Blog

Newsom Gets One Right on State Return to Office Order

Virtually every other state and most private sector employers in California and nationally returned to normal employment arrangements years ago. A February Bay Area Council survey showed 84 percent of private sector employers have already implemented long-term in-person work policies, and just 6 person of employers do not require employees ...
Blog

Read about the latest bill to weaken CA's public safety laws

AB 622 – Early Release for Violent Offenders

Historically, an inmate serving a 25 to life sentence for murder is eligible for parole review 13 months prior to their 25th year in custody, adjusted for time in custody prior to sentencing. This is known as the Minimum Parole Eligibility Date (MEPD). After the passage of Prop 57, the ...
Blog

QALYs Put Patients Last

In his latest entry for the American Action Forum’s “Reality Check-Up: The Truth About Single-Payer Systems,” Michael Baker offers an excellent primer on this heartless metric. QALYs attempt to assign a monetary value to life. A year in perfect health equals one QALY. A year with illness or disability counts ...
Blog

Newsom’s Diaper Plan Stinks

Why a new program when the old one is working ok? The state argues that there are gaps in the existing program, which targets low-income parents. Instead of simply filling the gaps, the state wants to impose some elaborate scheme that is akin to killing a gnat with a shotgun. ...
Blog

Examining the roots of California’s ongoing insurance crisis

Examining the roots of California’s ongoing insurance crisis by Rafael Perez | April 24, 2025 There are two uncomfortable truths that have settled in after the smoke cleared from the Los Angeles County fires. The first is that the public will pay for a significant share of the damage. The ...
Blog

West Coast cities need to catch up on office-to-home conversions

Some buildings are in the pipeline, just waiting for approval, but many cities need to do more improving of infrastructure, cleanliness and safety in order to thrive. In a sign of good news, more office-to-residential conversions have developed in cities as distinct as Cleveland, Houston and Washington, D.C. The West ...
Blog

Gavin Newsom claims California taxes aren’t high. Here is why he’s wrong

Gavin Newsom claims California taxes aren’t high. Here is why he’s wrong Originally published in Sacramento Bee by Matt Fleming READ MORE Gov. Gavin Newsom often claims California is not a high-tax state. “So, this notion of even being a high tax state is B.S.,” Newsom podcasted in March. “Sixteen ...
Blog

New Rankings Confirm California’s Status as Too Restrictive for Homebuilding

In fact, those nine are all among the bottom 15. Los Angeles landed in the middle of the rankings, even though its “composite price levels” are 8.6 times higher than income, higher than San Jose (7.9), San Diego (7.7), San Francisco (7.6) and even New York City (6.6). California, was ...
Blog

Two Good Healthcare Headlines

We all could use a little bit of good news on health policy these days. And Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum provides it in the latest edition of AAF’s “Reality Check-Up: The Truth About Single-Payer Systems.” He commends two articles for readers of the series, and I will ...
Blog

Why Your Next Bottle of French Champagne Could Cost More: Tariffs & US Sparkling Wine Options

When I read the news that prices on French Champagne could soon be soaring under President Trump’s tariff plan, my first response was to quickly get to my nearest Costco. Veuve Clicquot champagne, still made much like it was when first developed over 200 years ago by the “Grande Dame” ...
Blog

Newsom Gets One Right on State Return to Office Order

Virtually every other state and most private sector employers in California and nationally returned to normal employment arrangements years ago. A February Bay Area Council survey showed 84 percent of private sector employers have already implemented long-term in-person work policies, and just 6 person of employers do not require employees ...
Blog

Read about the latest bill to weaken CA's public safety laws

AB 622 – Early Release for Violent Offenders

Historically, an inmate serving a 25 to life sentence for murder is eligible for parole review 13 months prior to their 25th year in custody, adjusted for time in custody prior to sentencing. This is known as the Minimum Parole Eligibility Date (MEPD). After the passage of Prop 57, the ...
Blog

QALYs Put Patients Last

In his latest entry for the American Action Forum’s “Reality Check-Up: The Truth About Single-Payer Systems,” Michael Baker offers an excellent primer on this heartless metric. QALYs attempt to assign a monetary value to life. A year in perfect health equals one QALY. A year with illness or disability counts ...
Blog

Newsom’s Diaper Plan Stinks

Why a new program when the old one is working ok? The state argues that there are gaps in the existing program, which targets low-income parents. Instead of simply filling the gaps, the state wants to impose some elaborate scheme that is akin to killing a gnat with a shotgun. ...
Blog

Examining the roots of California’s ongoing insurance crisis

Examining the roots of California’s ongoing insurance crisis by Rafael Perez | April 24, 2025 There are two uncomfortable truths that have settled in after the smoke cleared from the Los Angeles County fires. The first is that the public will pay for a significant share of the damage. The ...
Blog

West Coast cities need to catch up on office-to-home conversions

Some buildings are in the pipeline, just waiting for approval, but many cities need to do more improving of infrastructure, cleanliness and safety in order to thrive. In a sign of good news, more office-to-residential conversions have developed in cities as distinct as Cleveland, Houston and Washington, D.C. The West ...
Blog

Gavin Newsom claims California taxes aren’t high. Here is why he’s wrong

Gavin Newsom claims California taxes aren’t high. Here is why he’s wrong Originally published in Sacramento Bee by Matt Fleming READ MORE Gov. Gavin Newsom often claims California is not a high-tax state. “So, this notion of even being a high tax state is B.S.,” Newsom podcasted in March. “Sixteen ...
Blog

New Rankings Confirm California’s Status as Too Restrictive for Homebuilding

In fact, those nine are all among the bottom 15. Los Angeles landed in the middle of the rankings, even though its “composite price levels” are 8.6 times higher than income, higher than San Jose (7.9), San Diego (7.7), San Francisco (7.6) and even New York City (6.6). California, was ...
Blog

Two Good Healthcare Headlines

We all could use a little bit of good news on health policy these days. And Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum provides it in the latest edition of AAF’s “Reality Check-Up: The Truth About Single-Payer Systems.” He commends two articles for readers of the series, and I will ...
Blog

Why Your Next Bottle of French Champagne Could Cost More: Tariffs & US Sparkling Wine Options

When I read the news that prices on French Champagne could soon be soaring under President Trump’s tariff plan, my first response was to quickly get to my nearest Costco. Veuve Clicquot champagne, still made much like it was when first developed over 200 years ago by the “Grande Dame” ...
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