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.
Some 300,000 Californians have stopped paying membership dues or fees to California’s government unions since 2018, the year the Supreme Court of the United States, in Janus v. AFSCME, ended mandatory union membership requirements for state and local government workers. The 20 percent drop in membership has allowed California workers to keep approximately $240 million...
By Will Swaim
New episode of Radio Free California is out! In this week’s episode of National Review’s Radio Free California Podcast, CPC’s Will Swaim and David Bahnsen discuss the downside to letting California’s conservative counties join Idaho, and Kamala Harris’ clumsy message to Central Americans that set the Left off. They also dive into California’s latest COVID...
By Will Swaim
Anybody with eyeballs is pretty thrilled to read the news out of California: one of the state’s most powerful government unions is getting out of politics. Richard Brown, incoming president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), won election last week on a promise to end the union’s political spending, to cut member dues, and...
By Will Swaim
New episode of the Radio Free California podcast is out! The latest episode of National Review’s Radio Free California podcast, featuring CPC’s Will Swaim and David Bahnsen, is out! This week, they discuss how the Golden Gate Bridge got its name 175 years ago, chat about a big-name-politician who might throw her hat into the...
By Will Swaim
New episode of the Radio Free California Podcast is out! California Policy Center’s own Will Swaim and David Bahnsen are at it again with their latest episode of National Review’s Radio Free California podcast. In this week’s episode, they discuss a barnyard metaphor used by a Santa Clara County official to describe the tawdry relationship...
By Will Swaim
New episode of National Review’s Radio Free California Podcast is out The latest episode of National Review’s Radio Free California Podcast is out, featuring California Policy Center’s Will Swaim and David Bahnsen. This week, they discuss the California Department of Education’s pronouncement that math is racist in its ongoing race to the bottom. In other...
By Will Swaim
New episode of National Review’s Radio Free California Podcast is out In the latest episode of the Radio Free California podcast, CPC’s Will Swaim and David Bahnsen discuss Governor Gavin Newsom’s plan to hand out checks to Californians on the eve of his recall. They also talk about the latest news from the state Department...
By Will Swaim
In their latest episode of National Review’s Radio Free California Podcast, CPC’s Will Swaim and David Bahnsen discuss a tale of two bills in Sacramento – one aimed at restricting teachers’ rights, and the other at limiting children’s access to education. Of course, it wouldn’t be a complete podcast about California without some talk about...
By Will Swaim
Listen: Unleash the whackin’ New episode of Radio Free California Podcast is out In their weekly podcast for National Review, California Policy Center President Will Swaim and Board Member David Bahnsen discuss the case Newsom and his allies are building against the recall. Hint: It’s focused more on Republican challenger Caitlyn Jenner than it is...
By Will Swaim
Welcome to your weekly roundup of news from the state that put the “weird” back in “weirdos.” If you like this, donate to and thank your friends at California Policy Center. If you hate it, please blame only me (your faithful scribe, Will Swaim) and check back in when our new communications director takes over...
By Will Swaim
Forgive my typos – but by all means send in your favorite Stories from Weird California, samples of which we offer you here. Newsom announces reopening plan to union criticism: In his latest analysis of that King of Covidial Concern, Governor Gavin Newsom, CPC policy analyst Brandon Ristoff notes that Newsom keeps moving the goalposts...
By Will Swaim
COVID-19 has throat-punched the American transportation industry. United, Delta and American airlines are cutting staff through furloughs, layoffs and buyouts. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing is pursuing voluntary layoffs so aggressively that business reporters are starting to put quotes around the word “voluntary.” The company that provides school bus service to the San Francisco Unified School District furloughed its 260 drivers until classrooms...
By Will Swaim
Yorba Linda measure a rebuke to cronyism – Orange County Register
By Will Swaim
With Friends Like These: How Local Officials can end corporate welfare and unleash markets to create prosperity in California communities
By Will Swaim
a new form will got here