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 […]
Do All Californians Need to Take an Oath Before They Vote on Ballot Initiatives?
It’s a fair question. Indeed, it’s a question raised this week by none other than the Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts. Roberts was writing in dissent to the court’s 5-4 decision that the redistricting commission in Arizona (and presumably a similar commission in California) was constitutional. The case turned on what the […]
Who Should Immigration Be Helping?
Recent revelations about the firing of American tech workers and their replacement by temporary visa holders reveal, in the starkest way, why many Americans are wary of the impact of untrammeled immigration. Workers in American companies have been removed from their jobs not because they could not perform them, but because their replacements, largely from […]
California’s Growing Publishing Industry
Is the printed word becoming as old-fashioned a way to tell stories as carving figures into totem poles? If you attended the American Library Association Convention at Moscone Center last week you would know that books are not only alive and well, but beloved my many, including the over 22,000 librarians, library workers and library […]