the headline: “The talked-about presidential contender is carving out an underutilized lane: climate crusader.” It’s hardly an empty lane. In fact, politicians are constantly crashing into each other just ...
Kerry Jackson
June 26, 2024
Blog
Three Things I Would Like to See in the First Presidential Debate
Moderators, It’s Not About You Viewers anticipating the traditional presidential debate format will be in for a surprise as Presidents Biden and Trump opted not to participate in the debates proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates. This year’s presidential debates will be hosted by CNN and ABC News. One ...
Tim Anaya
June 25, 2024
Blog
Is government homeless spending really making a difference?
Inconsistencies Plague Sacramento’s Latest Homeless Count
Sometimes, when something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. This can be especially true when it comes to data being touted in government reports. Take China’s government economic data, for example. The Chinese Communist machine routinely manipulates economic data to please their political superiors. The reported statistics ...
Wayne Winegarden
June 24, 2024
Blog
City HAL 9000: Do cities overpromise AI’s benefits?
Denver is using it to “speed up the approval and delivery of … coupons” that allow “residents to recycle televisions, monitors and other electronics at a discount.” The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada is using it to “understand traffic patterns and safety issues at select intersections in the Las Vegas Valley.” ...
D. Dowd Muska
June 21, 2024
Blog
Buses should be transportation, not homeless shelters
“At night time, from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., the homeless have nowhere to go,” a man who posted a video of a downtown-to-Santa Monica Metro bus filled with slumbering homeless told the Los Angeles Fox affiliate. “So they all get on the buses and they ride the buses all ...
Kerry Jackson
June 20, 2024
Blog
Fast food restaurants are raising prices after minimum wage hike
Their Pleasure: Legislators Cook Up A Law That Burns Fast Food
The new prices, which won’t go up in other states, depend on where the restaurant is. A double-double meal combo at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf now costs $13.63 including taxes; not far away in Daly City, the same meal is $2 cheaper, says the New York Post. In Irvine, near ...
Kerry Jackson
June 19, 2024
Blog
Spending Watch: More Debt Is More Taxes
As a recent Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll confirms, this approach is out of step with “most Californians (56%) [who] would prefer to pay lower taxes and have a state government that provides fewer services”. With respect to solving the current budget crisis, the poll found that “fewer ...
Wayne Winegarden
June 18, 2024
Blog
Will lawmakers hinder Prop. 47 reform?
Prop 47 – A Lethal Public Policy Cocktail
Not one of the ten bills pending in the state legislature even mentions dangerous drugs. The CDAA ballot initiative addresses the complexities of prosecuting serial and repeat thieves and refocuses on the root cause – increasing dangerous drug addiction and the systemic, pharmacological, and economically compulsive violence that contribute to ...
Steve Smith
June 17, 2024
Blog
BOOK REVIEW: “Build, Baby, Build!” by Bryan Caplan
“Drill, baby, drill!” Those words were first popularized at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. Republicans were widely mocked at the time for their sloganeering, but they largely carried the day. Domestic oil extraction came to 302.2 million metric tons in 2008. That was a 10-year low according ...
Jeremy Lott
June 14, 2024
Blog
Read the latest on the Sacramento DA's homeless lawsuit
Sac DA’s homeless lawsuit falters, but effort wasn’t in vain
District Attorney Thien Ho tested how much his office directly can affect homeless policy by suing the city for not doing its job to deal with its festering homelessness crisis. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Jill H. Talley ruled on May 6 that Mayor Darrell Steinberg and the City Council ...
John Seiler
June 13, 2024
Read latest about push for electric vehicles
California’s No-Car Salesman
Recently, Politico saucily reported that “Gavin Newsom is coming for your car, and he wants you to know it.” And below the headline: “The talked-about presidential contender is carving out an underutilized lane: climate crusader.” It’s hardly an empty lane. In fact, politicians are constantly crashing into each other just ...
Three Things I Would Like to See in the First Presidential Debate
Moderators, It’s Not About You Viewers anticipating the traditional presidential debate format will be in for a surprise as Presidents Biden and Trump opted not to participate in the debates proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates. This year’s presidential debates will be hosted by CNN and ABC News. One ...
Is government homeless spending really making a difference?
Inconsistencies Plague Sacramento’s Latest Homeless Count
Sometimes, when something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. This can be especially true when it comes to data being touted in government reports. Take China’s government economic data, for example. The Chinese Communist machine routinely manipulates economic data to please their political superiors. The reported statistics ...
City HAL 9000: Do cities overpromise AI’s benefits?
Denver is using it to “speed up the approval and delivery of … coupons” that allow “residents to recycle televisions, monitors and other electronics at a discount.” The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada is using it to “understand traffic patterns and safety issues at select intersections in the Las Vegas Valley.” ...
Buses should be transportation, not homeless shelters
“At night time, from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., the homeless have nowhere to go,” a man who posted a video of a downtown-to-Santa Monica Metro bus filled with slumbering homeless told the Los Angeles Fox affiliate. “So they all get on the buses and they ride the buses all ...
Fast food restaurants are raising prices after minimum wage hike
Their Pleasure: Legislators Cook Up A Law That Burns Fast Food
The new prices, which won’t go up in other states, depend on where the restaurant is. A double-double meal combo at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf now costs $13.63 including taxes; not far away in Daly City, the same meal is $2 cheaper, says the New York Post. In Irvine, near ...
Spending Watch: More Debt Is More Taxes
As a recent Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll confirms, this approach is out of step with “most Californians (56%) [who] would prefer to pay lower taxes and have a state government that provides fewer services”. With respect to solving the current budget crisis, the poll found that “fewer ...
Will lawmakers hinder Prop. 47 reform?
Prop 47 – A Lethal Public Policy Cocktail
Not one of the ten bills pending in the state legislature even mentions dangerous drugs. The CDAA ballot initiative addresses the complexities of prosecuting serial and repeat thieves and refocuses on the root cause – increasing dangerous drug addiction and the systemic, pharmacological, and economically compulsive violence that contribute to ...
BOOK REVIEW: “Build, Baby, Build!” by Bryan Caplan
“Drill, baby, drill!” Those words were first popularized at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. Republicans were widely mocked at the time for their sloganeering, but they largely carried the day. Domestic oil extraction came to 302.2 million metric tons in 2008. That was a 10-year low according ...
Read the latest on the Sacramento DA's homeless lawsuit
Sac DA’s homeless lawsuit falters, but effort wasn’t in vain
District Attorney Thien Ho tested how much his office directly can affect homeless policy by suing the city for not doing its job to deal with its festering homelessness crisis. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Jill H. Talley ruled on May 6 that Mayor Darrell Steinberg and the City Council ...