Blog
Blog
Waiting for Care: The Sick Reality of Single-Payer Health Systems
A Vancouver hospital with staff shortages cancelled more than 100 heart surgeries in the first six months of last year, according to a new report. Patients queued up — again — to wait for care. Such stories abound in Canada and the United Kingdom, where the government operates and pays ...
Blog
Spending Watch
Backfilling Lost Federal Education Funding Will Cost California Dearly
Backfilling Lost Federal Education Funding Will Cost California Dearly Wayne Winegarden February 2025 The erratic actions of the Trump Administration are undoubtedly making it more difficult for states to budget for the upcoming 2026 fiscal year. The knee-jerk reaction from many California politicians is to call for more taxes on ...
Blog
Should State Government Take Over Gasoline Production in California?
Some are small but add up over time. Others are large, their negative effects almost immediate. In this last category belongs the idea that the state should take ownership of one or more oil refineries. It’s among a number of proposals offered by the California Energy Commission, which was tasked ...
Blog
Put Up Your Nukes, California
An endling, the last member of an endangered species, lives above a cove in San Luis Obispo, County. Having endured on those grounds for four decades, it is likely to go extinct sometime in the 2030s. There is, however, a growing effort to not only save it, but to breed more ...
Blog
Compton: cities learn wrong lessons from ‘free money’ program
Compton: cities learn wrong lessons from ‘free money’ program By Matthew Fleming | February 21, 2025 The results of the largest city-based experiment with what happens when low-income families receive free money from the government were just published and apparently nothing was learned. And nothing was learned because lovers of ...
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Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Read a sneak preview: Are urbanists right: Do cities subsidize the suburbs?
Urbanists often justify their anti-suburban policies based on a fairness issue. They argue that cities subsidize the suburbs and this shift of resources robs cities of their tax revenues and that leads to a decline in their quality of life. It’s odd for a movement that eagerly supports public subsidies ...
Blog
Learn how looters are adding to trauma being experienced by fire victims
A Tale of Two LA’s
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens The toll of the recent Southern California fires is shocking. Together, the seven fires known colloquially as the “Los ...
Blog
Food fight: Organic-waste rules are latest recycling failure
Food fight: Organic-waste rules are latest recycling failure By D. Dowd Muska | February 14, 2025 Draconian climate policies are wholly unwelcome in Washington, D.C., under the new Republican administration, so expect the greenest state and local governments to fight back in 2025. One area likely to draw significant interest: food ...
Blog
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Free Cities Center Analysis: City representation – Single-member districts versus at large
At-Large Elections: Advantages and Disadvantages In at-large elections, all elected representatives represent the entire polity, be it a city or county. Proponents argue that this method promotes a unified vision among members since they all serve the same district. Additionally, at-large elections eliminate the issue of gerrymandering within the city, ...
Blog
Latest report shows California bullet train is really a train to nowhere
Will There Ever Be Any Good News About The High-Speed Rail?
Last month’s spike-driving ceremony was a feel-good story about the California bullet train. It was, said Gov. Gavin Newsom, a “big damn deal” that indicated “progress” was being made on a project that is embarrassingly behind schedule and almost inconceivably over cost. It was an event for public consumption that ...
Waiting for Care: The Sick Reality of Single-Payer Health Systems
A Vancouver hospital with staff shortages cancelled more than 100 heart surgeries in the first six months of last year, according to a new report. Patients queued up — again — to wait for care. Such stories abound in Canada and the United Kingdom, where the government operates and pays ...
Spending Watch
Backfilling Lost Federal Education Funding Will Cost California Dearly
Backfilling Lost Federal Education Funding Will Cost California Dearly Wayne Winegarden February 2025 The erratic actions of the Trump Administration are undoubtedly making it more difficult for states to budget for the upcoming 2026 fiscal year. The knee-jerk reaction from many California politicians is to call for more taxes on ...
Should State Government Take Over Gasoline Production in California?
Some are small but add up over time. Others are large, their negative effects almost immediate. In this last category belongs the idea that the state should take ownership of one or more oil refineries. It’s among a number of proposals offered by the California Energy Commission, which was tasked ...
Put Up Your Nukes, California
An endling, the last member of an endangered species, lives above a cove in San Luis Obispo, County. Having endured on those grounds for four decades, it is likely to go extinct sometime in the 2030s. There is, however, a growing effort to not only save it, but to breed more ...
Compton: cities learn wrong lessons from ‘free money’ program
Compton: cities learn wrong lessons from ‘free money’ program By Matthew Fleming | February 21, 2025 The results of the largest city-based experiment with what happens when low-income families receive free money from the government were just published and apparently nothing was learned. And nothing was learned because lovers of ...
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Read a sneak preview: Are urbanists right: Do cities subsidize the suburbs?
Urbanists often justify their anti-suburban policies based on a fairness issue. They argue that cities subsidize the suburbs and this shift of resources robs cities of their tax revenues and that leads to a decline in their quality of life. It’s odd for a movement that eagerly supports public subsidies ...
Learn how looters are adding to trauma being experienced by fire victims
A Tale of Two LA’s
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens The toll of the recent Southern California fires is shocking. Together, the seven fires known colloquially as the “Los ...
Food fight: Organic-waste rules are latest recycling failure
Food fight: Organic-waste rules are latest recycling failure By D. Dowd Muska | February 14, 2025 Draconian climate policies are wholly unwelcome in Washington, D.C., under the new Republican administration, so expect the greenest state and local governments to fight back in 2025. One area likely to draw significant interest: food ...
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Free Cities Center Analysis: City representation – Single-member districts versus at large
At-Large Elections: Advantages and Disadvantages In at-large elections, all elected representatives represent the entire polity, be it a city or county. Proponents argue that this method promotes a unified vision among members since they all serve the same district. Additionally, at-large elections eliminate the issue of gerrymandering within the city, ...
Latest report shows California bullet train is really a train to nowhere
Will There Ever Be Any Good News About The High-Speed Rail?
Last month’s spike-driving ceremony was a feel-good story about the California bullet train. It was, said Gov. Gavin Newsom, a “big damn deal” that indicated “progress” was being made on a project that is embarrassingly behind schedule and almost inconceivably over cost. It was an event for public consumption that ...
