Commentary
Commentary
Look for Alternatives to Tuition Hikes
Tuition at the University of California could be going up again. At the system’s recent Board of Regents meeting, reported the Contra Costa Times, “Administrators presented four budget scenarios … to help the Board of Regents plan future budgets. Under the rosiest scenario – which is unlikely, given the state’s ...
Vicki E. Murray
May 31, 2011
California
How California Prisons Got So Bad
In the Assembly last week, legislators praised ethnic studies departments and had long-winded debates before voting to ban the trading of shark fins in California. But while state government becomes ever-more meddlesome in ever-expanding areas of private life, it’s increasingly clear that the Legislature and the state bureaucracies are incapable ...
Steven Greenhut
May 27, 2011
Business & Economics
Government‚ Get Out of My Face(book)
The Social Networking Privacy Act (SB 242), authored by state senator Ellen Corbett‚ a San Leandro Democrat‚ would force any social networking site to make new users choose their privacy settings when they register and make the default settings private except for the user’s name and city of residence. This ...
Sonia Arrison
May 25, 2011
Commentary
Teachers Unions using our kids as props to take home more pay
Last week teacher union activists descended upon the Capitol, but education reform was not on their agenda. The priority was lobbying legislators to vote in favor of Gov. Jerry Browns tax extensions and avoid a vote of the people on the tax increases. The activists also targeted two education reform ...
Katy Grimes
May 22, 2011
California
Schwarzenegger a power-loving phony
SACRAMENTO Last weekend I watched one of my favorite movies, “Total Recall,” a 1990 sci-fi flick based on a Philip K. Dick novel and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Is Schwarzenegger’s character an intergalactic double agent who saves the mutants on Mars from the evil plans of a nasty profiteer or is ...
Steven Greenhut
May 20, 2011
Commentary
Candid Romney Would Own Up To Mass. Fiasco
Massachusetts health reform is in the news driven by reports of long waits for care and its architect’s presidential ambitions. Former Massachusetts governor and GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney delivered a widely panned speech the week before last on health care. The three-part speech attempted the impossible: It defended ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 20, 2011
Commentary
Comparative-Effectiveness Research: How Many Lives Will It Cost?
Yes, I certainly appreciated the last “dig” and I shake my head at the irony of PhRMA funding research designed to push back key elements of a law for which PhRMA lobbied and invested. I doubt that Obamacare would have passed without PhRMA’s support. If PhRMA had resisted Obamacare, the ...
John R. Graham
May 19, 2011
Commentary
Bay State On Road to Single-Payer
Your editorial’s criticism of Mitt Romney’s 2006 Massachusetts health law is correct in that taxes, costs and political interference in medical decisions have all gone up while access to medical care has deteriorated (“Obama’s Running Mate,” May 12). The Massachusetts law also jeopardizes the very solvency of private health plans ...
John R. Graham
May 17, 2011
Commentary
Who Is the Republican Health Care Candidate?
As Romney and Gingrich bind their wounds, I’m sure that they are more surprised than anybody at the hostile response their recent comments have drawn. After all, it is true that trace elements of the “individual mandate” can be found in conservative policy proposals from the days of yore. Our ...
John R. Graham
May 17, 2011
Look for Alternatives to Tuition Hikes
Tuition at the University of California could be going up again. At the system’s recent Board of Regents meeting, reported the Contra Costa Times, “Administrators presented four budget scenarios … to help the Board of Regents plan future budgets. Under the rosiest scenario – which is unlikely, given the state’s ...
How California Prisons Got So Bad
In the Assembly last week, legislators praised ethnic studies departments and had long-winded debates before voting to ban the trading of shark fins in California. But while state government becomes ever-more meddlesome in ever-expanding areas of private life, it’s increasingly clear that the Legislature and the state bureaucracies are incapable ...
Government‚ Get Out of My Face(book)
The Social Networking Privacy Act (SB 242), authored by state senator Ellen Corbett‚ a San Leandro Democrat‚ would force any social networking site to make new users choose their privacy settings when they register and make the default settings private except for the user’s name and city of residence. This ...
Teachers Unions using our kids as props to take home more pay
Last week teacher union activists descended upon the Capitol, but education reform was not on their agenda. The priority was lobbying legislators to vote in favor of Gov. Jerry Browns tax extensions and avoid a vote of the people on the tax increases. The activists also targeted two education reform ...
Schwarzenegger a power-loving phony
SACRAMENTO Last weekend I watched one of my favorite movies, “Total Recall,” a 1990 sci-fi flick based on a Philip K. Dick novel and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Is Schwarzenegger’s character an intergalactic double agent who saves the mutants on Mars from the evil plans of a nasty profiteer or is ...
Candid Romney Would Own Up To Mass. Fiasco
Massachusetts health reform is in the news driven by reports of long waits for care and its architect’s presidential ambitions. Former Massachusetts governor and GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney delivered a widely panned speech the week before last on health care. The three-part speech attempted the impossible: It defended ...
Comparative-Effectiveness Research: How Many Lives Will It Cost?
Yes, I certainly appreciated the last “dig” and I shake my head at the irony of PhRMA funding research designed to push back key elements of a law for which PhRMA lobbied and invested. I doubt that Obamacare would have passed without PhRMA’s support. If PhRMA had resisted Obamacare, the ...
Bay State On Road to Single-Payer
Your editorial’s criticism of Mitt Romney’s 2006 Massachusetts health law is correct in that taxes, costs and political interference in medical decisions have all gone up while access to medical care has deteriorated (“Obama’s Running Mate,” May 12). The Massachusetts law also jeopardizes the very solvency of private health plans ...
Who Is the Republican Health Care Candidate?
As Romney and Gingrich bind their wounds, I’m sure that they are more surprised than anybody at the hostile response their recent comments have drawn. After all, it is true that trace elements of the “individual mandate” can be found in conservative policy proposals from the days of yore. Our ...