Politicians are pros at promising the moon and delivering a pebble. G.K. Chesterton nailed it: when they’re out of power, they’re wizards with a plan; in power, they’re magicians at making excuses. Most folks have grown so used to this song-and-dance that they don’t bat an eye when campaign trail bravado fizzles into “meh.” Enter...
Prepared by Golden Together, a Movement to Restore the California Dream Edward Ring, California Policy Center Steve Hilton, Founder of Golden Together Published March 20, 2025
A March 5 “Perspective” in the Manteca Bulletin highlights a chronically underemphasized problem impacting every Californian. Bass, as editor Dennis Wyatt succinctly explains, are a “destructive, invasive species, that are a serious threat to the sustainability of the ecosystem.” Wyatt proposes a solution that has been implemented in Oregon, a bounty system. As he puts it, “The state would...
Were you or your child denied admission into medical school on the basis of race or ethnicity within the last 5 years? Click here to document your experience. In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 209, a state constitutional amendment that banned preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in state hiring, contracting,...
Elected Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia has issued a dire warning about the city’s finances. It’s not the first time he’s been direct in the two years since he has assumed the office. He is no stranger to addressing transparency concerns, especially on the hot topic of auditing homelessness expenditures. And he’s unafraid to...
On May 22, 2022, the California Coastal Commission voted unanimously to deny final approval for a desalination plant in Huntington Beach. It would have produced 56,000 acre feet of fresh water per year, and would have been privately financed. To describe in detail the 20 year and roughly $100 million ordeal that federal, state, regional,...
Were you or your child denied admission into medical school on the basis of race or ethnicity within the last 5 years? Click here to document your experience. Despite a 4.2 high school grade-point average, near-perfect SATs, and the fact that he founded a software company while still a high school sophomore, Stanley Zhong was rejected...
Biden’s wannabe labor secretary brought one of California’s worst workforce ideas to the entire country. There’s much harrumphing in the media about President Donald Trump’s penchant for norm-busting, but he’s hardly the first to engage in it. Under President Joe Biden, the media generally cheered student loan forgiveness, talk of packing or ignoring the Supreme Court,...
In May 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom released a report, “California’s Clean Energy Transition Plan,” which provides an updated overview of the state’s official energy policy agenda. The document sets many ambitious goals, perhaps too ambitious, and its summary presents ambiguous tables that can mislead readers. In particular, on page 7 there is a table “Total...
WASHINGTON— The Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies (DFI) and the California Justice Center (CJC) have jointly filed a federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) against the California Department of Education (CDE), Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), and...
Coming up with a plan to find sufficient water to maintain 100 percent of existing irrigated farm acreage in the San Joaquin Valley the next time a multi-year drought strikes is not impossible. We can pipe water from Lake Roosevelt in Washington all the way down to Lake Mead in Nevada. From there, modest expansion...
California’s major cities, especially the seat of its major counties, are falling apart at the seams. The city and county of San Francisco announced that its newly elected mayor is facing an $840 million budget deficit over the next two years. San Diego’s Mayor is stressing over a $250 million budget deficit. And the controller...
Along with the fairly recent popularization of terms such as atmospheric river and bomb cyclone, we increasingly hear the term “vapor pressure deficit” (VPD). At any given temperature, the term refers to how much moisture is in the air compared to how much moisture could be in the air. The higher the deficit, the dryer...
Prepared by Golden Together, a Movement to Restore the California Dream Edward Ring, California Policy Center Steve Hilton, Founder of Golden Together Published February 24, 2025