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.
Oracle’s Marriott
Checking in on my grandmother early one morning last week in San Mateo, I picked up the local paper to read the news: Oracle had bought the local Marriott hotel. If you spend time on Bay Area roads, you’ve driven by it, near the intersection of the 101 and the 92.
Ho-hum news, until a column in the San Francisco Chronicle revealed the reason: Oracle needs the hotel because it can’t find space to train new employees.
That’s right—one of America’s richest companies, in America’s richest region, can’t find space to train its employees. What better example of California’s total failure to build housing, facilities and all kinds of infrastructure to keep up with its growth? (more…)
CA National Guard Should Keep Bonuses
It is disgraceful that the men and women who answered their country’s call to duty following September 11 are now facing forced repayments of bonuses offered to them. Our military heroes should not shoulder the burden of military recruiters’ faults from over a decade ago. They should not owe for what was promised during a difficult time in our country. (more…)
Are Bonds Free?
Voters in California have hundreds of local bonds to consider in this election but I suspect many voters don’t understand how the bonds are funded. They won’t find out by reading ballot summaries.
I can’t speak for all the bond summaries throughout the state, but I looked over the 24 bonds on Los Angeles County ballots on the County’s webpage and not once did I read that the bonds are paid for by an increase in property taxes. Do you think that simple statement might change the results of bond elections?
In the private sector, the Federal Trade Commission enforces truth in advertising laws. We could use some truth in ballot information in the public sector, too.
Practically all the summaries dealing with the bonds funding homelessness issues or school repairs tell the voters that the millions of dollars in bonds would be acquired at the legal rates. The bond summaries say what the bonds will be used for. Sometimes a bond summary mentions a citizens oversight committee or periodical audits or that the money cannot be used for salaries or pensions. (more…)
Prop 67 Should Be Prop 51
The long statewide ballot, with 17 different measures, demonstrates many things wrong with California-style direct democracy.
Here’s another one: we put referenda last, when they should be first.
The terms referendum and initiative are often used interchangeably, especially by out-of-state media (yes, I’m looking at you, Washington Post). But they are different. A referendum is a public vote on a law passed by the legislature. It has gone through a process of hearings and review, and deserves more respect than an initiative, which is a proposed law or constitutional amendment that is drafted privately and outside the legislative process.
Since referenda are different, they should be placed separately on the ballot. Instead, they are by rule listed along with initiatives – and they come last. That’s why the referendum among the 17 measures, on the state’s ban on single-use plastic bags, comes last, at Prop 67. (more…)
Goodbye Payphones, Hello Progress
If Clark Kent wanted to turn into Superman in California today, he’d struggle to find a phone booth. Across the entire state there are only 27,000 payphones left, down 70% from 2007.
It’s no big surprise that the payphone is going the way of the dodo bird. According to the Pew Research Center 92% of American adults own cellphones. If you’re desperate to make a call and find yourself with a dead battery, chances are good you’re going to ask a friendly stranger to borrow their cell phone before you’re going to search out a payphone.
Late last month, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law that acknowledges the demise of the payphone. SB 1055 puts an end to the Payphone Services Committee and the Payphone Service Providers Committee Fund which was being used to, among other things, “fund programs to … educate consumers on matters related to payphones.”
Let that sink in for a second. As a state, until a few weeks ago, we were still spending money to educate people about payphones — something the vast majority of citizens don’t want or need. (more…)
The New War Between the States
In this disgusting election, dominated by the personal and the petty, the importance of the nation’s economic geography has been widely ignored. Yet if you look at the Electoral College map, the correlation between politics and economics is quite stark, with one economy tilting decisively toward Trump and more generally to Republicans, the other toward Hillary Clinton and her Democratic allies.
This reflects an increasingly stark conflict between two very different American economies. One, the “Ephemeral Zone” concentrated on the coasts, runs largely on digits and images, the movement of software, media and financial transactions. It produces increasingly little in the way of food, fiber, energy and fewer and fewer manufactured goods. The Ephemeral sectors dominate ultra-blue states such as New York, California, Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Connecticut.
The other America constitutes, as economic historian Michael Lind notes in a forthcoming paper for the Center for Opportunity Urbanism, the “New Heartland.” Extending from the Appalachians to the Rockies, this heartland economy relies on tangible goods production. It now encompasses both the traditional Midwest manufacturing regions, and the new industrial areas of Texas, the Southeast and the Intermountain West. (more…)