If SB 1047 passes, California could become as unattractive to AI innovators as Europe is, wrote U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) in a letter to State Senator Scott Wiener. Lofgren pointed out that the bill makes companies comply with guidelines that haven’t yet been developed. In a statement on his official website, U.S. Representative Ro Khanna (D-Santa Clara) warned that SB 1047 won’t address legitimate AI concerns, but instead punish entrepreneurs.
Read MoreReducing local prison populations isn't a noble aspiration, says Manhattan Institute's Rafael A. Mangual, but actually counterproductive for anyone wanting safe streets. Mangual discusses the high percentage of U.S. prisoners who 1) were booked for violent crimes, and 2) will re-commit once released. Why, then, do pols like Supe Ellenberg claim decarceration only releases harmless, nonviolent offenders into our neighborhoods?
Read MoreLast Thursday, SF's Human Rights Commission head Sheryl Davis resigned after it was discovered she'd hidden her personal relationship with a nonprofit executive, while pledging $1.5 million in City funding to his organization. Below, the SF Standard reports on this controversial “Dream Keeper Initiative” (led until now by Davis), and its troubled history re: funding nonprofit partners.
Read MoreManhattan Institute's Tim Rosenberger, Jr. (also Opp Now contributor) and Emily Murphy break down why they believe Florida's private-sector “Brightline” has been so successful: it doesn't need to manage CA's cap-and-trade costs, buy American-made materials as the Golden State requires, or bow to political interests to get funding. Their excellent compare-and-contrast follows, from City Journal.
Read MoreSilicon Valley politicians, activists in the Housing Dept, and subsidized housing zealots continue to campaign for more destructive rent control programs, even as international (and U.S.-based) data piles up proving it doesn't work. Andrew Stuttaford reports for National Review on rent control failure in the Netherlands.
Read MoreOn our way to posting today's stories, we ran into some meaning-involved rhetoric that prompted us to have a mindful-moment to help untrigger our coherency-impacted sensibilities. So we retreated, as always, to Orwell's "1984," below.
Read MoreNoted linguist Dr. Alan Perlman notes that euphemisms—the sometimes awkward efforts to rename people and ideas to avoid unwanted connotations—can end up obscuring more than they illuminate. He takes a look at County Supe Ellenberg's latest use of the gauzy "justice-involved" word-choice to describe people slotted for her widely-panned "jail-diversion" site in South San Jose. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreProposition 5 undermines protection against runaway taxes, said Gilroy Mayor Marie Blankley, who cast the tie-breaking vote last week at the Gilroy City Council meeting to oppose Prop 5. Blankley said that Prop 5, which aims to reduce voter approval from two-thirds to 55%, would inflict hardship on working families. In a divided vote, the SJ City Council previously endorsed Prop 5, with CMs Doan and Batra voting "no." An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreRumors that SF is shipping its homeless population to other northern California cities was validated last week, as the city of Humboldt complained that SF is simply shooing its homeless to the North Coast college town. SF Standard reports.
Read MoreBay Area-raised Anne Gray volunteers with For Californians, focused on restoring Prop 58 parent/child transfer rights that were lost when Proposition 19 passed in 2020. In this Opp Now exclusive, Gray walks us through what she sees as the devastating fallout from rushed implementation, and asks, “Can’t we do better?”
Read MoreSJ CM David Cohen's confused embrace of Prop 5 (which would lower from 66% to 55% the threshold for new local taxes) struck many Opp Now readers as surprising, as just a few week's prior, he was advocating against the Taxpayer Protection Act. In the former, he championed letting locals vote on tax thresholds; in the latter, he opposed the tax threshold initiatives—aligning himself with Gov. Newsom and others who worked to prevent the TPA from even being on the ballot. An Opp New exclusive.
Read MoreIn this exclusive Opp Now installment, four history educators (from SJ, Berkeley, and SF) discuss what book/documentary/podcast they'd assign local politicians as “required reading.” Spanning from the beginning of time itself, to ancient Greece, to our modern world—their recommendations (poignant and powerful) read below.
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