Blog
Blog
Read latest on corruption in local government
Corruption, crime, and cover-ups
The March 27 sentencing of Sam Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison for his role in a multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme brings closure to years of high living off the backs of his investors in his online crypto trading platform FTX. Fraudsters like Bankman-Fried, Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, Bernie Madoff, Jeff ...
Blog
Learn about the Biden budget plan
President Biden’s Fiscal Illusions
The President imagines that the federal budget is driving toward a fiscal cliff because tax revenues are too low, and the rich are not paying their fair share. Such accusations may make good political talking points, but they are demonstrably false. Let’s start with his vacuous accusation of tax fairness. ...
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS: Hey, Californians, How Do You Like the Governor’s EV Mandate Now?
A poll taken in the fall of 2022 found that 55% of registered California voters favored the state’s zero-emission vehicle mandate, which outlaws the sale of new fossil fuel-burning cars and light trucks beginning in 2035. Only 39% opposed it. While electric vehicles are being shunned in other states, EV ...
Blog
Read about latest anti-business mandate from Sacramento
In California, You Can Self-Checkout Any Time You Want – For Now
Self-checkout seems to have reached a peak. Some retailers are pulling back on the systems, apparently due to intentional and unintentional thefts, and there are signs that customers have grown weary of scanning their own purchases and waiting in long, slow lines while a single attendant tries to manage the ...
Agriculture
Read latest about war on agriculture
Solution to CA’s farm loss is through proactively working with ag community
The U.S. Census of Agriculture shows a distinct acceleration of farm losses between 2007 and 2022. Yet, farms are not altogether disappearing in California. According to census data released earlier this spring, there was a peak in the number of farms reported in California in 2007 with 81,033 recorded. In ...
Blog
Read latest on war on cars
Congestion pricing is mainly about punishing suburbanites
The privilege of working in or visiting Manhattan could soon be higher than the cost of lunch. As U.S. Reps. Mike Lawler and Josh Gottheimer put it in a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece, a proposed increase in the tunnel toll is “a greedy and unnecessary cash grab.” It ...
Blog
Read latest about war on cars
Car wars and other progressive fantasies
Thanks to the wonders of social media, it’s easy to find large communities of car-loathing, bicycle-riding, transit-loving urbanists who view cars as “death machines” and insist they are the cause of every woe known to mankind. Many of these progressive scolds would love to ban them, or at least strictly ...
Blog
Read latest on efforts to reform or repeal Prop. 47
Proposed Reforms Aim to Ensure Crime Doesn’t Pay on Retail Theft
California is in its tenth year of a noble but failed idea – Prop 47. Despite the well-meaning and overwhelming number of voters who supported Prop 47 when it was passed in 2014 and who have twice resisted ballot initiatives to amend it, Prop 47 has not lived up ...
Blog
Read about SF's turn to the right
San Francisco voters turn to the right on crime and schools
The most controversial, Measure E, passed 54% to 46%. It allowed the following: After a public hearing, the chief of police could install surveillance devices without the approval of the Police Commission; Police could use drones to pursue vehicles and for investigations, including facial recognition, without the approval of the ...
Blog
Part 3
Why for-profit housing succeeds when subsidized housing fails
Los Angeles Case Study Part 3 Why for-profit housing succeeds when subsidized housing fails By Thomas Irwin | March 21, 2024 So what lessons can we draw from what Los Angeles has seen with Executive Directive 1, the city’s effort to streamline regulations for affordable-housing projects? First, people passionate about ...
Read latest on corruption in local government
Corruption, crime, and cover-ups
The March 27 sentencing of Sam Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison for his role in a multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme brings closure to years of high living off the backs of his investors in his online crypto trading platform FTX. Fraudsters like Bankman-Fried, Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, Bernie Madoff, Jeff ...
Learn about the Biden budget plan
President Biden’s Fiscal Illusions
The President imagines that the federal budget is driving toward a fiscal cliff because tax revenues are too low, and the rich are not paying their fair share. Such accusations may make good political talking points, but they are demonstrably false. Let’s start with his vacuous accusation of tax fairness. ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Hey, Californians, How Do You Like the Governor’s EV Mandate Now?
A poll taken in the fall of 2022 found that 55% of registered California voters favored the state’s zero-emission vehicle mandate, which outlaws the sale of new fossil fuel-burning cars and light trucks beginning in 2035. Only 39% opposed it. While electric vehicles are being shunned in other states, EV ...
Read about latest anti-business mandate from Sacramento
In California, You Can Self-Checkout Any Time You Want – For Now
Self-checkout seems to have reached a peak. Some retailers are pulling back on the systems, apparently due to intentional and unintentional thefts, and there are signs that customers have grown weary of scanning their own purchases and waiting in long, slow lines while a single attendant tries to manage the ...
Read latest about war on agriculture
Solution to CA’s farm loss is through proactively working with ag community
The U.S. Census of Agriculture shows a distinct acceleration of farm losses between 2007 and 2022. Yet, farms are not altogether disappearing in California. According to census data released earlier this spring, there was a peak in the number of farms reported in California in 2007 with 81,033 recorded. In ...
Read latest on war on cars
Congestion pricing is mainly about punishing suburbanites
The privilege of working in or visiting Manhattan could soon be higher than the cost of lunch. As U.S. Reps. Mike Lawler and Josh Gottheimer put it in a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece, a proposed increase in the tunnel toll is “a greedy and unnecessary cash grab.” It ...
Read latest about war on cars
Car wars and other progressive fantasies
Thanks to the wonders of social media, it’s easy to find large communities of car-loathing, bicycle-riding, transit-loving urbanists who view cars as “death machines” and insist they are the cause of every woe known to mankind. Many of these progressive scolds would love to ban them, or at least strictly ...
Read latest on efforts to reform or repeal Prop. 47
Proposed Reforms Aim to Ensure Crime Doesn’t Pay on Retail Theft
California is in its tenth year of a noble but failed idea – Prop 47. Despite the well-meaning and overwhelming number of voters who supported Prop 47 when it was passed in 2014 and who have twice resisted ballot initiatives to amend it, Prop 47 has not lived up ...
Read about SF's turn to the right
San Francisco voters turn to the right on crime and schools
The most controversial, Measure E, passed 54% to 46%. It allowed the following: After a public hearing, the chief of police could install surveillance devices without the approval of the Police Commission; Police could use drones to pursue vehicles and for investigations, including facial recognition, without the approval of the ...
Part 3
Why for-profit housing succeeds when subsidized housing fails
Los Angeles Case Study Part 3 Why for-profit housing succeeds when subsidized housing fails By Thomas Irwin | March 21, 2024 So what lessons can we draw from what Los Angeles has seen with Executive Directive 1, the city’s effort to streamline regulations for affordable-housing projects? First, people passionate about ...
