Los Angeles resident Kamala Harris visited New Orleans to celebrate the charter schools she condemns at home -- and to encourage schoolkids to fight Republicans. Gavin Newsom swerves out of his “moderate” lane and endorses Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate race. This week in California history: Richard Nixon resigns, Buck Owens is born, and a San Francisco trans activist who sought political asylum in the Netherlands discovers there’s no place like home. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• David on Capital Record: The Common Good, Pornography, Gambling, and You
• Will on NPR’s Left, Right & Center: The ‘Socialist’ Brand Helps Some Democrats…For Now
• New Orleans students get advice from Kamala Harris at back-to-school rally
• How New Orleans Turned Around Its Failing Schools
• Congratulations @AbdulElSayed 
• Sacramento judge sides with Attorney General Rob Bonta in Prop 39 ballot title lawsuit
• California’s Medi-Cal has a bad case of fraud — and there’s only one cure
• Medicaid Expansion’s Growing Improper Enrollment Crisis
• Have an idea to fix San Francisco? You could win $50 million
• San Francisco dad questioned by park rangers for teaching his own kids tennis at public court
• Civil war breaks out in rich, white California town as activists from crime-plagued neighboring city demand it’s ‘canceled’
• Transgender American who fled US admits it was ‘the dumbest thing,’ returns home from European asylum center

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In a state where slavery was always illegal, California lawmakers continue their push for reparations, whitewashing the critical role of such black Californians as William Alexander Leidesdorff in the state’s founding. Bonus! What is Participatory Budgeting and why does California Policy Center senior fellow Mark Moses hate it so much? Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes

• David’s Capital Record podcast: The Real Story of Rent Stabilization
• David: Five Takeaways About the Common Good
• Will Swaim: California schools turn to child sacrifice
• California’s next reparations fight
• Oakland Approves $125 Million Coliseum Sale, Clearing Way for Irving Azoff Overhaul
• California Democratic Party endorses billionaire tax
• Newsom Expresses Concerns About State Antitrust Suit Against Paramount
• California launches next phase of state cybersecurity plan as AI changes threat landscape 
• Governor Newsom announces a first-of-its-kind partnership, providing Anthropic tools to state agencies and improving services for Californians
• His Wedding Guests Were Arriving—Just as His $45 Billion Fund Was Falling Apart
• Introducing Claude for Teachers
• Has Kamala Harris Been Hijacked by the DSA or Has the Progressive Mask Finally Slipped?
• Harris cites JFK, Obama among ‘most effective’ presidents, omitting Biden

Mark Moses on “participatory budgeting”

• The Municipal Financial Crisis – A Framework for Understanding and Fixing Government Budgeting (Palgrave Macmillan, January 2022)
• Participatory budgeting won’t save California cities
• We’re seeding PB across California!
• How Taylor Swift’s Wedding Became a Lesson in the Rule of Law

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Vanity Fair revisits Gavin Newsom's two-decade-old affair. SEIU president Dave Regan says he did not illegally bargain over his union's proposed wealth tax. California undermines national defense. We remember the California connections of U2 pilot Gary Francis Power. Bonus! In the wake of the Facuci diary’s release, CPC’s Lance Christensen joins Will to remember what it was like inside the state capitol during Covid. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes

• Gavin Newsom’s ex-mistress drops bombshell essay on affair that nearly destroyed him
• California wouldn’t be the right place to launch California Pizza Kitchen today, co-founder says
• We Still Need More Ships
• Exclusive: California Forever loses $3.2 billion shipyard contract as defense startup picks Texas
• California shouldn’t punish Coast Guardsmen for serving their country
• Rich Californians Are Finding Creative Ways to Get Ahead of the Billionaire Tax
• Medi-Cal And One Big Beautiful Bill: Federal Medicaid Reforms And The Fiscal Premise Of California's Billionaire Tax Act
• California House Republicans ask Trump administration to block state’s new tax
• A powerful union, the billionaire tax and an alleged bargaining chip
• 2026: 5 reasons the Dodgers should not go back to the White House again next year (Lopez) 
• 2026: Are the Dodgers tone deaf? White House visit is an insult to their fans (Plaschke)
• 2021: Dodgers celebrate World Series title at White House, then extend winning streak (Castillo)
• 2026: The Dodgers were right to go to the White House (Fleischman)
• Abuse and intimidation have taken over Sacramento City Hall meetings | Opinion

Lance Christensen on the Fauci diary and Newsom’s failure

• Fauci, in Private Diary, Reflected on Covid’s Origins and His Own Fame

National Review Institute Comes to San Francisco

• Regional Seminar: American Innovation

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She oversaw the burning of L.A.’s Westside last year. In April, Mayor Karen Bass turned to the city’s schools, backing the teacher union’s demand for the budget-busting pay hike that led to the announcement this week that the district is nearing bankruptcy. Bonus! We remember the 1973 premiere of American Graffiti, George Lucas’s love letter to California’s Central Valley. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• Housing Affordability and Housing Demand
• PPIC Statewide Survey: Californians and the Environment
• Governor Newsom announces $20 million in grant funding matched by Google to support local journalism across the state
• State workers have returned to offices. What’s next in the fight for telework?
• LAUSD deadline looms to make painful cuts after county says board actions ‘erode confidence’
• RFC 441: Strike or not, Los Angeles Unified is on an unsustainable trajectory
• RFC 441: The price of LAUSD union peace will be $1.2 billion a year. Next up is paying for it
• RFC 441: LAUSD deal reached: Mayor Bass steps in to avoid LAUSD strike 
• Alameda County supervisors unanimously approve policy-driven reparations plan for Black residents
• Alameda County Identifies $55M in Budget Reductions, but Major Gap Remains
• As World Cup fans pour into LAX, long-awaited people mover train struggles with delays
• People Mover lawsuit
• LA blew $60M on homeless ‘fix’ — it housed just three units
• Katie Porter says she’s done with politics after failed governor bid as she teases next chapter  

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Representative Ro Khanna (D., Silicon Valley) traveled to Israel, drove into a military conflict zone — and claims the Israeli government threatened him. AG Rob Bonta leads a 12-state effort to block Paramount’s proposed merger with Warner; Paramount considers joining the California exodus. Newsom signs off on a historic tax hike. California transfers coastal land to tribes. Even the wealthy can’t afford San Francisco, but don’t blame the government. Bonus tracks! CPC’s Andrew Davenport reviews the California Teachers Association’s 30-year war on charter schools and his colleague Sheridan Karras wonders why California ended standardized tests that measure student understanding of American and California history. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes

• How Israel Should Handle Progressive Palestine Pilgrimages
• Ambassador Yechiel (Michael) Leiter on X
• Paramount weighs leaving California over Warner Bros. rift
• Why I’m Suing to Block the Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger (AG Rob Bonta)
• Newsom’s polling slip
• California still one of the worst states to move to in 2026, consumer report says
• Newsom Lawyers Up As Missing Tax Returns Fuel More Questions About Federal Probe
• California approves ‘largest tax hike in history’ — here’s where you’ll pay more
• Newsom wants to increase an obscure tax for millions. He needs Trump’s help | Opinion
• California is returning a stretch of its coast to Indigenous tribes: “This is beyond huge”
• New California law requires allergen labeling at chain restaurants
• In San Francisco, Even $180,000 Tech Salaries Are No Longer Enough

This week’s advertising sponsor: California Center for Nonprofit Law

• NPOlawyers.com
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Bonus track! CPC manager of strategic initiative Andrew Davenport

• Waging war on charter schools: A history of teacher unions’ anti-charter school campaign in California

Bonus track! CPC research director Sheridan Karras

• The forgotten subject: California’s failure to assess history education

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Like Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris, Rep. Ro Khanna is eyeing the White House. But this week was a rough one for the SIlicon Valley progressive: he finally abandoned his defense of alleged serial rapist and Nazi sympathizer Graham Platner, beclowned himself during a House Intelligence Committee hearing, and faced fresh reporting that he lives more like the oligarchs he denounces than the working class he champions. Will and David also discuss the Hollywood bombshell whose wartime invention helped change the modern world, and California's surprising connection to the Scopes "Monkey Trial," which began 101 years ago. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• Hours of chaos, vandalism in Newport Beach: Are viral social media posts to blame?
• Newsom goes national
• Tony Thurmond criticizes ‘undemocratic’ plan to overhaul superintendent’s role
• The cost of Khanna’s Platner alliance
• 'Clown': Ro Khanna Picks a Fight With the Wrong Guy During House Select Committee on China Hearing
• ‘Ro’ Me the Money! How Progressive Class Warrior Ro Khanna Lives Like the Oligarchs He ‘Fights,’ With In-Home Elevator, $190K Range Rover, and Family-Owned Golf Courses.
• The Nazi Tattoo Guy Is Exactly Who You Thought He Was
• On the California Coast, a Picture-Perfect City Falls on Hard Times
• Vance Downplays Watergate and Compares Himself to Nixon
• David’s latest Capital Record podcast: Setting the Record Straight on Alexander Hamilton

Bonus track: Fighting for liberty in the 9th Circuit

• California Policy Center, Inc. v. Garcia-Brower
• About Jeff Schwab
• About Emily Rae

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Preparing for a White House run, Newsom calls for “a new social compact” -- a national wealth tax that confiscates wealth for a menu of failed California-style social programs. Bonus! Our homage to California cowboy actor Slim Pickens. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• Ranch Dressing surpasses ketchup
• America’s 250th and the fight for liberty in California
• It's time for a national billionaires’ tax and a new social compact
• Real estate tax-cut proposal pulled from ballot in last-minute deal
• Newsom under fire as California gas tax hike sends pump prices even higher
• SF trans march turns violent as angry mob turns on cops and stomps police car
• UC Berkeley to Open Nancy Pelosi Institute Aimed at Advancing Democracy
• Kamala Harris’s Silence on Gaza Cost Her the White House?
• Biden pick Becerra asked Clinton to pardon cocaine trafficker after donations from his father: House probe

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News that California’s utility commission has created a new program to boost LGBTQ participation in electricity production has David and Will wondering: Has California become so absurd that the end is truly near? Newsom rejects the SEIU’s compromise offer on its Billionaire Wealth Tax. Government union leaders say they’ll join the California exodus if they’re forced to work. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes

• CA Democrats want election results faster, but say any solution hurts voters
• Crippling impact of Paramount-Warner deal on Los Angeles workforce revealed
• Inside California’s Gay-Certification Program
• Newsom Fined by State Campaign Finance Watchdog Just Ahead of DOJ Investigation
• Don Newsom Refuses an Offer
• California state workers union warns of mass exodus with Newsom’s return to office order | CA Politics 360
• Capital Record podcast: Remote Work’s Growing Damage
• Sam Bankman-Fried Prison Experiment

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Gavin Newsom wasted no time hitting the airwaves with news that the Trump DOJ is investigating the governor’s wife. We cheer Newsom’s work to kill the Billionaire Wealth Tax. Fareed Zacharia joins the growing number of liberals who worry that California is ruining the Democratic Party brand. In our Department of Vexillology, we celebrate the June 14, 1846, Bear Flag Revolt and consider protests against the San Francisco Giants’ Gay Pride Night. Bonus! Cal Policy Center president Jackson Reese answers a listener question. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• The Bear Flag and California’s history blind spot
• The forgotten subject: California’s failure to assess history education
• The Red Bluff Round-Up, April 16, 17, & 18, 2027
• Giants pitchers’ Bible verses on Pride Night caps show how they’ve missed the point
• Newsom Says Trump’s Justice Department Is Investigating Him and His Wife
• How California became a case study in failed governance
• Gavin Newsom’s race to block a billionaire tax
• California billionaire tax is a no-brainer for progressive Democrats, right? Wrong.
• Labor groups split on Billionaire Tax
• In Orange County, six-figure salaries now qualify as 'low income'
• Division of Housing Policy Development (OC is No. 5 in the state; all other counties here)
• Trump could be Oakland’s coal frenemy
• Winery Sues Santa Barbara Over Unconstitutional Mandate
• Leftists Use Google Form to Organize Stanford Commencement Walk-Out Against Google CEO

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• Support the California Policy Center

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Always optimistic, David encourages Will to be happy -- despite recent election results. And forget Xavier Becerra's ethnic posturing: Will reminds us that California has already had a "first Latino governor." Bonus! Representative Vince Fong joins the show to offer his remedy for Governor Gavin Newson’s refusal to pay his debts. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• Trump, after baselessly alleging fraud in California vote again, storms out of NBC interview
• Bombshell photo unveils damning Nithya Raman link with homeless voters — as fury erupts over LA ballot count
• In California, the Real Scandal Is What’s Legal
• How the Machine Buried Spencer Pratt
• Steady State
• Newsom on X: “And yes, for the record: we wish the votes were counted faster, too.”
• Rob Pyers on Tom Steyer
• Silicon Valley bet big on Matt Mahan for governor. It didn’t pay off
• Is the Bay Area ready to abandon its vehicles?
• David delivers Pacifica Christian High School Commencement (transcript)
• Commencement Speech on Life for Graduates, and All of Us (video)
• Rep. Vince Fong
• Payback for Gavin Newsom’s Fiscal Folly

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