Reading Ballot Initiatives—Fixing Errors
Perhaps the worst of the many bad things about the California method of direct democracy is that inflexibility is the default. We’re the only place in the known universe where a law passed by the voters can’t be altered or fixed without another vote of the people. The good news is that some initiative sponsors […]
Handle Your Presidential Debates With Care
(Editor’s Note: This essay is part of U.S. Presidential Elections Have Always Been Crazy, an Inquiry produced for What It Means to Be American, a partnership of the Smithsonian’sNational Museum of American History and Zócalo Public Square. A shorter version of this article appeared previously in Fox and Hounds). Today, presidential debates between candidates are considered fixtures of our political […]
Correctional Reforms Report is Encouraging
The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) report,“California’s Historic Corrections Reforms,” reveals that recent historic correctional reforms have reduced incarceration levels of low-level offenders without broadly increasing crime rates. That was a goal of Proposition 47 and we now see evidence that the goal is being achieved. Every Californian has a fundamental right to be safe […]
More Business Leaves California
(Editor’s Note: Senator Gaines issued the following statement on the closure of the Verizon customer service center in Rancho Cordova and the 1,000 jobs lost as a result of that closure.) Who can be surprised by this? California is doing everything it can to drive businesses out of the state. Sky-high workers compensation costs, painful energy […]