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Read about latest Sacramento overspending
State Budget Update: Lawmakers Propose ‘Old Fashioned Tax and Spend Budget’
With the turning of the page on the calendar to May comes the anticipated arrival of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “May Revise” budget plan, which should be released around May 10. The May Revise is the governor’s updated budget plan taking into account the state’s latest economic forecasts and cash receipts. …
Newsom’s housing bonds: Another failed-policy redux
According to the governor’s announcement, among other things the initiative would, “Amend the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), leading to at least $1 billion every year in local assistance for housing and residential services for people experiencing mental illness and substance use disorders, and allowing MHSA funds to serve people with …
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Population trends prove people prefer pro-growth cities
The movement away from large cities is not universal, however. People may be leaving Los Angeles, but they are moving to Fort Worth, Atlanta and Las Vegas. Figure 1 presents the diverse five-year percentage change in population for the 50 largest cities in the United States. The vast differences in …
Read the latest on animal rights extremism
Animal rights activism is not about the animals
The activists claimed the chickens were suffering from neglect and in need of “rescue.” However, they did not call animal control authorities or anyone else, they simply plucked the chickens off the farm and left. Quite simply they stole the chickens. Livestock – even those raised on a farm paid …
U.S. Progressives Would Be Wise to Learn from Europe’s Shift Away from Socialism
The political progressives in the U.S. look to Europe for much if not most of their policy ideas. Be more like the Europeans, they say, adopt their welfare state models and their green energy programs, push the masses into cramped housing and set taxes and regulation so that they consume …
SCOTUS Harvard-UNC Case: Higher Ed’s Discrimination Against Asians
On March 28, 2023, Lance Izumi delivered the following address as part of a National Association of Scholars panel that discussed discrimination against Asian Americans in higher education. Let me start by saying that we often hear that underrepresented minorities face a systemic problem in education. However, that systemic …
Free Markets Fuel Outdoor Dining
Cities should maintain flexible outdoor dining programs
One of the few silver linings of the coronavirus pandemic was that governments were forced to think outside-of-the-box in order to make things happen. In the early months of the pandemic, local governments across the country loosened regulations to allow restaurants and bars to serve customers outdoors. They made it …
Government health care hurts minority communities
Racial health gap is about government, not race
Black Americans continue to lag behind their peers of other races on numerous measures of health, from life expectancy to prevalence of chronic disease. Progressives take these data points as proof of systemic racism. The only antidote is more government: higher subsidies for insurance through Obamacare’s exchanges, Medicaid expansion, even …
Read blog on California's water challenges
Water, water everywhere …
California is enduring the embodiment of “it never rains but it pours.” After more than two years of drought, the state is being deluged with more water than can be collected. Long, severe droughts have four distinct stages that affect everything from soil moisture to the socioeconomic structure of society. …
Read about Biden electric vehicle mandates
Biden Administration Takes California’s Electric Vehicle Mandate National
The Biden Administration has announced new automobile emission limits that amount to the government forcing a massive increase in U.S. electric vehicle sales. By 2032, at least two of every three cars sold would be required to be electric vehicles. As the New York Times reports, “experts say the proposed …
