Fox and Hounds Daily Says Goodbye
With this article, we end publication of Fox and Hounds Daily. It has been a satisfying 12½ year run. When we opened in May 2008, our site was designed to offer an opportunity to those who wished to engage in public debate on many issues, especially in politics and business, but found it difficult to get placed in newspaper op-ed pages.
Co-publishers Tom Ross, Bryan Merica and I have kept F&H going over this time investing our own time, funding, and staff help. Last year at this time we considered closing the site, however with an election on the horizon we decided to keep F&H going through the election year. With the election come and gone, and with no sense of additional resources, we have decided to close the site down.
Fox and Hounds will live on, at least, with my articles collected in the California State Library.
On a personal note, I have spent over 40 years in California policy and politics. There have been some incredible high moments and some difficult low points. It pains me that politics too often is a blood sport, frequently demonizing the motives of opponents and using the legal system as a weapon in public discourse. At Fox & Hounds, we tried to adhere to the practice of giving all a voice in the debate, yet keep the commentaries civil and avoided personal attacks.
F&H offered the opportunity to publish different perspectives (even ones that criticized my writings!). We had success as indicated by the Washington Post twice citing Fox and Hounds Daily one of the best California political websites and many other positive affirmations and comments received over the years.
Tom, Bryan and I want to thank our many readers and writers for being part of our journey. The publishers of Fox and Hounds Daily believe that we added value to California and its people. We hope you agree.
Californians’ News and Information Sources
Television loses ground as the top source of political news.
A plurality of Californians (38%) get most of their political news from television. Our findings were similar in 2010 (37%), but in 2007 this number was 9 points higher, at 47 percent. Over the same time period, reliance on the Internet for political news has increased 15 points (17% 2007, 24% 2010, 32% today). There has been a slight drop in reliance on newspapers (15% 2007 and 2010, 10% today) and radio news (12% 2007, 10% 2010, 9% today).
More than half of those who rely on TV watch cable news.
Among those who watch television news, a little less than half (48%) report watching mostly cable stations (53% 2010, 43% 2007). Across all parties, regions, and demographic groups, pluralities report watching mostly cable news. By contrast, viewership of network television has remained steady (25% 2007, 23% 2010, 21% today). Twenty-seven percent of Californians report watching local television news (29% 2007, 22% 2010, 27% today). (more…)
Beyond the Propaganda: How I’m Voting on California Propositions
California’s general election turnout is predicted to be dismal this year, with less than half of eligible voters likely to turn out. Two factors include a lack of competitive statewide races, and ballot measures that don’t inspire activism. Speaking of statewide ballot measures, voters will see six of them, and here’s my take, and how I’m voting on them.
PROPOSITION 1: THE WATER BOND – OPPOSE
Californians pay so much in taxes that the state’s budget annually is well over a hundred billion dollars. The state has more than enough revenues to just pay for above-ground water storage, which is desperately needed. Unfortunately, year after year, governors and legislatures have prioritized other spending. This massive bond package (which will cost nearly $15 billion to repay) does have some funds for water storage–but it is only a fraction of the spending. Most of the spending has nothing to do with dealing with our water-shortage crisis. A vote against Prop. 1 is a vote for telling our state’s political leaders to use existing tax dollars to solve the problem. (more…)
Who’s Winning, Who’s Losing A Week From The Election?
Voting by mail is now the rage in California; in the June primary more than 69 percent of the ballots were cast before Election Day. It is very possible that a majority of votes this November will be by mail. And thanks to Paul Mitchell and Political Data Inc, for the first time we can watch the return of absentee ballots on a daily basis.
Political Data, which maintains a complete file of every voter in the state, has put together a series of on-line charts that gives the daily return of absentee ballots, and provides their party breakdown as well as age and race. Not surprisingly, the early electorate shows a Republican bias; that is always the case; Republican absentee voters get their ballots in early.
But the Political Data charts go a step farther; they show the final vote in California and by district, so it is possible to project out the likely make up of the final electorate in a district by comparing the current absentee turnout with the final vote. And for the first time, this allows analysis a week before Election Day of the likely results when all the votes are counted. As of this weekend, more than 1.3 million ballots had been returned to the counties and processed into the Political Data database. (more…)
California’s Pivotal Water Moment
Knock on the door of almost any home in California, and the odds are you’ll be greeted by someone who is feeling, or at least seeing, the effects of this historic drought.
The signs are visible all around us – fields have been left fallow, once green lawns are brown and brittle, we’re being asked to conserve. What’s sometimes more difficult to see are the opportunities this drought actually affords us.
For one, communities up and down the state are coming together to address their water management challenges head on. They’re working to sustainably manage groundwater basins and are considering the benefits of regional water management solutions. They’re implementing projects with the potential to yield multiple benefits for cities, farms and the environment rather than just a single purpose. They’re interested in a more integrated and effective management approach that will not only get them over this hump, but prove sustainable long into the future. (more…)
CARB Members Do the Right Thing—Listen to the People about the Hidden Gas Tax
Last week, I was proud to deliver 115,000 signed petitions on behalf of my fellow Californians on the controversial “fuels under the cap” regulation at the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) Diamond Bar board meeting.
I was joined by dozens of community and educational leaders, elected officials, business organizations and concerned drivers as we gathered outside the California Air Resources Board (CARB) meeting in Diamond Bar to urge the Board to listen to the voices of its constituents and delay its regulation scheduled to take effect next January. Along with the petitions to CARB, our group urged the Board to place its contentious “fuels under the cap” regulation on a public meeting agenda to provide an opportunity for the public to be informed and heard on the negative impacts of higher fuel prices of 16 to 76 cents per gallon come January. (more…)
De Leon ‘Green Jobs’ Vow Didn’t Pan Out For Obama, Brown
New Senate President Kevin De Leon’s announcement Friday that creating a broad swath of “green jobs” would be a priority will be greeted with applause by greens in West L.A. and the Bay Area and on campus, but it will elicit disbelief among economists. Nearly a decade ago, the respected McKinsey consulting group said there was no reason to believe that green jobs would ever be more than a niche in the U.S. economy, and nothing has come along to undercut its analysis.
On the campaign trail in 2008, Barack Obama promised to create 5 million green jobs across the nation. Depending on how you define green jobs, he either did incredibly badly on this front — helping to create less than 3,000 jobs — or quite badly — adding about 700,000 jobs after the passage of the 2009 stimulus.
But there’s a gigantic problem with the latter estimate: It counts all mass-transit and construction jobs as being green because the industries follow green principles. So bus drivers and ditch diggers are green employees. (more…)