Content warning: This article contains information about child sexual abuse. Reader discretion is advised. Report child sexual abuse to local law enforcement and contact the DCFS 24/7 hotline: 855-323-3237. For more information, visit dcfs.utah.gov.
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Biden's rent-control plan will only make America’s housing crisis worse
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President Joe Biden is suggesting that a federal limit on annual rent increases in residential units will ease housing costs. This is what happens when economist Milton Friedman isn’t “running the show”: Policymakers follow ideas that make the problem they say they’re solving infinitely worse.
“While the prior administration gave special tax breaks to corporate landlords, I’m working to lower housing costs for families,” Biden said Tuesday. He urged congressional Republicans to “join Democrats to pass my plan to lower housing costs for Americans,” in which corporate owners would have “a choice to either cap rent increases on existing units at 5% or risk losing current valuable federal tax breaks.”
If he had only looked west, he would have seen the damage caused by rent-control policies in California.
BIDEN UNVEILS PLAN TO CAP NATIONAL RENT INCREASES AT 5%
California is one of the most rent-controlled states in the country. Even though more than a dozen cities have some type of law that limits how much owners can increase rental rates, it is going through a resurgence of anti-landlord rules, which is sure to spike even higher if voters approve a measure on the November ballot that repeals state limits on rent control.
President Joe Biden proposed national rent control, which has already failed locally, especially in California. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
While common sense tells us that rent control laws are counterproductive, it’s clear that lawmakers often miss the obvious. For those, and for the activists who believe rent ceilings are beneficial, we have data.
For instance, a 2019 study by the American Economic Association found that San Francisco landlords “treated by rent control” reduced “rental housing supplies by 15% by selling to owner-occupants and redeveloping buildings,” which “likely drove up market rents in the long run, ultimately undermining the goals of” the city’s 1994 ballot initiative.
The authors noted that “a substantial body of economic research has warned about potential negative efficiency consequences of limiting rent increases below market rates.” Those consequences include the “overconsumption of housing by tenants of rent-controlled apartments”; the misallocation of housing; “negative spillovers onto neighboring housing” that lower “the amenity value of these neighborhoods and mak(e) them less desirable places to live”; and “neglect of required maintenance” – because who’s going to pour money into an asset when the law cuts into the return on that investment?
Rent control in Berkeley in the late 1970s created a large-scale dislocation because “a large number of University of California-Berkeley students simply stayed in their apartments long after graduation,” says economics professor William L. Anderson. The result was a “massive shortage of housing for new students, who then had to look for housing in nearby cities like Oakland.”
A two-decade study by California State University, Sacramento and the Sacramento Regional Research Institute discovered that rent control laws in Berkeley and Santa Monica reduced the supply of rental housing by nearly 7.5% in the former and more than 8.7% in the latter.
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Over that period, the number of college-age students living in Berkeley fell by almost 11%, while in Santa Monica, “formerly a haven for UCLA students,” the college-age student population dropped more than 50%.
In California’s biggest city, rent control has so skewed the housing market that property owners are offering tenants large sums of money, in some cases as high as six figures, as an incentive to move out. The hardship of rent control is forcing owners to make difficult decisions about their properties. Sometimes, the only options are demolishing their units and using the real estate for other purposes because they cannot afford to continue leasing their property.
While common sense tells us that rent control laws are counterproductive, it’s clear that lawmakers often miss the obvious. For those, and for the activists who believe rent ceilings are beneficial, we have data.
Even the state’s own nonpartisan fiscal and policy adviser has warned lawmakers of the negative consequences of rent control. In a 2016 report, the Legislative Analyst’s Office said rent-control laws fail to “increase the supply of housing and, in fact, likely would discourage new construction,” which is perpetually needed in California to drive housing down to more affordable prices.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden said “Milton Friedman isn’t running the show anymore,” in an interview in which he said the next federal pandemic stimulus needed to be “a hell of a lot bigger” than the $2 trillion CARES Act that had just passed.
Friedman was a brilliant economist who would have bristled at the ease in which today’s lawmakers spend other people’s money. But he never ran whatever show Biden had in mind, though he did, as economist Stephen Moore has said, have “a profound impact on major policy decisions.” Biden would be wise to follow the advice that Friedman freely gave during his life, but he instead has chosen to take California foolishness national.
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The professional rodeo season continues to heat up as we head into the spring and summer runs. Rodeos across the country drew top athletes over the recent weekend, as they vie for positions at the 2026 National Finals Rodeo (NFR).
Every dollar counts, especially as we enter the last five months of the 2026 season.
Riverdale Rodeo – Riverdale, Calif.
Bareback rider Jacob Lees earned two California victories on the weekend, scoring 81.5 points on Four Star Rodeo’s Sweet Annie in Riverdale. His 83.5-point ride on Bridwell Pro Rodeos’ Socket claimed the win in Stonyford.
Reigning Circuit Champion, Hayle Gibson-Stillwell, topped the barrel racing by two-tenths of a second with her time of 17.04 sconds.
Stonyford Rodeo – Stonyford, Calif.
California cowboy Bailey Small put together a solid weekend in his circuit, winning Stonyford with an 82.5-point ride on Bridwell Pro Rodeos’ Classy Clark. He also finished second in Riverdale.
Barrel racer Kathy Petska continues to dominate the circuit, claiming yet another spring win with a 17.50-second run.
American Royal Rodeo – Kansas City, Mo.
There are now two “Popes” to watch out for in the bareback riding — three-time NFR Average Champion and World Champion, Jess Pope, and his brother, Ty. Ty made a huge ride in Kansas City, scoring 87 points on Smith Pro Rodeos’ Broadway Boots for the win.
In 2025, Kansas cowboy Weston Patterson made his first NFR appearance and has carried that momentum into his 2026 season. Scoring 88 points on Korkow Rodeos’ Joker Poker, he claimed the saddle bronc riding win.
Pioneer Days Rodeo – Clovis, N.M.
Tie-down roper Buck Tate earned the win by over two full seconds, taking home $1,404.
Reigning Breakaway Roping World Champion Taylor Munsell claimed the $2,054 victory with a time of 1.8 seconds.
Helotes Festival Association Rodeo – Helotes, Texas
In bareback riding, Taylor Broussard matched up with Andrews Rodeo’s Empty Promises for a score of 85.5 points to earn the win.
Seven-time NFR qualifier, Isaac Diaz, topped the leaderboard with a score of 89 points on Diamond G Rodeo’s To The Limit. He earned the win in saddle bronc riding and $1,855.
PPCLA PRCA Rodeo – Mineral Wells, Texas
Sissy Winn put together a solid weekend in her circuit, topping the barrel racing in Mineral Wells and finishing fourth in Helotes.
Hailing from Winnie, Texas, Ethan Winckler made the only qualified ride in bull riding, scoring 87.5 points on Rafter G Rodeo’s Mr. Blue Sky and taking home a whopping $4,863.
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Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek responds to heightened immigration enforcement
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and state legislators spoke Jan. 24 about recent immigration enforcement happening across Oregon. Here’s what Kotek said.
Rural Organizing Project, a statewide nonprofit based in Cottage Grove, filed a lawsuit May 5 against Oregon State Police in Multnomah County Circuit Court, alleging that the agency is violating the state’s landmark sanctuary laws and sharing Oregonians’ personal data with federal immigration agents.
The nonprofit is asking the court to direct OSP not to share information with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other immigration agencies, including driver’s licenses, driver history, driver’s license photographs, vehicle registration data, Social Security numbers and law enforcement records.
ROP claims that federal immigration agencies have repeatedly accessed Oregonians’ information over the past year. They point to two systems OSP operates: the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System and the state’s Law Enforcement Data System.
The complaint said data provided to OSP by NLETS in February showed authorities involved in immigration enforcement accessed Oregonians’ data more than 1.4 million times in the preceding year. ICE alone queried Oregon for the data 176,576 times, the complaint said. Homeland Security Investigations within the Department of Homeland Security queried 21,363 times, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection and DHS accounted for the remainder, the complaint said.
Those numbers do not include all queries of Oregonians’ data, lawyers added, as ICE and HSI agents in Oregon will access the same information separately through the LEDS terminal.
The complaint says OSP has the technical capacity to block immigration enforcement agencies from both systems, but has declined to do so.
U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, and Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, along with U.S. Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Oregon, and Andrea Salinas, D-Oregon, called on states across the country to stop sharing drivers’ data with federal immigration agencies in a November 2025 letter.
Other states, such as Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New York, have stopped allowing federal agents to access their residents’ data, according to NLETS testimony to Congress in 2025, the complaint added.
The suit says NLETS provided OSP a spreadsheet listing the specific identification codes ICE uses in late 2025, after an OSP official asked how other states had blocked the agency in the system.
But in February, the complaint said, the agency indicated it would not restrict federal immigration authorities’ access to data via LETS or require federal authorities to use “Reason Codes” that would allow OSP to screen whether the query is for immigration-related purposes.
In a response sent to the Oregon Law Center on Feb. 1, replying to its tort claim notice, OSP said it had taken “reasonable steps” to improve its LEDS agreements with immigration authorities to require compliance with Oregon’s Sanctuary Law. Their letter said terminating the LEDS user agreements, which OSP signed with ICE and DHS in December 2025 and February, would prevent the federal agencies from accessing criminal justice information related to criminal investigations and other governmental purposes.
“If OSP terminated the user agreements, they could be obstructing ongoing criminal investigations,” the letter from OSP said.
OSP also said it did not have the ability to modify the NLETS system.
“Federal agents are storming into our communities, targeting people based on how they look, and disappearing our neighbors,” Martha Ortega, director of Immigrant Centers at Rural Organizing Project, said in a prepared statement. “Oregon State Police are helping them do it. When the state gives our private information to ICE, it is breaking the law and breaking Oregonians’ trust. How many families have been torn apart by Oregon State Police giving their names and photos to federal agents?”
The lawsuit cites testimony in federal court, detailed in a story by The Oregonian, where ICE agents spoke of staking out a neighborhood and randomly running vehicle license plates to find vehicle owners’ names and birthdates for the purpose of immigration enforcement.
“Oregon’s law has clearly prohibited this kind of information sharing for almost 40 years,” said Heather Marek, attorney at Oregon Law Center, which is representing the nonprofit. “Oregonians need Oregon State Police to respect the law and protect their data, immediately and permanently.”
In an email, a spokesperson for Oregon State Police said it would not be making any public comments related to the lawsuit while litigation was pending.
“OSP is committed to following Oregon Sanctuary Laws and has not taken any actions that would violate those laws,” Cpt. Kyle Kennedy added.
But, ROP said in its lawsuit that although the LEDS user agreements prohibit ICE-ERO and HSI from sharing data for immigration enforcement purposes, OSP cannot ensure compliance with the sanctuary laws nor can it reasonably assume compliance given the broader context of the current administration and activity.
More than 6,000 HSI agents have been assigned to immigration enforcement duties, for example, the lawsuit said.
“In the current political and legal context, an agreement to provide resources and information to HSI is an agreement to provide resources and information to support immigration enforcement,” the complaint said.
Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com on X @DianneLugo or Bluesky @diannelugo.bsky.social.
ST. GEORGE, Utah (ABC4) — A Utah father has been arrested for allegedly sexually abusing and raping his juvenile daughter in their home.
The 55-year-old man, who ABC4.com is not naming to protect the identity of the victim, has been arrested on 11 counts of sodomy on a child (first-degree felony), six counts of rape of a child (first-degree felony), three counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child (first-degree felony), and one count of rape of a child (first-degree felony),
According to court documents, on May 5, officers with the St. George Police Department received a Division of Child and Family Services referral regarding a sex offense. The referral claimed that the 55-year-old man was sexually abusing his juvenile daughter in their home.
The victim was taken to the Children’s Justice Center for a forensic interview. She reported that her father would perform sexual acts on her, as well as force her to perform sexual acts on him.
During an interview with police, the father admitted to sexually abusing and raping his juvenile daughter. He was then arrested and transported to the Washington County Jail where he is being held without bail.
Charges are allegations only. All arrested persons are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
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