Environmentalists & Jerry Brown Share Responsibility for California’s Water Crisis
There is an old saying in the West that goes like this. “Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting.” While the real author of that quote has been in doubt for many years, the truth of that statement has never been in doubt. Westerners have been fighting over this dwindling resource since the […]
I Weep for Northern California
It is hard, just hard – forgive me, I’m struggling to keep it together here – when one sees injustice. It’s doubly hard when a whole class of people suffer a loss of democracy, the extinguishing of their voice, because of where they live. The people of the Bay Area, I have now been informed, […]
New Taxes Would Damage California’s Recovery
With many families and small businesses still struggling to make ends meet, Gov. Jerry Brown’s call for fiscal restraint with the state’s 2014 fiscal year budget came as welcome news. Following years of budget deficits, California taxpayers have reason to be encouraged that the state will finally live within its means and begin to put […]
Forming a Bipartisan Consensus for Public Sector Union Reform
Across the United States there is an escalating political conflict over the role of labor unions in society. But it is inaccurate to characterize this conflict as one between Republicans and Democrats. There are members of both major political parties, as well as independents of widely diverse ideologies, who are concerned about civil liberties, the […]
California’s Bullet Train Hobbled by Fresh Legal, Fiscal and Political Uncertainties
Barely recovered from the damaging effects of the Sacramento Court ruling denying the California High Speed Rail Authority access to Prop 1A bond funding, the bullet train project has had to face fresh challenges. First came the news that Congress has zeroed out any funds for high speed rail in the FY 2014 omnibus appropriation bill, […]