Blog
Blog
Legislature Comes Back in Session This Week with Lots of Unfinished Business
Today, the Legislature reconvenes for the final month of the 2021 legislative session. For the next four weeks, lawmakers will be on a mad dash to finalize its work before the September 10 deadline. This year’s legislative session can best be described as being overshadowed by events. On last week’s ...
Blog
New Research Shows Covid Impact on Student Learning Loss and Mental Health
With uncertainty over the impact of the COVID-19 Delta variant on the start of the upcoming school year, new research shows the extent of learning loss and mental health problems experienced by students during the pandemic-caused school closures. Not coincidentally, state and federal data also show that parents are increasingly ...
Blog
In Bipartisan Vote, U.S. Senate Follows PRI’s Advice in Rejecting ‘Costly Subsidies for the Rich’
You may have missed it amidst the “vote-a-rama” on dozens of amendments to the Senate Democrats’ $3.5 billion budget reconciliation bill being voted on early Wednesday morning, but a key bipartisan vote could put an end to what PRI has termed “costly subsidies for the rich,” or taxpayers subsidizing electric ...
Blog
Larry Elder Says the Ideal Minimum Wage Should Be $0.00 – Why Is This Controversial? It Shouldn’t Be
Judging from the reaction to Larry Elder’s comment that the appropriate minimum wage is zero, one would think he had suggested harvesting California’s iconic giant sequoias or closing the Golden Gate Bridge. But what the radio talk show host and gubernatorial recall candidate said should not have stirred controversy. The ...
Blog
What Can Policymakers Do About Surging Building Materials Costs?
According to a recent study by real estate data firm CoreLogic, 2021 saw the highest annual growth in home values since 1979. Across high growth regions like the Mountain West and South, this has triggered a building boom as developers struggle to keep up with demand. Yet even where onerous ...
Blog
San Francisco’s Summer of Discontent
This summer, San Francisco’s politicians have likely endured their coldest winter ever. As we write, there are no less than four recall efforts underway – three school board members and the district attorney. If we throw in the statewide effort to recall the city’s former mayor, Gavin Newsom, that makes ...
Blog
Biden’s Electric Vehicle Push Shows He Hasn’t Learned from California’s Mistakes
President Biden announced new federal action on Thursday designed to increase the role of government officials as car salesmen. Politico reports that Biden signed an executive order “setting a target that half of all new vehicle sales by 2030 will be zero-emissions vehicles, primarily electric cars and trucks.” The administration ...
Agriculture
Can Congress Bring More Broadband to Americans in Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill?
The public got a look at the 2,702-page federal infrastructure bill on Sunday, giving the country more details on how the Biden administration will tackle broadband infrastructure investment. The $65 billion being doled out to states for broadband comes in a variety of programs. The meat of the broadband funding ...
Blog
Supreme Court Hands 9th Circuit Highest Year of Reversals Since 1985
This year, the Supreme Court overturned 15 of the 16 cases originating from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The largest of the circuits, the Ninth encompasses California, Alaska, Arizona, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, and Washington. However, 10 of the 16 Ninth Circuit cases arose ...
Blog
Would State Polystyrene Ban Reduce Plastic Pollution? Studies Show Probably Not.
Voters will be given a chance next year to outlaw Styrofoam take-out food packaging. Is this a necessary step, or another instance of the California rush to ban yet another consumer convenience? The proposition, one of four statewide measures scheduled on the November 2022 ballot, not only would “prohibit polystyrene ...
Legislature Comes Back in Session This Week with Lots of Unfinished Business
Today, the Legislature reconvenes for the final month of the 2021 legislative session. For the next four weeks, lawmakers will be on a mad dash to finalize its work before the September 10 deadline. This year’s legislative session can best be described as being overshadowed by events. On last week’s ...
New Research Shows Covid Impact on Student Learning Loss and Mental Health
With uncertainty over the impact of the COVID-19 Delta variant on the start of the upcoming school year, new research shows the extent of learning loss and mental health problems experienced by students during the pandemic-caused school closures. Not coincidentally, state and federal data also show that parents are increasingly ...
In Bipartisan Vote, U.S. Senate Follows PRI’s Advice in Rejecting ‘Costly Subsidies for the Rich’
You may have missed it amidst the “vote-a-rama” on dozens of amendments to the Senate Democrats’ $3.5 billion budget reconciliation bill being voted on early Wednesday morning, but a key bipartisan vote could put an end to what PRI has termed “costly subsidies for the rich,” or taxpayers subsidizing electric ...
Larry Elder Says the Ideal Minimum Wage Should Be $0.00 – Why Is This Controversial? It Shouldn’t Be
Judging from the reaction to Larry Elder’s comment that the appropriate minimum wage is zero, one would think he had suggested harvesting California’s iconic giant sequoias or closing the Golden Gate Bridge. But what the radio talk show host and gubernatorial recall candidate said should not have stirred controversy. The ...
What Can Policymakers Do About Surging Building Materials Costs?
According to a recent study by real estate data firm CoreLogic, 2021 saw the highest annual growth in home values since 1979. Across high growth regions like the Mountain West and South, this has triggered a building boom as developers struggle to keep up with demand. Yet even where onerous ...
San Francisco’s Summer of Discontent
This summer, San Francisco’s politicians have likely endured their coldest winter ever. As we write, there are no less than four recall efforts underway – three school board members and the district attorney. If we throw in the statewide effort to recall the city’s former mayor, Gavin Newsom, that makes ...
Biden’s Electric Vehicle Push Shows He Hasn’t Learned from California’s Mistakes
President Biden announced new federal action on Thursday designed to increase the role of government officials as car salesmen. Politico reports that Biden signed an executive order “setting a target that half of all new vehicle sales by 2030 will be zero-emissions vehicles, primarily electric cars and trucks.” The administration ...
Can Congress Bring More Broadband to Americans in Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill?
The public got a look at the 2,702-page federal infrastructure bill on Sunday, giving the country more details on how the Biden administration will tackle broadband infrastructure investment. The $65 billion being doled out to states for broadband comes in a variety of programs. The meat of the broadband funding ...
Supreme Court Hands 9th Circuit Highest Year of Reversals Since 1985
This year, the Supreme Court overturned 15 of the 16 cases originating from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The largest of the circuits, the Ninth encompasses California, Alaska, Arizona, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, and Washington. However, 10 of the 16 Ninth Circuit cases arose ...
Would State Polystyrene Ban Reduce Plastic Pollution? Studies Show Probably Not.
Voters will be given a chance next year to outlaw Styrofoam take-out food packaging. Is this a necessary step, or another instance of the California rush to ban yet another consumer convenience? The proposition, one of four statewide measures scheduled on the November 2022 ballot, not only would “prohibit polystyrene ...
