Blog
Blog
The California War On Gas Stations
Just a few months back, Petaluma in Sonoma County outlawed the construction of new gas stations, the first city in the nation to do so. Anyone who thought such an extreme measure would end there was being naive. Rather than a one-off event, the Petaluma City Council’s unanimous vote to ...
Blog
PRI’s “September Issue” 2021
Three years ago, lamenting over the politicization of fashion magazines, Sally Pipes and I tried our hand as fashion editors and featured the Men of PRI in all their finery for PRI’s September Issue blog. Little did we know then of the origins of women’s magazines, “style” sections, or recipe ...
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Slow-Built Rail
Download the PDF One of the Legislature’s jobs in the final month of the 2021 session is to make a high-speed rail funding decision. The question is how many more billions will be wasted this year on a project that sensible lawmakers would have abandoned long ago. The Legislature, which ...
Blog
The Great California Exodus to the Desert
The results of the 2020 Census are out, and they aren’t pretty for the Golden State, with California set to lose a House seat for the first time in history. While states like Texas and Florida boomed over the past decades, the population of California—along with struggling states like Illinois—has ...
Blog
How to Leave Afghanistan in 4 Easy Steps
At PRI, we can’t claim to be foreign policy experts or military strategists, but as Californians, we do know something about bureaucratic nightmares. All we need look to is the scandal at the Employment Development Department, which paid out more than $30 billion in fraudulent claims (including $1 billion to ...
Blog
Fuel Breaks Help Stop Wildfires – or Do They?
Fuel breaks are the latest battle ground between the state, environmental advocates who argue for “hardening homes for wildfire,” and state wildfire officials as California experiences another dangerous season of wildfires. If you are not familiar with the term, a fuel break is a strip of land on which the ...
Agriculture
Biden’s American Families Plan Poised to Harm Families through the Death Tax
President Biden’s American Families Plan promises expansive benefits to families such as free universal preschool, two years of free community college, child tax credits, and a paid family leave program amongst many other attractive (but expensive) initiatives. Unlike the recently passed and controversial $1 trillion infrastructure bill, the new benefits ...
Blog
Another Big Company Leaves California. What Will It Take for State Officials to Change Course?
Forgive us if we sound like a broken record, but the exodus of California businesses out of the state to more affordable and competitive economic climates grew worse last week. The Los Angeles Times reports that the latest corporate headquarters to announce their departure is AECOM, the global engineering and ...
Blog
High-Priced California is About to Get Even More Expensive
I’ve been back in the office full-time for nearly three months now, but I still can’t get over how pricey everything has become. The chicken salad at the burger stand in our office building is $12.75. Add a Diet Pepsi ($2.75) and the tab becomes $15.50, add tax ($1.55) and ...
Blog
Should we Beware the Ides of September?
Gov. Gavin Newsom made waves this week when he said that mandatory state water restrictions could be coming soon to a dry lawn near you. “At the moment, we’re doing great,” Newsom said. “But if we enter another year of drought – and as you know our water season starts ...
The California War On Gas Stations
Just a few months back, Petaluma in Sonoma County outlawed the construction of new gas stations, the first city in the nation to do so. Anyone who thought such an extreme measure would end there was being naive. Rather than a one-off event, the Petaluma City Council’s unanimous vote to ...
PRI’s “September Issue” 2021
Three years ago, lamenting over the politicization of fashion magazines, Sally Pipes and I tried our hand as fashion editors and featured the Men of PRI in all their finery for PRI’s September Issue blog. Little did we know then of the origins of women’s magazines, “style” sections, or recipe ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Slow-Built Rail
Download the PDF One of the Legislature’s jobs in the final month of the 2021 session is to make a high-speed rail funding decision. The question is how many more billions will be wasted this year on a project that sensible lawmakers would have abandoned long ago. The Legislature, which ...
The Great California Exodus to the Desert
The results of the 2020 Census are out, and they aren’t pretty for the Golden State, with California set to lose a House seat for the first time in history. While states like Texas and Florida boomed over the past decades, the population of California—along with struggling states like Illinois—has ...
How to Leave Afghanistan in 4 Easy Steps
At PRI, we can’t claim to be foreign policy experts or military strategists, but as Californians, we do know something about bureaucratic nightmares. All we need look to is the scandal at the Employment Development Department, which paid out more than $30 billion in fraudulent claims (including $1 billion to ...
Fuel Breaks Help Stop Wildfires – or Do They?
Fuel breaks are the latest battle ground between the state, environmental advocates who argue for “hardening homes for wildfire,” and state wildfire officials as California experiences another dangerous season of wildfires. If you are not familiar with the term, a fuel break is a strip of land on which the ...
Biden’s American Families Plan Poised to Harm Families through the Death Tax
President Biden’s American Families Plan promises expansive benefits to families such as free universal preschool, two years of free community college, child tax credits, and a paid family leave program amongst many other attractive (but expensive) initiatives. Unlike the recently passed and controversial $1 trillion infrastructure bill, the new benefits ...
Another Big Company Leaves California. What Will It Take for State Officials to Change Course?
Forgive us if we sound like a broken record, but the exodus of California businesses out of the state to more affordable and competitive economic climates grew worse last week. The Los Angeles Times reports that the latest corporate headquarters to announce their departure is AECOM, the global engineering and ...
High-Priced California is About to Get Even More Expensive
I’ve been back in the office full-time for nearly three months now, but I still can’t get over how pricey everything has become. The chicken salad at the burger stand in our office building is $12.75. Add a Diet Pepsi ($2.75) and the tab becomes $15.50, add tax ($1.55) and ...
Should we Beware the Ides of September?
Gov. Gavin Newsom made waves this week when he said that mandatory state water restrictions could be coming soon to a dry lawn near you. “At the moment, we’re doing great,” Newsom said. “But if we enter another year of drought – and as you know our water season starts ...
