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.
California Chronic Disease Patients Need Common-Sense Insurance Reform
For patients living with a chronic disease such as lupus, barriers that prevent patients from accessing the care they need can mean weeks or months of unnecessarily living with painful and serious symptoms.
One such barrier is insurance “step therapy,” which can require patients to try cheaper, often older and inferior medications before their insurer will cover medication originally prescribed by the patient’s physician.
For someone living with lupus, it can take many months for a person to find the right combination of drugs to help with the many problems that the condition causes in the body.In a patient diagnosed with lupus, the immune system fails to function normally. Instead of acting against harmful agents, it produces autoantibodies that affect the normal body cells. This autoimmune response causes inflammation and damage to the skin, joints, blood cells, lungs, heart, and kidneys. (more…)
Do Costs Matter When Climate Change Policies are Being Considered?
Regardless of differences in opinion about approaches to combatting climate change, California decided in 2006 that the state would have a comprehensive greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction program. Now, nine years later, the AB 32 programs are beginning to take effect and having a financial impact. That impact is being felt by consumers in their electricity bills and there are strong indications that other cost increases will be coming soon.
The unexpected magnitude of the costs, coupled with the uncertainty about future economic impacts, demand greater evaluation of the costs that will be associated with any new climate change proposals (SB 350, SB 32, and the California Air Resources Board Scoping Plan). This is hardly a revolutionary approach – in fact, cost analysis is an approach the state should prioritize for all new policies – but proponents of new climate change proposals seem surprisingly blasé about their need. (more…)
Del Beccaro Wins on Books
He doesn’t have much of a chance of winning in next year’s U.S. Senate elections. But if former California GOP chair Tom Del Beccaro can somehow make the 2016 contest a referendum on the quality of the candidates’ books, he could make it a race.
I recently sat down to read – out of duty, and decidedly not for pleasure – the books written by Senate candidates, because I never had. And for the leading candidates, the books didn’t disappoint.
Attorney General Kamala Harris’ book, Smart on Crime, is a lot like her – intelligent, direct, wonky and more than a little opaque. The book is six years old, and on some policy particulars, it reads ahead of its time, since it argues for smarter law enforcement interventions that are less likely to cause harm to citizens (and to trust in police and prosecutors). (more…)
Pirates at the Port (of Los Angeles)
The growth of the Port of Los Angeles and its ability to maintain and create good paying jobs and its market share of imported cargo are under siege by external market forces as well as the demand by the San Pedro and Wilmington communities to finance $400 million of public benefits over the next ten years.
The Harbor Department, one of the City’s three proprietary departments, is responsible for the operation of the Port of Los Angeles, the largest port in the county. Last year, the Port handled over 8 million containers and, along with the Port of Long Beach, controlled over 70% of the West Coast market.
Together with the Ports of Oakland and Seattle-Tacoma, the West Coast ports handle about 65% of the imports from East Asia. (more…)
San Francisco: Sanctuary City for Whom?
Did San Francisco’s sanctuary city ordinance contribute to the senseless shooting death of Kathryn Steinle, 32, as she was out for an evening stroll on Pier 14 last week?
This is a national story, because the federal government released accused shooter Francisco Sanchez to a San Francisco jail in March and the jail released Sanchez to the streets April 15 after the district attorney dropped a 20-year-old charge for marijuana possession. Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi said he did so in keeping with San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy.
Sanchez, 45, told KGO-TV’s Cornell Barnard that he did shoot Steinle: It was an accident. Sanchez had been convicted of seven felonies, four drug-related, and deported to his native Mexico five times. He clearly believed he could break immigration and drug laws with impunity, and did. (more…)
GOP a Player Again in Special Sessions
Jerry Brown made the Republican legislators relevant again. Brown’s call for special sessions for transportation and Medi-Cal funding invariably brings talk about possible tax increases. With a two-thirds vote needed to raise taxes, and the Democratic majority shy of the super two-thirds mark, Republicans must be part of the conversation.
Despite their best efforts offering innovative approaches to some of California’s difficult problems during the legislative session, the Democrats on major bills and the budget that needed simple majority approval mostly have sidelined Republicans. But that will not be the case when revenue solutions are sought and debated during the special sessions. (more…)