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Blog

Spending Watch

Consumers, Not ‘Polluters’, Would Be Hard Hit by New Climate Tax Legislation

Consumers, Not ‘Polluters’, Would Be Hard Hit by New Climate Tax Legislation Wayne Winegarden     May 2024 SB-1497, the Polluters Pay Climate Cost Recovery Act of 2024, purports to “require fossil fuel polluters to pay their fair share of the damage caused by the sale of their products…to relieve a ...
Blog

Read latest on out of control crime in Oakland

Fear and Loathing in Oakland – the Savage Journey of Pamela Price

Upon assuming office in January 2023, Price established the Public Accountability Unit and reopened cases involving police officers that her predecessor had investigated and declined prosecute – including the Mario Gonzalez case. The three Alameda PD officers (one now works for another agency) attempted to arrest Gonzalez, who had been ...
Blog

Read about the latest attack on fossil fuels

Designated For Destruction: California’s Economic Oxygen

The Polluters Pay Climate Cost Recovery Act, Senate Bill 1497, requires “fossil fuel polluters to pay their fair share of the damage caused by the sale of their products.” The “responsible parties” are defined as entities that between the 2000 and 2020 calendar years, did business in the state or ...
Blog

Will Amtrak be the future of intercity travel? Not likely

Will Amtrak be the future of intercity travel? Not likely by William L. Anderson | April 26, 2024 One of the things I enjoy hearing each weekday morning living in Roseville, California, is the horn of the Capital Corridor Amtrak train that leaves the Roseville station at 7:07, give or ...
Blog

Read the latest on California's housing crisis

Cities can and should streamline housing approvals

Convoluted approval processes can mean lengthy delays and costlier developments, which in turn can mean less and more expensive housing. Fortunately, many city leaders are not only recognizing this but taking action to streamline how their own governments are doing things. Since taking office in 2022, Los Angeles Mayor Karen ...
Blog

Read the latest from the State Capitol

Should NDAs Be Banned in Legislative Negotiations?

As KCRA 3 News reported, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) required business groups and others engaged in negotiations over the bill to sign NDA’s to keep provisions of the discussions secret.  The NDAs became controversial when it came to light that a billionaire donor of Gov. Newsom who is ...
Blog

Should CA pay unemployment to striking workers?

Subsidizing Strikes Is The California Legislature’s Latest Anti-Growth Proposal

Worsens California’s Uncompetitive Business Environment UI benefits are not designed for workers who have voluntarily walked off the job – it is part of the social safety net system designed to help those workers who have become unemployed through no fault of their own. Expanding these benefits to workers who ...
Blog

Spending Watch

Expanding Unemployment Insurance Benefits – All Pain for No Gain

Expanding Unemployment Insurance Benefits – All Pain for No Gain Wayne Winegarden April 2024 SB 1434 would dramatically expand unemployment insurance benefits to current eligible workers. If implemented, it would expand benefits by over 55 percent, raise the number of workers who qualify for maximum benefits, increase the benefits for ...
Blog

It’s build or bust in California, as subsidies can’t cut it

It’s build or bust in California, as subsidies can’t cut it by Kenneth Schrupp | April 19, 2024 With a 4.5-million home shortage driving California to have the 49th-worst ratio of residences to residents in the nation, efforts to increase up-front affordability without increasing the abundance of homes is resulting ...
Blog

Read the Free Cities Center's latest book review

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Centers of Progress: 40 Cities That Changed the World’

Post-COVID, are cities still the engines of civilization? Physicist Geoffrey West has called cities “the crucible of civilization.” That widely quoted metaphor is worth unpacking. A crucible is a mold that holds molten substances as they are cooling and gives them new form. The claim here is that cities are ...
Blog

Spending Watch

Consumers, Not ‘Polluters’, Would Be Hard Hit by New Climate Tax Legislation

Consumers, Not ‘Polluters’, Would Be Hard Hit by New Climate Tax Legislation Wayne Winegarden     May 2024 SB-1497, the Polluters Pay Climate Cost Recovery Act of 2024, purports to “require fossil fuel polluters to pay their fair share of the damage caused by the sale of their products…to relieve a ...
Blog

Read latest on out of control crime in Oakland

Fear and Loathing in Oakland – the Savage Journey of Pamela Price

Upon assuming office in January 2023, Price established the Public Accountability Unit and reopened cases involving police officers that her predecessor had investigated and declined prosecute – including the Mario Gonzalez case. The three Alameda PD officers (one now works for another agency) attempted to arrest Gonzalez, who had been ...
Blog

Read about the latest attack on fossil fuels

Designated For Destruction: California’s Economic Oxygen

The Polluters Pay Climate Cost Recovery Act, Senate Bill 1497, requires “fossil fuel polluters to pay their fair share of the damage caused by the sale of their products.” The “responsible parties” are defined as entities that between the 2000 and 2020 calendar years, did business in the state or ...
Blog

Will Amtrak be the future of intercity travel? Not likely

Will Amtrak be the future of intercity travel? Not likely by William L. Anderson | April 26, 2024 One of the things I enjoy hearing each weekday morning living in Roseville, California, is the horn of the Capital Corridor Amtrak train that leaves the Roseville station at 7:07, give or ...
Blog

Read the latest on California's housing crisis

Cities can and should streamline housing approvals

Convoluted approval processes can mean lengthy delays and costlier developments, which in turn can mean less and more expensive housing. Fortunately, many city leaders are not only recognizing this but taking action to streamline how their own governments are doing things. Since taking office in 2022, Los Angeles Mayor Karen ...
Blog

Read the latest from the State Capitol

Should NDAs Be Banned in Legislative Negotiations?

As KCRA 3 News reported, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) required business groups and others engaged in negotiations over the bill to sign NDA’s to keep provisions of the discussions secret.  The NDAs became controversial when it came to light that a billionaire donor of Gov. Newsom who is ...
Blog

Should CA pay unemployment to striking workers?

Subsidizing Strikes Is The California Legislature’s Latest Anti-Growth Proposal

Worsens California’s Uncompetitive Business Environment UI benefits are not designed for workers who have voluntarily walked off the job – it is part of the social safety net system designed to help those workers who have become unemployed through no fault of their own. Expanding these benefits to workers who ...
Blog

Spending Watch

Expanding Unemployment Insurance Benefits – All Pain for No Gain

Expanding Unemployment Insurance Benefits – All Pain for No Gain Wayne Winegarden April 2024 SB 1434 would dramatically expand unemployment insurance benefits to current eligible workers. If implemented, it would expand benefits by over 55 percent, raise the number of workers who qualify for maximum benefits, increase the benefits for ...
Blog

It’s build or bust in California, as subsidies can’t cut it

It’s build or bust in California, as subsidies can’t cut it by Kenneth Schrupp | April 19, 2024 With a 4.5-million home shortage driving California to have the 49th-worst ratio of residences to residents in the nation, efforts to increase up-front affordability without increasing the abundance of homes is resulting ...
Blog

Read the Free Cities Center's latest book review

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Centers of Progress: 40 Cities That Changed the World’

Post-COVID, are cities still the engines of civilization? Physicist Geoffrey West has called cities “the crucible of civilization.” That widely quoted metaphor is worth unpacking. A crucible is a mold that holds molten substances as they are cooling and gives them new form. The claim here is that cities are ...
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