January 1999 PRI Ideas in Action
Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report

PRI continues to impact public policy in California, the nation, and abroad. The following is just a sample of PRI's recent contributions.

Center for Enterprise and Opportunity

A recent study by PRI, "The Delancey Street Foundation: Moving Social Services Back to Our Communities," was highlighted in an article by the Bay City News Service, which was published on the www site of the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition, front-page articles about the Delancey Street Foundation study were published in the Oakland Post and the San Francisco Post.

Naomi Lopez’s op-ed on women and social security ran in the Chicago Tribune. An op-ed on the same subject, by PRI policy fellow Dominique Lazanski, ran in the January 20 edition of Oklahoma City’s Daily Oklahoman.

Naomi Lopez discussed women and social security on KFIA in Sacramento on January 22 and on "Senior Focus," a nationally syndicated radio show, on January 25.

In a speech to the Marin Chapter of the national organization "Women in the Senate and the House" on January 28, Naomi Lopez explained the work PRI is doing on the Project on Children, and Pamela Riley spoke on current public policy issues.

Asian Week magazine contacted Naomi Lopez to discuss minority contracting on January 22.

Center for School Reform

Lance Izumi’s position on decentralizing education in California is quoted in a January 14 Orange County Register editorial.

On January 12, KQED-FM broadcast Lance’s "Perspectives" commentary on Governor Gray Davis’ position on gun control. This same commentary – on January 15 — was broadcast statewide on "California Report."

U.S. News & World Report interviewed Lance on Gray Davis’ education proposals on January 20.

The January 1999 issue of the Valley Citizen, a monthly publication serving Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, and Diablo, California, ran Lance Izumi’s op-ed on school dropout rates.

Environment

A January 3 op-ed in the Santa Barbara News-Press, by Richard Cochrane, a principal in the political consulting firm The Tartan Group, cites research from PRI’s 1998 Index of Leading Environmental Indicators to point out that "environmental quality is better, much better."

The 1998 Index of Leading Environmental Indicators also was cited in the January issue of Varmint Hunter Magazine, the publication of the South Dakota-based Varmint Hunters Association, which represents small game hunters.

PRI environmental policy fellow Erin Schiller’s study on Oregon’s Water Trust — done on behalf of the Center for Private Conversation in Washington, D.C. — was summarized in an article in the Daily Journal of Commerce of Portland on January 4, 1999.

The Working Party on Road Pricing at the Institute of Transportation of Great Britain complimented PRI environmental policy fellow Erin Schiller’s study, "The Road Ahead: The Economic and Environmental Benefits of Congestion Pricing," calling it "a very useful and welcome contribution to the subject."

Center for Freedom and Technology

The January 23-29 issue of The Economist published a letter-to-the-editor by CFT Director Justin Matlick. The letter responds to a recent article on the European Union’s privacy directive.

CFT Director Justin Matlick and PRI Marketing Coordinator Mary Jo Haab exhibited at a data security conference sponsored by RSA Data Security. Matlick and Haab discussed PRI’s technology project — specifically its work on encryption policy — with approximately 5000 industry representatives.

SFIS

San Francisco Independent Scholars Fund (SFIS) hosted the first Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute on January 23 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. SFIS 1998-1999 scholarship recipients were introduced to the basic skills necessary to become successful entrepreneurs. The "power lunch" was attended by entrepreneurs such as William Oberndorf, Daryl Sattui, Robert Hardy, Therese Post, Sandra MacKay, F. Christian Wignall, and Maurice Kanbar.

Book Notes

A letter-to-the-editor in the January issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine by John Dale Dunn, M.D., J.D., uses research from PRI’s book The Great American Gun Debate to debunk two myths about firearms: that there is a correlation between high rates of gun ownership and high rates of homicide and suicide and that there is a correlation between more stringent anti-gun laws and a decline in the rate of gun violence.

The Great American Gun Debate also won an award from Amazon.com — the online book store — for being the best selling book in its category.

Events

On January 20, PRI held a conference for new legislators in Sacramento. Speakers included Janet Nicholas, a member of California’s Board of Education; Tim Coyle, President of the California Building Industry Association; Todd Bland, a welfare policy consultant with California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office; Tom McCaffrey, a former undersecretary for the state’s Health and Welfare Agency; Walter Zellman, President and CEO, California Association of Health Plans; Craig Brown, former Director of the California Department of Finance; and Steve Kroes, Vice President and Director of Research with the California Taxpayers, Association. PRI’s Lance Izumi assessed Gray Davis’ education proposals, Steve Hayward and Erin Schiller handled the environment, and Naomi Lopez addressed welfare and health care reform. A number of legislators attended along with officials of business and trade agencies. In his keynote address, "Dilbert for President," PRI’s Steve Hayward noted that it was dangerous to ride the wave of history "unless you have a wave-making machine."

On January 21, Justin Matlick spoke at PRI’s ongoing Silicon Valley Breakfast series. The topic of his speech was the relationship between property rights and personal information in the Information Age.

Miscellaneous

In a January 22 op-ed in the Washington Times, Herb Berkowitz, vice president of public relations at The Heritage Foundation and director of the organization’s new Center for Media and Public Policy, mentioned PRI as one of the conservative organizations around the United States that has an effective communications program.

Lance Izumi advised Texas Governor George W. Bush’s Administration on January 22 on privatization efforts carried out in California.