The Arizona Law, the LAUSD and a School Tax
Will the roiling debate over the Arizona immigration law produce an unintended consequence of sinking a Los Angeles school tax proposal?
In response to the Arizona law, the Los Angeles Unified School District voted unanimously to condemn the Arizona law. At the same time, the school board ordered that the Arizona immigration law be taught in the classroom.
While LAUSD Superintendant, Ramon Cortinez, said the classroom instruction would present both sides of the controversy, citing an LAUSD spokesperson, the L.A. Times said, "The issue would, in essence, be dealt with in a manner similar to the way other broadly accepted episodes of racial and cultural intolerance and discrimination are discussed."
Voter Initiatives Promise Real Choices in November
For all the
handwringing about the initiative process, this November will certainly
confirm its intent as a balancing mechanism to the California
Legislature. From the left and the right, from business and labor and
citizens, measures are being placed on the ballot that specifically
address failure by the Legislature.
Voters will have a meaty ballot in
November, with real choices not just among candidates but also among
ballot measures. (The hyperlinked numbers refer to the Attorney
General’s identification system.)
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09-0024.Changes California law to legalize marijuana and allow it to be regulated and taxed.
A Prop 15 For Ballot Measures?
Prop 15 opens the door to public campaign financing by setting up an experiment with the Secretary of State’s office in the next two statewide elections.
That’s intriguing, but not the place where public finance might be most useful. (There haven’t been a lot of secretaries of state buying the office). No, where California needs public finance most is in ballot measure elections.
Prop 16, which is wonderful because it serves as a good example for so many things that plague California, is instructive here as well. Its sole corporate backer is spending $40 million – plus to support the measure. The no campaign will spend peanuts. That’s not a fair fight.
Why Open Primaries Is A Vote for the People
The truth is often only told in politics once a politician has given up
all hopes of winning the White House or stepped away-voluntarily but
especially involuntarily-from public life. Pre-2008 John McCain and
then Senate President pro Tem John Burton were notable exceptions but
former San Francisco Mayor and California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown proved this rule recently during a Pat Brown Institute awards acceptance speech:
"We don’t have people who actually sought elections; went
door-to-door, rang the doorbells, presented their case-made their case,
suggested solutions to problems, and allowed for debate on those
proposed solutions. What we have are people who are just skilled at
getting elected-they are not skilled at serving."
If there is a reformist Poseidon among us to protect from the beast of
partisanship, then surely his or her three-pronged trident includes
modifying term limits, implementing redistricting reform and voting for
open primaries. Let us invoke the spirit of that mythological civic
God of Athens at the polls this Tuesday and reshape our body politic.
If the U.S. Economy Added 431,000 jobs in May, why are only 41,000 in the Private Sector?
Today, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the addition of new jobs "at the fastest pace in a decade" with "the largest gain since March 2000".
The reality is that the May jobs figure was only boosted by hiring 411,000 temporary public sector government workers for the 10-year count of the U.S. population by the U.S. Census Bureau. The private sector added only 41,000 jobs.
From 2002 to 2006, I served as the U.S. Labor Department’s Regional Representative for California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and Guam, and learned a lot about labor laws and high growth sectors of the economy in our state as well as our neighbors.