What Went Wrong With California High Speed Rail
Difficult geography and difficult local politics made building a high-speed rail in California…difficult.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NK0wBBZZ24
Tag: California
Gavin Newsom Thinks America Has a Trust Problem
Gavin Newsom Thinks America Has a Trust Problem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsqcbRkIWbU
A cautionary tale about tax cuts
“Quality of services in many cases declined. It’s clear, for example, that there was a shift in fire protection away from professional fire departments and toward volunteer fire departments in some parts of the state.
It hurt the schools. School finance has continued to, of course, increase in California as it has elsewhere in the US, but California used to be at the top in terms of quality of education in primary and secondary education and in terms of school spending. And now it’s definitely not.
It has hurt the quality of infrastructure — potholes in the roads, response times of first responders. It has shifted the state tax structure onto income taxes, which means that the tax system in California is really swingy — in a boom, a lot of money might flow into the state’s coffers, and in a recession, the state budget really suffers. During the financial crisis, this meant that local governments that could no longer rely on a lot of property tax revenue were especially vulnerable to bankruptcy.
It has also created all kinds of unfairness — new unfairness, rather unlike the old system. Now you might actually pay a lot more tax than somebody else in your neighborhood who has an identical home worth the same amount of money, just because they bought their home earlier than you did. And they might agree that that’s unfair, but they might not vote to change it because it’s an unfairness that allows them to stay in their home.”
https://www.vox.com/podcasts/485716/tax-cuts-history-california-prop-13-property-tax?utm_campaign=dhfacebook&utm_content=%3Cmedia_url%3E&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawRMbrNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEenSnmg0Uqf6qGxDIVlnpo3E6LM94egO9GzsntxcHxzIWtcz-9HVePNYBgPRE_aem_dbXl8hV9j1M29lc4E8Pqpg
Building affordable housing in California is pricey and slow. Newsom wants to fix it by consolidating power
“Few alphabet soups have as many letters as California’s system for financing affordable housing.
The time and headaches developers must endure when seeking funding from acronym-laden state agencies helps drive up California’s nation-high cost to build apartments for low-income residents, strangling housing production in a state badly in need of affordable places to live.
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after six years of half-measures and stalled reforms, the governor has unveiled a proposal to streamline the system, while at the same time consolidating power in his office. In the state budget proposal he released this month, Newsom outlined a plan to move decisions over potentially billions of dollars annually in cash, tax credits and bond allocations to a new housing agency he controls, and by doing so, strip authority from State Treasurer Fiona Ma.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/21/it-costs-more-to-build-affordable-housing-in-california-than-anywhere-else-newsom-wants-to-fix-it-by-consolidating-power-00738542
4 charged with plotting New Year’s Eve attacks in Southern California, prosecutors say
“They are members of an offshoot of a pro-Palestinian group dubbed the Turtle Island Liberation Front, the complaint said. During a news conference Monday, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli described the group as a “radical anti-government” group.
They each face charges including conspiracy and possession of a destructive device, court documents show.
The group is alleged to have been plotting to set off a series of bombings at multiple targets in California beginning on New Year’s Eve and also planned to target Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and vehicles Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social media.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/15/los-angeles-plot-turtle-island-liberation-front-00690708
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats’ 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats’ 2028 Frontrunner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqBsRNUXWfs
California’s Fast-Food Minimum Wage Hike Is Killing Jobs
“”On April 1, 2024, California raised its minimum wage from $16 to $20 per hour for fast-food workers employed at chains with more than 60 locations nationwide,” Jeffrey Clemens, Olivia Edwards, and Jonathan Meer write in a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper that was first addressed by Reason’s Peter Suderman in the November print issue. “Our median estimate suggests that California lost about 18,000 jobs that could have been retained if AB 1228 had not been passed.””
https://reason.com/2025/11/10/californias-fast-food-minimum-wage-hike-is-killing-jobs/?itm_source=parsely-api
How Bad Is the Protein Powder Lead Problem, Really?
Californian lead standards are way too stringent compared to how much lead is required to start harming you according to data.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDEjrRT82nE
How Trump Triggered California’s Redistricting Fight
“Trump, who urged Texas and other Red States to redistrict before the end of the decade in a shameless attempt to help the GOP pick up additional seats as we head toward the midterm elections. The Republican Party holds a slim House majority, so a slight shift can slow its agenda.
As the president posted on Truth Social: “Big WIN for the Great State of Texas!!! Everything Passed, on our way to FIVE more Congressional seats and saving your Rights, your Freedoms, and your Country, itself. Texas never lets us down. Florida, Indiana, and others are looking to do the same thing.”
This isn’t as ominous as, say, the GOP effort to steal the 2020 presidential election with absurd claims, bad lawyers and a mob attack on the Capitol. But it’s yet another GOP assault on democratic norms. Prop. 50 is the Democrats’ attempt to neuter these ill-gotten GOP gains. It’s not good, but it’s justifiable. It’s temporary, with the redrawing heading back to the commission in 2030.”
https://reason.com/2025/10/17/in-californias-redistricting-fight-there-are-no-principled-combatants/
California’s Fast Food Minimum Wage Hike Cost the State 18,000 Jobs. That Shouldn’t Surprise Anyone.
“In 2023, California passed a law requiring a $20 per hour minimum wage for all fast-food restaurants with more than 60 locations nationwide.
…
New research suggests that the mandate has also resulted in fewer jobs for struggling entry-level workers.
The law went into effect in April 2024 and increased the hourly pay of an estimated half a million workers across the state. But without the law in place, thousands more workers would likely have been employed.”
https://reason.com/2025/10/11/californias-minimum-wage-law-cost-18000-jobs/?nab=1