by jpitney | Jul 6, 2025 | Housing, Trade
Alex Ford and Jiachuan Wu at NBC: An NBC News analysis of building materials and import data found that the total cost of building a mid-range single-family home could rise by more than $4,000 — an estimate that industry experts who reviewed the analysis called...
by jpitney | Jul 5, 2025 | Congress, Taxes
Politico’s Brian Faler on some of the tax pork in the megabill: There’s a new supersized deduction for business meals — though only for employees at certain Alaskan fishing boats and processing plants, with the measure stipulating the facilities must be “located...
by jpitney | Jul 4, 2025 | California Politics, Housing
Tobias Peter and Edward J. Pinto at AEI: In the 1970s, California had normal home prices—about on par with the rest of the nation. But since then, a toxic mix of ever-tightening environmental regulations, arcane zoning laws, and relentless NIMBY (Not in My Backyard)...
by jpitney | Jul 3, 2025 | Civic Education, civic virtue, Civility, Higher Education
Robert P. George and Cornel West at WP: A university culture of civic friendship is one in which faculty and students recognize, and act consistently with the recognition, that reasonable people of goodwill can respectfully disagree about controversial — indeed, even...
by jpitney | Jul 2, 2025 | Elections, Polarization
CMC alum Todd Achilles is running for the US Senate. Laura Guido at the Idaho Capital Sun: A former Boise Democratic legislator on Sunday stepped down from his role in the Statehouse to run for the U.S. Senate as an independent against longtime Idaho U.S. Sen. Jim...
by jpitney | Jul 1, 2025 | Civility, Higher Education
Sarah Stitzlein at Inside Higher Ed: The recently released State of the Nation project concluded that “A gnawing sense of angst seems to have descended upon us. We seem polarized and distrustful, worried and pessimistic.” Faculty and students reflect those trends. As...
by jpitney | Jun 30, 2025 | California Politics, Democracy, Polarization
Mark Z. Barabak at LAT: Democrats may be California’s majority party, enjoying a sizable registration advantage. They hold 60 of 80 seats in the Assembly and 30 of 40 in the state Senate. But the state has nearly 6 million registered Republicans. There are doubtless...
by jpitney | Jun 29, 2025 | Debt, Economic Policy
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just published their “current policy” score of the Senate reconciliation bill, showing the bill would add about $500 billion less to the deficit than extending all the expiring 2017 tax...
by jpitney | Jun 28, 2025 | Public Service, Violence
Anna Liss-Roy at WP (h/t George Van Cleve): Abusive messages, fear of physical violence and violations of privacy are the cost of elected office in the United States in 2025, according to nine Gen Z and millennial state lawmakers interviewed by The Washington Post....
by jpitney | Jun 27, 2025 | California Politics
Dan Walters at CalMatters: [All] of the versions of the budget, including the semi-final one unveiled this week, would fill the gaps for another year with payment deferrals, loans, accounting gimmicks and raids on reserves meant to cushion the effects of genuine...
