Author: James Spencer

Cross-posted at SacMidtown.com

That’s the splendor of sports, the ability to give oneself over to a cause that is more than you. It’s to care deeply for the unexpected – to be captivated through times of elation and anguish.

It’s to share a passion for the strangers who you root for and those strangers who you root with.

And, in the end, to have absolutely no power over the outcome.

That’s the beauty of it.

As a lifelong San Francisco Giants fan, I have given myself to those moments of celebration and seemingly inevitable heartache.

The treatment of José Radzinsky
by California’s unions is conflicting to the foundation of America, but
his success story of triumphing through adversity is proof that the
country’s ideals are still valued.

Radzinsky moved from
Uruguay to California in 1981 in pursuit of a free market economy.
Instead, he’s been stuck battling organized labor, which has stifled
his innovation, dedication and hard work.

Here’s the abridged version of his story:

A
document sent to PublicCEO.com reveals that the city of Bell received
nearly $1 million of federal money in the fiscal year ended June 30,
2009 alone (see attached document). 

A
bulk of the federal money received by Bell was from the CDBG program
which is intended to provide assistance for low-income housing, among
other things. 

Did
the City use this money to help provide low income housing or did it
instead use the money to pad its highly paid administrators salaries?

Gavin Newsom is a smart man. Yes, I said it.

I’ve
used this forum before to discuss San Francisco’s brain-dead alcohol
tax idea and exposed the fallacious rallying cries behind the proposed
tax.

The feel good idea by San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos
to place a tax on alcohol in an effort to cover city costs resulting
from alcohol abuse was preliminary approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

Entrepreneur always seemed like a funny word. Just say it in your head.

People
often claim to be an entrepreneur. Many like to tell other people that
they are entrepreneurs – "you seem like one heck of an entrepreneur!"
one might say at a fancy dinner, a softball game or at the local
lemonade stand.

By and large though, we all tend to forget to
recognize what these business people who operate as their own business
do for our financial system.  Entrepreneurs
are the foundation of any small business. In turn, small businesses are
the strength of the economy at the state and local levels. Here’s an
opportunity to mention a select group of Californians who were
recognized by FedEx as "Entrepreneurs of the Year."

I would love to hear some great ideas that are identical to mine.

That’s right; tell me exactly what I want to hear. Give it some oomph too. Exaggerate and bend those facts.

Now yell – show me you are passionate. Prove it to me.

You’re smart, just like me; nothing like those other idiots, who by the way, I never watch, listen or read. We are so right. I can’t wait to post this on my Facebook.

The following is the introduction of a new weekly column, "Sports, Pop Culture and Everything Else."

Sports and politics – both bring out a level of passion unmatched in society’s great arena. You could make the argument that people rally behind a team – democrat or republican – in the same they root for their favorite sports team or vice versa.

Regardless, the idea behind
this new weekly column is to escape the realities of politics and
discuss the world of sports. We’ll talk popular culture as well:
Hollywood, music, Internet, media and … just about everything else.

My
journalism career began in the sports department at The Sacramento Bee
and continued to NBC Sports before I transitioned into the world of
politics as editor of PublicCEO.com, a local government site. Even now, I still write for
NBA.com.

So, let’s begin with this initial column …

Cross-posted on PublicCEO.com

The world of local government shook on July 15.

It was the day that two Los Angeles Times journalists, Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben Vives, broke the shocking story of corruption in the small city of Bell.

"Bell,
one of the poorest cities in Los Angeles County, pays its top officials
some of the highest salaries in the nation, including nearly $800,000
annually for its city manager, according to documents reviewed by The
Times."

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed is steering the Oakland A’s to his city.

Frustrated
after waiting 16 months for MLB Commissioner Bud Selig’s committee to
explore potential destinations for the Oakland ballclub, Reed decided
to make a dramatic move. He issued a proposal to put the privately
financed ballpark measure on the November ballot, with or without
approval from MLB.

Reed’s
hopes were that it might nudge MLB if they saw that a ballpark was
already approved, and Reed thought it would save the city money putting
the issue to voters in November. The nudge worked – at least providing
movement from MLB.