Blog
What’s Up with the New “California Driver Benefits Fee”?
Uber customers might have noticed a new fee that’s appearing on their charges. Now, who do we have to thank for that? Oh, yes, the lawmakers who tried to destroy the gig economy and its millions of jobs. Uber added a “California Driver Benefits Fee” to its charges on Dec. ...
Blog
PRI Advances Free Market Policy Victories in Challenging, Turbulent Year
This year has been a challenging one for our nation – and a particularly turbulent time in PRI’s home state of California. 2020 ushered in weeks of rioting and protesting, devastating wildfires, pandemic restrictions and draconian lockdowns, a worsening homelessness crisis, and unaccountable social services. We saw a continued exodus ...
Blog
We Need More Educational Choice Options for Special Needs Children
With the education world in flux because of the COVID pandemic, it is time to push for the broadest range of education options possible for all children, including those with special needs. My new book A Kite in a Hurricane No More, which I co-authored with Mia Giordano, tells the ...
Blog
Populist Politicians Meet Antitrust Cancel Culture
The ill-winds of populism are again blowing across the American political landscape. This thin veneer of ideology only seeks to divide people, diving a wedge between “the people,” presented as the forces of good, against “the elite,” portrayed as evil. The most recent iteration of this divisive approach to politics ...
Blog
Biden’s New EPA Chief Should Heed the Lessons from His Home State
President-elect Joe Biden has nominated Michael Regan to lead the EPA. Regan worked at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for years, and has been North Carolina’s environmental chief since 2018. As North Carolina’s top environmentalist, Regan has opposed constructing natural gas infrastructure, claiming North Carolina’s clean energy future is not ...
Blog
Is Newsom Learning Anything From The Courts That Are Telling Him ‘No’?
Twice in recent weeks, California superior court judges upended government pandemic restrictions. Is the governor’s office getting the message? On Dec. 8, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant told the county that its ban on outdoor dining “is an abuse of the (health) department’s emergency powers, (and) is not ...
Blog
Winners and Losers – December 18
Tim Anaya – Senior Director of Communications Winner – Tesla, who makes their debut today on the S&P 500. According to Reuters, “Elon Musk’s Tesla on Monday will become the most valuable company ever admitted to Wall Street’s main benchmark, accounting for over 1% of the index. The shares have ...
Blog
Nevada Experience Shows Charter and Private Schools Could Lose Out on Covid-19 Funds
On December 3rd, in a live CNN interview with Jake Tapper, president-elect Joe Biden declared his plans to re-open elementary schools nation-wide. After speaking with the leaders of the teacher unions, he determined that sanitization, ventilation, and more teachers (for smaller pods of students) would cost $100 billion nationwide, for ...
Blog
Stockton Voters Reject Mayor Who Pushed Basic Income, Yet Liberal State Lawmakers Embrace Plan
One of the more surprising results from November’s election was the surprise defeat of Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs in his bid for re-election to a Republican upstart Kevin Lincoln, a pastor and former George W. Bush administration official who is both black and Latino. Tubbs won national attention for his ...
Blog
California’s Scandal-Plagued Unemployment Agency
The number of Californians certified for unemployment insurance is now at 1.6 million compared to October last year before the pandemic, when just 260,000 Californians received unemployment checks. Going into the holidays, a heart-breaking one in 10 Californians are unemployed. Even more anguishing, the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD), the ...
What’s Up with the New “California Driver Benefits Fee”?
Uber customers might have noticed a new fee that’s appearing on their charges. Now, who do we have to thank for that? Oh, yes, the lawmakers who tried to destroy the gig economy and its millions of jobs. Uber added a “California Driver Benefits Fee” to its charges on Dec. ...
PRI Advances Free Market Policy Victories in Challenging, Turbulent Year
This year has been a challenging one for our nation – and a particularly turbulent time in PRI’s home state of California. 2020 ushered in weeks of rioting and protesting, devastating wildfires, pandemic restrictions and draconian lockdowns, a worsening homelessness crisis, and unaccountable social services. We saw a continued exodus ...
We Need More Educational Choice Options for Special Needs Children
With the education world in flux because of the COVID pandemic, it is time to push for the broadest range of education options possible for all children, including those with special needs. My new book A Kite in a Hurricane No More, which I co-authored with Mia Giordano, tells the ...
Populist Politicians Meet Antitrust Cancel Culture
The ill-winds of populism are again blowing across the American political landscape. This thin veneer of ideology only seeks to divide people, diving a wedge between “the people,” presented as the forces of good, against “the elite,” portrayed as evil. The most recent iteration of this divisive approach to politics ...
Biden’s New EPA Chief Should Heed the Lessons from His Home State
President-elect Joe Biden has nominated Michael Regan to lead the EPA. Regan worked at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for years, and has been North Carolina’s environmental chief since 2018. As North Carolina’s top environmentalist, Regan has opposed constructing natural gas infrastructure, claiming North Carolina’s clean energy future is not ...
Is Newsom Learning Anything From The Courts That Are Telling Him ‘No’?
Twice in recent weeks, California superior court judges upended government pandemic restrictions. Is the governor’s office getting the message? On Dec. 8, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant told the county that its ban on outdoor dining “is an abuse of the (health) department’s emergency powers, (and) is not ...
Winners and Losers – December 18
Tim Anaya – Senior Director of Communications Winner – Tesla, who makes their debut today on the S&P 500. According to Reuters, “Elon Musk’s Tesla on Monday will become the most valuable company ever admitted to Wall Street’s main benchmark, accounting for over 1% of the index. The shares have ...
Nevada Experience Shows Charter and Private Schools Could Lose Out on Covid-19 Funds
On December 3rd, in a live CNN interview with Jake Tapper, president-elect Joe Biden declared his plans to re-open elementary schools nation-wide. After speaking with the leaders of the teacher unions, he determined that sanitization, ventilation, and more teachers (for smaller pods of students) would cost $100 billion nationwide, for ...
Stockton Voters Reject Mayor Who Pushed Basic Income, Yet Liberal State Lawmakers Embrace Plan
One of the more surprising results from November’s election was the surprise defeat of Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs in his bid for re-election to a Republican upstart Kevin Lincoln, a pastor and former George W. Bush administration official who is both black and Latino. Tubbs won national attention for his ...
California’s Scandal-Plagued Unemployment Agency
The number of Californians certified for unemployment insurance is now at 1.6 million compared to October last year before the pandemic, when just 260,000 Californians received unemployment checks. Going into the holidays, a heart-breaking one in 10 Californians are unemployed. Even more anguishing, the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD), the ...
