Agriculture
New World Screwworm is here, let’s put those Checkoff dollars to work
It is about 1,500 miles from the Imperial Valley of California to Zavala County, Texas, where the invasive pest was discovered recently. The announcement of the 3-week-old calf carrying the insect caused a ripple of alarm through the livestock industry nationwide. There are a few things to note immediately. First, ...
Blog
Cities still grappling with the fallout 17 months after LA’s wildfires
Cities still grappling with the fallout 17 months after LA’s wildfires By John Seiler | June 19, 2026 Since the January 2025 wildfires devastated Pacific Palisades and Eaton, what have policymakers done to make sure California cities are better protected from future outbreaks? Policies should be split into “three buckets,” ...
Blog
The Trump administration tries to kill aid to dependent cities
You know about the bridge to nowhere. The electric tugboat? Probably not. In 2020, the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District received a unique grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Awarded under the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA), the $2,017,660 subsidy paid for the eWolf, “America’s first all-electric ...
Blog
San Francisco’s Recovery—and Its Lessons
A few years ago, I was one of San Francisco’s harshest critics. Writing for the Pacific Research Institute, I documented rising crime, retail theft, open-air drug markets, and a criminal justice philosophy that often seemed more focused on reducing incarceration and prosecution than on protecting public safety. During recalled district ...
Blog
Newsom says, “AVOID Chevron.” Californians may want to avoid Sacramento’s gas policies
Chevron controls 19% of California’s gas market with more than 1,600 stations, making it the state’s largest branded gasoline retailer according to a joint report prepared in part by the California Energy Commission. The company operates two of the eleven remaining refineries in California, one in Richmond and one in El Segundo. ...
Blog
Environmentalists Vs. Renewable Energy
Virginia-based power firm AES has plans to build a 40-acre battery facility in the Coyote Valley hard up against a conservation area not far off U.S. 101. The valley is “a key wildlife corridor,” says the Sierra Club, that features “open space, trees, and agricultural fields.” The project would be sited on ...
Blog
Broken Promises: The California High-Speed Rail Might End Up Being Little More Than A Regular Train — A Particularly Expensive One
Newsom denied that the cost — once a paltry, in comparison, $33 billion — had soared to $231 billion. “We’re actually making this project work,” he claimed. Newsom told Maher that the train “goes back three administrations” and he “inherited a mess” — both of which are true. It’s also true that the want-to-be-president governor ...
Blog
Facing a housing crisis, Boise focuses on incentives, not mandates
Facing a housing crisis, Boise focuses on incentives, not mandates By Sarah Downey | June 12, 2026 The familiar adage of the carrot and the stick helps sum up what Boise is doing to manage a fast-growing population mixed with a housing crunch. Instead of employing a regulation-heavy stick approach, ...
Blog
Is California Coastal Commission finally getting its comeuppance?
California has one of the world’s most spectacular coastlines, which meanders 1,100 miles from Imperial Beach to Crescent City. And, of course, everyone wants to “Save Our Coast” and assure public access to beaches, which is why Californians voted 55% to 45% in 1972 for Proposition 20. It promised to protect ...
Blog
On The David Lucero Case: The Victims Left Behind
When David Lucero went to work one night in June 2013, he wasn’t thinking about criminal justice reform. He was thinking about his son. The single father had picked up a shift as a bouncer outside a Sunnyvale nightclub to help pay for his son’s Pop Warner football fees and ...
New World Screwworm is here, let’s put those Checkoff dollars to work
It is about 1,500 miles from the Imperial Valley of California to Zavala County, Texas, where the invasive pest was discovered recently. The announcement of the 3-week-old calf carrying the insect caused a ripple of alarm through the livestock industry nationwide. There are a few things to note immediately. First, ...
Cities still grappling with the fallout 17 months after LA’s wildfires
Cities still grappling with the fallout 17 months after LA’s wildfires By John Seiler | June 19, 2026 Since the January 2025 wildfires devastated Pacific Palisades and Eaton, what have policymakers done to make sure California cities are better protected from future outbreaks? Policies should be split into “three buckets,” ...
The Trump administration tries to kill aid to dependent cities
You know about the bridge to nowhere. The electric tugboat? Probably not. In 2020, the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District received a unique grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Awarded under the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA), the $2,017,660 subsidy paid for the eWolf, “America’s first all-electric ...
San Francisco’s Recovery—and Its Lessons
A few years ago, I was one of San Francisco’s harshest critics. Writing for the Pacific Research Institute, I documented rising crime, retail theft, open-air drug markets, and a criminal justice philosophy that often seemed more focused on reducing incarceration and prosecution than on protecting public safety. During recalled district ...
Newsom says, “AVOID Chevron.” Californians may want to avoid Sacramento’s gas policies
Chevron controls 19% of California’s gas market with more than 1,600 stations, making it the state’s largest branded gasoline retailer according to a joint report prepared in part by the California Energy Commission. The company operates two of the eleven remaining refineries in California, one in Richmond and one in El Segundo. ...
Environmentalists Vs. Renewable Energy
Virginia-based power firm AES has plans to build a 40-acre battery facility in the Coyote Valley hard up against a conservation area not far off U.S. 101. The valley is “a key wildlife corridor,” says the Sierra Club, that features “open space, trees, and agricultural fields.” The project would be sited on ...
Broken Promises: The California High-Speed Rail Might End Up Being Little More Than A Regular Train — A Particularly Expensive One
Newsom denied that the cost — once a paltry, in comparison, $33 billion — had soared to $231 billion. “We’re actually making this project work,” he claimed. Newsom told Maher that the train “goes back three administrations” and he “inherited a mess” — both of which are true. It’s also true that the want-to-be-president governor ...
Facing a housing crisis, Boise focuses on incentives, not mandates
Facing a housing crisis, Boise focuses on incentives, not mandates By Sarah Downey | June 12, 2026 The familiar adage of the carrot and the stick helps sum up what Boise is doing to manage a fast-growing population mixed with a housing crunch. Instead of employing a regulation-heavy stick approach, ...
Is California Coastal Commission finally getting its comeuppance?
California has one of the world’s most spectacular coastlines, which meanders 1,100 miles from Imperial Beach to Crescent City. And, of course, everyone wants to “Save Our Coast” and assure public access to beaches, which is why Californians voted 55% to 45% in 1972 for Proposition 20. It promised to protect ...
On The David Lucero Case: The Victims Left Behind
When David Lucero went to work one night in June 2013, he wasn’t thinking about criminal justice reform. He was thinking about his son. The single father had picked up a shift as a bouncer outside a Sunnyvale nightclub to help pay for his son’s Pop Warner football fees and ...