CalSTRS earned 13.9% on investments for the year ended June 30, 2026, up from 8.5%, and called it a significant step toward full funding. The National Association of State Retirement Administrators said this is “a marathon, not a sprint.”[1] Thirty years in local government finance taught me to distrust a figure that measures the wrong...
Earlier this week, a respected YouTube channel covering the future of technology and energy released a video exploring the viability of solar panels covering California’s canals and aqueducts. The videos are hosted by Ricky Roy, a California-based mechanical engineer whose channel is called “Two Bit Da Vinci.” Reviewing his findings is an opportunity to offer some updates...
Veteran political strategist Garry South has just published a guest commentary in the San Francisco Chronicle in which he asks the question, “Is Steve Hilton a serious candidate?” South then launches a series of attacks to make clear he doesn’t think Hilton is gubernatorial material. But only a serious contender could have survived California’s so-called “jungle primary,” where...
California Teachers Can Now Veto AI The Union Gets the Final Say California’s largest school districts have done something unheard of in American management: they have given a labor union veto power over whether a promising technology may ever be used to reorganize work. On January 22, 2026, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD)...
Archaeological evidence and 16th-century Spanish accounts show that the Aztecs of Central Mexico sacrificed children to appease the rain god Tlaloc. Appalled by the ritual, one of those Spaniards, the Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún, reported that Aztec priests regarded the terrified children’s tears as a favorable omen, believing their abundant weeping foretold abundant rainfall and...
Earlier this summer a guest op-ed appeared in the Orange County Register, “Learning the right lesson from San Diego’s desal water surplus.” But the “lesson” presented was only partly accurate. What the authors, both affiliated with the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), got right was the need to change regulations that restrict the ability for farmers to...
The Statistical Review of World Energy is arguably the most authoritative and comprehensive source publicly available for national and global energy statistics. And a funny thing happened between the report issued in 2024 and the report issued in 2025. “Renewables” as a percent of total energy consumed in 2023 was quietly lowered from 9.3 in the U.S....
The operating agreements that govern Colorado River allocations expire at the end of this year, and negotiations between the seven states that share the water are stalled. With the federal government poised to step in and impose an agreement it formulates, the states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming in the upper basin, and Arizona,...
On July 2, Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools Debra Duardo sent the Los Angeles Unified School District a letter that should alarm every taxpayer and parent in the district. Duardo determined that LAUSD meets the statutory criteria for a “Lack of Going Concern” designation, meaning the nation’s second largest school district may be unable to meet its...
It’s January 2027, and for the last few months, a super El Nino has already delivered torrential rains to the Pacific Coast of North America. California’s reservoirs have been releasing record quantities of water to preserve space for the next round of precipitation but their remaining capacity to absorb runoff is dangerously low. From the peaks of...
In June 2026, Monterey Park became the first city in America to permanently ban new data centers. Residents didn’t just pack city council meetings for months—86 percent voted to forbid a building that would never enroll children in local schools, clog rush-hour traffic, or ask the city to build another park, library, or recreation program....
This spring, Marin County launched a second round of participatory budgeting, inviting residents to help decide how another $2.5 million in public funds should be spent. The program reflects California’s growing embrace of participatory budgeting as an innovative reform. The idea clearly resonates with many people. More participation should produce better government. It won’t. A...
Whenever evaluating a new energy technology, caution is warranted. During what was arguably the first big cleantech boom around 2009, schemes were sold to angel investors thrilled to find a hot sector in the wake of the recent financial crash. Almost anything that sounded good got funded. Some of these schemes, such as a “clean”...
On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments in California Policy Center v. Garcia-Brower, CPC’s lawsuit challenging California Senate Bill 399, a law that violates employers’ First Amendment rights by prohibiting the discussion of “religious or political matters” during mandatory workplace meetings. Jeffrey Schwab, Senior Counsel with Liberty Justice Center, presented...