The Costs of a Trifecta

by | Jan 8, 2026 | State Government

David Schultz at Governing: Tim Walz is out as a candidate for a third term as governor of Minnesota. He was undone by the constant drumbeat of fraud allegations, some proven, others still under investigation, that came to define the last years of his administration....

Bias in Syllabi

by | Jan 6, 2026 | Civil Rights, Crime, Higher Education

At National Affairs, Jon Shields and Stephanie Muravchik examine college syllabi on the “Open Syllabus” (OS) database. Few issues have vexed American politics more than the question of whether — and to what extent — the criminal-justice system is biased...

Failed State Update: Dead Last

by | Jan 6, 2026 | California Politics, Economic Policy

Vince Ybarra at KFSN-TV: A new U-Haul report suggests the California exodus is still happening despite an increase in population. For people looking to move, California is not a desired location, according to data collected by U-Haul. The moving company compiled more...

Diversity of Thought

by | Jan 5, 2026 | Polarization, Public Opinion

Arthur Brooks at The Atlantic: Achieving ideological diversity in the workplace is especially tricky because, in aggregate, people’s resistance to accepting political differences is growing. According to the polling firm YouGov, back in 2016, only 10 percent of both...

The State of Free Speech on Campus

by | Jan 4, 2026 | Free Speech, Higher Education

Greg Lukianoff at The Dispatch: For most of my career, the biggest threat to free speech on campus came from inside higher education: the on-campus left (students, yes, but more importantly administrators) using the power of investigation and discipline to punish...

Mandami v. Civility and Individualism:

by | Jan 3, 2026 | Civility, Local Government

From the Transcript of Zohran Mamdani’s Inauguration Speech: The majority will not use the language that we often expect from those who wield influence. I welcome the change. For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask...

A Book on Policing

by | Jan 2, 2026 | Crime, Police

Michael Fortner at The Washington Monthly: Peter Moskos’s Back from the Brink is both oral history and urban epic—a ground-level account of New York’s astonishing, world-historical crime decline, narrated by the cops, commissioners, city officials, and civic leaders...

Failed State Update: Looming Deficits

by | Jan 1, 2026 | Budget, California Politics

Yue Stella Yu at CalMatters: The deficit is projected to reach nearly $18 billion next year, mostly because the state is expected to spend so much money that it would offset, if not eclipse, the strong tax revenues driven by an AI boom, said the nonpartisan...