November 1998 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 a sample of PRI’s influence in November 1998.

Enterprise and Opportunity

On Nov. 2, Naomi Lopez, director of PRI’s Center for Enterprise and Opportunity, was a guest on San Francisco public radio station KALW, discussing small business development. On Nov. 30, CNN radio interviewed Naomi about the fall in the Dow-Jones average.

On Nov. 5, Investor’s Business Daily published Katherine Post’s Contrarian, "Hard Work Pays Off for Women."

Environment

PRI fellow Steven Hayward continued his influential work on urban sprawl with a Nov. 6 speech to government affairs executives from around the country at a meeting of the National Association of Home Builders in St. Louis.

On Nov. 12, KFBO radio in Los Angeles interviewed PRI director of research Dana Joel Gattuso about the Clinton Administration signing the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Dana’s op-ed, "Kyoto Pact Puts US at Risk," ran in the Journal of Commerce on Nov. 20.

Health and Welfare

On November 10th, Naomi Lopez, PRI senior fellow in medical studies Mark Schiller, and research fellow Dominique Lazanski hosted a health care and welfare policy breakfast for legislators and their staff in Sacramento.

Staffers for state Assemblyman Jim Battin praised "From Grandmother to Big Brother," Naomi’s Action Alert on child care.

Former summer research associate A.J. Gokcek’s op-ed, "Immunization Database is Wasteful," has run in the Houston Chronicle, Salt Lake City Tribune, Idaho Statesman, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Franklin (PA) News-Herald, Oil City (PA) Derrick, Colorado Springs Gazette, Lubbock Avalanche Journal, and Crawfordsville (IN) Journal Review. In addition, the article was published in the November/December issue of Health Freedom Watch, published by the Washington, DC-based Institute for Health Freedom.

PRI senior fellow Mark Schiller’s op-ed, "The Government Smokescreen: Promoting Bad Science," on the issue of second-hand smoke, ran in the Siskiyou Daily News of Yreka, CA.

Heritage Foundation President Edwin Feulner’s syndicated column that discusses PRI’s Project on Children has run in numerous papers including the Washington Times, Somerset American, Titusville Herald, Union City Messenger, Claiborne Progress, Fayette Times-Record, Waynesboro News Virginian, Grove Sun, Vinta County Herald, Ravenna Record-Courier, Lovington Daily Leader, Joplin Globe, Colorado Leader, Big Stone Gap Post, Tipp City Herald, Marion News Herald, Carrollwood News, Kentucky Journal of Commerce & Industry, Holmes County Times, Vidalia Advance-Progress, Douglas County Sentinel, Bogalusa Sunday News, and Commonwealth Journal.

Education

On Nov. 2, the San Francisco Examiner and San Jose Mercury News interviewed Lance Izumi on the impact of the election on education issues. The Orange County Register on Nov. 17 interviewed Lance Izumi on the education policies of California governor-elect Gray Davis.

Pam Riley, co-director of PRI’s Center for School Reform (CSR), supports the important work of the California Network of Educational Charters (CANEC) and has been attending California Department of Education meetings on implementation of California’s new charter law. Also in November, Ms. Riley and PRI president Sally Pipes attended the "Wealth of Cities" conference, held by the Institute for Contemporary Studies (ICS) in Oakland. On Nov. 15-16, Pamela Riley, Sally Pipes, and PRI director of donor relations Cindy Sparks attended a conference co-sponsored by NationsBanc Montgomery Securities and Stanford University. "The Education Forum: Toward a Public/Private Partnership in Education" featured a top slate of speakers, including former Secretary of Education William Bennett and Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, and addressed a host of public school educators and private education industry leaders.

Civil Rights

Naomi Lopez appeared on PBS’s To the Contrary to discuss women’s labor issues and recently traveled to the University of Washington at Seattle to critique The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions by William G. Bowen and Derek Bok. Her recent Action Alert, "Judging a Book by its Cover," is based on that presentation.

Notables

The media sought out PRI leaders for comment on the November elections. On Nov. 5, PRI president Sally Pipes discussed the results on CNN & Company and with the Los Angeles affiliate of National Public Radio on Nov. 9. Sally, Katherine Post, and Lance Izumi discussed the election’s impact on business in a Nov. 10 panel held by the California Manufacturers Association. Sally also spoke to the Constitutional Republican Women’s Club on Nov. 9 and on Nov. 24 introduced William Rusher at the San Francisco Federalist Society, where he spoke on "Conservatism’s Third and Final Battle."

Senatorial staffers in Washington posted Lance Izumi’s KQED commentary on the budget deal on "Hotline," an on-line news service.

PRI fellow Steven Hayward’s article on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings appeared in the National Post (Toronto) on election day (Nov. 3), and his post-election article, "The Stupid Party Strikes Again" appeared in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer and the Columbus Post Dispatch on Nov. 6. The next issue of the quarterly California Building Industry Association Journal will publish a cover story by Steve on the controversy over vanishing agricultural land.

PRI editorial director Lloyd Billingsley authored four articles on the 20th anniversary of Jonestown, including "Lessons from a Utopian Jungle Suicide" in the Nov. 18 Washington Times, "Socialism and Death: The Lesson of Jonestown" in Investor’s Business Daily, "Lessons from Jonestown" in the November 22 San Diego Union-Tribune, and "The Death of God Socialist: Jonestown 20 Years Later" in the November issue of Heterodoxy.