Tim Anaya, Senior Director of Communications and PRI’s Sacramento Office
Winner: Larry Kudlow – Larry Kudlow, former Trump economic advisor, is returning to his roots in front of a television camera. Fox Business Network announced it has hired Kudlow to host a new daily program, taking on his former television home, CNBC.
Loser: Barry Bonds, Curt Schilling, Roger Clemons – Once again, the asterisk players of baseball’s steroids era failed to win the required 75 percent vote from members of the Baseball Writers of America to win election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. In fact, these once, sure-bet candidates for the Hall of Fame lost to none of the above – no candidate received the required vote for election.
Evan Harris, Media Relations and Outreach Manager
Winner: Russia – Russia and Vladimir Putin. Putin again reminded the rest of the world that Russia is, indeed, a dictatorship under his rule, when he arrested Alexey Navalny, a high-profile critic of Putin, after returning to Russia since being poisoned with a nerve agent and treated in Germany.
Loser: Free Stock Market – The mess that is Robinhood, GameStop, and Blackberry stock fiasco could not be a more bizarre dive into the complexities of stock shorting and retail stock market trading. Popular no-fee stock trading app Robinhood, and other trading platforms, stopped customers from buying GameStop and similar stocks after amateur traders purposefully drove up the price of GameStop to prevent a profitable shortening strategy used by hedge funds. The amateur traders began to turn their sights to other cheap stocks like BlackBerry, AMC theaters, and even Nokia to stop more shorts when trading was largely blocked.
Rowena Itchon, Senior Vice President
Winner: National School Choice movement – This week marks National School Choice Week – the movement is strong, despite the pandemic. Tens of thousands of events took place around the country. Check out PRI’s webinar featuring our just published book A Kite in a Hurricane No More.
Loser: John Kerry, who is Unfit for Command to be the nation’s climate change czar – He’s got a private jet, private jets are estimated to emit 40x as much carbon per passenger on commercial flights.
Kerry Jackson, Fellow, Center for California Reform
Winners – Californians who’ve been craving a sit-down restaurant meal since outdoor dining was shut down in the fall. Restrictions have been rolled back and restaurants can open today to serve outside. Count restaurant owners, employees, and industry distributors as winners, as well.
Losers – The thousands who have lost or will be losing jobs because President Joe Biden issued an executive order shutting down construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
McKenzie Richards – Development Associate
Winner: Oregon Drivers Stranded on Highway 199 – When a snowstorm stranded drivers on Highway 199, a healthcare team transporting COVID-19 vaccines realized that the vaccines would expire before they could reach their destination. Instead of letting the vaccines go to waste, the quick thinking healthcare team went car to car and vaccinated the other stranded Oregon drivers.
Loser: Renters in mid-sized California cities – As California’s housing shortage continues, home prices continue to skyrocket throughout the state. While the shortage brings a welcome decrease in rent prices in big cities, many are fleeing cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco and moving to California’s mid-sized areas and cities like Central Valley and Riverside. The influx is causing the cost of rent to rise significantly in smaller cities.
