Texas Touts Lighter Regulations in Wooing California Firms By Aman Batheja, April 29, 2014, The Texas Tribune Monday’s news that Toyota is moving 3,000 jobs from California to Texas is drawing fresh attention to the competing business climates of the two states. Gov. Rick Perry has waged a lengthy campaign for California businesses to move...

The Walton Foundation has donated millions to help charter schools prosper, but that’s a bad thing according to the teachers unions. It’s no secret that the Walton Family Foundation is a major donor to charter schools. In 2013, it donated over $70 million to these special public schools and charter management organizations across the country....

Think rich conservatives rule the world? Think again. “To see what is in front of one’s nose,” George Orwell famously wrote, “needs a constant struggle.” In front of my nose as I write this is a copy of last Sunday’s New York Times. I have opened it to the business section. Below the fold isone of many Times articles on Thomas...

Editor’s Note: This commentary by Jarret Skorup of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy should make for interesting reading here in California. In particular, Skorup references Michigan’s pending “House Bill 4641,” that will prohibit government agencies “from imposing occupational licensure without proof of valid public health and safety concerns, and when licensing is beneficial, requires...

Summary: To accurately assess how much pension obligations for current workers are going to cost, it is necessary to calculate average pensions for retirees who retired after 1999 when pension benefits were enhanced. Because public safety employees represent about 15% of California’s total state and local government workforce , but an estimated 25% of the...

Editor’s Note: There are dozens of major infrastructure investments that would yield positive economic returns to Californians. Spending over $100 billion on high-speed rail is definitely not one of them. But as Kevin Dayton explains in this article, even the environmental benefits of high speed rail are questionable, if not a complete fabrication. This isn’t...

Obama administration to change rules so unions never lose another election By Michael Dorstewitz, April 22, 2014, BizPac Review After Tennessee Volkswagen plant employees handed the United Auto Workers a huge defeat in voting against unionization in February, the Obama administration has decided to change the rules to make sure that never happens again. Two...

Despite being one of the biggest strongholds of Democratic power in the United States, there are almost no unions representing private sector workers in the Silicon Valley. But a new NLRB ruling that takes effect next month is going to make it much easier to organize workers. Here, quoting from a March 26th Inside Counsel...