Blog
Blog
The Campus Sexual Assault Epidemic – Our laws make it worse
The State of California has released its 2021 annual crime report and crime is up across the board. Of particular concern are the sexual assault statistics. According to California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office, “the rape rate increased 8.6 percent in 2021 (from 33.8 in 2020 to 36.7 in ...
Blog
Would A Vacancy Tax Reduce State’s Housing Shortage? History Says No.
While it might seem impossible given the state’s perpetual housing shortage, there are empty homes in California. Some policymakers believe that forcing the owners to put tenants in their properties will help solve an unaffordability problem that has priced so many out of the market. Sounds simple. Of course it’s ...
Blog
Simple solutions that boost neighborhood healthcare
Simple solutions that boost neighborhood healthcare by McKenzie Richards Perhaps I should not have moved to Los Angeles given that I hate driving. Driving here – and in any city, really – can be chaotic, unpredictable and time-consuming. For a recent doctor’s appointment, I opted to walk instead. Never having ...
Blog
Free money plan is thin gruel for cities’ starving artists
Starve no more, Sacramento artists. The City Council is apparently moving forward with a plan to offer guaranteed income to creative types in the city. Guaranteed income, often called Universal Basic Income, gives free money to those deemed in need of it by the government. Focusing this latest effort on ...
Agriculture
Prop 12 has its day in court: will California being the undoing of our national economy?
In 2018, the voters of California supported Proposition 12 as an animal welfare measure that would ban the sale of pork in their state harvested from animals housed in pens smaller than 24 square feet. Prop 12 went into effect on Jan. 1, effectively forcing pork producers in the United ...
Blog
The Latest (Useless) Addition To Municipal C-Suites
Never heard of a chief heat officer? Safe to say most people haven’t. Safer to say scarcely anyone has. Yet here they come, the latest in politicians’ mad dash to do something – anything – that looks like an effort to “fight climate change.” “As global temperatures continue to ...
Blog
Health Care Priorities for Next Congress
Election day approaches quickly. But no matter who wins come November, Americans must urge Congress to prioritize health care policy. Health care costs are consistently rising which endangers lives because costs can constrain patients from receiving needed care. Pandemic exigencies further highlighted shortcomings in our health care system. Before pandemic ...
Blog
How a ‘perfect storm’ killed an LA philanthropist
How a ‘perfect storm’ killed an LA philanthropist BY STEVE SMITH The murder of philanthropist Jaqueline Avant, the wife of famed music producer (“The Godfather of Black Music”) Clarence Avant, sent shock waves throughout Los Angeles society. Her death, during a home-invasion robbery on Dec. 1, 2021, not only shattered ...
Blog
Los Angeles: the city that organized labor wrecked
Los Angeles kicked off its 2022 Indigenous Peoples Day celebration in inimitable style, with the release of a secret recording in which top Latino city officials are caught disparaging indigenous people – as well as African Americans, Armenians, Jews and (generally lost in the reporting) “white guys.” City Council President ...
Blog
Been There, Done That on Denying Americans the Freedom to Work as They Choose
Inspired by California’s controversial AB 5 – which was called “the worst piece of legislation to be passed and signed in California” by PRI’s Kerry Jackson – the Biden Administration is proposing new regulations to impose this agenda nationally. If successful, these policies would hurt entrepreneurship and minority economic advancement ...
The Campus Sexual Assault Epidemic – Our laws make it worse
The State of California has released its 2021 annual crime report and crime is up across the board. Of particular concern are the sexual assault statistics. According to California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office, “the rape rate increased 8.6 percent in 2021 (from 33.8 in 2020 to 36.7 in ...
Would A Vacancy Tax Reduce State’s Housing Shortage? History Says No.
While it might seem impossible given the state’s perpetual housing shortage, there are empty homes in California. Some policymakers believe that forcing the owners to put tenants in their properties will help solve an unaffordability problem that has priced so many out of the market. Sounds simple. Of course it’s ...
Simple solutions that boost neighborhood healthcare
Simple solutions that boost neighborhood healthcare by McKenzie Richards Perhaps I should not have moved to Los Angeles given that I hate driving. Driving here – and in any city, really – can be chaotic, unpredictable and time-consuming. For a recent doctor’s appointment, I opted to walk instead. Never having ...
Free money plan is thin gruel for cities’ starving artists
Starve no more, Sacramento artists. The City Council is apparently moving forward with a plan to offer guaranteed income to creative types in the city. Guaranteed income, often called Universal Basic Income, gives free money to those deemed in need of it by the government. Focusing this latest effort on ...
Prop 12 has its day in court: will California being the undoing of our national economy?
In 2018, the voters of California supported Proposition 12 as an animal welfare measure that would ban the sale of pork in their state harvested from animals housed in pens smaller than 24 square feet. Prop 12 went into effect on Jan. 1, effectively forcing pork producers in the United ...
The Latest (Useless) Addition To Municipal C-Suites
Never heard of a chief heat officer? Safe to say most people haven’t. Safer to say scarcely anyone has. Yet here they come, the latest in politicians’ mad dash to do something – anything – that looks like an effort to “fight climate change.” “As global temperatures continue to ...
Health Care Priorities for Next Congress
Election day approaches quickly. But no matter who wins come November, Americans must urge Congress to prioritize health care policy. Health care costs are consistently rising which endangers lives because costs can constrain patients from receiving needed care. Pandemic exigencies further highlighted shortcomings in our health care system. Before pandemic ...
How a ‘perfect storm’ killed an LA philanthropist
How a ‘perfect storm’ killed an LA philanthropist BY STEVE SMITH The murder of philanthropist Jaqueline Avant, the wife of famed music producer (“The Godfather of Black Music”) Clarence Avant, sent shock waves throughout Los Angeles society. Her death, during a home-invasion robbery on Dec. 1, 2021, not only shattered ...
Los Angeles: the city that organized labor wrecked
Los Angeles kicked off its 2022 Indigenous Peoples Day celebration in inimitable style, with the release of a secret recording in which top Latino city officials are caught disparaging indigenous people – as well as African Americans, Armenians, Jews and (generally lost in the reporting) “white guys.” City Council President ...
Been There, Done That on Denying Americans the Freedom to Work as They Choose
Inspired by California’s controversial AB 5 – which was called “the worst piece of legislation to be passed and signed in California” by PRI’s Kerry Jackson – the Biden Administration is proposing new regulations to impose this agenda nationally. If successful, these policies would hurt entrepreneurship and minority economic advancement ...
