Photo: When the City Says Your Boat Needs a Fence
The city of Seaside, California, ordered a man to cover the boat parked in his driveway. He offered a lesson in malicious compliance.
California
Are You Living in San Diego's 'Worst ADU'?
Plus: The feds come for RealPage, a YIMBY caucus comes to Congress, and tiny Rhode Island enacts a big slate of housing reforms.
California To Bend Last-Call Law for Elite Clippers Fans
If you want to drink alcohol in California after 2 a.m., it helps to be the billionaire owner of the L.A. Clippers.
Gavin Newsom's 'Price Gouging' Shtick Is Running on Empty
Gas prices in California are exceptionally high because of the state's high taxes and anti-oil regulations, not because gas station owners there are greedier.
California Legislature Extends Exhausted Homebuyer Subsidies to Illegal Immigrants
There would seem to be little added fairness, and little added incentive for illegal immigration, in letting more people draw from a well that's already run dry.
Limit Government's Use of Surveillance Technology Before It's Too Late
We can't stop technological advancement, but we should limit government misuse of it.
California Lawmakers Face Backlash Over Doomsday-Driven AI Bill
The bill could have unintended consequences that reach far beyond California, affecting the entire nation.
San Francisco City Council Targets Free Speech To Cover Up Its Own Housing Failures
Desperate to control soaring rents, the city council bans rental data tools while ignoring its own role in the housing crisis.
California's AI Bill Threatens To Derail Open-Source Innovation
The bill’s sweeping regulations could leave developers navigating a legal minefield and potentially halt progress in its tracks.
California School Punishes First-Grader for a Drawing, Sparking Federal Lawsuit
The First Amendment case about a first-grader’s free speech rights is headed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
California's Unions Lost Their Long Battle Against Uber and Lyft
The state Supreme Court unanimously ruled that ridesharing drivers can be exempted from California's crackdown on independent contracting.
No Muslims In My Backyard?
Plus: Kamala Harris doubles down on rent control, Gavin Newsom issues a new executive order on housing, and the natural tendency to keep adding more regulation.
Prostitution Surveillance Tower Goes Up in San Diego
Warrantless surveillance, Comic Con "sex trafficking," and the persistence of trafficking myths
California Forever, Forever
The company needs a lot of government permission slips to build its planned new city in the Bay Area. It's now changing the order in which it asks for them.
The Government Is Choking Off Wineries
It seems anything the government touches dies—today, it’s thousands of acres of once-productive vineyards.
FTC Opens a Backdoor Route to Age Verification on Social Media
In a "novel" order concerning the app NGL, the agency takes aim at online anonymity and at minors on social media.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom Crushed a Ballot Initiative That Could Have Limited Tax Increases
What happened to caring about the will of the people?
California's Minimum Wage Law Has Led Some Employers To Cut Hours and Hike Prices
"I've been in the business for 25 years...I never had to increase the amount of pricing that I did this past time in April," one business owner told the A.P.
California Democrats 'Water Down' Sex Trafficking Bill. Good.
The original version was overly punitive.
The Authoritarian Side of Effective Altruism Comes for AI
Proposed bills reveal the extreme measures E.A.’s AI doomsayers support.
Sacramento Cops Shared License Plate Data With Anti-Abortion States
And a grand jury says that's illegal.
California Lawmakers Kill World's Most Marginal Psychedelics Reform
The now-dead bill would have permitted three counties to establish pilot programs in which military veterans could take psilocybin under the supervision of medical professionals.
RealPage Conspiracy Theories
The media, state attorneys general, and the Biden administration are blaming rent-recommendation software for rising rents. Normal stories of supply and demand are the more reasonable explanation.
Reason Wins 7 Southern California Journalism Awards
First-place finishes include an investigative piece on egregious misconduct in federal prison, a documentary on homelessness, best magazine columnist, and more.
New York Cuts Real Rents at Rent-Stabilized Apartments
The city's Rent Guidelines Board approved a nominal 2.75 rent increase for one million rent-stabilized apartments. That's below the year's 3.3 percent inflation rate.
NIMBY Towns, Fake Parks, and Eminent Domain
Plus: unpermitted ADUs in San Jose, Sen. J.D. Vance's mass deportation plan for housing affordability, and the California Coastal Commission's anti-housing record.
Will This Bill Save or Scuttle California's Builder's Remedy?
Plus: Sen. John Fetterman introduces a new zoning reform bill, U.C. Berkeley finally beats the NIMBYs in court, and Austin's unwise "equity overlay."
California YouTuber Faces 10 Years for Having Too Much Fun With Fireworks
The feds charged Alex Choi with “causing the placement of explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft” after he shot fireworks out of a helicopter into an empty desert.
AI Could Become the Next Victim of the 'Sacramento Effect'
California's stringent AI regulations have the power to stifle innovation nationwide, impacting all of us.
Police Flew Drones Over One California City Nearly 20,000 Times in 6 Years
A WIRED investigation reveals the extent to which residents of Chula Vista are subjected to surveillance from the sky.
California Is Doubling Down on Banning Plastic Bags
They're coming for new bags after old bag-ban failed.
Mike Solana: Can San Francisco Be Saved?
Pirate Wires Editor in Chief Mike Solana discusses the lessons of San Francisco's politics, his vision for the future, and his critiques of libertarianism.
New York and New Jersey Want To Let Felons Serve on Juries. Here's Why.
Bans have resulted in what some have called the "whitewashing" of American juries.
California's Tortilla Bill Threatens To Flatten Small Businesses
Proposed legislation mandates folic acid in masa flour, sparking fears among traditional tortilla makers about costs and cultural impact.
California's Regulations Might Steer Self-Driving Innovations to Other States
Despite being the so-called epicenter of innovation, California certainly doesn't give innovators a lot of room to experiment with new ideas.
California's $20 Fast Food Minimum Wage Law Is Already Having Disastrous Unintended Consequences
Many have seen their hours reduced—or have lost their jobs entirely.
California Man Gets $900,000 Settlement for 'Psychological Torture' During 17-Hour Police Interrogation
Detectives in Fontana, California, told Thomas Perez Jr. that his father was dead and that he killed him. Neither was true.
The Rise of the Bedroom Counters
Plus: The results of rent control are in, California's tiny home program gets minimal results, and yet another city eyes a crackdown on short-term rentals.
Gavin Newsom Is 'Pro-Choice' on Abortion and Nothing Else
A new California law amends the state's ban on out-of-state doctors practicing medicine to allow doctors from Arizona to perform abortions for patients who are also from Arizona.
California's Telemedicine Restrictions Are Forcing Rare Disease Patients To Travel Out of State for Care
A new lawsuit argues the state's requirement that doctors must be licensed in California to do remote consultations with patients there is unconstitutional.
