Commentator Brandon Ristoff reviews high points in California Policy Center’s 2021 “Book of Exoduses.” Notably, $1 trillion-valued Tesla’s headquarters transferred to Texas, along with data center firm Digital Realty Trust and myriad other organizations. What eminent companies will break free from California’s talons in 2022, and will our lawmakers embrace deregulation to bring them back?

AB 5, chaptered in 2019, would force California’s freelance truck drivers to unionize under larger corporations—kissing the gig work option goodbye. Since the Supreme Court declined to hear a case against AB 5 last month, Oakland community truckers have blocked terminal traffic to protest this “man-made disaster” of coerced unionization. Stephen Frank of California Political Review examines the protest’s and AB 5’s powerful implications for our local economy.

WalletHub recently analyzed all fifty states and the District of Columbia to determine fastest changes in number of local unemployment claims. California stood at #48, boasting one of our nation’s smallest decreases when compared to the beginning of 2020 (consistent with noticeable Bay Area job losses during COVID-19’s remote labor boom). Considering burdensome costs of living for all but the most wealthy, is it surprising that Californians are still, post-COVID, struggling with unemployment?

Edison Lee of the California Policy Center examines Gov. Newsom’s recent Executive Order N-3-22, which loosened hiring/certification requirements for substitute teachers and returning retired teachers. Much-needed amidst California’s scramble for instructors, Newsom’s executive order highlights the overwhelming red tape roadblocks lower-income professionals (e.g., hair salon shampooers) face to get certified. Lee calls for deregulating occupational certification processes, which are far too extensive and expensive in the Golden State.

Responding to progressives’ extreme jail-emptying plans, Johnny Khamis asserted this Feb. that giving criminals a get-out-of-jail-free card is an absurd response to mental illness and unideal prison numbers. Matt DeLisi and John Paul Wright of City Journal support this idea, refuting beliefs that the criminal justice system harshly and unfairly incarcerates too many citizens. On the contrary, the state is historically lenient on crime (e.g., via revolving-door “justice”) and unprepared to manage a high volume of it—proving jail-emptying is a serious public safety risk.

Dr. Jeff Hummel, SJSU economics and history professor, recently delved into the controversial 1619 Project at a Mt Hamilton/Bastiat Society event. Though proponents often doubt this project’s veracity, they frequently reference/praise the 1619 Project for “academic attention,” says Dr. Hummel. For historians who advocate the 1619 Project, their professional writing often contradicts the project’s foundational claims—raising questions about influential academics playing the rewrite-history game for their own fame.