South L.A. Doesn’t Need Saving
“How can we save South Los Angeles?” is a tired question. It’s an artifact of previous decades when the region formerly called South Central was known for crime, gangs, poverty, racial conflict, and the 1992 riots, the deadliest American urban uprising since the Civil War. So let’s retire the old query, and turn it upside […]
Campaign Finance Reformers Would Help Trump
If Donald Trump can’t kill the discredited cause of campaign finance reform, nothing will. Because the view of reformers – including those pushing reforms and an advisory ballot measure in California – adds up to this: they think a candidate like Donald Trump should be receiving tax dollars to fund his campaign. Trump fits the […]
There’s Nothing Wrong With Sending Aides to Switzerland
UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi deserved to be fired. I was among the legions who urged that step be taken, right here in this space. She made more mistakes than I could list here. And UC had enough problems in Sacramento without the public relations disaster Katehi created. But one recent attack on Katehi went […]
Newsom Is Running Harder Than Sanchez
Has Loretta Sanchez given up? Given how much ground the U.S. Senate candidate has to make up on Attorney General Kamala Harris, what on earth was Rep. Sanchez doing visiting Spain on a recent trade mission? There will be plenty of time to visit that fascinating (and even more stalemated than the U.S.) country after […]
California’s Finest 4th of July, in San Diego
My fellow Californians, declare your independence. Skip your community’s local parade and fireworks show. And head to San Diego, where the truth will be self-evident: No place in California celebrates the Fourth of July half as well as San Diego. In saying this, I mean no offense to the patriotic pageantry of Petaluma or Paso […]
Why the House Sit-In Was a Victory for California Democrats
Sure, the sit-in in the House of Representatives didn’t deliver the vote on gun control legislation that was the stated purpose of the demonstration. But that’s a very narrow way of looking at the results of the sit-in. Indeed, Democrats ought to call the demonstration a victory for one reason alone: No one broke a […]
California’s Homeless Moment
How did homelessness suddenly become such a hot issue across California? There are many reasons, few of which have anything to do with people who are homeless. Those reasons—economic anxiety, budget surpluses, tax schemes, housing prices, prison reform, health care expansion, urban wealth and political opportunism—have combined to create today’s “homeless moment” in California. For […]
I Know I Can Keep That November Ballot Straight
I’m a conscientious California voter, and I take seriously my responsibility to vote on all the ballot initiatives and other measures that people far richer and more powerful than me say are really important. The first step in fulfilling my civic duty is to know what the measures are, to study them. Everyone tells me […]
The Budget Has Not Been Passed
The California media keeps getting it wrong. The state legislature hasn’t passed a budget. And the governor hasn’t made it law. It’s not because they don’t want to do those things. It’s because they can’t. Not in California. Yes, the legislature approved a document called a budget, and Gov. Brown signed it. But that is […]
Progress – A Solid State Portal
I wrote recently about the bad habit of California candidates and officials of all types promising “one-stop shops” for various government services. No effective one-stop shops ever get created, of course. The one-stop shop promise is a way of trying to reconcile the irreconcilable. As in: yes, we’ve created myriad regulations that don’t fit together—so […]