Blog
Blog
Read the latest on the Southern California wildfire response
Rebuilding Los Angeles puts urbanism at a crossroads
Here’s a scenario, for example, that Californians might wish to avoid: The city of Altadena, previously a relatively low-density suburb with detached single family homes, is rebuilt with two-story townhomes along the narrow neighborhood streets, and three-story “luxury apartments” along the four-lane boulevards. There is inadequate street parking at this ...
Blog
State Budget Week - Learn How the Newsom Education Budget Will Impact You
The Newsom Education Budget: No Bang for the Buck
In the 2019-20 budget–Newsom’s first enacted budget–California spent $103 billion in state, local, and federal funds for education, which translated to $17,423 per pupil. In the governor’s new proposed budget, total education spending comes in at a whopping $137 billion, which pencils out to $24,764 per pupil. All this added ...
Blog
State Budget Week - Learn how the Newsom Budget Will Impact California's Tax Burden
The Newsom Budget on Taxes: Yes, Governor, California Is a High Tax State
California imposes the highest top marginal state income tax rate and one of the highest state and local sales tax rates in the country. It is simply illogical to claim that a state with the highest income tax rate and a very high state and local sales tax rates is ...
Blog
Read about a last minute Biden administration plan the Trump administration should undo
CMS’ Drug Price Controls Have Expanded to the Next 15 Medicare Part D Drugs
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. H.L. Mencken Back in 2022, the Biden Administration reasoned that drug costs are too high and devised a clear and simple answer: incorporate a Maximum Fair Price (MFP) provision into the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 ...
Blog
State Budget Week - Learn how the Newsom Transportation Budget Furthers the "Train to Nowhere"
The Newsom Transportation Budget: Newsom Continues to Embrace Costly, Unrealistic State Bullet Train
Progress. The California high-speed rail project has made progress. If progress can be defined as finally laying the first track for a bullet train that is at least a couple of decades behind schedule. Hard to put any faith, though, in the promises and bragging when the HSR is running ...
Blog
Read the latest on California's post-wildfire response
Newsom Right to Waive CEQA for Wildfire Rebuilding, But Lawmakers Should Also Act
The broken clock that has been state government’s response to the Southern California wildfires was right once on Sunday when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order waving numerous environmental requirements that threatened to add unnecessary delay and expense to the rebuilding process. Under the Newsom executive order, California Environmental ...
Blog
Time to pursue emergency reforms to battle wildfires
Time to pursue emergency reforms to battle wildfires by Daniel M. Kolkey | January 15, 2025 Editor’s note: This article is adapted from the Pacific Research Institute’s 2021 book, “Saving California.” We’re reprinting this in the wake of the devastating Southern California wildfires, as its policy prescriptions provide a blueprint ...
Blog
An insurance emergency after officials let crisis fester
An insurance emergency after officials let crisis fester Horrific wildfires in Los Angeles have focused attention on California’s ongoing insurance troubles, but because of the state’s inaction its insurance industry is facing an “existential crisis,” as a recent New York Post headline put it. The Wall Street Journal quotes a ...
Blog
Will South Korea Survive?
READ THE PDF Will South Korea Survive? On December 27, the National Assembly, South Korea’s unicameral legislature, passed a motion impeaching Acting President Han Duck-soo, the first impeachment of an acting president in the history of the Republic of Korea. Now, nothing less than the continuation of democracy on the ...
Blog
Anti-crime wave crashes over crime-soaked California cities
Anti-crime wave crashes over crime-soaked California cities by John Seiler | January 10, 2025 Like the tide moving in and out along its magnificent coastline, California’s crime policies oscillate between harshness and laxity, never getting it quite right. The crack epidemic and increase in violent crime of the 1980s led ...
Read the latest on the Southern California wildfire response
Rebuilding Los Angeles puts urbanism at a crossroads
Here’s a scenario, for example, that Californians might wish to avoid: The city of Altadena, previously a relatively low-density suburb with detached single family homes, is rebuilt with two-story townhomes along the narrow neighborhood streets, and three-story “luxury apartments” along the four-lane boulevards. There is inadequate street parking at this ...
State Budget Week - Learn How the Newsom Education Budget Will Impact You
The Newsom Education Budget: No Bang for the Buck
In the 2019-20 budget–Newsom’s first enacted budget–California spent $103 billion in state, local, and federal funds for education, which translated to $17,423 per pupil. In the governor’s new proposed budget, total education spending comes in at a whopping $137 billion, which pencils out to $24,764 per pupil. All this added ...
State Budget Week - Learn how the Newsom Budget Will Impact California's Tax Burden
The Newsom Budget on Taxes: Yes, Governor, California Is a High Tax State
California imposes the highest top marginal state income tax rate and one of the highest state and local sales tax rates in the country. It is simply illogical to claim that a state with the highest income tax rate and a very high state and local sales tax rates is ...
Read about a last minute Biden administration plan the Trump administration should undo
CMS’ Drug Price Controls Have Expanded to the Next 15 Medicare Part D Drugs
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. H.L. Mencken Back in 2022, the Biden Administration reasoned that drug costs are too high and devised a clear and simple answer: incorporate a Maximum Fair Price (MFP) provision into the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 ...
State Budget Week - Learn how the Newsom Transportation Budget Furthers the "Train to Nowhere"
The Newsom Transportation Budget: Newsom Continues to Embrace Costly, Unrealistic State Bullet Train
Progress. The California high-speed rail project has made progress. If progress can be defined as finally laying the first track for a bullet train that is at least a couple of decades behind schedule. Hard to put any faith, though, in the promises and bragging when the HSR is running ...
Read the latest on California's post-wildfire response
Newsom Right to Waive CEQA for Wildfire Rebuilding, But Lawmakers Should Also Act
The broken clock that has been state government’s response to the Southern California wildfires was right once on Sunday when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order waving numerous environmental requirements that threatened to add unnecessary delay and expense to the rebuilding process. Under the Newsom executive order, California Environmental ...
Time to pursue emergency reforms to battle wildfires
Time to pursue emergency reforms to battle wildfires by Daniel M. Kolkey | January 15, 2025 Editor’s note: This article is adapted from the Pacific Research Institute’s 2021 book, “Saving California.” We’re reprinting this in the wake of the devastating Southern California wildfires, as its policy prescriptions provide a blueprint ...
An insurance emergency after officials let crisis fester
An insurance emergency after officials let crisis fester Horrific wildfires in Los Angeles have focused attention on California’s ongoing insurance troubles, but because of the state’s inaction its insurance industry is facing an “existential crisis,” as a recent New York Post headline put it. The Wall Street Journal quotes a ...
Will South Korea Survive?
READ THE PDF Will South Korea Survive? On December 27, the National Assembly, South Korea’s unicameral legislature, passed a motion impeaching Acting President Han Duck-soo, the first impeachment of an acting president in the history of the Republic of Korea. Now, nothing less than the continuation of democracy on the ...
Anti-crime wave crashes over crime-soaked California cities
Anti-crime wave crashes over crime-soaked California cities by John Seiler | January 10, 2025 Like the tide moving in and out along its magnificent coastline, California’s crime policies oscillate between harshness and laxity, never getting it quite right. The crack epidemic and increase in violent crime of the 1980s led ...
