Infrastructure
Blog
Meet the obscure federal interagency committee who keeps an eye on foreign investment and national security
The United States tweet first, tariff second trade policy against China continues to define American -Chinese relations. As both nations pursue the “Cold War light” escalation through tariffs, the United States continues to drum up new regulations to combat Chinese economic influence. One policy the federal government is embracing is ...
Commentary
How Big-Box Retailers Can Revitalize Rural Health Care
There’s a surefire, and perhaps unlikely, way to bolster access to health care for underserved Americans—at the shopping mall. Millions of Americans struggle to get affordable, timely medical care. Roughly one-quarter of rural Americans haven’t been able to get needed care at some point in recent years, according to a May 2019 ...
Business & Economics
Newsom already has the power to remedy the power outages
Amid an unprecedented – and excruciating – recent number of intentional power outages to mitigate the risk of fires during California’s dry, windy conditions, Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed a number of policy measures, ranging from demands for $100 rebates to PG&E customers to threatened fines to appointing an energy ...
Blog
Change to Sacramento Soccer Stadium Deal Would Be Bad for Taxpayers
Amid much fanfare, Major League Soccer last week announced that Sacramento has been awarded the 29th MLS franchise. Attention now turns to building a new $252 million stadium in the downtown Sacramento railyards before the team’s launch in 2022. Unfortunately, taxpayers are about to have a bucket of cold water ...
Climate Change
Policies Should Address Global Climate Change By Incenting Innovation
Amidst all of the rhetoric and dire predictions surrounding global climate change, it is easy to lose one’s perspective. But, we will not successfully minimize the risks created by global climate change without perspective. Fundamental to this perspective, U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been declining for more than a ...
Climate Change
The Rush To Renewable Energy Defies Science, Economics, And Common Sense
Whether it’s the Green New Deal, in which climate change abatement is only one of several radical proposals, or the general brainwashing of the younger generations about the impending end of the world, the absence of rational analysis and the willful ignorance of facts is counterproductive. Rather than promoting a ...
Blog
California State Senate Hands Newsom Decade-old Political Lightning Rod in Redevelopment Agencies
Since 2011, the California State Legislature has been itching to bring back redevelopment agencies. Governor Jerry Brown’s nixing of the 70-year-old program scored the California state budget several billion dollars during the Great Recession in 2011. At the time of their elimination, redevelopment agencies collected around 12 percent of all ...
Agriculture
California Lawmakers Always Thirsty for More Water Laws
Water policy is one of those topics that can leave newcomers and casual listeners feeling inundated. The regulations that govern state and federal water policy are laced with a flood of acronyms and terms, with a steady gush of changes to state water policy and regulation over the past decade. ...
Blog
2020’s Big Tax Increases Might Not Be the Sure Bet Some Thought They Were
Earlier this year, I wrote about the #Build2020 plan put forward by Assembly Democrats to make it easier to raise taxes at the local level for special taxes and general obligation bonds to pay for things like libraries, hospitals, parks, and other politically-appealing infrastructure projects. This week, the measure was ...
Agriculture
Plants could give us new treatments for cancer, HIV and other diseases if we had better ‘pharming’ regulations
Politicians talk a lot about farming but seldom about “pharming,” even though the latter can also have a big impact on Americans’ pocketbooks—and their health. The punny name refers to genetically modifying plants such as corn, rice, tobacco and alfalfa to produce high concentrations of pharmaceutical ingredients. Many common medicines ...
Meet the obscure federal interagency committee who keeps an eye on foreign investment and national security
The United States tweet first, tariff second trade policy against China continues to define American -Chinese relations. As both nations pursue the “Cold War light” escalation through tariffs, the United States continues to drum up new regulations to combat Chinese economic influence. One policy the federal government is embracing is ...
How Big-Box Retailers Can Revitalize Rural Health Care
There’s a surefire, and perhaps unlikely, way to bolster access to health care for underserved Americans—at the shopping mall. Millions of Americans struggle to get affordable, timely medical care. Roughly one-quarter of rural Americans haven’t been able to get needed care at some point in recent years, according to a May 2019 ...
Newsom already has the power to remedy the power outages
Amid an unprecedented – and excruciating – recent number of intentional power outages to mitigate the risk of fires during California’s dry, windy conditions, Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed a number of policy measures, ranging from demands for $100 rebates to PG&E customers to threatened fines to appointing an energy ...
Change to Sacramento Soccer Stadium Deal Would Be Bad for Taxpayers
Amid much fanfare, Major League Soccer last week announced that Sacramento has been awarded the 29th MLS franchise. Attention now turns to building a new $252 million stadium in the downtown Sacramento railyards before the team’s launch in 2022. Unfortunately, taxpayers are about to have a bucket of cold water ...
Policies Should Address Global Climate Change By Incenting Innovation
Amidst all of the rhetoric and dire predictions surrounding global climate change, it is easy to lose one’s perspective. But, we will not successfully minimize the risks created by global climate change without perspective. Fundamental to this perspective, U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been declining for more than a ...
The Rush To Renewable Energy Defies Science, Economics, And Common Sense
Whether it’s the Green New Deal, in which climate change abatement is only one of several radical proposals, or the general brainwashing of the younger generations about the impending end of the world, the absence of rational analysis and the willful ignorance of facts is counterproductive. Rather than promoting a ...
California State Senate Hands Newsom Decade-old Political Lightning Rod in Redevelopment Agencies
Since 2011, the California State Legislature has been itching to bring back redevelopment agencies. Governor Jerry Brown’s nixing of the 70-year-old program scored the California state budget several billion dollars during the Great Recession in 2011. At the time of their elimination, redevelopment agencies collected around 12 percent of all ...
California Lawmakers Always Thirsty for More Water Laws
Water policy is one of those topics that can leave newcomers and casual listeners feeling inundated. The regulations that govern state and federal water policy are laced with a flood of acronyms and terms, with a steady gush of changes to state water policy and regulation over the past decade. ...
2020’s Big Tax Increases Might Not Be the Sure Bet Some Thought They Were
Earlier this year, I wrote about the #Build2020 plan put forward by Assembly Democrats to make it easier to raise taxes at the local level for special taxes and general obligation bonds to pay for things like libraries, hospitals, parks, and other politically-appealing infrastructure projects. This week, the measure was ...
Plants could give us new treatments for cancer, HIV and other diseases if we had better ‘pharming’ regulations
Politicians talk a lot about farming but seldom about “pharming,” even though the latter can also have a big impact on Americans’ pocketbooks—and their health. The punny name refers to genetically modifying plants such as corn, rice, tobacco and alfalfa to produce high concentrations of pharmaceutical ingredients. Many common medicines ...
