Will Swaim is president of the California Policy Center. A journalist for nearly three decades, he began by covering international business in 1990, was founding editor and publisher of Village Voice Media’s OC (Orange County) Weekly, and editor of Watchdog.org, a national network of investigative reporters. Will graduated summa cum laude (in journalism and with honors in theology) from the University of Southern California. He earned an MA in history from UC Irvine where he was a California Regents Fellow. A seventh-generation Californian, he has written extensively about California business, media, politics and religion, and is the winner of several print journalism awards and a Southern California Broadcasters Golden Mike award for public affairs commentary. With CPC board member David Bahnsen, he hosts National Review’s Radio Free California podcast. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, LA Daily News, the San Diego Union-Tribune, Orange County Register, the Wall Street Journal, New York Post and National Review.
Will Swaim is president of the California Policy Center. To contact Will, email him at will@calpolicycenter.org. You can also follow him on Twitter @WillSwaim.
For fans of dark comedy, California politics is as good as any entertainment – shot through with grim irony, corrupt politicians, and laughable hypocrisy. Consider Attorney General Rob Bonta’s legal campaign to crush the practice of seven school districts to notify parents before gender-transitioning their children. Parent notification, as it’s called, “places transgender and gender...
By Will Swaim
‘You need a policy where children aren’t told to keep secrets from their parents or other caregivers,’ he says. Since late July, six California school districts have adopted a transparency policy that has state officials wigging out. On its face, the parent-notification push at the local level would seem unnecessary, embedded as it is in state...
By Will Swaim
In doing so, they ignore the real scandal in the state’s education system. * * * Among the weirdest reactions to the Supreme Court’s June 29 decisions on affirmative action, those megaphoned by California’s political class may be the most unhinged. Here’s the reality: California voters banned race-based admissions in 1996. But in the decades...
By Will Swaim
In the devil’s workshop we call the state legislature, government union leaders are hard at work — destroying another of California’s democratic institutions. Fresh off the shutdown of Los Angeles Unified schools and the overthrow of their own elected president — and facing steep declines in membership and revenue — Service Employees International Union (SEIU) activists are...
By Will Swaim
We’ve seen Gov. Gavin Newsom impose questionable — even dangerous and illegal — policies by declaring states of emergency or merely “crisis” with regard to Covid, climate and energy. He’s done it again on the issue of housing. The problems of housing affordability and homelessness constitute a crisis so compelling, the governor says, that they...
By Will Swaim
Among the most diabolical innovations of late-twentieth century newspapering was the so-called “factcheck.” The flagship of these projects, Politifact, goes to war against falsehood under a simple banner: “Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.” Factchecking pretends that reporters are godlike – objective, neutral, free...
By Will Swaim
San Francisco parents run over three school-board members in a stunning recall vote. Common sense scores a huge win over Covid-19 panic at the Super Bowl in Los Angeles, and West Coast rap and hip-hop shine at halftime. Also: California and bovine flatus. Music by Metalachi. Listen to the new episode: HERE
By Will Swaim
Governor Gavin Newsom unmasked at the NFL Championship. Former California AG Xavier Becerra will take the fall for Biden’s ham-fisted Covid response. Why the state takeover of California health care died a quiet death in the Assembly. Sacramento moves ahead on a plan to manage the fast-food biz. The relationship between postmodern philosophy, identity politics,...
By Will Swaim
California-based Intel’s back-and-forth on China’s human-rights issues is largely overshadowed by its decision to build in Ohio what may be the world’s largest chip manufacturing facility. Kamala Harris gets the all-important lead-pipe portfolio, even as Joe Biden assures America that she’ll be his 2024 running mate. Never mind the parents, state senator Scott Wiener wants...
By Will Swaim
Biden transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg visits SoCal ports, decries infrastructure “disinvestment,” and leaves town as news breaks that gangs are ransacking rail shipments in Los Angeles. Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis fire cross-continent warning shots in the runup to 2024. The California Exodus is so intense that it broke U-Haul. California columnist Joe Mathews’s modest...
By Will Swaim
Assembly Bill 1400 would double California taxes and transform doctors into virtual state employees. Gavin Newsom’s new budget aims to signal his “global leadership” on global-climate issues but reveals instead his documented failures to achieve more modest goals at home. The remarkable, 21-year run of California’s standout auditor ends with a crucial fight over her...
By Will Swaim
Newsom & Co. want to kill the state’s referendum and initiative process, declaring it a danger to democracy. Lorena Gonzalez resigns from the Assembly to take a job with the California Labor Federation. LA Unified imposes mandatory Covid testing on half a million kids. A judge stops the San Diego Unified School District’s vaccine mandate...
By Will Swaim
With Roe in the balance, Gavin Newsom says Californians will pay for abortion tourists. Who’s trying to kill Kamala’s career? Sacramento’s government-pension-fund managers find a new way to transform corporations into carriers of lefty change. California government is still the cause of supply-chain nightmares. Santa Cruz County requires masks at home. L.A. Unified says it’ll send unvaccinated...
By Will Swaim
Editor’s Note: A day after this commentary appeared, Los Angeles Unified announced it will consider postponing until Fall 2022 its decision to force unvaccinated students into the demonstrably failed City of Angels program. Engaged parents made this happen. Special thanks to UTLAuncensored, Reopen Schools, and other ParentUnion.com allies. News that a mother has accused Los...
By Will Swaim