Pandemic-era price spikes in traditionally affordable western and sunbelt states, plus persistently high rents and home prices in expensive coastal metros, have made housing affordability the issue in many state legislatures. To bring prices back down, Yes in My Backyard (YIMBY) reformers and like-minded legislators introduced a long list of reforms that allow more types […]
In January 2023, just days after her inauguration, Arizona’s new Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, used her first State of the State speech to bemoan the high and rising price of housing. “Our state is no stranger to the boom-and-bust housing cycles—but this is something wholly different,” she said. “Three Arizona cities—Tucson, Mesa, and Phoenix—have seen […]
Victor Vandergriff resigned as a member of the Texas Department of Transportation Commission in February 2018. But he continued to receive a paycheck and state benefits for the part-time job for the next five years. The money stopped coming earlier this year only after the Austin American-Statesman asked why he was still being paid for a […]
Following outrage over the lack of transparency surrounding the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last year, the Texas legislature passed a bill Monday to close a notorious loophole in the state’s public record law that allows police to hide records of deaths in custody. The bill, H.B. 30, now goes to Republican Texas Gov. Gregg […]
A bill designed to limit false accusations of child abuse is now heading to Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk—one of several attempts to reform the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). The bill was introduced last November by Texas state Rep. Valoree Swanson (R–Spring). The bill—which has largely gained support along partisan […]
Recently, Gov. Ron DeSantis sat down with me for a one-hour interview. I started by praising him for keeping Florida largely open during COVID-19. “I just had to make the decision as a leader,” says DeSantis. “Are you gonna worry about the daily news cycle? Worry about your personal popularity?… I did not know how […]
A Texas education bill would outlaw “instruction, guidance, activities, or programming regarding sexual orientation or gender identity to students enrolled in prekindergarten through 12th grade.” The proposal comes in the form of a substitution to H.B. 890, a narrower bill related to parental rights in public schools. Critics are portraying it as an even more […]
In Texas, the Lubbock Independent School District has placed a police officer on administrative leave after a firearm was found in a faculty restroom. The officer reportedly left the gun in the restroom. The school system did not release the officer’s name or say who found the gun. The post Brickbat: So That’s Where It […]
California is home to nearly one-third of the nation’s homeless population and the problem—by almost everyone’s account—continues to worsen. The statistics tell part of the story: More than 170,000 people sleep in tents in public parks, under freeway bridges and on sidewalks in our cities and suburbs. The state has spent $20 billion to address the […]
In May of last year, a former Uvalde high school student entered Robb Elementary School and opened fire, killing 19 students and two teachers and injuring over a dozen more. Following the shooting, local police faced widespread, national outrage for their failure to intervene for nearly an hour. Eventually, the school district suspended its entire […]