Listen: National Review’s Radio Free California Podcast Episode 198: French Laundry 2: The Getty Afterparty!
Listen: National Review’s Radio Free California Podcast Episode 198: French Laundry 2: The Getty Afterparty!
Irony alert: Governor Gavin Newsom canceled his flight to Glasgow’s climate meet-up and then appeared at the lavish San Francisco wedding of oil-heiress Ivy Getty — and then magically makes natural gas “carbon neutral.” Sean Penn finds himself in the crosshairs of the National Labor Relations Board. Surveying epiphenomena of this sort, the city of...
By Will Swaim
Yes, Virginia, There Are Lessons We Have Learned
Yes, Virginia, There Are Lessons We Have Learned
The recent election in Virginia has provided a trove of “teachable moments.” As a former educator, I know a teachable moment when I see one. And the political doings in Virginia this fall have been a goldmine. While the Democrats still maintain a small majority in the Old Dominion’s Senate in the recent election, Virginia...
By Larry Sand
As Virginia goes, so goes the nation!
As Virginia goes, so goes the nation!
The election of Republican Glenn Youngkin as governor of Virginia this week shocked Democrats and their media allies, but has put politicians and teacher unions nationwide on notice: parents, not bureaucrats, direct their children’s education. Tuesday’s historic upset of Democrat powerhouse Terry McAuliffe was decisive. Virginia saw its highest voter turnout in recent history and...
By Dawn Collier
Listen: Radio Free California Episode 197: ‘Punching the Golden Goose in the Mouth’
Listen: Radio Free California Episode 197: ‘Punching the Golden Goose in the Mouth’
San Francisco finds new and interesting ways to kill people and opportunities. Xavier Becerra takes California’s most lethal drug policies national on the Joe Biden Medicine Show. Your hosts also compare the Newsom recall with Glenn Youngkin’s big win in Virginia and consider Inglewood High School’s 106-0 football victory over Morningside. Music by Metalachi. Listen...
By Will Swaim
Our Full-Employment Division
Our Full-Employment Division
Why didn’t California’s unemployment office heed past audits? Because real efficiency means fewer jobs. The report last week that the state Employment Development Department had paid $20 billion in bogus jobless benefit claims, including $810 million to convicts, added to the view that EDD is the government equivalent of a dumpster fire. It came days...
By Chris Reed
California Department of Education’s failure will cost kids big
California Department of Education’s failure will cost kids big
California’s public-school administrators took a test this year, and they failed miserably. No, we’re not talking about their refusal to reopen classrooms when data showed it was safe to do so. And no, we’re not talking about abysmal student reading and math scores. We’re talking about the way they’ve demonstrated that, even with unprecedented amounts of...
Finding Common Ground in California
Finding Common Ground in California
In California, environmental regulations have brought infrastructure investment to a standstill. Without expanding energy, water, and transportation infrastructure, it is nearly impossible to build housing, the cost-of-living is punitive, water is rationed and food is overpriced, the overall quality of life is reduced, and money that ought to be paying skilled workers to operate heavy...
By Edward Ring
No to California’s public officials: Raising the pay of government workers is not the biggest challenge facing California
No to California’s public officials: Raising the pay of government workers is not the biggest challenge facing California
In 1988, with the California economy churning out record revenue, state Democratic lawmakers and their progressive allies had interesting, constructive options. They could fund the water storage projects that experts said a fast-growing state badly needed. They could fix the frayed infrastructure cited in state audits covering dozens of agencies. They could even upgrade the...
By Chris Reed
Normal parents fought Merrick Garland and saved America in just 18 days. In California, the battle continues
Normal parents fought Merrick Garland and saved America in just 18 days. In California, the battle continues
On October 4, Attorney General Merrick Garland directed the FBI to investigate parents of school-age kids who object to school closures, mask mandates, vaccine mandates, the teaching of critical race theory, and a new law that deprives parents of information about medical treatments recommended for school-age kids. Garland spied with his beady eyes a “disturbing...
By Will Swaim
The kids most definitely are not all right
The kids most definitely are not all right
The latest NAEP scores indicate a very troubled education system, and eliminating standardized tests certainly won’t solve the problem. On the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), or “nation’s report card,” test scores in both reading and math declined for 13-year-old students, the first drop registered in 50 years. The test showed that...
By Larry Sand
SEIU’s dirty little secrets
SEIU’s dirty little secrets
California’s largest union has two names it doesn’t want members to know about. The first is Alma Hernandez. The second is Mark Janus. Hernandez is the now-former top boss at California’s largest labor union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). In a truly let-them-eat-cake-moment, she’s been charged on multiple counts of embezzlement and tax fraud...
By Jackson Reese
Listen: Episode 195: Profiles in (Executive) Courage
Listen: Episode 195: Profiles in (Executive) Courage
Netflix execs handle/mishandle an employee walkout over the streaming service’s latest Chappelle special. In-N-Out tells San Francisco no, its employees won’t play the role of “vaccination police.” Elon Musk says he moved Tesla HQ to Texas in part because of Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez’s tweet in which she swore at him. President Biden shows how little...
By Will Swaim
Parents Marched on Sacramento and Across the State to Protest Student Vaccination Mandate
Parents Marched on Sacramento and Across the State to Protest Student Vaccination Mandate
Thousands of parents and students took part in a school walkout across the state on Monday protesting Governor Newsom’s school vaccine mandate. Many of them came to the state Capitol in Sacramento for a rally called “Our Children, Our Choice,” and many more rallied in their home districts, leaving some school districts to mark notable...
By Brandon Ristoff
Reining in rogue educators
Reining in rogue educators
To ensure transparency, all classroom lessons should be recorded. Over the past year, there have been many suggestions as to how concerned parents could deal with the “woke” agenda that has become all too prevalent in our nation’s classrooms. Most recently, a new group, Parents Unite, held a conference in which several fight-back strategies for...
By Larry Sand