Despite Budget Action, Much Work Remains to Solve State’s Pension Crisis
Anyone worried about an earthquake plunging California into the sea should be more concerned about what is really sinking the state: the cost of public-employee pensions. In the just-enacted 2017-18 state budget, about $8 billion of the state government’s $183 billion spending package will go to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, known as CalPERS, and […]
California, a State of Laws—Or Not
What laws do we have to follow? Seems like there is an obvious answer to this question, but in California there is evidence that one gets to pick and choose. Illegal fireworks went off all around me on July 4. Some caused brush fires. The users of the fireworks faced no penalties. I see people […]
LA Lawsuit Settlement Allowed Skid Row Conditions Everywhere in City
Why is homelessness increasing in Los Angeles? According to a count taken in January, homelessness is up 23 percent across L.A. County over 2016, a total of more than 55,000 people. News stories round up the usual suspects: high rents, low-paying jobs, drugs, alcohol, mental illness, domestic violence, and the release of prison or jail […]
Why Socialism Is Back
Even as Venezuela falls deeper into crisis, and the former Soviet bloc nations groan under its legacy, socialism is coming back, and in a big way. Its key supporters are not grizzled pensioners yearning for Marxist security, but a whole new generation, most of whom have little memory of socialist failure. Although the trend is a-historic, it’s […]