Blog
RIPA, Race, Policing, and the Numbers We Choose to See
Consider RIPA, the Racial and Identity Profiling Board. In 2024, 533 agencies reported 5,065,428 encounters featuring 75 data points ranging from why encounters begin, whether they result from calls for service, what officers do, whether they search someone and what happens afterward. In all, 405 million pieces of information are ...
Blog
Will voters continue to subsidize transit’s death spiral in 2026?
Will voters continue to subsidize transit’s death spiral in 2026? By D. Dowd Muska | October 23, 2026 On Election Day, transit enthusiasts will direct their attention to greater San Francisco. There, five counties will decide whether to hike their sales taxes to bail out rail, bus and ferry services ...
Blog
Why is the California government so lousy at battling wildfires?
My recent trip to Malibu from LAX was my first post-wildfire drive through the Pacific Palisades and, my goodness, there’s nothing like seeing something with one’s own eyes to grasp the enormity of the devastation. The obliterated hulks along Pacific Coast Highway 21 months after the tragedy raises multiple issues, ...
Blog
California’s Bad Student Test Scores and Newsom’s Deceitful Edu-Ganda
The state administers its California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CASPP) annually to students in grades 3-8 and grade 11. There are four performance levels on the exam—advanced, proficient, developing, and minimal. For a student to meet grade-level standards, he or she must score at either the advanced or ...
Blog
California Has Taken A Wrong Turn — Will It Ever Get Back On Track?
Long before it was even a state, California was the destination for the hard working, the enterprising, the free thinking, the dynamic dreamers who have left their marks in countless positive and useful ways. It was always moving in the right direction, ever upward. But as 2026 winds down, Californians ...
Blog
The Dead Do Tell a Tale.
For years, criminal-justice reformers treated fewer arrests, prosecutions and people behind bars as measures of success. Proposition 47 embodied that philosophy. Drug possession and some theft felonies became misdemeanors. Incarceration fell. State savings were supposed to fund treatment, mental-health services and other programs. But there was always a question hiding ...
Blog
Game, set, match: Portland turns to private sector to run tennis center
Game, set, match: Portland turns to private sector to run tennis center By Sal Rodriguez | October 16, 2026 “Portland’s nationally-renowned parks system is struggling,” began a news report earlier this year from Oregon Public Broadcasting. OPB describes many of the practical consequences of deferred maintenance and budget cuts that ...
Blog
Clear conflict of interest: Time to sever sheriff and coroner offices
The Democratic Legislature clearly has a bone to pick with Bianco over his seizure of county election ballots and his conservative, MAGA-style politics. This measure likely stems from that conflict, but should be viewed outside the realm of partisan politics. The sheriff v. coroner debate represents a long-running and broader ...
AI
California Needs an On Switch, Not an Off Switch
In his final months in office, Gov. Gavin Newsom has decided that the California government needs a kill switch for artificial intelligence. On September 18 he signed an executive order directing a panel of experts to recommend, among other things, an emergency mechanism to shut down the most advanced AI ...
Blog
Newsom’s Greatest COVID ‘Hits’
It’s likely he made the concession, though, only because he’s convinced he won’t be held accountable. But even if he’s not the Democrats’ 2028 presidential candidate, he still should be made to answer for his authoritarian decisions. Newsom says his most regrettable COVID policy was keeping schools closed too long. ...
RIPA, Race, Policing, and the Numbers We Choose to See
Consider RIPA, the Racial and Identity Profiling Board. In 2024, 533 agencies reported 5,065,428 encounters featuring 75 data points ranging from why encounters begin, whether they result from calls for service, what officers do, whether they search someone and what happens afterward. In all, 405 million pieces of information are ...
Will voters continue to subsidize transit’s death spiral in 2026?
Will voters continue to subsidize transit’s death spiral in 2026? By D. Dowd Muska | October 23, 2026 On Election Day, transit enthusiasts will direct their attention to greater San Francisco. There, five counties will decide whether to hike their sales taxes to bail out rail, bus and ferry services ...
Why is the California government so lousy at battling wildfires?
My recent trip to Malibu from LAX was my first post-wildfire drive through the Pacific Palisades and, my goodness, there’s nothing like seeing something with one’s own eyes to grasp the enormity of the devastation. The obliterated hulks along Pacific Coast Highway 21 months after the tragedy raises multiple issues, ...
California’s Bad Student Test Scores and Newsom’s Deceitful Edu-Ganda
The state administers its California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CASPP) annually to students in grades 3-8 and grade 11. There are four performance levels on the exam—advanced, proficient, developing, and minimal. For a student to meet grade-level standards, he or she must score at either the advanced or ...
California Has Taken A Wrong Turn — Will It Ever Get Back On Track?
Long before it was even a state, California was the destination for the hard working, the enterprising, the free thinking, the dynamic dreamers who have left their marks in countless positive and useful ways. It was always moving in the right direction, ever upward. But as 2026 winds down, Californians ...
The Dead Do Tell a Tale.
For years, criminal-justice reformers treated fewer arrests, prosecutions and people behind bars as measures of success. Proposition 47 embodied that philosophy. Drug possession and some theft felonies became misdemeanors. Incarceration fell. State savings were supposed to fund treatment, mental-health services and other programs. But there was always a question hiding ...
Game, set, match: Portland turns to private sector to run tennis center
Game, set, match: Portland turns to private sector to run tennis center By Sal Rodriguez | October 16, 2026 “Portland’s nationally-renowned parks system is struggling,” began a news report earlier this year from Oregon Public Broadcasting. OPB describes many of the practical consequences of deferred maintenance and budget cuts that ...
Clear conflict of interest: Time to sever sheriff and coroner offices
The Democratic Legislature clearly has a bone to pick with Bianco over his seizure of county election ballots and his conservative, MAGA-style politics. This measure likely stems from that conflict, but should be viewed outside the realm of partisan politics. The sheriff v. coroner debate represents a long-running and broader ...
California Needs an On Switch, Not an Off Switch
In his final months in office, Gov. Gavin Newsom has decided that the California government needs a kill switch for artificial intelligence. On September 18 he signed an executive order directing a panel of experts to recommend, among other things, an emergency mechanism to shut down the most advanced AI ...
Newsom’s Greatest COVID ‘Hits’
It’s likely he made the concession, though, only because he’s convinced he won’t be held accountable. But even if he’s not the Democrats’ 2028 presidential candidate, he still should be made to answer for his authoritarian decisions. Newsom says his most regrettable COVID policy was keeping schools closed too long. ...