Two weeks ago – a week that was one of the worst in recent American history, the small town of West, Texas – about 20 miles north of Waco, was devastated when a fertilizer plant exploded – killing 15, wounding dozens and flattening buildings in the surrounding area. In response, last week The Sacramento Bee [...]

Yesterday the New York Times reported that the Monterey Shale, in California’s Central Valley, may be sitting on as much as 14.5 billion barrels of oil. Previously unreachable, modern ‘fracking’ technology has now put them within reach. As we’ve seen in states like North Dakota, with its Bakken Shale, fracking can bring an immediate boom [...]

Following House passage of the Fiscal Band-Aid, President Obama was clear that he does not want a repeat of the past seven weeks’ drama. That may be true, but the bill he signed does exactly that both in the near-term (March) and the longer-term (December 31, 2013). It now appears that the country’s finances will [...]