Tim Anaya – Praying for Notre-Dame As we prepare to celebrate Easter and Passover this weekend, our thoughts are in France following the devastating fire that destroyed a significant portion of the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral. It seemed fitt...
April 19, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteDownload the PDF They are not as unpopular in California as President Trump is, but private prisons are becoming a preferred target of politicians. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has a large blue-plate special of problems to solve, is at the forefront of a c...
April 18, 2019 Kerry JacksonWhen Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order “to address the shortage of housing for Californians,” he got it right, or at least halfway. The order directs “the Department of General Services (DGS) and the Department of Housing and Community Deve...
April 17, 2019 Kerry JacksonThe old adage is April showers bring May flowers. Well, after a very wet winter, it looks like spring has finally sprung in California. As soon as the seasons change, Golden State drivers are typically hit with another unwelcome phenomenon brought ...
April 16, 2019 Tim AnayaRight by the Bay has sounded the alarm on the affordable housing crisis, especially our colleague Kerry Jackson, who has written about it here, here, and here. But until we get real reform, like Sam in Casablanca, we plan to play it again and again....
April 15, 2019 Rowena ItchonListen to Lance Izumi, senior director of PRI’s Center for Education, discuss his latest book Choosing Diversity on the Terry Maxwell Show on KNZR Radio in Bakersfield. The interview begins at the 45:15 mark. Click here to listen to the interv...
April 12, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteTim Anaya – Celebrating 40 Years of PRI If you were at our recent 40th Anniversary Gala in San Francisco, you had the chance to watch this great look back at some of the people and events that have shaped PRI over the years. Now......
April 12, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteLance Izumi, senior director of PRI’s Center for Education, discusses the Sacramento teachers strike on the “Phil Cowan Show” on AM 1380 The Answer in Sacramento. The interview begins at the 1:34:45 mark....
April 11, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteA dominant narrative in recent American politics, on full display as the Democratic presidential candidates race left to do battle in their upcoming primaries, is that America is a land of inextricably fixed “haves” and “have nots.” The challenge of ...
April 11, 2019 Damon DunnPRI’s senior director of education studies Lance Izumi discusses his new book Choosing Diversity on “The Andy Caldwell Show” in Santa Barbara. The interviews begins at the 42:00 mark....
April 10, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteThe state Senate held a joint informational hearing last month that, on the surface, looked to be a step forward for those who believe the California Environmental Quality Act needs reform, if not a top-to-bottom overhaul. But apparently the hearing ...
April 10, 2019 Kerry JacksonLance Izumi, senior director of PRI’s Center for Education, discusses his new book Choosing Diversity with host Lillian Cauldwell on Passionate World Talk Radio. Click here to listen to the interview...
April 09, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteLance Izumi, Senior Director of PRI’s Center for Education, joins Jeff Bell and Patti Reising on KCBS Radio in San Francisco to discuss the move by Texas Tech University to stop using race as a factor when admitting students to its medical scho...
April 09, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteYesterday, my colleague Rowena Itchon wrote about Sacramento’s “taxfest” – the various proposals introduced this year to raise taxes on hard-working Californians. That’s only part of the story. A group of lawmakers wants to make it easier to ...
April 09, 2019 Tim AnayaBy Lance Izumi and Michele Steeb Over the past two years, President Trump has promoted bold reforms designed to address the opioid crisis. Congress, in a rare bipartisan effort, wholeheartedly supported Trump’s significant reforms, but these in...
April 08, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteWill Rogers said, “The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.” But Rogers never came up against the current California legislature, which these days isn’t just holding a legislative se...
April 08, 2019 Rowena Itchon
One of the key traits that distinguishes charter schools from traditional public schools is the diversity of educational experiences promoted by the ability to choose, writes Lance Izumi in his new book Choosing Diversity, published by the Pacific Re...
April 05, 2019 Lance IzumiKerry Jackson – The Sensible Environmentalist Watch this video and imagine a debate between him and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez....
April 05, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteCostly regulations serve as a barrier to entrepreneurship, small business growth, innovation, and job opportunities to lift people into the middle class, concludes the first paper in a new series from the California-based, free-market think tank, the...
April 03, 2019 Wayne H WinegardenThe wave of teacher strikes across the country, with their focus on killing education reforms such as charter schools, have focused attention on the ideology of teachers. Many Americans are now asking: “Why are teachers so liberal?” Tom Rademacher, ...
April 03, 2019 Lance IzumiI’ve written extensively about the ongoing troubles at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Last year, the DMV first made headlines with the scandal over long wait times brought about by a lack of any realistic plan to help millions of Californians upda...
April 02, 2019 Tim AnayaRight by the Bay is celebrating (or lamenting) April Fool’s Day by creating the following quiz on weird and goofy laws beginning in 2019 in California. If you get a perfect score, you get a one-way ticket to Texas (April Fool’s!). True or False: Sur...
April 01, 2019 Rowena ItchonGene therapies have the potential to dramatically improve the lives of millions of Americans living with life-threatening diseases. Watch the new PRI video to learn how policy obstacles are standing in the way of making gene therapies a reality for m...
March 29, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteYou would think that California’s current $21.4 billion budget surplus would be plenty of money to fund the spending wish list of those thwarted over the past 8 years by former Gov. Jerry Brown’s adherence to the principle of subsidiarity. Think agai...
March 28, 2019 Tim AnayaIt can cost a half-million dollars more to build the same-size house in California as it does in Texas. The number of adults surprised by this is roughly zero. While California ranked no. 3 in new home construction in 2017, housing supply still lags ...
March 27, 2019 Kerry JacksonCalifornia is proving once again that it’s the worst place to do business in America. This time, the state is attempting to collect up to eight years of back taxes from Amazon sellers whose products were temporarily stored in Amazon warehouses throug...
March 26, 2019 Rowena Itchon
Every day, charter schools play an important role in meeting the diverse needs of California’s students. PRI’s Lance Izumi, Fortune School CEO Margaret Fortune, and EdVoice’s Bill Lucia share real-life charter school success stories and explore idea...
March 25, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteDOWNLOAD THE PDF It was inevitable. California lawmakers’ assault on choice continues in 2019. The plastic-bag ban already in effect is not enough to satisfy their appetite for micromanaging others’ lives. After successfully outlawing single-use plas...
March 25, 2019 Kerry JacksonTim Anaya – What Crime Victims Have to Say About Gov. Newsom’s Actions on the Death Penalty This week on Right by the Bay, I wrote about Gov. Newsom’s startling actions on the death penalty. My piece argues that justice for crime vi...
March 22, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteEnough already. I’m tired of people snickering that USC, my old alma mater, isn’t worth the half-million-dollar bribe that actress Lori Loughlin allegedly paid to get her two daughters in the school. Here’s just a sample of the put downs: John Podho...
March 21, 2019 Rowena ItchonIn early 2018, Pacific Research Institute released my publication An American Education Agenda, which included my five top reform recommendations for the federal government. It is heartening to see that President Trump and his administration have ad...
March 20, 2019 Lance IzumiGovernor Gavin Newsom’s move to have State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond create an expert panel to review the financial impact of charter schools on regular public schools, and put out a report by July, smells like an attempt to ...
March 19, 2019 Lance IzumiCalifornia cities have a choice: They can comply with the new governor’s effort to increase homebuilding or they can continue to put up with lousy roads. That isn’t exactly the way the new governor’s deal is going to work, but it is a loose if......
March 19, 2019 Kerry Jackson
Watch Lance Izumi, senior director of PRI’s Center for Education, discuss the college admissions scandal with host Chance Seales on “The Why” on Newsy....
March 18, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteA combination of powerful aggressive teacher unions and compliant state and local politicians have produced a perfect storm that threatens to destroy the future of charter schools and the children who benefit from them. Charter schools are publicly f...
March 18, 2019 Lance IzumiGov. Gavin Newsom triggered a firestorm on Wednesday by signing an executive order ordering a moratorium on the death penalty. His action effectively grants a reprieve from lethal injections for the state’s 737 death row inmates. According to Polit...
March 18, 2019 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – Beware the Ideas of March Today is an infamous day in history, when Julius Caesar was assassinated by his fellow Roman senators in 44 BC. Deep down, it’s a day that has every politician a little nervous. Watch this reenactment...
March 15, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteIn another First in the Nation policy to come out of California, the L.A. City Council voted 14 to 0 to pass an ordinance requiring companies doing business with the city to disclose whether they or their workers have ties to the National Rifle Assoc...
March 14, 2019 Rowena ItchonSpring is in the air, which of course means it’s time to start thinking about the federal budget. Our latest Beyond the New Normal analysis examined what it would take to transform our current unaffordable federal budget. And while it would take poli...
March 13, 2019 Wayne WinegardenThis week on PRI’s “Next Round” podcast, I sit down with Senator Mike Morrell, R-Rancho Cucamonga. Among the topics that we discussed was his legislation to ensure safer schools for all students (Senate Bill 709), also known as the Sexual Abuse-Free...
March 12, 2019 Tim AnayaA proposal to draw water from the desert to slake perpetually dry Southern California seems no closer to reality now than it did when the idea emerged well more than a decade ago. The project has, according to California Water News Daily, “received n...
March 11, 2019 Kerry JacksonLast week, PRI held its inaugural “California Ideas in Action” Conference in Sacramento. For those of you who weren’t able to join us, below is your chance to watch 4 great panel discussions showcasing how free-market ideas are bes...
March 08, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteLast week, PRI held its inaugural “California Ideas in Action” policy conference in Sacramento. A capacity crowd came together near the State Capitol for a half-day conference exploring how free-market ideas can address California’s most pressing cha...
March 07, 2019 Tim AnayaI recently explained in these pages how government welfare programs keep people at a sustainable level of poverty instead of helping people escape poverty. Little of the actual results of welfare policies resemble the promises made by their proponent...
March 06, 2019 Damon Dunn“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases,” said Ronald Reagan, “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” Uber and Lyft are on the move. And guess what?......
March 05, 2019 Rowena ItchonWashington, DC is currently in the grips of techno dystopian group think. Lobbyists and activists with something to gain, and politicians looking to reap rewards, have dreamt up an absurd imagined society where there is great injustice caused by tech...
March 04, 2019 Bartlett ClelandTim Anaya – A California for Everyone At this week’s PRI “California Ideas in Action” conference in Sacramento, we were pleased to be joined by John Gamboa of The Two Hundred and California Community Builders. He spoke of the ...
March 01, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteWhen Barack Obama called college an economic imperative, he did a disservice to millions of young people. When the current cast of presidential hopefuls call for college that’s free, they do a disservice to America. For years, liberals have romantici...
February 28, 2019 Rowena ItchonWelfare programs treat the symptoms of poverty, not the cause. As a result, they will never be the solution to ending poverty, nor are they designed to be a lasting solution. We have created a massive, cumbersome bureaucracy to administer an ineffect...
February 27, 2019 Damon DunnLast June, then-Gov. Jerry Brown and Sacramento’s political leaders dropped a proposed tax on drinking water. But Gov. Gavin Newsom, following the California Way, apparently aims to bring it back. Newsom, the Los Angeles Times reported “has embraced ...
February 26, 2019 Kerry JacksonWith great fanfare, a group of Democratic lawmakers announced last week their latest effort targeting people who commit the worst social faux pas imaginable – drinking a Big Gulp! Led by Bay Area Democrat Assemblyman Rob Bonta, lawmakers introduced l...
February 25, 2019 Tim AnayaRowena Itchon – Vintage Reagan President Reagan’s last speech to the White House Photographer’s Association is vintage Reagan. His speech starts at about 10:45. Kerry Jackson – Is the Global Temperature Record Credible? One remark from th...
February 22, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteThey say that age and cunning always beats youth and exuberance. But when it comes to the latest dust-up between the Left’s old guard and the new Far Left, how it all plays out in the end isn’t so clear. The Left’s old guard has......
February 21, 2019 Rowena ItchonIt is no coincidence that California’s housing prices began to diverge from the rest of the country in 1970 – the very year that the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) was enacted. According to California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst,...
February 20, 2019 Daniel KolkeyKeeping up with the Great California Exodus can become a tedious task. Stories about businesses or people, or both, fleeing the state are so common that its sometimes seems they are blended all into one. Now comes another. “More Californians are cons...
February 19, 2019 Kerry JacksonIn lieu of our usual blog fare today, we present a special “What We’re Watching” in salute to America’s presidents. So, I love these profiles of various American presidents by comedian Mo Rocca that have aired on “CBS Su...
February 18, 2019 Tim AnayaRowena Itchon – The Economics of Valentine’s Day You may just have gotten over the sticker shock of the flowers, candy, wine, and expensive dinner you shelled out for your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day, but the “day of love...
February 15, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteA lot has already been said about the Green New Deal, including my favorite: “What planet is she on?” from Brian Kilmeade of FOX. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is on planet California, that’s where. The “green dream or whatever” as Nancy Pelosi dismissi...
February 14, 2019 Rowena ItchonA few weeks back, in writing about Gov. Newsom’s first budget proposal – I noted that the Governor was demonstrating how one could have his cake and eat it, too, in his spending plan for the state. As I watched the Governor’s first State of......
February 13, 2019 Tim AnayaSan Francisco Mayor London Breed’s proposal to boost home building won’t alone relieve the city’ housing shortage. But as starts go, it’s not a bad one. Breed is rolling out a bill that would kill permits and inspection fees, eliminating “thousands o...
February 12, 2019 Kerry JacksonThe first weeks of 2019 have been dominated by the push from emboldened Sacramento liberals to enact measures increasing our tax burden, imposing new regulations on employers, and taking away some of our personal freedom. Most observers argue, based ...
February 11, 2019 Tim AnayaBen Smithwick – Bad Laws Cause Homeless Crisis This latest video by John Stossel echoes what PRI’s Kerry Jackson has studied and written about extensively in recent months – well-intentioned laws are exacerbating the state’s h...
February 08, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteIt doesn’t happen often enough, but sometimes freedom wins in California. In the most recent of these rare events, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – yes, the Ninth – affirmed late last month a lower-court ruling that said the San Francisco or...
February 07, 2019 Kerry JacksonDOWNLOAD THE PDF There is currently a trend toward misunderstanding or misrepresenting science, and it starts early. A grade-school teacher asked the class whether a whale is a fish or a mammal. One boy raised his hand and offered, “Let’s take a vote...
February 06, 2019 Robert Wager and Henry I. MillerIn January, PRI had the pleasure of hosting Manhattan Institute fellow Heather Mac Donald at a luncheon in Southern California to discuss her new book The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine our Cult...
February 05, 2019 Rowena ItchonAssemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) and a group of female Democrat legislators recently unveiled a proposal (Assembly Bill 220) to allow campaign funds to be spent on childcare expenses for the candidate’s children. New East Bay Assemblywoman Buffy Wic...
February 04, 2019 Tim AnayaAn ominous aspect of the recent Los Angeles teachers strike settlement is the provision pushing for a halt on the number of charter schools. Although the 2017 L.A. school board elections resulted in a board majority favoring charter schools, in the s...
February 01, 2019 Lance IzumiKerry Jackson – How Much Land Would It Take for California to Go 100% Renewable? We’ve written a lot about California’s unrealistic and unworkable energy policies, and how they are increasing energy poverty for more and more people,...
February 01, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteThe settlement of the Los Angeles’ teachers strike last week made major news across the state. As PRI’s Lance Izumi wrote recently in the Daily Caller, “the Los Angeles teachers strike is a perfect storm of bad policies, bad management, bad demands, ...
January 31, 2019 Tim AnayaCalifornia continues to rank last, or so near the bottom that it makes no difference, in quality-of-life lists, and it’s not quite clear if the news has made it to Sacramento yet. Because there are no efforts being made to turn things around. Instead...
January 30, 2019 Kerry Jackson
Despite the recent settlement of the Los Angeles teachers strike, mostly in the teacher union’s favor, the deal largely ignores the shaky financial realities of the school district. While the union crows about its apparent victory, the potential fisc...
January 29, 2019 Lance IzumiIt’s not often that another state can top California when it comes to protecting public employee unions. But Oregon’s House Bill 2643 takes the prize so far for the most audacious attempt to thwart the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus decision. Janus v. A...
January 29, 2019 Rowena ItchonThe old joke about the drunk and the policeman is apropos for far too many pharmaceutical studies. Typically, the joke goes something like the following: A policeman sees a drunk man searching for something under a streetlight and asks what the drunk...
January 28, 2019 Wayne WinegardenThis week, PRI is celebrating National School Choice Week with the release of our new mini-documentary, “Welcome to Change”. The film profiles Life Learning Academy on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, which serves students battling s...
January 25, 2019 Pacific Research Institute
As California celebrates National School Choice Week (week of January 20-26), the Pacific Research Institute today released a new mini-documentary called “Welcome to Change,” showing the power of charter schools to get even the most troubled youths o...
January 24, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteThere is a long tradition of food sharing in California. It’s been called by its practitioners an “unregulated gift of compassion” for the hungry. For decades, however, this peaceful, voluntary act was illegal across the state unless participating gr...
January 24, 2019 Kerry JacksonCalifornia’s rural residents and coastal elites have at least one thing in common: they’re both drinking bottled water. A McClatchy analysis of data compiled from the State Water Resource Control Board estimates that 360,000 Californians – mostly in...
January 23, 2019 Rowena ItchonGov. Gavin Newsom’s first budget plan proves the old English proverb is wrong. Turns out you can have your cake and eat it too, especially when the state has a $21.4 billion budget surplus. Continuing with the clichés – state budgets are usually fea...
January 22, 2019 Tim AnayaToday, we join all Americans in pausing to remember the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Instead of our normal posts here on Right by the Bay today, we present a special “What We’re Watching” featuring Dr. King’s most in...
January 21, 2019 Pacific Research Institute
Conventional analyses of the Los Angeles teachers strike present the public with a false dichotomy: is the teachers union right or is the school district right? The reality is that both sides are wrong, and the solution for parents and students is g...
January 18, 2019 Lance IzumiTim Anaya – Choosing Diversity Preview Next week is National School Choice Week. As part of the celebration, we’ll be releasing Choosing Diversity, the latest book from our Lance Izumi on the importance of charter schools. Here’s a ...
January 18, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteMaking it more expensive to drink in San Francisco is not one of Proposition C’s objectives. But it was nearly one of its initial effects. Young’s Market Co., a wine and spirits distributor based in Tustin that does business across the western U.S., ...
January 17, 2019 Kerry JacksonDownload the PDF The rest of the country wasn’t surprised when California recently considered becoming the first state in the country to tax text messages. It almost seems as if there is a group of unelected bureaucrats that does nothing but cloister...
January 16, 2019 Kerry JacksonWe’re painting the roses red, Painting the roses red, And many a tear we shed, Because we know, They’ll cease to grow, In fact, they’ll soon be dead. And yet we go ahead, Painting the roses red Just like the characters in Alice in W...
January 15, 2019 Wayne Winegarden
Senior Director of PRI’s Center for Education Lance Izumi joins us to talk about his new book on charter schools, Choosing Diversity, which profiles several charter schools across the country that are a different as one could imagine, but all meet th...
January 14, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteListen to Lance Izumi, Senior Director of PRI’s Center for Education, discuss his upcoming book Choosing Diversity on “The Phil Cowan Show” on AM 1380 The Answer in Sacramento. The interview begins at the 1 hour, 34 minute mark....
January 14, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteAssemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, wins the award for the best staged press conference of 2019. Not since Governor Schwarzenegger brought out the infamous “Count Cartaxula” (played by my good friend Walter von Huene) have we seen anything like a...
January 14, 2019 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – Dutch Newsom Upstages His Dad’s Inauguration We’ve had plenty to say this week about Gavin Newsom’s inauguration and his first proposals as Governor. We suspect he’ll keep us talking – and writing ̵...
January 11, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteIn what amounts to an exit interview with the New York Times, former California Gov. Jerry Brown complained the state has “too many damn laws” and argued “the coercive power of the state should be invoked sparingly.” We’ll never see another Democrati...
January 10, 2019 Kerry JacksonPolicy debates over curriculum often center on test scores and other student performance indicators. However, according to a recent lawsuit filed in federal court, curricular bias and indoctrination have reached shocking levels that raise serious co...
January 09, 2019 Lance IzumiIrate over plummeting stock prices in recent weeks, the media reported that President Trump wanted to fire his appointed Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. But can he really fire him? It turns out that the law is murky in this area. Trump can fire Powell...
January 08, 2019 Rowena ItchonCalifornia’s 40th governor – Gavin Newsom – will be sworn in this morning on the steps of the State Capitol, at a ceremony filled with pomp-and-circumstance. The tradition of an inauguration is America’s version of the changing of the guard at Buckin...
January 07, 2019 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – A Trip Down California Inaugural History Lane On Monday, Gavin Newsom will be sworn in as California’s next governor. If, like me, you enjoy the ceremony and pageantry of inaugurations, check out this Huell Howser special from...
January 04, 2019 Pacific Research Institute
By Lance Izumi and Kerry McDonald Back in 2006, California voters decisively rejected liberal Hollywood director/activist Rob Reiner’s ballot initiative that would have provided government preschool to all four-year-olds. Yet, like a bad penny, effor...
January 03, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteReality TV doesn’t get any better than the recent Oval Office brawl with Trump, Pelosi, and Schumer duking it out over border security. The media made much of it: “pitched partisan argument” (Politico), “testy confrontation” (New York Times), “politi...
January 02, 2019 Rowena ItchonDoes everyone by virtue of their existence have a right to shelter? It’s a question the California legislature will consider in 2019. Earlier this month, Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, introduced Senate Bill 48. This Right to Shelter Bill “aims ...
January 02, 2019 Kerry JacksonAs is customary on New Year’s Eve, many are looking back today, compiling their lists of winners and losers and memorable moments from 2018. The PRI “All Stars” (Rowena Itchon, Kerry Jackson, Lance Izumi, Ben Smithwick, and myself) have also gotten i...
December 31, 2018 Tim AnayaThere’s a popular saying we are all familiar with, and it rings truer each time I hear it: “As California goes, so goes the nation.” If you want to know the policy battles America and the other states will soon be fighting, look no further......
December 28, 2018 Ben SmithwickGoing into a new year, many of us use the occasion to start fresh, forget about the old, and resolve to improve our lives. If lawmakers are open to suggestions, here are some New Year’s resolutions the California Senate and Assembly should make: Abol...
December 27, 2018 Kerry JacksonTim Anaya – It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Electric Cars? If you watched his “I Love LA” parody earlier this year, you’ll know that Remy from the Reason Foundation is just brilliant. He’s out with a holiday-them...
December 24, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteTim Anaya – Farewell to Gov. Brown For those who didn’t have the opportunity to Gov. Brown’s one (and only) appearance before the Sacramento Press Club this week, watch this clip for some of the highlights and a look back at this un...
December 21, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteIt’s December 20 and many are scrambling trying to find last-minute gifts for their family and friends. Heck, some folks won’t even begin their shopping until the afternoon of December 24th. Back by popular demand for weary shoppers is PRI’s annual ...
December 20, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteGov. Jerry Brown was once described by my former boss, Connie Conway, as the “funniest unfunny man” she’d ever met. For anyone who had the opportunity to watch his “exit interview” at the Sacramento Press Club, you’d know that this is an apt descript...
December 19, 2018 Tim AnayaOne idea that has been gaining traction recently is a system of universal income, also known as basic income. The city of Stockton, California will be the nation’s first city to launch a universal income pilot program in 2019. While the specific pol...
December 18, 2018 Damon DunnCalifornia’s runaway housing prices caused by a policy-created shortage of homes will be getting a tailwind in a little more than a year. Beginning on Jan. 1, 2020, every home built in the state, including condominiums and low-rise apartments, will h...
December 17, 2018 Kerry JacksonKerry Jackson – Profits are Progressive Walter Williams explains why market economies work, and why we should “want as little government as possible.” It’s a lesson that needs to be taught to students beginning in elementary s...
December 14, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteLast week, the California Supreme Court heard the case Cal Fire Local 2881 v. CalPERS which challenged the 2013 law (the California Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act or PEPRA) that eliminated state employees’ ability to add up to five years of emp...
December 13, 2018 Rowena ItchonWhat is the biggest threat to freedom in our country? According to an eye-opening new book by educator Rebecca Friedrichs, who gained fame as the named plaintiff in a U.S. Supreme Court case challenging forced fees from teachers to unions, teacher u...
December 12, 2018 Lance IzumiLast week, after newly-elected members of the Legislature raised their hands to take their oaths of office, many also took the opportunity to introduce their first bills of the legislative session. In a sea of costly new programs, prohibitions on peo...
December 12, 2018 Tim AnayaMy last blog post discussed the risks that ESG investing creates for CalPERS and CalSTRS. If not addressed, then both taxpayers and public employees will bear unnecessary costs and risks. Unfortunately, SEC rules are making this problem even worse. T...
December 11, 2018 Wayne WinegardenWe’ve recently said that Elon Musk’s tunnel-boring project could be the potential foundation of a hyperloop transportation system. But as is too often the case in California, a reasonable objective has been sidelined by outrage. Musk has abandoned th...
December 10, 2018 Kerry JacksonRowena Itchon – Highlights from a Tribute to an American Hero For those of us who spend much of our day behind a desk and not able to watch Pres. George H.W. Bush’s funeral, here are some highlights. Tim Anaya – A 38 Year Old......
December 07, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteI just returned from my annual Thanksgiving family trip to Hawaii where it was Day 40-something of a hotel workers’ strike at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. I had a hunch something was amiss when our Uber driver pulled into the driveway and a lone young....
December 06, 2018 Rowena ItchonCalifornia’s public pensions are in trouble. While the Pew Charitable Trusts reports that California’s current unfunded liabilities are nearly $170 billion, as I recently reported in my chartbook on California’s pension crisis, the crisis is much wor...
December 05, 2018 Wayne WinegardenAs I write this article in late November of 2018, the stock market has fallen significantly from its recent highs. These losses, which have erased nearly all the gains made thus far in 2018 push us toward official correction territory for both the D...
December 04, 2018 Damon DunnWhen San Franciscans went to the polls on Nov. 6, they knew in advance what the consequences are likely to be if an initiative to tax corporations to fund services for the homeless was approved. Yet they passed it anyway. Nearly 61 percent voted for....
December 03, 2018 Kerry JacksonTim Anaya – A Portrait Unveiling Fit for a Tax Cutter House Speaker Paul Ryan is retiring this month from Congress. A life-long advocate for lower taxes and free-market policies, his favorite role in Congress was not as Speaker, but as chair of...
November 30, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteAn audit of the California bullet train released the Friday before Thanksgiving should make reasonable people wonder why the project wasn’t killed long ago. For instance, the office of State Auditor Elaine Howle says the high-speed rail has enough fu...
November 29, 2018 Kerry JacksonEver since Democrats won control of the U.S. House of Representatives, many have speculated whether President Trump and Democrats be able to make a deal on something big. With Democrats saying that they aren’t afraid to use their newfound-subpoena po...
November 28, 2018 Tim AnayaIf you are reading this blog, there’s a good chance that you have generously donated to PRI, attended one of our recent events, or shared our research with your friends and colleagues. Our work would not be possible without the support of individuals...
November 27, 2018 Ben SmithwickDr. Cara Stillings Candal of the Pioneer Institute talks with PRI’s Lance Izumi about the fight for charter schools in Massachusetts, and what advocates in California can learn from their experiences to expand school choice for students and parents i...
November 26, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteIf your holiday meals include filet mignon, rack of lamb, roast pork, or even charcuterie, you might want to reach for a second helping while you can still afford it. That’s because Oxford University researchers are proposing a tax on meat. Their go...
November 26, 2018 Rowena ItchonThe holidays are upon us, so we’ve decided to compile a list of our Next Round podcast guests’ alcoholic beverage recommendations for our loyal Right by the Bay readers once again. There’s something for everyone on the list, from Michael “the most in...
November 21, 2018 Rowena ItchonBy Makaila Warga Move over baby boomers, millennials are on the cusp of becoming the nation’s largest adult generation – and with that comes a significant opportunity to influence the public policy debate. Based on data recently collected by Pe...
November 20, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteIn the early 21st century, American fiscal policy must balance and prioritize two fundamental goals. First, we need to create the best possible environment for investment and innovation, setting the stage for another century of unparalleled prosperit...
November 19, 2018 Damon DunnTim Anaya: Was Amazon HQ2 Worth It? The Wall Street Journal put together this interesting video exploring all of the potential winners and losers from the Amazon HQ2 deal in New York and Virginia. Watching the video, the debate is about more than the...
November 16, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteWhile high-speed rail, California’s monument to folly, mocks itself with unfinished concrete pillars rising toward the sky like empty hands and tracks leading to nowhere, a tunnel burrowed by entrepreneur Elon Musk beneath Los Angeles might be the fo...
November 15, 2018 Kerry JacksonArgues That SEC Should Ensure Shareholder Interests Are Top Priority in Investment Decisions SAN FRANCISCO – Policy reforms should be enacted to ensure that proxy advisory firms promote fund managers’ fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders and in...
November 14, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteThe 2018 election has come and passed. To paraphrase California’s governor-elect, Gavin Newsom will move to the “corner office” come January, “whether you like it or not.” While a few races are still up in the air as of this writing, it looks like h...
November 14, 2018 Tim AnayaIt’s official. Amazon has announced plans to establish its second headquarters in New York in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens and Crystal City, Virginia, which is just outside Washington, D.C. I first wrote about Amazon’s search in ...
November 13, 2018 Rowena ItchonVeterans Day, which we celebrated on November 11th, is not only a national holiday where we honor those men and women who served in our armed forces, but it is also an intensely personal day where family and friends remember their loved ones who wore...
November 12, 2018 Lance IzumiIn some excellent reporting by Chris Reed of CalWatchdog, Reed found that more than 100 local governments in California asked voters for tax hikes on Election Day, double the 56 the Bond Buyer said it recorded in November 2016. These 100+ measures we...
November 08, 2018 Rowena ItchonThere are not enough politicians who know what it takes to run a business. Many argue that government would improve if it was run more like a business. Having been an entrepreneur and business owner, I know firsthand the blessings and challenges that...
November 07, 2018 Damon DunnHomelessness among children is more widespread than imagined, and the many problems faced by these children, from instability to personal safety, seriously impact their education. Yet federal housing policies undercut the ability of local organizatio...
November 06, 2018 Lance IzumiDOWNLOAD THE PDF Keeping track of the many informative lists in which California ranks at or near the bottom is a wearying task. It is also discouraging. This state, once the envy of all others, is losing its luster because policymakers continue to t...
November 06, 2018 Kerry JacksonYesterday, Californians went through our twice-yearly ritual – changing the clocks one hour as our observance of Daylight Saving Time ends. If you’re like me, you spent Saturday night going around the house changing the myriad clocks on the wall and ...
November 05, 2018 Tim AnayaWhile much of the media is focused on which party will control Congress, one of the most important races in California is for state superintendent of public instruction, the state’s top education official. In one corner is education reformer Marshall...
November 02, 2018 Lance IzumiLt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, likely the next governor of California, is a single-payer health care evangelist. He has a vision of the state under his charge leading “this conversation in a way that ultimately advances” a single-payer system nationwide. Ide...
November 01, 2018 Kerry Jackson
By Tim Anaya It’s almost here. Election day 2018 is just around the corner on Tuesday, November 6. Many Californians will take time over the next few days to review all the candidates and ballot measures on the November ballot. With media coverage ...
October 31, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteNext week, Californians will vote on Proposition 6, which, if approved, would kill last year’s $52 billion fuel tax hike. Opponents are telling us we will doom ourselves if repeal the tax hike. How, they ask, will the state repair its miserable roads...
October 30, 2018 Kerry JacksonIt’s been a rocky road for the stock market so far in October. Historically, the financial markets aren’t jittery around mid-term elections. But rising interest rates, a trade war, the mysterious death of an Arab journalist, and Central Americans o...
October 29, 2018 Rowena ItchonRowena Itchon – Is Social Media Good for Democracy? Check out this Intelligence Squared Debate on whether social media is good for democracy. Surprisingly, tech guru and venture capitalist Roger McNamee was against the motion – and his side wo...
October 26, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteAt 2 pm Eastern time today, President Trump spoke at the Department of Health and Human Services where he recommended a litany of policies that would ultimately impose price controls on the pharmaceutical market. Take his proposal to force the prices...
October 25, 2018 Wayne WinegardenThe problems continue at the scandal-plagued California Department of Motor Vehicles. In August, I wrote about the wait time scandal at the DMV, where Californians applying for a REAL ID Act-compliant license were forced to wait in line for 6 hours o...
October 24, 2018 Tim AnayaJohn Cox, GOP candidate for California’s gubernatorial race, made headlines the other day when he said that he’d like to see teachers paid like “rock stars and baseball players.” Later in a statement, he sheepishly walked it back: “Of course our teac...
October 23, 2018 Rowena ItchonFuel prices in California are soaring like it’s 1979. A gallon of regular gasoline was averaging $3.82 across the state on Oct. 18, nearly a full dollar higher than the national average, according to AAA. Only in Hawaii are prices higher. With the su...
October 22, 2018 Kerry JacksonKerry Jackson – WTF Happened in California? Recently, the Department of Motor Vehicles admitted that they accidentally registered more than 1,000 non-citizens to vote. It begs the question, “WTF Happened in California?” Enjoy this i...
October 19, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteOur politics are full of paeans to small business. Regardless of one’s policy preferences or party affiliation, everyone appears rhetorically to be on the side of small business. As an entrepreneur and small business owner, I am reminded daily of the...
October 18, 2018 Damon DunnCalifornia officials want to eventually force everyone on the road out of their gasoline- and diesel-powered automobiles and into electric vehicles. But it’s a radical shift that can’t be decreed into existence overnight. So, expect a boost in the go...
October 17, 2018 Kerry JacksonIn this November election, it’s unfortunate that there’s only one seat up on the BART board (for non-Bay Area readers, BART is the region’s electric train line), because if I had one command as Queen for a day – a question Tim Anaya likes to......
October 16, 2018 Rowena ItchonLance Izumi, Koret Senior Fellow in Education and Senior Director of PRI’s Center for Education, was asked by the Sacramento Bee for his comments on a statement by California gubernatorial candidate John Cox that teacher should be “paid l...
October 15, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteThe other day I was thumbing through California’s official voter information guide to read up on some of the propositions that we’ll be voting on in November. This year, we’ll decide 12 statewide propositions, plus numerous local and county measures...
October 15, 2018 Tim AnayaRowena Itchon – What Happens During a Major Stock Market Crash? It happened in 1929, in 1987, and in 2008 – an October stock market crash. While no one wants to see it happen, it’s best to keep on our toes. Here’s a classic video......
October 12, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteIn less than a month, Californians will head to the polls in what will surely be of the most consequential elections in years. The state is home to several competitive races for U.S. House seats – the results of which will have a significant impact.....
October 11, 2018 Ben SmithwickOn the California ballot this November is a state measure that would cap dialysis clinics’ profits at 15 percent, forcing them to offer rebates to insurance companies at the end of every year if dialysis companies’ margins exceed that cap. About 66,...
October 10, 2018 Rowena ItchonWe recently documented California’s sharp fall in oil production, noting that even though only two states have more proved reserves of crude, five are producing more oil. This is not due to an accident or bad luck. Or even poor management. It is by d...
October 09, 2018 Kerry JacksonRebecca Friedrichs of For Kids and Country joins us to talk about the victory for worker freedom in the Janus decision, and her experiences as lead plaintiff in a prior case that ended in a 4-4 tie in the Supreme Court. We discuss what’s next for di...
October 08, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteDuring his second tenure as governor, Jerry Brown has often been called the “grown-up” in the room when forging consensus on major policy issues like spending and public pensions. This has especially been the case comparing Gov. Brown to the extreme ...
October 08, 2018 Tim AnayaRowena Itchon – Wine Harvests One Year After Devastating Fires It was a year ago when northern California wine growers suffered from devastating wildfires. But by all accounts, as harvest season nears its end, wine growers are expecting 2018 t...
October 05, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteThis essay is meant to be a simple and straight forward look at how adding specific skill sets allowed me to have socioeconomic mobility and earn wages that allow me to send my daughter to private school, own a home, and enjoy a better present......
October 04, 2018 Damon DunnWhen I was in the investment industry in the 1990s, my friend Jeannette and I observed that after meetings and conferences, the top executives – mostly men but a few women — often played a round of golf. We knew a lot of bonding took......
October 03, 2018 Rowena ItchonAbout once a month, I travel by Amtrak to Emeryville, and then by shuttle bus across the bay, for events or meetings at PRI’s San Francisco headquarters. Usually, I take the shuttle bus that stops in front of the Hyatt Regency at the Embarcadero Cent...
October 02, 2018 Tim AnayaRegnery Publishing Vice President and Executive Editor Harry Crocker joins us to talk about his new book Armstrong, which imagines what would have if George Armstrong Custer survived the Battle of Little Big Horn. We discuss his inspiration for writ...
October 01, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteAs California’s bullet train continues to get hung up by cost projections gone wild, construction delays, postponed opening dates, and legal troubles, a high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and Las Vegas could be carrying passengers just four yea...
October 01, 2018 Kerry JacksonTim Anaya – Check out the new “California Nation” Podcast Very excited to announce The Bee is getting into the podcast arena. Starting Thursday, I'll be hosting "California Nation." You can subscribe now on Apple, Stit...
September 28, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteThis summer, I had the opportunity to interview Andy Puzder on PRI’s “Next Round” podcast. In chatting with him about his new book Capitalist Comeback, the former Trump nominee for Secretary of Labor and I were both astounded at the speed of the eco...
September 27, 2018 Rowena ItchonLast week, I celebrated my 42nd birthday in style – taking a few days off following our Baroness Thatcher Gala to enjoy some of the sites of Southern California. I spent a lovely afternoon at Downtown Disney, which is an entertainment district right ...
September 26, 2018 Tim AnayaJust days after signing legislation committing the state to 100 percent renewable sources for electricity, Gov. Jerry Brown hosted a grandiose climate summit in San Francisco. Noticeably absent from the conference was even the smallest dose of health...
September 25, 2018 Kerry JacksonThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed freezing CAFE standards at the 2020 levels of 37 mpg. While a bit of a non sequitur, this freeze is reminiscent of the climactic scene from the 1992 film A Few Good Men. For those of you who......
September 24, 2018 Wayne WinegardenTim Anaya – Boy Asks President Trump for a Hug Our friends in North and South Carolina are busy today getting back on track in the aftermath of last week’s destructive Hurricane Florence. The aftermath of this devastating storm was not a...
September 21, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteDownload the PDF California, not West Virginia, not Mississippi, has the highest poverty rate among the 50 states. Blame policymakers who, rather than solving the problem, have inflamed it. In fact, California officials have gone out of their way to ...
September 20, 2018 Kerry JacksonSacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg is trying to have his cake and eat it too. He announced in June that he opposed a local ballot measure being pushed by labor unions and activist groups to impose new rent control restrictions in Sacramento. That mea...
September 19, 2018 Tim AnayaIt didn’t take long for a California Supreme Court decision to start claiming victims. Bottle & Barlow, a “get loose stay sharp” joint on trendy R Street in Sacramento, where a gentleman can sip whisky and also be stylishly shorn, has lost its en...
September 18, 2018 Kerry JacksonI used to tell my friends and colleagues to be sure to check out the Lord & Taylor website before they buy an outfit. Lord & Taylor doesn’t have operations in California, so the same Calvin Klein dress would be tax-free at Lord & Taylor,....
September 17, 2018 Rowena ItchonIn this and succeeding columns, I intend to develop a new paradigm for thinking about economic progress for America in the 21st century. I believe that supporters of free markets are faced with both extraordinary opportunities and great cause for con...
September 13, 2018 Damon DunnToday marks the 17th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. Today, we remember the 2,996 people who lost their lives at those sites and as passengers on the hijacked planes...
September 11, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteToday, thousands are gathering in San Francisco for a so-called “Global Climate Action Summit.” Co-hosted by Gov. Jerry Brown, several UN organizations and other leaders, it is billed as a “launchpad for deeper worldwide commitments and accelerated ...
September 11, 2018 Tim AnayaCalifornia lawmakers have sent legislation to Gov. Jerry Brown that will allow them to live outside the districts they “represent.” To some, Senate Bill 1250 simply frees legislators to live and work in Sacramento while representing the folks back ho...
September 10, 2018 Kerry JacksonKerry Jackson – Left or Liberal? I have been waging a (miserably ineffectual) one-man campaign for nearly 25 years trying to restore the proper use of “liberal.” So this first video is right in my wheelhouse. I do take one exception...
September 07, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteBy Sally C. Pipes and Rowena Itchon “In the occasionally parallel universe of fashion magazines,” writes Matthew Schneier, style editor of the New York Times, “the calendar diverges from the standard. The Gregorian does not apply. For fashion magazin...
September 06, 2018 Pacific Research Institute
New PRI-Open the Books Chartbook Shows California’s Public Pension Monster Has Grown to Nearly $1 Trillion More Realistic Market Estimate Show State Pension Funds are Just 28 Percent Funded...
September 05, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteOf the 50 states, only Texas and North Dakota have more proved oil reserves than California. The state should be capitalizing on the riches, shouldn’t it? But, no. That’s not the plan. California politicians want to leave crude in the ground where it...
September 04, 2018 Kerry JacksonToday is Labor Day, which is traditionally the last day of summer and a time for one last barbecue or trip to the beach with family and friends. Labor Day used to be remembered for another annual tradition – the Jerry Lewis Telethon. For all......
September 03, 2018 Tim AnayaRowena Itchon – Remembering Lech Walesa and the Solidarity Movement We can’t forget this Labor Day weekend Lech Walesa and the ship workers of Gdansk, Poland. The Solidarity movement would eventually help bring down Communism and win back freed...
August 31, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteListen to Koret Senior Fellow in Education and Senior Director of PRI’s Center for Education Lance Izumi discuss the ongoing Washington state teacher strikes, and his recent op-ed on the victory of an Oregon student in a student free speech cas...
August 30, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteDownload PDF Originally published in PRI’s Impact magazine, Summer 2018 An article that posits California as the model for the country’s future recently picked up some traffic, thanks to an affirming tweet from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who called it ...
August 30, 2018 Kerry JacksonIf the recent PPIC debate is any indication, expect this year’s race for State Superintendent of Public Instruction to be a close race with clear differences between the two candidates. Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, D-Richmond, wins the contest for most...
August 29, 2018 Tim AnayaFor many generations California was the land of promise, where people could earn fortunes, freely express themselves, and live easily with minimal interference from authorities. It was a well-deserved image. But the dream is now a mirage. California ...
August 28, 2018 Kerry JacksonHeading into the Labor Day weekend, we thought we would take a contrarian view of the holiday by reviewing Forbes columnist John Tamny’s new book, The End of Work. Last year, we interviewed him on our podcast on his previous book, Who Needs the Fed?...
August 27, 2018 Rowena ItchonPlay everyone’s favorite game show “What Will You Bid?” to learn about the broken competitive bidding process for providing durable medical equipment to Medicare patients. Read the new study by PRI’s Wayne Winegarden to learn ...
August 24, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteWhile anti-Trump bias continues to reign in America’s schools, courageous students are standing up for their First Amendment free-speech rights, and the courts are starting to back them up. In Oregon, a high school outside Portland suspended st...
August 23, 2018 Lance IzumiKoret Senior Fellow in Education and Senior Director of PRI’s Center for Education Lance Izumi discusses the challenges to student free speech in the classroom on The David Webb Show on SiriusXM Patriot, Channel 125. Click here to listen to the...
August 23, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteDuring her recent campaign swing through California, Democratic socialist Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez visited the asparagus capital of America to meet with Mayor Michael Tubbs and explore ways to take a local universal basic income plan nationwide. “We t...
August 23, 2018 Tim AnayaThe Trump administration recently announced a regulatory change that “proposes to expand the availability of short-term, limited-duration health insurance by allowing consumers to buy plans providing coverage for any period of less than 12 months, ra...
August 22, 2018 Kerry JacksonWe almost never find ourselves on the same side as celebs, so when “Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon, now running for governor of New York, recently railed against taxpayer subsidies for the film industry, we couldn’t help but pop the popcorn. B...
August 21, 2018 Rowena ItchonListen to Koret Senior Fellow in Education and Senior Director of PRI’s Center for Education Lance Izumi discuss school choice, education reform, and his book An American Education Agenda with guest host Katy Grimes on “The Phil Cowan Sho...
August 20, 2018 Phil CowanI’ve written before about Sacramento’s efforts to try and dictate how people live their lives through over-reaching legislation. On Thursday, we saw that some Sacramento liberals are taking things a step further, telling California’s parents how they...
August 20, 2018 Tim AnayaRowena Itchon – The Diplomat and the Diva America mourns the Queen of Soul – here’s Aretha Franklin and Condoleezza Rice teaming up at a benefit conference in Philadelphia — the Diplomat and the Diva. Tim Anaya – Presidential Medal ...
August 17, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteJust after the New Year began, California lawmakers, sore that the Federal Communications Commission restored a stolen freedom and repealed the Obama-era net neutrality rule, introduced their own net neutrality bill. The California Internet Consumer ...
August 16, 2018 Kerry JacksonWith the mid-term elections now less than 100 days away, the siren-call for single-payer or “Medicare for All” continues. Fifty-one percent of those polled earlier this year by Kaiser support single payer, the highest number ever recorded. But as ...
August 15, 2018 Sally C. PipesOpen the PDF California lawmakers have had several chances to handcuff payday lenders, and in each instance, they were either unable to, or chose not to. Naturally, some see this as a series of missed opportunities. We understand the reaction. But th...
August 14, 2018 Kerry JacksonThe Sacramento Bee recently ran an article with a rather curious headline – “Fix California roads without the new gas taxes?” Reading the article from our friends at the Bee, they make it seem like funding road repair projects without a tax increase ...
August 13, 2018 Tim AnayaRowena Itchon – George Gilder Sneak Peek For a sneak preview of George Gilder’s talk “Life After Google” at the PRI luncheon on August 23 in San Francisco, I recommend that you check out his speech at the Blockstack conference in Berlin. I’m go...
August 10, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteBenjamin Franklin famously said that there are only two things certain in life – death and taxes. In California, you could add a third – hatred of the DMV. Anyone who has ever signed up for a driver’s license or register a vehicle knows just......
August 09, 2018 Tim AnayaThe United States benefits every day from the policy victories won by President Reagan’s administration. Enough time has passed since his tenure in the White House that many fair-minded observers, regardless of their political orientation, recognize ...
August 08, 2018 Damon DunnTim and I have a little shtick on the PRI podcast where on the last question we ask each of our guests for a favorite wine recommendation. Our headquarters in San Francisco is just down the road from Wine Country and most everyone loves wine......
August 07, 2018 Rowena ItchonFor me, there was perhaps no scarier movie as a kid growing up in the 1980’s than the classic “Poltergeist”. The most iconic moment of the film is when the little girl screams out to her parents, “They’re Back!” Today is a good day to......
August 06, 2018 Tim AnayaThis week, we celebrate what would have been Milton Friedman’s 106th birthday (he was born July 31, 1912). In celebration of Dr. Friedman’s important legacy defending free markets and free people, and the inspiration he has provided all ...
August 03, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteIn my prior job, I usually brought my lunch to work. Every now and then, when I would forget to pack a lunch, or the cupboard was bare, I would grab a sandwich in the cafeteria. While I’ve sampled some great food at state office......
August 02, 2018 Tim AnayaHomelessness, says Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, will be one of his top priorities should he be elected California governor this fall. He even has a plan, says the Sacramento Bee, in which he will “get deeply involved at a granular level where most governor...
August 01, 2018 Kerry JacksonStep one in any recovery program is to admit that the problem exists. And, make no mistake about it, California’s public pensions are addicted to debt. Solving this debt crisis requires political courage to implement fundamental reforms, which is why...
July 31, 2018 Wayne WinegardenOh Canada, here I come! Well, not really. At least not permanently. This week I’m in Montreal and Quebec City for summer vacation. Before leaving, I decided to check out how the U.S. compares economically to Canada, and there’s no better source than ...
July 30, 2018 Rowena ItchonDownload the PDF When the Legislature declared a moratorium on cities enacting soda taxes, it felt like a win for freedom and a pushback of interventionism. But the busybodies never give up and they plow a fertile field in California, which has no ri...
July 26, 2018 Kerry JacksonLast week, I wrote about a controversial plan in the City of Stockton to essentially hand a selected group of people wads of cash each month to do nothing. Under this universal basic income scheme, they wouldn’t have to work or adhere to some milest...
July 25, 2018 Tim AnayaLt. Mike Stone: You saw what he did, arrest him! Inspector Steve Keller: No. I didn’t become a cop to arrest street poopers. I quit. Lt. Mike Stone: Oh yeah, where you gonna go? Inspector Steve Keller: I’m going back to school — Berkeley Law......
July 24, 2018 Rowena ItchonCalifornians regard themselves as members of the environmentally aware aristocracy. Polls consistently show that large numbers of Golden Staters agonize over Gaia’s plight. An SFGate headline last year that declared “Californians put high priority on...
July 23, 2018 Kerry JacksonThe unions that represent California teachers have demanded, and received, platinum retirements for their members. But the good days at someone else’s expense cannot last forever. California teachers are beginning to feel the pain that they inflicted...
July 20, 2018 Kerry JacksonKerry Jackson – Exposing Myths of Plastic Straw Bans If you’ve enjoyed reading my recent posts on efforts to ban plastic straws in California, watch this new video from Reason showing the futility of efforts to ban plastic straws. Tim Ana...
July 20, 2018 Pacific Research Institute
The latest hot social theory in California is universal basic income. Essentially, it’s about paying people to do nothing. Academics and tech titans have promoted it to address poverty, rising costs of living, and even the temporarily disruptive eff...
July 19, 2018 Tim AnayaWhen Andy Puzder was 10, he went with his father, a Ford salesman, to deliver a new car to a wealthy customer. “Mr. Humphrey” lived in opulence on the east side of Cleveland. Puzder marveled at the treasure before him, the enormous house, the grand.....
July 18, 2018 Kerry JacksonWhenever you hear about efforts to preserve our environment, it always involves ill-conceived policy prescriptions, taxpayer-funded subsidies, or heavy-handed government mandates. Take, for example, the work by PRI’s Wayne Winegarden on electric car ...
July 17, 2018 Tim AnayaColleges are quickly dropping their SAT and ACT essay requirements for applicants, with education experts saying the compositions “have never been of much use” and the institutions suggesting that their additional cost prevented poorer students from ...
July 16, 2018 Rob ShimshockOn the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision on Janus, the State Controller’s Office announced that beginning in July, it would stop deducting “fair share fees” from the paychecks of state workers who are not full union members. The fair share fee, ...
July 16, 2018 Rowena ItchonRowena Itchon – The Case for a Political Elite? Really? Check out this lecture from Professor Richard Samuelson, historian and John Adams expert of Cal State San Bernardino. We’ll be airing a podcast with Prof. Samuelson later this summer. Here...
July 13, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteIf there’s one thing that unites Californians, it’s a disdain for crony capitalism. What is crony capitalism, you ask? We see it all the time. Think local elected officials throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Amazon to try and lure their se...
July 12, 2018 Tim AnayaThe political left has long wanted the United States to be more like Europe. Its appetite for Europeanization is clearly visible in California where the political class that runs the state has demanded a bullet train of its very own. At the groundbre...
July 11, 2018 Kerry JacksonOne of the most common themes in American politics is the emphasis on preserving or restoring our role as a land of opportunity. Across the political spectrum, there is a general sense that the intergenerational promise of upward mobility is becoming...
July 10, 2018 Damon DunnWhile his efforts in these regard haven’t received many headlines, President Trump has put forward proposal after proposal to make the federal government’s work on education policy less costly, less intrusive, more logical, and more effective. His la...
July 09, 2018 Lance IzumiThat sound you heard on the Fourth of July was not bands playing “God Bless America” or other patriotic songs. No, it was people complaining on social media about fireworks being set off in their neighborhoods. Where I live in Sacramento, you can buy...
July 09, 2018 Tim AnayaRowena Itchon – Keynes vs. Hayek, Rounds 1 and 2 For my summer reading list, I like to re-read a classic or two. So for my summer video recommendation, here are a couple of classics: Keynes vs. Hayek, Rounds 1 and 2. Fear the Boom......
July 06, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteUsually around this time of year, you’ll see state lawmakers wielding a big stick. In search of headlines or political points, lawmakers will routinely target some politically incorrect industry with punitive legislation. Unless that industry agrees...
July 05, 2018 Tim AnayaTax Calculator Part 2 In my last blog, I ran some numbers on the Tax Foundation’s new tax calculator to show the average tax cut for California households by congressional district under the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. But I thought what would be......
July 04, 2018 Rowena ItchonA few months back we wrote about California’s “nags and nannies who relish forbidding pleasure, especially those of a gastronomic nature,” and their success in convincing a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to issue a preliminary ruling which requires...
July 03, 2018 Kerry JacksonIn their stories on the Supreme Court’s historic Janus decision striking down compelled fees for non-union public employees to public-sector unions, the liberal media fumbled badly in reporting the basic reasoning behind the ruling. The case, Janus v...
July 02, 2018 Lance IzumiJune’s elections in California and Maine represented a dream come true for political nerds everywhere. It brought to light a strange voting system in San Francisco and some other liberal California cities called ranked-choice, or instant runoff, voti...
July 02, 2018 Tim AnayaKerry Jackson – A Plea to Work Together Kerry Jackson is watching this recent Ted Talk by Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute. In this stirring talk, Brooks pleads for liberals and conservatives to work together. He asks the rhet...
June 29, 2018 Pacific Research Institute
Scholars at the Pacific Research Institute, the California-based, free-market think-tank, responded to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Janus v. AFSCME case on worker freedom. Kerry Jackson, Fellow with PRI’s Center for California Reform...
June 27, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteLeave it to the Tax Foundation to come with this cool online calculator to figure out how much you will save in taxes from the Trump tax cuts. The calculator asks you to plug in your AGI, your filing status (single or married), even details......
June 27, 2018 Rowena ItchonA recent issue of The Bond Buyer warns that “thousands of road projects funded by a recently enacted California gas tax are in jeopardy if voters repeal it.” While most Californians want the decrepit streets and highways across the state repaired, th...
June 26, 2018 Kerry JacksonLast week, the Supreme Court issued a major decision in a case about online retailers collecting sales taxes, South Dakota v. Wayfair. As PRI’s Bartlett Cleland recently wrote in Fox and Hounds, “the case is centered around the notion that an entity ...
June 25, 2018 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – When the Canadians – err British – Burned Down the White House This week, I was in Washington, DC visiting my brother. We took in all of the touristy things, including a nighttime bus tour around the White House and all the......
June 22, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteThere are plenty of similarities between Italy and California. Both are similar in size and have wonderful wine countries and picturesque coastlines. They also share high taxes, a challenging regulatory landscape, and a growing gap between their rich...
June 21, 2018 Ben SmithwickPolitical bias continues to increase in America’s classrooms and curricula. Giving parents school-choice tools is the only real solution. In the current school year, there have been disturbing cases across the country of teachers imposing their anti...
June 20, 2018 Lance IzumiMore than one observer has argued that California is too big population-wise, and the problems too-complex to effectively govern and should be broken up. Recently, it was announced that after years of debate, California is finally going to have a cha...
June 19, 2018 Tim AnayaNo one should wonder why executives keep saying California is the worst state to do business in. Too many politicians see businesses as nothing more than vessels available to be drained of their substance for the funding of foolish ideas. The most re...
June 18, 2018 Kerry JacksonTim Anaya – San Francisco’s Crazy Voting System This week, London Breed emerged as the winner of San Francisco’s mayor’s race. But she had to sweat out the results of San Francisco’s crazy voting system called “ranked choice voting” or “instant...
June 15, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteIt’s amazing what a difference one voter-approved proposition can make. The Legislature is poised again to pass a budget before the June 15 constitutional deadline. Gov. Brown has until June 30 to sign it into law. Budgets used to be a lengthy, mes...
June 14, 2018 Tim AnayaSacramento has been trying for some time now to add a 95-cents-a-month tax on drinking water to pay for “secure access to safe drinking water for all Californians, while also ensuring the long-term sustainability of drinking water service and infrast...
June 13, 2018 Kerry Jackson“Pension risk includes lava,” said Keli’i Akina, president of the Grassroot Institute, a sister free-market think tank in Hawaii. Recently, the Grassroot Institute hosted an event titled “Navigating risk at Hawaii’s public pension system.” Thom Will...
June 12, 2018 Rowena ItchonNow that the June primary is behind us, pundits and political observers are on overdrive telling us what it all means and what we can expect from the fall campaign. Perhaps we should all pause before writing the June primary’s eulogy as hundreds of t...
June 11, 2018 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – It’s Not A Jungle Out There in California! This past Tuesday was California’s primary election. California has a unique primary system – the “top 2” system. Simply put, the top two voter getters from any party advance to the November elec...
June 08, 2018 Pacific Research InstitutePublic-sector employees who want to be freed of forced unionization are hoping that the Supreme Court will release them from their yoke when it issues its impending ruling in the case of a government worker who sued the union that claims to represent...
June 08, 2018 Kerry JacksonThe U.S. economy has generated more wealth for more people than any other economic system in human history, and it’s not even close. What began as a small group of colonies clustered near the eastern seaboard of a mostly empty continent founded by po...
June 07, 2018 Damon Dunn
California’s man-made drought will become permanent in 2022, the year that “guidelines for efficient water use” must be in place to comply with a couple of bills signed in late May by Gov. Jerry Brown. The main provisions of Senate Bill 606 and Assem...
June 06, 2018 Kerry JacksonWith the June primary election finally upon us today, the political chess games that have been played in the most competitive races are finally coming to an end. On the latest episode of PRI’s podcast, the “PRI All Stars” discuss the major statewide...
June 05, 2018 Tim AnayaThe great investor Warren Buffett once said, “Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” UC President Janet Napolitan...
June 04, 2018 Rowena ItchonSingle-payer has failed abroad and at home. Yet the call for single-payer from progressives has never been louder. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and his dedicated followers have been the loudest. In his campaign for the Democratic presidentia...
June 01, 2018 Sally C. PipesIt’s graduation season in California. Many of us will be trekking to nearby colleges and universities to watch a friend or relative graduate in the coming days. Naturally, graduation commencement speeches are on our watchlist this week. Here&...
June 01, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteWithout a hint of irony, while announcing the 25 percent tariffs on imported steel and the 10 percent tariffs on imported aluminum on May 31st, Commerce Secretary Ross proclaimed that “we take the view that without a strong economy, you cannot have s...
May 31, 2018 Wayne WinegardenBy Rowena Itchon and Tim Anaya This week, the Assembly and Senate face a key deadline. All bills originating must pass their “house of origin” by the end of the week (i.e., bills introduced in the Assembly must pass the Assembly). The Appropriation...
May 30, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteOur mailboxes and social media feeds are literally overflowing with campaign advertisements these days. We review the propositions on our June primary preview on PRI’s podcast. Counting up political mailings that I’ve received over the past week, I’...
May 29, 2018 Tim Anaya
This month, as many Americans celebrated National Charter School Week, charter school opponents continued to claim that charter schools discriminate against students with special needs. Yet in fact, all across the country there are charter schools th...
May 25, 2018 Lance IzumiThe Pacific Research Institute joins all Americans in honoring our fallen heroes this Memorial Day Weekend. We salute the bravery and sacrifices of the military servicemembers throughout our nation’s history who gave their lives so we could li...
May 25, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteShe drives real fast and she drives real hard, She’s the terror of Colorado Boulevard. — The Little Old Lady from Pasadena, The Beach Boys, 1964 I loved this song when I was growing up, and I love it even more now that PRI’s Southern......
May 24, 2018 Rowena ItchonThat sound you hear is the rush of California politicians and various moneyed interests racing to try and take advantage of a recent Supreme Court ruling paving the way for sports betting in every state. On May 14, the Court struck down a federal law...
May 23, 2018 Tim AnayaTeachers have been striking and walking out in a number of states this spring, including West Virginia, Oklahoma, Colorado, and now North Carolina. But Arizona—the third state to protest teacher pay and conditions—is remarkable for what it reveals ab...
May 22, 2018 Lance IzumiBusinesses in California could use some good news, but one wonders when — and sometimes if — any will ever come. At the same time, there seems to be no end to the bad news, at least when government authorities are involved. The most recen...
May 22, 2018 Kerry JacksonPepperdine University School of Public Policy dean Pete Peterson joins us to discuss the quest for ideological diversity in America’s universities, how free market ideas are treated on college campuses, and the current clash over campus free speech....
May 21, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteA couple of Saturdays ago, I had to make a trip to my neighborhood Home Depot to pick up a few gardening supplies to do some work in the backyard. While looking for a replacement hose for my drip watering system (see, I am water......
May 21, 2018 Tim AnayaWhat We’re Watching – Not Yanny or Laurel While America was obsessed this week with whether we heard Yanny or Laurel (and I hear Yanny for the record), I was busy watching other things online. If you’re interested – or don’t know what the heck......
May 18, 2018 Tim AnayaCutting, styling, shampooing, and curling hair properly takes some practice. But how much before a person is skilled enough to obtain a license to perform those tasks in California? The state says at least 1,500 hours of training are needed. Common-s...
May 17, 2018 Kerry JacksonWe’re all hearing it: the bull market is “long on the tooth,” and the market volatility we’ve seen so far this year is a sign that a big correction, or even a bear market, may be around the corner. Interest rate fears, trade wars, and......
May 16, 2018 Rowena ItchonDOWNLOAD THE PDF Flippy, California’s and the world’s first automated fast-food grill master, has been fired. But after a few tweaks, he will be rehired. The same can’t be said about the humans who will lose their jobs to robots due to the state’s mi...
May 14, 2018 Kerry JacksonOn Friday, Governor Brown released his final “May Revise” budget proposal. For those who aren’t fluent in government-ese, the May Revise is the Governor’s revised budget proposal, taking into account updated tax receipts, economic trends, and budget ...
May 14, 2018 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – Will A Carbon Tax Increase the Cost of a Sandwich? One idea for a new tax that is floated around from time to time in California and Washington is a carbon tax. Recently, our friends at the Texas Public Policy Foundation put out......
May 11, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteListen to PRI’s Lance Izumi discuss National Charter Schools Week and the need for school choice on “The David Webb Show” on Sirius XM Patriot Channel 125. Click here to listen to the interview...
May 10, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteListen to PRI’s Lance Izumi discuss National Charter Schools Week and the importance of charter schools on “The Lars Larson Show”....
May 10, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteCalifornia’s economy has now surpassed that of United Kingdom, making it the fifth-largest in the world if it were its own country. Despite this growth, and in contrast to the perception that all is well in California because the economy looks so rob...
May 09, 2018 Kerry JacksonAs the sharing economy has grown in California, we’re changing how we approach many common life transactions. When we’re looking for a repair person to fix a broken toilet, now we might look to Thumbtack to bid out of the job when before we would......
May 08, 2018 Tim AnayaSpending time in April in New York, my PRI colleagues and I attended The New Criterion’s annual gala dinner which honored Victor Davis Hanson with the literary journal’s Edmund Burke Award for Service to Culture and Society. In his introductory remar...
May 07, 2018 Rowena ItchonThe battle over the 2020 census has already begun. No, your eyes are not deceiving you. The calendar on the wall does say May 2018. The census is a multi-year process that involves lots of planning and organizing to design the survey and get all......
May 03, 2018 Tim AnayaIf you want to handicap a man for the rest of his life, deny him an education. This is manifestly true in America, as the disadvantages associated with a poor education tend to multiply in a free society and a free economy. It is our......
May 02, 2018 Damon DunnOne of the factors driving California’s housing crisis is the upward pressure rent-controls laws place on home prices. Everyone except those enjoying the dividends of rent-controlled housing would be better off without the laws. Yet a measure that wi...
May 01, 2018 Kerry JacksonNearly a decade after California became the first state ban the confinement of hens and other farm animals in crowded cages, many farmers and policymakers around the country are still crying foul. The latest episode in the ongoing saga over Californi...
April 30, 2018 Ben SmithwickRecently, a coalition of military associations came out against legislation supported by the Trump administration, that would give greater school-choice options to military service members and their children. Their letter to lawmakers, sadly, puts th...
April 27, 2018 Lance IzumiIt should be no surprise that the Trump tariffs are not having their intended effect. Consider the impact on California farmers as documented by Bloomberg.com: More than half of Dan Vincent’s projected 2018 profit was wiped out with a stroke of Presi...
April 26, 2018 Wayne WinegardenOne of the most hotly contested races this year is the race for Lieutenant Governor. Gavin Newsom once called the lieutenant governor’s office “a largely ceremonial post . . . with no real authority and no real portfolio.” Of course, that hasn’t stop...
April 25, 2018 Tim AnayaA drive through the homeless encampment in downtown Los Angeles reveals a swamp of squalor unworthy of a first-world nation. Yet there it is, grim and uncivilized. Los Angeles’ homeless problem is a growing concern. The region has the second-largest ...
April 24, 2018 Kerry Jackson“April is the cruelest month,” wrote T.S. Eliot. It’s especially cruel for Californians because today, April 23, is the day when California taxpayers have collectively earned enough money to pay their federal, state, and local tax bill for the year,...
April 23, 2018 Rowena ItchonThere were simply too many great videos to choose from for this week’s “What We’re Watching”. Narrowing down our choices this week was as hard as the task faced by the judges on American Idol on Monday night having to cut down 5 contestants. For......
April 20, 2018 Tim AnayaWhile the antics of anti-Trump teachers, such as the recent viral video of a Southern California teacher beating a President Trump piñata, make headlines, classroom bias is much more deeply embedded, especially in the Common Core curriculum. When the...
April 19, 2018 Lance IzumiAncient scrolls tell us there was once an era when Californians rose up against the heavy hand of taxation. In the now-distant year of 1978 voters approved Proposition 13 to limit the government’s reach in property taxes. The final tally was a 65-35 ...
April 18, 2018 Kerry JacksonWatch the 1980s classic film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” and you’ll see Sean Penn, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Jennifer Jason Leigh and the gang hanging out at “Ridgemont Mall,” which was actually the Sherman Oaks Galleria. The “go to” mall for...
April 17, 2018 Tim AnayaIs he, or isn’t he? That’s the big question when it comes to the $100 billion in tariffs that President Trump has threatened to impose on China. Many supporters of these threatened tariffs would claim that the answer is: he isn’t; or more accurately,...
April 16, 2018 Wayne WinegardenAn education scholar believes school choice for the children of military members “is a national security concern,” he said Wednesday. School choice is imperative to retaining military members, Pacific Research Institute Senior Director of Education S...
April 14, 2018 Rob ShimshockToday, we’re launching a new weekly feature on Right by the Bay called “What We’re Watching”. Think of it as our click bait for short video clips that you should be watching. Every day, when we gather around the water cooler or check our e-mails,......
April 13, 2018 Tim AnayaLast week, the California Chamber of Commerce came out with its annual list of Job Killer bills. In putting together this list, the Chamber wanted to call attention to the negative impact these 21 bills have on the state’s job climate and economy sh...
April 12, 2018 Rowena ItchonThe Administration’s call to impose billions of dollars of tariffs on Americans who consume goods and services made in China is economic folly. Nevertheless, the Administration incorrectly touts that these tariffs will benefit the economy. Such claim...
April 11, 2018 Wayne WinegardenOver the years, I had the opportunity to work for 9 consecutive Assembly Republican Leaders. To say that leading the minority party in California is a great challenge is an understatement. Transitioning from being one Senator representing roughly 1 ...
April 10, 2018 Tim AnayaTo say that the Bay Area has problems would be like saying the universe has stars. There are too many to count and even trying to do so creates a cosmic headache. One of these innumerable problems recently caught the eyes of the Wall Street......
April 09, 2018 Kerry JacksonFirst it was too hot, then it was too icy, now it causes cancer. Thanks to a judge’s ruling last week, California coffee lovers may soon be seeing dire warnings about cancer risks in their favorite coffeehouses. But is concern for cancer really what...
April 06, 2018 Rowena ItchonIn March, the Trump administration saved Obamacare in Idaho. It was a hard decision for administration officials, who harbor no love for the health law. But it was the right call. Idaho officials wanted to help residents who have been harmed by Obama...
April 05, 2018 Sally C. PipesThe United States’ K-12 system of education must evolve to keep pace with the changing global economy. America has consistently taken a leading role in the world in a broad range of industries because we have avoided each century’s intellectual polit...
April 04, 2018 Damon DunnWe’ve been critical, for good reason, of the Legislature’s attempts to solve California’s housing crisis. Lawmakers have done little more than talk about the problem and pass useless, even counterproductive, legislation. But we acknowledge good work ...
April 03, 2018 Kerry JacksonFormer Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy said it best. When speaking about his time in the Legislature, he said, “I’m not a lawmaker. I’m a Republican!” When I worked in the Legislature, I used to always joke that my fellow Republican staff and I had one...
April 02, 2018 Tim AnayaListen to PRI’s Lance Izumi, Koret Senior Fellow in Education and Senior Director of the Center for Education, discuss his book The Corrupt Classroom with host Kerby Anderson on the nationally-syndicated “Point of View” radio show....
March 30, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteApparently, there’s nothing so sacred nor so ordinary that Sacramento won’t tax it. Possibly next up on the tax table is a first-ever levy on drinking water. During last year’s legislative session, lawmakers proposed through Senate Bill 623 a 95-cent...
March 29, 2018 Kerry JacksonLast week, Tesla analysts at Goldman Sachs reiterated their sell rating of the stock, citing decreased delivery projections of its Models S and X, and slower production of its mass market Model 3 (see: that’s what I want!). Goldman analyst David Tam...
March 28, 2018 Rowena ItchonFinally, a state ranking where California isn’t last. In per capita housing supply, California is 49th. Only Utah has fewer housing units per 1,000 population, with 347. The Golden State: 358. The data are from McKinsey Global Institute’s 2016 report...
March 27, 2018 Kerry JacksonLast week, I had the opportunity to attend a debate of the Democrat and Republican candidates for California Attorney General, which was sponsored by the Sacramento Press Club. The Republican and Democratic candidates could not present a starker cont...
March 26, 2018 Tim AnayaAn education scholar said Friday he believes school choice could have prevented students from having to put up with Gregory Salcido, the California teacher fired after calling soldiers “dumbsh*ts.” The El Rancho Unified School District fired Salcido,...
March 24, 2018 Rob ShimshockListen to PRI’s Lance Izumi discuss the recent case of a Southern California teacher who was fired for disparaging the military in the classroom with guest host Jonathan Gilliam on “THe David Webb Show” on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 1...
March 23, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteListen to PRI’s Lance Izumi discuss the case of a Southern California school teacher who was fired for bashing the military in the classroom on the nationally-syndicated “Lars Larson Show”. The interview begins at the 1:30:00 mark....
March 23, 2018 Lance Izumi“Have you heard about Flippy?” That’s what my colleague and fellow Right By the Bay contributor Rowena Itchon asked me recently. I hadn’t…so I Googled it. Flippy is a burger-flipping robot designed to operate alongside human workers in commercial kit...
March 23, 2018 Ben SmithwickFor now, California’s progressive politicians have judged single-payer as a bridge too far. But that doesn’t mean they’ve given up trying to take over health care. As my Canadian mother used to say, “slowly, slowly, catchy monkey” – or be pati...
March 22, 2018 Sally C. PipesWhen talking about the management of California’s power grid, people’s eyelids will surely grow heavy before you finish making your point. But how California’s power grid is managed is incredibly important. Think back to 2001 and California’s electr...
March 21, 2018 Tim AnayaUber and Lyft have generated billions in gross revenue in California. It’s a dazzling data point that has caught the eyes of some politicians who are unable to resist the covetous urges that arise when they watch commercial enterprises thrive. Electe...
March 20, 2018 Kerry JacksonIn November 2014, California voters approved Proposition 47, which lowered the penalties for a host of so-called “nonviolent offenses” from felonies to misdemeanors. The measure, along with public safety realignment and 2016’s Prop. 57 – which increa...
March 19, 2018 Tim AnayaRecent polls show that many college students are worried about the declining state of free speech on campus. In California, the attacks on campus free speech have been fierce and increasing. PRI’s Steve Hayward, who is currently teaching at UC Berke...
March 16, 2018 Lance IzumiThanks to Trump’s corporate tax cut, companies have become, well, more enterprising. Where a 31 percent federal tax rate ruled out many new ventures, a 21 percent tax rate makes them far more viable. So, it’s no surprise that state officials have be...
March 15, 2018 Rowena ItchonLast week, PRI’s team was in Sacramento for our annual “Legislative Day” at the State Capitol. Every year, we meet with legislators, key staff, and leaders in the Capitol Community to discuss our work on state issues, get feedback on key issues where...
March 14, 2018 Tim AnayaThe Pacific Research Institute has extensively documented California’s public employee pension crisis through a comprehensive study, as well as a collection of op-eds and blog posts. But PRI is not alone. The California Policy Center has been coverin...
March 13, 2018 Kerry JacksonLast week, I had the opportunity to attend a very interesting presentation in Sacramento by the Edelman public relations firm on its annual “Trust Barometer” survey. For the past 18 years, the firm’s research arm has conducted a global survey measuri...
March 12, 2018 Tim AnayaWe’ve heard it again and again, declarations from California’s progressive politicians on the need to attract “favored” industries to the state. And what are those favored industries? It’s an easy guess — tech, biotech, “clean” manufacturing, e...
March 09, 2018 Rowena ItchonLawyers recently finished arguing a potentially historic workers’ free speech case before the U.S. Supreme Court and pundits are buzzing about Justice Neil Gorsuch’s silence during the proceedings. However, Gorsuch’s views on individual liberty are ...
March 08, 2018 Lance IzumiThis week, PRI’s scholars are offering their perspectives on different aspects of PRI’s new survey of business executives in high-demand fields who aren’t expanding in the Golden State. Reading the survey results, a lot of the findings were what you ...
March 08, 2018 Tim AnayaWhen the Pacific Research Institute asked business leaders about what makes California an unattractive state to locate or expand their companies, one respondent said, “Every single thing you can imagine.” And, among the many complaints from business...
March 07, 2018 Lance IzumiWhen asked which factors influence their decisions about locating their businesses in California, the top concerns, according to a group of surveyed executives, are housing and real estate costs. No surprise, there. This state’s housing crunch is an ...
March 06, 2018 Kerry JacksonPresident Trump’s proposed 2019 education budget, with its elimination of 29 ineffective or duplicative programs, drew howls from special-interest groups. Despite their hyperventilation, the president rightly focuses his spending priorities on ...
March 05, 2018 Lance IzumiCalifornia lawmakers have made it clear. They want clean tech, R&D, manufacturing, energy, and other highly-desired industries to set up shop in California and create jobs in the Golden. State. Yet, despite introducing legislation offering tax cr...
March 05, 2018 Tim AnayaFor many years now, Sally Pipes and I make a trip to Washington in the early part of the year to take the political and policy pulse of the nation’s capital. We meet with members of Congress, their staffs, and executive branch officials to get......
March 02, 2018 Rowena ItchonFor centuries, America has worked because of free enterprise: Millions of individuals communicate their preferences and producers respond with changes in products, services and prices. Free enterprise operates silently, efficiently and effectively to...
March 01, 2018 Damon DunnPresident Trump recently “slammed” socialized medicine on Twitter. He was referring to a massive “NHS in Crisis: Fix It Now” protest that occurred on Feb. 3 in London. As the British might say, the president’s analysis is “spo...
February 28, 2018 Sally C. PipesRecently, President Trump unveiled his long-awaited transportation infrastructure funding plan. His plan includes $200 billion in new federal funds and having local and state governments and public-private partnerships pay the bulk of new transportat...
February 27, 2018 Tim AnayaThe two red-letter days on labor union calendars are May Day and Labor Day. After today, though, February 26 might appear as a black-letter day, marking the downfall of once-mighty organized labor. The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments today in...
February 26, 2018 Kerry JacksonThis past week, PRI filed an amicus brief in the California Supreme Court on the closely watched case Cal Fire v. CalPERS and the State of California. In 2012, the legislature passed, and Governor Brown signed into law, the Public Employees’ Pension ...
February 23, 2018 Rowena ItchonThe government is not doing a very effective job of playing car salesman. Despite providing federal manufacturing grants and loans worth $40.7 billion and other $2 billion in federal tax credits to subsidize electric car purchases, electric cars, or ...
February 22, 2018 Tim AnayaIn California, we seem to be living in the days of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” As Steve Milloy said last week, there’s water, water everywhere, but almost nary a drop to drink. California has “840 miles of coastline,” tweeted Milloy, the autho...
February 21, 2018 Kerry JacksonGov. Jerry Brown’s administration and many Sacramento are working overtime to try and convince California voters to reject an effort to repeal last year’s very controversial $52 billion gas and car tax increase. The measure, which is nearly certain ...
February 20, 2018 Tim AnayaPerhaps no area of the world better serves as a reminder of the importance of copyright protections as Southern California. Movie studios, music companies and video game developers make Los Angeles a copyright company town. Such industries are built ...
February 19, 2018 Bartlett ClelandThe Department of Education requested over 10 percent less funding for its 2018 budget, and an education scholar explained Friday why he supported the decision. The Trump administration requested $59.9 billion for 2018 — an amount $7.1 billion smalle...
February 17, 2018 Rob ShimshockThere’s some concern that the 2015 motor voter law will automatically register illegal immigrants to vote in California when they renew their driver’s license after April 1. The Department of Motor Vehicles is bound by a January court ruling to send ...
February 16, 2018 Kerry JacksonDo taxpayers get a good deal when government starts to play car salesman by offering government subsidies to buy electric cars or zero-emission vehicles? Watch this new animated video to learn about how “Government Cars ‘R Us” only ...
February 15, 2018 Tim AnayaWhen it comes to choosing vendors and making other business decisions, we’ve all had our secret preferences – the tax attorneys who saved our competitors a lot of money, the website developers from our old firm, the office space next to our favorite ...
February 14, 2018 Rowena ItchonAsk anyone who drives even on a semi-regular basis in Los Angeles which city has the worst traffic in the world and the answer will invariably be “Los Angeles” with no moment of hesitation. By no coincidence, a transportation analytics firm says the ...
February 13, 2018 Kerry Jacksonhttps://soundcloud.com/phil-cowan1/2-12-18-katy-grimes-guest-hosts-for-phil Koret Senior Fellow in Education and Senior Director of PRI’s Center for Education Lance Izumi discusses the latest topics in the education reform movement with guest h...
February 12, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteWatch our new animated video to learn how breaking down barriers in state insurance adjuster licensing could speed up response times for disaster claims and everyday claims, lower costs, and provide job opportunities. It’s based off of Wayne Wi...
February 12, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteThe effort to build more water storage in California just hit another setback. The bureaucrats at the California Water Commission just released their scorecards for 11 proposed water projects from around the state. Their scorecard – which supposedly ...
February 09, 2018 Tim AnayaIan Calderon, the Assembly’s Democratic majority leader, wants to criminalize the act of providing unrequested free plastic straws at sit-down restaurants. Assembly Bill 1884 threatens waiters who give customers straws they didn’t ask for with as man...
February 08, 2018 Kerry JacksonListen to Lance Izumi, director of PRI’s Center for Education and Koret Senior Fellow in Education Studies, discuss his recent books The Corrupt Classroom and An American Education Agenda on “The David Webb Show” on Sirius XM Patrio...
February 07, 2018 Lance IzumiDOWNLOAD THE PDF In Gov. Jerry Brown’s California, all is nearly well. He led off his State of the State address with an assurance that “California is prospering.” He bragged about jobs created and personal income growth on his watch, and congratulat...
February 07, 2018 Kerry JacksonListen to Lance Izumi, director of PRI’s Center for Education and Koret Senior Fellow in Education Studies, interviewed on “The Bottom Line with Roger Marsh”, which airs on stations in California and Oregon, on “replacing corr...
February 07, 2018 Lance IzumiOne of Ronald Reagan’s legendary lines in a debate with Jimmy Carter was, “There you go again!” When it comes to the UC and CSU system continually threatening to raise tuition unless the Legislature gives them (even) more money, California taxpayers ...
February 06, 2018 Tim AnayaJust six years after declaring bankruptcy due to a 15-year spending binge, Stockton is now exploring creative new ways of spending again. This time, it’s a one-year experiment to give several dozen Stockton families $500 a month, with no strings att...
February 05, 2018 Rowena ItchonGov. Jerry Brown told us in his recent State of the State address that, of course, nearly all is well in California on his watch. The real state of this state is not so sweet, though. Beneath the sheen applied by the governor, there is......
February 02, 2018 Kerry JacksonSupply Side Economics works. This isn’t a political statement, nor should it be a particularly controversial one either, unless you believe I am referring to the mythical “trickle down” straw man conjured up by some in the political establishment. By...
February 01, 2018 Damon DunnThe famous quote goes that there is nothing certain in life but death and taxes. When talking about your California Legislature, I’d add a third item to the list – there’s nothing certain in life but death, taxes, and silly bills. In my past life......
January 31, 2018 Tim AnayaA dashcam video of downtown Los Angeles on Christmas Day 2017 revealed the devastating reality of the city’s homelessness problem. The video, shot in the city’s Skid Row district, shows dozens of tents, makeshift shelters, and people walking aimlessl...
January 30, 2018 Ben SmithwickPRI’s coverage of California’s poverty problem through various op-eds and a policy brief have drawn considerable attention. Most of it has been positive, but one California writer for the hard-left Mother Jones claimed that despite the point we made,...
January 29, 2018 Kerry Jackson
Watch PRI’s Lance Izumi discusses what California can do to expand school choice during PRI’s celebration of National School Choice Week in Sacramento....
January 27, 2018 Lance IzumiThe recent press conference on California Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed 2018-19 budget revealed that the governor wants to increase funding to the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), his signature education finance program. However, there are ver...
January 26, 2018 Lance IzumiThe governor covered quite a few topics in Thursday’s State of the State address, some of them in more detail than others. But one he skimmed over that should have received more attention is the state’s public-employee pension crisis. It was mentione...
January 26, 2018 Kerry Jackson
Listen to PRI’s Senior Director of the Center for Education and Koret Senior Fellow in Education Studies Lance Izumi discuss National School Choice Week, and his new book outlining ways that school choice can be expanded across the country, An ...
January 25, 2018 Lance IzumiToday is one of the biggest events of the year at the State Capitol – the Governor’s State of the State Address. When Arnold Schwarzenegger was Governor, it was literally a circus. the entire lawn of the Capitol was literally filled with dozens of s...
January 25, 2018 Tim Anaya
Just when hundreds of thousands of Californians have begun to enjoy their bonuses and raises thanks to the new tax law, the progressives in Sacramento are working on ways to crush workers’ newfound prosperity. Just last week, Democratic Assemblymen ...
January 24, 2018 Rowena ItchonJust after the New Year, a photo taken by the Washington Policy Center, a free-market think tank in the Evergreen State, generated national headlines over a photo illustrating the spike in soda costs in the city of Seattle. A photo taken at a local C...
January 23, 2018 Tim AnayaWatch Lance Izumi’s recent speech on school choice to the Conservative Forum of Silicon Valley, which was recently broadcast to a national audience on C-Span’s “Book TV.” Click here to watch the video...
January 22, 2018 Lance IzumiAs we mark National School Choice Week, Lance Izumi, Senior Director of PRI’s Center for Education, and Koret Senior Fellow in Education, joins us to discuss his new “American Education Agenda” and his recommendations to policymakers for how we can g...
January 22, 2018 Pacific Research InstituteAs we have noted so many times before, rent control laws are one of the many flawed public policies that are driving California’s steep housing costs. Look here, here and here. Of course, we’re not alone in making this assertion. There is an extensiv...
January 22, 2018 Kerry JacksonA Thursday poll showed that about two-thirds of likely 2018 voters are in favor of school choice. Sixty-three percent of Americans likely to vote in the 2018 elections supportschool choice, with minorities more likely to support it than white people,...
January 20, 2018 Rob Shimshock
Listen to PRI’s Lance Izumi discuss his new book An American Education Agenda on “The Midday Briefing” on the Sirius XM POTUS Channel. Click here to listen to the interview...
January 19, 2018 Lance IzumiListen to PRI’s Lance Izumi discuss his new book An American Education Agenda and his recent book The Corrupt Classroom on “The Kevin Fox Show” on Power Talk 1360 AM (KFIV) in Modesto, CA and Power Talk 1280 AM (KWSX) in Stockton, C...
January 19, 2018 Lance IzumiMy husband, Charles Kesler, and I have spent the last several Christmas holidays in London. Each year, the news headlines about the National Health Service (single-payer British style) seem to get worse and worse. I often save the articles to use as...
January 19, 2018 Sally C. PipesMost news coverage focuses on the grandiose – repeal of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), or whether the U.S. should implement a single payer health care system. These existential questions matter of course – a lot. Just as often, trivial issu...
January 18, 2018 Wayne WinegardenDownload the PDF California has declared itself a sanctuary state, where illegal immigrants are sheltered from federal law. The urge to “resist” President Trump runs so red hot in California that Gov. Jerry Brown pardoned two immigrants from Cambodia...
January 17, 2018 Kerry JacksonRepairing California’s crumbling roads and highways, and investing in our other infrastructure needs should be at the top of the agenda in Sacramento. Often, it falls victim to other budget priorities. There’s no question that setting aside a secure...
January 16, 2018 Tim AnayaOn New Year’s Day, months after wildfires had started their deadly march through California, the Los Angeles Times published an article headlined “After the flames, allegations of rent-gouging fly in devastated wine country communities.” It did not i...
January 15, 2018 Kerry Jackson
Expanding and increasing funding for school choice programs, creating a stronger classroom environment for digital learning, and ensuring every child is safe at school are among the recommendations in a new “American Education Agenda” released today ...
January 12, 2018 Lance Izumihttps://soundcloud.com/the-lars-larson-podcast/lars-larson-national-podcast-011218 Listen to PRI’s Lance Izumi discuss his new “American Education Agenda” on the “Lars Larson Show”. The interview begins at the 53 minute ...
January 12, 2018 Lance IzumiLast week, I had the chance to see the new movie “The Greatest Showman” about P.T. Barnum and how his dreams to set up his famous circus became a reality. Hugh Jackman and the very entertaining cast deliver a crowd-pleasing and empowering performanc...
January 12, 2018 Tim AnayaGov. Jerry Brown’s 2018-19 budget proposal is projecting a $6.1 billion surplus by July 1, 2019, further evidence that the taxpayers of California have been overcharged. But there will be no rebates. Brown said at his press conference Wednesday that,...
January 11, 2018 Kerry JacksonWatch PRI Koret Senior Fellow in Education and Senior Director of the Center for Education Lance Izumi talk about his book The Corrupt Classroom to the Conservative Forum of Silicon Valley....
January 10, 2018 Lance IzumiMy fellow blogger Tim Anaya wrote a blog earlier this week on the latest scheme from Sacramento to game the new tax law. Senate Bill 227 would allow taxpayers to make charitable donations to the state and receive a tax credit for the full amount......
January 10, 2018 Rowena ItchonEditor’s Note: Damon Dunn breaks down what are often-confusing economic concepts and makes free market economics more relatable to our everyday lives in his new Right by the Bay column, ‘Free Markets 101’. We are pleased to present his debut column...
January 09, 2018 Damon DunnAfter spending the holiday season consulting liberal academics, State Senate Democrats on Thursday unveiled their answer to President Donald Trump’s tax cut law. Calling their proposal an effort to “protect California residents” from the federal tax ...
January 08, 2018 Tim AnayaAn oft-cited survey from 1994 found that one out of every three respondents age 18 and 34 said they were more likely to see a UFO than receive a Social Security check. Fast forward 23 years later — last November, the U.S. reached a record......
January 05, 2018 Rowena ItchonThe negative impacts of setting — and increasing — minimum wages should be beyond debate by now. The economic science is settled. Yet California policymakers continue to believe in unicorn economic fantasies. For example, more than a doze...
January 04, 2018 Kerry JacksonLast week, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said in an interview that tech companies are already beginning an exodus away from expensive coastal areas such as Silicon Valley and Los Angeles toward more affordable cities in America’s heartland. He said that th...
January 03, 2018 Tim AnayaWith the end of the year upon us, what better time to talk about all that we have accomplished at the Pacific Research Institute in 2017. In the past 12 months, we have: promoted policies that expand access to high-quality education through school ch...
December 29, 2017 Ben SmithwickThere are no fortune tellers at PRI, but it isn’t hard to foresee what is likely to happen in California in 2018. First, it’s a sure bet that the Legislature will pass a boxcar load of unneeded, heavy-handed and odious policies when lawmakers reconve...
December 28, 2017 Kerry JacksonLooking back on 2017, perhaps the most under-reported story of the year has been President Trump’s success in cutting back regulations. Back in January at the start of his administration, Mr. Trump signed an executive order requiring agencies to cut...
December 27, 2017 Rowena ItchonOne of my all-time favorite shows is “The McLaughlin Group.” I used to love watching Dr. McLaughlin spar over the years with the likes of Pat Buchanan, Eleanor Clift, Clarence Page, Freddy “the Beadle” Barnes, Mor-ton Kondracke, the late great Jack G...
December 22, 2017 Tim AnayaWith the holiday season upon us, now is the time when pundits in Washington and Sacramento get out their crystal balls and offer their unsolicited predictions on what will happen in politics, policy, and government in 2018. Now that we have the “Righ...
December 21, 2017 Tim AnayaIn 2017, PRI launched its first podcast, and because we are headquartered near Wine Country, and because no other think tank does wine better than PRI (okay, I may be biased), we made it our tradition to ask each guest for a wine or cocktail......
December 20, 2017 Rowena ItchonObamacare’s fifth open enrollment season just ended for the 39 states served by Healthcare.gov — and it was a major failure in terms of enrollees. Fewer than 10 million people signed up for 2018 health plans through the state and federal exchan...
December 19, 2017 Sally C. PipesIt’s one thing to be considered a Judicial Hellhole. It’s another thing altogether to hold that distinction year after year . . . after year. But, just as it is with so many state rankings, California isn’t a newcomer at the wrong end of a......
December 18, 2017 Kerry JacksonAmerica’s public school systems are going bankrupt, as they pour money they don’t have into programs that enrich employees at the expense of students. The Los Angeles Unified School District could face an estimated $422 million budget sho...
December 18, 2017 Lance IzumiHunting for a parking spot during the Christmas rush is enough to drive anyone crazy, but for disabled people, it’s especially maddening. In many California cities, an open disabled parking spot is about as rare as rain. Take San Francisco, where pa...
December 15, 2017 Rowena ItchonEarlier this year, when discussing a laughable proposal to ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars in California, my colleague Kerry Jackson asked a critical question – “What happens to the $52 billion in revenue the state is expecting from tax h...
December 14, 2017 Tim Anaya
Much like the old lady who swallowed a fly, the federal government has swallowed a fly over a well-meaning program designed to help the poor afford prescription drugs called 340B. Instead of ensuring the poor have low-cost drugs, 340B has created an ...
December 13, 2017 Wayne WinegardenThe most recent estimate says that California Public Employees Retirement System, the largest public employee pension fund in the nation with about 1.8 million beneficiaries, has an unfunded liability of roughly $138 billion with total obligations of...
December 12, 2017 Kerry JacksonLast week, I had the great pleasure of attending the annual California Hall of Fame ceremony. Every year, the Governor presents our state’s highest honor to a group of Californians past and present who have made a lasting contribution to the fabric o...
December 11, 2017 Tim Anaya
PRI’s Koret Senior Fellow in Education Studies and Senior Director of the Center for Education Lance Izumi discusses his new book The Corrupt Classroom and the non-academic reasons for school choice with Tom Sipos on “Hudson Valley Focus ...
December 08, 2017 Tim Anaya
PRI’s Koret Senior Fellow in Education Studies and Senior Director of the Center for Education Lance Izumi recently talked with Fred Holland on WTKI in Huntsville, AL on school choice and how Harvey Weinstein-types are hurting our public school...
December 08, 2017 Tim AnayaIf you’re thinking about giving a robot to someone this Christmas, on Amazon.com you’ll find 290,991 choices. I bought my brother a robot for Christmas last year when he announced that he will be retiring from his job as a computer engineer after 35...
December 07, 2017 Rowena ItchonPresident Trump’s nomination of Alex Azar for secretary of Health and Human Services is encouraging news for free-market health reformers. Azar possesses precisely the combination of legal acumen, bureaucratic savvy, management experience deali...
December 07, 2017 Sally C. PipesPRI’s Senior Director of Education Studies and Koret Senior Fellow in Education Lance Izumi discusses his recent book The Corrupt Classroom and his recent column on how Harvey Weinstein and his enablers are also running our public schools on &#...
December 06, 2017 Pacific Research Institute
Over the weekend, I made the rounds of various bipartisan holiday parties filled with California politicos. The late-night vote on the Senate GOP tax plan was certainly the conversation du jour. My liberal friends decried the harried, last-minute na...
December 06, 2017 Tim AnayaUnions have long had government-protected privileges that no other institution or organization has. They hold monopolies as exclusive collective bargaining units; can collect dues before paychecks are even issued (government is the only other institu...
December 05, 2017 Kerry JacksonOn Friday, the Senate achieved the nearly-impossible and passed long-overdue tax reform legislation. While the legislation will surely be changed in the conference committee, whatever final legislation emerges will provide tax relief for many America...
December 04, 2017 Tim AnayaWe are often critical of the way Gov. Jerry Brown governs and the ideas that he proposes. He too often leans on the progressive playbook. But we’ve not been afraid to say that he’s right when he’s right, and today he’s right. The governor is......
December 01, 2017 Kerry JacksonEarlier this week, PRI joined with the Manhattan Institute to host a well-attended Sacramento panel discussion on California’s drug pricing challenge. Many thanks to my friend and former longtime Capitol reporter Marcey Brightwell, who did an outstan...
November 30, 2017 Tim AnayaAt a PRI conference a few years ago, someone in the audience had a great question for our keynote speaker, a renowned economist: Given California’s bad economic policies, why do people still like the state? With typical flair and charm, not to menti...
November 29, 2017 Rowena ItchonClick here to download the brief Nerves are apparently raw in union halls across California. Labor leaders are waiting in dread over a coming Supreme Court ruling. The decision could cost them members, and more importantly to the union bosses, money....
November 28, 2017 Kerry JacksonAs featured in Kaiser Health News Morning Briefing Maine made history earlier this month by becoming the first state to adopt Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion via ballot initiative. The vote could inspire progressive activists in other states to ...
November 27, 2017 Sally C. Pipes2017 has been quite a year for the Pacific Research Institute. We remain, as ever, committed to championing freedom, opportunity, and personal responsibility. Thanks to the steadfast support of our donors in California and throughout the nation, this...
November 22, 2017 Ben SmithwickThe California Legislative Analyst’s Office is projecting a $19 billion budget surplus for the 2018-19 fiscal year which begins next July 1. The media wonder if lawmakers should spend it or save it. There’s a third option, though, that is going unmen...
November 21, 2017 Kerry Jackson
Progressive educators are launching new offensives in the nation’s culture wars. Washington State, for example, has put a sex-education curriculum, developed in part by Planned Parenthood, on its approved list, which has caused controversy in p...
November 20, 2017 Lance IzumiAs we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday, we’re also preparing for an overload of turkey, pumpkin pie, and relatives. Thanksgiving is about more than getting a food coma. It’s about getting together with your loved ones and giving thank...
November 20, 2017 Tim AnayaRowena Itchon and Tim Anaya With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it’s time for a holiday tradition that most of us have a love-hate relationship with – holiday shopping. If you’re like us, you never know what to get the people on your shopping l...
November 17, 2017 Pacific Research InstitutePRI’s Koret Senior Fellow in Education and Senior Director of the Center for Education Lance Izumi joins Lars Larson to talk about his recent Washington Examiner column on students being subjected to violence sexual assault in the classroom. In...
November 16, 2017 Lance IzumiTax reform has taken center stage in Washington. Just last week, the House Ways and Means Committee approved the House’s tax reform proposal, while the Senate released its own tax reform proposal. If you picked up a newspaper in California, you would...
November 16, 2017 Tim AnayaAs he celebrated Democrats’ November election wins, California’s overwrought Tom Steyer took a moment to sound a bit like someone from the other party — before he reverted back to form. “When we think about what a more prosperous, healthy...
November 15, 2017 Kerry JacksonDuring my recent vacation in Australia and New Zealand, my friends and I spent an enjoyable day in Melbourne while on a Tasmanian cruise. Whenever I visit a big city for the first time on a trip, I always book a survey tour to take......
November 14, 2017 Tim AnayaOriginally published in The Philadelphia Inquirer Military veterans aren’t the only victims of the Veterans Health Administration’s chronic negligence. The department is endangering the lives of civilians, too. The VA health system recently fired doz...
November 13, 2017 Sally C. PipesI just returned from a two-week trip to Australia and New Zealand. During my trip, my friends and I spent a few days each in Sydney and Auckland, and went on a cruise across Tasmania in between. We had a wonderful time experiencing the culture......
November 10, 2017 Tim AnayaThe continuing campus protests by the Left against U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos may grab the headlines, but another real political concern for her and the president lies with her relationship with the Right. The importance of the base for ...
November 09, 2017 Lance IzumiEveryone who drives in California suspects that fuel prices here are painfully high. And their suspicions are well-founded. Only Hawaii has more expensive gasoline. Or did. Thanks to the 12-cents-a-gallon tax hike on gasoline that went into effect on...
November 09, 2017 Kerry JacksonWith the release of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the long-awaited tax bill has been released. The most pro-growth aspects would change the U.S. corporate income tax system. Corporate income taxes have become a large economic disincentive against...
November 08, 2017 Wayne WinegardenThe clock is ticking for trucking companies in the U.S. to comply with a federal mandate requiring drivers to stop logging their hours on the road with paper logs and switch to electronic logging devices (ELD) – and not everyone is happy about the ch...
November 07, 2017 Ben SmithwickCalifornia’s initiative process is imperfect. We cherish the right to circulate citizen’s petitions when the Legislature refuses to act on matters of critical importance. But give any Californian the right to submit a ballot measure, and you’re sure...
November 06, 2017 Tim AnayaMeet teacher Mitchell Whitehurst, the Harvey Weinstein of public education. Meet the Portland Public Schools, the education Hollywood of enablers. Meet the Portland teachers union, which like the Mafia in The Godfather, practices “omerta,” or silence...
November 03, 2017 Lance IzumiWhen I was a junior speechwriter working in Governor Schwarzenegger’s administration, one of the great pleasures I had was working with and getting to know David Crane. David was the Governor’s advisor on economic issues and his office was right nex...
November 03, 2017 Tim AnayaCalifornia’s Legislature made a run at fixing the state’s housing crisis as the session was ending a bit more than a month ago. But it won’t solve anything next year, as home prices are expected to rise in 2018. In fact, lawmakers’ poor-faith effort ...
November 02, 2017 Kerry JacksonCalifornians who didn’t fill up on Tuesday are probably kicking themselves today. Tax hikes on gasoline and diesel fuel went into effect, sending prices significantly higher. The levy on a gallon of gasoline spiked 12 cents, from 18 cents to 30, whil...
November 01, 2017 Kerry JacksonThis week, Republicans are preparing to unveil the details of a tax reform proposal that would deliver tax relief to individuals and businesses, as well as simplify the tax filing process. How to “pay for” the tax cuts will be the big debate in the.....
October 31, 2017 Rowena ItchonAround the time I joined PRI’s team last September, we opened new offices in Midtown Sacramento. I had never spent much time in Midtown before joining PRI. For those who don’t live here, Midtown is a hip part of town with a bustling bar and......
October 30, 2017 Tim AnayaA few months ago, Tim Anaya and I interviewed for PRI’s podcast Farhad Zabihi, a math professor at the College of Marin, who had been house hunting for nearly a year in Marin County. Marin is just south of Napa and Sonoma — two of......
October 27, 2017 Rowena ItchonIt’s “Basic Economics” that residential rent control is harmful housing policy. So it makes perfect sense that we’re beginning to hear about commercial rent control in California. Why not heap more destructive laws on the pile? San Jose Inside report...
October 26, 2017 Kerry JacksonAmericans are rightfully outraged over the massive data breach at Equifax. We’re also upset about how the company handled the announcement of the breach and its proposed remedy. What made the Equifax breach so jarring was how many of us are victims....
October 25, 2017 Tim AnayaRecently, a fistfight between two female students at an Alabama high school erupted into a campus-wide fracas that ended in gunfire. A massive brawl at a North Carolina school resulted in multiple arrests. And in San Diego, several teenage boys were ...
October 25, 2017 Lance IzumiNorthern California is a hotbed of modern, global technological innovation, particularly internet innovation. Yet, increasingly Washington, D.C. dictates the direction and velocity of innovation, often abetted by the very companies that gained from t...
October 24, 2017 Bartlett ClelandI recently read about a case in Berkeley where a hot dog vendor just trying to earn a few dollars was manhandled by city government. Rigoberto “Beto” Matias was selling bacon-wrapped hotdogs outside a Cal football game. A police officer approached Be...
October 23, 2017 Tim AnayaThe amount of time it takes a celebrity of the political left to blame a natural disaster on global warming can usually be measured in seconds. Gov. Jerry Brown quickly answered the challenge last week by coldly politicizing the deadly Northern Calif...
October 20, 2017 Kerry JacksonSmall business owners and entrepreneurs have always been the backbone of California’s economy. No one can deny the courage of those individuals who risk all for an idea and a dream. For the vintners, growers, restauranteurs, and small business owne...
October 19, 2017 Rowena ItchonTo say that I am a fan of the San Francisco Giants is an understatement. 24 Willie Mays Plaza is perhaps my favorite place on Earth. I make the trek down to AT&T Park at least half a dozen times each year. Visit my den......
October 18, 2017 Tim AnayaFrom California to Washington D.C. legislators continue to confirm Abraham Kaplan’s famous insight that if you, “give a small boy a hammer, he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.” In the case of our legislators, that hammer is pri...
October 17, 2017 Wayne WinegardenFor political nerds like me, there’s no rush quite like the last night of the legislative session. Every year, legislators and staff literally work around-the-clock to pass final bills before the clock runs out. To keep going, they drink too much co...
October 16, 2017 Tim AnayaWe’ve all heard the negative economic and budget stories coming out of Sacramento in recent years. But as a Connecticut native, the headlines coming out of my home state are equally concerning, and offer a lesson for Golden State policymakers. Conne...
October 13, 2017 Ben Smithwick
In their August opinion essay on the Philadelphia Inquirer’s website, law professors Amy Wax of the University of Pennsylvania and Larry Alexander of the University of San Diego decried the loss of universally accepted “bourgeois” values in America, ...
October 12, 2017 Lance IzumiAs much as we have criticized Gov. Jerry Brown, we have to acknowledge that on occasion he will act as the senior statesman of his party, beating back its most mindless impulses. The most recent example: his judicious counsel on single-payer health c...
October 12, 2017 Kerry JacksonIf you think this is going to be one of those hard-hitting policy pieces that you get from the likes of Anaya and Jackson, or one of those brainy blogs from Winegarden. It’s not. It’s all about me, and my yearning for that fabulous, subsidized......
October 11, 2017 Rowena ItchonEPA Administrator Scott Pruitt will make official on Tuesday what we knew all along – the Administration is officially withdrawing the controversial Clean Power Plan rule on power plant emissions. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has railed...
October 10, 2017 Wayne WinegardenNational media attention recently returned to UC Berkeley over the planned “Free Speech Week.” Following dueling press releases over whether the event would occur and who would speak, the event largely fizzled out. Ben Shaprio did speak on campus a ...
October 09, 2017 Tim AnayaDownload Capital Ideas, October 2017 Gasoline prices spiked more sharply in some states after deadly storms in Texas and Florida than at any time since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But in California, steep fuel prices are an everyday event. The average...
October 06, 2017 Kerry JacksonMost California voters agree that low-income families have few choices about where to send their children, and a large majority favor providing government support, through tax credits or vouchers, to send low-income kids to the public or parochial sc...
October 05, 2017 John FensterwaldThe Legislature recently passed a bill that will move California’s presidential primary from June up to Super Tuesday – which will be March 3, 2020. Upon Governor Brown signing the bill, Secretary of State Alex Padilla told the Los Angeles Times that...
October 05, 2017 Tim Anaya
Washington D.C. has turned its sights on tax reform. Critics, almost reflexively, oppose the effort based on claims that tax reform will increase the deficit. A little perspective is in order, consequently. The chart below presents data on total fede...
October 04, 2017 Wayne WinegardenListen to PRI’s Lance Izumi’s recent interview with Katy Grimes on “The Phil Cowan Show” on AM 1380, The Answer in Sacramento. Lance and Katy discuss school choice and Lance’s new book, The Corrupt Classroom. Lance’...
October 04, 2017 Pacific Research InstituteLast week, within the space of three days, we learned that Gov. Jerry Brown is considering phasing out fossil-fuel powered automobiles in about 10 years, then we found out that Assemblyman Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat, is planning to introduce...
October 03, 2017 Kerry JacksonFor too long, Sacramento has ignored Rural California, enacting policies that are out-of-step with the values of those living north of the State Capitol. Fed-up North State residents have been loudly pushing a proposal to break the state in two. If t...
October 02, 2017 Tim AnayaIn his newly published book, The Corrupt Classroom, Lance Izumi of the Pacific Research Institute illustrates how the public school classroom has become increasingly politicized, with liberal teachers indoctrinating students with an anti-Trump and le...
October 02, 2017 Ali MeyerJerry Brown was tagged with the nickname “Gov. Moonbeam” while in office during the 1970s and 1980s. It was a fitting handle, because he was an unorthodox politician who represented the state’s increasingly curious behavior. Now in his second life as...
September 29, 2017 Kerry JacksonA deadly hepatitis A outbreak in San Diego County has residents on edge. Since last November, at least 17 people have died and nearly 300 others have been sent to the hospital in what public health officials are calling the deadliest outbreak of the ...
September 28, 2017 Ben SmithwickRecently, Gilbert Hyatt presented his side of a tax dispute case to the voter-elected Board of Equalization. The state has been pursuing Mr. Hyatt for 26 years, alleging that he owes millions in back taxes and penalties from capital gains from a comp...
September 27, 2017 Tim AnayaThe health care debate continues to heat up this week. A big vote in Congress on the Graham-Cassidy health care reform legislation is expected before Saturday, September 30. This is the deadline to pass repeal and replace legislation with just 50 vot...
September 26, 2017 Sally C. PipesWater meters are a sore subject in my neighborhood. The City of Sacramento has been installing water meters for the past few years as part of its effort to comply with a state mandate. This year, it was my neighborhood’s turn to endure the inefficien...
September 25, 2017 Tim AnayaAs promised, the Democrat-majority California Legislature finished its session early Saturday morning by enacting a package of bills that lawmakers say will ease the state’s housing crisis, and failing to expand state environmental protections. This ...
September 22, 2017 Kerry JacksonGrade 13. That’s what Californians will be funding if Governor Brown signs Assembly Bill 19, which provides a year of free tuition to anyone enrolling in a California community college, regardless of the student’s income. The bill isn’t intended to h...
September 21, 2017 Rowena ItchonEvery weekend, I like to listen to the Car Pro guys on the radio when I’m driving around town. In case you’ve never heard the show, the Car Pro – whose real name is Jerry Reynolds – is a former big-time car dealer in Texas.......
September 20, 2017 Tim AnayaLate last month, U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta challenged state legislators to abolish one of the most noxious barriers to work: occupational licensing. If Sacramento lawmakers followed through, hundreds of thousands of Californians would be ...
September 19, 2017 Kerry JacksonThat sound you heard one day in April was me sighing while seeing countless Facebook pictures of my friends with Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman and his wife Beth. To say that I am a Chapman fan is an understatement. I’ve watched virtually ever...
September 18, 2017 Tim AnayaListen to Lance Izumi’s recent interview on the national radio show, “The Lars Larson Show” on his book The Corrupt Classroom. Lance’s interview beings at the 56:00 mark. Click here to learn more or buy a copy of The Corrupt C...
September 15, 2017 Lance IzumiIt’s a sad indictment of California’s political class, but often the Legislature’s top achievements are the things it didn’t get around to doing. Up until the final days of the legislation session, this year’s chief accomplishment looked like it woul...
September 15, 2017 Kerry JacksonIt seems that Seattle is no longer evergreen for Amazon. Last week, the company announced that it’s on the hunt for a second headquarters. There wasn’t a clear explanation for why the online retail giant is seeking a new habitat. But even climate cha...
September 14, 2017 Rowena ItchonRecently, a friend of mine told me how much she and her husband enjoyed subscribing to a home meal prep delivery service. Instead of having to go to the grocery story, they deliver all the fresh ingredients you need to make a gourmet recipe right......
September 13, 2017 Tim AnayaPRI’s Koret senior fellow in education and senior director of education studies Lance Izumi discusses his new book, The Corrupt Classroom with Frank Beckmann on WJR Radio in Detroit. To learn more about The Corrupt Classroom, click here....
September 12, 2017 Lance Izumi
