Public Policy Institute of California

Cigarette Tax Proposal Gets Smoked

When we last checked in nearly three weeks ago, supporters and opponents of Proposition 29, which would increase a cigarette tax by $1 per pack, were probably tempted to chain smoke away the nerves from too-close-to-call election results. Now you can dump those ash trays, because the ballot initia ... More >>

Proposition 29 Results Are Close Enough to Make You Want to Chain Smoke

It's all gotta be part of Big Tobacco's plan. Tobacco companies pumped more than $46 million into the campaign against Proposition 29, which would increase the tax on cigarette packs by $1.Perhaps they could have donated more money. Instead, they might have struck the exact minimum amount necessary ... More >>

Prop. 29 Losing Voter Support, Though Cigarette Tax Remains Popular

What can you get for $42 million? A penthouse apartment at the top of the St. Regis. Six years of Adonal Foyle. Roy Lichtenstein's peephole painting. Also, a 14 percent drop in support for Proposition 29, which would raise the cigarette tax and fund cancer research. In March, a poll by the Publi ... More >>

Santorum Gaining Ground Among California GOP Voters

​Mitt Romney, the leading contender for the GOP presidential nomination, has to watch his back among voters in California's Republican primary, according to a new poll.The poll from the Public Policy Institute of California shows that U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum is surging here, and is closing the dis ... More >>

Majority of San Francisco's Illegal Immigrants Live in the Mission District

Missionites: up to 15 percent of your neighbors are undocumented.​San Francisco's highest concentration of illegal immigrants lives in the city's Mission District -- a zip code of day laborers, black-market hot dog vendors, and fake document peddlers.The Public Policy Institute of California relea ... More >>

Leno Says He'll Have Measure on Ballot to Kill 2/3 Threshold for State Budget Votes By 2010

Sen. Mark LenoMark Leno just told SF Weekly he's slept two hours out of the past 48 and he may or may not be hallucinating. He's tired, he's angry, and he's about to cash in some of his political connections and kick start a fund-raising drive to ensure it never happens again. The San Francisco Stat ... More >>

November ballot measures promise eco-confusion

Noir You See It, Noir You Don't

Naming one of the masterminds of the SFO Enterprises scandal as a "watchdog" over billions in public investment: city government or pulp fiction?

Dim Bulbs

Greedy out-of-state profiteers make easy targets, but the real villains of California's energy debacle are the ones under the state capitol dome.

Full Court Fathers

They're young, poor, unmarried fathers -- but don't call them deadbeat dads. They want to be part of their kids' lives, and Oakland's Midnight Basketball League is helping them do it.