Business Threading the Needle on Tax Issues
In his State of the State speech, Gov. Jerry Brown raised the battle flag against an initiative effort to repeal the gas tax he championed. Big business likely will join Brown’s side in that fight—while opposing all taxes directed squarely at business on the same ballot. Some of the funding to oppose the gas tax […]
L.A. Is Not Latin America, But It Could Be
Los Angeles is a great many things, but it is not Latin America. Such a statement should be as uncontroversial as a map of the Western hemisphere. But today, elite conventional wisdom runs the other way. Lewis D’Vorkin, the editor of the Los Angeles Times, recently promoted L.A. as “the northern capital of Latin America” […]
A Simple Way to Reduce Plastic Pollution
Each September, tens of thousands of Californians participate in the annual Coastal Cleanup day – a litter-gathering event the Guinness Book of World Records once recognized as the largest garbage collection ever organized. Organizers tally and categorize the debris that volunteers remove from beaches and watersheds. What do you suppose the top three items are? […]
Jerry Brown’s legacy still a work in progress
When Jerry Brown was unveiling his final state budget this month, a reporter asked him about the legacy of his record-long governorship. “Can you tell me the legacy of Goodwin Knight? Or Gov. (Frank) Merriam. Or (George) Deukmejian?” Brown replied with a characteristic smirk. “Governors don’t have legacies. That’s my No. 1 proposition.” Well, yes […]