The collapse of blue California is picking up speed. California’s largest college, which enrolls 90,000 students, faces closure within a year unless the school can essentially reinvent itself. Bad administration, wasteful personnel spending, poor organization, a lack of strategic vision and a series of budget cuts as the state of California frantically hacks at its […]

The latest in Britain’s drift away from the European Union is the UK Foreign Secretary’s announcement this week that each and every Whitehall department will be publicly “auditing” how EU regulations affect—and to some Britons, hamper—their work. The Telegraph reports: The public audit could eventually produce a “shopping list” of powers that Britain would seek […]

A UCLA study of Japan’s high-speed rail system concludes that bullet trains don’t create economic growth, undermining one of the major justifications for California’s own high-speed train system. [Jerry] Nickelsburg [the UCLA economist who led the study] examined the growth rates of cities and regions served by Japan’s system, compared to the nation’s overall rate […]

Defying the wrath of Andrew Sullivan and the might of the Foreskin Lobby, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has attacked the cockamamie Cologne court ruling that banned an essential rite of Islam and Judaism. Religious freedom and the rights of the family must be defended against the zealots of secular modernity.Merkel is of course correct. For […]

After many years of lies and denial, the city of Detroit is reluctantly coming to grips with the laws of arithmetic. The Detroit Free Press reports that Mayor David Bing’s budget plans have received the green light from the broke and discredited city’s financial advisory board. The plans are relatively radical, including layoffs for many […]

When the Chinese Communist Party holds its 18th Party Congress this fall, it will usher in a new generation of leaders for the first time in a decade. Particular attention will be paid to the composition of the Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC), the powerful nine-member body that effectively runs the country.The retirement age for senior […]

As Burma emerges slowly from its decades-old tight embrace with China and countries across Asia turn to the U.S. for help in balancing against China’s muscle, China is starting to look a little lonely. Even Cambodia and Laos are showing Washington a little affection. The Hermit Kingdom of North Korea remains a true friend; Pakistan […]

The prime minister of Romania, Victor Ponta, may be backing down in the nasty standoff with the country’s president and Consititutional Court that had alarmed European and U.S. diplomats about the rule of law in Romania. The president, however, is still suspended pending a referendum on impeachment at the end of the month. Now there […]

For the first time in ASEAN’s 45-year history, a regional conference ended without a joint statement. Senior diplomats from the ten-member bloc had been meeting this week in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. Failure to reach a consensus on a communiqué has been attributed to the deep divisions within the group over how to […]

At first glance, today’s Wall Street Journal piece on teachers donating vast sums of money to outside political groups hardly comes as a surprise. Unions in both the public and private sectors are well known for organizing and donating money to favored candidates and political groups.Yet some of these donations appear to go beyond what […]