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.
“Grace and Frankie” and Growing Old in California’s Job Market
As we note from time to time on Fox & Hounds, popular culture often can help us think about employment issues, shedding light on emerging job market dynamics and spurring discussion.
Grace and Frankie is the Netflix comedy-drama series, launched in May 2015, that released its second season of 13 episodes last month. Lily Tomlin (Frankie) and Jane Fonda (Grace) are seventy-something old acquaintances who come to live together after their husbands announce that they have been lovers for years and leave to marry. (more…)
Diablo Canyon is Not the Devil
Smack dab in the middle of a record-setting heat wave and threats of rolling blackouts, Pacific Gas and Electric announced it will close the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in nine years. Just like that, 10 percent of the state’s energy supply will be gone. Coupled with the closure of San Onofre, California will be nuclear-free, having lost 20 percent of its electricity supply, not counting the additional lost energy from coal and other sources by way of state mandates.
What is happening to our supply of electricity is similar to what has already happened to our water supplies; squandered resources resulting in rationing to consumers. Of course, consumers aren’t told that supplies are being rationed; instead they have been brainwashed into believing they are conserving scarce resources. The truth is California is not suffering from a water crisis due to drought any more than we will be suffering power outages due to heat waves. Our water and energy crisis is the result of policies and regulations that serve to diminish our capacity to meet our daily needs. (more…)
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 down to pose a new and urgent question: How can South Los Angeles save us?
South L.A. is no longer a place apart. Today, it sits in the center of the California story, embodying some of our greatest possibilities, and our greatest struggles. And in a particularly nasty and anxious time in the United States, when pessimism and angry nonsense spread faster than Western wildfires, the South L.A. of 2016 offers a tough-minded but optimistic narrative of just how much can be achieved through determined, steady improvements. (more…)
State Budget: Good Progress, but Transportation Void is Obvious
Last week Governor Brown signed a $171 billion California budget for the fiscal year that began on July 1 and the legislature adjourned for summer recess. The budget included major wins for the Chamber’s cradle-to-career education priorities to prepare California’s 21st century workforce. They included:
- Multi-year investment of $500 million by 2020, which will create 9,000 new preschool slots, increase reimbursement rates for early childhood education providers and fund the successful Transitional Kindergarten program.
- $200 million for the Strong Workforce Program, which will enable community colleges to expand access to career technical education.
- Additional funding to address teacher shortages, education of foster youths and the formerly incarcerated, and low-income students seeking admission to California State University and University of California.
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 description of the candidate that reformers want to help, and that public financing would assist. A person from outside the political process, who is opposed by most traditional lobbies and parties. Trump can’t raise money from the usual folks, and he either can’t help himself (or isn’t nearly as rich as he claims or won’t). The reformers want such candidates to have the aid of a public financing system. (more…)
Covered California Is No Model for Obamacare Reform
With the recent announcement of UnitedHealth Care’s abandoning Covered California and most other Obamacare exchanges around the country, its beneficiaries will have fewer plans to choose from in 2017. We can expect this shrinking number of health plans to take advantage of market power to increase premiums. Obamacare’s supporters believe the solution is to give state-based exchanges the power to act as “active purchasers” limiting consumers’ choices like Covered California does today.
Under Obamacare, consolidation is widespread. Hospital mergers increased 44 percent from 2010 to 2014. As for physicians, Marcus Welby, MD is an artifact of history. In 2014, 39 percent of physicians worked in practices with at least eleven physicians, versus fewer than one quarter three decades ago. The five largest national health insurers are merging into three, assuming the federal Department of Justice approves the consolidations. (more…)