Commentary

May 16, 2019

There is a legal adage that “hard cases make bad law.” California may soon rediscover this wisdom. Assembly member Jim Wood has introduced a bill (AB 824) with the intention of discouraging “pay-for-delay” tactics. “Pay-for-delay” practices refer to a situation when a manufacturer of a patented...

May 13, 2019

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is a magician. Almost single-handedly, he has moved "Medicare-for-all" – his plan to provide free, government-run health care to every American – from the political fringe to the center of Democratic Party politics. Fourteen senators – including rival presidential candidates Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth...

May 13, 2019

Last week, the House Rules Committee held a landmark hearing on "Medicare for all." The idea's advocates championed the hearing as a major step towards providing Americans universal, government-run healthcare. A day later, the Congressional Budget Office delivered an analysis that detailed just how destructive single-payer...

May 13, 2019

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently offered a vigorous defense of the Veterans Health Administration, arguing that its problems were a "myth" peddled by Republicans who want to privatize the system. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," she said. One of her fellow Democrats would beg to differ. And...

May 10, 2019

While a powerful front of liberal lawmakers and groups push for a moratorium on the creation of new charter schools in California, individual chapters of the NAACP have broken ranks to support charters that are improving the education for thousands of African-American children. To end teacher strikes in Los Angeles...

May 10, 2019

Ten years ago this month, I had the experience of a lifetime. I was one of a small group of scholars from around the world who were convened by the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences for a "study week." Our subject was "Transgenic Plants for...