We Will Never Forget – 9/11/2001
Look Behind the Curtain on Certain Bills
Despite rhetoric on policy, there is often a more strident, hidden agenda behind a number of bills that are vying for passage the last week of the session. Take two examples: AB 484 to change school testing and AB 711, a statewide ban on lead bullets. The school bill would eliminate the test used to […]
What Should We Name That Bridge?
Controversy swirls about the possibility of naming the western span of the new Bay Bridge for former San Francisco Mayor and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. As an admirer of Brown and his political skills, I understand why his fans want it – but wonder if they shouldn’t be wary. Given all the cost overruns and […]
State’s Leaders Facing Problems, Not Kicking the Can
The Amazing Carnac he isn’t. When trying to forecast the state’s fiscal situation in 2016 in a recent Fox&Hounds column, Joe Mathews made one prediction we can all agree on: the taxes raised from Proposition 30 fade away in 2016. But his “the sky is falling” projections about what will happen with the state’s economy […]
Americans’ Family Feud
In this bizarrely politicized environment, even the preservation of the most basic institution of society – the family – is morphing into a divisive partisan issue. Increasingly, the two parties are divided not only along lines of economic and social philosophy, but over the primacy of traditional familialism. Increasingly, large portions of the progressive community […]