Blogs
Department of Public Policy Blogs
Select a Department
April 13, 2011
Professor Daniel J.B. Mitchell recently published an opinion article in the Daily Bruin regarding Governor Jerry Brown's move to end talks with Republican legislators over a tax increase. This move provokes Mitchell, and others to ask what can the University of California ask from Brown and politicians among budget woes? Read the article here or below.On the RecordWhen the state legislature spends time in the midst of a major budget
crisis debating about whether to ban shark fin soup,...
Comments (0)
February 20, 2011
Public Policy Professor and Intelligence expert Amy Zegart recently published an article entitled Spytainment: The Real Influence of Fake Spies in the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. It can be found here.
October 26, 2010
Drug policy expert Mark Kleiman spoke to Newsweek about the legal possibilities and implications behind Proposition 19 on California's November ballot."Assume for a moment that California voters approve Proposition 19 on Nov. 2. The state will have just enacted a process for legalizing, regulating, and taxing marijuana use that no one else in the world has ever attempted. But Attorney General Eric Holder, President Obama’s top law-enforcement officer, has said the administration will “...
October 19, 2010
The Atlantic recently scrutinized the possibility of having "Prisons Without Walls" as an alternative to incarceration. The story articulated findings behind Professor Mark Kleiman's book, When Brute Force Fails, and Judge Steven Alm's Project HOPE, discussing them as progressive methods for rehabilitation and probation reform. The result has been an innnovative approach towards crime reduction.We discovered that most of these guys can stop using on their own,” Alm explained, given the...
October 05, 2010
By Daniel J.B. MitchellFor years, the U.S. has fretted about its large trade deficit — the excess of goods imports over exports — an imbalance of roughly half a trillion dollars in 2009. The mirror image of that deficit is that America has become the world’s largest debtor. You can’t buy more than you sell year after year without either running down past assets or borrowing, and the U.S. has done it mainly by borrowing. So we have also fretted about the unsustainability of continued...
September 14, 2010
Public Policy Professor Mark Kleiman spoke with Larry Mantle on KPCC's Air Talk regarding a new report by the FBI. The report claims a five percent reduction in crime and follows a general reduction of crime since the 1994. Kleiman discussed that:There's half as much crime as there was in 1994. Now every time crime goes down, it becomes a lesser deal for criminals because they are doing fewer prison days per crime committed.Listen or download the discussion here.
July 07, 2010
Matthew Kahn, a professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment with joint appointments in economics and public policy, was quoted on July 7 in a Miller–McCune article on the potential of bamboo houses to fight climate change, encourage economic growth and protect the poor from natural disasters.Kahn thinks that nongovernmental organizations are an ideal vehicle for promoting bamboo homes in rural areas, but venture capitalists should build bamboo housing for a major, often-neglected...
July 07, 2010
Matthew Kahn, a professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment with joint appointments in economics and public policy, was quoted on July 7 in a Miller–McCune article on the potential of bamboo houses to fight climate change, encourage economic growth and protect the poor from natural disasters.Kahn thinks that nongovernmental organizations are an ideal vehicle for promoting bamboo homes in rural areas, but venture capitalists should build bamboo housing for a major, often-neglected...
July 06, 2010
KPCC’s Crawford Family Forum in Pasadena, held on June 16, 2010, discussed the possible legalization of marijuana for recreational use—an issue that will come up before voters on this November’s California ballot. The discussion, moderated by KPCC’s Larry Mantle, brought together the following speakers who hold views on both sides of the upcoming ballot measure:• Hon. Jim Gray, Judge of the Superior Crt. (ret.) -- Pro Initiative• Hon. Lee Baca, Sheriff, Los Angeles County --...
June 30, 2010
On NPR’s Morning Edition, Ari Shapiro interviews Amy Zegart on the value of presidential commissions, especially under the Obama administration.Amy Zegart, an associate professor of public policy at UCLA, has analyzed every presidential commission spanning 20 years. "Commissions are really used on every topic imaginable," she says, "from Arctic research and things that you've never heard of to major public policy scandals and controversies of the day, like the current oil leak in the...
