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Evan Halper of the Los Angeles Times wrote an article highlighting the conservative support for Silicon Valley tech companies.

Creativity and hard work also describe conservatives’ efforts to make inroads with the Bay Area’s innovation economy. Republicans, after musing about the possibility for more than a decade, have finally found a footing in Silicon Valley, ingratiating themselves with tech entrepreneurs who had long eschewed politics in general, conservative politics in particular.

Americans for Tax Reform director of budget and regulatory policy, Mattie Duppler, wrote an op-ed for Inside Sources detailing the intrinsic issues with new regulations proposed by the Department of Education.

The Department of Education’s rule would judge whether an institution can qualify for federal aid by mandating an average rate of repayment of student loans as measured against graduates’ income. Rather than applying to all higher learning, however, the regulation would apply primarily to private sector institutions. Non-degree, vocational programs at community colleges and other public institutions would be excluded, but not career-oriented degree programs at for-profit colleges.

The short-sightedness of such a metric is obvious; this arbitrary ratio may reflect bureaucrats’ prejudices, but not the quality and value of the education offered at schools. This will force private, career-focused institutions to evaluate potential students on their ability to pay back their loans, not on their needs or ability to succeed in their coursework. Thus, the rule unfairly targets populations who require assistance the most, further pushing higher education out of reach for undeserved communities.

The Los Angeles Register ran an op-ed by Matt Patterson, executive director of the Center for Worker Freedom, in which he detailed the continued fight of California farm workers against the state’s oppressive Agricultural Labor Relations Board.

The workers, led by Silvia Lopez, a 15-year Gerawan employee (where she has worked alongside her daughters and parents) said No. They said you don’t deserve our money. They said we don’t need anyone to speak for us. They said to the union, We don’t need you.

The only legal way to get rid of a union under state agriculture labor law is decertification. So Silvia gathered signatures from her co-workers.

The California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, the state agency that oversees these matters, told her she didn’t have enough names. So she went back and collected more. At last the board relented and agreed to a decertification election; voting took place last November.

But those ballots have not been counted. They sit in a safe in some bureaucrat’s office.