Will High Speed Rail Ever Get on Track?

AUG. 19, 2010 Last month I had the privilege of riding the best train in California. Indeed, it’s perhaps the best in the Lower 48. This train is efficient, safe and even fun to ride. At no time during my

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Should Pet Ownership Trump Public Safety?

AUG. 19, 2010 What’s wrong with a mother who locks her 12-year old son in the basement for his own safety, but leaves the family’s two Pit Bull dogs loose in the house while she runs errands? That’s just one

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Free-market sense from a Democrat?

AUGUST 16, 2010 As of Tuesday, legislators were 41 days past the constitutional deadline for passing a state budget, yet the state’s majority Democrats weren’t even holding budget hearings. Why bother? The state is $19 billion in the red, but

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State: a sea of cluelessness

AUGUST 13, 2010 Earlier this week I beat up on the California High Speed Rail Authority for failing to provide a coherent number of the number of contractors working for it. While this is indeed a stunning example of a

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Shakedown threatens nursing homes

AUGUST 11, 2010 A Humboldt County jury recently awarded $677 million in a class-action lawsuit against a nursing home operator — an award that may put Skilled Healthcare Group‘s nursing homes out of business, and could mark the entire industry for

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Ban makes shopping annoying

AUGUST 9, 2010 While walking though the supermarket the other day, my wife and I began playing a game I call Unintended Consequences. We tried to guess how things will really work after some new law is put in place.

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Other People's Money

AUG. 6, 2010 After sitting through another week of state legislative sessions and committee hearings, the phrase “other people’s money” keeps running through my head. Last week I spoke with Senator Denise Moreno Ducheny, D-San Diego, and that started me

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Constructive Feedback? What's That?

AUG. 5, 2010 There are many unanswered questions floating around the state’s proposed bullet train plan. How many tens of billions of dollars will it eventually cost? Where will the money come from? Exactly how many people will ride it

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Halt! Drop the Starfish!

AUG. 3, 2010 Advocates for big government can always be expected to stoke our fears to justify higher taxes, more regulations and the hiring of additional government workers. One of the most sensational examples of this phenomenon was provided last

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Unsexy Environmental Bills

JULY 30, 2010 Most environmental legislation is about as exciting as a trip across Kansas in a Greyhound bus, and consequently, falls under the radar of media scrutiny. Environmental bills just aren’t sexy enough to warrant much coverage. But the

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