For Small Business, Bills that are Good, Bad and Ugly
As the Legislature reconvenes this week for its final month of business for the 2015-2016 legislative session, NFIB California reflected on victories and challenges ahead per the “The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly” bill list. Bills included in this list represent those which will have the greatest impact, either negative or positive, to our […]
Meg Being Meg
One of the more humorous times I’ve enjoyed in my 41 years in journalism was Meg Whitman blowing $180 million in her 2010 run for governor against Jerry Brown. For that she got 40.9 percent of the vote, just above the 40.0 percent Neal Kashkari got in 2014 spending almost nothing. I wrote about her […]
Investing In The Incarceration Of Youth, Is No Investment At All.
I am a 50-year-old man who has spent 39 years of my life behind bars. Millions of taxpayer dollars were spent to incarcerate me in juvenile camps and the state’s prison system, where I was given a life sentence for murder. Life could have turned out differently for me, if I had the guidance and […]
Contrary Goals of the Tobacco Tax
What is the tobacco tax increase for? Is the tax proposed in Proposition 56 to reduce smoking or to gain revenue? It seems the proponents’ goal is to be all things—a deterrent to smoking by raising the cost, plus raising revenue mostly for health care. Can they really have it both ways? Raising the cost […]
Why California Needs to Reconsider Our Own Paths of Globalization
Though it has been little more than a month since its passage on June 23, Brexit already is fading in the rear mirror in American policy discussions. We should not let it disappear so easily, for it has lessons for the United States and for us in California . Brexit not only laid bare the […]
Climate Retreat? Legislature Could Ditch Plan To Radically Cut Emissions
Gov. Jerry Brown has taken the national stage to tout California’s fight against global warming, telling cheering throngs at the Democratic National Convention that the state has “the toughest climate laws in the country.” Yet inside the state Capitol, the fate of the policy’s centerpiece—legislation to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions—is in peril. One ominous […]
California’s Stressed-Out Stoners
California tokers, why are you trippin’ so hard? You keep saying that marijuana helps manage anxiety. But those of you who work in or partake of the cannabis industry sound like the most stressed-out people in California. And that leaves me wondering what’s in your bongs, especially since 2016 is supposed to be a year […]
Why is CalPERS Underperforming?
The biggest fiscal challenge facing California remains underfunded pensions. Ed Mendel’s Calpensions.com site featured a great chart showing how CalPERS’ current 75 percent level of funding has failed to repeat two previous restorations of value to above 100 percent. That article comes shortly after the fund reported its lowest gains since the Great Recession. Why […]
Xenophobia, Trump and Trumka
Donald Trump’s xenophobia is undeniable. He’s built a campaign on blaming foreigners, be they immigrants in the U.S., global refugees, or just anybody overseas. And they are blamed for everything — for trade deficits, lost jobs, terrorism and just about anything that comes to his bigoted mind. The Democrats and Democratic interest groups are rightly […]