A Republican in Santa Monica: Is Top Two an Antidote to “Rational Ignorance”?
My good friend, Joe Mathews, has thrown a couple gauntlets at my feet (here and here) regarding my support of the Top Two. In one piece, he cites the results of Oregon’s Citizens’ Initiative Review (some form of which I’d like to see here), and in a second, he indicates that Neel Kashkari’s campaign for […]
Everyone Was For The Free Speech Movement—For Awhile
It was autumn 1964 in Berkeley, in a small apartment just a few blocks from Sproul Hall, when I found myself interviewing Mario Savio, the embattled leader of the Free Speech Movement. I was editor in chief of the Stanford Daily and sent staff reporters to Berkeley almost every day for months. This was […]
Bankruptcy Judge: CalPERS Pensions Can Be Cut
A federal judge ruled yesterday that CalPERS pensions can be cut in bankruptcy like other debt. He rejected the argument that the giant system is an “arm of the state” with pensions protected by federal law and two state laws on contracts and liens. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein, who has called the issue of […]
Mr. President, Please Stop Visiting California
Bad news: President Obama is coming to California again. Mr. President, I realize such a statement may seem jarring to you and your strongest supporters. After all, our state (and this columnist) voted for you twice, and you and California are a near-perfect match on the issues. Heck, when you were first running for president, […]
Surprising Follow-up to my Washington Post Article (It’s not about California Politics)
No California politics or business today. Rather this is the story of what happened after the Washington Post put up my article last week about my family’s travels almost two decades ago to a place in Luxembourg where my father saw action during World War II. The article, which I wrote for a Smithsonian and […]