Blog
A not so Brightline: California’s other bullet train boondoggle
It’s happening. This time, it’s really happening. That’s what dignitaries at the pseudo-event told themselves on April 22, 2024 — the day Brightline West “officially broke ground on the nation’s first true high-speed rail system.” Bureaucrats, politicians, and civic leaders predicted nothing but sunshine for the long-sought HSR route linking ...
Blog
Taxpayer Dollars Should Not Fund Political Campaigns
Taxpayer dollars should be used for legitimate public responsibilities, such as maintaining roads, public safety, education, keeping communities clean, and paying down debt. Financing political campaigns should not become another government responsibility. Public campaign-financing programs use taxpayer dollars to help qualifying candidates run for office. Supporters argue that these programs ...
Blog
Homicides Fall to Record Lows
During the same period, the number of Black Californians killed by homicide fell from 690 to 372—a reduction of 318 victims, or 46 percent. Among Black men, the demographic group at greatest risk of homicide victimization, the number fell from 613 to 310, a decline of 303 victims, or nearly ...
Blog
This Is No Way To Close California’s Housing Gap
This is the sort of behavior that is making it nearly impossible for California to ever close its housing gap, which, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2017 campaign material was a 3.5 million unit deficit that needed to be closed by 2025, which turned out to be his next-to-last year in the ...
Blog
California’s latest ‘green’ strategy threatens local recycling efforts
California’s latest ‘green’ strategy threatens local recycling efforts By Steven Greenhut | August 7, 2026 California’s state recycling agency, CalRecycle, boasts that “California is building a circular economy that can recycle all waste by reducing how much trash we make [and] creating responsible recycling markets.” There’s nothing wrong with recycling, of ...
Blog
Austin’s housing solutions offer a model for California cities
As LAist’s David Wagner reported, only about 16% of Orange County households earn the $350,400 needed to afford the county’s median home price of $1,442,930, according to the California Association of Realtors. That’s all despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office boasting on July 13 about his record of “hundreds of pieces ...
Blog
The Gordon Chang Report: China Annexing the South China Sea—and the Pacific Ocean
READ THE PDF China Annexing the South China Sea— and the Pacific Ocean On July 25, Global Times, the Chinese tabloid run by People’s Daily, warned the Philippines that China might build a military base on Scarborough Shoal, which Beijing claims and calls Huangyan Dao. “China reserves the right to ...
Blog
Should Californians Trust New Antitrust Legislation?
The Legislature returns this week from its summer recess, kicking off one more month of lawmaking. One proposal that’s expected to draw heavy fire is a bill that beefs up the state’s antitrust law, which is already so harsh that it’s not fit to be copied elsewhere. Assembly Bill 1776, known as the COMPETE ...
Agriculture
Beef, it’s what wolves are having for dinner in California
Researchers from the university collected scat from “wolf pack territories of the Lassen (2022 and 2023) and Harvey (2023) Packs in the Northeastern region of California),” according to the study. Samples were opportunistically collected from roadways and game/livestock trails between June and October of 2022 and 2023, then DNA sequenced ...
Blog
Useful data, but misguided advice: Harvard on housing
Useful data, but misguided advice: Harvard on housing by D. Dowd Muska | July 31, 2026 Advocates of deregulation-oriented solutions to the affordable-housing crisis continue to notch wins in liberal and conservative states, including California’s “by right” housing reforms and a recently passed package of permitting reforms known as the ...
A not so Brightline: California’s other bullet train boondoggle
It’s happening. This time, it’s really happening. That’s what dignitaries at the pseudo-event told themselves on April 22, 2024 — the day Brightline West “officially broke ground on the nation’s first true high-speed rail system.” Bureaucrats, politicians, and civic leaders predicted nothing but sunshine for the long-sought HSR route linking ...
Taxpayer Dollars Should Not Fund Political Campaigns
Taxpayer dollars should be used for legitimate public responsibilities, such as maintaining roads, public safety, education, keeping communities clean, and paying down debt. Financing political campaigns should not become another government responsibility. Public campaign-financing programs use taxpayer dollars to help qualifying candidates run for office. Supporters argue that these programs ...
Homicides Fall to Record Lows
During the same period, the number of Black Californians killed by homicide fell from 690 to 372—a reduction of 318 victims, or 46 percent. Among Black men, the demographic group at greatest risk of homicide victimization, the number fell from 613 to 310, a decline of 303 victims, or nearly ...
This Is No Way To Close California’s Housing Gap
This is the sort of behavior that is making it nearly impossible for California to ever close its housing gap, which, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2017 campaign material was a 3.5 million unit deficit that needed to be closed by 2025, which turned out to be his next-to-last year in the ...
California’s latest ‘green’ strategy threatens local recycling efforts
California’s latest ‘green’ strategy threatens local recycling efforts By Steven Greenhut | August 7, 2026 California’s state recycling agency, CalRecycle, boasts that “California is building a circular economy that can recycle all waste by reducing how much trash we make [and] creating responsible recycling markets.” There’s nothing wrong with recycling, of ...
Austin’s housing solutions offer a model for California cities
As LAist’s David Wagner reported, only about 16% of Orange County households earn the $350,400 needed to afford the county’s median home price of $1,442,930, according to the California Association of Realtors. That’s all despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office boasting on July 13 about his record of “hundreds of pieces ...
The Gordon Chang Report: China Annexing the South China Sea—and the Pacific Ocean
READ THE PDF China Annexing the South China Sea— and the Pacific Ocean On July 25, Global Times, the Chinese tabloid run by People’s Daily, warned the Philippines that China might build a military base on Scarborough Shoal, which Beijing claims and calls Huangyan Dao. “China reserves the right to ...
Should Californians Trust New Antitrust Legislation?
The Legislature returns this week from its summer recess, kicking off one more month of lawmaking. One proposal that’s expected to draw heavy fire is a bill that beefs up the state’s antitrust law, which is already so harsh that it’s not fit to be copied elsewhere. Assembly Bill 1776, known as the COMPETE ...
Beef, it’s what wolves are having for dinner in California
Researchers from the university collected scat from “wolf pack territories of the Lassen (2022 and 2023) and Harvey (2023) Packs in the Northeastern region of California),” according to the study. Samples were opportunistically collected from roadways and game/livestock trails between June and October of 2022 and 2023, then DNA sequenced ...
Useful data, but misguided advice: Harvard on housing
Useful data, but misguided advice: Harvard on housing by D. Dowd Muska | July 31, 2026 Advocates of deregulation-oriented solutions to the affordable-housing crisis continue to notch wins in liberal and conservative states, including California’s “by right” housing reforms and a recently passed package of permitting reforms known as the ...