Daily Business Report: Thursday, March 27th, 2025
European Vacations for CA Insurance Commish Ricardo Lara as Insurance Carriers Were Pulling Out of California
By Katy Grimes | The California Globe
At least 7 of the largest insurance carriers have pulled out of California entirely or are restricting policies. And California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has largely been a ghost, avoiding media and oversight from the Legislature. It appears that is because he is a very busy globetrotter – Lara traveled to 15 different countries paid for by California’s taxpayers, according to KGO/ABC7.
While California homeowners have been getting hit with massive spikes in insurance premiums, or getting notices that their insurance is cancelled altogether, leaving only double or triple rate increases in the government’s last-resort FAIR insurance plan, Lara traveled to grand places.
New Study: ‘California’s High Gas Prices and Supply Dilemmas are Self-Inflicted’
By Katy Grimes | The California Globe
A new study by USC Professor Michael Mische found that the factors which have contributed to California’s high gasoline prices over 50-years are self-imposed by state officials and politicians. It turns out that California is its own worst enemy.
Today, I paid $5.15 per gallon of gas in Sacramento, while the AAA national average is $3.078. In Texas today, a gallon of gas will cost you $2.45 to $3.29 – the average in Texas is $2.68. As Professor Mische notes in his study, “Since January 1995 through January 20, 2025, Californians have been paying, on average, 13.1% more for their gasoline than the rest of the nation. Not surprisingly, the average price of retail gasoline in California on March 11, 2025, was $4.694 a gallon, or 52.35% higher per gallon for all formulations than the national average price for gasoline at $3.081, according to AAA.”
It is no secret that California is its own worst enemy. There have been articles exposing this for decades, and now we have 50 years of irrefutable data thanks to Professor Mische. Oil and gas and California refiners “have not engaged in widespread price gouging, profiteering, price manipulation, ‘unexplained residual prices’ or surcharges, magical or otherwise.”
Sue or hold back? The University of California does both as it faces Trump’s wrath
BY MIKHAIL ZINSHTEYN | CalMatters
The University of California is threading a delicate needle as it navigates the Trump administration’s intensifying scrutiny of how universities operate.
On one front, the UC is fighting President Donald Trump’s proposed cuts to campus research funding by joining lawsuits against the administration. On other matters, the university has taken a more muted approach, posting online missives in support of diversity and students in the country without legal authorization, but seemingly unwilling to rankle a White House that is targeting campus policies and practices.
Trump’s second stint in office may emerge as UC’s greatest challenge to how it operates, echoing the system’s battles in the 1960s with then-Gov. Ronald Reagan. He sought to rein in UC’s state funding and criticized the system for being too lax with students protesting the Vietnam War.
