Political partisanship can be found in every part of society. What you say, or even what you do not say, is ripe for political criticism these days. It is no surprise then that social media, where a majority of the world devotes multiple hours each.....
July 07, 2020 Evan HarrisDOWNLOAD THE PDF One of the several responses to the death of George Floyd has been activists’ demand to defund police departments. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was one of the first mayors to surrender to the mob and pledge that he would move a......
July 06, 2020 Kerry JacksonTim Anaya – Celebrate America with 4th of July Fireworks Since most fireworks displays have been cancelled this year (outside people in my neighborhood illegally setting them off every night), I thought we would all enjoy watching some virtual ...
July 03, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteOn Monday, Gov. Newsom announced via press release that he had signed the 2020-21 state budget. Naturally, much of the budget press coverage typically focuses on the debate between the Governor and the Legislature and the total state spending picture...
July 02, 2020 Tim AnayaWhen Tim Anaya first told me about a California senate bill that would give renters who lost their jobs during the coronavirus shutdown until 2034 to pay back their rent, I thought I didn’t hear him right: “Did you say 2024?” (I thought four years wa...
July 01, 2020 Rowena ItchonRecently, I attended the graduation ceremony for the Discovery ChalleNGe Academy, which targets high school dropouts and produces quality-educated young people with strong values, life skills, and self-discipline. With so many children falling throu...
June 30, 2020 Lance IzumiCalifornians who are struggling to make ends meet during these tough economic times are going to be in for sticker shock come July 1: gas prices will rise yet again. What’s behind the increase, you ask? It’s not due to rising demand as people begin...
June 29, 2020 Wayne WinegardenRowena Itchon – “Project Home: 3D Printing the Future” I ran across this teaser on the upcoming documentary “Project Home: 3D Printing the Future” by the Moving Picture Institute. The first 3D printed homes are located ...
June 26, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteOn July 1, three days before we celebrate our American freedom, and while we’re still feeling the effects of a three-month loss of that liberty, the state tax on gasoline will increase by 3.2 cents per gallon. It should be enough to ensure California...
June 25, 2020 Kerry JacksonRecently, I moderated a PRI Webinar on Cybersecurity, Data Privacy, and Regulation During the Coronavirus Pandemic. It was a fantastic look at the current state of data privacy, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and where state and federal reg...
June 24, 2020 Evan HarrisAt long last, Gov. Newsom and Democratic leaders have reached a budget agreement. Now lawmakers will race to pass the final legislation as the clock ticks down toward the June 30th deadline for the Gov. to sign a balanced budget. For many days,...
June 23, 2020 Tim AnayaLast week’s podcast featured PRI fellow and attorney Erik Jaffe, an expert in constitutional law. We asked Erik to give us his perspective on the U.S. Supreme Court’s major cases this session — LGBTQ rights, DACA, abortion regulation, and Trump...
June 22, 2020 Rowena ItchonTim Anaya – How Medicines in the U.S. are Sold In the latest video in PRI’s “Escape the Drug Pricing Maze” video, the Professor and Pete reach the most difficult part of their journey: understanding how medicines are sold. It’...
June 19, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteIn the early days of the pandemic lockdowns, San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a temporary moratorium on evictions of small and mid-size businesses “due to a loss of income related to lost revenue or other economic impacts caused by the COVID...
June 17, 2020 Kerry JacksonThe California Assembly voted last week to place on the November ballot an initiative to repeal Prop. 209, the 1996 constitutional amendment ending preferential treatment based on race and sex in public education, employment, and government contracti...
June 16, 2020 Rowena ItchonKiefer Sutherland taught us in “Designated Survivor” the importance of having strong processes in place to ensure continuity of government during an extreme crisis. Spurred on by the coronavirus, lawmakers are trying to put a legislative emergency co...
June 15, 2020 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – PRI Webinar on Data Privacy During COVID-19 Crisis In case you missed it yesterday, check our PRI’s webinar featuring an all-star panel discussing cybersecurity, data privacy, and regulation during the COVID-19 crisis. Evan Ha...
June 12, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteDownload the PDF In late May, a panel of federal judges resurrected a couple of previously dismissed climate change lawsuits filed by San Francisco and Oakland, and also allowed six other community-based suits to go forward. The plaintiffs aren’t con...
June 11, 2020 Kerry JacksonAcross the state, main streets have gone from being closed to being boarded. For California entrepreneurs, doing business in the state has hit a new low. It’s too early to get insurance data on what the vandalism, arson, and looting has cost business...
June 10, 2020 Rowena ItchonThe University of California Board of Regents just announced that “the endowment, the pension and all of our working capital pools are fossil-free at the University of California”. The Regents justify the divestment based on their belief that “contin...
June 09, 2020 Wayne WinegardenThe sight of criminals running free in our streets gets the blood up. But while the looting and violence, as ugly as they are, will decelerate, there’s a relatively invisible hand of crime that has the potential to cause harm on a long-term basis. At...
June 08, 2020 Kerry JacksonTim Anaya – Digging Up Ways to Lower Costs for High Value but Expensive Drugs In the latest video in the “Escape the Drug Pricing Maze” video, Sage the Detective Dog digs up clues on biologics and gene therapies – drugs that offer t...
June 05, 2020 Tim AnayaWhile Californians are focused on surviving the COVID-19 lockdown, some state legislators are using the crisis as cover for a stealth effort to overturn Proposition 209, the 1996 voter-passed initiative that prevents government discrimination based o...
June 04, 2020 Lance IzumiAfter months of “sheltering in place” in our homes due to the COVID-19 crisis, and with so much distressing news on television every night, we’re all look for a little bit of an escape. Since we can’t really travel anywhere yet, we’ll have to settle...
June 04, 2020 Tim AnayaSupport for Medicare for All continues to rise in PRI’s Single-Payer Poll Watch. The June update shows the overall average support at 57 percent, while opposition slightly dropped to 34 percent. Last month’s update showed a ten-point jump in support ...
June 03, 2020 Evan HarrisCalifornia’s Assembly Bill 5 has not been broken, but given a couple of recent developments, it might soon be showing some cracks. On May 20, Assembly Bill 1850, which would exempt some professions from AB5, a law that virtually outlaws independent c...
June 02, 2020 Kerry JacksonListen to a special presentation of PRI’s webinar featuring a panel of policy experts, education specialists, and homeschooling practitioners discussing the coronavirus impact on education in the United States. They discuss the many options available...
June 01, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteIn my last blog post, I previewed the Assembly’s unusual “Committee of the Whole” hearing on the state budget, comparing it to Seinfeld’s Festivus “Airing of Grievances.” Little did I know how clairvoyant I really was. Last Tuesday’s five hour sessio...
June 01, 2020 Tim AnayaListen to Lance Izumi, senior director of PRI’s Center for Education, discuss the push by Democrats to repeal Prop. 209 and restore affirmative action in California (ACA 5) and other topics in higher education on “The Phil Cowan Show̶...
May 29, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteKerry Jackson – California: The Exodus from the Golden State Anyone who still doesn’t think California’s future is questionable at best, bleak at worst, needs to spend 10 minutes watching this video. Ben Smithwick – Protectin...
May 29, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteIt’s said that timing is everything — it’s especially true in politics. And it’s why those who want to bring back racial preferences in California’s public education, government employment and contracting, chose the here and now to try and repe...
May 28, 2020 Rowena ItchonCalifornia, like the rest of country, is slowly opening cities and counties after more than two months of shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders. California Governor Gavin Newsom has been the unequivocal face of the pandemic response. As the state ...
May 27, 2020 Evan HarrisLast week, the center of the budget universe moved upstairs at the State Capitol as budget subcommittees in the Senate and Assembly held hearings to explore all aspects of Gov. Newsom’s plan to close the budget deficit he pegs at $54 billion. A few i...
May 26, 2020 Tim AnayaWhile America is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting havoc and deaths, it is easy to forget about the significance of Memorial Day. Yet, of all the nation’s patriotic holidays, none carries deeper emotion and impacts the lives of or...
May 25, 2020 Lance IzumiRowena Itchon – A Memorial Day Tribute 2020 Kerry Jackson – This Doctor Won’t Take Health Insurance – and Charges Just $35 a Visit Meet the Pittsburgh doctor who doesn’t take health care insurance and charges only $35 for most...
May 22, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteYear to date, the Dow Index of the U.S.’s 30 largest companies is down 14 percent; the S&P 500, which tracks 500 large-cap companies, is down 8 percent; and the NASDAQ, an electronic system that trades many of the world’s fastest growing companie...
May 21, 2020 Rowena ItchonGiven that California has more than 33 million internet users, it is clear that the state loves its broadband access. And recent action from Washington, DC has the potential to make California’s online experience even better and inspire more innovat...
May 20, 2020 Bartlett ClelandPolicies intended to force Americans into electric vehicles, and taxpayer-financed subsidies that have propped up the EV industry aren’t consistent with those who believe government has limits. But this doesn’t mean that a company such as EV maker Te...
May 19, 2020 Kerry JacksonGov. Gavin Newsom released his May Revise budget plan on Thursday – a dramatically different budget from his January plan that anticipated a $5.6 billion surplus. California now faces a $54.3 billion deficit. In a press conference that lasted more t...
May 18, 2020 Tim AnayaKerry Jackson – I Miss Baseball If you love baseball, and miss your freedom, this one will move you. Tim Anaya – Californians Could Save $2,000 A Year if State Government Embraced Free Market Energy Policies From PRI’s latest study ...
May 15, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteEven as House members consider themselves non-essential workers (they’ve decided to vote from home), it hasn’t stopped some lawmakers from coming up with bad ideas for the next stimulus package, including relief for states and municipalities with pre...
May 14, 2020 Rowena ItchonKCBS news anchors Jeff Bell and Patti Reising spoke with Lance Izumi, Director of the Pacific Research Institute, about the announcement by University of California President Janet Napolitano recommending that all 10 campuses in the UC system suspend...
May 13, 2020 Lance IzumiOutside a few conspiracy theorists, no one believes the COVID-19 lockdowns are a test run for eventually shuttering economic sectors to mitigate global warming. That said, the climate alarmists have surely been watching the public’s reaction, and the...
May 13, 2020 Kerry JacksonBack in 2012, I wrote a book entitled Obama’s Education Takeover that warned about the harmful impact that the Common Core national education standards would have on student achievement, especially in California. Now a just released study confirms m...
May 12, 2020 Lance IzumiWith conventional schools shut down because of COVID-19, school officials are scrambling to provide students with education services through the use of online-learning tools. However, some types of schools are having greater success in transitioning ...
May 11, 2020 Lance IzumiThere’s been a growing debate in California and nationally about extending workers’ compensation benefits for workers who are impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Some states are moving to make front line workers battling COVID-19 to be eligible for...
May 11, 2020 Tim AnayaListen to Lance Izumi, senior director of PRI’s Center for Education, discuss online learning and homeschooling during the COVID-19 crisis with host Renee Giachino on the Center for Individual Freedom’s “Freedom Line” podcast....
May 08, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteRowena Itchon – Love in the Time of Coronavirus Watch some of our front line medical personnel battling COVID-19 and helping people stay alive take a much-needed break to recreate the iconic scene from Titanic, with an usual, personal protectiv...
May 08, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteThree California counties have earned the title of “free counties.” They “earned” the label for reopening ahead of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement that Phase 2 of the statewide reopening would begin soon. Some small businesses outside of the “free c...
May 07, 2020 Kerry JacksonCalifornia Attorney General Xavier Becerra has officially filed suit against Uber and Lyft for violating Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5). The action is a clear signal that the state’s policy leaders are determined to maximize the economic damage from this ill...
May 06, 2020 Wayne WinegardenRoughly 30 million people have filed for unemployment since the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on the nation’s economy. Economists estimate that the unemployment rate now ranges from 15 to 20 percent – numbers not seen since the Great Depression...
May 05, 2020 Rowena Itchon
Watch the latest Pacific Research Institute webinar featuring a panel of policy experts, education specialists, and homeschooling practitioners discussing how schools and parents have transitioned to schooling at home through the use of distance and ...
May 04, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteWhen is California going to lift the shelter-in-place orders? As temperatures soar and people gain cabin fever after weeks of being stuck inside, it’s the question on everyone’s minds these days. In his April 28 press conference, Gov. Gavin Newsom s...
May 04, 2020 Tim AnayaKerry Jackson – When Will California Reopen? Question asked: Some states begin re-opening from stay home orders – is California close behind? The bet here is California will be the last state to fully open. Rowena Itchon – Blue Angels Fly...
May 01, 2020 Pacific Research Institute“Healthy people have rights too,” complained my 89-year old mother, who’s miffed because we’ve refused to take her to her favorite grocery store. Mom has joined the tens of thousands of people across America who believe that enough is enough. From C...
April 29, 2020 Rowena ItchonThe coronavirus pandemic has put public health top of mind for a majority of Americans, despite the overwhelming concern about how the U.S. economy will survive in the coming weeks. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to unfold, the political and p...
April 29, 2020 Evan HarrisSpeaker Pelosi and her allies in Congress received significant pollical pushback for using the COVID-19 crisis to enact their budget wish list in the $2 billion “phase 3” stimulus. Recently, Rowena Itchon wrote on Right by the Bay about tens of milli...
April 28, 2020 Tim AnayaEarlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic could be the crisis that his party has been looking for to permanently establish a progressive “nation-state.” “There is opportunity for reimagining a progressive era as it...
April 27, 2020 Kerry JacksonTim Anaya – Taking a Time Machine to a Lower Drug Price Future In the latest video in the “Escape the Drug Pricing Maze” series, Professor Salvare takes Pete Paystoomuch in a time machine to learn how drugs become cheaper after high...
April 24, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteDuring the COVID-19 crisis, the efforts of the United States Army have been very prominent, especially Army researchers working on a vaccine and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ incredible work building field hospital facilities around the country.&...
April 23, 2020 Lance IzumiIn case anyone has forgotten (and many long have), April 22 is Earth Day. And while the coronavirus pandemic has put a chill on this year’s worldwide 50th jubilee celebration, it hasn’t caused its demise. If anything, progressive climate change advo...
April 22, 2020 Rowena ItchonIn her March 25 Forbes editorial, Sally Pipes documented how the private sector is rising to the health challenges of the coronavirus. Whether it is Moderna launching clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine or Gilead Sciences investigating whether one...
April 21, 2020 Wayne WinegardenMuch is always written about “innovation.” How to manage it. How to inspire it. How to benefit from it. How to create an environment where it blooms. So much lip service is paid to innovation that unfortunately many people tune it out. Certainly, ign...
April 20, 2020 Bartlett ClelandRowena Itchon – Coronavirus Etude – For Piano and Disinfecting Wipe For those piano players wondering how you can safely play during COVID-19, check out this special performance the composer/arranger of this very appropriate tune for a ti...
April 17, 2020 Pacific Research Institute
This afternoon, the Senate Budget Committee will hold its first hearing on the state’s response to the coronavirus. Today’s hearing promises to be memorable for two reasons. It will be the first hearing with “social distancing” practices that have b...
April 16, 2020 Tim AnayaIt’s been recently said that with Chesa Boudin as district attorney, San Francisco has two public defenders: Manohar Raju, the appointed public defender, and Boudin, the former public defender who critics might say acts more like a legal advocate for...
April 15, 2020 Kerry JacksonOne of the intriguing reports to come out of the coronavirus pandemic is the partisan divide — not just among lawmakers — but even rank and file voters. Recent polls have consistently shown that Republicans are less concerned about the co...
April 14, 2020 Rowena Itchon
Lance Izumi, senior director of PRI’s Center for Education, joins us to discuss a situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic that millions of parents never though they’d find themselves in – homeschooling their kids. He shares advice from experts ...
April 13, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteThe United States and China are engaged in a no-holds barred attempt to salvage their economies during the coronavirus pandemic. We’re all familiar with the actions taken in the recent weeks by the United States. The Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury...
April 13, 2020 Evan HarrisTim Anaya – The Crossroads of Innovation and Affordability In the latest “Escape the Drug Pricing Maze” video, On the first step toward escaping the Drug Pricing Maze, Professor Salvare takes Pete Paystoomuch down the path of drug i...
April 10, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteObservers wondering just how different this year’s state budget would be got confirmation this week that the 2020-21 budget will be far different from envisioned in January. In a memo to the Capitol community released on Tuesday, the Assembly Budget ...
April 09, 2020 Tim AnayaLance Izumi, PRI’s Senior Education Fellow, talks about the benefits of distance or online learning and homeschooling since schools are closed during the coronavirus pandemic. Izumi talks about the many technological and time-saving benefits fo...
April 09, 2020 Lance Izumi
With conventional schools shut down across America due to the coronavirus, many parents are considering homeschooling, but have questions about how to begin and how to get the best results for their children. Someone who has answers for these parents...
April 08, 2020 Lance IzumiVoters will likely have a chance in November to decide if Proposition 13 will remain as it has since its passage in 1978, or if it will turn it into a chimera that treats homes and businesses differently, bleeding the latter for tens of billions......
April 08, 2020 Kerry JacksonIn recent years, California has undergone a significant change in its approach to criminal justice. As PRI’s Kerry Jackson writes in his book, Living in Fear in California, once California’s prison population reached an all-time high of 160,000 in 20...
April 07, 2020 Tim AnayaPublic banks, it seems, are the next wrongheaded progressive movement in state overrun with them. The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted last month “to reach out to nearby jurisdictions proposing a viability study, the first step in the cre...
April 06, 2020 Kerry JacksonTim Anaya – Nothing Good Ever Happens Outside The House Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a huge fan of Larry David and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” This is ironic because I’ve never watched an episode of “Seinfeld...
April 03, 2020 Pacific Research Institute
While several states are rethinking their single-use plastic bag bans for health reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic, California, which led the nation down the misguided path to prohibition, has yet to act. It should have been the first to suspend i...
April 02, 2020 Kerry Jackson
Along with other sectors of society, education has been greatly affected by the coronavirus, with schools closed across America. Yet, as in other fields, innovators in education have responded with learning mechanisms and models that allow students t...
April 01, 2020 Lance Izumi
In his “Breaking Down Barriers to Opportunity” series, PRI’s Dr. Wayne Winegarden has argued that one of the most important ways that elected officials can help to lift people up the economy ladder is by embracing policies that encourage entrepreneur...
April 01, 2020 Tim Anaya
That’s what Pres. Trump said in a tweet on the record-shattering $2 trillion phase 3 stimulus package. Right by the Bay doesn’t question the need for government to step up to help the economy get through the coronavirus pandemic. But even during thi...
March 31, 2020 Rowena ItchonCoronavirus is impacting everything and anything it touches. In the March PRI Single Payer Poll Watch, average opposition to a single payer plan overtook support, continuing the trend of growing opposition to a single payer health care plan PRI notic...
March 30, 2020 Evan HarrisTim Anaya – Escape the Drug Pricing Maze Watch Professor Salvare guide Pete Paystoomuch through the drug pricing maze, showing how the direction policymakers take on drug pricing policy could impact the affordability and availability of current...
March 27, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteA clearer picture formed this week about how the coronavirus will affect the state budget, with action in Sacramento and Washington. Director of Finance Keely Bosler sent a letter to lawmakers that the department will “reevaluate all budget changes w...
March 26, 2020 Tim AnayaWhile Governor Gavin Newsom and the Democrat-supermajority in the Legislature effectively eliminated most charter-school expansion in California, the charter school landscape is much different in neighboring Arizona. When Governor Newsom signed the a...
March 25, 2020 Lance IzumiAll the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas Layin’ in the sun, Talkin’ ’bout the things They woulda coulda shoulda done… –Shel Silverstein As of this writing, the Trump Administration has pledged to spend more than a trillion dollars...
March 24, 2020 Rowena ItchonThis podcast is a recorded panel discussion from PRI’s second annual policy conference in Sacramento. The panel focuses on education. As the attack over charter schools has increased, one false narrative is that they don’t serve the needs of specia...
March 23, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteUntil recently, terms like social distancing and even the coronavirus were nonexistent. Now these terms could come to define the beginning of a pending global recession the likes of which have yet to test modern economic markets. As parts of Californ...
March 23, 2020 Evan HarrisTim Anaya – Week to Week Political Roundtable on Coronavirus In case you missed it, last night I joined the Commonwealth Club’s Week to Week Political Roundtable. Due to the shelter in place orders in Sacramento and San Francisco – ...
March 20, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteThe coronavirus and the massive economic shutdown that has accompanied it as large parts of California are sheltering in place is significantly complicating work on the May Revise of the Gov. Newsom’s budget, due in just weeks. California’s nonpartis...
March 19, 2020 Tim AnayaThe Legislative Analyst’s Office recently issued its Review of the Draft 2020 High-Speed Rail Business Plan. It’s not a ringing endorsement of the project. Three of the report’s five key oversight issues confirm what’s been known all along. Californi...
March 18, 2020 Kerry JacksonWhile the statewide assault on charter schools by politicians in Sacramento has garnered headlines, it is the effort to undermine specific successful local charter schools that really pulls at one’s heartstrings. Take, for example, Willow Creek Acade...
March 17, 2020 Lance Izumi
The uncertainty over the coronavirus has negatively impacted the financial markets. Hit the hardest in the short term have been the travel and hospitality industries – with much talk of layoffs, bankruptcies, and industry bailouts. The Dow Jones and...
March 16, 2020 Tim AnayaBy Lance Izumi and Michele Steeb As Gov. Gavin Newsom noted in his 2020 State of the State address, California had the second highest increase in state homelessness in 2019. But a newly released report by State Auditor Elaine Howle found that Califor...
March 13, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteTim Anaya – Making the Perfect Irish Soda Bread With all the talk of coronavirus frightening us these days, I think we should focus on things that bring a smile to our faces this weekend, like St. Patrick’s Day. Even though the parades a...
March 13, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteNearly three dozen bills intended to revise or repeal Assembly Bill 5, which restricts workers’ freedom and could potentially kill the burgeoning gig economy, have been introduced in Sacramento. Here is some of the latest, and most important, news ab...
March 12, 2020 Kerry JacksonIf there was one constant in the national media coverage of Super Tuesday, it was criticism of California’s election system. More than one observer commented on the fact that California’s heavy use of vote-by-mail ballots meant that hundreds of thous...
March 11, 2020 Tim AnayaBaby I’ll spill the facts Well honey it ain’t your money ‘Cause baby I got plenty of that I love you for your pink Cadillac. – Bruce Springsteen If you’ve ever admired the gal who managed to steal The Boss’s heart with her pink Cadi...
March 10, 2020 Rowena ItchonThis year marks the 40th Anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice,” one of the biggest upsets in history when the United States hockey team beat the USSR in the semi-final game of the 1980 Winter Olympics. Anyone who watched the Olympics live or saw the......
March 09, 2020 Evan HarrisPRI’s second annual “California Ideas in Action” conference was held a few weeks back. This year’s conference featured PRI scholars, policy experts, and real life changemakers discussing how free market ideas can address the ...
March 06, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteAs a former legislative staffer in the California State Assembly, I often asked myself when reviewing legislation, “do we really need this bill?” I asked myself the same question when I came across the introduction of a bill mandating gender-neutral ...
March 05, 2020 Evan HarrisThat sound you hear this morning is millions of California voters feeling relieved that the primary election is finally over in the Golden State. Many are rejoicing the fact that they won’t have to see any more campaign advertising the next time the...
March 04, 2020 Tim AnayaIt’s not uncommon to find people who think San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities, if not the most beautiful city, in the world. Neither would it be shocking to learn that people are finding it to be one of the most unlivable......
March 03, 2020 Kerry JacksonTitle: California Considers Imposing Climate Change Education By Kenneth Artz A bill under consideration in the California legislature would require schoolchildren to learn humans are causing dangerous climate change, in order to graduate. A.B. 1922 ...
March 02, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteUnions target Betsy DeVos as she defends children By Rebecca Friedrichs Union bosses have tried to run Education Secretary Betsy DeVos out of office since the day she was nominated. Why? Because DeVos champions education freedom scholarships and redu...
March 02, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteOur colleague Wayne Winegarden wrote a marvelous piece for his Forbes column on “Bernie’s Math Problem.” To fund free health care, free housing, free college and so on, the Democrat frontrunner plans to make “billionaires pay their fair share of tax...
March 02, 2020 Rowena ItchonTim Anaya – Happy Leap Day 2020 Saturday is Leap Day – the one time every four years when we actually observe the date February 29th. This begs the question – what are you going to do with your extra day this year? In this......
February 28, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteOne would think that the rise of Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) to the top of the Democrat presidential nomination list equals growing enthusiasm for the Medicare for All plan he champions. But Sanders’ rise to frontrunner status isn’t doing much to b...
February 27, 2020 Evan HarrisLove it or hate it, for a variety of reasons when California enacts public policy the impact is felt across the country. And so, it has been again with the January 1st implementation of California’s Assembly Bill 5 (AB5), the so called “gig employmen...
February 26, 2020 Bartlett ClelandLast week, Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered his annual State of the State address at the State Capitol. And in an unusual twist, he devoted the entire address to one topic – homelessness. Typically, the State of the State outlines a governor’s policy wi...
February 25, 2020 Tim AnayaData privacy is one of the defining public policy debates of the new decade. As other countries push data privacy regulation heralded as global standards, California is headed in the other direction with the rollout of the state’s Consumer Privacy Ac...
February 24, 2020 Evan HarrisTim Anaya – How Would Single Payer Health Care Change California ICYMI – Check out this recent interview with PRI’s Sally Pipes on the “California Insider” program from the Epoch Times, where she discusses CaliforniaR...
February 21, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteRegular Right by the Bay readers know that I have written often about the Legislature’s efforts in recent years to change California’s elections rules for political advantage. The latest of these is a bill enacted in the final weeks of the most impor...
February 20, 2020 Tim AnayaThe projected cost of the California bullet train has whipsawed up and down like share prices in a volatile market. The latest forecast adds $1.3 billion to the estimated price tag. Now at $80.3 billion, it’s a long way from its humble beginnings of ...
February 19, 2020 Kerry JacksonLast week, California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s office was on a roll – releasing several, often-critical analyses of some of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s high profile budget proposals. Particularly pointed was its analysis of Newsom’s proposal to cr...
February 18, 2020 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – Watch Sally Pipes on “After Words” on Saturday Night As part of the promotion of her latest book, PRI President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy Sally C. Pipes will appear on “After Words̶...
February 14, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteBack in 2017, concerned over the sclerotic growth of the U.S. economy, PRI published a series of studies titled Beyond the New Normal by economist and PRI senior fellow Wayne Winegarden. Up until that point, annual real GDP growth averaged just 1.9 p...
February 13, 2020 Rowena ItchonReeling from multiple massive state wildfires that its actions likely triggered, Pacific Gas & Electric, or PG&E, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this time last year. The investor-owned utility faces a June 30, 2020 deadline to come up with a...
February 12, 2020 Evan HarrisAt what point did the lawmakers who voted for, and the governor who signed, California Assembly Bill 5 realize it’s lousy policy? It should have been the moment the idea was first conceived. But that didn’t happen, the legislation became law, and now...
February 11, 2020 Kerry JacksonNoted education reformer Larry Sand of the California Teachers Empowerment Network talks with PRI's Lance Izumi about opportunities to expand school choice in California despite recent legislative setbacks last year targeting charter schools. They d...
February 10, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteThe backlash over California’s Assembly Bill 5, legislation that robs workers of their freedom, was likely not expected by lawmakers. They’re accustomed to an electorate that agreeably goes along with whatever policies they impose, no matter how inva...
February 10, 2020 Kerry JacksonTim Anaya – What You Need to Know About the Wuhan Coronavirus With all the media stories and online misinformation about the Wuhan Coronavirus, we thought it would be good to sit down with our Dr. Henry Miller to set the record straight. This ...
February 07, 2020 Tim AnayaPRI is fortunate to be home to several former speechwriters for Presidents and Governors, including me. Anyone who has been a speechwriter watches a big public speech like this week’s State of the Union address or Gov. Newsom’s upcoming State of the ...
February 06, 2020 Tim AnayaOne of the first national health care polls of 2020 shows the continued lukewarm support for a national single-payer health care plan. Adding the January 2020 Kaiser survey to the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) Single-Payer Poll Watch brings the av...
February 05, 2020 Evan HarrisSan Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin is no crime fighter. He’s among the new breed of decline-to-prosecute prosecutors whose elections have been funded by George Soros (and his political machine). The uber-wealthy agitator is determined to us...
February 04, 2020 Kerry JacksonThe March primary election is a month away. While we are already being bombarded with television advertising for the Democratic presidential race, there hasn’t been much discussion of ballot measures. That’s because in 2011, Democrats in the Legisla...
February 03, 2020 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – Celebrating National School Choice Week This week, we’re celebrating National School Choice Week, and the power of school choice to meeting the individual needs of students. Whether a student is attending a public, private, c...
January 31, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteSan Francisco has added yet another tax, this one to fund a climate initiative. Though maybe it’s an overused phrase, “death by a thousand tax hikes” is still a descriptive expression, and it applies here. The 1% surcharge being added to some diners’...
January 30, 2020 Kerry JacksonThis week is National School Choice Week and it is important to remember that education choice includes not just private, charter, and traditional public options, but also homeschooling options as well. My upcoming book, co-authored with the amazing ...
January 29, 2020 Lance IzumiThis week’s observance of National School Choice Week in California comes at a time when the movement to expand charter schools in the Golden State and increase school choice options for every student is at a particularly low ebb. Recall that last fa...
January 28, 2020 Tim AnayaLance Izumi, PRI’s Senior Director of the Center for Education, talks about School Choice Week on the Phil Cowan Show on AM 1380 The Answer. Founded in 2011, School Choice Week is a national celebration and advocacy week for effective education...
January 27, 2020 Lance Izumi
The week of January 27th is National School Choice Week, which is appropriate since a potentially landmark case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court could have wide-ranging implications for California parents who want more education options for th...
January 27, 2020 Lance IzumiIn a state where the private sector continues to be marginalized in favor of more government, Gov. Gavin Newsom has plans for California to set up a generic drug label of its own. It would be the first state in the country to go into......
January 27, 2020 Kerry JacksonTim Anaya – What’s Going on with the Wuhan Flu A growing public health crisis the Wuhan Flu outbreak in China. The first case in the U.S. was just reported in Seattle. Should we be concerned about the growing threat from this coronavirus?...
January 24, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteHousing affordability is once again at the top of Sacramento Democrats’ policy agenda this session. Several bills have already been proposed to try and bring down state housing costs. Addressing the state’s housing crisis is now running into conflic...
January 23, 2020 Tim AnayaA state homelessness task force is recommending that local governments be hauled into court if they aren’t moving people off the streets. It’s unlikely to help. The most probable outcome is an increased burden on the courts and a higher dose of polit...
January 22, 2020 Kerry JacksonIf you were able to make it through California Governor Gavin Newsom’s almost three-hour budget briefing, you’ve probably been following the enormous funding proposals included in the $222.2 billion budget estimate. You can save 167 minute of your ti...
January 21, 2020 Evan HarrisToday, we join all Americans in remembering the memory and lasting legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Presented here are quotes from some of his most memorable speeches which continue to inspire millions today....
January 20, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteEvan Harris – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Joins the Commonwealth Club of California Sec. Mike Pompeo sat down with Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group on Monday, Jan. 13 at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Secre...
January 17, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteLast month, Pacific Research Institute launched the “Single-Payer Poll Watch” to keep an eye on the latest public opinion around single-payer healthcare. Much like RealClearPolitics, the poll watch compiles questions from national polls on single-pay...
January 16, 2020 Evan HarrisWith nearly 40 million people and more than 70,000 farms taking up nearly 25 million acres, California is always thirsty. It is, as well, mostly dry. Deserts make up one-fourth of the state and semi-arid land occupies up at least that much, if not mo...
January 15, 2020 Kerry JacksonI have written before on the benefits and drawbacks of the various universal basic income (UBI) proposals bubbling up the last few years in the American political scene, specifically the economic, political, and moral dimensions of these policies. A...
January 14, 2020 Damon DunnGov. Newsom’s announcement of his 2020-21 State Budget plan on Friday was another whopper, his speech clocking in at roughly 2 hours and 47 minutes. Last year, reporters who were used to covering a 30 minute press conference where caught off guard b...
January 13, 2020 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – The Royal Shocker That Happened While Everyone Was Focused on Foreign Affairs In public relations 101, there’s the old adage of the Friday news dump – drop major news or do a document dump either during some other major ...
January 10, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteA Washington newspaper has reported that U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the socialist from Vermont, has received 300 endorsements from California. That goes a long to explaining why things keep going wrong in the state. “The campaign released endorsements...
January 09, 2020 Kerry JacksonAs each new year begins, the increases in the list prices of drugs are announced. And, following these announcements, the political class complains that something must be done. This year, following the price announcements, Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweete...
January 08, 2020 Wayne WinegardenDespite technological advancements to the movement of goods, trucks will still transport and deliver and incredible amount of goods in 2020. But automation and self-driving research are not the biggest threat to truckers anymore. California’s contest...
January 07, 2020 Evan HarrisAt a recent White House roundtable with students, teachers and policymakers, President Trump said that children trapped in failing government schools “would be forgotten no longer,” and urged Congress to pass his Education Freedom Scholarships propos...
January 06, 2020 Lance IzumiNew Year’s resolutions are about goals and aspirations. Unfortunately, California’s new 2020 laws serve mostly the aspirations of state politicians and interest groups, not hard-working Californians. Take AB5, a law that forces thousands of independ...
January 06, 2020 Rowena ItchonLance Izumi joins co-hosts Cara Candal and Bob Bowden from the Pioneer Institute to talk all things charter schools on the Learning Curve podcast. Lance discusses his new book, Choosing Diversity, and the wide range of both the student populations se...
January 03, 2020 Lance IzumiBen Smithwick – The Best of the 2010’s Happy New Year! Here is a great recap of some of the major stories from the past decade – from the election of President Trump to the market disruption caused by the sharing economy – and the declin...
January 03, 2020 Pacific Research InstituteIn 1967 Arthur Koestler wrote The Ghost in the Machine, which was essentially a critique of the hypothesis that the human mind could be viewed as a machine, a sort of chemical computer. He went on to consider that if were a computer, then what......
January 02, 2020 Bartlett ClelandWe made it to New Year’s Eve 2019 – the last day of the year and the last day of the decade. In between getting ready for a great party and enjoying some champagne, today is a time to look back on the year that......
December 31, 2019 Tim AnayaAs our nation enters a pivotal presidential election year, it will be critically important to promote and defend free markets and individual freedom in California and throughout the country. The Pacific Research Institute remains committed to advanci...
December 30, 2019 Ben SmithwickThe last week of December is naturally a time to look back on the year that was. Here at PRI, we are particularly proud of the growing popularity of our weekly “Next Round with PRI” podcast and our daily “Right by the Bay” blog. Thanks......
December 26, 2019 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – Darlene Love sings her holiday classic on David Letterman For more than 25 years on his late night show, David Letterman would host a performance of what he said was the only Christmas rock song that he actually liked, “Christ...
December 25, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteThe holidays are about traditions, and we at PRI think there is no better tradition than enjoying a great glass of California wine or other adult beverage while talking about public policy. Once again this year, we are pleased to present a list of so...
December 24, 2019 Tim AnayaThe California policy gadfly is back with a new ballot initiative in 2020. Last year, San Francisco real estate developer Alastair Mactaggart used the threat of a ballot measure to all but force the state legislature to enact dramatic new privacy reg...
December 23, 2019 Bartlett ClelandKerry Jackson – “Full House” San Francisco Real Estate Parody Remy is world-class clever. In a 90-second video he can say what most writers can’t get across using hundreds of words. Tim Anaya – How USMCA is Good for Cali...
December 20, 2019 Pacific Research InstitutePRI’s Lance Izumi joined the nationally-syndicated Lars Larson Show to share his thoughts on why America is failing behind the rest of the world in education. Recent data from the Program for International Student Assessment, an international s...
December 19, 2019 Lance IzumiDecember is about half gone, and, as the Counting Crows’ Adam Duritz once sang, “it’s getting cold in California.” In another song from the same 1996 album Duritz also sang that it’s been “a long December and there’s reason to believe may...
December 19, 2019 Kerry JacksonReviewing the 2019 education landscape shows some states taking giant steps backwards, while others made great strides, and this contrast is nowhere more stark than between California and Florida. In California, the education theme was “let’s take ch...
December 18, 2019 Lance IzumiHealth care has dominated the early Democrat presidential debates, with progressive candidates battling “moderates” over the question of a public option versus a Medicare for All plan that would outlaw private insurance. As the public has focused mor...
December 17, 2019 Evan HarrisTwo days before Thanksgiving, financial services firm Charles Schwab announced it was relocating its headquarters from San Francisco to Texas. The Wall Street Journal’s explanation: “The brokerage giant heads for a state that doesn’t punish finance.”...
December 16, 2019 Kerry JacksonRowena Itchon – Brexit and this week’s UK Election If you’re following the British elections and Brexit, here’s a terrific interview with Dan Hannan, Conservative Member of the European Parliament by Nick Gillespie of Reason. Kerry Jackso...
December 13, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteNearly two decades ago, before “ban everything” fever was sweeping through California, San Francisco committed to eliminating a staple of human progress: the modern landfill. The idea, concocted in 2002, was to reach a “zero waste” existence by 2020,...
December 12, 2019 Kerry JacksonThe California School Boards Association (CSBA) and proponents of the “Full and Fair Funding” proposal – a $15 billion annual tax increase for school funding – announced last week that they were pulling the proposal from the November 2020...
December 11, 2019 Tim AnayaLance Izumi, PRI’s Senior Director of the Center for Education, recently sat down with the Epoch Times to discuss a few of the many issues plaguing California public schools....
December 10, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteYou won’t read this headline anytime soon, but it is consistent with the recent changes to California’s electric-car rebate program enacted by the state’s Air Resources Board. Both California and the federal government offer generous tax credits to p...
December 10, 2019 Wayne WinegardenA state overflowing with natural resources and more than 840 miles of direct access to the largest body of water on Earth seems to always be suffering through a dry spell. Even though seven years of drought ended earlier this year, and winter storms ...
December 09, 2019 Kerry JacksonResults for the latest administration of the Program for International Student Assessment, a key exam given to 15-year-old students worldwide, show poor performance in reading and math among U.S. students, with the Common Core national standards and ...
December 06, 2019 Lance IzumiTim Anaya – Texas vs. California: Which is Better? Prager U’s Will Witt asks Texas college students to compare the Lone Star State versus California. Their answers are both amusing and quite insightful – even for liberal college stu...
December 06, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteCalifornia’s attorney general has become one of the most powerful political offices in the state. The powers granted to the Golden State’s top cop are numerous and impactful. The attorney general is often front and center for state and federal lawsui...
December 05, 2019 Evan HarrisAmid much fanfare, several Silicon Valley firms have announced plans to collectively contribute billions to “affordable housing” programs. Last month, Apple announced “a comprehensive $2.5 billion plan to help address the housing availability and aff...
December 04, 2019 Tim AnayaStanford University offers a puzzling paradox. On one hand, hardly a month passes without news of a genuinely significant breakthrough in some field of science or technology. One week it might be the discovery that an unorthodox arrangement of wind t...
December 03, 2019 Henry Miller, M.S., M.D.Thanks to the support of hundreds of liberty-minded individuals, 2019 was a banner year for the Pacific Research Institute. The generosity of our supporters is what allows us to champion freedom, opportunity, and personal responsibility by advancing ...
December 03, 2019 Ben SmithwickLance Izumi recently joined the Kern Citizens for Sustainable Government podcast to talk all things California education reform and his recent book Choosing Diversity about school choice. Click here to listen. . ....
December 02, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteThe flood of lousy legislation that has poured out of Sacramento for the last two decades or so truly astonishes in its volume. As fourth-rate as the lawmaking has been, though, nothing has been worse than Assembly Bill 5, an existential threat to bo...
December 02, 2019 Kerry Jackson
With Thanksgiving falling late this year, you have one less week to get all of your Christmas shopping done. If you are like me, you’re a bit overwhelmed trying to find the perfect gift for everyone on your shopping list. To give you some inspiratio...
November 27, 2019 Tim AnayaLast week the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) published its latest fiscal outlook for California. The headlines were so great that you could almost hear the champagne corks popping in Sacramento. Not only has the state budget in California run sur...
November 26, 2019 Wayne WinegardenRecently, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution recognizing November 2019 as Homeless Children and Youth Awareness Month and, importantly, highlighted lack of education as a key characteristic of homeless youth. The Senate resolution noted that young p...
November 25, 2019 Lance IzumiRowena Itchon – Sally Pipes Debates Single Payer at UC Berkeley Watch Sally Pipes’ debate on single-payer health care in front of students at UC Berkeley. Posted by CalTV on Thursday, November 14, 2019 Ben Smithwick – On Efforts to Crack ...
November 22, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteLast month the D.C. Court of Appeals settled, for now, the question of how much freedom consumers will be guaranteed to make their internet experience the one they want. The Court upheld the current Federal Communication Commission’s Restoring Intern...
November 21, 2019 Bartlett ClelandWhen the California Air Resources Board opens its new headquarters in two years in Riverside, it will be basking in the radiance of the “world’s largest permanent collection of artworks addressing air quality and the effects of climate change.” The c...
November 20, 2019 Kerry JacksonThe United States tweet first, tariff second trade policy against China continues to define American -Chinese relations. As both nations pursue the “Cold War light” escalation through tariffs, the United States continues to drum up new regulations to...
November 19, 2019 Evan HarrisLance Izumi, PRI’s Senior Director of the Center for Education, discusses Senator Elizabeth Warren’s disasterous education plan on the David Webb Show (SiriusXM Patriot Radio Channel 125)....
November 18, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteWhen I was on vacation recently in Europe, our tour guide would tell us stories every night about her time living as a young bride in Greece with her late husband and young daughter. As we departed, she said she would love to be our......
November 18, 2019 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – Kerry Jackson Talks CA’s Power Outages, Homelessness, Rent Control on National TV In case you missed it, PRI’s own Kerry Jackson was a guest on “The Daily Ledger” on One America News Network discussing Califo...
November 15, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteThe newspaper comic strip They’ll Do It Every Time that was published for nearly 80 years through 2008 “illustrated minor absurdities, frustrations, hypocrisies, ironies and misfortunes of everyday life,” says Wikipedia, typically showing “deceptive,...
November 14, 2019 Kerry JacksonLance Izumi, PRI’s Senior Director of Education Studies, talks about Senator Elizabeth Warren’s disastrous education plan with Nick Gosnell on WIBW in Topeka. Click here to listen. . ....
November 13, 2019 Lance IzumiWith great fanfare, the Los Angeles City Council – in partnership with the LA Unified School District – last week enacted new pilot program called “Opportunity LA” to establish “children’s savings accounts” for every first grader in the city. The ac...
November 13, 2019 Tim AnayaThe NCAA recently caved to California and the federal government by unanimously supporting compensation for student athletes. The NCAA board of governors approved a two-year process to determine a framework to compensate student athletes for their na...
November 12, 2019 Evan HarrisAs we celebrate Veterans Day and honor the men and women who have selflessly served our nation, it is important to understand that this special day is about both people and about ideas. At his final speech to the Corps of Cadets at West Point......
November 11, 2019 Lance IzumiTim Anaya – Peter Thiel on Conservative Bias in Silicon Valley As a preview of coming attractions for this weekend’s PRI Baroness Thatcher Gala in Newport Beach featuring Peter Thiel, here’s video of a recent interview on Fox Busine...
November 08, 2019 Pacific Research Institute
Download the Brief Introduction Pacific Gas and Electric of San Francisco began in October 2019 a series of electricity blackouts called “public safety power shutoffs.” The objective was to prevent its equipment from starting wildfires during hot, dr...
November 07, 2019 Kerry Jackson
Recently, Senator Elizabeth Warren released her education plan titled “A Great Public School Education for Every Student,” but the scheme should have been named “My Big Fat Payoff to the Teacher Unions.” The publicity splash in Warren’s plan is her c...
November 06, 2019 Lance IzumiGov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that he was going to name an energy czar “in the wake of Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s prolonged power outages,” says the Sacramento Bee, because. According to the governor, “the entire system needs to be re...
November 06, 2019 Kerry JacksonCalifornians are rightfully outraged over what my colleague Kerry Jackson has termed, “The Great Blackouts of 2019.” Naturally, whenever there is a crisis or a scandal in state government like the blackouts and the PG&E bailout and bankruptcy, vo...
November 05, 2019 Tim AnayaThe results of the 2019 National Assessment for Educational Progress, often called the “Nation’s Report Card,” came out recently and California’s scores once again tanked, with one of the likely causes being the national Common Core standards and ali...
November 04, 2019 Lance IzumiThis week, PRI released a new study by Senior Fellow in Business and Economics, Dr. Wayne Winegarden about how government-created barriers to opportunity were standing in the way of low-income and immigrant entrepreneurs starting a business and worki...
November 01, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteThis summer, Facebook unveiled their plans to incorporate Libra, a digital cryptocurrency, into the Facebook platform. By the end of 2020, billions of Facebook users will be able to use Libra like any other currency. In previous Right by the Bay post...
October 31, 2019 Evan HarrisNCAA Will Let Athletes Profit Off Their Names, Images And Likenesses By Adam Elrashidi The NCAA’s board said each division has to draft and enact the necessary rules no later than January 2021. The NCAA, the national governing body for collegia...
October 30, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteCalifornia’s 55 electoral votes won’t go to President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, but he can expect the state’s farmers support. The White House announced on Oct. 22 it will pump water where it’s vital for human needs rather than hold it back ...
October 30, 2019 Kerry JacksonA few weeks ago, I wrote a piece on the National Council on Teacher Quality’s excellent research on California’s failed teacher quality policies, and now the organization has followed up by releasing a new analysis showing that California is AWOL whe...
October 29, 2019 Lance IzumiAmid much fanfare, Major League Soccer last week announced that Sacramento has been awarded the 29th MLS franchise. Attention now turns to building a new $252 million stadium in the downtown Sacramento railyards before the team’s launch in 2022. Unf...
October 28, 2019 Tim AnayaRowena Itchon – Who Is Giving Away the Most Free Stuff? Guess which presidential candidate is giving away the most “free” stuff. Check out John Stossel’s Free Stuff 2020. Evan Harris – Mr. Zuckerberg Goes to Washington (Again) Mark Zuckerberg e...
October 25, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteLast week came news that the California School Boards Association finally submitted its long-discussed ballot measure to the state Attorney General’s office to begin the process of qualifying it for the November 2020 general election ballot. Accordin...
October 24, 2019 Tim AnayaAnalysis of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s first year as governor is in the “Monday morning quarterback” phase as the media, supporters, and opponents measure his legislative priorities against his campaign promises. Since passing the largest sta...
October 23, 2019 Evan HarrisLance Izumi, PRI’s Senior Director for the Center for Education joined the Lars Larson Show to discuss U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s latest education proposal, that includes banning federal funding of charter schools and supporting a ca...
October 22, 2019 Lance IzumiWhile many adults are perplexed by today’s young people, a number of important books offer insight and answers to why, according to the cover of one of them, “Today’s super-connected kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy—and ...
October 22, 2019 Lance IzumiThe California state motto is “Eureka,” Greek for “I have found it.” Says State Symbols USA, “famed Greek mathematician Archimedes is said to have exclaimed ‘Eureka!’ when he finally discovered a method for determining the purity of gold.” The motto ...
October 21, 2019 Kerry JacksonTim Anaya – Mark Zuckerberg on the Power of Expression Caught between a rock and a hard place amidst strict criticism over political censorship and calls for the government to break it up, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the case this week at...
October 18, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteRecently, I had the opportunity to spend two weeks traveling throughout England, Ireland, and Scotland. Though each of the places we visited were very distinct from one another – the hotels that we stayed at had one thing in common – bulk dispensers ...
October 17, 2019 Tim AnayaCalifornia’s state government has embraced a policy of resisting nearly every federal government policy pursued by the Trump Administration. Legislation, executive orders, and lawsuits serve the dual purpose of forwarding the state’s progressive agen...
October 16, 2019 Evan HarrisThe response by states to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Janus ruling, which said that it was unconstitutional to require non-union government workers to pay fees to public-employee unions, has ranged from underhanded attempts to save the unions’ ...
October 15, 2019 Lance IzumiMy last column began a conversation our nation desperately needs to have – forcefully pushing back against the dangerous and misguided myths promoting by proponents of socialism in the U.S. surrounding the supposed socialist success stories in ...
October 15, 2019 Damon DunnBenjamin Franklin was right that “nothing is certain but death and taxes,” though he could have added a third certainty in California – paying significantly more than the national average for gasoline. California drivers are living a real life ...
October 14, 2019 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – Freedom of Speech Apparently Ends When You Enter an NBA Arena This week’s controversy over the NBA and China apparently extended to home. Adding insult to injury, as this video produced by the Daily Caller shows, NBA security ...
October 11, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteThe initial report on Stockton’s “basic income” experiment, in which 125 residents in low-income Zip Codes receive $500 a month, shows that most of the money that can be tracked has been spent on necessities. But that’s only part of the story. Forty ...
October 10, 2019 Kerry JacksonWatching leftist politicians such as New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio goading students to go on “strike” to protest climate change underscored for many American parents the increasing political indoctrination going on in the nation’s public schools...
October 09, 2019 Lance IzumiNow that dust has settled after the signing of perhaps the hottest bill this legislative session – Assembly Bill 5 – what’s next for those who work in the gig economy? A panel of free-market advocates and subject matter experts recently got together ...
October 09, 2019 Evan HarrisWhile California’s teacher unions are winning expensive battles on the strike lines and are flexing their political muscle in Sacramento, new research shows that state teacher-quality policies are failing to ensure that every public-school classroom ...
October 08, 2019 Lance IzumiOne issue that was pushed on the backburner in this year’s very eventful legislative session was single-payer health care. Surprisingly, even though the Senate actually passed a single payer bill (SB 562) last session, a single-payer bill wasn’t even...
October 07, 2019 Tim Anaya
Evan Harris, PRI’s Media Relations and Outreach Manager, spoke with Newsy about California Governor Gavin Newsom signing Senate Bill 206, the Fair Pay to Play Act, into law. The new law will allow NCAA college athletes to receive compensation and end...
October 04, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteTim Anaya – How One Irish Family Transformed Their 4 Bedroom Home into an 89-Room, 4-Star Resort This week, I returned from a two week tour of England, Scotland, and Ireland. At our final destination in Limerick, I had the opportunity to stay a...
October 04, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteGov. Gavin Newsom sent out a press release Wednesday announcing that he will sign “the first major overhaul to the charter schools law since its enactment 27 years ago, and will address longstanding challenges for both traditional public school distr...
October 03, 2019 Katy GrimesWith the deadline for California Governor Gavin Newsom to sign or veto legislation fast approaching, one public policy issue that received little to no attention at the end of California’s legislative session is the state’s pending data privacy law. ...
October 03, 2019 Evan HarrisWhen Proposition 47 was passed, no small number of critics said it would lead to increases in property crimes as it downgraded theft to a misdemeanor if the value of the stolen goods or bad checks is less than $950. The threshold had been $450.......
October 02, 2019 Kerry JacksonDOWNLOAD THE BRIEF California lawmakers won’t give up on their crusade to force everyone in the state into electric cars (before eventually removing us out of our cars altogether). That electric vehicles neither sell nor perform up to reasonable expe...
October 01, 2019 Kerry JacksonThe history of failure, destruction, and death lying in the wake of nearly every socialist experiment is well-known in our country today. Modern-day proponents of socialism cannot point to a single instance of their failed dogma being successful in a...
September 30, 2019 Damon DunnTim Anaya – Let Charter Schools Teach PRI’s Lance Izumi has extensively covered the passage of AB 1505, which would impose new restrictions and regulations on charter schools in California. In this video, Reason TV’s John Stossel ex...
September 27, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteLance Izumi joined the Andy Caldwell Show on AM 1440 and AM 1290 in Santa Barbara to discuss California’s recent charter school compromise and what parents should look out for now that schools are back in session....
September 26, 2019 Lance IzumiOne of the most contentious battles of this year’s legislative session was AB 5, with labor and gig economy companies duking out over the definition of who is an employee and who is an independent contractor. In this battle over the “new economy” and...
September 26, 2019 Tim AnayaLast week, I accompanied Sally Pipes to New York where she participated in a debate sponsored by Intelligence Squared. For a decade now, Intelligence Squared has been hosting debates on all issues concerning public policy, from the Middle East, to dr...
September 25, 2019 Rowena ItchonCalifornia policymakers have indicated that when the state converts to a renewables-only energy framework in 2045, wind and sun will be the only sources permitted. Categorical renewables such as hydroelectric power and nuclear will not be considered....
September 24, 2019 Kerry JacksonThe free speech battles on college campuses today are perhaps unparalleled since the time of Mario Savio at Berkeley in the 1960s – although the cast of characters is much different today with conservatives being afraid to speak freely about their be...
September 23, 2019 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – How Rent Control Hurts Renters In the wake of the Legislature’s passage of AB 1482, so-called “rent gouging” legislation (which is really just another name for rent control), this great video from Prager U featurin...
September 20, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteSince 2011, the California State Legislature has been itching to bring back redevelopment agencies. Governor Jerry Brown’s nixing of the 70-year-old program scored the California state budget several billion dollars during the Great Recession in 2011...
September 19, 2019 Evan HarrisPresident Trump said many times during the 2016 election that the American people would “win” so much under his administration that they would get tired of winning. Now that the 2019 legislative session is over, Gov. Gavin Newsom may be making the sa...
September 18, 2019 Tim AnayaI have long adhered to the proposition that we should extend grace to our ideological opponents. In fact, when discussing fellow Americans, I reject wholesale the increasingly common language of combat in politics (e.g. political “enemies,” culture w...
September 17, 2019 Damon DunnGov. Gavin Newsom will not after all appoint a homelessness czar, as he had promised he would during the 2018 campaign. Now, if he would just disband the homelessness task force that was formed in the spring. While running for governor last year as t...
September 16, 2019 Kerry JacksonLance Izumi, PRI’s Senior Director for the Center for Education, joined the Phil Cowan Show on AM 1380 The Answer to discuss the deal recently announced between the California Charter School’s Association and the California Teachers Assoc...
September 13, 2019 Lance IzumiKerry Jackson – President Trump to the Rescue on CA’s Homeless Problem? California’s homeless problem has become so troubling that the president, who has been in a running feud Sacramento, has even decided to try to help. Evan Harri...
September 13, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteOn Thursday night, the Democratic presidential candidates will meet for the next presidential debate in Houston. One surprising candidate who qualified for the Houston debate and has attracted a small but growing following of supporters (known as the...
September 12, 2019 Tim AnayaRecent headlines blared that Democrat lawmakers, the California Teachers Association, and the California Charter School Association had reached a compromise in the charter school wars in Sacramento. For many charter-school supporters, however, the “...
September 11, 2019 Lance IzumiGov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers have made it clear they believe rent control is one of the solutions to California’s housing shortage. According to the Los Angeles Times, an agreement announced late on the Friday evening before the Labor Day weekend ...
September 10, 2019 Kerry Jackson
Association of American Educators executive director Colin Sharkey joins us to discuss a new survey from their Teacher Freedom project on the attitudes of teachers one year after the historic Janus decision and shares insight on what teachers think a...
September 09, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteWater policy is one of those topics that can leave newcomers and casual listeners feeling inundated. The regulations that govern state and federal water policy are laced with a flood of acronyms and terms, with a steady gush of changes to state water...
September 09, 2019 Evan HarrisTim Anaya – Channeling My Inner Phil Donahue In case you missed it, check out the video of a recent PRI luncheon with UC Berkeley Law Professor John Yoo and PRI’s Dr. Steven Hayward – also a Berkeley prof – on the battle for f...
September 06, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteRecently, headline after headline trumpeted that the College Board, which administers the SAT, eliminated students’ so-called “adversity score,” which was supposed to inform college admissions officials about the challenges students face or don’t fac...
September 05, 2019 Lance IzumiI loved the classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are when I was a kid. If I were to write a story about the political version of Where the Wild Things Are, I’d set it on the floor of the State Assembly during the......
September 04, 2019 Tim AnayaIt seems you can’t scroll through your social media feed or morning newsletter without reading commentary about inverted yield curve and recession. A 2020 economic recession is the talk of political pundits, financial talking heads, and presidential ...
September 03, 2019 Evan Harris
Lance Izumi, PRI’s Senior Director of Education Studies, joins us to discuss perhaps the most controversial education legislation in recent memory – a so-called compromise that would impose significant new requirements and restrictions on charter sch...
September 02, 2019 Pacific Research Institute
Watch C-SPAN’s national TV coverage of PRI’s recent lunch event with University of California Berkeley Law Professor John Yoo, who served as the deputy assistant U.S. attorney general during the George W. Bush administration, and PRI seni...
August 30, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteTim Anaya – Remembering a Sacramento Culinary Icon News came on Thursday that Sacramento’s cooking icon Biba Caggiano passed away at the age of 82. Anyone who has spent any time on the Sacramento political scene has spent more than one e...
August 30, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteOn this Labor Day, we salute California’s hard-working men and women with a much-deserved three-day weekend while enjoying the unofficial end of the summer season. This Labor Day, we celebrate the fact that California’s public employees who don’t wan...
August 29, 2019 Tim AnayaLos Angeles County has adopted a “sustainability” program that officials expect “to enhance the well-being of every community in the county while reducing damage to the natural environment and adapting to the changing climate.” This is considered sma...
August 28, 2019 Kerry JacksonDespite evidence of a recent slowdown, the American economy is strong according to nearly all traditional economic indicators and has been for multiple years. Nearly a decade of economic expansion has led to record highs being recorded in the stock m...
August 27, 2019 Damon DunnSupporters behind the split roll ballot measure that would remove Proposition 13’s tax protection for commercial properties had it been approved are apparently junking the initiative in favor of what they believe will be a “new and improved” plan. “T...
August 26, 2019 Kerry JacksonLance Izumi, PRI’s Senior Director of the Center for Education, joined the Lars Larson Show to discuss kids returning to school and the dangers of a one-size fits all system....
August 23, 2019 Lance IzumiTim Anaya – What Would Have Happened if the US Bought Greenland in 1946? This week brought the unusual dispute between the Trump Administration and Denmark after being rebuffed over a proposal to purchase Greenland. In the coverage of the issu...
August 23, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteEarlier this year, I wrote about the #Build2020 plan put forward by Assembly Democrats to make it easier to raise taxes at the local level for special taxes and general obligation bonds to pay for things like libraries, hospitals, parks, and other po...
August 22, 2019 Tim AnayaIn late April, Senator Elizabeth Warren beat out other 2020 presidential contenders to the college-aged voter pulpit by introducing a sweeping student loan forgiveness plan. With the previous debate about the nation’s massive $1.57 trillion student l...
August 21, 2019 Evan HarrisRecently, I had a health scare that sent me to the emergency room for a few hours. The care that I received at UC Davis Medical Center was excellent. I drove myself to the emergency room at 6:30 in the morning. Upon registering, I saw......
August 20, 2019 Tim AnayaCalifornia leads the country in electric vehicle sales, but it’s apparently not enough to satisfy the Sacramento meddlers. The same legislator who would outlaw gasoline and diesel automobiles now wants to increase the publicly-funded subsidy that is ...
August 19, 2019 Kerry JacksonIt is back-to-school time for students across America, which means that it also a time for parents to be aware of the signs that schools may not be providing the quality of education they want for their children. Here are the top five warning signs.....
August 16, 2019 Lance IzumiTim Anaya – Don’t Mess with Bingo Players One of the reasons why I love going on cruises is getting to play bingo every day. I’ve learned over the years not to mess with bingo players, whether you call out bingo when you haven’...
August 16, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteCalifornia, which would like to think of itself as the recycling capital of the universe, has lost its largest bottle and can recycling chain, rePlanet. The company shut down all 284 sites across the state on Aug. 5 and terminated its workforce of as...
August 14, 2019 Kerry JacksonEven though the state has slipped in the rankings over the past several years, California is still an innovation hub with an economy that is firmly grounded in innovative industries from videogames to internet, and technology hardware to movies. Ther...
August 13, 2019 Bartlett ClelandCalPERS and CalSTRS – the two largest public employee pension funds in both California and the nation –just announced their annual investment returns for the 2018-19 fiscal year. Once again, it’s not good news for California taxpayers. Both funds re...
August 12, 2019 Tim Anaya
Claremont Institute President Ryan Williams joins us to discuss their current work on what they see as the growing threat from identity politics and multiculturalism, their recent censorship battle with Google, and how we can encourage a more balance...
August 12, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteRowena Itchon – Yes, I Really Did Work for Ronald Reagan When people learn that I worked at the Reagan Speechwriting office, people ask me if I ever met the President. My brother recently came across this old video in 1986 when the staff did......
August 09, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteRenewable portfolio standards (RPS) can be considered the flagship environmental policy for state government in the US. The RPS programs have been adopted by 29 states and apply to half of the national electricity market. The staple of any RPS progra...
August 08, 2019 Evan HarrisSan Francisco has most recently been known more for its quality of life problems and lack of affordability than the home of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. You would think that city officials would be doing everything they can to lure both touri...
August 07, 2019 Tim AnayaRecently, The Washington Times published an op-ed that I authored where I describe how the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, to use the newspaper’s headline, “Careen Left.” But the reality is that the political ...
August 06, 2019 Lance IzumiBy Lance Izumi and Rebecca Friedrichs Reports reveal that 10-15% of teachers have said “No thanks” to funding unions since the U.S. Supreme Court set them free from forced unionism through the Janus decision in June 2018. While these numbers might su...
August 05, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteCaltrain, a commuter rail in the San Francisco Peninsula, has announced a grandiose plan that would remake, says The Mercury News, “a once-sleepy suburban line into a truly urban transit system.” “Caltrain’s vision contemplates BART-like ‘show-up and...
August 05, 2019 Kerry JacksonBen Smithwick – How Private Charities Can Help Address California’s Homeless Crisis This is a must-watch short documentary profiling three programs of Catholic Charities of Los Angeles. The film demonstrates the importance of creating a p...
August 02, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteEvery other year, I always take a big trip somewhere around the world. This fall, I’m excited to be traveling to England, Ireland, and Scotland for the first time. As I prepare for my trip, the UK is in the midst of great political turmoil......
August 01, 2019 Tim AnayaA new poll found nearly half of Californians don’t believe they can afford to live in the state. It’s not necessarily big news, but it does confirm why so many wish to flee. The Quinnipiac University poll, taken July 10-15, tells us that 45% of......
July 31, 2019 Kerry JacksonIf you’re in California, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) wait times have moved from the butt of bad jokes to a pressing policy issue. Californians were waiting up to six weeks to get an appointment at some DMV offices and efforts to decrease w...
July 30, 2019 Evan HarrisAs the national teacher unions careen farther and farther left, they now brazenly proclaim politics and power as their goals, while openly dismissing quality education as their priority. Education analyst and retired Los Angeles teacher Larry Sand ob...
July 29, 2019 Lance IzumiAs PRI has documented extensively, last year’s landmark Janus ruling has not stopped California’s public employee unions from continuing to siphon off dues from disaffected members. Our Kerry Jackson has written that, “long before the Janus ruling wa...
July 29, 2019 Tim AnayaKerry Jackson – Brewing Beer to Save Water Environmental protection doesn’t have to be achieved only by government decree. Ben Smithwick – How to Raise Successful People The always brilliant Esther Wojcicki discusses her latest book...
July 26, 2019 Pacific Research InstitutePerhaps the most controversial bill of this year’s legislative session is legislation responding to last year’s state Supreme Court ruling that has the potential to disrupt how millions of people work in California. In the Dynamex ruling, the Court e...
July 25, 2019 Tim AnayaYou may have heard about Libra, Facebook’s newest venture aimed at the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries. Facebook released a whitepaper on Libra in June, detailing how the company plans to use Libra as a decentralized blockchain, low-volatili...
July 24, 2019 Evan HarrisCalifornia’s homeless crisis continues to wage out of control on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and communities across the state. State and local politicians have given lots of lip service about “taking action” to solve the pr...
July 23, 2019 Tim AnayaCalifornia’s 2018 crime data has been released and the news is mostly encouraging, though a bit mixed. The violent crime rate is slightly down (1.5%) after growing for three straight years, and four of the last seven, according to data released this ...
July 22, 2019 Kerry JacksonTim Anaya – Is FaceApp a Russian Agent? Like many of you, I’ve watched with amusement everyone posting their “old age” photos this week using the FaceApp. However, you should always be careful before so willfully submitting yo...
July 19, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteDOWNLOAD PDF California is the most fun state in the country. So says the website WalletHub. It can’t be fun for everyone, though. Many would say living in California is a miserable existence. If the standard for fun is measured by the vast opportuni...
July 18, 2019 Kerry JacksonWhat’s in President Trump’s tax returns? It’s a mystery that has stumped cable television pundits since he refused to release them during the 2016 campaign. At times, the furor has been so high that I’m surprised that Matlock or Jessica Fletcher we...
July 17, 2019 Tim AnayaCalifornia has lived on the trope of being the hub of technology startups and innovation for decades. California’s economic success has long been touted and celebrated, none more so than the technology gold rush in the Bay Area. But despite Californi...
July 16, 2019 Evan Harris
California State Board of Education member and Natomas Charter School co-founder and retiring Executive Director Ting Sun joins us to discuss what makes her school so special. Natomas Charter School is one of the schools profiled in Lance Izumi’s bo...
July 15, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteAbout the same time two of California’s largest cities were named among the seven worst-run municipalities in the country, we learn that the state’s — and the country’s — largest county had the worst population outflow in the U.S. in 2018. The livin’...
July 15, 2019 Kerry JacksonKerry Jackson – Bono on “the idea of America” U2 frontman Bono’s radical view about America wouldn’t be welcome in most university faculty lounges. Tim Anaya – Getting an Early Warning About the Next “Big One...
July 12, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteHome ownership provides basic financial literacy, drives wealth creation, and increases free cash flow for individuals and families. However, it can be difficult to differentiate between having surplus cash and wealth. Having surplus cash is havin...
July 11, 2019 Damon DunnSan Francisco’s homeless crisis may soon have a new victim – luxury shopping in the City. The City by the Bay has long been known as home to the world’s best shopping. It was home to now-defunct high-end retailers like I. Magnin, and the Joseph......
July 10, 2019 Tim AnayaListen to Lance Izumi, senior director of PRI’s Center for Education, discuss the latest issues in the debate over school choice and education reform with guest host Katy Grimes on “The Phil Cowan Show” on AM 1380 The Answer in Sacr...
July 09, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteNot often does Sacramento get it right in the eyes of the defenders of liberty. A bill allowing athletes at public and private California colleges to earn money from endorsements, however, is likely to earn their approval. Senate Bill 206, the Fair P...
July 09, 2019 Kerry JacksonAs President Trump delivered his well-received patriotic Independence Day tribute to America, the braying leftist college professoriate erupted in social-media fireworks, underscoring the importance of offering saner higher-education alternatives to ...
July 08, 2019 Lance IzumiCiting an oft-used U.S. Census Bureau statistic that women earn 80 percent of what their male counterparts earn, presidential hopeful and California Senator Kamala Harris said that if elected, she would end gender pay discrimination by requiring com...
July 08, 2019 Rowena ItchonBy Lance Izumi and Rebecca Friedrichs Ever wonder why government agencies like the DMV make simple chores like registering a vehicle a lot more frustrating, and expensive, than they need to be, or why the lines are so long? Mariam Noujaim, longtime h...
July 07, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteTim Anaya – Kate Smith Sings God Bless America Legendary singer, the late Kate Smith, ran afoul of today’s PC mob earlier this year. Critics went back in time to parse her body of work, and declared some of her performances from 80 years ...
July 04, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteRecently, I gave a seminar presentation on my research on underperforming regular public schools in middle-class and more affluent neighborhoods in California, which allowed me to do some updates based on the most recent data. The seminar, sponsored ...
July 03, 2019 Lance IzumiMany California legislators seem to believe in open borders — not just the border to Mexico but also the borders to Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon. Businesses are slipping out of state through those boundaries at an alarming rate because of the difficul...
July 02, 2019 Kerry JacksonIn June 2011, a group of Republican lawmakers gathered at a Ford dealership in downtown Sacramento for a celebratory press conference. They were gathered to celebrate what they were calling, “Freedom from Higher Taxes Day,” the day when temporary tax...
July 01, 2019 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – New PRI Poll Shows Strong Support for Gene Therapies PRI released the results of a new national poll this week showing that Americans strongly support and see a lot of value in gene therapies. Unlike traditional medications, gene th...
June 28, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteThough no legislation has been passed yet, California officials have made it clear they want to outlaw automobiles powered by internal-combustion engines. But it’s a near certainty they won’t be able to secure an all-electric fleet within their timet...
June 27, 2019 Kerry JacksonSAN FRANCISCO – A new poll from the California-based nonpartisan think tank, the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), shows that Americans overwhelmingly support innovative gene therapies, which change the focus of medicine from treating illnesses to cu...
June 26, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteThis week marks a milestone for PRI’s weekly “Next Round” podcast as we celebrate our 100th episode. When we first started the podcast in July 2017, our podcast had a different name, “Another Round with PRI” (I won’t go into the story of why we......
June 25, 2019 Tim Anaya
In their continuing war against charter schools, teacher unions have persistently argued that charter schools, which are mostly non-union, have a large negative financial impact on the regular public school system. New research, however, contradicts...
June 24, 2019 Lance IzumiOver the last couple of years, several state legislatures have considered online privacy legislation. Most of these efforts failed, including in California, but the misguided effort was brought back by a San Francisco real estate developer, Alastair ...
June 24, 2019 Bartlett ClelandTim Anaya – John Stossel on San Francisco’s Homeless Crisis This week, PRI released a new issue brief on San Francisco’s homeless crisis, authored by our Kerry Jackson and Wayne Winegarden. With homelessness in San Francisco on my m...
June 21, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteREAD THE PDF For a large majority of Americans, their home is their most valuable asset, while also serving as a major portion of their retirement portfolio. For others, owning their home provides a source of stability and community for themselves an...
June 20, 2019 Damon DunnAfter being soundly defeated in the Senate 0-57 (43 Democrats voted “present”), the Green New Deal continues to languish in the House. Roll Call reported the following excuse from Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “I can’t say we’re going to take that and pass ...
June 19, 2019 Rowena ItchonWhen Sacramento unwisely decided that 100% of retail electricity sales in the state would have to be generated by renewable sources by 2045, most reasonable people would have thought that hydroelectric power would be included in the portfolio. But it...
June 18, 2019 Kerry Jackson
In this special episode - recorded at a recent PRI luncheon in San Francisco - PRI Senior Fellow and UC Berkeley Professor Steve Hayward and UC Berkeley Law Professor John Yoo share their thoughts diversity, equality, and the attacks on free speech o...
June 17, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteThis year’s state budget debate is in the history books. On Thursday, the Legislature’s liberal supermajority passed the main budget bill and some of the trailer bills required to implement the budget. The 2019-20 state budget is also Gov. Gavin New...
June 17, 2019 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – Cancer Treatments and Financial Returns This week, PRI’s new Center for Medical Economics and Innovation released a new issue brief on the issue of cancer treatments and financial returns. It analyzes an oft-quoted study by th...
June 14, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteWhat’s a summer without a reading list? And what’s a think tank without ideas? So, we just couldn’t help ourselves and came up with the list below compiled from PRI’s staff. Lest you stop reading now because you think that all the books are wonky.....
June 13, 2019 Rowena ItchonLast week, the non-partisan Public Policy Institute of California released their latest survey of Californians stand on a host of issues. Writing about the poll results, veteran Los Angeles Times political columnist George Skelton summed up the surve...
June 11, 2019 Tim AnayaAnyone thinking that California can’t become more anti-business or add another punitive tax hasn’t seen the recent news out of San Francisco. Political leaders there are campaigning for an increase in the city’s “IPO tax,” which is both unnecessary a...
June 10, 2019 Kerry JacksonRowena Itchon – Remembering D-Day, 75 Years Later Perhaps the most moving D-Day celebration speech of all time: Ronald Reagan at Pointe du Hoc, 1984. Tim Anaya – Living in Fear in California PRI’s Kerry Jackson has just published a ...
June 07, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteA funny thing happened on the way to teacher-union political hegemony: common sense kicked in and the people threw the unions for a huge loss with the defeat of the proposed parcel-tax increase in Los Angeles. In fight after fight across the country,...
June 06, 2019 Lance IzumiWhile most traditional public schools continue to adhere to a one-size-fits-all model of curriculum, instruction, and learning, sometimes dubbed the ‘McDonaldization’ of education, public charter schools have the flexibility to implement more individ...
June 05, 2019 Lance IzumiIn the classic work Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, the character Humpty Dumpty says that “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.” Responding, Alice (of Wonderland fame) says, “The question is.....
June 05, 2019 Tim AnayaIn The Wealth of Nations, the 18th century economist and philosopher Adam Smith observed about the chicanery of some businessmen, “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspir...
June 04, 2019 Henry Miller, M.S., M.D.PRI has a helpful calculator that shows how much a union member could save throughout his or her working years from not paying union dues. In California, the average fee-paying teacher owes $650 a year while the average worker owes $1,000. A 45-yea...
June 03, 2019 Rowena ItchonTim Anaya – Why Are So Many Californians Moving to Arizona? This week, I’ve been in Arizona for Heritage Resource Bank conference. It’s really the first time I’ve spent any time in the state outside changing planes. Arizona is...
May 31, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteCalifornia has regressed from the land of opportunity to the land of crisis. A chronic housing shortage, growing homelessness problems, the highest poverty rate in the nation, and runaway public employee pension liability are ripping at the seams of ...
May 30, 2019 Kerry JacksonThe Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee has just released a bi-partisan bill authored by Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA) that would make health care more affordable and more transparent for patients...
May 29, 2019 Wayne WinegardenOn Friday, the Legislature faces the big “house of origin” deadline. All bills that were introduced this year must pass their “house of origin” by the 31st. In other words, bills that were introduced in the Assembly must pass by Friday night and vi...
May 28, 2019 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – Memorial Day Tribute This week on What We’re Watching, we present a special tribute to America’s fallen heroes throughout our history. We will never forget the bravery and dedication to duty you showed so that we could ...
May 24, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteThere have decades of bipartisan rhetoric about the virtues of home ownership, with politicians competing with one another to see who can propose the worst ideas for responsible homeownership. Some policies, like preferential tax treatment and credit...
May 23, 2019 Damon DunnBill Gates, a key godfather of the Common Core subject-matter standards, wrote five years ago that the national standards “will improve education for millions of students,” but a groundbreaking new study shows that Common Core has actually decreased ...
May 22, 2019 Lance IzumiWith more than 800 miles of coastline and a great big ocean out there, California shouldn’t be always be scrambling for water as if it were in the middle of the Sahara Desert. But politics tend to make goods scarce rather than plentiful. But sometime...
May 22, 2019 Kerry JacksonIn 1987, it was the talk of the South Bay neighborhood where my parents lived: a tax rebate check of $236 from the state government for every household up and down the street. My mother was delighted. At the time, my sister was going to......
May 21, 2019 Rowena ItchonLast week, hundreds of bills died a quiet death. The scene of the crime was not the Bates Motel, but rather 2 committee rooms at the State Capitol. And the murder weapon wasn’t a candlestick or other choices from the game of Clue. In fact,......
May 20, 2019 Tim AnayaRowena Itchon – Is Universal Basic Income the Safety Net of the Future? Universal basic income is a topic that PRI has covered extensively, especially the proposal by Stockton Mayor Andrew Tubbs. Even some of the free-market side see basic inco...
May 17, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteThey were warned. They wouldn’t listen. But they should have. A university study confirms what so many of us already knew — and what several other studies have corroborated: Minimum wage hikes kill jobs. Scholars at the University of California...
May 16, 2019 Kerry JacksonDOWNLOAD THE PDF Jerry Brown left office in January as one of the most popular governors in California history. He also left successor Gavin Newsom with a few headaches. Among the more prominent unresolved issues are the high-speed rail project, the ...
May 15, 2019 Kerry JacksonListen to Lance Izumi, Senior Director of PRI’s Center for Education, discuss his recent article on Southern California NAACP chapters breaking away from the state and national groups to support charter schools on the Phil Cowan Show on AM 1380...
May 14, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteEarlier this year, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a so-called “data dividend” because, he says, “California’s consumers should also be able to share in the wealth that is created from their data…” The Governor provided almost no details then, and few...
May 14, 2019 Bartlett ClelandYears ago, in perhaps one of the most well-known episodes of her long-running talk show, Oprah Winfrey gave away shiny-red Pontiacs to all of the unsuspecting members of her studio audience. Uttering a phrase that has gone down in pop culture history...
May 13, 2019 Tim AnayaWhile a powerful front of liberal lawmakers and groups push for a moratorium on the creation of new charter schools in California, individual chapters of the NAACP have broken ranks to support charters that are improving the education for thousands o...
May 10, 2019 Lance IzumiBen Smithwick – How Entrepreneurship Can Alleviate Poverty in Africa Magatte Wade is one of the most prominent female African entrepreneurs. In this TED Talk, Wade discusses the challenges of doing business in her native Senegal and shares her ...
May 10, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteA central theme of my previous columns has been the importance and primacy of the individual. Economic policymakers cling to their blackboard models but forget that even for unambiguously “net-positive” interventions, there are millions of people bei...
May 09, 2019 Damon DunnThe Sacramento Bee has come up with one of the more interesting lists we’ve seen lately. It’s a catalog, via video, of “some of the most left-leaning laws that have come out of Sacramento since the Democrats” — who are enjoying “their biggest l...
May 08, 2019 Kerry Jackson“A penny saved is a penny earned,” said Ben Franklin. So, imagine what saving $1,000 each year by opting out of paying union dues can do for a government worker’s bottom line. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus decision affirmed the right of government ...
May 07, 2019 Rowena ItchonMy colleagues and I have written often about California’s pension crowd-out, or how state and local governments budgets are increasingly gobbled up by public pension payments. Last fall, PRI’s Wayne Winegarden released a new study showing that, using...
May 06, 2019 Tim AnayaKerry Jackson – Inequality Myths Watch this great video from John Stossel explaining why the standard line of Bernie Sanders and his supporters about “the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer” simply isn’t true. In ...
May 03, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteThe old adage goes that you should never talk about religion or politics at the dinner table. Working in a political world, I try to heed that advice whenever I leave work. The last thing I want to face when going out for dinner with......
May 01, 2019 Tim AnayaSilicon Valley and Wall Street aren’t the only ones celebrating IPOs this year – Sacramento is doing its share of the partying. That’s because the state is expected to receive a deluge of tax dollars over the next several years thanks to capital gai...
April 30, 2019 Rowena ItchonThe skills and education of every American will form the basis of our nation’s long term success, as well as the solution to many of the most divisive issues in American politics. Issues such as wage stagnation, income inequality, unaffordable housin...
April 29, 2019 Damon DunnGov. Newsom is playing hot potato. Starting to get heat from angry Californians about gas prices soaring past $4 per gallon, the Associated Press reports that he asked the California Energy Commission for a report on “why prices are higher than in th...
April 29, 2019 Tim AnayaTim Anaya – How Does the 15 Percent Solution Work? In his latest study in the “Beyond The New Normal: How Much Should We Spend?” series, Wayne Winegarden talks about the “15 Percent Solution,” or the ideal level of gove...
April 26, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteSen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, is one of the more active members of the California Legislature in terms of pursuing bills in hopes of easing the state’s housing crisis. But with that drive comes controversy. As he did last year, Wi...
April 25, 2019 Kerry JacksonOver the last two months, riots at public schools across the country have underscored why parents choose safer charter schools for their children. In April, ten Stamford, Connecticut high school students were charged with numerous crimes, including f...
April 24, 2019 Lance IzumiWhen Right by the Bay heard that Assemblyman Kevin Kiley’s vigorous defense of Teach for America (TFA) landed him in the “dog house” (the smallest office at the Capitol), we couldn’t help but be intrigued, for nothing in politics is worse than being ...
April 24, 2019 Rowena ItchonThere’s a new target in California’s war on plastics: those handy bottles of shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and lotion that hotels hand out to guests. Assembly Bill 1162, approved by the Natural Resources Committee and surely to get the same favora...
April 23, 2019 Kerry JacksonAt a recent congressional hearing, freshman Democrat Katie Porter from Orange County took to her soapbox to grill JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon about income inequality at the company. Using the example of Patricia, who is employed as a full-time, e...
April 22, 2019 Tim AnayaLance Izumi, senior director of PRI’s Center for Education, discusses how the media is targeting charter schools as a place for rich, white kids on the nationally-syndicated Lars Larson Show....
April 19, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteListen to Lance Izumi, Senior Director of PRI’s Center for Education, discuss his new book Choosing Diversity on “The David Webb Show” on Sirius XM Patriot, Channel 125....
April 19, 2019 Pacific Research InstituteTim 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 Institute
Costly 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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htqHCb27S-8 On Monday, Gavin Newsom will be sworn in as California’s next governor. If, like me, you enjoy the ceremony and pageantry of inauguratio...
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 Dunn
